James

Owen has been named as captain. Personally, I think their are better captain figures in that team in King, Neville and Smith.

Now that a cash injection seems likely, we can seriously talk about a few silly players that would have otherwise been considered as waaay down our list of priorities. How about Julio Baptista, Arsenal cant afford to keep him (going rate is toohig for a squad player there), and Real Madrid dont want him, so he's going to be somewhere new next season. He would add some real power and muscle and battle to the team, and could potentially be used as a third striker, with him slotting into a midfield position when called upon. He would definitely bring a flexibility to our starting lineup, as well as improving the quality.

I know he did. I've got thick skin, just like a melon.

Don't worry Gemmill, you can still abuse me, and I'd be powerless to do anything about it.

I've merged your thread with the other thread Graemeh72, so that anyone who wants to respond to it can respond to it.

Southampton are losing £12m a year, and are auctioning off their best players. Bale will go, even if the highest bid is £3m.

Unfortunately its just part and parcel of football, and you aren't going to stop it.

No need to panic on this one. Theoretically, we have two players in this position, and with a new chance under a new manager, they may get their old form back. If they don't, I'm sure Milner and Emre could cover the position until January.

Bluf can borrow my head if he wants.

David James has always had a physical advantage over Shay Given though. Also, you get the impression that James isconstantly improving himself, whereas I've never seen that with Given. Given has a set of outstanding, natural attributes, but there are numerous flaws to his game which have meant that he'll never play for one of the best teams in the country. He's had chances to improve his flaws, but he hasn't. Because of this, these natural abilities are going to wane over time, and he'll become a mediocre keeper. Meanwhile, Krul is at the perfect age and potential ability to allow us to smoothly switch keepers a couple of years down the line. Keepers are hard to replace, and we appear to have a solution. It would be idiotic to keep Given in the team and lose Krul, as it could have bad implications for several years. Would rather have a not-quite-as-good-as-Given keeper in goal for a couple of years (assuming Krul continues to develop in to a good player after hemade the starting lineup), than lose Krul, have Given in goal for a couple of extra years, and then have no good keepers for the next 15 years.

A 38 year old Shay Given playing for Newcastle can only be a bad thing. Personally, I'd say that he peaked last season.

I think they have been for quite a while such that people can access the arcade.

Fact is, Harper is probably only the 30th best keeper in England.

If anyone genuinely does have something that they want to post, but cant really do so without starting a new thread, PM me if I'm online, and I'll post it for you as long as thhe content is fairly reasonable.

Love you too Vic.

Bond was the only figure on the Panoram coverage openly discussing the sweeteners that he and Harry were going to get. Freddy Shepherd requested to see all the unedited coverage prior to the documentary being shown, and he must have been satisfied with what he had seen that there was a case against Bond.

Congrats to Given, him and Harper should be given a joint testimonial. However, I don't think that Given will last for more than three years. Generally keepers make up for loss of agility with improved mental attributes that come with experience, but Given's mental attributes aren't that good compared to other long lasting keepers. Hopefully Allardyce can get him on some regime that will keep him physically fresh and injury free, while at the same time work on some of the mental attributes in his game. Inevitably though, Given will get injured in a couple of years, and Krul will get a prolonged run, and keep his place.

Cheers Dave. Tickets were £20. Like I said, should have been many more, but Morcambe couldn't sell tickets.

Morecambe had 9,000-10,000 Exeter sold their maximum allocation (every seat in levels 1,2,4, and 5 on my half of the pitch, and could have sold more, but Wembley wouldn't give us more seats due to the low Morecambe sales.

We've been G14 slaves for a couple of years now. Thwey use us to do their dirty work for them.

It was AWESOME, although Exeter lost despite bringing three times as many fans. http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/4207/img3262tb3.jpg http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/8065/img3263is3.jpg http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/4427/img3266dd9.jpg http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/4631/img3267cu5.jpg http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/2327/img3273ta1.jpg http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/613/img3281jm9.jpg http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/4270/img3291vf5.jpg http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/614/img3289ct5.jpg

Right, time to leave, should have some photos up later.

Bit of a non-story this, but the coincidences are strange: http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2083432,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=5

I dont mind paying a tenner for a programme at the first FA Cup Final at Wembley. It is a unique item. I'm hoping though that they might try to flog them off at a reduced price at the Conference Final the next day.

The whole interview is on .cock by the way. He is saying he only expects us to play like that away against the stronger teams, he wants us to play like we are playing at home when we are away at the weaker sides.