Offshore

The proof that the premiership standard of football has improved is shown by the way English teams are now doing very well in the champions league, so well in fact that Platini has started to whinge about it. KK's team was ace though.

Should be able to afford a cleaner for his drum now.

Is he back in training yet?

I agree to some extent but the noises coming out of the club aren't exactly positive when it comes to transfers in and out. Even if we don't get relegated the future looks mediocre to bleak. Players in - We've only really confirmed, or at least JFK has, that we'd enquired about Ferguson at Rangers. While he's not exactly going to set the world on fire I took that as a fact that at least they have identified one of our problem areas and have plans to correct them. If the absolute minimum they do is sort out an adequate A/CM and cover for RB & LB then we'll be sorted for the rest of the season. It'll not be pretty, it'll not get us racing up the league, but we'll do ok. If they get more in then thats a bonus. Players leaving - Given apart, no-one should be too shocked about the prospect of Owen or the Zog leaving. Owen was always going to be a problem. At the very least, unless we're made a really stupid offer, then he'll still be here till the summer. The Zog, he has a regular monthly bumping gums article in the paper about being unhappy, then saying he's enjoying it here the next. Its normal for him. Xisco, he hasn't had a real chance in my eyes, but if they want to move him on then as long as we get an adequate replacement that'll do for me. Manager - still only temporary, not an ideal situation but he's done better than I thought. Verbal diarrhoea apart, I quite like him seems to learn from his mistakes, which isn't always the case with our managers. Hopefully he'll get a permanent job at another club out of this. Owner - i'd still prefer us to have been sold, but since he hasn't at least he's now taken the club off the market and stated that he wants to 'drive the club forward in 2009' or words to that effect. I know, words are cheap, but as he's not exactly prone to saying anything at all, I take this a more positive than negative statement.

Probably best to ask this at the end of the transfer window. And We'll not get relegated.

Looking forward to this one, should be a decent game. 2-0.

The fact he's 'hit' anything is an improvement.

Some spurs fan raging on about how spurs won't have to pay a dime, since Portsmouth still owe £4m for him, and that he has a sell-on clause which will be on abt £4m and that they still owe money on Kaboul and Mendes. I'd imagine they've come to some sort of agreement which removes the sell on clause but takes into account cash owed.

Cheers. Mendes possibly, and A.N.Other then. only allowed two at the same time.

Clear the way for another loanee perhaps. How many can a prem club have at one time?

People don't 'hate' Keegan, they (I for one) didn't automatically buy into this coming about because it was all the total fault of Ashley/Wise/Llambias and KK is the completely innocent party in this. FWIW, I want to find out 'why' they felt they had to take transfer control, either completely or partially, away and above KK before I get me banners out.

'Couldn't care less'' Until the summer that is. Think he'll get a permanent job out of this, but at another club.

I think we could have finished top 8, although that would have been only if we had been extremely lucky with injuries. Although as the season started we had injuries to both full-backs despite Keegan saying we needed a left and a right-back. Now I know people will reply with well if you felt we could finish that high, then the recruitment team had done a good job and you felt we had an adequate enough squad. But this isn't the case at all, I put that down to Keegan's ability to get the most out of each and every player in the squad, much like he did towards the end of last season when things picked up. It could be argued he just ended up picking better players eventually and dropping the s*** ones, like Duff and Smith. Results and performance improved when we went 4-3-3 with Viduka available for the 4 or so games he was fit. Before and after those games we were as disjointed as JFK's team 'before' he got his settled back four.

Seems a bit dodgy he's been clubless since August mind.

100% guaranteed.

Good synopsis of events there Biggs.

Under normal circumstances i'd agree 100% with this. But unfortunately we've got a temp manager who's been out of the game for 4 years so i'd rather not have him doing all the buying and selling. He can and probably will say to the board who or what positons he feels needs strengthening but i'd much prefer they do the deals. He may be an absolute genius in identifying talent but until we've got cover sorted i'd rather not take that chance. I see your point but I really can see Kinnear staying on beyond his 'temporary' term. If he keeps us up I think he'll get a permanent contract. Ultimately I've no idea what Ashley's idea is regarding his manager, but if he plans on keeping Kinnear beyond the end of this season then he should be giving him control as I suggested IMO. Of course if he plans to f*** Kinnear off then he'll have to take a real gamble, be it on staying up with these players or giving Kinnear only minimal cash to make changes. Oh i'm gonna leave worrying about who our manager is or isn't for the summer. Its the here and now that concerns me, and i'm more concerned about JFK having 'sole' responsibility for deals than whether he'd feel hacked off if most of the decisions were done above him. On a side note - I always thought we'd stay up regardless, it'll be tight and nervous, but up we'll stay.

