Davvo

One of 3 things are happening here, and I'm trying to retain some perspective and allow for a positive outlook, hand wringing is really not for me. There are some signs that could be interpreted in a couple of different ways at the moment, and things are unlikely to clear for another 3 weeks or so. a) We're clearing the decks ahead of an almighty spending spree in the last couple of weeks of the window. b) We're being run as a bare bones operation, as lean as possible whilst trying to retain a possibility of making 4th. a la Arsenal. Big gamble on a young manager for that route. c) We're being readied for sale. (Agger going would make a huge short term difference to our value, as would Pepe and/orSkrtel) Football has undoubtedly been ruined by the Sky money the last few years, but I'm only really interested in my team to be honest, and I want us to be challenging for the title and the European Cup every season. After all, it's not so long ago that we were doing just that. If you can't beat 'em join 'em, I want a) or c), b) just sounds like a world of pain quite frankly.

Yes, even if we were only paying half their wages last year, getting rid of both would save us £90k p/w or so. That's £90k p/w we paid for absolutely no return last season. FSG are definitely being ruthless with the wastage, which is good, if they use that trimmed position to move us forward. Trimming wage bills, and shifting players out before committing to purchases, is not asset stripping. Failing to support the manager by giving him a competitive squad is the main goal, big 4 weeks of transfer activity ahead to fulfil that.

Do we know that £500k p/w is this Summer, and not their target after having assessed things when they took over ? I sort of read whatever quote someone put on here, as being an ongoing project, rather than a current need. Since the most recent accounts, last July?, there has already been some savings I think.

ah, I see he goes by NOT Brian Kettle, so presumably not.

I hope it's THE Brian Kettle.

Yeah, and it's all in thepast obviously. Just think the Keane lost money is key to a lot of arguments, and shows just how f***ed we were under G&H, and how that affected Rafa's ability to mould the squad. move the cut-off to 5 years and it gets lost a little in some of the other deals you include. Nothing like shifting goalposts to get a point across . Though it's not meant to have a go at Rafa by increasing his apparent spend, quite the opposite really, by emphasising how hard and fast the rug was pulled.

£98 million in 4.5 seasons isn't it (just to be dull and pedantic ) (£78M total +£16M keane+£4Mnett from 2010 ?) Not that it matters, and yes the spend of, well it's nearer £22M per year, produced excellent results. I'm just saying how good it could have been had we/he been able to carry on in that manner.

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Yep, so circa £20M per season up until Jan 2009 when the rug got pulled. That last 3 windows were dreadful, if only G&H had been forced out by the banks sooner. (I know that probably wasn't possible, and we should be thankful for eventually being rid of them, but a change of ownership in January 2009 and the whole thing could have looked so much more rosey).

I'd bet yours.

I read it as waiting for other moves in the market. eg if we were interested in Walott, it might take them signing Cazorla. Or if we wanted a Madrid player on loan, it might take them signing Modric to kick it off. The transfer market seems to work like that a lot, bit of a domino effect started by the biggest spenders.

Golden?

If he sees it, is it not by definition predictable ?

He'll be like a country gent to the Cod Army

Well yes, but that's a different issue altogether. We have numbers, we need quality. Aye I think he will. Can't help think that leaving him off the squad list, whilst including Suarez/Coates was an indicator of that. 7 forwards and 7 midfielders is likely what we'll be left with by Sept 1st, it's just who goes and who stays.

That's fair enough. I think it's just the proximity to the new season, and the fact he's Wolrd Class, and the fact none of us can really come up with a named replacement of equal quality. Doesn't mean it might not turn out alright of course.

Not suso, eccleston, coady or wisdom. the rest are legitimate squad members, who, if they're not good enough then fine, but you cant expect to bring replacements in without also getting shut of them. Surely you realise the stupidity in that ? We're not City or Chelsea, and such financial nonsense would leave us short of funds to actually buy other players. wilson, bellamy, pacheco going too then ? so thats 4 out, 3 more in ? I think you're right by the way, just shows that there wont be more coming in than going out, we're not short on numbers just quality.

4 keepers ; 5 fullbacks ; 5 centre backs ; 6 centre mids ; 7 forwards That's not including mclaughlin/wisdom/sama/suso/sterling, and assuming aquilani has gone, but allen not yet done. 27 players is too many to work with, even though not all need registering due to age, I don't expect us to carry a squad much bigger than 25 for the first team. I don't know about Doni's situation, but a keeper and pacheco appear set to leave. That leaves us at 25, so yes, I'd expect we're pretty much at 1 out, 1 in, though some of those out's could involve loans of younger/fringe players. If we just added 3 or 4 more players we'd be over 30 and that's ridiculous. I know we have players not seemingly upto the job, but the suggestion we need to pad out the squad in terms of numbers is false.

Oh behave. We've lost Kuyt, Maxi, Aurelio from last season's wage bill, but added Cole, Aquilani, Pacheco and Borini. The last thing we want to do is bring a load in to bloat the squad to 30 or so, and then be stuck with an inflated wage bill and players we wont use and cant get rid of. It's some much needed common sense if it's the reason. Line a purchase up, sell the guy he's replacing, complete the purchase.

Aye, and it's highly plausible we'd be waiting to shift Aquilani before trying to complete the deal.

Aye I'd be on that boat normally, but for this no-show for tonight's game and these supposed agent's comments.

That's fair enough, it's the lack of players linked at tha position that concerns a bit. I have no idea who may be available that we might get. Are we all invited?

Well you'd hope so, I'm more thinking who becomes our No1 CB. Do you buy a few players and end up with Carra back at No2, or buy a really good CB as starter, who will likely cost more. In which case, it all seems a bit odd. Will wait and see obviously, but I never see the logic in selling 1 superb player to buy 2 or more alright ones, not if you want to build a team capable of winning.

Then what?