Oswald Cobblepot

It''s starting to sound better and better isn''t it? Still not taking anything for granted, but it looks as though all the worrying and panic may have been for nothing. Just hope the GH saga can be resolved if not already to put an end to all the speculation. Looking forward to seeing what gems he and Cully can come up with over the next 3 months.

Jas, what the hell''s that all about?? Something wrong with what I said is there? Feel free to enlighten me if you so wish to do so.

Well that still leaves us none the wiser as to whether he''ll still be here for next season. Thought that was a bit ambiguous myself. If there''s one thing that might just convince him to stay though, it''s us fans!

Ah apologies . . . Hadn''t seen it already mentioned in the sub forum thread. My bad!

Just seen a news flash on SSN of a new Paul Lambert interview coming up shortly . . . . Stay tuned in!

Yes Ricardo, fair comments. Of course we can all assume those things on our own, but what I''m trying to emphasise is the detrimental effect that all this is currently having on the club and the harmony in the changing room. It''s already come to the fore with GH''s transfer request, and from what I''ve heard he won''t be the last to be disgruntled by the way things are being handled at the moment. Something that could prove very damaging to the club if a solution isn''t found to resolve the issue. Oh and one thing I forgot to mention about my chat with the now obvious source is closure to the ridiculous Grant Holt black eye rumours that have been doing the rounds. . . When I mentioned to him the rumours of the bust up between PL and GH that were doing the rounds a few days ago, he almost fell off his chair with laughter. His response was, and I quote "Wow, your fans really do have imagination. It''s absolute rubbish. I''ve never known anything like them. Steve never mentioned it, and if it had happened, I''m sure I would''ve heard about it!"

Aggy - Not sure what you''re trying to get at here. Read my reply to you above re: your previous comments. I''m not doubting the fact that you may or may not have a source at the club. If you read my original post I never said Lambert is definitely on his way. I don''t know this as much as my source doesn''t know. I said that none of the players seem to know what''s happening with him at the moment, or certainly didn''t at the point I spoke to my man. We don''t know what Lambert will do . . . I only pray that the board do enough to convince him to stay if he is contemplating leaving the club.

Tilly - Not sure what you mean about the post contradicting itself? in what way? Yellow Lorry - Thanks for actually noticing/remembering that. Certain people clearly only like to pick holes rather than take what they''re being told at face value. I only post on this forum when I actually have something to contribute . . . apart from that I just tend to read the rest of the stuff that gets posted.

Sorry, forgot to add ''apart from you Tim, the only other person I''ve seen with their actual name?? as username." There, I''ll change it back just to keep you happy!

Tim, you can dig up the old posts as much as you like, it isn''t going to change anything. Yes I made the post at that time because at that point there was no indication of a transfer to NCFC. I hold my hands up to the fact that it later transpired that we did go in for him and he subsequently signed. My change of name is nothing to do with covering anything up. I''ll quite happily change it back if it bugs you that much . . . I just felt like changing it as I don''t see anyone else on here with their actual name as their username, so why should I?? Anyway to the point in hand, if you don''t believe me, like I said it''s fine and I don''t care whether you do or not. This is genuine as far as I''m aware. Re: Aggy''s reply, I only spoke to him a couple of days ago when I saw him at work (We work different shifts/teams) which happened to be 2 or so days after the GH news came out. I''d been debating the last couple of days whether to even bother putting it up on here for the inevitable stick people get for this sort of thing, but I thought it much more worthwhile to share the little insight I actually have. I have no idea what the other issues mentioned by the agent are, and neither does the person who told me. I''m not going to lie about that, if I knew then I''d say so.

Ok, now Iet''s get one thing straight. What I''m about to say is information that I''ve been given by my one and only source to the club. I''m not gonna bother naming who that person is. If you''ve read my previous posts then you''ll know who i''m referring to. Likewise, I''m not one for rumour-mongering so I wouldn''t have posted this up if I didn''t believe he actually genuinely knew something. I''ve been made aware that there is currently a lot of discontent at the club. The major reasons for this are firstly that there are still question marks over whether Lambert will stay or not, which has unsettled some of the players as it''s more than likely that Culverhouse and Karsa will go with him if he does leave. Lambert has been very tight-lipped to everyone, even his playing and coaching staff with regards to what''s going on, and the players don''t seem to know what''s happening. Villa are definitely after him, and one of the main reasons that Lambert may well decide to move on is that the Club are playing hardball with regards to funds for next season. Apparently they''re not giving him as much as he''d like and if he''s not backed, be sure that he will be off. Secondly, a fair few of the players themselves are unhappy with the club''s contract dealings. All the squad are effectively still on Championship wages (even allowing for percentage increases for promotion) and there are a few of them wanting an increase. When you''re only on 10k a week in the Prem and playing week in, week out, comparing that to a bench-warmer on 25-30k+ at a comparable team you are bound to be disappointed. The problem here is that McNally and co are being stubborn and are point blank refusing to budge with any players that still have at least a year to run on their contract. We''ve already seen the first backlash with Holty, and it looks like there could be more such reactions to follow unless the Club start loosening the purse strings. Even those out of contract aren''t getting offered better terms which makes sense otherwise there really will be a backlash from the contracted players, hence Whitbread leaving on a free. Now if you don''t want to believe any of this, be my guest. I appreciate some of it may seem a little vague but I''m just letting you know what I''ve been told by a truly reliable source. You can draw your own conclusions, but do me a favour, leave out all the "Oh he''s just making s**t up, just another attention seeker" comments as I''m not interested. From the sound of things, there''s a few issues bubbling up underneath the surface as a result of the club''s hard-nosed stance. I appreciate they are trying to ensure the future of the club is secure and can be built upon, but I just hope it doesn''t backfire horribly and cause complete disharmony within the coaching/playing staff. We''ve had an amazing 3 years and come so far . . . let''s not waste that.

