Ken Tone

agree that the loan from Swansea was a weird one if true, but Howe was quoted on the BBC hours before the deadline saying that yes they had made a bid, but nothing like what was being quoted in the media, and it had been been rejected. Sky then spent several hours talks about an £18 million bid as if it was news, well after it wasn't. Their deadline day coverage is all about hype, not reality.

Looks like a good idea, though I see that there is only one train an hour on sundays. What's the parking like at/near the station please? btw ,someone else suggested Oxford parkway, but that's not a direct journey, you have to change at high Wycombe or Marylebone.

Credit to yoshida for playing on so well after his injury. He looked to be in quite a bit of pain at times.

It's not "nearly everyone". Those of us who rate JWP, and always have done, had given up saying so on here because we just get shouted down. He's a good young player who successive managers have rated highly, as have England managers. He's not an absolutely top class PL player, but he may yet become one.

Thought he did ok ,but really only ok. To to be fair, he Suffered from the way the whole team ,and crowd, were deflated by van Dijk going off, so even a top, experienced premier league CB would have looked poor in comparison. In that context he did pretty well.

What didn't make sense to me was that the lino didn't actually raise his flag. He made an odd signal with his left hand to the ref when the ref looked at him. Ref then came over to talk to him, awarded free kick and then the lino raised his flag.

it's even worse than that. The obscene wages figures that are quoted publicly for players nowadays are *after* tax. In other words they expect the club to pay the tax for them too. (Which incidentally is what Portsmouth failed to do, hence their huge debt to HMRC )

i can't watch the game, so please keep up the occasional reports.

But meanwhile, Rtan Seager is playing again ,and scored on his return to the u-23s. He's a natural goal scorer, and at nearly 21 is just at the age when he ought to break through into the first team, IF he ever will, and IF he is now really fit again.

In the modern game, no player has one club at heart. They may start out that way, but sooner or later, money takes over and loyalty goes out of the window. They're all mercenaries.

I think the downside of our many bargain buys etc is that many of our players, and arguably managers like puel, take time to adjust to the premier league. Mane, wanyama , etc were nothing like as good in their first seasons as they later became. I'm hoping Boufal will be better next year, once he has learnt when to try to go past 3 players and when to get rid. it feels like the same applies to Puel. He started the season with fixed ideas ....eg the diamond , Redmond as a central striker.. and now he's consistently playing 4-3-3, with redmond wide. His record suggests that he should end up a good manager in the EPL, but he isn't good yet. The question is ,how patient are the club going to be? I suspect that unless we drop close to relegation, the answer is 'very'.

Sorry not to see sims on the bench. He at least wakes us up a bit when he comes on.

His wages would be more of an issue than the transfer fee.

yes. Far from building up an atmosphere, it actually dampened it.

IT was good to be able finally to hear the announcements etc, but they need to turn down the music. It was so loud that we couldn't talk to people next to us without shouting in their ears...more.like being in a club than being at a match. Some people near me were complaining (when we could hear them, after the music finally stopped!) that it actually hurt their ears. If it continues at that ridiculous level I'll not renew my season ticket next season.

It's not just his set pieces. He passes well in open play. Too many professionals seem to rate him for him to be as bad as some of the amateurs on here seem to think.

The 'i' newspaper has a piece today reminding of the Stevens enquiry in 2004-ish, that concluded that 17 transfers needed further investigation. 4 of them were to Bolton whilst Allardyce was manager. Several others were to Portsmouth whilst Redknapp was there. The FA and FIFA bottled out of a proper investigation.

Anybody seen a replay of the Shane Long booking? It really didn't look like simulation to me, but I was a long way from it.

Thanks for the response to my diamond question. I can't say i like what I've seen of it so far this season, but then I'm not the manager !

Genuine question ..... Are any other premier league teams playing the diamond formation this year ? Or did any last year? And indeed, how common is it internationally? I seem to recall England using it a while ago.

Thanks. Waited patiently one year only to discover they'd closed the car park I'd been using and not told me, hence a bit anxious.

Has anybody received their seasonal car parking tickets yet? We paid for ours at the same time as we paid for the season tickets, but have heard nothing since. We've had problems before with them cocking this up, so are beginning to get nervous right now with the first game only 11 days away. Would be good to know if others have had theirs yet. Thanks

I'm lookoing forward to the. Dave merrington version!

most of the wages quoted in the media for footballers are AFTER tax, or to be more precise the tax is paid for them by the club as party the contract. So the £100k a week or £5 million a year is take home pay. Obscene isn't it?

Well the value of the pound collapsing will have caused a problem, let alone anything else. Is the contract in euros? Probably not. So both sides will be looking very closely at the exchange rate before signing the final version.