STM

On the one hand Blackburn are shite financially but Santa Cruz probably isn't on bad wages for them and they couldn't replace his talent. He would be a hard target but a valuable capture. I'm not sure on his age? but you can't put a price on goals and this guy produces bags of them. Look at Torres, seemed alot of money for his price but an absolute bargain now.

Please no. Haven't seen enough of Zarate to be convinced that he's worth £10m or however much his club are asking for. Damn you really quashed my arguement with a laughing smiley. For me Thomas Gravesen would still have something to offer our squad, not our first 11 but our squad. Zarate is hugely talented, it would be a risk but who isn't these days?

As i have said countless times the equation is simple. I want him to stay but if he doesn't want to we are flogging him abroad, i'd even take a cut price, he aint joining Spurs.

I've said a few time that Santa Cruz would be my first choice. Regardless of who we sign i'd still play Viduka when fit, he is staying for next season right?

I think Martins will stay but not Owen. I also agree with the sentiment of trusting KK. However, i'm certainly not prepared to jump the gun on a foriegn footballer, like i may have in the past. I'd actually prefer us to sign Crouch, who is a massive goal threat. I'm quite happy to be proved wrong if we do sign Gomis though and will give him the chance.

All that cash on a RB and we will be lucky to spend that on a new striker. Agreed. It is THIS that KK was refferring to, after the Chelsea game. We simply can't compete with that in the market.

Mauro Zarate Wilson Palacios Thomas Gravesen on a free

WOW did you get that from your ITK?

Vote Crouch because i have never seen Gomis play.............. probably like the 43 who have voted fo him.

Ne5, out of interest, do you believe the club can get back in to the top four and if you do how much money do you think it will take? I'm no fan of a full scale clear out but a Chelsea esq spree seems the only option, unless we are going to go down the Villa, Man City (until getting rid of sven) route of building for a couple of seasons, then making a push.

Get the feeling they have toned down the crisis talks. They are now putting the "arse kicking" slant on the whole thing. Makes me sick but exactly what you would expect.

Wouldn't call Barry a UEFA cup player like. I could see him fitting into say Chelseas midfield quite nicely and if Man Utd didn't have Carrick and Hargreaves them too. He's no worse than them, in fact he's got a few qualities they don't.

Someone unproven and inexperianced? *Devils advocate*

Aye was shocked to see him say that. Maybe it was taken out of context to sound like he wanted to sell though. Mind you i think i read somewhere that he would consider a bigger offer. O'Neills body language suggests that he believes Barry wants to go. If i was a Villa fan i wouldn't worry O'Neill's a good manager and Barry, albeit a very good player, isn't a world beater. I could see them getting 20m for him. I can't see him going for anywhere near that amount, £14 million max and that would be too much. I think Liverpool will try and push some of their cast offs in as part of the deal, possibly Finnan. O'Neills too particular in his dealing to accept a cast off. Maybe 20m was a bit off but no reason why he can't fetch Hargreaves, Carrick fee. What was that 15+?

I agree with you. Could see him bringing in Barnes as a replacement (being young and english).

Aye was shocked to see him say that. Maybe it was taken out of context to sound like he wanted to sell though. Mind you i think i read somewhere that he would consider a bigger offer. O'Neills body language suggests that he believes Barry wants to go. If i was a Villa fan i wouldn't worry O'Neill's a good manager and Barry, albeit a very good player, isn't a world beater. I could see them getting 20m for him.

He will have to do more than score goals in the french league to convince me he's a worth while signing. Drogba made it but that doesn't mean this lad will. If we start talking big money (10m+), he isn't a worthwhile risk IMO.

Both of these are pure speculation IMO. Of course they are good players but if Eto'o ends up at Spurs without Man Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool coming in for him, i will eat my hat.

You know what, i don't even want a target man. I want a clever striker who can create and get into the double figure, the only problem is they are hard to find. Gudjohnsen is the only one that springs to my mind.................... this is why we need a scouting network.

Like others, IMO this is a blessing in disguise. Keegan will have had his mind set on a new striker anyway. This just makes it confirmed.

First time in a long time i have not cringed at Olivers drivel. He seems to get alot of stuff spot on(in this article) IMO, however i am assume he's just taking a guess. Ironically, if it turned out the club are talking about transfers/direction/finances it could be a nice bit of buisness, setting the focus for the summer at a good time.

Similar to Modric in calibre (based solely in what i've heard). Lest hope, if we are in for him, we don't make the same mistakes we did with Modric. I signed this guy on FM (no relavance to his talent ) and TBF he is one of the most highly rated young players in europe. I'm hopefull about the calibre we seem to be after but sceptical about which ones will come through the door. Yeah I'm not sure someone of his calibre/ reputation will sign for us. It would be great if he came but realistically we need to sign players that will get us into europe then we can start fishing for so called wonder kids. In contrast we can't lose ambition because we aren't in Europe. Veloso would have been around when we played sporting in the UEFA cup (albeit as a bairn), he will know of us, we also played them in a friendly. However, i agree with the sentiment that we need to get to europe then pick up these players. BTW, noone on this earth could convince me that we are not a bigger draw than Villa, Pompey, Blackburn, Man City and Everton. Spurs i can understand because of the london factor but not the others, that alone puts in with a good shout for these players.

I like the idea of Crouch.

What a club in crisis eh? I can just see the meeting now.............. MA "Hello Kevin nice to see you again" KK "Hi Mr Ashley" MA " I regret to inform you that despite you getting this club out of a relegation battle and playing better football than we have for four years, we are sacking you" KK "What?" MA "Yes my master plan all along was to replace you with dennis wise, pissing off the fans in the process"

Similar to Modric in calibre (based solely in what i've heard). Lest hope, if we are in for him, we don't make the same mistakes we did with Modric. I signed this guy on FM (no relavance to his talent ) and TBF he is one of the most highly rated young players in europe. I'm hopefull about the calibre we seem to be after but sceptical about which ones will come through the door.