David Kelly

I admire your optimism that we haven't already Global brand, Global owners, fans not needed anymore, only consumers of the product (who will sit quietly and behave), clubs are vehicles for business promotion. Football is more alive than it's ever been (from a financial standpoint) but equally football as what it was is dead. What we are moving towards is an English version of the NFL. In fact we are very close to being there already. I'm just waiting for relegation/promotion to be a thing of the past. It almost is in a way. Very true. All of the wealthy clubs stay as they are while the others simply go up and down amongst themselves never threatening to break into the elite.

I admire your optimism that we haven't already Global brand, Global owners, fans not needed anymore, only consumers of the product (who will sit quietly and behave), clubs are vehicles for business promotion. Football is more alive than it's ever been (from a financial standpoint) but equally football as what it was is dead. What we are moving towards is an English version of the NFL. In fact we are very close to being there already. I'm just waiting for relegation/promotion to be a thing of the past.

Terry Mac at the bookies? I dunno that I really want foreign investment though (they have nothing to tie them, even Ashley has something as yesterday probably demonstrated), but it it might be the only viable option now. We all thought Ashley being English was going to be a bonus for us rather than those horrible foreigners but it's certainly not panning out that way is it. And let's not forget Shepherd was a local businessman too. I really don't think it's a problem having a foreign owner and let's face it, it's becoming the norm. If we can get someone with resources and the willingness to spend of anything like those Arabs then we should grasp it with both hands. I don't think anyone wouldn't like things to be back to way they used to be with football clubs being owned by fans and money not playing such a massive role, but lets face facts, this isn't going to happen any time soon.

I see that Anal is saying that this mega bucks Indian guy is still waiting in the wings. While I seriously doubt the validity of anything that comes out of that pricks mouth, if it were tru it might be the best bet for everyone.

I don't think there's any doubt that there's a massive dispute, LMA or no LMA. Yeah your right I was kind of stating the obvious but the if he's gone to the LMA it sounds like Keegan is taking it outside the club to try and sort it out (possibly to try a get himself away).

Aye sounds very palusible unfortunately. I only hope they are giving him some assurances and can convince him to hang around. This club really is a pain in the arse. I see the LMA are saying Keegan hasn't quit and they will keep everyone up to date. This is worrying to me (the second bit rather than the first) as why would they be getting involved at all if there wasn't a massive dispute.

Unless he was told everything was going okay on the transfers he was after up until the last minute. I wouldn't think he would have waited so long but you never know.

Yeah, I'm far from convinced he's still here now let alone for the rest of the season and beyond. But Keegan's been talked out of leaving before and hopefully he can be again. One thing that is really strange though is the timing of all of this. If Keegan has quit or had a go at the board you would have thought he would have done it earlier so there was time to save the transfer window.

Well done there like

A bit fucking ambiguous to say the least but at least there is some hope there now. The fact that this has taken all day at least suggests they are trying to convince him to stay which would sure mean giving him more money and/or more control of transfers.

Looks like Grandpa Munster. The cunt. He does look like some sort of board member from the 70's and it appears that's the way he's running things. Let's hope this rumour is true because I cannot see anything remotely positive about this whole affair. No one decent would touch us after this farce and I cannot see Owen hanging around for any more of this shite let alone any other decent players coming any time soon.

It's at times like this that I really hate my dad for getting me into football. Yet again I look like a fucking idiot to all and sundry because I support this fucking joke of a club. I didn't think it could get worse than under Shepherd but Ashley is even more clueless. Yet again it's one step forward one hundred back. Dennis Wise as new manager, fucking awsome.

He's going like, I'm convinced.

