Stu Man Do

If fitness is the issue why wasn't he given more minutes in pre season? He was absolutely superb when fit so hopefully he will get back to that level. Austin and JRod up front could do well for us.

Are you sure? I seem to remember being pleasantly surprised by our away loss to Liverpool, a turgid draw against west bro, and then 4 straight wins. I'm all for supporting the new bloke (despite my misgivings about set up and squad) but let's not change the past to suit being all happy about this season. Koeman was and is the best manager we've had in a while. In fact I just looked we won 8 out of his first 11 games in the league.

Seems to me a similar situation to Lambert who always needed a run of a few games to get up to speed before guaranteeing you at least 12-15 goals a season. Get him in the team and make him the focal point of our attack. Redmond is no Henry get him back on the wing.

I think you're right Fred as far as I remember it the game was against Ajax and was a qualifier which I think red bull won.

How we can expect him to stay is simple, he signed his deal, loyalty goes both ways. We all knew we'd sell some of the first team again this year, if he didn't fancy that he was under no obligation to re-sign. If he'd have not played for Portugal like in the rest of the tournament would the likes of Utd have been after him? I doubt it myself. As for the gentleman so agreement do you honestly believe he expected to be making a move to a massive club like Utd last summer was a possibility? He's on a massive amount of money and we are in no position to sell him at the moment. Surely for any business that's the bottom line. Selling him makes us significantly worse.

For all the gnashing of teeth over those 3 Mane still managed some immense games last season, Schniederlin had arguably his best season after having a hissy fit and even Wanyama played alright last season (Arsenal at home a particular strength). As a club we need to somehow find a way of convincing these sorts of players to stay (to some extent the contract extensions seem to suggest this is happening) and kick us on rather than getting pillaged every single time we have a decent season. It's sad to feel that the extensions are a profit maker as opposed to real team building (perhaps that's just my take rather than a general view).

Seen a few stories of our "gentleman agreement" to let him go under certain conditions. Surely if he wanted it this should have been stipulated in his contract. If it hasn't been I'd suggest we tell him to stick it out here. No real benefit to selling him without someone of high enough quality to replace him and for the money quoted for him it's a joke. Unfortunately for him I think he needs to be this years step too far.

My concern for playing this at the weekend was how often Targett was left on his own defending against two attackers (when Bilbao could be bothered to attack). Seems a bit nuts that we've spent 4 years getting players in to suit the clubs way of playing e.g. 4-3-3 and then ditching it. I of course hope to be proved wrong!

Will other clubs follow suit though? It's not as if saints have said "hey come watch prem football for 20 quid!" We are still taking 30 quid a ticket just virgin are subsidising a tenner of it. Unless other clubs sponsors follow suit why should other clubs make less money on their away ends than us? It'll still cost us 30 quid everywhere but Virgin will have a lot of good will from football fans across the country which is obviously what they want

Not sure how coy he was being, think he's just a bit dull

Anyone have any tips about the best sports add ons for Kodi? I've used Modbro before which is great for any sports apart from football!!

Or like that Alan Shearer fella playing in goal or that Kevin Phillips playing at right back even that Thiery Henry chap moving from his favoured position on the wing to up front? Wonder how they worked out when they moved positions? ;-)

Big build up for a player who will probably end up in and out of the team along with Cedric although this will surely effect whether or not he stays which for me makes this a bit of a meh signing.

22:40 pic and posted at 22:41? Pity it's not fonte after today's mini meltdown but reckon it's an 11pm release ... Attacking mid let's hope?!

Sure I read Jrod was ill.

I had a guess at the Leeds side in the early 2000's under O'leary (whatever happens to him?!) I believe they still (?) have the record for youngest average team age over the course of a season and they made the semis of the champs league so didn't seem to affect them too badly! I have no idea how many of that young team where from the Leeds academy though.

Hi Baj, All seems to be working alright my end now :-)

Random amount of redirects for me. Seems fine on a laptop via chrome but on IPad and safari it's a nightmare.

One we were linked with; Adam Nagy to Bologna for 1.25m. Seems a bargain for an international midfielder and just 21

In fairness they are probably used to it by now what with Adebayors wages last season. Huge amount of money but will probably score a load there with the palace wingers. Hard to judge what is a reasonable transfer fee norm now with this new to deal. Perhaps we will end up spending over 20 m on a player this summer but I sorta doubt that happening with the way we are run.

So if he goes thats what 20+ goals gone from our team from last season? Going to take a couple of excellent signings to negate that. I'd much prefer to actually get use out of the guy and if true he wants to stay keep him on. The board have to realise this constant chasing of pounds is a bit galling to fans. He does a job and like him or not he does score goals. 12-14 goals a season is not to be sniffed at from a club at our level.

Seems a fairly unispiring choice, can't say he seems like the last pair but time will tell. Even if he does well we'll only go and sell the team off again. Big summer and season. Good luck Claude.

Won't just be mums who go out to Iceland now then ;-)

Am I right in saying any goal in any of these two games will lead to us avoiding Portugal ending up as runners up? 3-3 1-1

6m a year that says ... He's been docked a million for his holidays! Expensive boat trip!