Quite. The problem with Hull is they are spending money whilst being already in a financial mess. A typical gamble with the parachute payments which will destroy them if they don't go back up. We can afford to pay the big wages due to a sound financial footing and a billionaire chairman who also happens to be a lifelong City supporter. Having said that he wont take the club into debt and has always said the club must support itself to a large degree. One of the countries most successful businessmen didn't get their by accident. I would imagine we are paying amongst the highest wages in the league. Maynard is now on £16k, James £15k and even Pitman - and unproven young talent - will be earning £9k per week. Probably 9 times more than he was ever likely to earn at Bournemouth at least.

Also agree about Stead. 7 goals in 40 appearances. I accept that there's more to a frontman than just goals, but none the less. More interested in Pitman. We took a similar gamble with Maynard and it payed off, although admittedly it was a gamble of nearly £3m rather than £800k. Far less to lose on this one if the results are not the same. Bear in mind these players are purely cover for our injury decimated squad, which would be extrememly good if we could field a fit first team. I guess we now have depth too when they all return

Stead and Pitman duly signed for a combined fee of £1m. Good business I think. When you add Maynard and Vokes (on their return) and Clarkson to that we have potentially a very good forward line indeed and with depth.

We are also attempting to secure a season long loan on Jonjo Shelvey from Liverpool. I know nothing about this guy. Anyone else?

Right then.... Defence

We've had the strange scenario of the Official Site confirming that we have had an offer accepted by Cardiff but that terms are to be agreed with the player. Normally we do our business and announce it. The agent did blab yesterday, so that might have something to do with it.

Judging by the Cardiff message boards he was never going to get a regular game behind Chopra, Bothroyd and Bellamy, so it's a case of poverty stricken Cardiff getting some money back to fund the Bellamy gamble. They also, on the whole, think he's a good player, which is encouraging.

Is there a doctor in the house?

http://www.talksport.co.uk/sports-news/football/premier-league/7865/exclusive-brown-i-want-manage-england

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! 😂 😂 😂

we have (Bristol Rovers) signed John Akinde on loan 'till jan, from City another cross town import, seems like a good player seen a bit of him on local news etc, Matty give me the lo down whats your opinion of him? May go straight into team for tomorrow against Southampton, which is a really tough fixture although the saints have had a slow start this season. unfortunately Im in Devon this weekend and will miss the game, (mind you they didnt come and see me when I was bad)

The annoying thing bl00dy greedy sods sky have removed sky sports news from freeview so can no longer watch results come through

Well, Town won again.  Mind we were only playing some obscure no hopers.

Anyone seen Matty?

(now you know why we sold you Stead a pup and bought Scotland )

I didn't realise he was planning a transfer to Accrington Stanley so soon

Southampton have sacked Alan Pardew after winning 4-0 at the weekend.
Well that seems very very strange, soomething major must have happened behind the scenes for this to have occured now.

Already he is the 4th manager to lose his job this season.

Think Enoch Showumni  He's crap mate, although to be fair he has done ok when out on loan in League One so may do a job for you.

I can only conclude there is some kind of power struggle going on behind the scenes, given the owner (Markus Leibherr) died a couple of weeks back and was, as far as I can ascertain, highly thought of by fans. He certainly didn't appear to be the meddling type.

Mind you, after saying that, Southampton is, I think, the only club in the country where the press are banned from taking pix inside the ground. I'm not entirely sure the deceased owner was necessarily behind that, however.

The writing was on the wall when they only managed to put 4 past Bristol Rovers

Either that or he's been taking undue interest in the youth team

Either way it's not for footballing reasons

The ownership of Southampton is staying within the Leibherr family, which is an official notice.
Also one presumes it will cost them a fair bit of dosh for him to go.
By the way from the dreggs of administration, I have been told they are making a lot of money again and are in a stable financial situation again like they always have done.

Ex Leeds Academy. Made an impact last season when he scored a wonder goal for Spurs. Hopefully he won't be like most of the Academy products who went to bigger clubs but have now faded into obscurity.

Our Academy has spawned:

Lennon

Milner

Woodgate

Delph

Rose

Taewoo (last heard of at Carlisle after Chelsea farmed him out)

and probably one or two others. If nothing else it's paid a few bills over the past few years.

Of the current the current crop only Howson is a regular, though Parker would be playing left back, no doubt, if he wasn't forever injured. Aidy White made his debut two years ago and is still only 18!

Whether it's worth the money I don't know.

There you go, in case you didn't see it first time round.

http://soccer-portal.org/cat/goal-of-the-day/1734-danny-rose-goal-v-arsenal.html

We have had many that have come into the first team, been crap and moved on to lower league clubs. Obviously there's money involved there. I know for a fact after the Liam Rosenior debacle that our chairmen seriously considered whether it was worth the time and money to keep it going. This was several years back admittedly. It wont happen now as the club has spent millions on a state of the art facility and set-up for the academy. I'm never convinced by them, although I suppose all players have to start somewhere.

Edit: ah yes, I remember the goal, didn't realise it was him. I wonder how his all-round game is viewed. I've done a bit of searching on him. As always seems to be the case some think he is god and others think he's a knob.

Merc, you seen him from your armchair seat?

Obviously it's a rumour on Sky. May well not even happen. I've heard nothing to back it up. A left sided defender should be our priority right now. We've got strikers and midfielders coming out our ears, but no back 4

He's not bad. Actually, he's pretty good. Goals like the following - against the South London upstarts - always help of course. I certainly got up out of my armchair for that one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtqXdPRbtOU

Good grief, I forgot there was 'football' on today. And there I was thinking there was a two-week break because of the internationals.

Unfortunately, it has become necessary due to the automatic inclusion in Euro 2012 of minnows such as Andorra, the Faroe Islands, San Marino, Liechenstein and Wales without having to go through pre-qualification first.

The Owls 1 down to Brentford, bottom v top, could be a shock result coming up