David Kelly

It is disapointing after such a good June, July has made our preseason look like it's going to shite. I've no doubt we are working behind the scenes to bring players in but unless we have some success on that front we are clearly going to struggle this season. Quantity wise we have less in than we had last year when we were short and we still don't really have any fullbacks that are worth the name. If we went into the season with the squad we have at present we would be two fullbacks, at least one central defender, and a creative midfielder short from being able to have realistic ambitions of getting back in Europe this year. Hopefully most of these players will come in in the next couple of weeks, if not it could be a long hard season, the only upside being we now at least have a propper manager who we can expect to be able to get more out of the players that the last two idiots managed.

The left back situation is rather worrying now. We simply don't have one and can't afford to go into the season hoping that Babayarou might surprise us all and pull his finger out for once. And the longer it takes to sign someone the more difficult it will be for them to be right for the start of the season. I know we've changed managers twice and have a whole new regieme in place but I really can't beleive how long we've been without a leftback now. It's comical tbh.

A rather belated thanks guys

Soldiers were hung in the war for shooting themselves in the leg. Yet another sign of Owen's lack of commitment tbh!

Not with a fee of anywhere near £2m for Dyer. I bet Bolton would be looking for nearer £10m than £2m! £2m are you taking the piss? £8m at least. 2mil is the figure that Anal (yes I know) is reporting.

Not with a fee of anywhere near £2m for Dyer. I bet Bolton would be looking for nearer £10m than £2m!

Nah, what would Keane want with a proven premiership player?

£2m would offer us very little in terms trying to bring in a replacement tbh and although we're certainly not in a desperate position time wise, the clock is ticking and we desperately need to bring at least another three defenders in. We could probably do without the distraction of having to replace Dyer too.

No article up yet as far as I can see. I still think Dyer is a very underrated player amongst our fans who seem to forget how important he was to us when we were in the top five. That said I'm still not sure how we can best use him but I don't think we really want to be losing any more players (Carr and Babyarou excepted) from our paper thin squad.

Does he speak English? Maybe if he doesn't that's why SA only speaks to his advisers.

Aye if no one comes in for him this summer then the minimum fee will probably end up being all we could expect for him next year when he only has a year left, and hence isn't a problem any more. That said if he is our prize asset (and I'm assuming that's what we would class a £17m striker as) we should be looking to get him on a new contract anyway by this stage. And of course that contract should have no clauses!

Apparently so, can't remember meself like. I'm sure we were linked with him either in January or last summer. I agree he's shite like. Dec 2006 according to .com's rumour page Aye that sounds about right. I'm sure people either on here or N.O. were saying he would be a decent signing as well!

Apparently so, can't remember meself like. I'm sure we were linked with him either in January or last summer. I agree he's shite like.

Weren't we linked with him last year with some saying it was a good move?

I think a one legged dwarf going through a sex change would be better than that clown Carr but I think we should set our sights higher than that!

Aye it would be tricky when we don't want you Franck!

Despite Wigan signing Bramble I certainly don't think they are any worse off than the Makems, Derby really do look like they will struggle badly though. I still fancy the makems to go down though. There squad is poor to say the least and unless Chopra really does prove to be better than we think, I can't see anyone getting nearly enough goals for them.

Really didn't like the jist of what BSA was saying. Came over as a bit of back peddling and making excuses, the next couple of weeks will be interesting. I don't think it came out like that at all. I think he was just venting a bit of frusration that he hasn't been allowed to do his job as much as he would have liked due to the situation we have been in (ie waiting for Ashley to have absolute control).

Looks like Dyer did well for the first two and the young un did well for the second two. .Com suggested that the ball for Owen looked like a miss hit shot but it looked like a spot on ball in to me.

Hopefully this is what they have been waiting for and now SA will be given the green light to spend. These guys aren't muppets and they will know that our squad isn't good enough to get to where they want to be (especially when you consider the spending of clubs above us (Manure, the bin dippers, Chelski, the yids) and below us (citeh, wist am etc)) so they are going to have to release some fairly major funds. If Wigan and Fulham can spend what they have surely we must be able to spend at least as much without needing MA to even really dip into his own stash.

He must have enjoyed it so much the first time!

Without wanting to build up his ego, I think having someone like Gemmil missing compared to his previous post rate is detrimental to this board. It used to be that whenever anything happened it was posted immediately, now for that you are better of on NO. I still much prefer it here though as there are some right spanners on there who's only goal appears to be to argue withing anything other people say.

Apparently Richardson has been on Sky Sports saying that he's hoping for a European (possibly champions league) push Clearly needs a drugs test!

With the exception of strikers I agree. Sam and the new regieme are doing the right things so far but as things currently stand we couldn't really field a stong first eleven for the first game let alone look like having a strong squad for the whole season. Plenty of time left yet like and I think things will move very quickly from now on. Wasn't the 18th of July mentioned as a date when MA's control would be absolute or something like that? just as long as they don't leave it all until the final day of the window a'la shepherd. it would be nice if the majority of the new signings get a proper pre-season before the real thing kicks off for once. That's definitely a concern and something we've complained about the last couple of seasons. Unfortunately I think this season it's somewhat unavoidable that we have to wait a bit for some of our signings. Obviously MA and his team need to get in and get their heads round things before they can sanction big spending. It's frustrating for us and Allardyce but the one good thing is at least Allardyce realised the need to get players in as quickly as possible. Our last two managers were painfully unaware of that!

They haven't signed one player who's a proven Premier League talent yet. That's not something that would get me excited at their prospects.