calscot

Gribz, he DID get a fair chance, he was given a load of reserve games and looked absolute pants. I think it's pretty dumb to think that a guy who can't do it in training or for the reserves just needs a run in the first team. That just makes no sense. Does anyone do that with any Football Manager game? Do you pick a crap player and give him a run just to give him a chance? I don't think many people who are good at the game actually do that. When something looks like a donkey and acts like a donkey then it probably is a donkey. The fact he's still without a club speaks volumes.

The way the team is playing we could rest them all and it couldn't get much worse, in fact we might do better with some of the reserves or U19's...

Let me ask you, if your pipes were leaking as much as we're leaking goals would you tell the wife, "I'd get a plumber in but they are too expensive in the winter, let's wait till the summer when they are cheaper"? Or would you go out and pay top dollar for someone to fix your pipes before extensive damage is done?

My numbers are total speculation, I don't know how much we got, but I do know we have something which means we WILL spend. It has been mentioned by DM and PLG many times that the manager did not spend all the money available to him. Reading between the lines, I don't think they would have said that unless the balance was significant - I interpret this as at least 1M. He spent about 3M net in the summer so that makes his original budget at least 4M. However that sounds pretty low to attract a new manager and I think 5M would be more believable, especially after the JJB deal. In fact I wouldn't be surprised that if the transfer budget was directly paid for by ring-fencing the JJB money for the duration of the contract. Plus any fees for players sold. I would also expect him to have been told that he would get more in January depending on transfer fees coming in and how we did in Europe. We have 1M for Ricksen to add to the kitty and as we've qualified for the next round I suspect that could bring in at least 1M more - maybe 2M. That to me gives a minimum of 4M in the kitty without being too optimistic and perhaps 5M - but it IS speculation, and I'm pretty sure he won't spend it all, preferring to add it to the postulated 4M from JJB in the summer - plus whatever else we earn from the second half of the UEFA cup.

I'm sorry but this is just total bollocks. How come we spent 3M in the summer then? We WILL spend, it's just the amount that is in question. I'm pretty confident we'll have about 4M in the kitty, but that's not actually that much and Le Guen is conscious of not squandering it (despite his spending record so far). He doesn't want to spend just for the sake of it because once it's gone, it's gone... He's underplaying the whole thing so we don't get overexited and then annoyed if he can't find the right player and so doesn't spend. I think that's fair enough. However, I am very confident that we'll bring in at least one player in January, most likely to be a centre back.

He was complete pants in his reserve games and that's why he "didn't get a chance". Sometimes the manager DOES know best.

I think he's good enough for a place in the team and what he's not good at can be coached by le Guen. We need to find him a partner and change the formation slightly to 4-3-1-2.

I agree with Ian, give him a run in the reserves, that's what they are for -although we seem to be using it as the U19 team instead...

I think that Sebo might have blown it. It's easy to say "give players time" but when they don't show you any improvement or any spark at all, how long are you supposed to wait? Sometimes I prefer the Graeme Souness method of shipping the duds out quickly and replacing them with better players... Personally I can't see Sebo ever doing well for us, it's early I know but I said the same about Jeffers and was proven right about him. In fact I would even say Jeffers looked a better player than Sebo... I can't believe we keep players like that that and throw away much better prospects like Amato, Miller, Guivarche and Johanson without giving them a proper chance.

I personally beleive PLG had 5M to spend when he came and he was very wary of squandering all of it and so only spent 3M net on bargain players for which he had Bain squeeze every deal for what it was worth. I think we will get another £1 in total for Ricksen to add to that, plus another 2M for the UEFA run so far, giving PLG 5M in the kitty. However, I think he wants to keep most of that for the summer when another 4M or so from JJB is added to it and perhaps a couple more million if we get to the UEFA semis. So I predict he'll bring in about 2 players in January, 3 on the outside, for a net spend of £2M and 2 or maybe 3 quality players in the summer for about 6M and few cheapies and Bosmans for the remaining 1M. I will be very surprised if he doesn't get a centre half in January while allowing J-Rod to leave for free. I wouldn't be surprised if we sold Buffel for £1M too and let Rae go. By late summer I expect the following to have left: Klos Letizi Bardsley J-Rod Rae N'Daiye Martin Buffel Prso Which means we'll need 2 strikers, a left midfielder, a central midfielder, a centre back or two and a right back, and maybe a goalie, all for 120 grand worth of wages and with hopefully about £10M net to spend. Could be a good second season if le Guen can improve his transfer picks.

To be fair to Fanfan, he didn't blow his own trumpet, and seemed to include himself in the group of players not good enough to play beautiful football.

