James

Was nervous when PEH came on last night, would have gone for Clasie if I were manager but, as others have said, what a run to clear the path for Sims. We'll have a player on our hands when he gets a run of games and finds some consistency.

A nice thought but realistically would never happen. When the so called "big clubs" get to finals the tickets barely make it to a members sale.

I guess we need to wait and see how big a stake they take if and when this is announced. At this stage, the structure of the board and who controls it is completely up in the air. Remember that we don't know what valuation has been put on the club so also wouldn't be able to assess the relative size of the Chinese interest even if we knew the headline cash value.

Sounds like a co-investment not a takeover. Increased geographical exposure and a cash injection can only be good I think. Good to hear Kat is in it for the future too.

Could always stick him on the bench as an emergency target man if he's not fit for the full 90. Especially if we need a goal in the dying moments. Not medically trained but would have thought suitability of flying would depend on how bad the break was. It's a very short flight so can't imagine the altitude would cause undue swelling like a long haul flight could.

Either he is out and is travelling with the team to support as team captain or he's touch and go to play. Would be a massive boost if he was fit. COYR - absolutely buzzing for tonight but very nervous.

If it is a hairline/stress fracture then its almost impossible to tell without (or, in some cases with) an X-Ray. In fairness to the physios he wouldn't even have shown the secondary symptoms of a stress fracture straight away (swelling, pain to the touch in a localised area) and in most cases you would be able to run off a kick to the top of the foot/ankle.

As I recall, Stephens played defensive mid at Old Trafford for Boro.

That's the spirit.

My thinking was that McQueen, whilst clearly less capable than Bertrand, has shown he is a very capable deputy whereas Stephens is completely untested. Bertrand has also done a stellar job at centre back in the past. As much as I like JRod, if we have our backs to the walls then he won't give us much. Long will, as you say, keep a defence in their toes with his pace and can seize on any mistake as he did v Leicester.

For me: Forster Cedric Yoshida Bertrand McQueen Romeu Davis/Hoj JWP Tadic Long Redmond

McQueen is arguably more of an attacking full back than Bertrand IMO. Think this game is too big for Stephens as he just hasn't had enough minutes. Need Bertrand's experience at CB and McQueen has played some pretty big games in his short career so won't be fazed. Think Puel will start Stephens though.

Would be more than happy with Jags in the short term.

His anticipation and timing was a bit off I thought. Went for the ball a few times and didn't get there and then mistimed a few headers. He's young and learning and that's to be expected. Will be a big test for him at Anfield as their players have such quick feet. That said, we didn't concede yesterday and he grew into the game so all in all a solid start but get the feeling we will have to be patient with him and expect a few mistakes early on.

Wish someone would put one on Vardy. Horrible little chav.

VVD in trouble here.

We must persevere with Hoj and JWP from now on. JWP giving us a goal threat and great set pieces and Hoj is much better at driving forward with it.

Exactly. He was third choice behind Yoshi even when fit. He had one good half away at Man U but his performance away at Sheff United still gives me nightmares...awful! The other point which I think makes fans rightly sceptical is that JRod was out for a similar length of time and he hasn't yet looked anything like being back to his best. We could afford to carry Jay a bit in some of his comeback games but you can't carry a centre back and, whilst Jay was brilliant pre injury, the jury was still out on Gardos.

Was talking about Puel vs Pellegrini not Koeman. Also, it was more a general point about outlay. Pellegrini would have cost significantly more in my mind as he wouldn't have been happy with our limited transfer activity so the club would have had to back MP in the transfer market as opposed to Puel who continually says he's happy with what we've got and uses our youth and other back up squad players.

Why is anyone surprised?!

Because, like it or not, season ticket holders make an upfront financial commitment to the club to buy a ticket for every home game. It's a guaranteed income stream that the club can count on (as opposed to walk up sales which are variable). Part of the season ticket package includes priority for away and cup tickets.

Agreed. As good a striker deal as we could have hoped for. Would much rather him than Gabbiadini whose record is pretty patchy and who will cost more most likely.

Part of the problem is that the club are almost boastful about how our preparation is second to none and how we have all the due diligence done in advance to deal with any situation. If you set your stall out like that you are bound to attract criticism when it unravels. For me, this is a return to the mid table Saints of old which, given I've had a season ticket for the last 20 years, doesn't bother me especially but it is a slightly painful realisation given what we've been spoiled with over recent seasons. I just lament a golden opportunity missed last summer when I thought that we would kick on from a position of extreme strength having worked extremely hard to give ourselves that opportunity.

Nail on the head. Decent, likeable player but no disguising that Fonte's departure has weakened us.

Stoke have just signed Berahino for £12m so deals are out there. At his best (and given our ability to improve players) he is clearly better than both JRod and Long.