Yeah cheers for the reports captain/frontier.

Bah. He doesn't sound any use at all.

Oldham have picked up Chris O'Grady from Rotherham and Dale Stephens from Bury. Has anyone seen Stephens play? Not many games under his belt but apparently a bit special.

At WCU20, Dos Santos was playing wide in a 4-3-3 (with Arsenal's Carlos Vela wide on the other side), but I had always understood that he was (like Walcott) meant to be shifted to the middle eventually.

Urs, how do you think Alves change much for Barca where Dos Santos is concerned? He doesn't play anywhere near as far forward (he's an odd one, actually - seemingly more comfortable as a wing-back than as either a winger or a full-back, and there's not many clubs that can play in such a way as to accomodate that). Do you mean just because he adds attacking depth from the flank?

They obviously aren't like for like, but I do think that Alves is a significant offensive threat when on his game, and that Laporta and Guardiola have clearly decided to rebuild the team from the ground up, and to (finally) address the severe imbalance between attack and defence.

Obviously, if Barca sell Dinho, Eto'o and Deco and don't replace any of them, it will look as if they could well have used Dos Santos, but I don't think that is in the cards.

So your theory is they're bolstering the defence by buying the most attack-minded right-back in Spain?

I'm a huge Alves fan and think he's a great addition to any club but buying him for defensive purposes seems a little odd.

Have you been up for 48 hours again?

The defensive strenghtening is Keita, Pique and Caceres.

Oh, that's fair enough (although I'm not sure Pique is such a hot idea for them). I thought you were including Alves in that is all.

No, I just got some excellent sleep, thanks. Not in my own bed, unfortunately, but just one more night...

I would be a bit worried if Pique is going to start, but I don't see that being the case.

I' quite curious as to what they are going to do with the attack. I'm not thrilled at the idea of what would effectively be exchanging Eto'o for Trezeguet, no matter how much of a jerk Eto'o can be at times.

Ipswich are one of two clubs to have had a bid for Cardiff's Roger Johnson rejected. Johnson seems to be just the kind of player we need, and I think I recall Phoebe Disco suggesting we should sign him when he was at Wycombe.

Despite Ipswich's new wealth, though, this does seem to be a fairly unlikely transfer. Were Johnson to be allowed to move, I would think he'd be off to the Premier League.

We've signed two Mansfield players - the club who were relegated with us into non-league. Fucking great.

So Man City (or rather, Thaksin Shinawatra) are buying 'Jô' from CSKA Moscow.

Just one question - how the fuck will he get a work permit?

chelsea have allowed milan to open talks with didier drogba, but for some reason, not with andrei shevchenko. Apparently he's not for sale.

QUOTE:
We've signed two Mansfield players - the club who were relegated with us into non-league.

Neither of them are any good either Jorge. Expect Simon 'balsa wood' Brown to start around five games for you next year.

Ipswich are reportedly prepared to give Newcastle £4m to take Shola Ameobi off their hands.

Now, I generally think Ameobi is not half bad, and I just love saying his name. But... he seems a bit injury prone, I can't see him ever being more than a 15-goals-a-sesaon man and, more importantly, four fucking million?!

Peter Jackson has celebrated getting the all clear from cancer by signing Stefan Oakes from Wycombe. Excellent first signing!

Zoltan Gera has joined a club to match his ambition - Fulham.

Booooooooooooooo! (Just getting in practice for when he visits the Hawthorns next season).

The thing that annoys me most is that, just a couple of months ago when we saw him outside the ground, he promised me and my mate that he would stay if we went up. Yes I know it sounds naive but I can take being lied to via the press, via interviews and the like but when someone tells you face to face they're going to stay and then they don't you feel terribly used.

You bastard Zoltan Gera, you had the chan