Spot on. Was going to use the Fergie analogy.

He said Rooney was from a poor family. Was similarly uncomplimentary about Ferdinand and insinuated that SWP wasn't worth the money. And has betrayed Owen's confidence. And Beckham's by claiming he would follow him to Aston Villa. It's hardly likely to have the players busting a gut for him, is it? Even if he was staying.

But Sven has a squad of players most of his predecessors could only have dreamed about.

Allardyce, Pearce, Curbishley to name but three instantly off the top of my head. I'm equally sick of people who think opposition to Sven is solely on the basis of his non Englishness. Most people would naturally prefer an English person in charge but that's generally as far as it goes. He could be from anywhere if he led us to any success. Under Sven we manage to get past lesser teams, but usually fail to perform when presented with a more serious test.

So he ought to be as well with the players at his disposal. I suspect that is a somewhat misleading misleading statistic based on the greater number of qualifying games and friendles played against "lesser" sides than in years gone by.

Thanks jim, first with the news as always. Now confirmed on the BBC. It would be better for the team if SGE went now. Are the players likely to be particularly motivated or inspired by someone they know is leaving in a week or two anyway? Especially after spilling his views on certain players to the NOTW. Aside from the fact he isn't English how can SGE possily now be as bothered about the outcome as he otherwise would have been?. 3.5m GRRRR.............. that grates. Why should he get anything? He's brought the situation entirely up onto himself by his own (Mis)behaviour/greed.

Not a bad shout but then if you dip your hand in the barrel of apples often enough you're bound to get a few good ones on the law of averages!. For the players you've mentioned above you've also got a succession of acquisitions ranging from the downright disastrous - Grabbi, Amoruso, De Pedro to players who haven't been a success Ferguson Emerton Yorke, Sukur, Yordi, Gresko, Matteo, Johansson to players who never figured Mahon, Yeldell, Greer and a player who turned out to have a serious medical condition - Thompson At Newcastle few people would deny that Parker and Owen are good signings, (albeit players anyone would sign if they had the funding) but against that you've got Boumsong and Luque for 18m. Hardly inspired management in either case.

I hope you're correct with that reading of the situation philip, IF (and it's a massive "if") you were, no-one could have any complaints.

Having sealed Souness's death warrant yesterday, as long as we didn't go down I would ALMOST be a happy man if we only won two more games this season, against the red scum on Wednesday - and the final. Almost. We need as much place money as possible.

If we move up from 8th to 6th this season then the potential upside is fairly limited, around 1m plus any small increase in attendances. Conversely if our lack of firepower (that was even before Dickov's injury) causes us to drop back to say 12th, then the potential loss of revenue for this season alone is 3m. I wouldn't say that was "minimal" by any stretch of the imagination. Certainly not in comparison to the degree of risk involved.

Spot on. Whilst the prize money remains available in it's current format we have to do our best to pursue as much TV and place money as possible imo. We don't have the opportunity to access that kind of money from any other source.

A very convoluted conclusion you've managed to reach there philip. Hughes is saying "Back me" full stop IMO. Not necessarily this summer but at any point should the right players become available. Re: the rolling contract, am I correct in thinking that this means neither he nor the club are under any compulsion to renew this summer or any other summer?. I don't see how you can disagree with the fact that Hughes hasn't been given a penny to spend on players in net terms during his reign. Everything he's spent he's had to recoup in sales. I appreciate there's room for a variety of opinion as to whether that is reasonable or indeed the correct strategy in our current circumstances.

That's not what you said originally Exiled, you said the money afforded RECENTLY was absurd. I would agree the funding afforded to Souness initially was absurdly generous. By way of contrast, net funding available to Hughes has been non existent. Whilst the financial support offered to the Club by Jack Walker and latterly the Trustees has always been and continues to be extremely generous there must surely be a middle ground which will enable us to fulfill our enormous potential under Hughes.

This quote from Hughes sums up our situation perfectly. "The Club will have to decide how far they want to go. Chase the best or stay where we are" Of course the cynical might say that this translates into a choice between our Executive directors continuing to sit in the comfort zone drawing huge salaries or actually going the extra mile and managing to extract extra investment in the team from either the Trustees or from outside sources. Of course I couldn't possibly say that.

Brum seem as though they may have turned the corner. (As they should with their squad.) 'arry continues to flatter to deceive as a manager. Boro have got relegation written all over them. (Which will be good if it keeps McClaren away from the England job)

I'm sorry that's absolute rollocks. Hughes' net spending since taking over is a meagre 995k. That's not taking into account the sell on money received for Beattie which I'm sure accounted for that. Prior to that a reasonable chunk of the Dunn/Duff money was witheld. This topic is not so important as to deserve it's own thread, it deserves it's own forum! We have an absolutely outstanding young manager (and backroom staff) who have turned us from relegation certs to a top 8 outfit without spending a bean! He is alo out of contract in the summer. It doesn't need a rocket scientist to put 2 and 2 together and predict what will happen if the Board and Trustees don't give him a bit more support.

Fortunate result given the balance of play in the second half. Then the goal. Bounced off Kuqi's shoulder and guided in by the "Hand of Pedersen." Oh dear ,looks like Souness has been "mugged by lady luck again" "Dole queue on Monday, you're in the dole queue on Monday"

Our group bought 9 today. Guy at the ticket office said we'd sold about 3,000. Should be a decent following by the time the match comes round. Of course it's an absolute DISGRACE we didn't shift 9,000 within an hour of them going on sale.

I would make the same point in reverse and say Gray is the clear pick as player of the season thus far. Although MGP will probably get the "glamour" voteand the award.

How many's that for the season?

Very unfair on Gray there IMO Blue blood, I'd say Neill isn't in the same class as the other 3 defenders, albeit he's been much improved this season. On his current form the only thing wrong with Gray is that he isn't 5 years younger.

I thought it was the same for both legs but may be wrong.

I can't really see the problem. If this lad does move to the Arse for 12m it represents an exceptional piece for Southampton, after all he may not even make it at the top level. It may well represent an exceptional piece of business for Arsenal if he turns out to be another Rooney or Henry. Southampton are under no obligation whatsever to sell. And if the lad has any sense he'll learn his trade where he is for a couple of seasons. Although I l'd wager for 12m Rupert already has the car engine revving up. And any attempts to compare our situation with Southampton are well wide of the mark. We are a reasonably well established Premiership Club. There are only 3 or 4 domestic clubs that represent any significant advancement career wise. A move to ANY Premiership side would be a big move financially for Walcott.

Actually I think if they had to pull such an unpleasant scam, the NOTW missed a trick here. This rather ridiculous episode showed not for the first time that when extra money might be on the line, Sven's better judgement flies completely out of the window. It would have been far more interesting if they'd offered to double his salary BEFORE the world cup and see what his reaction was. Of course the only thing that really matters is - "Is he the man who will lead us to World Cup glory?" I imagine most people's answer to that is a resounding "NO" I think we've got an exceptional squad of players who just need motivating properly. Sven's not the answer in that respect. We'd be far better served putting Stuart Pearce in charge IMO.

For 7m someone can have one leg. Trying him at centre forward isn't the worst suggestion I've heard though. I was stood next to him recently at one of the xmas dos and he's surprisingly tall (must be at least 6 foot) compared to how big he actually looks on the pitch. Very slender though.