verlaine1979

He clearly thought he was coming to a mid/low level PL club where he'd be the main man. It didn't happen straight away, and he probably regretted the move almost immediately. It's a shame, as he's got the best first touch and technique of any player we've had here in the last decade, and as it happens, I don't really mind arrogant sods, but you really have to fault the scouting and recruitment. This is pretty much exactly what a friend in France said would happen - he told me Boufal was talented, but was an idiot with a terrible attitude. Unless you're committed to building your team around a player like that, you shouldn't buy them, and you certainly shouldn't break your transfer record for them. I suspect he'll go to a slightly bigger club than us (but not the top tier) and be a roaring success. Insofar as he's capable of playing with real pace and intensity, he's far more likely to make us regret his departure than Gaston ever was.

He goes up with his arms outstretched, Austin is backing into him and his head is pushed against Caballero's left arm, which seems to cause the keeper to lose the flight of the ball, meaning that he starts clutching it a bit lower down. It would've been lovely if it had been given, but I'm not seeing a huge injustice there. Once you make contact with the keeper as he's going up for a routine high catch, you get called for a foul. I'm sure there are a handful of times when this rule hasn't been consistently applied, which is frustrating, but the overwhelming majority of times the foul gets called regardless of who is playing, precisely because it's such an easy decision to make.

I'm 99% certain it would've been disallowed if it was going against us too. As I said, if the goalie is jumping with his arms raised, there's no legitimate way you can actually be contested the ball other than by hoping to subtly foul the keeper. That's why they're disallowed 99% of the time.

Not sure what the fuss is about. That goal would've been disallowed every day of the week. For a high ball like that, no player can reasonably hope to jump as high as a keeper can reach. Therefore, any player who backs up against the keeper when contesting such a ball can only be hoping to put the keeper off his catch. Whichever way you look at it, it isn't a genuine attemy to play the ball, and is thus a foul.

What was Hoedt trying to do there? At first I thought it was a push, but he actually seemed to be bending over deliberately holding his arms behind his back?

There's not a lot of pleasure in watching us these days, is there? Since the game is so dull, what was the last genuinely enjoyable period of play from us? I think probably the last 10-15 mins in the home game against Everton. Pretty much everything since then has been unremittingly grim viewing, win or lose.

Promises to be a very long afternoon if the pattern of the first ten minutes continues. Barely had a kick.

If Davis makes a decisive (positive) difference in this game, I'll happily take back everything bad I've ever said about him.

Whenever one of our midfield commits to carrying the ball forward a couple of yards before looking for a pass, we seem to create something. Whenever they do their standing-still-and-offloading routine, it ends up putting us under pressure. Just a slight uptick in bravery on the ball could make all the difference.

Struggling to keep hold of the ball for longer than about two passes out of defence. Feels like just a matter of time before Leicester score.

I think he described it as a rumour he'd heard. As above, he does have a slim connection to the club due to his stint commentating for south coast radio during the 90s.

He used to commentate on our games for radio solent back in the 90s didn't he, so wonder how clued in to the club he is?

Did anyone else hear Jim Proudfoot say during today's commentary that only a few of our players have relegation clauses?

Might be difficult for Gao to refinance his personal debt onto the club while our PL status is still in the balance.

We've had similar charges with that bank in the past. I think it's just a cash flow facility.

I'm surprised someone hasn't already suggested four lots of Steven Davis's head.

Best signings or best players signed? I suppose if the former, you could argue that a short stay militates against calling someone a good signing, which would explain why some people are picking a lumpen mediocrity like Davis. If you're just talking about the three best players that we've signed, then its obviously Mane, VVD and Wanyama, with Bertrand the only plausible outside pick.

Bit weird that Wigan is being seen as a vindication of playing two strikers. They hardly linked up at all, and the two best chances we didn't take were a calamitous back pass, and a nice through-ball and run from Gabbi, exactly like the ones he made last season as a lone striker. In return for the two strikers barely noticing each other were there, we got a massive hole in the midfield, through which Wigan marched at will until they gave up a set-piece goal and started to get tired/lose faith.

For most of the game yesterday the central area between half way and the opposite CBs was completely unoccupied. Boufal and Tadic had both been instructed to play wide, Lemina and Hoj were very deep screening our dodgy CBs, and Carrillo and Gabbiadini were both trying to play on the shoulder. It's absolutely mystifying that we've managed to invest tens of millions in the playing squad over the past three seasons or so, yet appear to have no one we can trust with playing in that position.

Looks increasingly like a player who has no particular strengths - not strong, not quick, not a great technician. £20m should buy you at least one of those qualities, even in this inflated market.

Never mind a first goal, I feel like I'm still waiting for Carrillo to win his first contested header.

There's a massive hole where our central attacking midfielder should be.

Not sure what point you're trying to make when we got hammered yesterday by a relegation rival rather than a champion's league contender.

Gone a bit pear shaped for B'mouth now as they're 1-2 down, but watching about six of them flood forward on the counter attack from a Spurs corner just now was a sight I can barely remember seeing in the last two seasons. Really makes you realise how little pace there is in our squad.

The worrying thing about him is that we seemingly bought him to provide physical presence and allow us to play the way we did with Lambert and Pelle, but he actually looks a bit of a powder puff. I could almost accept him not being a great technician or goalscorer if he was physically dominant and unsettled and bullied CBs all game, but he isn't that either. He just seems depressingly mediocre at the moment, and despite the cynicism that usually surrounds transfers, £20m still buys you more than mediocrity if your scouts know what they're doing.