Rich

Completely different player to Oba and most definitely a poor man's Michael Owen, I'd say. Definitely wouldn't be an improvement on Owen... well hold on a second, if he played more than ten games then he probably would be, but you get my general point. Certainly wouldn't upset me, but I would rather see Martins be given a chance alongside a suitable partner if Owen is to leave. Let's hope he doesn't, though, if he stays fit or even just manages 20-30 games he'll probably be more valuable than either Oba OR Defoe would be playing more matches goals-wise. Thing with JD is, he won't be coming anywhere to sit on the bench and that wouldn't bode well for either him or Martins if it happened. I'm not sure if we can afford to be signing players of his standard who want that in their careers when we already have two strikers who are arguably as good, if not better than him, on our books. I understand that this is IF Owen leaves and he's probably the next best English thing. Bit of a wideboy though and I'm not sure if he's got the right "mentality" to be the top man at a big club.

I can speak for another club. Since we've had money, some of our fans have lost some of their grip on reality, and it is interesting reading here since the first whiff of your takeover, I can see the same thing starting to happen here. The belief is that because we (or you) have money, that means we (or you) can afford anyone and should get them NOW, regardless of why they would want to come to us (or you). I like this fella. Brum, what are your expectations for next season from O'Neill and Villa? What sort of players are you hoping to sign yourself? Carew/Young were already two fairly impressive coups for you, IMO, despite things not going entirely smoothly for either just yet. Can't help but feel that what you describe is only natural and it just depends on people's personalities. I can't blame people for getting carried away/excited about things. It's a nice change from what we've had since 2005-ish.

Read my edited post, it wasn't aimed at you I was just picking up on the point you raised Edit Oh you saw Was just about to reply there... what a muddle. Pair of dumplings.

Fairly insensitive though, you must admit, after that post of mine which was completely pro-Martins for the future. In the post I did simply say "dodgy day" as well, I didn't say anything about it being a fact that he did what he was accused of and if anything I was sticking up for the lad as obviously we don't know what actually happened and he might be completely innocent. This Nigeria stuff is dodgy as well, mind, but I'd be glad if he never played for 'em again and he kept himself for us. EDIT: Just seen your little addition there Jon, no worries at all. And Vic, I actually hope you're wrong, unless someone offers us silly money for him.

Even then, how can we know that's what happened? Do you trust Freddy Shepherd? I saw that story when it came out, but I'll be fucked if I start 100% believing what Shepherd tells the press. Nobody apart from Oba and the players/staff know what happened. Didn't Pearson/someone at the club say that Oba wasn't happy being selected on the bench behind Owen/Shola and decided he'd rather not go at all, before the Shepherd interview? He could have been simply protecting an asset of the club in a piece of good business. Congratulations on picking the most nitpicky/academic part out of a post I thought you of all people would agree with, mind, you utter fucker EDIT: I wouldn't even blame Oba for doing what he supposedly/maybe/might have did/done, mind, I'm not trying to have a go at him. Even if he was in the wrong on that weekend, it was the first time he has been since he joined - probably.

As someone who's been guilty of this in the past re: Carr/Babayaro, I understand what you're getting at, but there were times last season when a lot of people got to the end of their tether with certain players at this club - and probably rightly so in some cases. Clean slate with Allardyce here, though, I have to say. I wouldn't even mind Carr/Babayaro staying under Big Sam and his potential new regime to see what he could do with them. Nobody is ever past the point of no return... well usually. They'd have to do something pretty fucking disgusting to ever be in my eyes.

If you look a bit deeper into things, it becomes understandable. Fair enough moaning about the attitude, but you need to look at why/how it's come about and then you need to go about cutting it out/eradicating it as much as humanly possible. It's difficult to have faith in things after Souness and Roeder and the constant moments of madness that this club has put people through, I think people can be forgiven for being skeptics - although I would like a more positive environment as well. Especially at the match itself.

