TRon

No one is made to do anything in reality. If you need extra players you have all summer to sign them. If you want to gamble on leaving it till the last minute it's your choice at the end of the day.

On the other hand when you look around the league there are players scoring more that probably aren't on a 3rd of what Owen is being offered. Yakubu, Santa Cruz, Carew, Berbatov, and Keane were all more productive than him last season. I won't mention Benjani because he's s****. Do those guys come free or will we have to pay a transfer fee? Did you factor that in? None of their fee's were close to Owens. That's relevant to ongoing deals I'm sure.

On the other hand when you look around the league there are players scoring more that probably aren't on a 3rd of what Owen is being offered. Yakubu, Santa Cruz, Carew, Berbatov, and Keane were all more productive than him last season. I won't mention Benjani because he's shite. Do those guys come free or will we have to pay a transfer fee? Did you factor that in?

I'm for it 100%. I like the idea that once the deadline is past we know we can work with these players without them being sold or bought disrupting all our plans. Players remain more focused this way at least till the next window.

Owen is still scoring goals. Sometimes it's easy to take it for granted but it's a precious commodity, especially in a side like ours where so many players look flash but can't produce end product. I have my doubts about him, but he's worth a bit extra everything considered.

If there weren't doubts over his fitness record, I'm pretty sure he'd be with someone else.

Haven't seen anyone linked who could offer an alternative to Butt so far. Guthrie's not physical enough, we could do with a Diarra type IMO.

The Premiership is our biggest draw for players from outside the UK. Other clubs manage to sign good players and they don't have to pay their talisman ridiculous wages to attract them either.. Owen is still a world class player, so 120k/week reflects that. The ball is in his court now, he's got a fair offer and if he wants to play for us he'll sign. If not, I'm sure we'll find someone by the time he leaves...or even before then.

didn't they have some bloke last year with several mob phones getting messages off agents etc.....was hilarious. they did...it's worth watching even if there aren't any transfers tbh.

SSN is just mad on deadline night. Hope too much business hasn't already been done by the time I get in but I'll be here later on tomorrow.

What's there to be happy about? He's arguably our best player, and we can ill-afford for him to leave. A 3 year contract at 120k/week gives him every reason to stay.

I would think that's the story.

It shows AMBITION in my opinion. It shows NE amount of ambition IMO too

It would have been nice to get Nasri or Modric, but it's hardly surprising they chose other options. But yes, I am quietly confident we are aiming for the right players.

I'm pretty sure we could get him for 12m...seing as Spurs would probably sell for half that.

Agree 100% Me too. I don't think he sees it like this though. I think he'll just wait and see if anyone comes in like last summer with the buy-out clause. If he gets a better offer he will leave if it's a club he likes. Otherwise he'll re-sign and claim he wanted to be here all along. Either way, I'm not really arsed.

I expect us to be challenging for a UEFA cup spot. I'm not saying we should get one but our expectations should at least be aimed at competing for a place.

Wow.

That's it in a nutshell. No it isn't, pretty fucking far off even. He's said countless times he would be very disappointed if there were no new signings of the required quality. He wants the best for the club he supports, as we all do. He just expresses his concerns whereas others are willing to have blind faith in Keegan's magic and Ashley's intentions for us to challenge the top 4. I respect both stances, but the realistic part in me says that we have so far failed to strengthen to the extend that we needed to and I seriously doubt that they will be able to complete the transfers on the very last day of the transfer window where they have apparently failed to do so in a number of cases up until this point. stand by for all those who said "I'll judge Ashley after the deadline" to start saying "I'll judge Ashley in January" Nice to see that people still think that shelling out 3 seasons ticket money = hoping for failure. You could't make it up. How do you know these signings won't turn out to be good ones?

Forgot to mention....looks like he strikes a good free kick as well

Just saw the Youtube video (you have to search for Nacho Danubio, otherwise you get some left back video) and he looks quite lively. Decent in the air and quite quick. From what I saw on there he looks like he could add something to our squad.

Good move by the club if it's true. Everyone should be satisfied that we've put a good offer on the table, and if he doesn't sign it, fine go elsewhere at the end of the season and we can look to get someone else in. I wouldn't be surprised if Saviola isn't already lined up as insurance in any case.

Tit for tat in defence of Taylor mostly.

Precisely which is why I said I thought they were as poor as each other today Well we might need to look at which two central defenders gel the best then. I'm not convinced by this pair tbh, they don't look on the same wavelength but it's early days. They looked good as a pair last weekend IMO, and have played Man United & Arsenal in their other two games, playing well against Arsenal. A decent start, certainly nothing to be "not convinced by" I'm not asking you to be convinced or not convinced, I'm just saying how I saw it. They seem to end up a fair way apart and don't look like they are reading each other's play as a unit at times. But then it's only three matches in so that's maybe why.

Doesn't look fit at all. I said earlier on he's been abysmal today but I don't think he's over-rated. He was very good last season, but he doesn't look right at the moment. He was walking around by the end, don't know if he was injured or what?