Slugsy

That is total rubbish. His attitude has been spot on and admirable given the way the club treated him over that Villa fiasco. Why shouldn't he be paid as much as some of the gash that he plays with - Taylor being a prime example - total double standards. You have no idea what has gone on behind the scenes but if the Taylor rumour is true then I think that's fair enough, I would do the same in my job if I thought a colleague who was on the same level/inferior to me was being paid more. His attitude throughout on that pitch has been to give a 100% everytime and idiots giving him jip on the pitch will not help anyone. he doesn't decide the wages at the club and trying to exercise player power he will use this 100% committment thing, to get the fans to be on his side, and it's all bollocks smith gives 100%, does he deserve a payrise then? I believe Smith is one of the highest earners in the club so your argument is void.

i don't think Milner's done anything wrong in trying to get more money, and I don't think we've done anything wrong in deciding we'd rather have £10m to buy someone better. Sensible post

That is total rubbish. His attitude has been spot on and admirable given the way the club treated him over that Villa fiasco. Why shouldn't he be paid as much as some of the gash that he plays with - Taylor being a prime example - total double standards. You have no idea what has gone on behind the scenes but if the Taylor rumour is true then I think that's fair enough, I would do the same in my job if I thought a colleague who was on the same level/inferior to me was being paid more. His attitude throughout on that pitch has been to give a 100% everytime and idiots giving him jip on the pitch will not help anyone.

Highly optimistic on two fronts: 1. That Barton is available before Xmas to play given his fitness and upcoming ban 2. He is able to get anywhere near the levels he once was, given the experiences he has gone through over the last 12 months Guthrie and a Barton of 18 months ago - has some merit, at the moment, I'm not sure whether that will happen and if that's our best option then we are in trouble.

You see I'm not sure how the club is to blame for that. Those players aren't very good, and probably on huge wages. How are they meant to be moved on when everyone knows this? We can't force clubs to buy them. we can't but (and we may have done this i don't know) say to their agents find another club, there's to be no fee and they're not wanted i know this is basically a FM argument and the real world doesn't work like that but this is what needed to happen, they have to leave as they offer nothing and are a massive drain on resources, not to mention potentially holding back the development of younger players that could be given the chance to play in their place if we can't afford replacements we know they do nothing, ever; we don't know that about lua lua, zamblera, donaldson etc... lets face it if they stay for the length of their contracts now we'll get no money back (nor are we ever likely to get decent fees for them) and will have paid them millions, so what would be to lose by letting them go for nothing? But this is what I was getting at in the OP. Why on earth should Ashley be expected to just write off millions of pounds paid to other clubs in transfer fees for the players? You and I may think they're s*** but they're not completely worthless. Your argument stands up in terms of the wages, but no business is just going to ditch assets like that, however poor their reputation. I agree in principle Dave but I would have hoped that we would have said at the start of the transfer window to Smith and Ameobi that they were no longer in our plans going forward and were free to look for other clubs and make it known to the market. Granted they may stay put but I would of expected the likes of Smith to look elsewhere. I think they may have done that with Ameobi but not sure about others? Additionally, in reality there is NO way they are ever going to get their money back on the likes of Smith anyway - I'm not sure what the market value of Smith is for example, pretty low I would assume. If you take Smith's wages into consideration, you have to weigh up if he is going to be of any benefit to the first team, if the answer is no and he aint going to play at all, why would you keep him on for the next 3 years at £40-50k a week with no transfer fee at the end rather than write off the majority of initial fee (which you will have to do anyway) and save all those wages?

