Chez

local MPs, not at all pampering to fans/voters, will no doubt be coming to their rescue shortly by insisting the government allows fans to attend their games to ensure such a vital part of the economy is unaffected.

the trust jumped ship because the future maintenance bill looked scary, but do you think it could have actually been covered by the normal income and paid the wages of the players you have had over the last few years (and £2m transfer fees on Marquis)? I still don't really understand why fans sold up.

which is never taken by these Italian clubs. ballbags. I said a few years ago that these failed signings would remain on our books until their contracts expired, and thats exactly how its panning out. I guess that the problem with being at the top end of the player wage payers pyramid

why would you get a loan fee if you are still having to pay half his wages? Surely you'd just get Lazio to pay a greater percentage of his wages? Doesn't make sense, unless their is some sort of tax reason I am unaware of?

I also have that game in my mind. I'm really surprised he hasn't managed to get a second chance at Chelsea, but maybe they just have lots of other (better) options. Doesn't feel like a good fit though really. Monaco, Chelsea, Milan...Saints? I aint gonna happen. Not sure why I suggested it.

seems like a good deal for us. Never thought we'd get a loan fee for him and always thought we'd have to supplement his wages. To secure a transfer fee for him, great news.

IMO Lingard was one of the most overrated players in the history of the game. A couple of very good goals (in big games at Wembley) and very little else. Why United gave him that huge contract I will never know. We'd have to make him our most highly paid player, unless united too a huge hit. No fucking thank you.

I wondered if Tiémoué Bakayoko might be worth considering? Massive failure at Chelsea, but he looked a top player at Monaco. Loans to Milan and Monaco didn't lead to transfers, but the fees mentioned were hefty, so maybe no surprise they didn't sign him permanently. He might consider a little old club like us as beneath him, he might not. He's on massive wages at Chelsea (about £110k a week), but Chelsea paid £3.5m of that when we went to Milan, which would mean about £45k a week. For me, Chelsea is a club that has a lot of talented players that need new homes to allow them to get their careers back on track.

nice work. Very handy for someone that nips in and out of this thread - I totally missed some of those links.

Hmmm. I'm not impressed to be honest. He is clearly an athlete, but not sure about him on the ball. Again, these three short videos are not enough to make any reasonable decision on.

cheers. I like the sentence: ...he was not only the best player for Toulouse, but he was also one of the best players in Ligue 1 last season. Watched this video too. He nicks the ball off opponents well, which is obviously needed, but with ball at feet he looks very limited. Again, a youtube video tells you little, but my opinion matter nothing as to whether he comes or not.

this must be one of the least impressive youtube videos I have ever watched when looking at players I don't know mentioned on here. If this is all I had to go on, then it'd be a massive no.

I never thought of it like that. Let's hope we have actually done some serious scouting in Europe and have a couple of gems up our sleeve. When a manager comes from an oversees league I expect them to bring some talent with them like Koeman did.

Quite exciting that we should get a new CM and winger. Shame the CM will not be out first choice target and how good the winger will be with the little funds a Boufal departure will provide I am not sure.

is he good enough to make a difference? Started really brightly at Bompey, but seemed to fade.

I am guessing he is referring to the Juve Weston McKennie gazumping

Despite terrrorising us a few times (all be it missing a hatful of chances too) he doesn't seem to be rated there at all.

Need much more from him. Injuries were a nightmare last season. If we can get him firing it will almost feel like a new signing.

I will try to modernise my thinking so that I can converse with you more in future. It's so enlightening. That said, you've got me there. Redmond is picked on a regular basis and he doesn't do nearly enough in a lot of games. Manager expectation levels for our wingers must actually be quite low. If Boufal can't live up to them, then he isn't as good as I thought and we need to upgrade

keeping possession is important, and you can create goals through passing like the brilliant goal against Chelsea, but over the years we have been poor on the break, due to poor decisions and playing it too safe. Redmond is another that can beat men all ends up. He needs to throw caution to the wind a bit more and risk losing the ball. Get to the byeline more often. Just run down the line, slowly if need be. The worst that will come of it is a corner usually. But no, we stop and pass back to keep the ball. It's a mixture of management/playing philosophy and individual confidence.

For me Redmond plays it safe too often. We work hard to move the ball into the final third, but when you get a winger one on one with a fullback and his first thought is keep the ball. Like John Barnes became for England. His first thought should be turn and run straight at the fullback. Every. Single. Time. I guess thats not the instruction from Ralf though. I know this may sound strange, but often thought the same of Boufal. He almost played within himself, choosing to pass it simple rather than doing what I'd like to see him do which is attempt to beat three men. When Boufal and Djepeno (when moved further forward as playing him at wingback was madness - yeah Ralf knows what he is doing all the time!) played together at Sheff United last season we looked a very dangerous team on the break. Not sure if it was just injuries, but we didn't seem to put that same attacking line up out again, which is a shame.

What has football from 50 years ago got to do with this discussion? My point was that I think wingers, in comparison to centre midfielders, are treated poorly. They are subbed early, they are dropped at a whim and often moved on far quicker than players in other positions. Very few wingers play for a club for a long time. Le Tiss, Giggs...er? Why si that? Because manager expect wingers to beat the fullback almost every time and create chance after chance. But they don't. They can't. Or at least everyone apart from Ronaldi, Giggs and Messi can't over an extended period. I do wonder if many managers fail to recognise quite how difficult it is to skip past a player. Tackle someone in front of the manager and you'll get a ten game run. Skip past a player once, but fail to do so a second time and you are benched. I repeat that Boufal may well just not be good enough (you seem to keep missing that part of my reply), but if that's the case, lets not get another workmanlike running midfielder in to replace him. Let's get another that can do just as he does - beat a man through pure skill - but with whatever is seen to be missing. I also repeat, my judgement is always cloudy when it comes to players that can dribble and run at players. If I was the manager I'd stack the side with the likes of Bolasie, Zaha, Antonio etc. just because I love watching that type of player.

As I stated, maybe he is just not good enough, but how many tricky wingers/dribblers do have the ability to play in this league? It strikes me that beating a defender all ends up is the hardest thing to do, and doing it consistently is almost impossible. When you find a guy that can do that, IMO you need to show faith in them, not drop them when they don't create or score a goal in a game. Flair players get treated terribly. Managers will pick a dependable workmanlike centre midfield every week, despite them not being good every week. Why are flair players not treated the same? I guess Redmond has got a fair crack of the whip, undermining my argument. Is that because he is just more talented, retains possession more or because he works back more?

You are right, but he has had his fair share of injury problems over the last four years, not just since Zidane returned. He only played 23 league games in the 2015/16 season and 19 in 2016/17 season. This created frustration for Zidane and probably led to the falling out. He was forced to pick young players, who did well, which meant Bale wasn't first choice. They didn't see eye to eye from then on. Zidane returning was obviously the worst thing that could happen for Bale. I've not seen him a lot in recent times, but he's still a top player, but he seems a different type of player now, more powerful, but maybe not as quick? It will be interesting to see where he is played.

Good quality player, which is what we need (quality), but has had injury problems, which would put us off, I suspect. Everton would have to pay half his wages for us to consider him.