verlaine1979

Yup, nor can you really see FF being okay with dropping to the Championship.

You could argue that it was lucky that Swansea's points per game collapsed at the same time as ours perked up? If they'd kept their post new manager/new year bounce going one game longer we'd have been toast.

I'm afraid the days when highly paid players signed from major European leagues with the expectation of being first team regulars give 100% in reserve matches are long gone. Boufal is far from the only senior player considered to have not given much of a toss when turning out for the under 23s.

I think the problem is that in addition to not seeing a lot of goals/genuine quality, I don't see much of the kind of defensive solidity and physical presence that tends to underwrite achievements like Burnely's. In contrast, most of the players in our spine are either small, clumsy or slow (or some combination thereof) and I just can't see us putting together a quintessentially 'hard to beat' side from our current squad.

Not exactly - plenty of people have been saying Redmond isn't up to the job of being one of our main attackers ever since he joined, while chances are Austin WILL be out for long stretches of the season. Meanwhile, as promising as he sounds, Elyounoussi is completely untested in the PL. Whatever you thought of Tadic and Boufal, at the moment we've sold/loaned out two international standard players and replaced them with one international standard player. Same with Carillo really - rubbish as he proved to be, our squad is now one £20m striker lighter than it was at the end of last season. We need two more first team quality attacking recruits, but the noises coming from the club suggest that the only way we'll get them is if we sell. But since Lemina and Bertrand are really our only saleable assets now, selling them would just create another hole in the squad. Difficult to see how we're not going to start the coming season without serious deficiencies somewhere in the first XI (unless of course the club have more money than they're letting on, which is a possibility I suppose).

Unless the mooted new signings are a real cut above, that's a squad that will dice with relegation. A lumbering and error-prone defence, a ponderous and goal-shy midfield, a profligate and injury-ridden attack.

And yet he still has a significantly better goals per minute ratio for Spurs than Shane Long does for us... (225 [6 goals] vs 307 [27 goals] for those interested).

Squad has a definite whiff of late-vintage QPR about it. If our up-and-coming types like Lemina, Hoj and Elyounoussi do well, we should be alright, but otherwise we're relying on a couple of disillusioned fullbacks and some increasingly creaky PL journeymen to carry us through.

Looks like an absolute giant on YouTube, though his stats say he's only 6'1. Lots of headed goals.

I guess if we get d*cked by Celta Vigo it'll be at the same point in our preparations as the Augsburg game last season, and we can all start to worry legitimately about a repeat season...

What were Stoke's pre-season results like last year?

Thinking about it, the two note-worthiest teams making a success of playing 5 at the back do both have Eden Hazard in them. Maybe there's something in that.

At the absolute peak of his performances for us, he only made the 2014 French squad as a standby after Grenier was injured and only made 8 starts across the 2.5 years he was in the squad. Deschamps clearly never really rated him.

Much as I like having a genuine flair player in the squad, I'd swap Boufal for Lookman in the squad without much regret.

Fonte was a liability our first season back - remember a particularly egregious howler for Wigan's second when they schooled us at home soon after we came up. He got better, but the idea that he made the likes of VVD, Toby and even Lovren look better than they were is just mental. Moreover, during his last full season with us, but for a few very generous refereeing decisions, I think he'd probably have set a single season record for penalties given away. He led a very charmed life during that period from what I remember.

Even in his pomp the only player in their squad he could've hoped to edge out would be Nzonzi, and assuming they picked him in part because of his physical presence (he's 6'6) I doubt it. All old news now, but none of the French people I used to work with thought Schneiderlin was anything to write home about.

Croatia harshly treated, but felt that France had more goals in them if they'd needed them.

Needed anyone alongside Henderson once the midfield battle started to turn. Neither Alli nor Lingard were able to respond to the change in dynamic - both continued to play as if their main responsibility was being alive to turnovers up the pitch that never came.

Hard to win football matches without a midfield.

Nice turn of pace and finish from Gallagher.

According to Transfermarkt he's played a total of 10.5 top level games over the past three full seasons. Would be an absolutely insane transfer for a position where we really need a reliable addition to the first XI.

Wouldn't have Griezmann there either.

After the world cup he's had, I'd be very surprised if there wasn't a bidding war if he became available.

Is Kane the only player whose instinct isn't to look for Pickford as soon as he doesn't have a clear sight of the opposition goal? We give up so much momentum and position playing like this.

If you were saying it another way, you might have said 'a good manager will train his team to work around the fact that Redmond is an attacker who has no real ability to attack.'