I thought he was one of our better players last season and given the treatment he had re that Villa stuff, his attitude was admirable and has always been spot on. He isn't the best player in the prem but he certainly isn't as bad as some are making out. We don't know what the contractual situation was/is but he certainly deserves to be on a par to some of the cr*p we currently are paying and folk like Smith, Ameobi and even Duff should be out the door before him. I don't know what brought him to put in a transfer request but I doubt its a knee jerk or a malicious intent, nothing in his demenour, interviews or attitude on the pitch has ever struck me as a selfish, money orientated mercenary, unlike some we have paid ridiculous amounts to. As I say if this is a deliberate strategy to get rid of players we deem below our standards then there should be a queue ahead of Milner.

Just trying to work out what this means KK thinks we need in terms of numbers to come in? 6 weeks ago it was 4 people, not including a sale of Milner, 2 weeks ago it was 3, now it seems 2 but if Milner goes, does that mean its back up to 3?

Thin squad already, don't think we should be selling anyone apart from Smith/Ameobi

Reflected over night and given the dross we have had to put up with over the last few years, particularly on these sort of nights against so called lower opposition, there is nothing but positives to be gained from that performance. In previous years, with no strike force to use, we would have been well and truly humped and thus I thought it was a commendable and at times highly enjoyable performance where there were periods of play in which we actually strung passes together and our ball retention was good. If we had a couple of good and fit strikers in that team the score would have been massively more in our favour. 3 more players and a couple back from injury and I think we have a team capabale of hurting anyone and could do very well - particularly given the improvement in our style and tactics.

Phew! Thank god for that! How thin is our squad at moment that we couldn't bring on any more subs? Those guys looked knacked and no wonder, ran their socks off!

We have had about 20 corners and not troubled them with one

I think our centre halfs have been good but Beye has looked sluggish and not his usual self and enrique is a mixture of excellent sprinkled with some sloppiness

Our defence is all over the shot and some of our guys look dead on their feet

We seem to be trying to help them here

Got to say, haven't seen Guthrie in last 20 or so minutes, could do with more in midfield

Agree with all of that

PS. Van der Vaart has much better options than us, so I don't call him a realistic signing. I don't consider Man City to be a much better option than us in the Kompany example.

Actually, I've just commented on one player whom I rate and from all accounts hasn't moved for ridiculous money and would have, in my opinion been a cracking buy. We may have been in for him, there may have been a very good reason why we werent or why he didn't come here but I am dissapointed a player of that quality, for that level of money, hasn't come here, particularly given our lack of options in that area.

Well if we didn't go in for him then I would be very worried about our management's judgement regarding our defence as it was a great opportunity to bolster an area where we have very little quality in depth

I'm still pissed we missed out on Kompany, how the hell did we let him go to City???

well, as they had done it before, are you going to say they wouldn't have done it again ? Why not ? I don't think they would have. What about you? As lovejoy has pointed out, nobody is disputing that they had spent a lot of money. But at least they had a go, and succeeded too. Maybe they couldn't have done it again without investment. Thats the name of the game, but it doesn't mean that Ashley is doing it right. A lot of people are pretending they are happy with this summer, but they know within themselves that, unless something happens in the next 7 days, they are disappointed. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Keegan will do a good job with the tools he has, but if they don't back him it is an opportunity wasted and he won't get anywhere near what he did the last time. Completely agree with this.

Guthrie got caught a couple of times in posession, was physically outmuscled on one occassion and faded badly on the second half. I think he's a fine prospect but today wasn't his best game.

Good win, not massively convincing though. Pluses being Given (expected), Jonas (superb), Zog (much better LB performance), Collo (looked composed) and of course Owen - classy player. Minuses or nitpicks Guthrie - is he fit, seems to fade badly in the second half of games, got caught in possession a lot and sits too deep where Butt is. Taylor - once again a good performance hurt by some lapses in concentration/caught in posession/tendendcy to think he is a goalie. Milner - massive workrate but final product was frustratingly absent again. Overall - desperate for midfielder and another striker but a good win against a physical team.

i've always liked optimism Duff sold for £1-2m with SWP coming in would be great business, £5-7m for Duff would be delirium!

Got mine and my new seat is in a better position that I thought! Happy days!