[Slick_Footwork]

FAO SLICK - only

While Johnston maybe a reasonable signings time will tell - I don't believe he is a patch on Foster by the way.
Bartley couldn't get in the Swansea side even when he was fit last season - they sold him to us should tell us something?
Barnes - can't get in the Leicester team and is only a loan? Do we really want him, does he want to play for us. Do they want to sell him - its all pretty short term business.
Townsend - SUFC defender i'm sorry but its another "hope" he steps up signing. 
I think Big D has failed to check the top 6 PL sides youngsters who cant get a game, who we could pick up for 5 - 10 million.
Our DOF hasn't got anyone in ? why is that ? it can only be for financial reasons - Villa got close to promotion last year, but not by getting players in from the lower leagues. They had to splash the cash and bring some good loans in. Exactly the opposite to what we have done. 
As for Stoke - I'm sure they will finish a lot higher then us with or without McClean. A 33 million spend so far shows some ambition.
Now were checking Luton / Peterborough how many cheap hidden gems do we think are out there?
MOST IMPORTANTLY - If we are aiming for promotion how many of these new signings honestly could do a good / solid job in the PL (IMO none of them)
I'm sure Chadli - Dawson - Rondon will leave within the next 10 days and we will be after a couple more hidden gems to replace them. Why would they want to stay? I'm sure they are not impressed with the new signings. Darren needs to get the check book out and spend some money on "PROVEN" quality players. No matter how nice and down to earth he is - he will be measured on results, he's not even giving himself a fighting chance.

My points in rebuttal.

Barnes - Yes, he can't get into the Leicester side but Leicester are a much better side than we are. He played in the Championship last season and did very well at 19 years old and is only going to progress. He might be a 'short term signing', but if he contributed to promotion do we care? Our main aim is getting back up.

Bartley - I share your reservations about him for the same reason. But let's not write him off just because he couldn't get into Swansea's team. After all, different managers have different ideas of who is good and bad. By the same token, Chadli never got into our side under Pulis and sometimes didn't even make the bench. IMO this was down to numpty management rather than him being not good enough. After all, he was good enough in the world cup.

Townsend - Have you seen him play then? Or are you saying it's a hope signing just because he's from lower league? I'll reserve judgement until I've seen him play. But, we have an ample first choice left back who has 10 caps for England, so obviously we're not going to spend millions on a back up, especially as we have Brunt who can play there too. In this case, we are obviously trying to uncover a gem, but he's not replacing anyone so no risk involved except the small fee.

As yet the only gamble we have signed has been an addition, rather than replacement. The replacements for first team out goers have been signed from Manchester United and a relegated rival, in Swansea, to the tune of £10,000,000+.

If Rondon, Chadli and Dawson do inevitably go, I'm not sure why you think we'll be looking for 'hidden gems' as replacements? We've spent a fair amount of first team replacements so far. If everything in the press is to believed, Dwight Gayle would be part of the Rondon deal and he scored 23 league goals in Newcastle's promotion season, hardly an unknown. Chadli and Dawson would free up a fair amount of money and while I wouldn't expect all of it to be spent, I don't think we'd be shopping in the bargain basement either. The reality is that we have no idea who we would buy. For months we were linked with Maddison from Peterborough and Roofe from Leeds and then Barnes came in from nowhere.

I have some similar worries to you, that we could sell them all and just buy nobody proven at all. So I'm not completely opposite in feelings. I just the vibe from the £10,000,000 spent so far that our Chairman is pretty serious about going back up.

Obviously we've been screwed by relegated clauses with Rondon and Chadli, so can't stop them if the right bids come in. Really got screwed with this on Evans, who obviously was worth a lot more than we sold him for. That said, we seem to have spent in excess of what we have received on replacements this far out.