Mole_Toonfan

Agree with this, Stoke have some talented players who are far better than they have shown.

Do we know it's fun88? Pretty sure nothing has been confirmed yet. Besides Philips or Sony wouldn't go near us.

You can, some people are just incapable of separating the two though sadly.

:lol:

Happy? Really? Amazing what words can do. We've just won the league with Rafa in the dugout, it ain't just words. There's definitely an element of our support that won't be happy until a Russian oligarch is buying us meaningless trophies. I wasn't taking into consideration what happened pre the comments. Let's face it, most people on here have spent the season moaning rather than celebrating our season. (I'm not saying it was justifiable.) No need for a Russian oligarch, Ashley f***ing off would be more than enough. However, I can see how this middle ground thinking is a little bit too difficult for you. I personally haven't though, don't generalise. Also the reason I'm happy and positive is because Rafa is staying and I personally didn't think he would. If he did leave it would have ended any chance of any sort of positive future where as with Rafa it might actually be achieveable.

The words from the club mean f*** all to me, I'm just happy Rafa is staying and potentially that's really promising. So no it's not about words, they could have said nothing and I'd still feel the same.

HTT Especially on the whole English players stuff, football intelligence wise most of the players that come through are very thick. Even if they are technically and physically gifted, they don't make the smartest decisions over the last 20 years or so. I really do wonder what the coaches are teaching these players at youth level tbh.

He's playing with much better players than Shelvey so I doubt that, he just isn't very good anymore. It happens as he's been playing at the top level since he was 16, even ignoring that though he's earning 300k a week ffs.

Unless Ashley interferes I'm pretty sure we will see improvements across the spine of the team at the very least.

Don't get me wrong I am too First season in ages I'm really looking forward to it, I just think we should be a bit cautious at the same time. I'm expecting some great signings, I just don't think they'll be massively eye catching ones just yet. Because I'd argue Clark, Gayle etc weren't massively eye catching tbh. Maybe that's a good thing though?

I personally think you are overestimating the impact Rafa will have in the short term tbh, at least compared to overriding the toxic nature which most will see the club as due to Ashley. Next summer assuming we actually improve how we imagine will be the time we can expect more "flashy" signings.

Said before but some will massively disappointed based on these expectations. Rafa is fantastic but in the short term we are still a recently promoted club who have massively dropped in stock due to poor decision making at the top. Shouldn't really lose sight of that, expecting more signings which are not that established but will probably help us improve nonetheless.

Boateng used to play RB Which is a laugh looking back.

Agree with this mind I feel like the wages alone will mean we won't be buying from City imo. Even their squad players probably get paid more than anyone who currently plays for us. Which clubs that can pay the wages would take him though ? A lot and besides the state of the club they are joining would decide if they are willing to take a cut etc. Rafa is amazing and all but that only goes so far in the short term imo, I can't see us pursuing players who are currently paid the sort of money City would be paying their players.

Agree with this mind I feel like the wages alone will mean we won't be buying from City imo. Even their squad players probably get paid more than anyone who currently plays for us.

One hilarious thing about City is despite the fact they spend shit loads they tend to let players go for relatively fuck all. The wages would probably be a bigger issue.

Enjoy. (got some time on my hands waiting to start new gig) Christ

He's not that bad

Yeah he does, 70 of the 100 on transfers rather than 70 and an extra 100.

Hope we do tbh, sick of that scumbag Owen being our record transfer.

No you can't get 5 quality players for that amount. Van Aanholt went for £14m in January. He's not anywhere near quality. You realise for every player for 14m mentioned i can mention one for less who is quality? this is not how this works, theres quality players going between 10-15m all the damn time. Just because people overpay doesn't mean it's impossible to get players for reasonable prices.

That's because City are a bit thick, you can get 5 ( at least ) quality players for that amount of money. Factor in the sales and i wouldn't be surprised if Rafa can do quite a lot with it.

There's going to be loads of lazy rumors linking Rafa to ex players I'd bet that we get links to Reina in the morning papers.