Minhosa

Would hardly say he's been outwitted. He's still holding the ace card and as it's a buyers market, he's bound to go before the deadline. If he'd been outwitted he would've accepted Dyers demands for a payment just to get rid of him. I think it's absolute quality that we've stood up to the little twat and his agent and said 'hang on........if you wanna leave, then fuck off, but don't expect us to pay you to go'. He should be fucking grateful that we stood by him through years of injury.

Centre half?

Bad news.

So does anybody know what the man thinks about football fans from the North East of England? To be honest, I'm not sure it really makes any difference. He's a businessman, NUFC is a business and one of the positive factors when he bought it would be the (virtually) guaranteed sell-outs at home. Whether they're sold out with passionate fans or silent disinterested types doesn't make a bit of difference as long as they're paying their way and that income stream is nailed on. We might like to think, or to read in the press, that we, as the clubs supporters are some kind of irreplaceable force when in all reality we're just numbers and a good thing about the club. Not being negative, btw, just realistic.

All this Dyer is world class, Dyer is irreplaceable. Get a fucking grip lad. His injury record and ability to turn up for every 1 game in 20 is unrepeatable.

James, You're talking shit mate.

I don't really know Faye but isn't he more of a holding player than Nolan? I was thinking Nolan would be pushing on when attacking and dragging everyone else back into position when defending.

Don't disagree it could well be a 4-4-2 start but as we agreed it'll very likely end up a 4-5-1 or 4-3-3 whatever you want to call it. As you've probably seen in the post above, thats why I think Nolan would be a decent acquisition. Not because he's a world beater just because he'll be able to help everyone around integrate Sam's systems on the pitch where Allardyce can't communicate effectively with them.

As you'll see from my various posts I'm not convinced we should replace him, certainly not just because 'we'll miss his pace' but Diarra is a very good call imo for the following reasons:- 1) Could a natural replacement for Butt; 2) Can cover right side as you said; 3) Is young and will/should go up in value; 4) Would probably accept not starting every game if he was still getting a good run out occasionally. The other one that jumps out, rather obviously, is Nolan and the reason I think Sam would like him is the fact they know each other inside out. Sam knows Nolan's game/Character/Workrate and Nolan knows the Sam approach/system/tactics well. So, the pivotal position of CM is covered without Allardyce having to put the work in (on someone like Emre) from scratch.

Aye, i was well up for that. Just don't think we've got the players though. Don't think Milner would be comfortable there, on the side of that front three - he was hardly involved for England in the Under-21 Championships, and i don't reckon Martins or Owen could handle it either. The only proven player we've got who can do that, is Duff. And Luque apparantely, but never in England. We're a 4-4-2 team at the moment. See your point Lt I reckon Milner could handle it (he's got the workrate and intelligence) as could Owen though I don't think he'd like it. Martins I'm not sure about but he is a grafter, does challenge and he's got the pace for it. The reason I'm not sure Sam will play 4-4-2 is because he likes his sides to be fluid going forward and rigid, tough to break down out of possession. Well he has in the past anyway. You might be right, maybe he feels he hasn't the personnel to pull it off, but in my opinion it's the best group of players he'll ever have had at his disposal quality-wise (far better than any BW squad he had) and due to their quality he should be able to get the front 6 (whether in a 3-3 or a 4-2) to work as well as he has elsewhere. The question probably is whether he's had the time with them? Oh, and whether he's comfortable that the front 6 are his choice and he's not looking to replace half of them. I reckon he'll defo play 4-3-3 at some stage, just a question of when really. Maybe he'll wait until he's got more of his signings around him and a years worth of training/getting to know the squad, next summer?

My starting midfield would be a middle three of Barton, Emre and Butt with the left and right sided forwards dropping back to wingers when we were out of possession. They could be Martins/Milner/Duff/Owen or any of the attacking players chosen to start there really. Hence the reason I wouldn't replace Dyer when he goes. Even if Sam plays 4-4-2 (very doubtful imo) I still couldn't find room for SWP given that I don't think Milner has let anyone down and SWP, for the money they're talking about, wouldn't be £12m pounds worth of improvement. SWP's a winger, nobody could play him through the middle as he can't defend properly out of possession, therefore his competition at our place would be:- RW - Milner/Nobby/perhaps Geremi LW - Duff/N'Zogbia Is he really worth spending £12m on when we've got ample options there at the minute? AND given the dire back four situation? Not for me.

You're lucky if you're starting to forget about Souness, consider that a bonus. No, rather it's just a misty black haze that I can't quite erase Mick!

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.