Saint_clark

This is the big window for us moving forward. All of the terrible signings and expensive overvalued players finally off the wage bill. Carillo, Boufal, Lemina, Hoedt, Bertrand, Vestergaard, Forster, McCarthy (maybe) all gone in the last year or so. I know a couple will have been "replaced" but all told that's almost £500,000 a week in wages saved and available for new signings. Something I always remember from the excellent book Soccernomics is that amount spent on transfer fees doesn't correspond to where teams finish in the league, but that amount spent on wages corresponds almost exactly. If we think about saints since promotion this is pretty evident - the amount we spent on the players I listed above did us no good. But if we'd instead spent that money on larger contracts for players like Van Dijk, Wanyama, Schneiderlin, Lallana, and given Koeman the contract he'd wanted, we'd have undoubtedly finished higher than we have been, perhaps even pushed on and established a place in the top 6. These players may still have wanted to leave but being able to offer contracts of £150,000 a week instead of selling and gambling on replacements would have helped. I think that should be our strategy moving forward. Get the key players tied down to longer, larger contracts and make a couple of additions a season rather than needing to rebuild the squad after cashing in and we'll be better off, on the pitch and financially.

I'm hoping for a late playoff push just missing out on the last day.

It's the hope the kills you, glad they got the goal back so it hurt more at full-time. And there are the boos.

We're signing that young lad that's missing from the Charlton line up then? 😉

And now Robertson has injured one of his teammates as well, is he one of us in disguise?

And an own goal to make it 2-0 down at home. This has been a fun watch.

Ref blows for half time while they're on the attack and they go mental, love it 😂

Thank Christ for that.

I'd take him on loan with an option to buy.

Why the hell is Kyle Walker reporting for sky sports? He is still playing, right?

Decent money to play in the champions league, win the vast majority of games you play in and be a star player without much effort required? I can't really blame him. He's tested himself at the highest level for long enough.

Congratulations on attending a seminar once some years ago. Not once have I tried to say the environment he's in is the ONLY reason he's behaving like this. Edit; reading this back and it's a lot more hostile than I intended, I apologise. Worth pointing out I work for prison and probation and have done a lot of work with/about rapists and other sex offenders, as well as heavy deep dives into the mentality of offenders and what leads them to the choices they make. Before I started this career I was very black and white on the issue but there are actually miles and miles of grey area, it's a very complicated topic that in all honesty we don't really want to be discussing in depth on a football forum.

I think it's naive to think that someone who has been told yes their entire life and had people falling over themselves to worship them won't then refuse to take no for an answer. Saying someone is predisposed to this sort of thing suggests that they could have been raised by anyone, anywhere in the world using any parenting techniques and morals and they would still end up being a rapist. Totally wrong. People are, by and large, a product of their environment. Don't mistake this for defending him - the guy is a c**t, no doubt.

I think this is down to the culture around young footballers these days. We're paying teenagers millions and millions of pounds, putting them on a pedestal where they are adored worldwide, the trophy Instagram model girlfriend is just another possession to them so why can't he use her for what he wants when he wants?

To Brojas higher limit, no. Do I think Armstrong could be a 10 goal a season striker - which will always be a decent return for a striker at a side like us - absolutely. The lad can clearly finish he just needs to be smarter about what he's doing. He looks like his brain is frozen every time he receives the ball.

Today's deadline day might be the first entertaining one if Newcastle end up with a panic loan right at the end after being linked with hundreds throughout the course of the day.

Unless I've misread it I think it's being run by the players, so chances are they were too engrossed in actually watching the game. Really think we should invest in hiring a commentator to do actual broadcasts on the website - preferably streaming the game as well.

They'll have moved onto someone else by the summer. Just got to hope there is zero recall clause in the loan deal.

Don't have the billy big bollocks attitude yet. Wait till you've got a generation of 20ish year old City fans who have grown up only ever winning everything.

How on earth are Pompey spending £11.5million on a stadium expansion in league one!?

Newcastle need players who they know can play in the Prem right now because they are in danger of relegation, they don't have time to scout and develop someone, risking that they'll never actually be up to it anyway.

But when he's played, Armstrong has still played well. He's just been absent with injuries. Alli has been shit even when played, for two seasons now. 35 appearances, 3 goals and 5 assists in all competitions this season and last.

...ok? That's kind of irrelevant.

Havent Lyon come out and said there is no such deal in place?

This is definitely the summer we've all been waiting for where all the shite signings are finally gone, all their inflated wages freed up for Ralph to at last put together a squad he can call his own. Next season and the season after will be the true test of all the work Ralph has done and all the faith that's been shown in him.