AyeDubbleYoo

Source/link/intuition/letter from his Mam?

Out of interest, do you still think our squad can cope in the Premiership, or do you now not? And why?

I didn't really notice him, that's why I was asking. Suppose everyone was busy jizzing off over Ozil.

Word up. However, we still don't know (a) whether it will happen or not and (b) whether the club did everything they could to make it happen.

Is Khedira actually good? Haven't seen much of him, he seems trendy at the moment.

I'd say the silence is more encouraging than the bollocks being spouted left, right and centre before. Maybe he's actually discussing a transfer with someone!

yes, work laptop is crap why is it because i don't put capitals at the start of sentences? Yes, sorry.

Neesy, is your shift key broken?

Would have him here in a flash. I think teams might be reluctant to loan players to their immediate rivals.

If only pointless internet speculation could be hooked up to the national grid in some way, it could power the UK for years to come.

People are happy when a signing comes in under the radar, and say it's good policy, but whinge when we don't get any information. Can't have it both ways. he shouldn't be saying he expects signings, week on week though Little bit of thinking outside the box here but bear with me. Maybe, just maybe, he is saying that he expects signings because he does expect signings. Just because they haven't happened to our preferred timescales doesn't mean that they won't be happening at all As the Guiness adverts say 'All things come to those who wait' Little bit of thinking inside the box here, maybe he really does expect signings?

That telegraph piece is bollocks TBH, Scholes was worse in the tackle than Barton in that match, as always. To make any pronouncements about our chances this season after a defeat to Man Utd is stupid.

Those two positions aren't contradictory though. Of course not, they're the position of someone who will just sit back and accept whatever happens to the club without complaining (except to put down and complain about other people who have an issue with the way the club is run) or without doing anything about it (except to eventually lose interest and find other things to spend their money on). Every year we carry on with the way Ashley is running the club we lose some of the existing supporter base, and we fail to attract new youngsters picking their team. Every year revenues will fall relative to the competition, we will lose the financial advantage we have built up, and it will become harder and harder to get back to where we were even if we manage to scrape by and avoid relegation each year. I have massive issues about how the club has been run under Ashley, no sensible person could say he's been anything other than a disaster overall. But it's possible to hold that position and still believe/understand/suspend judgement over the need to cut our spending to improve our financial situation. By how much and in what way is a matter of degrees, so that's about opinions. And it's possible to hold all of those positions and still 'get behind the team'. At the end of the day there's a massive amount I don't know about, and that's what football fans do.

I think you had a good point, only problem was comparing Martin O'Neill to Lionel Messi. One is decent, the other is one of the best ever.

Agreed, of course there's always January to ''put things rignt' and Hughton to still be 'hopeful' So if we aren't happy with the transfer window, we shouldn't get behind the team?

Of course it fucking matters man a deadline day signing in this window will have missed at 3 games. When if Blobby Campbell going to be fit to play a full a game? As he signed after the training camp in Ireland & has missed a large part of pre-season. You slightly missed my point, I was just saying that it doesn't necessarily mean they will be players of lower quality, and that all signings should be judged together no matter where in the window they happen to occur. I wasn't saying anything about what is better or worse for the team.

Those two positions aren't contradictory though.

why is it thst under the curren regime we aere waiting until the end of the transfer window, as in the previous regime most transfers were done by july Well that's a different point to the one I was discussing. I don't know, obviously we aren't getting deals done when we would like...no idea what the reason is.

It's pointless me arguing this really, my point was that we should just wait to see how we do in this transfer window before we judge how we've done in this transfer window. If you want to have an argument on hypothetical outcomes, that's fair enough. I could equally have an argument based on the hypothetical situation that the Ben Arfa deal goes through, along with another one or two.

Why do only end of window signings count though, that's just timing. Don't think it really means anything when in the window the deals happen. I was only talking about whether Ashley would be more or less bad than before, I think it's fair to say something should have to happen before we judge that.

In his defence he has previously had some reason to be slightly annoyed, as he's always been the best keeper at the club. But in this case he hasn't got a leg to stand on, as he signed for Man City when he was always likely to be competing with world-class players. He's luckily they didn't sign Casillas or someone like that TBH.

Keane's a perfectionist to an extreme degree, and sadly managers are never working in perfect circumstances.

Doesn't somebody say this every window? Yes, because it's completely correct... wise in fact.

1998 called, they want their transfer suggestion back.

All this chat about how shit Ashley is is getting a bit tiring... it's happening simultaneously in about 4 or 5 threads. Let's just wait until the transfer window closes and/or we've actually played some games before we have a debate about whether he's more or less shit than he was a month ago.