Alanh

Will Britt has just joined Salisbury so his appearance for the U23's last week was his last appearance for Saints.

Thanks

Has anyone enquired with Virgin Media about the discount on sports packages that they are advertising in the season ticket pack?

Surely this is simply the club playing their cards close to their chest. The other extreme is the Everton strategy of telling everyone that you've got huge piles of cash to spend and its got to be more sensible for the club to keep its plans to itself and not end up being fleeced by the clubs we buy from. That is always assuming there is some veracity to the article and it isn't just the Echo putting 2 and 2 together to fill some column inches.

No need for any additional players this season. The extra matches are a chance for us to blood the likes of Gardos, Stephens and Turnbull to see if they have what it takes to become Fonte's replacement in a couple of seasons. Next summer, or the one after (if / when we sell VVD) is probably the time to be bringing in a new player. Agree with St Ash's comment about strengthening the spine, but believe that the Wanyama and Mane replacements are the really important ones this summer.

The one with the white yoke would look better if the sleeves were also white. The one with the red yoke looks fine as the sleeves are also red and so you don't end up looking at three blocks of colour (red sleeve, white yoke, red sleeve).

There's no way to know yet. We might do what we did with the Lallana money when we got Tadic and Mane and end up with new players who improve the squad.

Based on the comments above, the fact that the half time scores, birthday announcements and North car park closures come through loud and clear suggests that the speaker element of the PA system works fine. Perhaps it's more to do with the wireless mic that is used pitchside, or the microphone technique of the person using it.

We did the double over Swansea, but no-one did the double over us.

I guess you are still in denial about the Everton home match then. It was nowhere near a draw! They absolutely monstered us.

Might be worth looking at Serge Gnabry as a replacement for Mane. Fits the same profile as Romeu and Bertrand in terms of not getting a regular run in the first team at a top club. The downside is that he didn't make an impression at West Brom earlier in the season, but I guess it's difficult to make an impression there unless you are a 6ft plus centre back.

It was a reply to the post I quoted suggesting we wanted a draw in both games. If Liverpool drop points by either drawing or losing on Wednesday they won't be able to catch us if we beat Palace.

A draw for Liverpool would be great, but we want ManU to beat WHam as then we have it in our own hands to finish above them on Sunday.

Nothing wrong with the original post. The end of every season is the time for exactly these sorts of comments as we are able to see what impact a few lost points here and there might have made. The point about us possibly progressing in the EL, and the subsequent impact on our league form is also very relevant. I'm just happy that we have the opportunity to progress again and that the final game of the season will mean something.

Did you not read the final 5 words of MLG's post? of course hold onto your best assets wherever possible i.e. Schneiderlin in summer 2014 and VW last summer, but if not possible sell players who don't want to be here and reinvest in replacements who you believe will be as good or better. We've been pretty good at it for the last three years and at no time have we pursued a strategy of accumulation of money.

Money isn't always the only reason, but when it is significant there are only a few clubs in the Prem who can pay more than us - and those are the ones that Lallana, Schneiderlin, Ox-Cham, Chambers, Lovren and Clyne went to, along with City and Chelsea. We simply can't compete with the salaries that those big clubs offer so if a player wants to go for money he can engineer a move by going on strike / throwing a tantrum, or refusing to sign a contract extension. Your plan of spending the transfer budget on increased wages is simplistic given our net spend over the last few windows has been virtually nil.

Sakho is the epitome of a one touch player. Ask him to make a tackle, a header or a clearance and he's the man for the job. Ask him to control the ball, then bring it out from the back like VvD does occasionally, and he looks like Bambi on ice. VW's strength and willingness to take a ball while under pressure means he can hold off a player while getting a ball under control and then make a simple pass. He's go much more about him than Sakho.

Leicester, Spurs and Villa have been pretty consistent this season. I think a better description would be it shows how competitive the league is this season, and IMO all the better for it.

I think that's a pretty good objective for a club of our size to have - to not be doubled by anyone else in the league. Also, to date the only club we haven't beaten at least once this season is Leicester and the only double we have done is over Swansea.

The Dutch posters on here all said that Clasie would take a year to get up to speed in the Prem and he said himself that he needed to get stronger after playing a few matches and seeing what was required physically. I think he has improved steadily since Christmas and assuming he gets an injury free pre season then hopefully he can start to have more impact on matches next season. I like his instinct to pass the ball forward early. JWP, for his other attributes, tends to need time to pick a pass and seems to choose the more conservative option of a sideways ball more often than Clasie. To answer the original question, I think a Romeu and Clasie pairing would be weaker than VW and Clasie, but might develop into a strong enough partnership if given games together.

No one would have predicted this time last year that Jose would implode at Chelsea so there's no telling what might happen at any of the big clubs and whether their new managers hit the ground running. They all have excellent pedigree, but Pep and Conte are new to the Prem so may take a bit of time to adjust.

If Poch wins the League with Spurs this season he will be elevated into the league of top level managers and big clubs like Man U will start to consider him. I think he would be an excellent fit for ManU given the quality of kids that they have in their academy and the style of football that their fans want to see. He'd also be very good at Real Madrid, although they like to buy galacticos who might be less willing to put in the hard work that Poch demands. Barca is a possibility depending on whether he is considered a 'rival' given his history with Espanyol. I thin Koeman will stay for next season and will sign a new contract if we can assure him that we will continue to invest.

We might struggle playing 12 against most teams. I'd say it's extremely unlikely we'll get Depay after the wages he will be getting at Utd. Wijnaldum is not a replacement for Wanyama - totally different sort of midfielder.

That kind of blows pimpin4rizeal's theory out of the water then. Can anyone show an example of a player moving to a mid table club for £25M or more?

Lukaku is just about the only example of a player moving to a non 'top 6' club for north of £25M ever. He's also similar to Bertrand in that he saw what life at a big 6 club is like when you aren't playing and decided to move to get matches. We do quite well in picking up players like that with Bertrand and Romeu fitting that model. There must be others out there though. We can definitely get more value from abroad and have proved that by buying Pelle, Tadic, Mane, VvD and Wanyama. The issue is that if we were to try and get a £25M valued player he would more than likely also be on the radar of clubs much bigger than us, and his wage offers from those clubs would be substantially more than we would offer.