I think that although this is a serious issue not just in football, but society in general, the ultimate cheap shot if you like. The plus side is we have got rid of a manager who had no understanding of the english game, and a captain that's well passed his sell by date, hopefully Lampard will follow him out of the door and we can take a chance on some of the younger talent in the english game, well as long as it's ok with the kowledgable chaps at the FA that is!

I'm not sure the OS is the way forward, there's more & more emphasise on clubs not over spending these days and not going out and buyin success a la Chelsea & Man City. Maybe a 40 - 45000 Upton Park with a superb accademy like ours might be the way forward in the modern game

I think Mark Noble has shown his qulities in the premiership, he's just been far to often in a struggling team with bad managers and awfull team mates. SA seems to be a guy that understands players as people first and is able to give them the confidence to push on Faubert, Ried & Noble have obviously benefitted and you only have to hear what CC has had to say about the manager and staff wanting him to do well and stay. I think sonetimes we look to hard for a grey cloud in the silver lining. As for Southampton, as every other team this year, they will raise thier game against us so I'll take another 1 0 win, a drawer if I must.

Last point, some of these guys haven't had the benifit of a secure area to live in and have been bought up in rough ares with tough times and it will take time to adjust, the lad is only responding to threats the way he has all his life. How many of us can honestly say we've not responded in an unpleasent manner when we've been threatened, if this fella is still behaving like this in two or three years time then fine, he's not likely to change but to expect change within a week isn't going to happen

My question is why has the FA jumped on this? Why have they all of a sudden become the high inquisitor whem thier own double standars are there to see, West Ham had already stated that they were dealing with this, if they hadn't then fair enough but they had. It's the same with the complete mess of the John Terry situation, don't get me wrong, I don't personally think it's any great loss to see the back of Capello but two identicle cases with JT and Suarez that have been dealt with so differently. To a lesser degree it's the same with what gets you a red card and the same use of video evidence. Nolan, off for his challenge, Suarez allowed to stay on after blatently just kicking Parker in the stomach. Ballotelli banned after a SKY TV appeal but they won't use the same technoligy to award goals that have been disallowed when they should have stood or to resind redc cards when a player has obviously dived or play acted.

Then let's sign no one, 7, 8 or 9 million is too much to be paying for a guy that we could probably get for 3 or 4 in the summer. We were scoring well at the beginning of the season and I think this squad is capable of doing so again, especially with Taylor coming back. Surely we've seen enough mercenary's at the club over the last 5 or 6 years. Look at the progress Norwich have made over the laste 3 seasons and they haven't spent any where near the figures quoted for this guy. I think we'll get pronoted this year so let's save our cash for the summer so we can build on what we need to stabalise in the top tear for a year or two and push on

I wonder what it's like to support other clubs? I f they go through the same old mill every January? One thisng positive was seeing Carlton on Sky Sports this morning, I know he can be frustrating when things aren't falling right for him but he strikes me as a decent bloke doing the decent thing which is quite rare in the modern game.
Back to my pipe, slippers n comfy chair now then

Does anyone know anything about the Japaneses lad? I'm a bit concerned about Demels cousin, nephew, next door nieghbor who ever he is, apparently the scouts weren't impressed but we're still interested??? The lad from Barnet who started the season well but his forms dipped??? I'm used to being linked with Becks, Messi, Ronaldo and then eding up with the likes of Benni McDonalds so this change of trend is a bit alarming.
In comparion, if Arsenal have Henry back, maybe we'll be replacing Green with Alan McNightmare!

Any news on Rhodes? or any signings that have real potential for that matter, it would be nice to have something to look forward to

Upson back??? I think I'd rather see Diouff or whatevers his name was, with his lack of work ethic, I don't think he'd cut it with your name sake at Braintree