KenTheLandlord said:
I am telling you this.
We may feel we are on the clock, but i can assure you we are not.
I have seen the attacks on you in recent weeks and can understand your defensiveness, but what other people have said is based on their opinion and they are entitled to it. Rightly or wrongly.
We are on the clock for many, many players. You will know how much the scouting network has developed in the last two years, however we are still a long way from the respect generated from other clubs. We normally get to the table because money talks or the player feels he would need us to get into the "perceived" elite.
Things are changing, but you know how slow football is to adapt when old boy hetworks are well established. Also, we have drifted a little since the spat with Kia, however, Cook's name is gaining respect.
We are far from the finished product.
Then we seem to be in agreement, here!
We do not pluck names out of thin air, the scouting has improved beyond all recognition.
It's not even a question of talent, personality plays a vital role in who they now identify.
I do not disagree with opinion, whether it be polar ends of my own.
In saying that, for a page of the board, some posters perhaps allowed their reservations of Henderson, to mistakenly assume I liked him also and was doing the buying!!
I believe we have a more realistic chance of bringing back Craig Bellamy, than last-minute panic buying.