Nordic Saint

Yes, it is the same. Lewis Hamlton would still win as he is the best driver, which is why the top teams wanted him. It's the same for the best managers and players in football. Worse ones end up with worse teams.

I remember being at Wembley to see England beat France 2-0 in 2015, when they had Manchester United's Schneiderlin in their team. He was never a top international player and wouldn't have been good enough for their current team, whichever club he played for. If he'd been good enough to keep his place at Manchester United, he might have been good enough to keep his place for France but he wasn't.

He's 34 and been playing professional football for 16 years. It's about the time that many players retire. H's had a successful career, playing more than 500 games in England & Portugal and 35 for his country, as well as winning a European Championship. He might make a good coach. Good luck to him. I remember being sad to see Terry Paine's career ending at Hereford and Cheltenham. At least he didn't go to Portsmouth, like C.B. Fry, Ivan Golac, Bobby Stokes, Mick Channon and Ron Davies did. Although, I was unhappy at the time to see Lambert and Fonte sold, it looks like we sold them at the right time. There's little sentiment shown by clubs to ageing footballers and they know it. I don't understand why some fans expect it back from the players.

Ings had an 18-month purple patch, which ended three and a half years ago in February 2015. Apart from that, he's never been much of a goal scorer throughout his career, either before or after that spell. He might be worth giving a trial on loan but no way should we risk 20 million on him. We need a goal scorer. Just look at his record: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Ings

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.