The9

Because they sign our rejects to start for them? *takes cover*

He did have the misfortune to have his competitive recall to the Scotland team marking Gareth Bale - and he did reasonably well at that with Wales only winning 2-1.

I think he must have had his share of stick in the Championship because I do recall not being at all surprised when it was Fox who bizarrely headed the ball back into the danger area for Man City to score the winner in our first game back in the Premier League. I remember he got hammered for his watching brief giving players in 10 yards of space to cross on the the right wing whilst he hung around the side of the box, as well as getting pelters unfairly for always being up the pitch when teams attacked the hole behind him, and both of those happened in the FL as well as the early Prem matches. Even getting stick, he was still a fundamental part of our Championship success, his delivery from deep to the big man at the far stick was excellent, even though lots of people thought he should try taking his man on a lot more often, Harding-style.

I'm an advocate of defensive communication in all its forms, especially at parks level, so I'd be inclined to agree, but I'm not sure how much evidence there is that it's needed at the top level when teams make far fewer of the basic mistakes and don't usually need to be told where other players are or to track runners, etc.

Anyway, well done him on scoring for Japan again. Still waiting for one of his scissors-kick volleys we saw on YouTube when he signed...

If he's on a "season long" loan (i.e. more than the 93 days you're allowed for a "month by month" loan) we can't recall him until Jan 1st even if we wanted to.

You still haven't read the thread then?

Quite. He's not getting as much opportunity to go under long balls and misjudge headers from full back either.

He absolutely hasn't, other than his passing, which is much better than when he started - and that was never really the problem to begin with.

It's come from me repeating it, because he basically does one thing a game which significantly impacts on our ability to keep a clean sheet.

He's certainly built his arms up from that pic.

I think playing a front 4 of Tadic, Davis, Rodriguez/Juanmi, Long would see us comfortably mid-table, but even that assumes we're not going to replace either of the players we sell in your scenario.

It's pretty much irrelevant to any discussion about someone actually living in Britain though, as you would imagine anyone being permanently employed as a player by a British-based club would be. Fairly sure there are only a very limited number of British-based players for whom the impact on their global image rights might be an issue.

I've just had a look at the old Wickes on Google maps - they've revamped the whole thing and definitely done at the very least extensive rebuilding of the facade of the building. Difficult to tell if the shell is still the original building from the angles of the pics (and I can't be ar5ed to drive down there and check). Either way, at least they have tarmac on the car park.

Jesus Christ, have the PST only got 3500 members? Even Newport have around 2000 and their attendances are about 1/5 of the size of Portsmouth's. That's a TERRIBLE proportion. I'm genuinely shocked that they had such an awful response to their desperate need. LOL @ the idea that they're somehow trailblazers when there are over 150 supporters' trusts and they've only been going 2 years, plus they don't even have 50% ownership. Also, huge LOL @ McInnes:

Fair enough, I haven't really been paying much attention to Arsenal for some reason.

It's a general feature of football that the higher up you get the more you have to battle just to get the opportunity to make a pass whilst in control of your own movement due to all the nudging, pulling, leaning and general strength of all the players you're competing with. You just don't get the space or time in the opposition's half and that physical battle for every inch of space and balance is completely exhausting - still surprised that it's THAT much different from Eredivisie to Premier League but I suppose at that level it's just having more, fitter, players able to do that every single time instead of just a little less often and less opportunity for recovery.

He's our most unpredictable creative player, but you really think we'd be in any danger of relegation with a solid defence, two overlapping attacking full backs and still having Pelle, Tadic, Davis, Long, Rodriguez, Ramirez and anyone who comes through the academy to call on? We're comfortably a top half side even without Mane.

If they sign everyone they're being linked with at the moment they'll have to leave around 30 current first team squad members out of their squad come February. I saw a link with Matt Ritchie today, FFS!

Not even as good as his season before - by the time Hodgson had woken up to him he'd already dropped off loads from his early 2012/13 levels.

We can probably afford to pay him more than Wolfsburg as of next season - that's exactly the kind of player and team the new TV money puts on our radar that probably wouldn't be at the moment even with all the money the club currently gets. Though having seen him for the Dutch in their last few qualifiers I'm a LOT less keen on him, he looked like a talentless lump - though so did Van Persie, Memphis, Huntelaar, etc. in that side with those tactics.

No, Lambert's last but one season with us was. In the Umbro pinstripe kit for Adkins and in Pochettino's early days, before it became bloody obvious that he wasn't suited to the system with everyone else swarming all over the place and us hoping he was near the box when we won the ball with the high press. Hence the comparisons with Pelle, who is around the same age now Lambert was then.

Literally just Adam Lallana. Lambert, Shaw, even Lovren who only stuck around one year, all got reasonable write ups in the same timeframe, 6 months after Cortese had left - having given them all the idea they could play Champions League football and that only he could provide them with it in Southampton.

I thought that was widely known, or at very least is the logical assumption about the situation. The owner was listed as The Estate of Markus Liebherr for a couple of years, Obviously Katharina was the natural heir but presumably at some point during the legal clarifications decisions were made about whether she'd actually take on the responsibility for the football business. Also makes sense in terms of the Cortese claims for the club when he was running things, his posturing around expenditure and his position when suddenly told he couldn't just spend more, and our current position with Katharina the owner, when she was incredibly low-profile for the years immediately following Markus' death.

My fence is being rattled.