Stefano

Who you are again?

Do you even know what you're laughing at? Get back to worrying about next summer's refinance.

Nah. Apparently we've paid the 3 million clause in his contract and it's a done deal.

Slow yard dog. But at least we've signed someone...

Haha, no, obviously. I said the bit about the owners was b******s, and oh look...

Who is having a hissy fit? You on your period again? I've just noticed the same lad on RAWK is now saying the Greek media are reporting that Ian Cotton has told them the player is now close to signing. All that drama for nothing.

The deal could have been pulled for a number of reasons, and it's highly unlikely we'd tell the buying club it was because the owners refused to sanction it. The media make s**** up all the time, Greek or otherwise.

What's the point? If there's no money there's no money. There's also no perfect owers out there waiting to swoop in. It's a s*** situation, but then I thought we were in trouble last summer yet we came close to winning the title for the first time in years.

And? So the club we're negotiating with got a message from the owners to say they're not sanctioning the deal for 3 million for some no mark defender, while Rafa has reiterated today that he's still searching for players.

So we keep hearing. Depends whether you believe everything you read, or maybe the players just aren't available at the right price. Regardless, we're all well aware of financial woes, but the reality is the owners are going nowhere, yet the press, maybe briefed by Rafa to put the pressure on, continue to get mileage out of it. Where's the relentless articles about Arsenals debt/transfer spend ratio this summer, or the mancs barely spending any of that 80 million the Glazers probably banked to pay off their mountainous interest, which might not be the case but when did they ever let the truth get in the way of a good story.

The rumour of our interest might be true, certainly. How exactly would the greek media know what our owners plans are, unless they just read the UK media and decided to make up a load of sensationlist b******s. Is it any wonder the media continue to get bait us relentlessly when our fans lap it all up.

Sounds like more scaremongering bollocs. Why would they allow him to negotiate any deals in the first place. Rafa has already said his scouts are looking for the right players, which doesn't really tie in with big dramatic anouncments from the owners refusing to sanction any deals, but there you go.

Money is a source of concern for everyone. Why are normal football issues like this turned into such dramatic stories for us, yet seemingly everyone else just gets on with it with the minimum of fuss. So we don't have much money left but need a CB, it doesn't exactly mean that Rafa is ready to jump off a bridge. Maybe his scouts will unearth another gem, that's what they're paid to do at least.

So why doesn't he just go then and get it over with once and for all? If we're to believe all the crap that gets spouted about us, he hates the owners and has been unhappy for a long time. Just get on with it.

So Rafa is being refused funds yet he personally doesn't want to gamble 6 million on Shawcross? It's all b******s, the lot of it. The press are a joke these days, mainly thanks to the internet and the lust for 24/7 hysteria.

It's ridiculous that the CB's are copping most of the blame for what was a dreadful performance all round. You'd think Jamie had just launched it forward all game. While they did panic a few times after being put under some strong pressure as the first half wore on, I saw both of them bringing the ball out on many occasions and either through Spurs closing down space or our statuesque movment, the only option was to look long to Torres.

Once the perfect owner is out there willing to spend all his own money and give us our short term fix.

Koptalk sources = some fat pie eating crook in his mums shed ripping off gullable fans with blatant lies.

Rafa back to his cryptic best in his PC. I can't wait until this silly transfer windown slams shut and we can concetrate on the footy. The media driven hysteria is ridiculous. Look at Arsenal, written off by all and sundry after only buying a centre back, they get a great result on the opening day and suddenly they're everyone's dark horse to win the league, while we are supposedly in chaos and will struggle to get top 4 after one poor performance despite being a lot of people's favourites to win the title beforehand.

Sick of Hertha pleading poverty. He scored plenty of goals for them last season, pay the paltry fee cheapskates.

Maybe he'll tell us at the PC on Thursday.

It's obvious we need more strength in depth, everyone does, but we had 3 main players out injured, included a 20 million CM. I fear 'the bench' is becoming the new buzz phrase to justify poor performances and results until we get into the swing of things. I was curious and had a look at the subs bench for the rest of the top 4 at the weekend and they're not as strong as you'd think.

Which has been pretty much the same every summer and always will be. The fact of the matter is a convincing win on Saturday would have diminished a lot of those concerns and the media would have changed tack.

I never believed that when I first heard it and I still don't. We paid 17 million for him.

It isn't? So if we'd won convincingly against Spurs do you think we'd be seeing all these stories about no funds? Football and the media are driven by results, and unfortunately Rafa knows how to play the game very well. I thought we might see the end of this very tedious and public haggling once he got control but obviously not.