angelman

I thought Mayuka had gone to Russia already!!

I agree. Now I'm not one for twitter etc but it seemed when the Arsenal talk came out, he went on to his not often used Twitter and denied it/said sorry etc. It seems these days that that is the way to quash things, or at least give the impression. If he wanted to stay here, then I suspect he might have tweeted such, but he hasn't. If he perfoms like he did last time out, then maybe it is time to move, although I would far prefer to keep him and for him to knuckle down.

s******ed?

It is Simon Jones who writes more cràp than most at the Mail.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3212148/Southampton-looking-seal-Virgil-van-Dijk-deal-quickly-lodge-8m-bid.html Simon Jones....

Maybe Berahino should have stuck with his old agent, the one who got Sterling his move, rather than take the moral high ground and then behave even worse than Sterling.

Sky got the Bruges Man Utd game on for free on BT Showcase (chan 59 Freeview). But with Michael Owen commentating, and Ferdinand/Scholes/Lineker in the studio, I am not sure that I can bring myself to pay for it.

Are we sure someone is signing today?

Last season I thought Wanyama was better than Morgan defensively, not by a huge amount, but Morgan's vision, distribution and general reading of the game was better. Looking at the Watford game though, Vic seemed to be "distracted". Romelu, isn't as physically imposing but from what I have seen so far, I think he reads the game a lot better than Wanyama. So Romelu is fine in my book, but who do you get to replace Vic for tomorrow. Davis? Reed? Go to a back 4 and push Caulker up? I believe he played DM before every now and then.

http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/600720/Exclusive-West-Brom-Charlie-Austin-replace-Tottenham-Saido-Berahino Would he go there?

4-1 Saints. JWP to get a hat-trick and Steven Davis to get the fourth.

Simon Jones reporting - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3211562/Tottenham-make-18m-bid-Bayer-Leverkusen-forward-Heung-Min-Son-man-nicknamed-Sonaldo-Germany.html - so who knows if it is PR bull or truth? Spurs really are very stupid. I think everyone knows that they have 1 striker in Harry Kane (and one that they refuse to use in Adebayor) so if they come in for a striker this late in the day, they are going to be right royally fleeced. And really as the article says, he is primarily a winger who can play secondary striker. Still don't know what the huge problem with Austin is.

We'll see. You would have thought that they would/should but Levy is Levy. He did say that there were to be no more £20m signings, but £10m +/- a few £m, but Berahino seems to have scotched that.

People seem not to look back at Rio Ferdinand's transfer to Man Utd in 2002 for £30m when talking about Stones and £40m. A lot has changed in the game in the past 13 years but £30m > £40m isn't a huge leap.

Really? You sure about that? So far this window. Bought £29.4m Sold £45.9m http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/tottenham-hotspur/transfers/verein/148/saison_id/2015 If Poch spends a net £50m then they will be backing him with some serious cash. They're going to likely be getting rid of others like Lennon as well.

John Boy, I wouldn't disagree with you. Even if it isn't your intention, that nagging at the back of your mind might mean you give 95% rather than 100%. VVD seems on the face of it fairly committed to Celtic, but you can be at 95% quite happily in the SPL but not so in the CL. Clyne, well some games he seemed to be a little less than 95% and of course, there was that dropping vs Hull which was never explained although it was soon after the press said he was off. Also the same sort of time that he was continually being photographed bigging it up in London. Guess he grew up being a provincial football player to become a "super star" - such excellent role models for kids to follow, although there are far far worse than Clyne.

Yes but the PL deal hasn't kicked in yet - that starts next season - £4.2bn over 3 years, so I would be surprised if they have started paying the increased amount. Certainly they are already paying, so they will still make a profit so long as subscriber numbers stay as they are.

Can someone explain what the point of handing in a transfer request is (apart from kissing good bye to loyalty bonuses)?

Agree, but doesn't work for the Euro equiv with Toby being a case in point (although granted, we didn't buy him).

Urrr. Ummmm. I'll have to get back to you on that one.

Well, we have to look at other teams and how they keep their players. West Ham, Everton - pay big. Stoke might be a better team to compare ourselves to, or Crystal Palace/Swansea. Aston Villa seem to have sold their best 2 players, a bit like us. Spurs is an interesting club in how they manage. They hardly ever offer CL but seemingly people want to go there because it is a big club. Presume they mean they pay well.

I like what I have seen of him and am surprised that some think that he is rubbish. Was away for Everton, and didn't bother watching highlights, so cannot say for that game.

Blimey - a net 973k subscribers. Where the hell have they been hanging out? Is that mainly residential or business. £1.4 bn profit - well that's the same yearly amount they will have to pay PL, so doesn't look like they be going bust any time soon as I am sure that they can stand some losses.

What happens to the PL if Sky go bust? From 18 months ago: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/56167c4e-cf6e-11e3-9b2b-00144feabdc0.html A small fall, but it seems that the product they are offering is becoming ever inferior without a drop in prices. I suspect that when a level is reached, that small drop in subscriptions will become a rush. Taking a snap shot of this thread, it seems that already many subscribers are questioning the product and are cancelling or thinking about it. If Sky keep on losing customers then their revenue falls, unless they make cuts to the service and still charge the same or increase their subscription rates. Either way, the subscriber isn't going to be overly pleased with what is going on and I am not sure that Sky can afford to drop prices. So Sky pay £4.2bn and BT £0.96bn for 3 years running from 2016. They cannot renege on the deal, save for going bust. One might think that they are too big to go under, but they have taken on one hell of a liability which they may well not be able to meet. I imagine that the Middle East could step in, but if it all goes tits up, what happens to PL clubs? They have players on long term contracts, paying ridiculous amounts of money and could find their main income stream suddenly under threat.