Mowen

He was spot on for that.

I'd imagine NM has at some point!

Or the "we'll lose a cunt-load of money if we get relegated" option?

Fair enough, Bellamy's the only one who's moved and is a step up I guess. Marlon King might have been worth a gamble for that price, but I agree with you about the dearth of talent available at the moment, it makes transfer windows very frustrating.

As I said, he contradicts himself. If they're fanatical about football they'd welcome a different winner/more competition at the top. If not then they're clearly not fanatics about football, they're fanatical about Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool.

Cunt. If people in Asia are that fanatical about football then they'd want other teams to break into the top 4, and it wouldn't matter if one of the most famous clubs didn't win.

I wonder what the main reason is you give these rumours more credance than the Dyer rumour.....

He's been bought to replace Chris Sutton as 4th choice striker behind Carew, Agbonlahor, and Luke Moore. He scored 16 goals in the league the year before last. Looking at it like that, not a bad move at that money. Put it in context, who is your fourth striker? Shola or the controversial Spaniard? Tbf we do have Owen, Martins and Viduka as first 3 strikers. Villa should have shown more ambition and bought a better striker pushing the rest down the pecking order. True enough, but my point is he's not been bought as a starting striker, he's here to provide another option. The transfer window isn't closed yet, either ;-) PS: I know Harewood is shit, by the way, I just don't care so long as he's just a back up option It does seem weird though that £4m has been spent on a backup striker, when £8m could have got you a first choice striker and left you with the youngsters on the bench. He'll do ok as 4th choice but can't shake off the notion that it seems a slightly strange one to me.

It's hard to tell with Earnshaw, but he seems to get goals. Found out the other day that, amazingly, he has the second best goals per minutes ratio in the history of the premiership behind Henry. He may or may not replicate that, but I think the problem is that Derby are going down whether he does well or not. He just doesn't have the players around him. I think Distin will go on to be a very good signing for Pompey, and hopefully Barton will do well for us. I can't see Bramble at Wigan being anything other than a disaster, and Chopra won't get many goals, imo. Richardson's another poor signing. Will be interested to see how Voronin and Torres do, Liverpool could have an excellent strikeforce next season.

Lots of potential, yes. Noticably better than Steven Taylor is at the moment though, and I'm a fan of Taylor.

"Glenn Roeder will be here next season"

Football365's tribute to our outgoing chairman http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8751_2615199,00.html

...and in this situation, where a lot of teams are on the same level, a lot is going to come down to the manager (and, to an extent, injuries). It's time to step up, BSA.

If fitness is equal, Owen by a mile. Even if not he'll still probably get the most.

I've taken issue on you with this before Spec I do reckon you're overratting them though. They'll have two good (but one ageing) centre backs, a good shot stopper but not much by the way of full backs. They're also shit away from home and I don't think their centre mid is up to much, not to mention the lack of goals. Can't see them finishing any higher than last year tbh - they may have a better team now but they were performing well above themselves for long periods last season. EDIT: Just to add to that though, your assertion that it won't matter that their strikeforce is a bit wank on paper doesn't matter and they'll still make Europe somewhat backs up my opinion that a lot of clubs have spent money without really getting anywhere.

Aye that would be fantastic, hopefully they finish above us aswell maybe even throw in us getting relegated and it would be simply wonderful. That would really teach us a lesson Cutting off your nose to spite your face springs to mind.

Now I started this window very optimistically, with transfers coming in thick and fast, but the recent lack of activity has somewhat, like most people, put the brakes on my hopes for the coming season somewhat. I look at our team and squad and think it isn't strong enough for a top 6 finish, but who's is? A lot of teams have spent a lot of money this summer, but outside what looks to be the top three teams I'm just not that impressed by what I see. Arsenal have got some very talented players, but where are the goals going to come from? Cesc and Rosicky didn't get too many last year, I can't see Gilberto scoring as many again and they don't seem to have any wingers. Tottenham have got a good team, but I don't rate their midfield. Lennon is quick and a talent, but Malbranque, Jenas, Tainio, Zokora and Huddlestone don't strike me as a top 4 midfield. Everton have barely improved and don't have the biggest squad, and Reading and Blackburn look to be stood still/maybe even creeping backwards relatively. West Ham have spent a lot but they still have a lot of weaknesses and Man City have a long way to go. Villa could be solid, but haven't really brought anyone of note in, imo. Pompey look like one of the better bets, but I just don't see them doing as well as last season. Bolton will decline as well, I reckon. It's going to be a weird league this one, in my opinion. I'd be very surprised if the top three aren't Chelsea, Man U and Liverpool, probably followed by Arsenal and Spurs, and from there on it looks much of a muchness. A couple of decent signings and we could easily come at the top of the remaining pile, but as things stand anyone could. With all this money being spent you might expect an amazing league, but it seems to me a lot of teams are spending a lot of money on making themselves no more than decent.

Hasn't he signed a new contract? does that make any difference? Just that if it does, it'll be the first time i can recall. It'd make a difference to the price tag I'd imagine.

I voted Barton, pretty sure he took them at City, and will be starting every match (I would imagine) when fit. So long as it isn't Owen I'll be happy, he had about a 50% success rate in his last couple of years at pool iirc.

I don't think that Barton particularly lacks in pace or athleticism. He's not the quickest around but he's got fine pace for a cm if I remember rightly.

I agree that those three together in midfield would work well, my concern would be how we'd fit the strikers together.

Skirge doesn't know what or who to fkn believe these days, man.

You've gone a bit overboard there but the potential is huge. Think back to when KK was manager and (in the old 36,500 seater) SJP we were playing Liverpool. Drew 1-1 and Rob Lee scored a screamer. Anyway, it was reputed that around 70-80k tickets could have been sold for that match. I know you were talking about more than just attendances but it gives an indication as to what is possible. It shows you the gulf between teams. Selling 70-80k tickets is massive, and yet ManU sell that every week. HTT I presume you mean unfulfilled potential? There's no way we have anywhere close to the potential of ManU, just they're realising theirs a lot more.

Do you think he was also mismanaged at Inter where he hardly got a game? I know nothing of Inter or Italian football in general, but I think it's a knocking bet that he was mismanaged by the last two incumbents at NUFC, don't you? I agree he has been, but he has also been pretty much ineffective most of the time as well, if he hasn't been injured that is. If Fener make a bid I'd take it...imho. Mf are far easier to replace than strikers of def. Especially in an exchange of sorts with Appiah. I wonder if any handsome, talented posters have already mooted such a deal earlier in the thread.

If we were to get rid of Emre I'd be quite happy to do some sort of deal that involved Appiah coming the other way from Fener. Otherwise I think we've got enough work to be doing for the time being with regards to bringing people in.