midds

Any other club's owners you think this is just us testing the water and will eventually pay up as the deadline approaches. Won't with us. Got no problem with going in fairly low to see how they react then going back in with a more realistic bid. We're just going in deliberately low and leaving it at that. Someone else said you can only afford to play hardball when you're in a position of strength. Our lack of flexibility and compromise is canny vexing.

Once again our offer is just below what you could realistically do a deal at. "Well, at least we tried..." Sometimes you've got to pay the price.

In this instance I'm annoyed about the lack of compromise in the deal. We've got a good player on a good wage (willing to take a pay cut by all accounts) who wants to stay and the club still can't thrash a deal out which suits both parties. I'm not expecting the club to offer him £55k a week for 5 years because that would be lunacy but the contract petulantly being withdrawn and throwing him on the transfer list for nothing has meant the club has lost out again.

So that's a LB, a strikers, a CH and now another midfielder we need. A week to get them. Farce. At least the wagebill's gone done by another £3m though. That's the main thing. Sick of this shit.

QPR, man. Wonder what they've offered him.

BOOM: Since the end of August last year, we have played 40 competitive games in league and cup. We have failed to win 29 of them. We have had 3 cup exits, to Brighton, Notts Co and a West Ham side that went on to be relegated. We have played our much hated neighbours 3 times, resulting in 2 shocking home performances and probably the most humiliating defeat in the clubs history. Our once good home form has been exchanged for 7 defeats in the last 8. The best goalscorer we have had in years has been sold and not replaced. We have a manager who having said the side just needs a couple of tweaks, then goes out and brings in 10 new players, yet fails to address the well documented weaknesses on the left hand side. 8 of the new signings fail to make the starting line up for our 2 league games so far. And yet some people still think this fat bastard is the man to take us forward. Read more: http://www.readytogo.net/smb/showthread.php?t=620909#ixzz1VtUzPqLJ

Fat chance. You've spelled 'cunt' wrong.

3 wins in 16 now. The wolf is at the door.

Adebayor's a good signing for them as they seem fairly desperate up front. Not so sure about Diarra because they've got Sandro who, I think, does a good enough job in the same area anyway. It wouldn't be an immediate upgrade whereas Adebayor is.

Win, lose or draw tonight I can guarantee that they'll say that Brighton are better than us. Nailed on.

Murdered us 0-0? Fucking idiot.

No holding midfielder? It's onl... Nah, I'll not tempt it.

Our supposed good reputation in France could be on its way down the shitter as we type I can recall how we slagged the Deportivo chairman off a few years ago for messing us about and moving the goalposts. I think Llambias is even worse.

Fwiw Fair point.

Get the impression we're absolute arseholes to deal with in negotiations.

This is not an option. It would be unforgivable to go a full year without adequately replacing a striker we received £35 million for. Not saying I like the prospect. It's just about do-able and the exact thing I'm expecting to happen.

We need a striker. End of. I know.

Honestly think Ben Arfa will be used as one of our strikers and will always start if fit (I know). It's Ben Arfa and someone else at the minute. He could play behind either Ba, Shola or Best. We've got 4 names there (plus Lovenkrands) so, although we clearly need more quality up front, we could just about muddle through to January with what we've already got if we absolutely had to. Not ideal but do-able.

Either/or tbh. They'll both be an upgrade on Taylor (despite his free-kick) and would be very welcome thank you very much

Let's hope that continues as we don't exactly have an eye for the oppositions goal atm! looking at our fixtures i dont see why not. after coming out well from two tough-ish games (i say ish cos arsenal look as bad as they've been in well over a decade and we always give the mackems a good game) we have some very winnable matches coming up. Definitely. If we can go into the first international break with 7 points, that's an excellent platform to build on. It takes the pressure off and means we can have a real go at getting up to about 25/30 points by Xmas. All the better if we can get a LB and a striker in to bolster things a bit. It's there for us.

Tavernier is at Carlisle on loan. Is he? Completely missed that one.

Where is that from? Some fucking idiot from their 'Echo Jury'. Michael Tuckwell he's called but I could have picked any of them tbh.

Listen to this fucking nonsense: "So, with no finishing product, we yet again (and predictably) concede from a set-piece, get a player sent off and lose three points to a team we should be thrashing, especially at home. I now fear for our European challenge because more pathetic performances like that against other lesser teams and it's just another season of just scraping by." Now, just a few things. This thrashing they were supposed to give us - they've beaten us once in 31 years at home. Even that was only a 2-1 defeat. They've not managed to keep a clean sheet against us in 23 attempts.... Lesser teams? They've managed to muster a whopping 17 points from their last 22 games. This record includes taking just 7 points out of 33 at home in 2011. They've lost 8 of their last 9 at home. European challenge? They'll be lucky to stay in the division if they can't snap out of this extended run of form - it's not a blip of a few games it's two thirds of a season. And they call us deluded? Fuck me.

It's not getting locked. The option of not opening the thread is always there. (The Ashely thread was locked by the OP)

Can't see QPR turning his head, it's hardly the best career move for him is it? I think he'd prefer to spend the season up here and either sign a new deal or go on a Bosman. That said, the club have put him on the list for a free transfer so he's in the same position as a Bosman now.