Under normal circumstances i'd agree 100% with this. But unfortunately we've got a temp manager who's been out of the game for 4 years so i'd rather not have him doing all the buying and selling. He can and probably will say to the board who or what positons he feels needs strengthening but i'd much prefer they do the deals. He may be an absolute genius in identifying talent but until we've got cover sorted i'd rather not take that chance.

I'll agree with that.

Its a watershed of sorts, i'm not expecting or demanding we buy big, but I expect and demand that we cover the gaps in the squad now that Ashley can't use the 'club for sale' as an excuse for nixing any deals. How hard can it be to buy a left back better than Zog and a right back better than Taylor? I would think there's a few in the lower leagues who could do a job as cover. Shouldn't be hard at all. More than a fair few decent, affordable and most importantly realistic names thrown up on this forum alone. So I guess it comes down to intent I suppose. If they have the intent to 'drive us forward in 2009' then these positions should be a priority to get sorted.

We've conceded 32 so far, so that to me suggest our defence is still a major weakness. 5 less than a side who last season were playing in the Championship and who are bottom of the league. Its a team game HTT, our defence is competent/decent, our attack is competent/decent, our centre midfield is championship standard. Man City are in the bottom half with a 'plus' goal difference. Its a funny old game.

Its a watershed of sorts, i'm not expecting or demanding we buy big, but I expect and demand that we cover the gaps in the squad now that Ashley can't use the 'club for sale' as an excuse for nixing any deals.

aye, 30 mil + this window would be required to get back to Par,...theres no f***ing chance of that. do you trust kinnear to spend £30 million in this window? I trust him to spend it better than Wise & Co not necessarily on better players but in the right areas and really, if they don't trust him they should remove him now and appoint someone they do. If it is they who are signing the players then I don't trust them to strengthen the areas that need strengthened much less turn down bids for our better players which Kinnear will be fighting tooth and nail to keep. I'm the other way. I'd rather Wise & co made the major decisions with JFK getting a couple of stocking fillers to keep him happy. Ideally, you want them all working together and making joint decisions that everyone agrees with Ideally i'd have rather the club was sold and we got another manager in, but under the circumstances i'll have to go with Wise and co who didn't do that bad in the summer. I said it before, if they didn't trust KK who was out of the game for 3 years I hope they don't trust JFK who was out for 4. I don't mind him being in charge, well I do tbh, but under the circumstances he's done ok but lets not give him too much to do other than sticking a team out.

aye, 30 mil + this window would be required to get back to Par,...theres no f***ing chance of that. do you trust kinnear to spend £30 million in this window? I trust him to spend it better than Wise & Co not necessarily on better players but in the right areas and really, if they don't trust him they should remove him now and appoint someone they do. If it is they who are signing the players then I don't trust them to strengthen the areas that need strengthened much less turn down bids for our better players which Kinnear will be fighting tooth and nail to keep. I'm the other way. I'd rather Wise & co made the major decisions with JFK getting a couple of stocking fillers to keep him happy.

aye, 30 mil + this window would be required to get back to Par,...theres no f***ing chance of that. If we keep the players we've got, it's just a matter of improving in certain areas and that'd not cost £30m+ if we shopped around well. Am I the only one who thinks our first 11 (when on form) actually looks pretty decent as it is? I.e. Given - Beye - Coloccini - Bassong - Enrique - N'Zogbia - Barton - Guthrie - Gutierrez - Owen - Martins. In that case it's more about providing decent competition and cover than strengthening areas where we're extremely weak or prone to injury and suspension. Individually it looks decent enough I suppose but together that to me looks like an unbalanced side and that's before we get into tactics and the quality of coaching behind the scenes and of course the mindset of the players, a good number want out. When everyone is fit and available (I know!!) we have a 'competent' team. Competent will get you top half. Unfortunately once we lose a couple of players, or just one (Barton) in the midfield it shows up the lack of decent cover. I'm not going to go mental if we don't sign a couple of big name 'galacticos' or whatever, thats for the summer. I will be disapointed if we don't at least pad out the squad to enable decent cover for the rest of this limp season.