verlaine1979

He's... fine. Don't rate him as a finisher (two misses in the six yard box last couple of games) but he holds the ball up well and often picks a pretty good pass. Obviously streets ahead of A Armstrong who looks like a player from another era, but I don't think it would be hard to upgrade on Che if we're valuing him at £25m.

I suspect even if we'd signed Broja on a permanent last summer, if Dortmund came in looking for him to replace Haaland, we'd probably be seeing the back of him after a season anyway.

I was sitting next to John Miles at a wedding a few years ago and told him how that song was inextricably linked to the experience of supporting Saints as a kid. Must be odd when you make something like that and it ends up having a meaning completely outside your knowledge and control. Very charming and funny guy.

Mentioned this on the JWP thread. We're definitely passing a lot more crisply between the lines, with Armstrong and Ely tucked in more than Redmond/Tella/Djenepo have been. Our attacking midfielders are finding pockets of space, and our defensive midfielders are looking for them through the middle rather than going wide. Having a threat through the middle at No. 10 is something I feel has been missing pretty much since Lallana left, so it's nice to see variety back in our play. I'd also imagine that the danger of Broja getting in behind has completely altered the dynamics of how teams defend against us, as we haven't had a striker with that kind of power and pace in forever.

JWP and Romeu seemingly playing a lot more forward balls between the lines the last two games (also a lot more 1-2/triangular moves around the box). Is that just a result of having Elyounoussi and Armstrong tucked in to receive in the No. 10 positions rather than Redmond et al hugging the touchline?

Conte - what a f**king c**t.

How the f**k did that not get given.

Bednarek having a bit of a mare out there though.

Cantwell on loan to a Championship club. Wasn't he spoken about in the same breath as Madison for a while?

This is the main question with Armstrong. Is he lacking composure or awareness? If the former, then an increase in confidence might elevate him, but if it's the latter then he may have been flattered by the pace and space of a lower league, and never translate it to the PL. He can clearly hit a ball well under the right circumstances, but he'll need to start doing that reliably soon, as he'd not got outstanding strength, control or straightline speed.

(Caveat - none of this is intended to suggest that I think Alli is in Le Tiss's class - he isn't. But the answer above pretty clearly consigns any future MLT to the dustbin too) Begs an interesting question. Would you sacrifice the pleasure of seeing MLT play and the goals he scored, if in return we'd remained a more solid lower-half team and avoided our relegation and wilderness years? I don't think I would. Sublimity beats mediocrity every time.

And my point is that being one of our most creative players is an incredibly low bar at the moment.

As someone alluded to above, rigid application of this philosophy would mean no room for Le Tissier in our team. We're fairly blunt and predictable in the attacking third - for me it's still an open question whether we have the right balance between organization and creativity (though I concede that our squad is short on creativity, so the imbalance is pretty much enforced by default until we strengthen).

Sometimes you can tell. Anyone who watched Aubameyang in the 2012 competition could see he was going to the top.

Attracting a player like Delle Ali, even if it's just on loan, could potentially have a positive effect on perceptions of the club for other targets down the road.

If only that were true. As for Alli, at his best he was a Le Tiss-style dribbler. Never seemed to be moving all that fast, but extremely good close control. Would back him to take the ball around an opponent above all of those three.

Diallo for Redmond, please.

Get Redmond off at half time. Become a complete liability last fifteen.

Eh, it's not like this is ancient history. There are plenty of people still around who will have known what was said at the time and what wasn't. Can only assume that if the club is considering this, it's because they know that a full, public accounting of everything that happened would be even more damaging.

Nah.

Has there ever been anything to suggest that the deal agreed with Atletico for Alderweireld was anything beyond a guaranteed price if the player decided he wanted to join? It always seemed quite open and shut to me that the player just didn't want to sign permanently and wasn't contractually obliged to.

Hopefully. I think the Haaland/Sancho example at Dortmund might have convinced a few that two years at a club that will definitely play you every week before you hit 22/23 is better for your career trajectory. Think Hudson-Odoi in particular has set his development back quite a way by not leaving Chelsea for regular football.

Carvalho looks like exactly what we need, which almost guarantees that we won't actually get him.

Jacob Ramsey looks annoyingly good for Villa. Seen him twice and he just has so much more ability to impact a game than Redmond or Tella (or any of our other attacking midfielders). When you see a 20 year old kid like that imposing himself on a game against United, you realise just how limited our youth players have been in recent years.

Our final ball has been dire today. Redmond and Tella unable to link up with anyone.