Minhosa

Pre-season and 4 or 5 games, he did OK under Robson in those early games when he did play. Fair enough - for some reason I thought Butt had a season under Robson and then Souness came in. My memory isn't the best like.

Geremi will not be managed by Souness in a few games time, I think he'll be OK. I thought Butt had a while at the club before Souness turned up?

In fairness he does always seem to get in the squad when fit. Excatly what I was thinking. Whilst he might not start for England the fact that he's always in the squad and has been for years makes him an international standard player and whether it's right or not that does add to a players value. See Baines/Shorey/Nugent etc this summer alone.

True. However, given we'll play his new employer twice a season and he averages about 20 odd games a year we'll probably only play against him once a season. Given he's 28 now and he'll be fucked by the time he's 31 (once his pace is gone he'll be as good as useless) that means we'll probably face him 3 times before he's either;- a) Playing Rymans league football b) dead c) Dj'ing in crete with Spoony Excluding cup games, of course!

Agreed on Geremi, as you say it was only a friendly, but I was really impressed by his touch, control and vision. Fingers crossed he doesn't go the way Nicky Butt did after his first few games for us! It would be an interesting exercise to compare the number of midfielders (capable of playing first team football regularly rather than just occasionally filling in) with other premiership sides. From the list above I would say we've got 8 battling it out for 4 places. Even without Dyer I bet we're not badly off in comparison to other squads with similar aspirations. I haven't actually gone through the exercise mind so I could be completely wrong!

it happens actually. like rooney to united or beckham to madrid. we paid 10m in first year and another 10m in next year. same with becks to madrid. Aye, but those deals were slightly more expensive... and were for young players either in or approaching their peaks. For Dyer, given his shite injury record, I'd be inclined to want a whole lot more up front. If the fee turns out to be £4.5m then I'd be looking for at 80% of that up front. If we're losing out on an england international, we shouldn't have to be burdoned with future risk in my opinion. Once he's gone he is somebody elses problem.

Sorry mate - I was typing away whilst you responded.

See what you're saying Dave but Barton will only miss about a month of competitive matches and if you look at the list of midfielders in the post above a good few of them can play anywhere across the middle. For example, if we had to, we could play Butt holding and Milner or the Zog bombing on through the middle. It wouldn't be ideal but if the new owners don't want to splash the cash (rightfully, for the time being, in my opinion) then it's not like we're gonna have a major struggle on just because Dyer's left. Don't get me wrong, if we can afford it and it doesn't detract from the defensive signings pot then the more the merrier for me but I'm not sure that replacing Dyer is such a big deal. Lets face it, given the amount of games he's played over the last 6 years, it's not like we've been able to rely on him in the past anyway.

Do we actually need a replacement? Given the midfield options we've got:- Butt Emre Barton Milner Solano Geremi Duff N'Zogbia + kids I'm playing devils advocate a bit here but not every team in the league has a midfielder with searing pace. Also, it depends on what Sam saw Dyer's position as. You can't replace him if you don't know where the replacement needs to play. FWIW, I reckon he might have played him right wing back, in which case, the need to improve this area remains.

Can anyone list the transfers between the clubs? How many involve McKay? Off the top of my head:- Faye - Pompey to us Griffin - Us to Pompey Boumsong - Rangers to us Andy O Brien - Us to Pompey Lua Lua - Us to Pompey Not sure who the Agents were involved in those deals though.

This could get really interesting. Could the club sue previous employees and/or Agents for acting against their interests when they were employed to act on it's behalf? Maybe we could get back some of the ridiculous compensation/salaries we've paid certain people in the past?

I would guess that the individuals whose houses have been raided would be a couple of Agents. I remember watching the infamous BBC 'Bung' programme and a few of them seemed to based from home.

Wonder if it's something uncovered by Mort since coming in? With his legal background he'd be well placed to spot any obvious misdemeanours of previous regimes.

Thats a fair point.

Just a shame they can't involve that lampard loving, liverpool/pompey sucking wanker, Jamie Redknapp in their change programme.

Agree with all of that.

Would have been my first choice so I'm well happy if this is true. Makes sense:- - It'll bring him on as a pro and as a person. - He has the balls to have a go at people, regardless of age/ability. It also probably means that Sam will build the side around him in future years which, to me, makes sense. He's a natural leader. I'd be willing to bet he's attracted alot of attention during this window from 'bigger' clubs (See Mourinho's comments last year praising him and SAF is a fan apparently) and this may be part of the deal to keep him here and move forwards with him involved rather than buggering off. Good work Sam.

He doesn't have a club now. He's available on a bosman. Oh didn't realise. Even better.

I'll be well happy if we sign him and he can add to the squad building process. Even if he is just 'ok', every club has players that aren't world beaters but can step in and do a job when the first team regulars are injured/suspended/rested - even Chelsea/Man Utd. Good news this and the trial makes 100% sense. Both parties get to check each other out. Also, the trial would indicate that his club are happy to sell, the fee probably won't be big and, with any luck, he won't be on huge wages.

Thats a bit simplistic in fairness. Maybe Sam hasn't seen enough of him to cement his opinion. Maybe Duscher wants to see what he's joining, the area, facilities etc - perhaps its a mutual thing. Who knows? One thing is for sure, we've got a thin squad and if he's got a bit of quality that Sam feels can be teased out then he'll add to the numbers to keep us going when some of the squad go off to the ANC in the winter. I was always a fan of Acuna and he was that kind of squad player (for me, a bit underused but there you go) if Duscher can come in and do a job then I'm all for it. Butt hasn't got long left playing at the top level in my opinion so, perhaps, Duscher is his natural replacement?

Didn't Duscher have a bad injury around the time Man Utd were interested in him? Or have I just imagined that?

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned, I haven't had time to scroll the entire thread, but in the London papers tonight N'Zogbia is being linked with a move to either West Ham or Bolton.

Surely it's just a coincidence that the fat man himself been in hospital?

It wouldn't be BUT when you think of the cost (in terms of a small fee and his massive wages) - thats a whole lot of cash for 12 goals, especially when you think of people like Benni Macarthy, Kevin Doyle, Dirk Kuyt and even Berbatov who all scored 12 or more league goals last season (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/top_scorers/default.stm) I doubt any of them are on anything near the kind of package Raul would demand. I'd either like to see us sign a true superstar with his best years ahead of him (i.e: someone like a Tevez) or just stick to Sam's current approach. Wouldn't it be nice to have a normal summer with a bunch of very good first team/squad players coming through the door, getting rid of some shite and build from there? I'd quite like the new regime to recognise that they don't have to do the whole big name signing thing to win people over or make unnecessary statements.

Not sure Mourinho would want to sell though. He's always talked about 2 top quality players for each position. After Ashley Cole, what are their other left back options should Bridge leave? Anyone know?