Stefan Stam signs up

The new signing I was talking about yesterday but never got around to actually detailing is Stefan Stam, a 29-year-old Dutch central defender who was released by Oldham at the end of last season. He comes with a pretty good reputation as a footballing centre-half, one of which we haven't really seen at Huish Park (Lee Peltier aside) since the days of Mark Shail. I can't be arsed to check on any Oldham forums to see what their fans make of the news, but the odd couple that have turned up on the green room seemed to be surprised that he'd been released in the first place and then that he'd come to us, so hopefully he'll be a decent signing.

Talking of Lee Peltier and the first transfer story of the summer regarding him has stirred: Huddersfield are reported by their local press to have made an offer of £250k plus add-ons. I hope the club doesn't accept the first offer that comes along for Lee, he's been linked with several clubs already and I'm sure his dream move wasn't to another L1 club so would presumably be happy to wait to see if anyone else, preferably in the Championship, comes along. 250k is a decent enough offer, but you never know, a bit of publicity might encourage other bidding clubs out of the woodwork and drive the price up a bit. So that'll be Lee off up the M1 to Yorkshire tonight then! Ah well.

What else? Well, Scott Murray continues to be linked with us, both in yesterday's Sunday Independent and today's Western Daily Press. The ex-Bristol City man is a right-winger and would be a direct replacement for Paul Warne, both positionally and in terms of his age. On the face of it it sounds a bit daft replacing a 35-year-old with a, er, 35-year-old; but I kind of see where Skivo is coming from on this one. Murray's played at a higher level than Warney for most of his career and has consistently out-scored him too. It is a risk, but as in the past, we simply don't have the financial clout to attract players who don't come with some sort of risk attached. All our signings will either be young and unproven and therefore risky; or they'll be proven but with some sort of baggage (hello Gary Roberts!) and therefore risky; or they'll be proven, experienced but injury-prone, and therefore risky. What they'll all have in common aside from being risky is that they'll be relatively cheap, but that's another story. Anyway, Murray is apparently in talks with Exeter as well as ourselves, so no use getting too excited just yet.

Other players being linked with us in the press include last season loanees Jon Obika, Andros Townsend and David Noble. I'd be delighted if we signed Noble in particular, just the type of classy, creative midfielder we need, especially if or should I say when Danny Schofield finds a new club, though Skivo has said he will only be allowed to leave if the club gets a suitable offer. Last season a suitable offer for the likes of proven goalscorers Andy Kirk and Lloyd Owusu was a willingness to take them off our wage bill, so I don't imagine Danny will need to wait too long before he gets his move. The Noble story is interesting however, previously he was being strongly linked with The Gas, but if his name is now being mentioned in connection to us then maybe that's fallen through.... On the other hand his agent may just be getting creative with the press to push up his clients wages at the Mem... Agh, don't you just hate the silly season? As for the Spurs duo above, I'm sure they will go out on long-term loans to someone, but would be surprised if it was at our level. I'd guess that Harry Redknapp will be looking at a Championship club for both. Hopefully I'm wrong!

One player not as far as I'm aware being mentioned in the press, but who is being linked to us very strongly on the rumour-mill, is our former keeper Steve Collis. Steve was mostly no.2 to Chris Weale under Sir Gary, and eventually moved on to Southend when he tired of life on the bench. He didn't pull up any trees at the seaside and eventually ended up at Crewe, where he was first-choice until last Xmas, when a change of management there saw him back on the bench. He's by no means a bad keeper, certainly more reliable IMO than Josh Wagenaar but not as accomplished as his old sparring partner Weale, not that there's any shame in that. He apparently still owns property in Yeovil and is married to or is seeing a local girl, so it shouldn't be too surprising that he's been seen in town lately and it may well be that the rumour-mill is mistaking a domestic appearance with a professional one. Time will tell. What is indisputable is that he has a year left on his contract at Gresty Road and that Crewe have told him that if he can find a club to go on a season-long loan to then they will let him go. One former keeper we definitely won't be signing is Scott Flinders, who'll be plying his trade at Hartlepool next season.

Just watched: Glastonbury Festival '09 over BBC2, BBC3 and BBC4. I normally watch this on the box every year and every year I've generally given up by the Saturday night, fed up with the constant diet of crap indie bands, incomprehensible rappers/hip-hoppers and fatuous presenters rabitting on about the Glastonbury 'experience', whatever the fuck that is. For a start us locals know it as Pilton, and it was certainly called the Pilton festival the last time I was there in person, in 1982. The only experience I remember much is being constantly tired, wet and pretty bloody cold most of the time, and not even the delights of seeing my favourite band Hawkwind could compensate adequately for the sheer physical discomfort. My fault for not taking a tent I suppose, but by the Sunday lunchtime I'd had enough and came home early. Anyhow, this year, for a pleasant change, was different. I actually enjoyed most of the coverage I watched, particularly Neil Young on the Friday night and Bruce Springsteen on the Saturday, and even Blur on the Sunday weren't too bad. Honourable mentions as well to Lady Gaga, Lily Allen, Status Quo, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Bat For Lashes and Tom Jones, all of which pigeon-holes me as a dirty old man I suppose, but hey. For me though, the stand-out performance was Springsteen's. I've always loved the man's music and lyrics and admired his politics, and he and the E-Street Band produced a glorious noise which I don't mind admitting had me on the verge of tears at times. Just a wonderful, wonderful performance and for the first time since I walked out of the festival on that Sunday lunchtime in 1982 I wished I was there in person. Fabulous stuff, thanks Boss. That's not to say I enjoyed all of the coverage of course, the likes of The Prodigy, Franz Ferdinand, NERD and many others were as shit as ever and I was particularly disappointed that neither Steve Hillage nor Gong received any coverage at all, but I guess you can't have everything.