angelman

Durham has been smoking something....http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2766102/Arsenal-fans-never-learn-Arsene-Wenger-does-not-deserve-credit.html

Newcastle made a POST tax profit last year of £9m.

Interesting looking at the "Next PL Manager to leave" on Skybet http://www.skybet.com/football/specials/manager-specials I thought RK would have longer odds than 40/1 but of the top 4 favourites, 3 are ex Saints managers!!!

I am sure that I read that he can play Nºs 9, 10 and 11 (if that makes any sense).

I think that too many managers looked at us and thought that the sum of the parts was greater than the whole, when it was very much the other way. I think that we might have been fairly unique in having so many players from L1 come through the squad to where we finished last year. We had some get on the bus in the Champ and a couple more (useful) ones when we got to the PL. But the whole was very much more than the sum of the parts. And that includes the manager who found the squad so malleable.

I am presuming Zaha took a substantial pay cut to return to Palace (and his home town).

Realistically though, £10m??

So will he do a Zaha and go back to where he came from for half the price?

You didn't really read what I wrote. did you?

The article falls down on one aspect - the replacements. If you sell for £90m but then go to L1 to get replacements, then that is sheer folly. But we have, in Morgan's words, possibly a better squad. Certainly it is deeper. One area of concern last year was CB and how exposed we were with injuries - Lovren being off games left us struggling a fair bit. This year - JF, TA, FG & MY (and I have always rated MY higher than many others, albeit he can be prone to mistakes) is on the face of it stronger than JF, DL, MY and JH

Yes, that caught my eye. If they are going to spend £30m on a player who may or may not have potential to be good enough, then that is yet another instance of how mad the world of football at the top has become. To be fair, Wenger did the same with Chambers albeit at a cheaper price. But it seems that Man U have absolutely no idea how to operate in the transfer market. Moyes was shockingly bad and only managed to sign Fellaini for a ridiculous amount, and then later in the January window, Mata for another ridiculous amount. This latest window they signed Shaw and di Maria for ridiculous amounts. People are saying Rojo was way overpriced (but in the scheme of things at OT he is cheap!!). Falcao cost an arm and a leg for the loan. Bilbao got a ridiculous fee for Herrera. Blind seems OK. But then they go and sell Welbeck for peanuts. AS for their recent signing, Zaha - waste of £15m. £27m Fellaini would have got the chop if he hadn't injured himself. Mata - there were murmurings that he was going to get the boot, Saggy Chops came up with a good thought the other day. While talking about FFP, and acknowledging that it was based on income, he moved the discussion a little further on and asked what is fair about one team being able to spend £200m and another £8m. Shame it is coming from him with his record: http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/qpr-boss-harry-redknapp-slams-4208336

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2764969/Louis-van-Gaal-does-NOT-rate-Luke-Shaw-claims-former-Manchester-United-coach-Rene-Meulensteen.html And the Mail jumps on the bandwagon. I actually feel sorry for him. His agents and those around him would have acted on his behalf and you have to ask whether they made the best decision for him. This is of course tempered by the knowledge that he is being handsomely paid. The interesting question would be, would you have him back in place of the £27-31m?

Is it though? Shaw - brought through Chambers - brought through Lallana - brought through Lambert - brought through Lovren - bought Samuel's argument that Lallana and Lambert were brought through by him, is that they got into the England squad. Maybe this isn't really applicable to Lambert, but Lallana last season was a lot better than the season before. Same really for Shaw. Chambers - MP is considered to have brought him through by giving him his debut. And Lovren he bought - apparently.

Yeah, much better to be bottom with no points after 6. Jeez

Shock horror....more negativity. I thought you said earlier this summer that we were going to finish last or something, and not be able to win any games. Why not have some positively about our midweek game? Look at it as a chance to bed in Mané so that he can rip QPR a new one come Saturday? As it is, listen to (ex)players and they say that this two games in a week is largely nonsense, as they want to (and are physically able to) play Tuesday/Saturday especially if the away trip is only a couple of hours up the road.

this.

Wasn't it United (losing 2-1)? SAF said we were the best team to have been there.

Spurs are an interesting club. Turnover wise, they are about 11th in Europe, so probably the world, and have been for a very long time. They are big, no two ways about it. But, on the pitch, save for a season, no CL. A club their size should be there every year, but unfortunately there are at least 4 bigger clubs in this league. Not many other leagues, if any, have a club the stature of Spurs that cannot get CL football on a regular basis.

looks like only Chelsea and Arsenal of the clubs that finished above us last season are picking up any points this weekend!!!!!

I said we would come first. Bit closer than batsman's 19th at the moment, long may that last.

maybe, but he's still a **** of the highest order

van H, totally agree with your sentiments about the elite clubs (as they seem to be referred to). I now hope the English sides all lose in CL, but that doesn't help. It just means that they will spend even more money to try and compete. A wage cap is the only way things will change and integrity return to the various competitions. No one but some/most supporters will agree but no player needs to earn £3000000 a week. A tenth of that is more than enough in the real world, but the real world and football aren't synonymous these days. I would love to see clubs like ours working together in some way that helps both clubs. But unfortunately I can't see it - being in PL, Saints have the buying power so might not be keen to do this. Maybe start off with the academies having an exchange programme and see where it goes from there. That is an area where our clubs can excel, while the elites are happy to take shortcuts by buying in all that they need. For example, I think Liverpool's only player from their academy in the squad is Gerrard.

http://www.insidefutbol.com/2014/09/20/hull-city-look-towards-southamptons-victor-wanyama/161997/ PMSL

Here's their take on Lovren......they're not overly impressed: http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=315355.msg13248524#msg13248524

As they said on BBC Final Score, RK has rather taken away the excuse from other managers of needing time to gel a team.