verlaine1979

There was a lot of interest in Slattery when he turned 16 - another one who has now become an identikit lightweight blonde without standout qualities. Was the academy secretly being run by a Nazi eugenicist for a few years? We have clones of JWP the way The Boys from Brazil had clones of Hitler.

Surprised at how his career has developed. Couple of cameos in the cup 4/5 years ago and he looked like he had the raw materials (good shooting, neat passing and awareness) to become a decent attacking midfielder.

Oh you sweet summer child.

You haven't looked very hard. Examine the seasonal transfer balance of Bordeaux before and after the takeover.

JWP has played more games for Saints and scored & assisted more Premier League goals. How much more of a stint do you want?

I've only ever had a problem with the overblown hype - of which comparing him, even charitably, to Iniesta is right up there. Back when this debate was actually relevant, Davis was always compared very favorably to JWP. The forum majority decried Ward-Prowse as an impotent, sideways-passing lightweight, while to me the two of them were practically indistinguishable in contribution, aside from JWP's better delivery. So, now that he's comfortably surpassed Davis's PL contribution in both goals and assists, are we nominating Ward-Prowse as the most underrated player in the league?

Of course, those qualities - so subtle as to be almost ineffable - must be why he's had such a storied career lighting up the Premier League with Saints, Villa and Fulham. 'Model pro' is how successful players describe average players who've had long, unspectacular careers.

He was unspectacular in both the defensive and the attacking phases. We conceded many goals through his lack of marking, and saw many attacks break down because of his conservatism. He kept it neat and tidy but forgive me if I consider that to be the absolute bare minimum for any premier league midfielder, and not the defining characteristic of 'the most underrated player in the league (tm)'.

I never really disliked him, just thought the praise here was overblown for a player who seemed to define workmanlike averageness whenever I watched him. But then I always preferred Zidane to Deschamps.

Elyounoussi will still have two years left on his contract when he returns next summer - coming out now and stating he'll never be good enough to play for us would only upset the player and depress what little transfer value he has.

His finishing is still rubbish though.

Yup, annoyingly good pass - absolutely perfectly weighted first time.

So RLC's subsidy from Chelsea would be more than we pay our top earner. That'd be quite a striking illustration of how the other half live, especially if he spends any significant amount of time in the treatment room.

Diallo, Grujic + a punt on a cheap/loan AM that none of us have heard of would be a good end to the window.

Wonder how well we'd do with Diallo/Grujic - Armstrong/JWP - Redmond/Ings as our 2-2-2? (not that I think we'll get two DMs)

Apparently they want £18m for him.

Not watching tonight, but I'd take Grujic over any of the names mentioned so far.

Probably loan fee + 100% of his wages.

Nope - based on what RH has said, we need 2, probably 3 additional players, and only getting one would undermine the team and the manager.

Eh, he did okay, but still seemed to want to win headers against Wood by leaning towards the ball rather than jumping. He's a better option than Stephens in that situation, but only just.

I'm not sure you understand what that word means. You seem to be under the misapprehension that any injection of capital would immediately make the club unsustainable. On the contrary, investment can make a business both more valuable and better able to cope with the vicissitudes of competition and other temporary fluctuations. On the other hand, if you mean 'self-sustaining', there are very few examples of closed systems that are entirely self-sustaining. Whether you're talking about businesses or organisms, over time they tend to either consume themselves, or are consumed by larger rivals.

It's four years worth of highlights (includes his debut goal if I'm not mistaken) and there's quite a bit of repetition. I'd say it actually illustrates (to someone who has watched him play week in, week out) that a) he doesn't actually take on defenders very often and b) his end product is usually a pop straight at the keeper.

They've spent between £80-110m more than they've sold over the past five seasons, and by these reports are looking to spend significantly before the end of the window. Interestingly, Transfermarkt have us with an exact net spend of zero for the window so far. Coincidence, taking the piss, or a genuine signal that the owner really won't sanction any spending that isn't matched by an equivalent sale or loan out?

Veerman sounds more like a central AM than a defensive midfielder.

My point was just that the assist was doing the basics well, not an example of great vision or understanding. As for his goal against city, it wasn't a fluke, but he'll get one chance like that in his whole career. On balance I care a lot less about the rare worldly than the decent chances he spaffs away every week by having no composure.