I'm sorry but that really, really sounds like classic jealousy. It's like someone who slags off Ferrari owners, then wins the lottery and buys one...

It's the usual thing, someone in Spain asks him if he ever want's to come back one day, he says yes, and some gutter press journalist puts up a headline that says he's dying to leave.

Fernando's best position depened on which Fernando turned up on the day. Sometimes his best position was right back in the dressing room.

We got £250K for him just for the loan so I presume we got more for a permanent transfer. A balance of 750K to make £1M would seem very plausible.

Loy was signed after Le Guen arrived but I assume it was the youth coaches who did the deal. Looks like a good investment. Lennon plays for the reserves a bit too and looks like a good prospect.

Boyd has been ten times the player of Sebo since his first game for Rangers and he's been scoring for fun since. Nothing to do with the number of games. Sebo has yet to show he's any better than Francis Jeffers or Capucho never mind as good or better than Boyd. I suppose he does have one goal but he's the most ordinary looking player we've signed for decent money for a long time. He may come good, but right now he looks like a bit of a donkey...

100M is just a joke, and if it wasn't for Chelsea's billionaire driven profligacy then I don't think that would even have been quoted. They really have driven the transfer market into the silly zone.

£1M is a pretty good fillip for the transfer kitty in January. I'm well pleased at that.

This is a good point. We keep saying we're crying out for a big striker and with Prso retiring at the end of the season, it could be we are waiting for him to leave before replacing him with someone of the ilk we're looking for. His wage of about 25-30K a week will be freed up and so maybe PLG is saving up his spending money for that time... Maybe that's why he's so coy on spending. Although he does seem to have thrown away almost 2M on someone I don't think will be around for too long. It's amazing that we're complaining about Boyd who cost us 500k when he's ten times the player Sebo is at the moment at four times the price. I think that the one player we will be going for in January will definitely be a centre half and PLG may be tempted to spend what he can on one player, rather than spread that money on a few or spend some of the cash earmarked for a big striker. We seem to be interested in Brown and Thomson but it's difficult to see where they would both fit in the team, unless they replace Ferguson and Clement. When fit and on form, our midfield doesn't seem too bad at the moment, so although those players are excellent, it's difficult to see them as a priority. It would however help us to second place by ripping the heart out of the Hibs team. It's funny though, that they've lost players such as Miller, Caldwell, Riordan, Murray and O'Conner, and they are playing better than they have ever done. But thinking about this, perhaps Le Guen is holding himself back and building up to a proper team to compete in season two. It's just such a shame that his first tranche of players have made so little impact.

He's another player I'd like at Rangers but think he'll go for a higher price than JVOH, so that puts him out the price range of both the Old Firm at the moment.

Mobile's are one of the best inventions and time savers ever but there seems to be some kind of cultish thing to be against them. If you're against them for health risks then fair enough but I've yet to hear many convincing arguments against them if you rule out arguments from people who are just irritated by the use of them. And like any great tool, they can be abused, just like the Internet, another great invention in my eyes.

I think the funny thing is that Boyd played pretty well in my eyes on Sunday. He was in position for a few good chances and converted one, and he also created a few good chances for others, one of which was converted. He also got in a couple of tackles and was involved in a few moves. Decent day at the office if you ask me.

I wouldn't call Fergie a half back as that would presumably mean he was a CENTRE half as he plays in the middle. As we've moved from 2-3-5 to 4-4-2, the centre half is now two and become central defenders ie centre backs in the modern vernacular. He's more of an inside right to me. I think for 2-3-5 it was: .................................Goalkeeper ...........................RightBack...LeftBack ....................RightHalf...CentreHalf...LeftHalf RightWing......................................................LeftWing ..............InsideRight...CentreForward...InsideLeft And now for 4-4-2 .................................Goalkeeper RightBack...(Right)CentreBack...(Left)CentreBack...LeftBack .RightWing...(Right)CentreMid...(Left)CentreMid...LeftWing ....................(Right)Forward...(Left)Forward 4-4-2 in old money: .................................Goalkeeper RightBack...(Right)CentreHalf...(Left)CentreHalf...LeftBack ........RightWing...InsideRight...IndsideLeft...LeftWing ................(Centre)Forward...(Centre)Forward

Don't think there's much chance of being humped - they didn't do that even when we were playing our worst. We're playing a lot better now and although I'm not overly confident of getting a win or even a draw, I'm pretty sure we'll give them a decent game. I think we'll do well in midfield and upfront but it's the defence that may let us down as well as our lack of staying power against Celtic's knack of a late surge.