Most definitely, but then you're never going to please everyone - especially when we never have anything to show for it. Comes with the territory when you're a "big" club that's underachieving, I'm afraid. Still not sure if this attitude is as tiresome as the opposite end of the scale like, where we could sign anyone and they'd be mint. It's less funny, most definitely. But seriously, the amount of times we've been burned recently by big money players being utter, utter shite you can understand why it has become the adopted attitude. However, a lot of the time the player has been made the scapegoat/taken the full blame, when really you might look at the fans/manager/coaching alongside it. That never gets mentioned with the likes of Viana, though, who could have probably been very, very effective if used differently and in a more cultured team (post-Shearer). However, with Sam here and his proposed backroom changes - I'm hopeful the mentality will slowly change as we actually start to get a ratio of success from new signings that heads into the "black". It's the way of the world these days, man. No patience anymore is there? *Gets pipe out*

I've seen enough of Martins this season to tell you he's not a £10million player. His attitude shown in the last ten games was a disgrace, culminating in his no show at Watford. We'd have been passing the mackems on the way up if it wasn't for him so i think he deserves a chance, hasn't exactly been surrounded by class this season has he, and I'm not just on about him being up front on his jack jones Exactly. People need to stand back from things every now and then to see the bigger picture. Hes done great in his 1st season and this coming season he'll be even better. Hes settled in the area, got to know the team, the language and hopefully he'll have a lot more quality playing around him next season with support up front too. But oh no, he was a little hit and miss in the last 5 games so LETS SELL HIM! ........Jesus Christ, impatient knuckleheaded knee jerking morons. Patience is what this club has rarely had and so desperately needs. If you have none then I sincerely hope you go elsewhere...... Agreed. I wish some people had a bit more patience. Some things take time. As someone who doesn't fawn over Martins (yet), I have to agree with this stance on things as well. We cannot judge the lad on one season (a decent one as well) and one dodgy day (Watford). The bloke didn't cry off once during the season when he must have felt like it on a few occasions, he wore the hardest shirt at the club and managed 17 goals in it, playing in a seriously sub-standard injury-hit team with an incompetent manager and coaching staff. Last season was surely our hardest Premiership season to date, was it not? I for one hope he gets the chance to play in a decent team, under a decent manager and with a decent atmosphere around the city. People forget the impact our crowd/public can have on proceedings. It must have been very, very hard to be Oba Martins at times last season with the pressure on/off the pitch. People shouldn't look beyond that. He played almost every bloody game and must have felt like tearing his hair out at times, both with frustration at himself AND his team-mates. Same goes for Owen, we HAVE to try and keep the pair of them. Oba's been nowt but professional with us before the Watford thing, which nobody knows the real details of and which came at a very, very turbulent time for the club.

On a free transfer and probably not commanding gigantic wages despite what he would supposedly get at Chelsea I think he's a big, big step-up from Moore, Onyewu and Bramble. Obviously not world-class, but certainly worth being pleased about. He's a bit on the dinky side, mind. Barely 6-foot, is he? Don't forget the £45M thing may be fiction, Ashley may not get control and the Ben Haim deal might never happen as well. It definitely makes sense to me, though, it's like Mourinho did with Chelsea when he brought Ferreira and Carvalho with him and later Maniche - makes sense for Allardyce to bring in people he can trust and who he believes in - and vice-versa, by all accounts.

He is an all round better player than the two you mention. Well I disagree, I think in an attacking sense he has more drive and a better shot on him, but even then his end product is questionable and while he's certainly a talented passer of the ball, he does like to overplay it when a much more simple pass would be more effective, at times anyway. I'm also unsure as to what degree he could improve as a player. To make the gamble less of a risk, I'd be looking to see some real potential in him and I don't see it. His attitude aside, from what I've seen of him he does look a fucking player and a half. He's a winner as well by the looks of him... how many of those have we had at the club in recent years? Of course it's a gamble, but he's light-years ahead of Parker, Butt and Emre at the current time and playing in an absolutely pitiful Manchester City team, an' all... they finished below us, for fuck's sake.

Should add that if it was still Roeder and Shepherd then I wouldn't expect anything other than a summer of mostly domestic incomings, but with Allardyce and potentially Ashley I have a bit more faith in things. Saying that, we can only sign who'll come and who's available and you shouldn't forget that club-wise, we haven't had a scouting network worth shite for years now. Hopefully Allardyce has brought all his gen from Bolton with him... he undoubtedly will have his own targets who he's watched for a good while. Whether they'll suit us is another matter of course. Exciting times, as people keep saying. Can't quite believe it myself.

