verlaine1979

Redmond glides infield, ignoring the obvious run from Bertrand before placing a pass into touch on the other side with that cultured right foot.

Why people assume Redmond must be fast doesn't bear a lot of scrutiny. I wouldn't bother pondering it for long.

Not according to the sprint data that was accidentally included in one of Hoedt's signing photos - Redmond has a decent spring, but no real sustained speed. I know some people have questioned the validity of those numbers, but honestly - when was the last time you saw Redmond burn someone for pace over more than about five yards?

He doesn't have pace. The reason why everyone is saying that Sims gave us something different with that one run when he poked it round the full back and then sped past him is because Redmond isn't quick enough to do that. He's got a yard of pace to make room for a cross, but he's apparently got the same sustained top speed as JWP and Tadic which when you consider the latter two are starters, and Redmond was for the first half of the season, is probably why we always get reeled back in so easily when attacking on the break.

Hooray. Our saviour.

JWP trying to loop a header in from 10 yards is hardly the same as Firmino and Salah having the ball under control with the entire goal to aim at from 12. Couple of half chances from swung-in balls, but created nothing clinical all game.

Always liked his crossing, though wasn't it him attempting a square cross-field ball in his own half against Reading that basically cost us going up as champions? Or am I just assuming it was him because in my memory the ball was played left to right?

To seek alternative points of view, such as yours. See how this works? That said, close control is something p!ayers usually have or don't have, and you can tell straight away. I'd be very surprised if he turns out to be the linking target man we were looking for on that evidence.

Hardly written off. I saw quite a lot of shonky control from him, but as I said, I'm abroad and the stream was freezing quite often so entirely possible I missed his good work.

Was watching a very patchy stream admittedly, but looked a total donkey from what I could see?

Redmond doesn't have pace. He's got a yard of acceleration at best to create space, but no flat out pace at all really. Top speed is on a par with JWP if I remember that leaked spreadsheet correctly.

The Pep thing was obviously just spin. Guardiola has a temper and he just picked the closest player to b*tch to about the fact that we basically sat deep for 90 minutes. Reading it as an endorsement of Redmond's skills is laughable.

This is utter rubbish. If your strategy is sh*te it doesn't matter how wholeheartedly you commit it. And half the time wholehearted commitment to a strategy is actually the problem (as the print news business will tell you at length). I think you're mistaking a South American speaking slowly and clearly in a second language for having a clue about how to win football matches. Look at his selections and game management - he either has no clue, or his ideas are junk.

Reports relating to Promes are that we're nowhere near bidding at his £30m release clause, so the £50m spent in one window thing is probably just PR.

Only Lampard was already a 10 goal+ a season midfielder (across league and cup admittedly) when he was still in his teens. That said, the really big seasons didn't start until he was 25/26, so there's still time for JWP, even though he is building on a lesser goalscoring foundation.

It's obvious that Tuchel was never a genuine option. No suggestion from anyone in the media that there were every any substantial talks - just about a week of embarrassing gossip that we wanted him, followed by a firm 'not interested' from his representatives.

Yawn. If your ball winners aren't good enough to pass the ball to your ball players, you need to get new ball winners. Irrelevant in our case anyway, as all three of our ball winners are better passers than SD anyway (JWP might actually be a very good passer if he played with a little more speed and confidence, but that's wish fulfilment for another day).

I only saw the release clause mentioned today by the Mail or similar, and it didn't seem particularly authoritative?

Heh, exactly what you do with a £30m asset you're on the verge of cashing in.

Stephens is too weak in the air to ever be a first choice CB.

Not really - Promes probably the pick of them, though I've always liked how Dzagoev plays. That said, everyone knows the PL is awash with money, so I doubt we're in a position to insist on bargains wherever we're trying to buy from.

The money definitely left Anzhi, though no idea about the rest of the league. The two biggest sales from the Russian league were both in 2016, with both Hulk and Alex Teixeira going to China for £40-45m.

Promes has a contract until 2021 and is apparently one of the top players in Russia. I doubt we'd get him for £30m since that was what Chelsea paid for Willian five years ago when they bought him from Anzhi.

He's been asking for too much time on the ball for a couple of seasons now. Wants a look at every option after he's received the ball, but 9 times out of 10 he still tries to pick the simple backward or sideways ball. A total liability in the middle this season.

Three years ago he was slow, mediocre and massively over-rated. Today he was a special kind of awful - mystifying that he managed to stay on.