angelman

I wouldn't disagree with this, although my preference would be to keep him. I think when it comes to playing, players are generally professional enough to get on with the job at hand. However if he is not part of the "generally professional" set, then yes, sell him at our valuation, and yes, not to Liverpool. The problem then is one of what we accept from others when they baulk at our valuation. I do not think that it is possible to lay the blame of how VVD feels/acts at the feet of Les and the board. They too have to be pragmatic about it, no doubt in consultation with the manager, but them being phlegmatic and sanguine is what seemingly doesn't wash well with the fans. Equanimity should not be seen as treating the fans with disdain.

Maybe Chambers would be a better comparison?

SKD, if VVD goes, then what you write about fans confidence and support being lost is not how I would feel. I am seemingly more pragmatic, or maybe, more phlegmatic than most here.

Ambition (seems to) = how much money is spent. Well at least in a lot of people's eyes. I guess that that is the modern way, but I think it more ambitious to bring through your own player rather than spunk £12414m on one. Take Jack Stephens to be the Fonte replacement that the OP was asking about. To me he is a proper replacement, but I realise that there are always going to be those who won't look at what is under their nose. This is not to say that the team should be 100% "home grown" and I do agree that there should be more creativity in the midfield, a position that has never really been replaced since Lallana left. People go on about DM as well. Maybe we already have that in Hojbjerg. Last season and him was very strange. He started off and I sat up and said "wow" he is a clever player and this will be interesting to watch him. But then it all went a bit Pete Tong and it might be because he and the manager didn't see eye to eye. Maybe the new manager thinks differently. If he can replicate the first couple of appearances then that is Oriol's partner sorted. And why can't he replicate how he started? But as it is, I don't really want SFC to go out and spend £30-40m on a player, and that has nothing to do with being unambitious.

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/631975/Virgil-van-Dijk-to-Liverpool-Southampton-Charlie-Austin-Jurgen-Klopp-Transfer-News-Gossip

Deadly Catch? Or Deadliest Catch?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-4722012/Man-City-sign-right-Danilo-Real-Madrid-27m.html They seem to have signed Danilo.

If Walker went for what he did, wouldn't RB be in the same region? Buying off of other PL teams has never been cheap, but now it is astronomical.

They're all insane amounts. Really hope Sky go bust and stops this ridiculous escalation of cash in the game [sic].

Jose Fonte mk2, and a stated long term love of WHU?

I feel the same. We are there to make up numbers. I often ask what the point is and come back to the entertainment angle as being the only thing. It is clear that only 6 maybe 7 with Everton's "reemergence" are of interest to the powers that be. And then you have Scudamore who has a "burning desire" to have overseas games. That tells me all I need know. I

you show me a club that has broken a contract with a player and got away with it?

Its modern football for you. If you don't like it, get off the bus. My stop is in view and I will be getting off soner rather than later. Its an industry that over hypes itself, over sells itself and over pays everyone in the top league. I was going to say that the times before 1992 and Sky were better, but our rise from L1 was fun. We now find ourselves in a league, like most others, where it is all about money and how much you can spend. When someone can spend more than you, you lose. Money and knowing how to behave in a decent and proper manner have never made comfy bed fellows. Its a pretty taudry business and one that I find ever harder to reconcile with.

Its easy to blame the agent, but FFS he is a 26yo and surely can make his own decisions.

Not really. I am fairly ambivalent TBH, and like it when my faith (or lack of) in the way players treat the club due their nummamorousness is not disappointed.

The club holds THE card - the player's registration.

Depends on what the owner wants to do. You can't run a company / club by letting players go when they feel like it.

The thing I dislike is players signing extended contracts, benefiting from increased pay and thinking they can just break the contract when it suits them. The argument that the transfer fee is higher is not wholly relevant. But ever since his incredibly rude and disrespectful no show at the player's awards, the writing has been on the wall. Still, tge situation is not really much different from what it has been. If no one makes the right offer....

You can keep your Twitter postings, I still recall that he found other things to do on the day of the end of season bash that the club/players have. A doctor's appointment wasn't it? Wonder if the surgery was in Blackpool?

If it is the home 0-0 vs Hull, I'll get one too

If he scores more than our strikers, then good on him. He wouldn't have likely have done so if staying with us. For once, the player's future has been taken into account, so good on him if he can. Would you rather we kept him warming tge bench?

Palace is an interesting one. No other clubs nearby, at least by the standards of crossing London. Who is closest? Charlton and Chelsea/Fulham? To the south, its Brighton. Have often heard people talking about a new stadium and expecting to fill 50k. Why not? They have the catchment area.

I'm sure you can get him if you cough up £75m. Not really a difficult concept. All this prevaricating from your side is a tad pointless.

Isn't that a bit strange?

What was his injury? Not sure I ever heard the OFFICIAL verdict.