The Woolster

Think the bit about QPR and the bit about being in the semi's or even final of Europa are seperate points. QPR might be fighting for their lives in the last game, meaning they up their game. We might be in the semi finals or further towards the end of the season, meaning we have extra games, rotation, minds elsewhere

Its pretty common, people have been doing it for years. Out of the 19 teams faced in a season, only 3 will be wrong, so is not too bad. No prediction model is perfect, but at least this one is very simple and everyone can understand it. ANALYSE THIS: Is the PL table telling the truth or lying? Here is the most up to date table Workbook: PremierLeague

I did the BBC league predictor and had the same results as best case, but us beating Spurs instead of drawing. I also had us losing to City. I do like the match visualistions on that site though, they are pretty decent

I'm not sure where going a couple of million over what we wanted for a transfer has got us into trouble, but if you think he is going to be a key player, then going a couple of million over what we value a player should not really be an issue, especially if it as a player the manager really wants. If there is a set budget then the manager should be able to spend it how he wants, if one goes a couple of million over, there is a couple of million less for the next player. Also revenue is about to go up by about £30m a year due to new TV deal, so take it out of future budget. I do think it is more of an issue if you are buying british though, as by going that extra couple of million, not only do you have the player, you stop a competitor having them as well.

Borini only wanted Roma | Liverpool News, Fixtures, Results, Transfers | Sky Sports I doubt he told The Sun either, they probably translated it from some Italian reporters.

Thats more of an issue of age though. Would you give a 28 year old Gerrard that much?

Are you saying we should bin Gerrard off then, cos he must be on about £6m a year as well? Whilst his current £200k per week is well out of our budget, not because we couldn't afford it, because we could with the extra £30m a year we will be getting, but because it would smash our wage structure and either lead to discontent in the squad or pay rises all round. As for the reason there aren't 20 other clubs going for him? It will be a combination of worry about his injury record, the fact that a lot of clubs are trying to get their house in order for FFP, and the fact that a lot of clubs are already well stocked in that position. Italian clubs are skint. He's not going back to Real, Barca won't want him, the other Spanish clubs are skint. Chelsea are well covered there, City could be interested but need to cut costs for FFP and already have good coverage there, Utd bought Kagawa and have Rooney as well for that position (although I am surprised they aren't still keen), Arse and Spurs are believed to both have wage caps below £100k. To me that leaves from one of the big leagues who could realistically afford him, us, PSG, and perhaps a few of the German clubs. I am surprised that none of the Russian sides have shown an interest, they could probably afford to keep him on his £200k, but perhaps they have FFP issues as well. EDIT: I should add, that the issue isn't whether we as a club could afford it, as we could, it is whether our owners are willing to pay it, especially as there will be little sell on value.

With tv money going up £30m or so next season, we could easily afford £6m a year wages.

QPR and Everton interested in Yann M'Vila | Mail Online And in the evening standard QPR face £7m game of tug of war for Yann M'Vila - Football - Sport - London Evening Standard

The Mail (I think) said it was Everton

Who knows, it might not even be true. I'd like to think we would have at least considered him though.

From the little I have seen of him, I really like M'Vila, and thought that we should have gone for him last Jan. Since then it seems he is a little bit of a nutcase, but for the price that is booted, it could be a gamble worth taking, A year and half ago he was being touted as a £20m+ player. There was someone on RAWK who mentioned in the summer that he knows one of the match analysts at the club, and he was aksed to put a video compilation together of both Allen and M'Vila. He was just junior level, so it was simply putting the videos together and not involved in any decision making. Seemed genuine enough, so perhaps we have looked at him aand decided he wasn't for us, for whatever reason.

I believe that Tommy Lee is a Ragga singer/rapper. What he is saying is the he and Conor are on a Tommy Lee thing (listening to him) and I reckon "ya si mi Gaza man crazy" are lyrics from a Tommy Lee song they are listening to.

I kind of agree. I think we should spend some of that TV money before we get it, so now and in the next transfer window, after that, we should limit ourselves to 1 transfer per window, and put the money not spent on transfers towards the stadium so we can get it built as quickly and with as little debt as possible.

Fair do's, hadn't noticed any (then again not really been looking).

Ibe was 17 in December. Having said that, I don't think we should send any youngster on loan until they are at least 19 (unless they are going to another Prem team), as I think the coaching at that age is still more important than the playing of proper games for experience.

It would be, but they make a fair bit from developing their own youngsters and selling them, so don't think they'd want to take other teams youngsters on a develop them and not be able to get the transfer fee from it.

We have already signed my ideal signing, my 2nd ideal signing is Walcott, who now doesn't seem like he will be on the move, so my 3rd ideal signing is Remy, who is available by the sound of things, and not too expensive either.

Not quite wrong (unless I am wrong, which is also possible). You have to be abroad to sign pre contract agreement in the 6 months before it ends, but I think you can sign one 1 month before it ends in the country you are playing in. In reality though, a deal could also be agreed on the hush hush

Mignolet would be my pick as well, very good shot stopper.

That may be the case, but is it a coincidence that it coincides with the start of the Premier League and the massive increase in TV money? If young keepers are not given a chance at the top, it becomes very difficult to reach the top. And just because a keeper is English, it does not follow that they won't be a good keeper.

I'm a bit ignorant on keepers in other leagues to be honest, but who are Spains 4 or 5 world class keepers? I can only think of Casillas, Valdes and Reina. Who are Germany's as I can only think of Neuer? How many do France and Italy have? To be honest, I think we can say the other keepers are simply good, and not world class. Almost by definition, number of world class keepers must surely number less than 10. And then, if you think about the numbers, out of the thousands of prefessional keepers there are around the world, Spain have only a couple more world class keepers than England means that it is not statisticcally significant, it could be down to them having a system that makes better keepers, or it could be down to pure luck. Finally, pointing at the number of English keepers in the Premier League does not prove anything. The Prem is by far the richest league in the world, and the shared distribution of TV rights means that the lowest clubs revenues will be higher than the most other teams around Europe, for example there are 11 English teams in the Delloites money list top 30, and this means that English clubs are able to go out and get some of the best in the world. Looking at Code's list, the fact that you can see that there are keepers from all over the place goes to proive that. I don't know the answer, but apart from Spain, Italy and Germany, would I be right in saying that pretty much every nation that is represented, we have that countries number 1? Perhaps not when you include the back up keepers, but from the first choice ones, I'm almost certain. That simply means that it is very difficult for young English keepers to get a chance as they are generally up against an International keeper.

Wasn't Burgess still here then though?

I'm not doubting you, but how do you know that previous regimes methods were based on latest research, and even if they were, how do you know that Driscoll's aren't based on even more rececnt research?

Only just come across the below article. I think since Burgess has left, we look a lot fitter, and we are suffereing from fewer injuries. Maybe its just luck, but what Driscoll says makes sense to me and it seems the lads were being overworked before, leading to fatigue and injuries.