Sam's going to be with us until Christmas, anyway, now he's managed to get a couple of likely strikers in. Nikola Kalinic of Hadjuk Split will cost up to £12m, and the Croatian international needs to get some rapid training and familiarisation ready for his first big test - scoring against Man. City. Or Fulham at least. Even the last friendly against Hibs mid-week will be exhilarating and exciting if he's in properly by then. To make sure Sam's smiling when Santa Claus arrives, he's also pulled in Chelsea's Franco di Santo. The baby-faced Argy is in until the January transfer window, possibly beyond, but there's plenty of drama to come before that decision. He'll have to do a lot better than he has at Chelsea, but that's what Sam's good at, eh lads?

Rovers' goalie Mark Bunn is going to sharpen his skills with the Blades, covering for Paddy Kenny, who's waiting to hear what happens when you fail a drugs test, so the loan is just for a month initially. Any good puns about Blades and Bunn, on a postcard please; we've exhausted the burn, black, bun in oven theme, so steel yourself for new ones.

Otherwise, sense from Stan: "I like those moves by Big Sam. It will be interesting to see what di Santo and Kalinic can do. Portsmouth has to be wincing, though, because I've read several reports about Hart really fancying Kalinic."

Hi Stan! I see you're American from your singular use of Portsmouth.. we would say they "have to be wincing.." Did you see that Chelsea finished the World Football Challenge with a 100 per cent record thanks to a 2-0 victory over Club America in Dallas? The Blues followed up successes over Inter Milan and AC Milan with a confident performance against the Mexicans.
They secured the win with two goals in the second half from Franco Di Santo and Florent Maloud..

Any idea how Club America rate?