James

Surely a win is more valuable than keeping players fresh for Wednesday? I mean, it's a game against a Championship team. A fourth defeat on the spin (regardless of selection) in a week where the captain has handed in a transfer request won't do much for club morale ahead of a semi final.

Got to wonder what the club promise the players privately to get them to join/stay for a while. Can't help but wonder whether the internal rhetoric of the club is at odds with what's actually being done in practice and is happening on the pitch.

Agreed but probably best not to have it out on the pitch in front of the Sky cameras. I remember the commentators remarking on it at the time.

Public argument with Puel on the pitch pre-Bournemouth, coming out in the press to voice his displeasure at being left out....etc..

Got to wonder what the club promise the players privately to get them to join/stay for a while. Can't help but wonder whether the internal rhetoric of the club is at odds with what's actually being done in practice and is happening on the pitch.

In your opinion...I can't see why the club would risk the negative publicity of releasing this story in order to get a bit more cash (especially at a time where we've lost three on the spin). He's going and we have put it out to control the story and put our own positive PR spin on it. Nothing to do with drumming up interest IMO.

We haven't had to do it mid season at January prices before. It depends whether the club truly saw this coming in the January window. If they did then we will have a replacement but if they thought Fonte would stay until the summer then they've got a job on their hands to get a deal done for the right player in the next three weeks. It's a very tough ask IMO. If he isn't replaced we are one injury to VVD away from a nightmare scenario.

I disagree with the sentiment of hating Fonte but he really hasn't handled this well at all. He will lose a lot of goodwill for behaving as he has, the same as Lallana did. Rightly or wrongly he will be abused by some sections of the crowd.

The captain should be one of the first names on the team sheet. JWP hasn't earned the captaincy yet.

The point is, he isn't liked by some of our best/most senior players. It's far easier to replace a manager than it is to replace three decent players.

What a terrible decision. Shocking really.

Replaceable for £6m in today's market? I highly doubt it. Even Gardos cost £6m two summers ago. We will need to shell out £10-15m at least on an upgrade over Yoshida. I can't see us doing it in January.

Massive loss, our defensive solidity (in the main) is the only positive thing about our play at the moment. As it stands (assuming Fonte doesn't play again), we are an injury to Van Dijk away from playing Yoshida and Stephens in a Prem game. Still, at least Jose will be nice and fresh for his new club having hardly played.

Yes, they did.

Fonte has to be stripped of the captaincy whatever happens. Can't have the team captain wanting out. Let him sit in the reserves if nobody bids high enough.

Terribly timed from our so called captain, we are a week from our most important game of the season. Don't let the door hit you on the way out Jose, you aren't what you once were.

Ultimately the club's value is in the playing squad so I suspect player power will prevail if this is true. As others have said, not even Mourinho survived once he'd lost the dressing room.

Fair enough, as I say, not doubting you just surprised he said it.

Whilst I don't doubt what you say, I'd be extremely surprised if Long thought CP was the best he's played under given his poor form and lack of game time. Who knows though?

I read the OP as referring to Fonte, Long and Bertrand but obviously not clear. JRod also made noises about being frustrated at being rotated out when he needed games to find form post injury so could be him too. Hoping this isn't true in a way as I'm still not sure it would force Reed to pull the trigger and we won't get any decent results with a lame duck manager and a squad in revolt.

The parallels with our downfall to relegation are a little concerning. Sturrock got some ok results but the senior pros didn't like him and we suffered a few heavy defeats then we persevered too long with Wigley (the cheap option) and we were down. If this is true let's hope the board act quickly and make the right choice re replacing him. Might make sense to make a move given two of our options (supposedly) Silva and Rowett are linked to Hull.

Nice theory re Adkins but doesn't he come from Liverpool? Maybe a case of a local going to watch a team he was once closely associated with.

Thanks for posting. It's plausible for sure but depends if it's an Armageddon relationship ending bust up or a team having a few heated words after some dropped points at home (which, to be fair, you'd expect after a performance like WBA).

If it's impossible to win then why bother turning up at all? Hopefully it's just lost in translation but not a particularly inspiring or competitive attitude there.

Agreed. Now that our defence is looking a little shaky it won't yield any points.