verlaine1979

Saints have been pedestrian through the middle for years now. Watching Hoj run through treacle wasn't much fun, but now he's gone, neither of our first choice CM pair have the stride to advance into space with the ball. We've missed Armstrong's more direct running the past two games, but are we seriously banking our season on him? Oh, and I still think Adams isn't good enough. Either his technique lets him down or his anticipation lets him down - there's just always some reason why the chance goes begging.

It's complete rubbish that Boufal doesn't do any defensive work. He's energetic and no better or worse at pressing than most of our attackers. What he does do more than the others is lose the ball while trying to be creative, but if the reason you've brought him on is to try and unlock a stubborn defense that you've had no luck against, then presumably you've decided that the risk of losing the ball in the attacking third is less important than the possibility of creating a chance and taking the points. He's not done much at the club, sure, but apparently his value is now peanuts. For that money I'd rather have someone capable of the assist he got for Redmond against Brighton last season on the bench. Otherwise we have a squad where if Djenepo isn't fit, our next best attacking midfield change is playing Shane Long on the wing.

Key would be to buy someone who was actually French (ideally having gone through Clairefontaine).

Argh, can we just find someone under the age of 24 who is tall enough to head the ball, athletic enough to run with it into space when it opens up and adventurous enough to play a forward pass when it's on? Stick a pin in any French Ligue 1 club and you'll probably have at least one central midfielder fitting the bill.

Swiss Ramble gives an interesting overview of the amount owners have injected into clubs over the past five years. The likes of Wolves and Brighton, Villa and Everton have had hundreds of millions in interest free loans and converted equity, while we've had nothing (well, 1m apparently, but no idea where that came from). Obviously some of that has been spent playing catch-up on newly promoted squads, but hard to argue now that the likes of Wolves aren't now operating a level or two above us in the transfer market now, with multiple signings well above our record. At least we haven't had money flowing out of the club to the owner yet, unlike United, Newcastle and Spurs.

He obviously didn't do brilliantly, as they got relegated, but how did Chalobah do at Watford last year?

Sounds like DaGrosa needed a bigger institutional investor to provide 85% of the money for Bordeaux. Since that relationship went sour within a year, I wonder how many other investment funds and HNIs will be willing to risk funding him?

Redmond has been absolute turd so far.

It would surprise me if Gao had agreed to buy 80% of the club without insisting on a drag along in the event that he wanted to sell.

Soccerex are so small that they're exempt from filing full accounts (they're also consistently loss-making).

He looks pretty small time. Biggest deal still seems to be turning around 250 Burger King franchises more than 20 years ago.

Not a lot of clips on YT either, but what you can find shows a player with pretty dodgy control. His first goal against Madrid went in when his first touch ended up playing the ball against his standing foot.

Watkins can finish with either foot and scores a fair few with his head. Looks a much more complete player to Adams,, who is very, very, very one-footed.

Same starting 11 as ended last season, but our bench will look stronger if Salisu and Djenepo are both fit to take part. Midfield bench very light though - no close-out-the-game type player will be available.

Didn't Hoj only really get dropped when he started talking openly about his desire to leave? Hard to keep picking the captain under those circumstances, especially when his performances dip, as they did quite early after the restart.

MLT's freedom of speech hasn't been infringed. If he lacks the courage to stand by his convictions, that's on him - not the people who used their freedom of speech to disagree with him.

Getting the job on merit? How would you measure that, exactly? Are there viable stats for who is the best pundit? Expected-valid-points-made per game? Unforced solecisms per 90 minutes of commentary? Or is it just down to whose face fits for a given moment in time? And please don't try and argue that having been a good player is qualification for being on TV. The footballing world practically exploded with shock with Gary Neville started showing up on Sky, precisely because he was able to form a coherent thought. Ex-footballers who have something enlightening to say about the game without resorting to cliche and repetition are extremely few and far between, and none of the GSS panel fit that bill. Giving you the benefit of the doubt, I'm going to assume that your implication that only white people with penises can be meritorious is just an errant bit of logic, rather than an unpleasant glimpse at your soul.

You think you're disagreeing with me, but you aren't. You also seem to have confused making the best possible product for you, with making the best possible product for the market. You'd rather stick with what you know - that's fine. It just makes you one of the people Henry Ford said would've asked him for a faster horse. Sky have presumably decided that thinning out the herd of old, reactionary white dudes will be good for their long term business. Time will tell if they're right, but unless you're privy to their internal viewership numbers, sentiment analysis, focus group research and all the other data points that huge media businesses look at every single day, I'd say you're unlikely to be in a position to decree that they're wrong ahead of time.

Probably no coincidence at all - it's no secret that the media does its best to reflect social change back at the society that's changing. It's how you stay relevant/in business. The only people who still want the only faces they see on tv to be white men over the age of fifty, are - you've guessed it - white men over the age of fifty. But no one is obliging you to move with the times - your feelings and opinions can stay the same until you die if that's what you want. Statistically, it's unlikely to be that long. However, corporations are obliged to try and do everything they can to avoid dying - hence why they are less resistant to change than you are.

The article mentions four players but only two positions (RB and CB). We bought two out of the four. Those were clearly options, not bullshit.

These aren't surgeons or engineers, where there's a quantifiable way of evaluating merit. They're just a group of people who talk about live football matches on a Saturday. They didn't 'qualify' for the job in the first place as a result of a rigorous, empirical process that selected MLT and Phil Thompson as the best possible candidates. Someone just decided that they were right in one moment and has decided that they're wrong for this one. There's no injustice here, and suggesting otherwise presumes that these three somehow have more of a right to be on tv than anyone else, which is, of course, not even remotely the case.

Haha, as if we're powerful enough to keep all the interested parties involved during a potential transfer quiet. There might be rare occasions when it's in everyone's best interests to say nothing, but most of the time, the player's agent has no reason not to try and drum up additional interest by talking about an offer being on the table.

Koopmeiners looks strong, composed and a good passer. He also seems like a reasonably strong runner. Being 22 and the captain of his side, on the face of it you'd think he'll cost a lot more than £14m.

They wouldn't be the first tech/media startup to spunk their marketing budget and then run out of cash before launching a worthwhile product. Wasn't there some new online service in Europe that bought up a bunch of foreign league rights and then went bust after only a month or two?

Could be a new record - had his head turned before even making his debut?