Joensuu

There does seem to be some on here who would rather see the club fail than see Cortese have any influence. According to some the current situation is all being caused by Nicola pulling media strings. According to others, Cortese shouldn't have invested the money Markus trusted him with to raise us through the leagues. Had we still had Cortese at the helm we'd have sold a new project to the players. No doubt the number of rumours and bids would vastly reduced. I don't get the rational behind the anti-Cortese vibes.

The new board haven't filled me with confidence. An unequivocal Yes for me. Source?

Have we ever confirmed whether Cortese walked or was pushed? I can't see him having walked just because the tap was being turned off. I can, however, see him threatening to walk if the cash were turned off, and then having his bluff called by KL having to decide whether to back-down, or walk. From what we know of Cortese, he'd probably have never considered the former. All I know is that right now we'd almost certainly be in a much better state with the Don than we are without him.

The loss of Cortese could prove to be the turning point. The club were relentlessly improving under his watch. Since he departed the detractors have come out of the woodwork to try to re-write history. "Financially reckless" seems to be the favoured stick to beat down the ghost of Nicola, that or "only spent Leibherr's money". Cortese took c. £55m worth of investment and converted it into what, c. £150m worth of assets. He left the club with easily manageable, short term 'debts' that are tiny when compared to our direct competitors. He promoted a clear vision that bonded the players, making them reluctant to leave while the project was ongoing. He picked excellent managers. He renewed contracts in a timely and proactive fashion. Yes he "only spent Leibherr's money", that is exactly what a chairman does when given cash to spend by an owner. No idea why people see this as a negative. All in all, I find the current 'anti-Cortese' vibe somewhat baffling. I feel he was stubborn, and probably a bastard to be around, but he was a bastard who moved us in the right direction. Right now I'd be far, far happier were he back at the helm.

Too early to judge. She will have my support if no money is removed from club, and her selection of chairman manages to stem the potential outgoing flow of management and players.

The extra TV money will result in a jump in transfer fees. While £20m might have seemed appropriate over the past few seasons this year everyone has more to spend. Nothing shy of £30m should be given any consideration.

It would be very hard to turn down an offer of c. £30m+ for Adam. He will be in his prime for the next 2-3 years, and will likely decrease in value after then. Despite all the polemic on here, I'm fairly sure Adam will have (or will have had) a tough decision to make. I think his feelings towards are club are genuine, but the lure of a large wage rise and playing at the top level is fairly persuasive. My guess is that if we have a 'project' to sell, coupled with a 30% pay rise we'd be likely to retain him. The problem I perceive is that the new board haven't yet been tested. We've heard lots of PR huff and puff, but have yet to see any major decisions. The project, that was so unambiguous under Cortese is somewhat uncertain - we as fans have no real idea whether the club plan to sell, consolidate of push on next season. Only the latter is likely to persuade Adam to stay. I can't see Cortese having been so ponderous over renewing Mauricio's contract. The matter would have been discussed, privately, and resolved before inevitable media questioning. More importantly a new 'project' would have probably been laid out. I hope that the new board live up to the high standards set by Cortese - the next few weeks are likely to tell us the direction we will be taking over the next few years. Retaining Adam, Shaw and all the other core members of the squad; laying out a clear and ambitious objective for the team; and sounding out some potential 15+ goal targets should be the matter of the day. The current perception of selling and negativity doesn't fill me with confidence. I can't see a Duncan 'hagiology' suggesting this, but I am starting to feel that the loss of Cortese could be our high-water mark for the next few years. Of course, I hope I'm wrong.

Would rather the club had no sponsor than one paying less than c. £3m. We will only have a chance to assess whether this was a reasonable deal once we know the details. The 'local company' stuff is irrelevant. Sure, I'd prefer we purchased locally, but money should be received from whoever pays the most.

This. Love the crest, dislike the scarf, ball and halo. Much prefer the previous city crest. While Fulham, Norwich and Hull have the worst badges in the Premier League, we aren't that far behind IMO.

Losing Cortese was the biggest down point of the season. I hope the new board can keep up his excellent work, but fear he set the bar very high. I'd happily have Cortese back on double the reported wage.

Sorry Billy, can't agree with you here. Over-zealous modding would be as much of a problem as under-zealous modding currently is. Steve can win, he just has to strike a balance. Remove the obvious provocateurs, leave those who are expressing differing opinions. The likes of Glasgow and Turkish do not add a bit of light and shade to proceedings; they drown out the entire forum. This place would only seem dull without them, as they have already been allowed to run rampant, and most of the more considered posters have jumped ship. After a while the community would grow again. As for either 'stick up for yourself' or 'don't post' -many balanced and more considered posters who want to discuss the different aspects of the game have already made their decision and walked. Is that really the forum you want to see? Why should people have to stick up for themselves or grow a thick skin? Why should they not be allowed to just discuss the issues in hand, without the WUMs running amok?

