Chez

Agreed. He had some poor games, which he must hold his hand up to, but the massive lack of talent in front of him (in the final third) and had him holding the ball far too long waiting for them to show for him.

Mitrovic's finishing at Newcastle has been poor. He looked a handful during the world cup, but he didn't change my mind about his finishing. Is that anyone better we can attract with Premiership wages?

£8m for a rapidly ageing Fonte was fair enough IMO as was the £15m for no where near as good as he was Rodriguez.

in the current market that's hard to disagree with.

Hell yes. At his best last season he was superb. At his worst he disappeared in games and on the odd high profile occasion he got caught in possession leading directly to goals. He should not take all the blame for that. He was not helped by team mates offering nothing. I'm excited to see what he does this season. Hopefully consistently brilliant which will have the top six swarming.

take Forster out of that equation somehow and it becomes quite a vibrant list of young talent. Keeper has been an especially problematic area for Saints in terms of developing talent (through academy or buying very young) so clearly they are giving it some focus.

looks like he is going to just see his highly paid contract out at United. Gives him an extra year to get into shape. What a waste of talent.

Cedric gets injured and we have stop gaps. Signings don't have to be average. Club found Cedric and can sign another, maybe better right back. Do that and the first team improves and we have more chance of winning games. If Valery is good enough to start pushing Cedric then no worries...

Like the sound of that. is he regarded as highly as, dare I say it, Bale/Shaw/Bridge or more along the lines of Targett/McQueen?

amen.

I've seen Mousa Dembele linked with non-premiership clubs like Besiktas (who have to pre-qualify for Europa league) this week and makes me wonder how much he will want paying to leave Spurs? Probably too much, otherwise he's simply sign a new deal with them. Putting that to one side, although into the latter part of his career, I thought he was phenomenal last season. That midfield area is till as important as ever and as much as I like Romeu, Lemina and Hoj at their best, personally I think we lack the height, strength and domination Dembele offers. Total pipe dream I know, but it's an internet forum. so I'm just putting it out there.

I don't understand why we would want Ings. He doesn't have pace or power. He's not a target man. He's not a creator. We need players with at least one outstanding attribute (preferably several). Signing a player with so little football in the last few years is a huge risk. A loan with an agreed fee should he prove himself is the only deal any club should consider.

Agreed. Its the only way to keep your star players. Pay them what they can get elsewhere, or at least try your best to. I thought we should have signed him when we were promoted and I have a feeling that Adkins tried to, but he was too expensive. He was easily the best prospect from the championship at the time and the fact we doubled up on him at Selhurst Park told me how much Adkins rated him at that time. I still wonder whether Nik Nak would have given the likes of Shaw and Lallana the £100k a week they got elsewhere, given free reign, and whether that would have kept them here?

about £13m as I recall.

gulp.

Huddersfield's Jorgensen was also selected ahead of him. Anyone seen much of him or rate him?

size can be important (you do need people that can win headers for example), but speed across the ground is a significant reason why Kante so effective. Looking closer to home, the likes of Morgan and Cork at their best just eat up the yards, enabling them to close people down, get a foot in and turn ball over time after time. Players like Clasie and JWP just do not effect opponents enough or get close enough to them to trouble them. Opposing players just go about their business without ever feeling under pressure. That can't happen. When it does, eventually it costs you as they have time to get their heads up and pick a pass. At the level we are at, we need midfielders that can play with and without the ball. We can't settle for players like Clasie who can be passengers in games.

Gulp. Looked overpriced at £12m, all be it an opinion based just on the evidence in the youtube video

I remember us baulking at the £500k Reading wanted for Antonio way back when.

a big no from me based on that short video. Looks like he doesn't have the size required, physicality or pace and he isn't convincing with the ball. I like centre backs that can play, but a few too many Cruyff turns. We need a dominating monster of a player.

sell Targett, sign Tierney. He can the provide cover at left back and play at centre back too. A player comfortable in both positions might be ideal as part of a three.

shudder. One the main reasons we were so poor at that time. Gave his all, no question, but unless he had a run up he was beaten with ease, which caused us so many problems. We don't need another `footballer' at centre back, we have that in abundance, what we need is a ball winner that can play a bit too.

Has Hughes forgiven him for not warming up when asked (as was suggested was the reason for the dressing room bust up and him training on his own)? That kind of incident doesn't feel like it is recoverable to me. The manager is not going to forgive and forget and the type of player that sulks to the degree that he wont warm up is not one that will then see Hughes' point of view (that Boufal is/was not right to be selected) and apologise for his actions. Personally I think we should never have signed him when we did. Injured players are left out in the cold and find it tough to cope. It's hard enough to settle in a new country and new team, never mind moving and not actually being involved. We should have waited until he was fully recovered. In January he would surely have been available at the same price? Having signed him I do feel he was mismanaged to a degree. He showed decent flashes when coming on. Having done so, on occasion he was then given a start. I admit he didn't shine, but being taken off just as it opened up didn't help on a couple of occasions. He was then dropped every time. IMO he should have been given a run of 4, 5, 6 or 7 starts. The other flair players were doing nothing better, so it really would not have hurt us. Also an arm should have gone round his shoulder and we should have given him a role that got the best out of him, probably in the hole, with complete freedom and with the right players in behind him so as not to congest the space he needed. I don't blame Hughes. It was the previous two managers. Puel especially. He was his signing and he did nothing with the side to get the best out of him. Madness. It's irrelevant now as I cant see him ever getting making it into Hughes plans.

Glad to hear that he is willing to take a wage cut. We desperately need to offload players like this.

yep. More money going out, but the side is no stronger as a result. Not much the club could do having made a total **** up with Forster.