Well now that it's over (unless we have some freebies up our sleeves) what is everyones perception of how we've done? For me the positives are; Guttierez - Looks to have quality, pace and a very good work ethic. I think he's going to be a big hit. Colloccini - The most composed looking defender I've seen other than Woodgate. Possibly mightn't be great in the air against a really big guy but I think his other abilities more than cover for that. Gutherie - I wasn't expecting anything from him so he's certainly surpassed that. Showing promise. Bassong - Promssing and for the money looks good value Xisco - Know nothing about him other than what I've read but he seems to be a good choice to provide cover up front in more of a Viduka role and make that position his own in the future. Owen - He's still here. Carr - Bye bye fatty. Rammage, Emre, Rozenhal - All dead wood that we won't miss. On the other hand the negatives are; Faye - Was our best centreback and while I think we have now got better in Coloccini, I think he would have been a good partner or at least squad player. Owen - Still no contract for what Keegan said would be his most important signing of the summer. Squad - Woefully thin (as shown to painfull effect on Saturday). I know getting quality in was paramount but we needed a greater quantity. We still have no natural cover for either fullback. Midfield - I'm not convinced we are anywhere near strong enough in the centre of the park. Butt is getting on and his passing is poor, Barton has been a liability to the club so far, Gutherie looks promissing but he isn't going to boss the midfield at this stage, Nacho is a completely unknown quantity but I really can't see us buildling our midfield around a guy who's only on loan for the season (with little skope for it to turn into a permanent deal given that he's only just signed for Valencia) and has never played in a top league. We needed more. Smith and Ameobi - Still here, still useless and in Smith's case disgracefully well paid. Overall while I like our apparent transfer policy of bring young(ish) players in that are driven to play for the club and could be here for a long time, I think the state of our squad isn't good at all. I'm content that we have good option up front and I don't mind the look of our starting defence but I don't think our midfield (particularly the centre of it) is of the quality needed to push up into contention for the european positions and when you look at who we have as cover a few injuries to key players will leave us struggling. I would give us a 6/10.

I just saw him in the G star shop with his wife and kids in town, said he should be back from injury soon in all. G Star? Didn't realise the Aussie's went in for all of that Charva gear

Wouldn't want to be spending £10m on McFadden. Would be a waste of the Milner cash.

Looks like the Xisco thing will mean Heskey is bollocks although I wouldn't have been disapointed to see him come here.

Didn't know anything about him but that Graham Hunter was saying some good things about him on Talksport and the reaction from their fans is extremely promising. Lets face it we aren't desperately in need of a striker to come in and be our main man so this looks like it could be exactly the type of deal we are looking for.

Fuck me Stroller was awful. If we haven't got better in the juniors than that we might as well finish the whole youth set up now. I thought N'Zogbia looked completely disinterested too. The only plus points were Given, Jonas and Gutherie (who despite being part of a midfield pairing that got destroyed, showed promise), and the fact that we've now got two of the hardest games out of the way and we did manage point in one of them. 4 Points from the first three games is at least one more than I expected (I was worried what a trouncing on the opening day could have done for us against Bolton) so I'm not too dispondant but we seriously need to add to the team not just the squad.

KK said that the Milner money will be his to spend but it didnt matter anyway because he had money to spend on who he wants. Also said his phone hasnt stopped ringing from agents phoning him up but says he only wants top quality and would rather make do till January with this squad than sign rubbish After a promising start, we should be trying to build on that. If you take away some of the first teamers, theres absolutely nothing beyond them. Who will play right midfield now? Guti? Either that or Geremi on the right with Jonas playing off Owen. Looks like a weak line up for tomorrow any way you look at it.

It does sound like Keegan is actually quite confident of making signings and honestly I can't beleive he would have risked leaving the squad this weak if he didn't think he was going to get more players in. Whether those players are of the quality to move us forward remains to be seen. I don't fancy our chances tomorrow now like (not that I ever really did). If you take Milner, Martins and Duff out of the starting line up for the last two league games, we have Enrique, Owen and Geremi to bring in. Leaving us with (Possibly) Cacapa and Edgar with Premiership experience and Bassong that's played one game for us. It really does bring home how small the squad is.

Hot Chip - Made In The Dark

acquired or Cinema? If the former, have you a link because I can only find dodgy cam versions. There was a decent Telesync copy knocking about soon after it came out but I still don't think there's a Region 5 version yet.

I was confident last week with the noises that Keegan was making but he seems a bit less confident now and basically there's fuck all time left to do anything now. For my money we needed three more players in with one of them being a nailed on starter. If Milner goes that number increased to four bodies, two of which being starters (unless players are going to play in different positions to what we've seen so far). I just can't see this happening unless they are panic buys at this stage. You could maybe get that one player you want (like Robhino to Chelski or Berbatov to Manure) but to numbers we need just doesn't seem possible. If we don't get these players in the luck we are going to need on the injury front is unthinkable.

Apparently we ''bought'' that off Leeds a few days ago. It was on their main site as thats how they are paying for their players Turns out that we approached them to buy it and they knocked us back. Allegedly it's 25% of anything <£15m and 35% of anything >£15m. So it was always going to be 25% then.