Darth Catbeard The Old

How do we know we don''t already have similar players at the club? This aspect of a players personal life is completely irrelevant.Besides I''d guess single footballs aren''t going to go wanting when it comes to ladies. I know if i was in their position I''d take full advantage of my eligibility. Besides ''womanizing'' doesn''t make someone a bad person, as long as it''s all consensual then good luck to the guy. I haven''t seen any reports of him rubbing his team mates up the wrong way which is the only thing I''d be concerned about. If he pi55es the opposition off then great, we had a player like that in Holt and we loved it! Also with the training thing, Holt was the same, poor in training then played his heart out on the pitch. People need to get off this guys back, it''s not like he''s anywhere near the same league as real scumbags like Marlon King or *something* Hughes (The drink driver)

I''d be sad to see him go but 8 million would be an excellent deal for us, two and a half times what we paid and we''re fairly strong in this position anyway. 8 Million buys a lot of quality in the Championship and we need center and attacking midfielders far more urgently than we need another winger

To be fair we have our own own equivalent here, Great Yarmouth. Both are bleak, depressing horrible places to live with very few prospects or quality of life for most of the residents that leave a massive blemish on two otherwise very nice counties! It was on one of these programs last weeks as well I think, I couldn''t bare to watch it though, I just find it depressing .

I personally expect Auto Promotion. We currently have a Premiership quality team and all we''ve done since last season is shed the massive incompetent weight grinding them down (The management team) that forced them into a rigid, slow paced, one dimensional static 6-2-1-0-1 formation and added a proven 20+ goal a season striker at this level. I think it will mirror our league 1 campaign, a slow start but once we adjust and find the right team balance we will rocket up the league. But I said I expect that from my assessment of the squad, I don''t demand it. Top 6 without promotion would be okay, top 8 maybe if we look very good while achieving it and show signs of improvement over the season. Below top 8 would be a failure equivalent to last seasons.

[quote user="City1st"][quote user="Darth Catbeard The Old"]I''m happy with this signing. We badly needed a target man and should chip in with 10 or so goals. I do hope we haven''t paid over a million though, at least up front. I also agree with others who have said it appears Adams is being backed to build a team in his style. Grabban and Lafferty are very Lambert like signings Btw Becchio is not a target man! He rarely wins anything in the air, doesn''t link up well and isn''t very strong at all! He''s a poacher just like RVW and Hooper, he''s just taller.[/quote]we have signed himwell fair play to you for knowing about this before others [/quote] I''m a psychic you see. We sign him tomorrow, swap deal with Mark Bunn and Steve Morison going the other way +30k in cross accuracy related bonuses

I''m happy with this signing. We badly needed a target man and should chip in with 10 or so goals. I do hope we haven''t paid over a million though, at least up front. I also agree with others who have said it appears Adams is being backed to build a team in his style. Grabban and Lafferty are very Lambert like signings Btw Becchio is not a target man! He rarely wins anything in the air, doesn''t link up well and isn''t very strong at all! He''s a poacher just like RVW and Hooper, he''s just taller.

He''s worth far more to us than that! He was basically played as a wingback for the past two seasons, he rarely received the ball after the half way line during our counter attacks. And due to our stupidly rigid, cautious system he only ever had static team mates to aim for in zonal positions that were incredibly easy to defend against and cut out his passes. Played as a proper right winger with less defensive responsibility, against poorer defenders in this league in a team with a lot more movement off the ball to create space for him and give him options he will be absolutely lethal. He isn''t worth it in reality, but it would be madness to sell for under 8 Million. Rhodes and McCormack aren''t worth their asking price either, it just puts clubs off. DO NOT SELL!

I was extremely pi55ed off at the time because it was so easily avoidable. The board became arrogant and complacent and our manager was sending us down the pan because he was more interested in proving his ultra cautious ''less attack, more success'' methodology was the correct tactic for staying in the league than installing a new, desperately needed way of playing. Hull or Man City, we play the same way, sod if it gets us relegated, I still get my pay off, this is my approach and I will arrogantly stick to it. Either that or he was genuinely incredibly stupid and actually thought his tactics were working...which I find hard to believe. The loss to Fulham at home in December, every single other club in the league would have got rid of Hughton after that game and rightly so, if Adams is good enough to take over the team now he was good enough then. Anyway, after the fixtures came out I''ve started to get really excited, there''s some mouth watering fixtures in this league and with every game except Fulham away we stand a pretty good chance of winning. I''d much rather see a thrilling, relatively even sided blood and thunder clash against the likes of Ipswich, Leeds, Wolves, Derby or Forest than watching a backs to the wall borefest against Chelsea or Arsenal, I pay to see us play, I couldn''t care less about how famous the opposition are! We have on paper anyway, currently the best team in the league. An International quality goal keeper, 3 proven 20+ goal a year strikers and some real quality like Redmond, Snodgrass, Fer and Ollson etc. Barring a disastrous summer or our management team proving themselves inadequate we should be in for a fun season!

