Cronky

This. People didn't simply turn on him because of that, Dyer had a lot of detractors way before the Robson incident. The reason being that his performances never matched the hype. Dyer strolled his way through long parts of seasons living off his promising youngster reputation and the imaginary transfer to Leeds. His lifestyle and personal choices dont exactly make him appealing to most supporters. He alone sums up our failures as a club in the past 10 years. A serial injury prone underachiever who is on ridiculously high wages, yet produces virtually no end product. Someone loves the celebrity lifestyle and took advantage of those who helped him get to where he was. Despite all the money and the all the potential he and we as a club have done nothing since he joined. Top Post - sums it all up. My memories of Dyer are different. Whatever his limitations in technique, I always felt he was putting in plenty of effort. Post-Alkmaar, he lost faith in Roeder and didn't seem to be concentrating, but that's the only example I can remember, and as others have pointed out, the whole team lost the plot at that time. I'm not saying he's a great player, and in fact after all this time I still haven't really made my mind up about exactly how good he is. What I was saying is that the abuse he gets is OTT and doesn't seem to be based on his football. This dislike of his 'celebrity lifestyle' and what people see as his character is what is behind it. Personally, I couldn't give a shit.

I think he wants to go because of what he sees as unfair treatment by the fans, and I think he's got a case. His record isn't unblemished, but a lot of the stick that he gets is OTT IMO. His return last season saved us from relegation. In a few crucial games he had a big impact. No appreciation received for that. A lot of people seem to believe that his long-term injury problem was his own fault. No rational thinking behind that. He was probably desperate to get back. A lot of fans haven't forgiven him for that row with Robson. He did wrong, he publicly apologised, and there were no repeats. What more do people want? At the same time, we had Shearer saying that he'd move on if he wasn't a first team regular, and Bellamy trying to duck out of games. No apologies from either.

Allardyce sounded a bit grim about the situation in the interview at Carlisle. He said he would check out with Dyer whether he wanted to leave. He seemed to suspect that the West Ham thing had come either from Dyer or his agent, and that the player was looking to go.

Alex will have you for that. I'd consider Giggs to have been top class. Suppose he could have been better, but you could say that about almost anyone. I'd see Giggs as an over-achiever if anything. Quick with a nice change of direction, but not especially strong and not blessed with brilliant technique. But very determined and aggressive in the right sense.

Good list, HTT. Of modern players, Anelka stands out as a wasted talent. He's got everything but never had the ambition to be the best in the world, which was within his capability. I don't regard Tony Green as a player who could have been great. He was great. He just didn't play for very long. And I've always felt that Batty could have been a much better all round player than he turned out. He seemed content to be a clogger, and settled for a very conservative approach.

Yobo or Lescott. Everton are short of money.

It doesn't sound like we've issued an outright denial as yet. Maybe we're hoping for a swap eg Neill, Gabbidon or Ferdinand?

I don't have much doubt that Allardyce wants to keep Dyer. The big question is whether Dyer wants a move. He may prefer the brighter lights of London, and he'll be conscious that he's not the most popular player with our fans. I think he feels a bit under-appreciated, and that's at least partly justified. He may be pushing for this move, I don't know, in which case that could sway the decision. I don't want him to go. I'd like to see Barton and Dyer given a good try out in centre mid.

Sir Les has hit the nail on the head. Martins will have to fight to get a game next season, and he knows it. It looks like Viduka and Shola will compete for one place, and Owen and Martins for the other. It's the obvious way of forming striking combinations. With the way Martins was bigging himself up last season, it may be a difficult pill for him to swallow.

After what Allardyce has said about Dyer, I can't see him letting him go at all, let alone for £2 million, which is a ridiculous price for a 28 year old England international. I think a lot of us don't like Dyer because of his off-field reputation and certain impressions of his character, but he's a useful player who can cause problems for the opposition and he's well worth keeping.

I worry that, despite the fact that he seems a reasonably intelligent bloke, he's accusing Pearce of precisely what he himself has been doing. If you want to be outspoken, fine, but you can't then complain about others doing the same. It seems that he likes to dish it out, but can't take it. Unless he learns to be aware of other people's views, all this anger management stuff won't work. In his eyes, he's always going to be in the right.

