shurlock

This is how the bookies see promotion (as opposed to an outright win) http://www.oddschecker.com/football/english/league-one/coca-cola-league-1/promotion

Completely agree, though I guess part of the problem has been the sorry state of the scouting network. In the absence of decent infrastructure, we're just that much more dependent on established players since you know what you're getting and this keeps the risk down, though we're unlikely to discover any gems. Still, without that infrastructure, its more likely that a gamble will be ill-informed and so fail - as we consistently showed last year. Hopefully things will change with murdoch.

He's not retired from international football yet

When did big muthas who would merrily rape you in a prison shower become part of the job spec for Saints CBs?!

+1 Pards took him on loan at Charlton I think. 4 years younger than Raidi, probably has more pace in the tank.

The guy captained Tunisia to the quarter-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations in 2008 for christ sake (i.e. it seems he's played in 75% of games for which he has been available in the past two years). Tunisia on the work permit criteria "compete regularly at a highly competitive international level" as they are ranked 49 in the world by FIFA (i.e. they are within the top 70). Would love to hear where and how he doesnt pass muster.

5 years in England, close to a 100 international caps...something doesn't add up. A way for the club to save face?

Correct - thought he was very good against us last season, though James was still hitting his stride at RB at the time. Its easy to demonise Hammilll's time with us - there were a number of times when he could have kicked on but was thwarted by shots against the bar, odd team selections by Burley and injury. He's a petulant scouse bast*rd, so when things didn't go his way, he sulked but its not hard to imagine how he could have been a success.

Good line from the grauniad: "Gaydamak has no doubt been reminded of the grim joke which asks how best a man should make a small fortune out of football: start with a big one"

Without relegation, american sports will always be candy-floss entertainment, feckless bliss for an infantilised population.

Don't understood why players have to act like dickh**ds by insisting on their 'say' and thereby treat fans like mugs. Most of us are able to be quite sympathetic while drawing a firm line under the failures of the past regime.

What's Bradley going to do with all that time off?

According to the Plymouth fans BWP was stretchered off in a behind closed doors game yesterday. Could be out for a few months. Any news on how Surman's adjusting?

City were linked with him a couple of years ago. He broke through into the national side this year - not a chance he would come here. Maybe he's a year 4 player in our Five Year Plan as we challenge in the top reaches of the championship :smt101

The guy is around 38 - makes perry look like a scaggy youngster by comparison. Was on loan to Hereford last season, so no reason why we couldnt get him.

Telling me - the number of players we've tried at CB in just the last two seasons-viafara, perry, lucketti, davies, makin, bennett, dailly, lancashire, pearce, saejis, cork, thomas, killer, powell, liptak (and there's probably more)- has been a joke.

Is that Chris Iwelumo in the photo - christ, he's a big motherf**ka! An excellent signing if it goes through. At the same time, will we have enough pace at the back? Perry's intelligent positional play means he's usually able to make up a few yards - I guess the same applies with Murty at RB but still we might be a tad exposed....

Not last season, though he did collide for a header with team mate Lee Carsley who as a result required a load of stitches in the head and bandaging up. I remember he got two goals against us in the 2006/7 season (including one in that epic 4-3 win for us at SMS). Don't know which feat is more impressive

Exactly what we need - he's been a colossus for the brum whenever we've played them - no doubt was a key reason why last year they had the stingiest defense in the championship.

source?

Newcastle is a classic Always seems to make instinctive sense with relegation - not this top four boll**ks and sulking over prima donnas. Watching this, so glad we didnt get keegan or WGS. History is history.

A draw with confirmation at the final whistle that the division is a load of s**t and we are unable to be ruthless when it matters.

What many of these threads overlook is the fact that we've only appointed our chief scout today. Am sure Pards has got people in mind and we'll see a new face or two next week, but there's also an argument for not over-committing but waiting and seeing and taking advantage of the knowledge and resources that Murdoch will doubtless bring.

Think you got your history back-to-front, mate or perhaps had a lobotomy at the time of the takeover. You also need to be clear what you mean by "a selling club" - selling to balance the books? selling because the offer is too good to refuse? selling because the player is cack? or selling because the player wants to play in a higher division. Only in the first scenario can you accuse the club of lacking of ambition or leadership but those desperation-driven sales -DMG and Surman- took place pre-takeover; at any rate, even with all the money in the world it might have been difficult to keep them - Surman will be playing two divisions above us this season. A nonsense thread.

Busy rather than dangerous - should have done better with a free header, played a coupled of nice balls through to saga (caught offside). But his willingness to get into forward positions (as well as track back) was encouraging. Maybe we lack of a bit of pace on the left but think with mills, it looks alot more balanced.