Brilliant news as it''s my birthday....don''t ruin it city!

This guy isn''t Mcdermott''s replacement as he isn''t going to be their manager. He''s just going to be the head coach, he''ll look after training and be the media figurehead and that''s basically it. Their new mad owner with his unfathomably massive ego will be picking the team, tactics and signing players, which if I was a Leeds fan would scare me far more than the thought of Hockaday as manager! Things like this are why I''m so glad we have the owners we do, yeah we''ll never break into the top 8 in the Premiership but at least this club still feels like it''s ours, it''s run properly and when the financial bubble eventually bursts we''ll be one of the best poised clubs in the country to take advantage!

I really do feel sorry for them. I don''t mind them as a club and they like us have achieved success in recent times without selling their soul to become some foreign suggardaddy''s plaything. Reading the comments from Sheffield Wednesday and Preston fans it sounds like they''re describing an even more negative, dour, personality devoid Hughton but without any kind of record at all at his first two clubs :P In and around the relegation places playing shockingly poor, ineffective football, we suffered it last year and it was horrible, I''d much rather be us than them right now! We''ve ripped the band aid off at least!

Well that''s disappointing :P Not only is he a great player at this level it would p1ss so many Leeds fans off. WACCOE becomes hysterical every time we sign one of their players but aside from McCormack I wouldn''t want any of their other players. We have to sign our obligatory Leeds player this window so I hope we''re one of the other clubs bidding this weekend!

Woohoo it should be us! http://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/Derby-County-5m-bid-Leeds-United-star/story-21232275-detail/story.html A front two of Grabban and McCormack backed by even just an average Championship team without players like Snodgrass, Ollson, Howson, Bennet, Redmond etc should see us top 6 minimum! Please let this come off!

From what I''ve seen I''d agree Grabban has the pace, he''s also got a decent long range shot so should trouble the slower defenders and in attempting to close down his shooting it should create gaps for our other strikers to exploit. McCormack is much more technically gifted, he can go round players, is a great passer, makes intelligent runs and obviously is a great finisher, with a complete player like this as an option up top it should negate the need for a ''number 10'' and allow us to play 442 We''d lack physicality and strength from these two for sure, but I reckon they''d compliment each other well. This doesn''t seem like we''re just signing the highest scorers for the sake of it. It shoudld work much better than the two off the shoulder poachers we tried to play together last season

I''d bet we''ll be addressing those problems in training, I''m sure Adams will be able to coach these players to attack in a more effective, fast, pass and move kind of way. I''m sure the real problems you allude to will be addressed If we are in for McCormack then alongside Grabban it seems that Adams prefers strikers who can also play, create their own chances and offer a lot more for the team which will improve out attack no end by itself. Nobody but Hughton knows why he favoured poachers with pretty much nothing to their game on the ball but whatever... I''m just glad we''re shaking this part of the team up.

The fans I''ve spoke to on the whole are very positive at the moment. With Adams, the team and especially Grabban. Your view must be distorted by all the obvious scummers invading this board at the moment or our own versions of Ipswich crazy who probably couldn''t tell you what shape a football is. I''ve only started supporting since the Worthington days but I''ve always know fans to be optimistic and positive following a new managerial appointment. Hughton was regularly applauded when he came out for the friendlies and got a rapturous reception when he walked across Craven Cottage in his first game, even after just a few results I recall plenty of ''There''s only one Chris Hughton''s He had the fans fervently behind him from the start because we desperately wanted to believe we''d be better without Lambert. You seem to believe we''ve had it in for him from the start due to us all having a chasm of self destructive negativity simmering below the surface, or because he just wasn''t Lambert but that just isn''t true! He lost the fans with average-poor results by playing the worst football I''ve ever seen any team play, stop trying to convince us it was anything else! Fans negativity didn''t send us down, it was completely the wrong manager for us, out of his depth strangling the life out of an admittedly mentally fragile squad. Basically it wasn''t a spoilt strop, it was justified calling for the removal of a man who was only sending us one way that 99% of the fans could see. I don''t get what you mean about an undercurrent of negativity. If Adams plays at least a semi decent form of football and at least keeps us within touching distance of the play offs fans will stick with him, if he were to play dire soul destroying ineffective Hughtonball and we slip into mid table fans will understandably get negative (as fans of all teams would) and would turn on him