I don't think Oba did himself any favours with his team-mates, when he fucked off and left them in the lurch before the Watford game just because he got dropped. It was a really poor attitude and he may need to do a bit of work before he earns their respect again.

He's a worry, this young man. When he opens his mouth, he's speaking his mind. When others do it, they're out of order and creating anarchy and chaos. He was the one that was doing the slagging off, not Pearce, who has been quite gentlemanly in his behaviour. Oh that the Lord had the gift to gie us, to see ourselves as others see us.

he's always supposedly injured before big events, though. I'm not sure about that. But he's been built up over there as some global superstar, and it'll become very obvious in the Chelsea game that there are better players around. If Mourinho had wanted him, he'd have bought him.

I'm not sure which defenders Sam feels we've missed out on. Ben Haim and Sagna went to top four clubs, which is understandable. I can't think of any top class defenders who've gone to our competitors (eg West Ham, Spurs etc) that we should have been in for.

Interesting that Beckham might not play against Chelsea. Apparently he aggravated an ankle injury on the flight over, which sounds a bit strange. I don't imagine that the prospect of getting mullered by Chelsea on his debut was a particularly attractive one.

It sounds like the nuts and bolts of the previous four transfers were handled by the old regime, and now that the new people have completely taken over, their inexperience is showing. As Lloydie said, the football business is different to all others. But there's no question that Sam is worried. A poor defence could undermine all the good work that he wants to put in elsewhere in the side.

I'd like the option - No, you don't get successful in business or sport by broadcasting to the opposition what you're planning to do.

The term that I was taught was you're not obstructing if you're 'within playing distance of the ball'. You can shield it if you're also in a position to play it. The fact that defenders are able to let the ball run out by blocking attackers when they're about six feet away from the ball just shows how much of referees' interpretation is down to convention, rather than the letter of the law. I can't remember ever seeing a defender getting penalised for that. And I'd agree absolutely, that if an attacker deliberately takes the ball to the corner flag to waste time, it's ungentlemanly conduct and should be a free kick. It wouldn't be a difficult law to enforce, because it's always very obvious when it's happening. It just needs someone with a bit of imagination in the corridors of power to do it.

The 1982 Brazil was the best I've seen. They seemed to be taking the game to a whole new standard. When they lost to Italy, I've never felt so sad about a team being beaten that I wasn't actually a supporter of. By that stage, maybe a bit of complacency had crept in, and it just showed that, no matter how good you are, anyone can lose a football match. If they'd gone on to win that tournament, they'd be universally acknowledged as the best ever, I'm quite sure of that.

If it's true (and that's a big if), then it smacks of Chelsea's usual trick of buying players just to prevent them from going somewhere else. Terry, Carvalho and Ben Haim, with Essien as a more than competent back up. It's ridiculous.

The only reason that Luque is still here is there's such a huge gap between the wages he gets and the wages that he should be getting. That's why other clubs won't take him off our hands.

I think he'll do a lot to encourage young American footballers. They'll look at him and think - well if that guy can make it the top of the world game, so can I.

The Rob Lee signing sticks in the memory a bit in an egotistical kind of way, because I'd seen him a few times before, and I couldn't understand why a bigger club hadn't come in for him. We were in competition with Boro for his signature and I was praying we'd get him, and then he fulfilled all the ability that I'd thought was there. Competition comes from Bellamy who transformed us from mid-table to Champions League. Irritating little nyaff but the right player at the right time.

I don't think we are trying to attract anyone to this club "from the position of 13th place". There is no one involved in buying new players (owner / manager / directors etc) who was involved last season. Even Freddy Shepherds temporary role is irrelevant, as he is off ill. Everyone, who may be joining us, knows that this is a totally different club, and that last season has no real relevance to anything at all - for the future. It will become even easier 'after we have achieved' , but it is still nothing like as bad now, as the statement "from the position of 13th place" implies! Okay, 13th place sounds a bit negative, and we're competing well for players with everyone outside the top four. But we're not in a position to turn our noses up at a player like Hoyte.