Raj

I'm struggling to understand your point here Leo. You list 4 top, top quality players who you believed had 'what it takes' to be play at the highest level. Many people had been highlighting these players before they had made it through into their respective first teams. Even if they had had awful debuts, they still would have got the opportunity to play again, because they had the basic skill levels and had been brought up through an English youth system where physical attributes are crucial to succeed. El Zhar played for 20 mins the other night. How the hell can anyone tell whether he will make it or not? I'm sure the Liverpool scouts had been watching him for longer than 20 mins and felt that he could add something to the squad, don't you agree? Whether El Zhar can handle the physical aspect of the British game is open to debate, but I'm sure that the Liverpool backroom staff would offer him more than 3 1/2 months and 20 mins of 1st team action before being able to provide an assessment.

IIRC, we could and probably should have won the league in 1997. The fact that David James decided he wasnt a very good goalkeeper, eroded any confidence in our defence and we limped in 3rd or 4th. That title was ours for the taking.

Parry would disagree with you, as it involves extra revenue for league placing.

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Not quite as bad as that, but I was 35 mins late for a game a few years ago, due to traffic. s*** like that happens.

Is right. Dortmund were almost bankrupted by this situation. They had spent millions on players and could not recoup the money. This happened despite attracting crowds of 70,000 per home game and playing in the Champs League.

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Agreed. Phil Neal, Alan Kennedy, Ronnie Whelan, Dennis Irwin (hate to put him here, but it was true) to name 4 of recent eras.

I would be more in favour of us playing a 352/343. It would minimise the disruption to the players natural positions Reina Carragher Agger Hyppia Finnan Guthrie Gerrard Riise Garcia Kuyt Crouch Agger is good enough to push forward from the back when we are in posession, like a real 'libero'. The only width we will get will be from the full backs. Not sure how fit Pennant is, or whether Rafa will risk him for a full 90 mins.

RVN cost £18 or £19m. The other figures are about right. I agree with what you are saying, but there was a consequence to their spending. For every Veron, they had to spend money on a Djemba-Djemba to pad out the squad. Chelsea dont have to worry about that as Uncle Roman digs a little deeper, pulls out some spare change and buys Scott Parker or Jiri Jarosik to pad out the squad. Then sells them a year later for half the price and goes out and spends another £15m

Just to back up what I was saying about transfer records - These are the British transfer records since 1974. February 1974 Bob Latchford Birmingham City Everton £350,000 August 1977 Kenny Dalglish Celtic Liverpool £440,000 December 1978 David Mills Middlesbrough West Bromwich Albion £500,000 February 1979 Trevor Francis Birmingham Nottingham Forest £1m First million-pound player September 1979 Steve Daley Wolverhampton Wanderers Manchester City £1.438m September 1979 Andy Gray Aston Villa Wolverhampton Wanderers £1.469m 1981 Bryan Robson West Bromwich Albion Manchester United £1.5m Summer 1987 Peter Beardsley Newcastle United Liverpool £1.9m July 1988 Paul Gascoigne Newcastle United Tottenham Hotspur £2m Summer 1988 Tony Cottee West Ham United Everton £2.2m August 1989 Gary Pallister Middlesbrough Manchester United £2.3m Summer 1991 Dean Saunders Derby County Liverpool £2.9m July 1992 Alan Shearer Southampton Blackburn Rovers £3.6m August 1993 Roy Keane Nottingham Forest Manchester United £3.75m August 1993 Duncan Ferguson Dundee United Rangers £4m July 1994 Chris Sutton Norwich City Blackburn Rovers £5m February 1995 Andy Cole Newcastle United Manchester United £7m July 1995 Stan Collymore Nottingham Forest Liverpool £8.5m August 1996 Alan Shearer Blackburn Rovers Newcastle United £15m World record November 2000 Rio Ferdinand West Ham United Leeds United £18m 22 July 2002 Rio Ferdinand Leeds United Manchester United £29.1m Now Chelsea have spent the following (I have only selected there largest transfer fees). All of the names listed below cost more than Alan Shearer did. They have spent this money since 2003 and have managed to write off almost £60m in transfer fees on 4 unwanted players (this does not take into account their large wages, which they paid over 70% of whilst Crespo and Veron have been on loan) Shevchenko - £30m SWP - £21m Essien - £24.4m Drogba - £24m Carvalho - £19.85m Duff - £17m (sold for £5m) Veron - £15m (given free transfer) Mutu - £15.8m (sacked) Crespo - £16.9m (on loan until contract expires) Makelele - £16.6m

True, but its all relative to other teams spending power. Liverpool may have broken the British transfer record, but at the same time so were Nottingham Forest, Man City, Wolves, Man Utd. Other big teams of the era. These days, Chelsea are in a league of their own. They can spend £17 million on Duff and then sell him to Newcastle 3 years later with a £12 million loss and with no effect on their finances. In the past, clubs may have spent big, but there have always been consequences if it went wrong.

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Exactly. He is a reasonable squad player who can play a variety of different positions. He can be infuriating at times, but he is solid enough.

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Basically they have panicked. At the beginning of the season, Charlton's chairman was taking about the importance of avoiding relegation this season, due to the increased windfalll from TV revenue next season. He added that they were increasing their transfer budget for this season to ensure that they avoided relegation. Not going to plan then...

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He made some comments to the press about Cahill having a face you just want to punch.

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