Bombadil

People, please post your sources when you copy newspaper articles in here, it's much more interesting to read when you know where it's from.

He should really end the speculation and committ himself to the club. He owes us a full season. No-one could have blamed him for leaving if Roeder was still in charge, but if he doesn't start next season with us, I'll be really disappointed.

Slightly at odds with his initial "If Mike Ashley thinks he can blah blah blah" comment. Still though, at this stage I couldn't give a fuck. My hatred for Shepherd has been replaced by goodwill towards him for selling with minimum fuss. I agree. It's probably not the worst thing for him to stay on for a bit either, to aid the transition. I doubt he will remain as chairman for a long time.

I know exactly what you mean. I haven't felt this optimistic about the club in ages.

Owen still hasn't scored, good for us.

It'll be really interesting to see what kind of money we spend. I don't think anyone is expecting Abramovic kind of spending, i'm certainly not, but you'd expect a healthy investment in players. Hopefully this will allow Big Sam to bring in his freebies and cheaper deals as well as a few bigger deals to give us the squad we need. And then more quality players we can bring in, the better chance we have of being able to get rid of the likes of Babayaro and Carr etc. Good point. I'm glad Allardyce is our manager now - even if he's given a large transfer kitty, you'd still expect him to be interested in freebies and cheap deals to strengthen the squad, whereas a lot of other managers probably couldn't resist the temptation to blow any new investment on a small number of expensive big-name players.

If we sign Barton, Viduka, Ben Haim, Rozenahl and a left-back over the next few weeks, I'll be absolutely delighted. I know it's been said a few times now, but if someone had told me a month ago that we'd get Allardyce, a new owner and the players above in the space of a few weeks, I would have told them to seek professional help.

I think I'll put some money on that. Not just because of Bramble - I can't see them signing anyone decent and their manager won't last long.

Barton is undergoing a medical according to the BBC.

Rozenahl or Anton Ferdinand? I know who I'd rather have, and I've hardly seen Rozenahl play. Thank God Roeder is gone!

A left-back and two centre-backs are an absolute must.

Mendieta did.

"Non-Geordies need not apply."

Parker.

Good for us!

Roeder for England!

No, you mis-read it. "The England midfielder will earn substantially more than the £72,000 per week the Hammers are paying their highest earner, Aussie defender Lucas Neill." fucking mugs.

72,000 a week, FFS.

Suppose we sell Parker for £7m and buy Barton for £5.5m, will that really be a good deal? I'm not at all convinced he's a better footballer than Parker. And that's not even mentioning all his disciplinary problems. Bowyer all over again.

That's right. Sadly these stats don't really mean anything as the Swiss league is poor.

No thread about Viduka would be complete without you. Good player and a decent signing, there have to be question marks over his fitness and commitment though.