Reckon Cureton will go to another L2 or conference side and bang in another 15-20 goals Fortheringham however might have to wait a while for the call from Bayern he''ll be expecting Also if he could manage more than a third of a season I''d take Whitbread back!

McCormack would be amazing and is by far the most complete player on that list. I would be blown away if we managed to lure him here. Also WACCOE would become the most entertaining site on the internet again for a few days! They''ve been chasing Hooper for years, maybe a swap+ a few million from us? :)

We have the best team in the league at the moment. 3 proven 20+ goal a year strikers at this level and some outstanding internationals like Ollson, Ruddy and Snodgrass. It would be pretty poor if we''re outside the top 6 after Christmas. That being said even Hughton got a season and a bit from me despite employing the worst football I''ve ever seen any team play so I won''t be personally calling for his head if he doesn''t get it right this year.

The jealousy! I remember reading one of them say ''form is temporary CLASS is permanent'' on our rise up the leagues.... Class? Ipswich? Really? I''m sure St.John''s ambulance service etc are in awe of their sheer class. Their fickle ever dwindling fan base sure is classy, their criminal players are also classy as hell. Their err ''town'' sure does reek of class (or at least something) I''d be so depressed having to support that club. I''d have probably defected after they cheated all those businesses. How in the hell can any of them call us scum and really believe it? We''re the scum!? xD Must be a lot of double digit IQ''s on there

[quote user="Cheap Cheap Canaries"][quote user="Darth Catbeard The Old"]Meh... Decent coup for them I suppose but who''s to say that just because he kept a big rich club used to finishing top 4 in the top 4 he could get a upper mid table 2nd tier team to improve dramatically. Our squad is infinitely better than Brightons and our management team is more than capable of getting the best from them. They should be pretty chuffed, sure. But we have nothing to be jealous about, we''ll finish 20 points better off from them at least, comfortably.[/quote]Oh dear , we will walk the league type nonsense , when will people learn its never that easy . Last time we came down we had the likes of Huckerby and Ashton and still failed miserably . If our squad perform anywhere near like they did last year we wont make the top half .[/quote] We were grossly mis-managed by Hughton and this team should have never been near the bottom 3 last year. This is much more like Newcastles relegation than our one 10 years ago. This team is completely different to the one that went down then. We had 2 good players and the rest we''re second tier level at best, we had no clue how to defend either and the squad was threadbare. At least to their credit up until the last game they were performing well above their level. This team has never really reached the heights it was capable of under Hughton. We also came down with nowhere near as much money as we will this time, we don''t have any mad owners driving us into debt and c0cking things up like at Blackburn/Birmingham etc either. I''m very, very confident we''ll finish top 2 at least, we might not, we could struggle somehow, but your either cynical or blue tinted opinion on our chances next year are no better informed or valid than mine

He''s on a long contract and isn''t an egotistical sulker so we can afford to hold out right to the wire for a 6m+ offer, even then we wouldn''t need to sell. He''s one of our best players but left back isn''t a massively important position and Garrido will be pretty good at this level. I still think we''re weakest in center midfield and the money could be put to good use there.

Meh... Decent coup for them I suppose but who''s to say that just because he kept a big rich club used to finishing top 4 in the top 4 he could get a upper mid table 2nd tier team to improve dramatically. Our squad is infinitely better than Brightons and our management team is more than capable of getting the best from them. They should be pretty chuffed, sure. But we have nothing to be jealous about, we''ll finish 20 points better off from them at least, comfortably.

He had a 50% win ratio at his first job in management. That is very, very impressive for a guy who will now just be a coach for us. I was laughing my arse off at the negativity on here when he was named, absolute clueless morons. I''m glad to have him back, it''s a coup for us!

Spelt his name wrong ffs xD *Grabban