Nordic Saint

He's probably been applying for jobs for years and not getting them. That's why I can't see how the club can get rid of him that way. Surely, if they don't have the heart to sack him, he should be encouraged to retire?

Isaac Mbenza?

The negative PR 'leaks' which emanate from the club about a player before he is sold leave a bad taste in the mouth and stir up a lot of bad feeling and even hatred of ex-players who served us well for many years. It would be preferable if there was just a dignified silence. Was the way that Keegan or Channon left really any different to how recent players have left? But, we still have our good memories of them.

We need a striker who is super fit, lightning fast and capable of scoring at least 10 goals a season. They don't come cheap. Probably a relatively unknown youngster from one of Europe's lesser leagues, like Mane was, would be our best way to find one we could actually afford. This is where our head of recruitment, Ross Wilson, and his scouting network need to prove their worth. The fact they couldn't spot that Carrillo was a donkey is a bit of a concern. But, hopefully, they'll get this one right.

I am pleased to see that the club is making a real effort to overhaul a squad which simply wasn't good enough last season, especially through the spine of the team. A real goalscoring striker to replace Carrillo is the priority now. I look forward to seeing the new players in action in the first few games. I hope they bring some pace to our attack and that we can also defend against it because, as we have seen in the World Cup, fast counterattacks are very much in vogue with coaches now and I expect to see a lot of them in the Pemier League this season.

More than anything, we needed Bertrand instead of Young tonight.

If we lose to Belgium again, we'll finish the tournament with 3 defeats. But, you're right, we've done well to reach the semi-finals.

Looking on the bright side, today Saints beat a team from a city which has a population more than twice the size of Croatia's. Bring on Celta Vigo and Borussia Mönchengladbach!

Very good signing. He was excellent for Norwich last season.

It wasn't so long ago that we were being told about Carrillo's brilliant goal scoring stats.

Reading their fan forums, it seems they'd like Benedikt Höwedes brought in as a replacement. He would have been ideal for us too, although at 30, not the sort of player we usually buy. They have some good things to say about Vestergaard. Their forums certainly aren't full of good riddance and laughing all the way to the bank messages like the Celtic forums were when they sold Hooiveld or the Monaco ones when they sold Carrillo. He's a trier, a good offensive header (although not such a good defensive one) and he plays good, long forward passes. From what I've seen of him on videos, his lack of pace is a real cause for concern. Also, perhaps because he is so tall, and doesn't need to, he's not very good at jumping. They say that he is slow off the mark and has poor positional sense but overall they feel he suited their team. But, they also note that they had one of the worst defences in the Bundesliga last season so they can understand why something had to change. Whether such a slow defender can survive in the Premier League will depend on the partnership he forms. Yoshida is the only central defender we've got with enough pace to cover for him so that's probably who he'd play best alongside.

He's far too slow to play at that level. He's even slower than Hoedt.

I agree. When Southgate replaced Alli with Dier, the game turned in Colombia's favour, Until then we'd looked comfortably in control. The first thing Dier did was a dodgy back pass.

Unsurprisingly, Man City's owner is ranked as the best: https://talksport.com/football/393641/premier-league-owners-ranked/

Is he really worth less than Carrillo?

A world class goalkeeper playing in a Championship class team. But, he'll always remember winning the Premier League with Leicester. Many star players in humdrum teams never experience anything like that in their whole careers.

Southgate showed a ruthless streak tonight. He steadfastly refused to bring on Kane and risk scoring an equaliser and so has given us the opportunity to reach the semi-finals, which, let's face it, was beyond our wildest dreams at the start of the tournament. By winning, Belgium have shown limited ambition and as a consequence they will be knocked out in the quarter-finals. It's an awful way to progress, I know, but that's the way the tournament is organised.

It would then simply be a question of how badly we wanted to reach the final, A win v Belgium would throw away any realistic chance. But, we'd still face the same problem that France faced v Denmark in a match neither team wanted to win. Belgium are already sitting in the coveted runners-up spot. It would be hard to dislodge them as all they need to do to stay there is draw. If it followed the example of the France v Denmark game, there would be minimal effort from both sides and we'd need something so obvious that we wouldn't get away with it, like a red card or an own goal, to displace Belgium.

Nils Petersen or Carlos Bacca.

Do we really need another forward who only scores a goal every ten games or so? He's scored just 7 in 63 games for Celta and 1 in 17 for Denmark. He's just another Redmond.

Especially if he's on paid gardening leave in Russia. I reckon you'll still be crediting Reed with masterminding signings from the grave long after he's died.

Most say he would have only been 4th choice at Celtic next season, which is why they wanted to offload him. John Hartson says that he is overpiced at 7 million and that it is a good bit of business for Celtic to get that much for him.

Hard to believe that Wolves had an average home gate of only 4,002 in 1985/86, when they were strugggling in the Third Division. But, right now, everyone in football ia aware that they have a very rich owner and are an ambitious club on the up and that makes a huge difference, as it could to just about any club, including Saints.

It looked as though the ball accidentaly brushed Cedric's arm on the way down from his head but on closer inspection I'm not even sure it did that. You'd have to freeze-frame it to be 100% sure that the ball even touched his arm. What makes it worse is that it affects the draw for the final 16 and may have long-term consequences for which teams reach the final.

Unfortunately, we're stuck with him and Hoedt, who is even worse. To think, we once had centre backs of the quality of Fonte, van Dijk, Lovren and Alderweireld.