Dr Gloom

Spot on. People have to understand that money doesn't equal the best players, as the Mackem's are finding out now. If you've got no Europe, no real chance of winning a trophy in the next season or two then no one really big will want to join. Chelsea was a freak takeover, they threw money about like nobodies business. Even Chelsea were struggling at the beginning to sign the real world stars. They got knocked back a lot tbh. and it's not like ashley is in the same league as abramovich

so we've signed a world class defender who could have a potentially career threatening injury. nice to see that our transfer policy has remained consistent with the previous regime.

if we lose owen and martins we're going to need to bring in some players with pace. defoe and/or saviola perhaps.

smith plus £4m for owen would be a shocking deal for us

gudjohnsesn would be class alongside owen or martins. i'm not convinced he'd make the best pairing with viduka though. not a lot of pace in that partnership

i can't believe coleman got that job like.

which player were they watching?

Not next season probably the season after that how crap a shirt sponsor would that be? may as well be ace lager. i wouldn't mind stella or guiness but carling for fuck's sake?

how can a bar with Carling, Coors, Grolsch and Worthingtons as its house beers be the best in town? shocking selection tbh.

£17m...fuck me sideways. i remember people on here screwing at the thought of bobby signing him for £1.5m a fwe years back

i'd be tempted to keep martins but £13m might be too good a price to turn down. i think we paid over the odds for him personally.

getting rid of those two wasters will be the best thing sam has done so far. thank christ he can see what we all can. i can't believe the two of them have managed to bleed the club for 40 grand a week in wages without putting in a half decent shift between them.

the yanks don't give hatton enough respect but i reckon mayweather would beat him up pretty bad.

Much better is a stretching it a bit. mildly better? Aye. He isn't getting loads of stick either though to be fair. My beef was more with the assertion he is obviously quality. He hasn't shown it here. i like him because he's got touch and skill. i agree that he's been disappointing for us but i wonder if that's largely because he's played under two shite managers. maybe big sam will get him back to his best - i think he's worth keeping though because unlike someone like parker, he is clearly capable of more than he's shown since he's been with us. Don't see why Parker doesn't get the same excuse then (I wasn't too sorry to see him leave but fair's fair). And if anyone gets unfair stick it's Parker who has had a lot more decent games for us than Emre. i never really saw much more than effort and work-rate from parker - he's very limited compared to emre in terms of technical ability and natural talent. the problem with parker is that he's an average holding player and a below average attacking midfielder. nicky butt's performances last season showed how limited parker is. at least with emre, there's flashes of skill and a sense that the best might still be to come.

Much better is a stretching it a bit. mildly better? Aye. He isn't getting loads of stick either though to be fair. My beef was more with the assertion he is obviously quality. He hasn't shown it here. i like him because he's got touch and skill. i agree that he's been disappointing for us but i wonder if that's largely because he's played under two shite managers. maybe big sam will get him back to his best - i think he's worth keeping though because unlike someone like parker, he is clearly capable of more than he's shown since he's been with us.

Much better is a stretching it a bit. mildly better?

i dunno why emre gets so much stick like. he was much better than the likes of duff and parker last season. not that that's saying too much.

You're a right misery guts of late Dan. Clearly missing Leazes imo. maybe the most miserable june on record is taking its toll - i reckon we've made some solid squad additions but i don't think we've added too many players that will help fire us back towards the top 4-6. i do think this place misses leazesmag btw

bring back shepherd tbh

i'm finding it hard to get too excited about geremi and viduka like, although there's no doubt they're an improvement on the likes of le sib and bernard.

i'm sure that if there was even a remote chance of this deal going through before july 1, the media would have picked up on it by now. all i've heard about this deal is that sam doesn't fancy him because he isn't tall enough

longest in the shower too apparently

i'm optimistic about our long-term future under ashley but i'm not that excited about big sam and his new signings so far.

a bit slow and old i reckon. we should be able to attract better players but he'd still be a vast improvement on the likes of ramage, bramble etc