Belfast Boy

TalkSport currently have Graham Beacroft on, who is the Liverpool correspondent. Talking about possible ins and outs at both Liverpool and Everton, in particular Lescott, and no mention at all of Taylor.

I'd honestly rather keep Hughton than have O'Leary here. Actually, I'd sooner take Ossie Ardiles than O'Leary!

I know they are only playing Burton Albion, but Reading are 3-0 up inside 10 minutes tonight.

It goes without saying that Jonas had no end product yesterday, but I think this is mainly due to confidence in both himself, and more importantly his teammates. There was one pass in particular where he was wanting Ryan Taylor to move down the wing into space, he waited and waited, eventually playing the ball out of play, where Taylor should have been. His face then just said to me he had had enough of playing in such a shit team. That was the moment to take him off for Lua Lua for me. He needs a manager who will work with him, build his confidence and encourage him. It is all to easy to hound him out and say he brings nothing to the team, but what do we replace him with? Most likely a Butt, a Nolan or a Duff. He is a long way off what he could be, but he is still our most creative player.

I've not read this thread yet, so my tuppence worth : Positives first were Carroll, Smith and Krul. Negatives were Ameobi, Ryan Taylor and Colocinni. Overall, considering this was billed as one of the toughest games of the season, and we are currently in total disarray, then a decent performance, I feared much worse. Desperately need some pace up front alongside Carroll, but for me, number one priority would be a right back.

Worth a shot for the right price..... Just what sort of 'wealthy arab owner' have Pompey landed themselves with?

Dear me, Talksport reporting that the Sun (I know, I know) say Bassong will triple his wages. From 30k a week to 90k!!!!! Have they put week instead of month??? EDIT: It was just TalkSport getting it wrong again, Sun claiming he will now be on 30k a week http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/2574893/Seb-has-gone-for-a-Song.html

He'll get a longer contract. With a significant relegation clause in it you would imagine though.

I am not saying we should have expected to get more money for him. £8m seems a fair enough price when you consider the situation we are in. What worries me is WHO is deciding who to sell and what are their reasons.

Keith Harris came out and said we sold Martins for the following reasons: He was a high wage earner, The fee was good to get in to help sell the club, He was not suited to the Championship. I wonder what the official line will be on this sale of a younger, better player on much less wages for less money.

Does not compute!!!!! This Barry Moat fella shows up on google and everything. Doesn't even seem to be an anagram of anything!

Carver finished by saying that 'as things stand' the club has no chance of going back up. He basically said that they need to make changes and quick.

Good closing message from Shearer, through Carver, warning Ashley to get his arse in gear.

Started well but is descending into a very cliched slagging of the fans.

If, and I realise it is a huge if, there are any sort of talks about Shearer and Carver, then why is Dowie still around so often? For instance supposedly there today and was at the game for Sir Bobby for no particular reason.

Is the BBC talk tonight ticket only or can anyone turn up? I can imagine it is going to get quite messy.

Was it just me who thought Harris stressed more than once that he was acting on behalf of buyers aswell. What does he mean by that?

He says he expects on or two players to come in...but on who's recommendation? There's no manager so that doesn't sound likely. More worrying for me is that it sounded very much like it was his decision to sell Martins, based on the fact that he was not suited to Championship football. Whether this is true or not is not the issue, but surely his strengths lie in financial issues not team ones.

Talking about us now. He is definitely acting for Buyers as well. 'Shock' to our revenue line from relegation is 'very severe. Around 35 - 40 million difference. Latest is 'We are doing quite well. I wish there had been an announcement but it is not through lack of interest. As opposed to 2 years ago, the glass is half empty instead of half full.' Avoided a question about Shearer, talking instead about the main problem being the wage bill. 'I thought the timescale was set, it was important to show the players were capable of being sold. Potential buyer no has an income from a player (Martins) as well of having him of the bill and he wasn't suited to the Championship' Expects a few more to leave and 'one or two' to come in. 'Clearly not going to be sold before 5.30 on Saturday'

Harris on now, talking about his past at Man United (he started there as financial adviser)and brokering the Chelsea deal. He also did Villa, Derby, West Ham, Man City. He says he is currently acting for buyers and sellers. "As you will have noticed by lack of announcements its getting harder these days to finalise deals" (or something along those lines. Seems determined to avoid mentioning us so far.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/fivelive/ Program starting now is 'Finances in the Premier League'. Keith Harris is a guest but I can't see us featuring much if at all. Tomorrow night, however, there is a live program from Shearer's Bar 19.30 to 21.00

Are players who go to the World Cup for their country not therefore 'England class' etc? Assuming they are I would say that at any time there would be around 30 'World Class' players and it may be an easier task to name a world squad (3 keepers etc) which could then be narrowed down to a World 11.

I have no idea how good or bad this Odonkor is but it somes up the English game at the moment that a German International is available for £1.5m whereas someone like Bobby Zamora costs £5m.

Very good of them isn't it.

Strikes me as the Sun have heard too many stories of other fans starting to feel genuinely sorry for Newcastle fans, rather than laughing at us. Their solution: Lets get some talk going about us wanting Keegan back again, guaranteed to have everyone laughing again.