Big Sam said very early doors he'd be looking European if necessary, I certainly don't think there's any danger of us simply signing proven Premiership players - it's not his way and never has been (never had the chance with Bolton?). Nothing's signed, sealed or delivered on these rumours yet - but surely we couldn't complain with Ben Haim and Viduka on free transfers? I agree that the other domestic links have been numerous AND tenuous and most will probably be utter bollocks/smokescreens sent out by the club/agents/players and won't come to anything. I wouldn't worry too much 'chronic, let's see who he actually brings through the door. I see what you're getting at though, but like I've said already I'd be fairly chuffed with two free transfers of that calibre. Less so on Barton, but he's better than anything we've got in the centre currently.

Taylor with a quality partner would probably be fairly decent for us, I'd say. If we have got Ben Haim, I'd be more interested to see who the other centre-half (or two?) we sign will be, because that'd leave one spot open in the defence and obviously people seem to be expecting Stevie to be first-choice. I dare say he expects it now, too. Probably wouldn't do him too much harm not being an automatic starter mind, it might even benefit him. Especially if the other defender brought in had some impressive pedigree for him to learn from. Doubt he'd accept it, like.

Here lads, take it to PM please. There was a mint thread about someone called Nani here a few hours ago. MINT. I've never seen the lad play, personally.

For starters, if Terry and/or Lampard leave they're hardly going to go for peanuts are they? Imagine the fees that they'll command in the current market. I'm sure any money raised from sales will go straight to purchases. Howay man. They've got new sponsorship deals, a bigger fanbase, more TV revenue, more saleable assets. They're miles better off than they were before Roman came. Did he pay off their debt, by the way? Anyone know? If they stay in the CL and continue to get to it's later stages then they'll be raking it in, along with everything else.

He does have to come through though, unlike Roeder. It means nowt if he says we're close to signing someone and the thing collapses. Have no reason to doubt him, like! Yet.

HE SHOUTS THE TRUTH. Although Hugo wasn't as bad/useless as he was made out to be in the end/after the Marseille defeat, played his part in some of the best moments in this club's recent history. This Summer is going to be absolute torture, innit?

Think it's the latter on that one. I know they've had massive shortfalls, but if the mental spending stops and they keep recouping decent money for their cast-offs while signing big players on free transfers and if they're continously winning/challenging for all four trophies, as well as raking in millions from sponsorships and from the increased TV revenue/increased global "brand" awareness then they might well do it sooner than 2010. Obviously I'm not fully aware of the figures, but you'd assume they'd be able to find the balance - even with the monstrous wages. Certainly can't see them suffering too much from this point onwards if they stop spending £30M on players over 30, they certainly have enough assets to be sold these days anyway and they're still hoovering up youngsters from home and abroad which will bode well for their future in terms of actual first-team players and more big income from sales. Won't make a jot of difference and might actually make them better, actually.

Can't disagree there, but it's the way of the world these days innit? I dread to think what we'll be like when we know there's millions of pounds (potentially) sitting there to buy new players with. I can't help but feel that people will be more fickle than ever before as success actually looks like becoming more of a reality. Hope not, but it's the most likely outcome. I do still hope we keep Oba, mind, and that he's fucking mint next season - but I can't see how we're gonna keep both him AND Owen, unless one gets crocked in the pre-season and makes it a certainty for the other to get a regular game (I think it's fairly obvious who Sam will prefer like.) If we were in Europe I'd be more confident of keeping both and keeping Martins fairly content, but I'm resigned to losing one of them, which is a great shame because neither have had a proper chance to show us what they can do yet.

Man Utd will be a frightening prospect if they can sign somebody like Berbatov to partner with Rooney/play up front alone. I shudder at the thought.

Would be chuffed with Viduka, but admittedly don't know a great deal about Ben Haim. Still, if we're going like-for-like: Viduka for Sibierski + Ben Haim for Bramble, sounds good to me so far.

In fairness, a lot of us haven't liked the lad that much from the start

Agree with Jon on this and with others that £10m IS a bit steep for Crouch, as well, and that's coming from me - an avid supporter of the gangly bastard. Would prefer Viduka, I must say, but if we're somehow getting shot of Ameobi as well then Crouch/Viduka would hypothetically be a massive improvement on Shola/Sibierski.