AyeDubbleYoo

Whether he 'couldn't' sell the club, or decided that the offers weren't good enough, the outcome is the same. Who are we to say he should sell one of his most significant assets for a price that he doesn't think is good enough?

If 30% 'consider' giving up their tickets then I bet only about 10% actually do it. Take away the brand new season ticket holders and the crowd might only decrease by 5%.

If Smith could tone down his flying into tackles and just close people down like Hargreaves then I think he could maybe be an almost-decent midfielder. Can't bring myself to click either button though.

To be fair to HTT, I would be gutted as well.

I reckon about a 4, I would say we're less than 50/50 to go down. Things can change so quickly this season though, a couple of wins and we could be in the top 8, or vice versa.

From what I saw of Shorey for Reading I'd be more than happy to have him here.

I don't know a lot about this point I'll admit, but wasn't it the Shepherd regime that spent large amounts of the clubs money renting warehouses and storage facilities owned by members of the board and their families?

Shorey is a more than capable premiership LB, would be a very good signing - although he might interfere with Enrique's development. I went to quite a lot of Reading games in their first season in the Prem, he was very very good that year.

I don't think Ashley wanting to sit with the fans and drink etc was "bullshit", but I do think it was a mistake. He got caught up with his desire to enjoy his ownership of the club and didn't think about the position he would be left in if things went wrong. Naive, but not devious.

Aye, lack of athleticism is our main problem in the middle I reckon. Replace Butt with someone like Diarra or the like and we would be in business. Combine that with replacing Duff/Geremi with people with pace/strength and you're laughing. The premiership is as much about being an athlete as about being a footballer these days. I wouldn't have minded a punt on Muamba when he joined Bolton. Rumours suggest Jenas might be on his way out of Spurs too

Mourinho's system was his genius though, he got so much out of those players. There are a lot (e.g. J Cole, Lampard) that should really consider him saviour of their careers. People are right to say Chelsea seem a bit 'confused' now, I think Scolari would have been better off just tweaking the Mourinho team very slightly, he has certainly created problems for himself with the amount of playmakers he tries to fit in. Find it a bit weird considering his Brazil teams were always thought of as too defensive.

No quotes, no story.

yeah, in a financial sense that's spot on. but we may well lose out because we brought in a player who isnt good enough rather than someone who is decent just because one happened to be a free agent in january. considering our perilous position i'd rather we take a gamble financially (especially since we've spent almost nothing for 3 windows) than a gamble on quality. I get you, I agree I would rather see us buying a quality player if we can. Just don't think that is likely to happen in the current situation, and even it was I wouldn't argue against this kind of squad-building on top. my worry would be that we're unneccessarily limiting ourselves to cheap signings. doesnt mean this player is not good, he might turn out to be awesome, or he might turn out to be shit. diatta turned out to be the latter, i'm not sure we can afford to make such a mistake this time round. of course it would be great if he is not the only attacking player we bring in but i wont be holding my breath on that front! will be interesting to see if Lovekrands coming in means someone like N'Zogbia leaves, too. Yeah you're right, my main worry is that it would mean Zoggy going. I certainly wouldn't want that, but then again you could look at it the other way - if Zog is definitely going then we need someone else to come in. Lovenkrands might be coming in as a striker to fill in for Martins I suppose, I think he can play that role as well. If there are players to improve us available I'd like to think we'd be prepared to spend at least a bit, I also wouldn't be happy if we were taking second-best options out of choice.

yeah, in a financial sense that's spot on. but we may well lose out because we brought in a player who isnt good enough rather than someone who is decent just because one happened to be a free agent in january. considering our perilous position i'd rather we take a gamble financially (especially since we've spent almost nothing for 3 windows) than a gamble on quality. I get you, I agree I would rather see us buying a quality player if we can. Just don't think that is likely to happen in the current situation, and even it was I wouldn't argue against this kind of squad-building on top.

I think Liverpool can do it. Also, Chelsea fucked up by not keeping faith with Anelka when he was doing the business IMO.

I'd definitely like a spell abroad if I was a player, especially while I was young and developing if possible. Don't know why more don't go for it, especially with the EU free-trade laws.

I suppose what was meant was the 'risk' was low, not because there was no possibility that he won't do well, but because even if he does turn out to be rubbish we will have lost very little.

Who?

That's down to schooling as well, kids don't touch language till 12, you learn linguistics best in your early years. Course, also if you believe the stereotypes then footballers might not be the sharpest tools in the box.

Language is a big issue as well, very few English people (esp footballers) would even attempt to live in a non English-speaking country. There's the guy playing in Turkey isn't there?

Just as well the club is going for the 'giving him a trial' route, rather than just reading his wiki entry.

Shame, he shouldn't have been on the pitch. His attitude towards the officials in the first half was shocking, and Webb just ignored it. He kept raising his arm in gestures to him, telling him to 'fuck off', ignoring him, intimidating the assistant - not even a yellow card. Got away with murder. You forget he plays for Manchester United. No ref does anything bad against them, and if a game is 0-0 it's common ref knowledge to add Fergie Time to the normal added time so they can get a winner. Rafa, is that you?

I'm sure Butt is living off his reputation with large sections of the media and football establishment.

He's only 28, I've got a feeling this could turn out to be a good signing. He's direct at least.

I've hardly seen Messi play at all, or Kaka for that matter, I feel like the people who were trekking in the rainforest when JFK was assassinated.