Rich

In Wullie's basement. Bye bye Speccy! Oh dear. Laughed very loudly there.

Where is that cocky bastard, anyway?

How long have you been waiting to use that one for then? It's about the fifth time I've said something along those lines in the last month, man!

I thought it was a top five now, anyway? At least that's what Dr. Spectrum was telling us back in November, or something?

Another good point, but effectively supported with good supply from either flank and partnered with the right sort of player (HESKEY!!!) he could still bang the goals in. He's not the player he was, but he'll still put the ball in the net if you give him the chances.

I think it may depend as much on the players that leave than the players that arrive, in some cases. It would be nice to think we'd have a squad capable of interchanging between the two depending on injuries/suspensions/form... but surely that's too much to ask? What would people prefer to see? As much as I've enjoyed seeing this current formation click, I struggle to think of anything better than two goalscoring forwards, two cavalier wingers, two quality central midfielders, two marauding fullbacks and a Belgian marauding centre-half bombing forward at the opposition.

Blimey.. What's he done to you? Bummed your girlfriend? :lol: :lol:

Was he? Apparently so, to Fulham. That was bollocks though. Not according to Oliver.

A man after my own heart.

I like this thing that we're doing at the minute (whether it's a 4-3-3 or a 4-4-2 "diamond", whatever you want to call it) and think it could be really good if we added a few better players into the mix in place of Taylor, Geremi and Viduka in particular, but I still get the feeling that Keegan might switch us back to his favoured 4-4-2 formation next season. Two wingers, two driving midfielders, and Owen partnered with a new striker. I suppose we'll start to see as the players start rolling in, but what do people reckon as it stands? I'll say 4-4-2.

This. By the way: best avatar ever.

Dear me.

Aw, shucks.

Very plausible we'd be in for him. He's an out and out right winger. The last one Keegan signed wasn't bad.

More good stuff, it's been cracking on here today. Far better than writing 5,000 words about fitness training. Less productive, granted, but much more fun. Owen is worth his wages if he stays fit like, I've no problem with that. It's a fucking bugger when he's crocked though and we all know he's still raking in £100k a week, give or take some. Club captain now as well = more responsibility. He's hardly in a weak bargaining position, is he?

Liverpool today may be a more solid team, but they lack that spark sometimes in the final third, they certainly did before Torres came, something which was never a problem for us. Except when it mattered most.

Ferguson didn't always get it right either, it must be said, it's not just us who have made bad signings over the years. It's an exciting time, I think, certainly moreso than it has been for a number of years.

Fucking hell. That's a great post! From AS9!

I suppose we've got there in the end then. I agree that I would like to see Keegan backed with some serious cash in the market, and after that bid for Modric I think it's safe to say that we should see a lot of money being spent. My major concern is the wage budget, though, and I can see why the owner wouldn't want that to go any higher than it already is. However, it is possible to reduce the wage budget AND bring better players in (for big money) as long as you get rid of the players who aren't doing the business for us at the current time and who are on the fat contracts. The thing is, with Ashley here, we are now in a position where we have an owner who can use his own money to finance the sort of spending you talk about. Putting everything else about Freddy aside, the fact was that he wasn't rich enough to do that off his own back, he had to get the money from elsewhere - be it getting the Northern Rock money together or taking out loans. I daresay that had Freddy Shepherd been sitting on a £1.7b fortune or whatever Ashley is worth, we'd have seen more than £16M as our record purchase, I understand that, but it's not always the answer. Of course the club should always be looking to better itself, but not to the point of liquidation or desperation, there were times under Shepherd when there didn't appear to be a pot to piss in, unfortunately. The thing that always gives me hope is that Mike Ashley is supposed to be in this thing to be a fan, he attends loads of games... what I think is that a man like that does not want to sit and watch "Johnny Averages" for 90 minutes a week. He'll want to score goals, win games, and win trophies. If he does that, he knows he'll be an absolute hero in these parts until the day that he dies. In fairness, the club has just bid £20M for a 22-year-old. Which does show some ambition if they were really after him. That's what I hope Keegan is drumming into him, I really do, playing to his ego. But again, fair play to Ashley if he puts that to the side and says "no, I want this football club to be run properly and safely, like Spurs/Arsenal/whoever". It might take longer to get there, but we'll still be getting there. Spurs haven't done too badly by spending fairly sensible amounts in recent seasons and they're spending more and more all the time because of it.

Apisith, about Spurs: last season they got to the quarters of the UEFA, quarters of the FA, semis of the League Cup and finished 5th in the Premiership. They also had that massive deal with Mansion in place as well. We, on the other hand, didn't make the quarters of the UEFA (and got a hell of a lot less TV money for each game than Spurs did, if I remember rightly), went out in the 3rd round of the FA, the quarters of the League Cup and finished 13th in the Premiership. Ticket prices at Spurs also far exceed our own, considerably narrowing that gap of 15,000 seats.

Was he? Apparently so, to Fulham.

N'Zogbia was going for £4M last summer. I know he's signed a new deal since then, but people shouldn't be getting too excited about the money we'll get for him if he goes.

Case in point.

A good take on things, and how I look at stuff as well. Sometimes you have to look a bit deeper than just saying "we should have bought him then for that much money" and take everything else into account, the circumstances, too many people don't do that on here and are shown up because of it.

NE5: The question was a joke, you miserable old bugger. I thought that would be fairly obvious after you had asked me the same thing earlier. Rooney was going to cost a fair bit more than £17M though, wasn't he (the sum of Duff, Barton and Smith)? It's more apt to say would you rather have Rooney at £27M or whatever it was, than all of the players we signed in the summer this time around. Despite the failures of some of them, I still think that would have been the right way to go if we only had £27M to spend. It's a wank argument as it is like, but I'm trying to work with what you're giving me here. Totally different timings and circumstances. As for you not criticising the club for signing "them" - has someone else been on your account since the summer, then? All we've heard from you is about "Johnny Averages" and "no ambition", which is the polar opposite stance of what others have taken in the past. The last board couldn't win with certain people on here and the current board can't win with certain people on here, I find the whole thing more amusing than anything else. At the end of the day all I want for the club is success and for it to keep existing, I don't care whether it comes one way or another, but I just hope it comes. That's why you don't tend to hear me moaning on too much these days, I've accepted that I've got no say in the grand scheme of things and I'm happy to ride the wave and see where it takes us. I'm happy Shepherd is gone simply because I thought the man was a cunt and that he'd had his time here, I have no qualms admitting that he had his good spells and he did a lot of good, but the club was sinking fast and he'd lost the fans. His position was untenable. He's just a man though, like Ashley is, like Mort is, it's the club that matters.