Was gutted that day . . . He was my favourite player and the best I''d seen play at Carrow Road up until then (Including Huckerby) Even more gutted how his career got wrecked though. Hope your little one is yellow and green through and through!!

Well . . . As much as I know Morison has settled well and is happy here, if Spurs do come in with an offer, he will definitely go without hesitating. Morison started off in their academy and was rejected at a young age by them, so in his mind he has unfinished business and a point to prove there. This is what I was told by his dad, whom I work with in North London. Just hope Lambert and the board have the bottle to reject any possible advances or hold out for a nice figure . . . no less than £8 mil I say.

Agreed, an unofficial Pro Evo 12 sleeve cover would be ace.

Hi, Long shot I know, but I''m looking for 2 tickets for Chelsea tomorrow if anyone has any going spare? Last minute change at work means I now have the day off work. I know one or 2 people have posted for individual tickets, but I''d be taking my girlfriend thus need two tickets seated together. If anyone has or knows someone that has etc, please drop me a pm or give me a buzz on 07876295296. Thanks.

Yup, he was kidnapped about 12 years ago whilst he was at CSKA Sofia. He was grabbed after training by three henchmen of gangster Georgi Iliev, who wanted a young Berbatov to sign for his club, Levski Kjustendil. Must''ve been a terrifying experience. Best wishes to John Obi Mikel, his father and the family.

De Laet goal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gkxgl9-ps44 Equaliser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yc4SFIfx4P0&feature=related Not sure if anyone has already posted these, apologies if they have. Now I''m not one for criticising him, and in fact I''ve been backing him to do well as our number 1, but looking at the equaliser, I''d have to say Ruddy looked at fault, not convincing in coming off his line to punch the ball away and pretty much missed it. Hope we don''t see too much of that this season!! Apart from that, can''t say too much as I wasn''t there last night so can only go by the report and comments on the other threads.

Lovely . . . that''s all I needed to hear. Thank you muchly! :-)

Hi all, just a quick question . . . I live in London and I''ve had a last minute change in my shift at work, meaning that I can go to the game at Selhurst Park tonight. It''ll be the first game I''ve been able to attend in quite a while so I''m happy!! Does anyone know whether I''ll be able to buy tickets for the away end directly at the ground? Or will i have to make do with sitting with home fans etc?? Not sure how it works for friendly games. It was too short notice for me to buy them and have delivered to me by NCFC. Any useful info would be greatly received. Might try give the club a call but with Wigan tickets on general sale, think I''ll struggle getting through. Cheers!

In fact, scrap that last post, a little bit of quick research shows that they haven''t yet signed Stockdale from Fulham, and by all accounts he may be on his way to 1p5wich on loan, therefore they would be in the market. Meanwhile, QPR have Radek Cerny on their books as back up/competition??? Speaking of QPR, looks like PSG have put in a bid of over £8mil for him according to SSN. Losing your best players and signing next to no one . . . good way to prepare for the Prem!! Good news for us I guess. :-)

Actually, thinking about it, I can''t see why Swansea would be in for him. From what I can see, they have signed two new keepers following the departure of De Vries, so doesn''t seem like they need another. Even so, would Hahnemann want to go to a club where he could be 3rd choice with virtually not even a sniff of first team action? QPR have Kenny, but could well be looking for competition for him, and we all know what our situation is. So if there''s any truth in this story at all, I think it''ll be more likely that it''s between us and QPR, rather than the Swans.

Ahhhh just seen this on the transfer talk section. My sincerest apologies before the forum Police jump on me!!

http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/transfer-news/Norwich-Swansea-QPR-all-keen-sign-keeper-Marcus-Hahnemann-on-Bosman-after-Wolves-exit-article774000.html According to the Mirror . . . although we know how dodgy it can be for stirring up nothing stories, this could have some legs in it?? Not much info on the article I''m afraid. Maybe all those fervently arguing the case for the need for experienced back up might yet get their wish. Thoughts?? Sorry if this has already been posted, haven''t seen it anywhere on here!! Me personally, I''m not fussed either way, the experience and extra back up would be good given our inexperienced young keepers, and could mean Rudd and Steer get to go out on loan for 3 month stints each over the course of the season . . . But likewise if we go with what we have already, I have faith that Rudd could do a good job for us if required.

I agree with the OP . . . At the end of the day we''ll find out come 31st August whether Lambert is happy to put his faith in what we have or whether he feels we need experienced back up/competition. I personally don''t see a problem with Rudd as number 2. There''s only one way of finding out if he can hack it or not. One case sample from recent seasons would be that of Kasper Schmeichel coming in for Man City for a few games during their injury crisis before he got loaned out (2/3 seasons ago??). Certainly didn''t disgrace himself did he . . . and I wouldn''t say he''s any better or worse than what Rudd has shown thus far.

[quote user="Cantiaci Canary"]I really don''t think Roger Johnson was a possibility. Wolves have had back to back Premiership campaigns and he already lives in the area. [/quote] Yeah maybe you''re right, and maybe it wouldn''t have been easy for the afforementioned reasons . . . however worth a shot surely?? If you don''t ask, you don''t get!!