This was on the cards wasn't it? I certainly hope we look elsewhere for a left winger. Steed (what a great name) is not there permanantly, hence his fondess to drift. And thank the stars for that, I think the selection tream have their eyes on another young left winger. Hopefully to be picked up for a song again.

Good to hear this, never wanted us to be spending double figures on Downing, 4-5 million tops. I'd rather see the money being spent elsewhere. I think he has 5 average games for every good one.
I know left wingers are like gold dust, but with the money we're looking to spend we should be able to find a good one, or maybe a few young ones with the potential to be good. Try the scatter-gun approach on left wingers!

On a slightly different subject What is going on with Routledge? Surely either we give him a go or get rid (along with Murphy and Ziegler).

Think Jol's looking for central defensive cover cause he realises King's gonna have to have the Op sooner rather than later and I wouldnt mind Curtis Davis.

Agree. Besides, we have enough midfielders. If something is going to spoil the second half of our seasen it will be injuries to our back four, where cover is quite thin.

I think we got cover for every position in the back four but whether its quality cover is another thing! Saying that though, i don't necessarily see the point in spending big money on back up players and maybe with some luck we won't get any long term injuries and the cover we have will do.

I have said it before and I'll say it again....MG Pedersen. He is class.

notice he scored a beauty at the weekend

Blackburn are faltering again, attendences are non-existent. He'll cost big money but I think he is worth it.

....having said that, the steed is starting to do well so maybe we should just try and stick with a group of players for a while and let them gel.

I have to agree i've never really understood the Routledge situation. I've always thought he would become a good player, but his career has been stagnated by our treatment of him (continual loans and the like). I know the early injury when he joined along with Lennons form has done him no favours. However with all the games we've been playing surely he would have got a look in by now!
Maybe the management just think he won't make the grade and are hoping something in these loans show them otherwise.

Curtis Davies is good - but maybe too inexperienced to put alongside Daws if Ledders is going to be out for a while.

Maybe we really need someone in the Naybet mould? A truly world-class and experienced defender who is on a free and coming to the end of career who can be an example to youngsters?

I still think long-term Davenport will come good...

Dorian Dervitte will come good before Davenport.

Have none of you noticed that Routledge can't even force himself into the Fulham side on a regular basis. He has been given the chance to show what he can do at Portsmouth and now Fulham and has come up short both times. He will be sold in the summer I think, unless he suddenly shows a dramatic improvement. Same story with Downing, he isn't improving and living up to his promise so we are wise to look elsewhere.

Downing isn´t worth more than 3-4 mill, and is not good enough for Spurs anyway. The ridiculous valuation of english players will make us look elsewhere. MG Pedersen would be a very good buy, at least up to 7-8 mill.

I think we should look at Micah Richards.

Yes he will cost 10m but the kid is absolute class, in attack and defense, wouldn't break the wage structure and fits into our transfer policy. Plus, he can jump twice his own height.

i really don't think Chelsea will bother going for him, and judging from past experience, a Man City player heading South would be better advised to head to Spurs.

The only reason that we would not go for him is that Leds, Chim and Daws are more or less undroppable. Can he play left? Can Chim?

Imagine -

Chim Daws Leds Micah.

Get past that.

Dervitte? How good is this guy? Is he ready??

On the attacker front, MG Pederson would also be my choice. I have an affinity with Scandinavians. You always know what you are going to get from them so when a good one rocks up, you gotta go get. Also, their chicks are outrageously hot.

Out - Murphy, Gardner, Salty.

im glad we are prepared to look elsewhere as i dont think downing is even that good. Malbranque is doing well in that position and is starting to find his feet at the lane, plus we have tainio, ghaly, davids, lennon, ziegler who are more than capable of playing there

I'm pleased to hear we won't be going after Downing, especially at the prices quoted last summer. I think he's a good player but not good enough to displace Malbranque.

On some of the other comments people have made about our transfer targets...

A new Left Winger

I think we need a left-winger, but with Steed's arrival we can afford to be a bit picky or to take a punt on a young guy from somewhere.

On Pederson, I have to admit I don't catch many Blackburn matches, but I do hear snippets of reports and from what I can tell he's been in and out of the side this season, he's only scored the one goal (admittedly it was a scorcher) and people say he's a little slow. I'd prefer to see a Commoli prospect or maybe a fringe player from one of the European giants.

Routledge

I wouldn't be surprised to see Routledge recalled, as I think Lennon's injury early in the season was a wake up call to the management team, demonstrating how little cover we have in a vital position.

A new Defender

Regarding Curtis Davis, I think he would be a very good buy and I would be prepared to see the club push the boat out to get him.

I think we have adequate cover for Dawson but that we need a more athletic player to compliment his English style Centre Back type play.

I also read elsewhere that King needs an op and while I think we'll miss him while he's gone I'm definitely of the opinion that a stich in time saves nine.

I also think that King's mooted op might well be the trump card in persuading him to come to us rather than a rival like Arsenal. If you look at their side they have Gallas and Toure not to mention Dourre (spelling?) and Senderos and while C.D. might be tempted by the Dark-Side if it's a choice between sub at Arsenal and sub at Spurs, if he can see a clearer route to first team football with us he might go for it.

A new Left Back

Finally I think it's interesting we're reportedly in the market for a new Left Back. It suggests to me something going on behind the scenes re Ekotto and perhaps this suspended sentence?? Or that Lee's move is back on to Roma... I guess we'll just have to wait for developments...

This is getting boring now. Not seen enough from downing to convince me (or most people by the looks of it) that he is worth splashing 10m on.

Like most I would rather get 2 young left wingers with potential and help them progress. The Steed can fill the void for now.

I agree with sloth except that Im not sure we need yet another left back, I think either Lee or Ekotto will come good, if not then have another look in the summer. If we can get Curtis Davis for decent money (6-7 mill)or an out of contract experienced player we should do it but if there's nothing out there then Im happy to give one of Gardner/Davenport/Derivett a go or maybe even Hudd although I think we'll need him more in midfield.

The same goes for left Winger, if there's quality at good price then fine if not then we have options in the current team. The main point is we dont need to make wholesale changes, its taken the team almost 4 months to start playing well together lets not disrupt their progress with more changes unless it REALLY adds quality.

great news highly overated in my opinion, worth nowhere near the amount they want

I see that quite a few people think we have enough left wingers, enough left backs and enough central defenders.

Is it just my ingrained cynicism working overtime on a Monday evening, or will some of the same people, next time we lose two in a row, start howling that the squad isn't strong enough and that it was outrageous and incompetent that the management didn't buy a left winger, some defensive cover and another left back last Summer?

Personally, I'm inclined to agree with sloth. Let's get a young, promising left winger at a good price next time one is available and cover the position with Malbranque, Ziegler, Tainio, Davids, Lennon and Murphy in the meantime. In January, we could use a third top-quality central defender - they'll all get games, the same way all of our strikers are getting games. And we only need another left back if there are problems with Assou-Ekotto or Lee that we do not know about.