ohmelads

The medical only takes place after a fee has been agreed right? Maybe we have identified some targets and the clubs are willing to sell but we haven't been able to agree on the fees? That's how I read it. "everything has progressed to a certain level" would suggest we've been haggling and haven't succeeded or the player hasn't been up for it (eg Heinze perhaps).

Well it's all ifs and maybes. We could sign a poor one on Aug 31st because we missed the boat and had to take what we could get. We tried playing chicken with the deadline last summer and it left us in a right mess.

I don't think we have time to wait around on the Heinze situation, we need a left back quickly because the season starts in 3 weeks and Babayaro won't be available. But we also need central defenders as the article acknowledges. The only other "top class defender" who we've been linked with is indeed Barzagli. Given he's on the fringes of the Italy defence I'd be pretty excited if it was him.

He's as possible as anyone else on that list, given that Sam has talked about him but not ruled him out.

Well it's a better sales pitch than the Souness method of saying he's crap and his attitude stinks and then waiting for a string of big offers.

Sam's latest quotes on transfers from Saturday's Times: "Unfortunately, everything this week has progressed to a certain level, then fallen on stony ground. We've not been able to bring in anyone for a medical, and it's been an incredibly frustrating two weeks in terms of bringing players in"

The Times are saying Babayaro will miss the start of the season. We need to get a move on with the left back hunt.

I agree, we haven't made enough signings like this in recent years. Players on the up, in good form, who want to play for us and who will develop with the team. If we really are serious about patiently building a team we need to look at youth as well as experience.

It's one thing to "not win things" and still be a challenger in the league, the cups and europe. If Man Utd, Liverpool or Arsenal sat in mid-table for a few years on the trot without getting close to success their 'support' would rapidly diminish. Those fans who make the long trip from other parts of the UK and Ireland to games would be far less inclined to make it when their club has far less to play for. They'd become a lot more reliant on their local support. When you go somewhere like Anfield it's shocking how many fans are from the rest of Britain and Ireland, yet you go to St James' Park and the vast, vast majority are people from the local area.

The Times quotes Sam as saying "but it would take a very sizeable offer to even tempt me to let him go".

The quotes almost sound like Sam's inviting a move. I had disregarded this rumour until I read Sam's quotes which sound like he's paving the way for discussions. I wouldn't sell him for less than £5m unless we're really skint, though really I'd be looking for upwards of £7m. What other England international could you get for a few million? Why should we be charitable to anybody, much less a potential rival? West Ham have lost a player and are looking for us to give them one on the cheap.

Will that change in the next few years if they keep spending as they are? All depends on Premiership survival really. My heart and my head says they'll go down.

Owen's case isn't like other players though. He cost his club £16M, a record fee, and has barely kicked a ball in two years while picking up humongous wages. He's also our only player to have picked up an injury in pre-season training, so I don't think it's as common as you make out. At a time when he really needs to show his fitness he's already missing 2 of our first 3 pre-season games and that's not a good sign of things to come.

Indeed. He'll probably go down as one of the worst signings in Premiership history.

If we do sell him I don't think he'll be replaced, not this summer anyway. Allardyce already spoke about not wanting more holes to fill as he's already got problems sorting out the defence. N'Zogbia would become our only midfielder with real pace to burn (and Duff who is out til November). Considering the prices going round this summer, the fact he's an England international and has nearly always been a starting player for us when fit, we should be looking for a good fee for him. Accepting a small fee to get him off the wagebill suggests we are canny skint.

Do we really need the money? Bit concerned at what this means for the club to be honest as I think Sam would rather keep the player if he could. It might be that we have to sell Dyer to strengthen the defence.

I'd be happy enough given the circumstances if he played 25 league games or thereabouts. Those circumstances being that it's a damn sight better than 10 games in 2 years and no goals in 19 months and the fact we have competition for places in that area. I think he can make that, but I'm also realistic enough to know he might play less than 10 games. Let's face it there's a reason the lad has never scored 20 league goals, and it's not down to lack of ability. That's why I'm surprised so many would want to sell Martins, this should serve as a reminder how much we need him. If somebody offered it to me now - that Owen would play 25 league games - I'd take it. Wouldn't you?

I'd prefer Premiership defenders too but I don't think we have much choice there, it seems they're either not good enough, unavailable or we're unwilling/unable to meet the price.

Three weeks isn't that long considering our pre-season preparation is already well under way. As Sam says we need 3-4 defenders. It'll take a bit of time to bring that many players in, and once the season starts it becomes harder to negotiate. Defence is an area where understanding is key, we have three weeks to bring in 3-4 defenders and get them acclimatised if they're coming from abroad, quite frankly I don't see us doing it in time. How we cope with that is anyone's guess, but Bolton will probably be better prepared than ourselves. I'm confident we'll get at least two new defenders in by the end of August. Whether we get enough, they're good enough or whether they'll have the right preparation to succeed are my concerns at the moment. We could have a lot of teething problems in the early weeks. In that sense time is not on our side at all.

I don't follow the German league but I've also heard Lahm had a poor season by his standards. Still, from what I've seen in the CL, World Cup etc he looks an excellent player, gets up and down the line all day, a very hard worker with age on his side. Seems unlikely we could get him but you never know.

Let's not go overboard. We once thought Bellamy's career was finished, now he's hardly ever injured. While I do agree that Owen will probably always get niggly injuries, if he can get 25-30 games a season (something he always managed until he came to Newcastle) then he'll be a valuable player to any team. I think he'll play 20-25 league games this season (a little over 1 in 2 which is Babayaro's average), and while it's not really good enough Id be happy enough given the circumstances.

An injury to Rozehnal at the moment would leave us with Ramage and Huntington at the back. With Bolton away in three weeks time we need to get it sorted fast, espescially if we're bringing in foreign defenders. If this internal review is holding things up it could impact negatively on our season.

Highlights the need to keep Martins.

£8m for Shorey? Jesus. The longer it takes to sign a few defenders the more I can see these prices creeping up in an already crazy market. As left sided defenders are a rarer breed, if we haven't found one soon I can see us being made to shell out a bomb. This is what Allardyce is getting on about in his interviews, the quicker we act the more options available and the better our bargaining position. Noone wants to sell their players a week or two before the window shuts, it leaves them screwed so they expect you to pay top dollar to compensate for that.

I think selling RvN ended up a good deal for Real and Man Utd. Ruud went on to become top scorer in the Spanish league and lift the title. Real needed a finisher and they got one. Man Utd meanwhile played a much more fluid game and weren't so much built around one player.