Just to clarify - If the admins applied something like this behind the scenes, they could use it to ban users who are consistently causing problems to others: http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=300073 Anyone ignored by more than, say 50 others, is more than likely on the wind-up (if they aren't then they will almost certainly have other problems that should be addressed).

Range of opinion should be welcomed. Deliberate derailing, abuse and spam should be clamped down on. Admins, there is a facility for you to view the the 'most ignored' posters. Can't you implement that behind the scenes, and set a rule that anyone with more than, say 25 people ignoring them is banned? People don't get 'ignored' for the diversity of their opinion; they get ignored for being consistent prats. Steve, your post before is concerning for a healthy forum. You have a 'suck it up you're adults' attitude, this actively allows a few people to wreck the place. The result is there simply are no interesting threads, people can't be bothered to start them, as they can predict who will have the second post, and that it will be almost certainly an attempt to belittle or derail. This is your forum, and you can run it as you see fit; I feel your stand-off approach is the cause of most of this forum's problems. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/david-cameron-claims-jesus-invented-the-big-society--he-is-just-continuing-gods-work-9250449.html

No, but if he did you could bet that Turkish would support/chastise him aggressively simply by opposing whatever the consensus opinion formed on here about Strawman.

Guly - excellent signing, not up to the Premier League, but quality in League One. 9/10 Mayuka - worth taking a risk on given is prior record. Would recommend taking a risk on similar players again. Loath to write him off completely as still young. In mayuka's case 2/10, but feel club did the right thing, and need to take risks like this to find gems, so overall 5/10. De Ridder, alright I guess, never a fan, hated the chant, but showed pace. Not an awful Championship signing, but certainly not a good one. 3/10. Osvaldo, not a player I've taken to. Outstanding quality. Hit and miss. By international striker prices we certainly didn't overpay, but I'm not seeing a consistent international forward. Love the ambition shown by the club, could help encourage other bigger names to join. Don't want to judge too much after 6 months 4/10. Ramirez, young, learning, obviously talented. Will hold his transfer value, so probably just need to evaluate his wage. Not there yet, could make it. 4.5/10 Hooiveld, was just what we needed to sure up our defence in the Championship. Obviously better than Seaborne or Martin. Not skilful enough for Prem, but doubt we'd be here without him 7/10 Forren, good risk, who knows why it failed. Much of the fee recouped. And the type of risk that I'd encourage, you might just land yourself a Pahars. 3/10 (for the risk not the player) Lee, good signing, suffered badly from injuries after an excellent start. Was great in the Championship, not Prem quality, hard to criticise the transfer 6/10 Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Our transfer policy must have been one of the most successful nationwide under Cortese. Mostly good or excellent with only a handful of poor decisions. I wait to see if this excellent record can be sustained post Cortese. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Henry is an awful manager. When he's been given money to spend he sometimes succeeds, cf. FA Cup, promotion from championship and achievements with Spurs. Sometimes even ridiculous money can't mask his tactical naivety, c.f QPR. Without money he seems utterly useless. I'd love to know how he somehow succeeded at Bournemouth. Did they have some good coaches advising him? I felt at the time that SCW was a move in the right direction, but that Henry was too much of a dinosaur for it ever to work. Probably not an experiment to test when dicing with relegation, but definitely the right move had we been more stable with a sharper manager at the helm. Like, say, us now. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Probably not an issue for keepers, but nobody outfield should be allowed. Contracts should have heavy penalties for being caught, say instant 2 week fine for evidence of single drag. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'd love for the league cup to be more relevant. I wish Mauricio had paid it a little more attention this year. However, its done now, and is now only a subject passionately debated by those with an axe to grind. Not sure why the anti-club brigade have kept on this one with such relish, guess that shows how little they have to complain about at the moment.

Really? You must be the only one. He's by far the worst of them.

Good work people. Hopefully one of our resident trolls will get himself banned for his outrageous views. Keep pressing his self destruct buttons. But if I could ask if you could all refrain from quoting him, it would make him far easier to avoid.

Thought Turkish made the occasional game. Not sure about Barry or Glasgow.

Surely you aim for 1st, expecting 4th, but have a backup plan in preparation for the unlikely worst case scenario? You certainly don't aim for that worst case, but if you've evaluated it, chances our it won't have as much of an impact.

Said at the time that loaning Punch was an excellent decision for all parties - and stick by it. I believe that: With the form of Jay, Adam and JWP, it is unlikely that Puncheon would be getting regular games (or even appearances) this season. (Would anyone now say that Jason should be selected ahead or Ward-Prowse?). As such, it is likely that by now he'd be disgruntled at best. Our current form is based largely upon team spirit. Disgruntled players don't tend to have the best impact on the dressing room. He's being rotated by Palace, and I haven't heard any overly positive reviews of his games down there. Punch is being kept fit - in the unlikely event we need him, I assume we can recall him(?). If he steps up his efforts Puncheon has the ability to take points off of our rivals. I honestly can't see any downsides to the move. I can only view it as an excellent transfer for everyone involved.