Ex Lion Tamer

The black line is Lander and the orange one is an index of Chinese companies. So Lander is only really returning to the position it was in in 2015, however, the wider market has been much more steady over that time. I don't know why Lander got so pumped up in the last few years, but this could just be a correction.

I think Lemina will come good but if we were to sell him and use the money to buy a goalscoring striker or pacy winger, then our squad could be more balanced. Not sure we need Lemina, Romeu and Hoj as relatively deep lying players in front of a 3 man defence

There was also that time when he came back into the team and suddenly the team kept a load of clean sheets on the trot. I'm not sure it can entirely be put down to having a great defence in front of him. Something's clearly gone wrong though obviously

Obviously he should never have been given that contract but there is a positive spin on this in that we've decided to invest money in making sure the squad is good enough. In the past we might have kept hold of him as second choice because of the size of his wages. Instead we've taken the tough decision that he isn't good enough, and if that means paying money to a player who doesn't play, then so be it. Better to have two quality keepers than end up with Forster coming in at a vital point of the season. My big fear was that Mr Gao wasn't going to invest in the team, but although its not exactly been huge investment and we can argue that it is VVD money that should be spent, we have a net spend this summer and ditching Forster is part of that investment

That's not actually what the article says

I suspect the scouting team was overruled in order to give support to Mope

I'm pretty sure the ITK word has been that we are looking for a striker

Barcelona B play in the Spanish second division so it's not dissimilar to signing someone with potential from the Championship

To be fair, Kane would have had a free header if he hadn't been hauled down

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jun/20/england-changed-shape-world-cup-2018-steve-holland-tactics If you read this article, it talks about how Gary Neville and Cesar Azpilicueta have both played successfully in a back three, and England are now doing the same with Kyle Walker. All three are under 6ft

We can't keep every player until 25 though, we always have to make a judgement about whether they will continue to develop. Some players just don't. I'm undecided on Targett but lack of pace can be a pretty limiting factor in making the step up to the Premier League.

Who do you suggest?

Has he been exiled to Siberia?

The loss situation is if he's not good enough and we don't sign a similar style player to actually play in the team

Also important if he is to make the step up to the Premier League

That's not quite what the article says

Let's hope he's better than Neil McCann but it feels a bit similar unfortunately

Branfoot was manager for 2.5 years during which we finished 16th, 18th and 18th. Lowe was chairman for 11 years during which time we made countless poor transfers, made various bizarre decisions, e.g. Poortvliet, Clifford, Wigley, Gray, etc etc, and ultimately got relegated. The present situation is that we have a manager who has just come in and an owner who has just come in. We've just had a bad season, finishing 17th, but before that we finished 8th, 7th, 6th and 8th. So although there is cause for concern at the moment, fans haven't been whipped up into the same level of frustration yet and a lot of people will be seeing if we can turn it around.

I don't know if we could expect things to keep going as well as they did for that couple of seasons, but something has definitely gone wrong with our transfer policy, I agree. I'm just hoping that the club can learn from its mistakes. Maddison was a promising start to the window, it just didn't work out. We have to wait and see now what comes through and then judge

No team has a 100% hit rate on transfers, you've got to cut them a bit of slack. But Martina did a job as a squad while Cedric was bedding in. Caulker had mental health issues so didn't get back to the form we hoped he'd regain, was a bit unfortunate

Shaq got roasted by the pundits at half time too. Failed to track back for the Brazil goal, and in general leaving the Swiss right hand side wide open

JWP might as well leave if we sign a free kick specialist like Maddison, it's his main value to the squad

I assume he means we maintain a shortlist of five players for each position all year round. They are watched closely and are considered our top targets, but this list can change on an ongoing basis if other players are identified as better

Chop off their hands i reckon

Watching that, I'd be surprised if a bigger team than us didn't come in for him. Unless there are serious doubts about his defensive contribution