Ex Lion Tamer

I'm trying to imagine Shearer shouting "Alan's!" every time the ball comes near him now

Ah right. I always hated shouting my own name. Definitely wouldn't have passed LD's captaincy test

1 and 2

Do you really need that much language skills to communicate in a defence? "Up", "back", "yours", "mine" and a few more should do it i'd have thought? Incidentally, is it a real rule that you're not allowed to say "mine" or was that just in 90s Southampton tyro league?

3 unused sub appearances and 45 mins in the cup so far

I was having a dig, Dig Dig, at those who wet themselves when we refused to pay Brandon's loan fee

I wonder if City's form will nosedive like Utd's did when Fergie announced he was leaving. They could end up with Pep leaving well earlier than planned. I also wonder if Pep is suited to international football when he won't be able to hammer home his system day to day with the players

I'm gutted that we didn't get Brandon Williams in

If you buy into the view that we have spent all the money we have available, then Walcott for free and Lyanco to cover for centre back and Romeu was about as good as we could do

Who played the ball to Ely? Lovely pass

Don't believe everything that comes out of the club. If you did that, you'd think we were still rotating our keepers this season and Djenepo was playing left back

Presumably we have money set aside to fire Hasenhuttl if we need to, as well

We only had him on loan and Reading didn't want to sell at that time

We've looked so weak in the air defensively

1 point from 4 games for Adkins' Charlton now

He still looked well off the pace in the first couple of games and got written off here

I suppose the positive is that if he can learn to defend, then his ability on the ball will make him one of the best in the world. Big if though

Bear in mind that lots of people thought Mane, Pelle, Ings were poor signings early in their times with us so it's never exactly been a case of signing ready made replacements. That said we do seem to be spending less this summer and that's reflected in the players

I have reservations too but Watford saw something in him as well

If he's good enough, he's old enough, though. Personally I've never seen the kid play.

If we want established back up then that means we need a first teamer, a senior backup and an up and coming youngster, which is not only more expensive but means we probably won't get such a promising young player as they'll be third in line. Going with just two players is more risky for first team quality but increases our chances of making a big sale in the future, which is essential for us financially

I think it sounds like a good transfer for back up at left back but obviously we still need a high quality centre back

Given that we're no doubt paying him a lot more and only getting an extra year added on, I can't imagine we've agreed to a particularly low release clause as well. Otherwise it's not in our interest to give the contract

Good lad