angelman

+1. Did one dodgy pass tonight and that was about it.

Could this just be Agent realising he's ****ed up with his advice and now gone into damage limitation? Someone, either Fonte or his agent, has right royally cocked it up.

He doesn't have too bad a return. But it seems strange that he changed clubs in Italy every 5 seconds, was a free agent after Parma but could only find a years contract in Qatar, before becoming a free agent and joining Standard. They must be laughing what with making a £10.4m profit in 6 months.

Everton have Jags and Williams who are both over 30. Do they really need another "oldie"? Maybe they will - would make sense of that Lovren tweet about seeing him soon (or maybe that is putting 2 and 2 together and getting 440541)

I think it is for the benefit of the fanbase (a simple lot if ever there was), but also maybe it is just giving the tree a shake to see what falls out.

Its great we have so many shots. It would be better if a) they were on target and b) could beat the keeper.

Ron, here's the link - https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/2586011/west-ham-transfer-news-hammers-launch-4m-bid-for-southamptons-wantaway-defender-jose-fonte/ Test our resolve. For £4m?? Not much of a test. But good if there is WHU, CPFC, EFC and others circling. More interest should mean a better price.

I think that we can all realise that he didn't do well at Utd. That doesn't turn him into a bad player. Maybe he made the wrong choice of club to go to. As Ray Parlour said on talkSport this morning, he was a player that he had hoped would go to Arsenal. I can't see why he can't rediscover his touch but do go with the sum of the parts argument.

I think it was good of Levy to insist he spoke English. Speaking through an interpreter meant that there was always a barrier.

Not sure if that is rhetorical or not, but it seems that the piggy bank is a little emptier than one might think. 1 Benteke = 3 other good players??

Reports are Palace looking to sell Benteke and possibly in for Fonte. Well that was talkSport.

So long as it isn't 1-6.

Austin???????????????????????????????????????????

What price would you have put on Mané? He went for £38.5m (inc add ons) and you have no idea what the contract included regarding sell on clauses.

Canada is inconsequential with only 35m people, when China and India are the real prizes. http://www.fullmatchesandshows.com/2016/10/08/could-the-idea-of-expanding-the-world-cup-be-mainly-to-give-china-and-india-a-chance-to-participate-bbc-podcast/

Window, I believe it is actually to get China and INDIA there (rather than Canada). That's 2.5bn people they want to come to the party.

CONCAF, call it 7 teams as opposed 6.5, and you have Costa Rica (17), Mexico (18], USA (28], Panama (58], Haiti (73), Honduras (75) and Curacao (75) filling the top 7, just ahead of Jamaica (77), Trinidad and Tobago (78], Guatemala (79) and St Kitts & Nevis (80). If you look at UEFA, the Netherland are 13th highest ranked (22 in the world) with 16th being Slovakia (25th in the world). Someone sarcastically mentioned silly games like England vs Iceland. That would currently be, according to world rankings, 13 vs 21. I know that some world rankings are completely mad, but even so, bringing in such lowly teams from CONCAF is just ridiculous. It will reinforce the fact that the Euros are by far the best standard of football competition in the world.

Or, he sacks Medes (not sure anyone has ever done that before), mans up and says he cocked up and followed poor advice, and carries on with Saints having relinquished the captaincy. Of course as you say Grapefruit, there might not be too many bridges left. Everton, WHU and Palace are about the level he might go to, but football is a funny old game and maybe Mendes can "persuade" bigger clubs to take him. Portugal would pay him peanuts. China - who knows?

https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-the-truth-behind-jose-fontes-exile-at-southampton-and-that-man-united-offer-110418738.html Interesting.... Fonte made it clear that he has been keen to leave Southampton since returning from playing a successful role in Portugal’s success at Euro 2016, with the 33-year-old defender turning down two contract offers in the last few months before he handed in an official transfer request last week. The second of the contract offers would have guaranteed Fonte a sizeable Premier League pay packet past his 36th birthday, but Fonte and his agent Jorge Mendes have made it clear that he is keen to leave the club rather than commit to a new deal and as a result, Puel opted to head into the Liverpool game without his skipper. So he has had 2 contract offers according to this, yet he said he hadn't had an offer. Suspect that the club provided a fair bit of info for this article.

Fair enough - the average wage was just illustrative that their lot isn't too bad. A good deal for "services rendered"??? Why do you consider that the contract extension that he signed in October 2015 wasn't that good deal for "services rendered"? He certainly seemed to think it was. Between then and July/August 2016, the club's stance hadn't changed, and still hasn't, yet obviously JF no longer thinks that the contract he signed is adequate. Well maybe the club's stance has changed as they might (or might not, depending on who you believe) have offered an increase in his wage. Certainly they haven't done anything negative.

This is basically how I feel. I have very little sympathy with PL players thinking that they should be earning even more money than they are. £80k a week is 154 times more than the national average, and let's not forget that this is just his proposed wage. There are other income streams associated - image rights, advertising, bonuses etc etc. I spoke to a banker once who used to look after a lot of football players. He said that often the wage was about a quarter of the income a top player made (although not sure how accurate that is). I can well understand him wanting to go to a Big 6 club, but the highest he is likely to go is Everton. Do they want him? Maybe West Ham, as they seem to buy anyone. But the simple fact is that he would be knocking on 35 when his contract is up, and his time would be (nearly) up. As you say, there are a lot of fans who think that he should be given a contract extension as a sign of loyalty. Well, all things come to an end, so why not at 35? The contract he signed in Oct15 to take him to June18 was the "thank you" contract wasn't it? “I want to thank the manager, Les Reed, Ralph [Krueger], Katharina [Liebherr] – all of the staff and all of the board – for showing their trust and belief in me. I am extremely happy that they are giving me this opportunity to keep being in this great club, and I hope I can give back with good performances and by helping the club move forward. This is where I feel happy and where I’ve been very successful, so this is where I want to be and where I want to win.” Seems to me that not a lot has changed from the club's side. By his own acknowledgement they showed their trust and belief in him, which now seems not to be reciprocated. The opportunity to stay at the club seems now to have been thrown back in their faces. It happened back in July/August, just a few months after signing. So what changed? People seem to be thinking that it was the Club (ie Les Reed). I would suspect that the Club hasn't changed its stance at all.

State of the national side has been so dire recently that it has killed off any interest, and I am not really too fussed about other countries. Increasing it so that there are a lot more average sides joining the competition is I'm sure very nice, but it will make it even more boring and bloat the competition even more. I tend to go on merit rather than inclusivity, as otherwise it devalues the competition. We have suffered 2 excruciatingly boring round of qualifying for Brazil14 and Euro16, and I guess we have even more boringness to look forward to.

Re defamatory comments on forums, just look at Oyston/Blackpool.

Is he better than the 22yo Raheem Sterling? Or the 20yo Dele Alli?

What have people heard/rumours? Any meat to the bones?? What was MLT's tweet about him not behaving like a captain about???