angelman

Didn't realise that S04 finished runners up last year (admittedly only 21 points behind Bayern)

What did Chazza get booked for?

West Ham should go for Lallana instead.

Will be interesting to see how many people turn up to watch. If it was a Man Utd or Liverpool, I suspect the stadium would be full. Saints vs S04 - hmmmm!!

Would be nice if they didn't shine into my eyes the whole time. In the good old days, you only "blinded" yourself when there was a punt out,

3.25 years @ £19.2m is about £6m a season, before wages. We're going to take a big hit on this one, unless he really rips up La Liga.

That Japanese dressing room doesn't surprise me at all. I used to work for Japanese and they are a proud race who are still full of respect for others. On the pitch, they might not have been the best, but by God they are a unified team. And it was appreciated as well. I had an email exchange with a Japanese contact and he wrote "As our team did their best, fans are so satisfied".

One of the best WCs there has been. Started off with all the political bull's hit against Russia, but fair does to them. It has gone off without a problem so far, and the footie has been good.

Reminds me of when we played Chelsea at home last season

So, looking at the criticisms..... Lost their best player - this sort of "short term" reporting (I hate to use the word journalism) fails to address how we could keep him. Leave him in the stands until he readjusts his attitude? Is that what we should have done? Hold out for more than £70/75m? What? Sacked a manager - one that he didn't appoint in the first place. The criticism should have been that unlike Palace who got shot of theirs after 5 games, we hung on far too long. Keeping Huges reeks of desperation. This is curious. He had a poor season at Stoke last year, but left them 4 places higher than where they finished. He had a bad season and a half at QPR, but they were a complete and utter basket case (and maybe finishing 17th was actually quite a decent achievement). Apart from that, he has a pretty decent managerial record. I can't quite see why it is either desperation or short-termism. If short-termism is a criticism then save for Man City, Burnley and maybe Liverpool, who else escapes criticism? But the key line to the whole bit about us is "rather than suggesting there is an in-depth plan for the club's future." That means that the author has no idea about the plans for the future and written a piece of ballocks based on his opinion. What would have been better and actually of interest, is if he had actually done some journalism and contacted the owners to find out what the plans were. But no, that would be like too much hard work. A very poor opinion piece.

So we signed him for £16m on a 5 year deal, which has 3 years remaining. To me, and I am sure others will think otherwise, that means the value left is £9.6m, so if we can get £12m then we are not losing out. Maybe taking into account signing on fees, agents etc, then maybe £12m is break even.

Redmond is quite interesting. To me, he needs a bit more coaching to unlock the best of him. He, like Boufal, was one of the few who was happy to run with the ball and take on the opposition. He lost some confidence I think, and did too often "just stops and lays it off to someone else". I think that was why Gardiola had a go at him. So maybe with a change of management....... (I'm in optimistic mode at the moment, which I usually am at this time of the year just because it is a contrarian position to all the moaners on here).

And his celebration after the WBA goal wasn't acceptable.

Carillo/Pellegrino was complete idiocy by the club. We all know we should have let MP go earlier and saved the £19m. Guess a loan is most likely unless prepared to take a severe hit on someone who is worth half what we paid.

Should have penalty goals

Didn't see all the game but came in to see a 5-5-0 formation by Russia. Was that how they played the whole game?

Just a reminder....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVLMUNF3gH0

Nice one Grapefruit - I like the subtle adaptation from the Charlie Austin song. And glad about the retention of the obligatory "he hates Pompey" even if he has never heard of Pompey.

Is Cabbage this years ITK?

Find it amusing that Les is seen as some sort of villain. Seemed to be OK until Puel, although some might say that we did OK finishing 8th. Pellegrino was a mistake, but hey, we all make mistakes. What no one seems to consider is the remit he was given. He doesn't make that up, he has to run the club within certain parameters. The last owner seems not to have wanted to invest, so it seems that the only option was to sell to reinvest. I think that he did that pretty well. Of course we didn't want to sell all our best players, and why people think Les did is a little strange. The question that should be asked is, what is Les's remit now? What does the new owner want from the club? At least the new owner is not a reluctant one like Kat was. I presume he and his family have some sort of plan.

Of all the players last season, the one that genuinely excited me was Boufal. He tried things. He lost the ball, but he fought hard to get it back. His skill is not in question, so that would then come down to application and attitude.

If Hughes can get Sofi and Gabbi both playing to their best, it might be quite decent to watch.

Have to agree that is looks pretty ****

Most extraordinary career I have ever seen. Started in 1999/2000 and over the next 19 seasons, he has played all of 6,858 minutes in all competitions. That's 360 minutes a season on average. The phrase "stealing a living" springs to mind.

After the England game???