PB

It's been a long time since I wanted a player to make it as much as I want this one to. Don't know why, just something about the boy

I'm not ron's biggest fan. This club has a long tradition of excellent center backs and I don't think vlaar is in the class of what went before. A good world cup in a back 3 doesn't change that. However, selling him at this moment would be a very bad decision. He represents all the meagre leadership we have

Right, but Gareth Bale is an interesting case isnt he, because for his first, 2 years at Spurs he was a total joke player. Everyone used to really take the piss. He played 24 games for Spurs in those 2 years without ending up on the winning side even once. I can imagine that Spurs fans were thinking at the time that was £7m totally down the toilet. BUt, the key thing I guess is that at the time he was a teenager, and teenagers with talent will grow if given time and nurturing. So I guess those writing off Lambert's kids after a few months might like to look to the example of Gareth Bale. if you spend decent money on decent prospects there is always a good chance you will end of with a prized asset as long as you handle him right

3 goals in 21 for Inter, but we'll let him off because he's only a kid (20) and clearly has room to grow. Im just a bit puzzled as to how people are raving about him, when he's been nothing but a bit part player since coming to Europe. I will confess to not having watched him play, but as he's only played five games this season I dont suppose Im on my own. So whats the big deal? At 10m Euros he seems the right kind of price, assuming he is really worth "wetting your pants over", or whatever the saying is. is it just because he's a Brazilian playing (occasionally) for inter? Does that make him brilliant by default?

Really? One of them is an England U-21 player. I would imagine the England U-21 team is a fairly good place to start looking for hot prospects, although I accept that lots fo them dont make it. Lowton, who has p[played just about every game this season, is proof perhaps that you dont need to be a name. I think he looks like a Premiership standard player to me, he is certainly (imo anyway) the best full back at the club and we have three full international full backs

Yeah, I know, but the point remains. Spending £10m plus massive wages on a player of Lescott's age would be madness, and repeating the mistakes we have made so many times in recent years. Is he really *that* good? Yes, he is alot better than our current defence but frankly thats not saying very much. At half the price he'd be a steal. On loan he'd be absolutely great, take your hand off £10m plus £60k per week? I just think its a shocking waste of money, when there are surely much better deals to be had

But surely you can see they dont generate as much money as they cost? If they did, we'd be rolling in cash. Yeah, you can get away with the odd one if you are incredibly lucky, but I dont see the point in spending all that money on Lescott when there are similar players five or six younger that we could get for the same sort of money if we looked a bit harder. Its not like lescott is a brilliant player - yes he would improve us, of course, but is he really worth such an astronomical cost? I know he's just signed a new contract so will be going nowhere, but if we were talking about £10m or even £15m for Shawcross I'd be all over it like a rash. Five years younger, and to be honest, quite a bit better.

Slightly different, don t you think? Doug would say, we're going to spend £20m this summer with the specific intention of misleading the fans to think he meant on transfer fees. Then he'd spend £6m, and then claim he meant to include wages in the figure, sorry if he didnt make that clear. But when you are trying to rationally discuss the cost of a player, you have to include his wages, for one very simple reason. Wages are the real cost. Again, I would have thought that fans of this club would just understand that after what we've been through. Another major reason that we are where we are is stupid wage offers to the likes of Given, Dunne and a whole army of others. But look, if it doesnt suit your argument, go ahead and ignore it. Pretend we can just go out and pay any amount of wages. But really, we all know a free transfer on a 5 year contract at 60k per week costs £15m, exactly the same as a player who costs £9m in transfers on 40k a week for 3 years. If they both get sold for £10m at the end of their contracts we havent made a profit on either - they have still both cost us £5m each.

Not at all.it has nothing to do with ambition, and I think you know that really Look, Id say to lambert go out, find a £10m centre back if thats what you want. Pay him £60k a week if thats what he wants. Spend £20m if you like, the amount is unimportant On this condition Make as sure as you can be that during his time here he improves us as team, and himself as an individual, and we will get a resale value on him that represents value. Whats the problem with that? Surely that makes a million times more sense than throwing money away

IU absolutely agree. Its just Lescott is too old for the money. It would be dead money. get him in on loan by all means, hes axactly what we need, but buy him? no thanks

Yes, of course. But what have we learned form the last 20 years since we last challenged for the title? Its not about winning just the next game, or winning for a short time, its about building a team that can win in a sustainable way.. This kind of short term signing is suicidal. We cant go on spending big money on short term signings, our football club and its current state is proof positive that this strategy doesnt work. If we spend substantial sums of money, it must be on players that we wont lose out on in the long term. We just arent a big or rich enough club to be able to do that. If we carry on doing what we have been for the last 20 years we WILL go down sooner or later, sooner to be honest., it is a totally unsustainable way to run a football club. The only reason we havent gone down already by following this strategy is Randy lerner pumping in £200m, without that we'd have gone 5 years ago. We have to do something different. The post I quoted explains exactly why what we are doing now is the ONLY viable sustainable way to do it. Im not saying we shouldnt spend big money. I'm not saying we shouldn't pay big wages. Im not saying we shouldnt buy experienced players. But when we do, we have to be as certain as we can that we will get that money back. Why? So we can afford to spend the same amount of money on his replacement. Sending £10m plus wages on lescott is money down the toilet. As a club we will never see that £10m again. How then do you propose we pay for his replacement in 3-4 years when he leaves? Where will the money come from? Isnt this where we've been? isnt this why we have a team now of kids? Because for the last five years in particular we pissed all our money away on short term signings. I cant believe anyone twho has seen us play this season hinks thats any kind of strategy for our future. Surely we, of all clubs, are walking proof why that simply doesnt work. We have to do something different or we have no long term future

What an absolutely top class, brilliant piece of quality analysis. Well bloody done that man for truth speaking of the highest order

Brad made a bad mistake for Bale's first goal, but otherwise he has been huge. He needs more protection mind, or we might find his confidence getting shot. We cant expect to keep on making 10 saves a half. But Given? No thanks

He has never recovered from his injury has he? Still, hes only a kid, Him and Ashley are the same age more or less. Loan him out, see if he develops

I hope he gets a start. Playing Holman up front just didnt work