Micky

Agreed - I'm hoping that the club are taking the principled view with regard to all of this. I'm not suggesting that they should cut off their nose to spite their face, but after having played it so well up to now, I really want them to stand firm.

Nope - BBC sources are better than SKY. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/40897688

It would - but if Coutinho goes - they will have a wad of notes that they can flash at Les.

Yep - and when doing analysis not afraid to put the boot into United either. Pretty fair and unbiased.

Most definitely, this. Couldn't agree more with pretty much everything you have said. I would love to see 'a man off the street' with no footballing background at all (apart from an obvious love of the game) in a pundits chair, as opposed to the ex footballer / ex manager. I know Sky have done the Fan Zone thing and that's not what I'm alluding to at all, there are plenty of people out there who would easily be able to give a much more insightful and knowledgeable opinion to TV audiences than some of the so call 'expert' pundits. Expert - Ex - has been, spurt - drip under pressure.

To be fair 'Sky sources' are not the most reliable...

Couldn't agree more. There has been a whole lot of debating and articles in the media relating to this whole sorry saga, but whats very noticeable is that not a lot of it actually comes from us, the club. We have merely acknowledged the problem, stated our stance with VvD and nothing much further, we have stuck to our original stance. The longer this goes on, and we continue to stand strong the better. I really do hope that we do not sell him, because as far as I am concerned I think the more important thing is the principle now. I honestly think we are doing the right thing with regard to maintaining professional standards of conduct within football. Personally, I couldn't give two shytes about VvD now, not interested in him at all, but feel quite good about how the club have handled the situation. Of course, you are correct, if the dippers do have to sell Coutinho, then they could temp us with a large wad, and I wouldn't blame the club if they took it, but hopefully it won't pan out like that, and if he goes then it's to Chelsea or somewhere else.

I wouldn't worry about it Rog. Pundits are generally still paid from the dregs of the footballing trough, so they have to stay onside and generally go with the populist view, which will always be to support the big club. Very few will have the balls to actually speak truthfully about anything really, they don't want to lose their inside contact's, or rile them for that matter. Not many appear to have any real idea about the real detail of most major stories, and they just trot out a half assed opinion, I find out all rather amusing really. Right across the footballing spectrum, we have some quite appalling pundits, who offer nothing in the way of real insight or understanding, and come across as nothing short of very dim. Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk

Watch where you step.

Shoot him. Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk

Her would have little choice but to play for us. And you're correct, it would probably be put down as "VvD being given poor advice", fans wouldn't think twice about it. At the end of the day agents are just faceless people who, though despised, don't mind taking the sh it, content in the knowledge that another big payday is just around the corner. Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk

No make English...!

Unfazed by the VvD situation, excellent. Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk

Yeah - totally agree - it was the point that I wanted to make and then didn't make all....! We saw pretty much the whole squad shoe horned into different teams at different points in the game. Have to say though - that none of those teams looked very good. I just hope you're right, and when we have our best 11 collectively, we look much better than Wednesday. Sorry - was just so hacked off with the sum of the parts of the day - drive - weather - sons first game - result - bloody drive home..!

We wont see a very different team, but hopefully we will see a very different outcome. Did an 8 hour round journey to see that and believe me it wasn't pretty. It was also my sons first game at SMS..!! I have told him that things can only get better - we are going on Saturday - I'm dreading it. They might have been decent, but we were woeful pretty much all over the park. I'm not convinced that Austin is 'all that', I know he's a good instinctive finisher, but we just don't get the ball into those areas enough to make the chances for him, and he's never going to be one to thrash one in from 30 yards or so. We were lightweight in midfield, constantly gave the ball away and rarely look forward. At the back - shocking - Bednarak and Pied scared the living daylights out of me. In terms of style - it looked like no change to me - we might have had our share of the ball, but we rarely got it into the box, never mind look like scoring. We need major improvement over the course of the next week.

They are not incentives at this point as they had no right talking to the player. They are bribes.

Damn, there goes our best chance of a trophy this season...! Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk

So this happened last week. Last week, and despite him 'talking to everybody, and telling them he's off to Chelsea', this is the first we've heard about it. And here's me thinking the ITK's on this board had all the bases covered. Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk

Thanks, being nearly sixty, such terms can be confusing, no bad thing when you are being insulted though. Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk

I think Les had done a great job over the last five or six years. What's a 'mouth breather'? Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk

It never has been our boards fault, they are managing a very difficult situation very well. Sent from my HTC One M8s using Tapatalk

It had better be good - I have just ordered it on the strength of this thread...!

Surely it would just be easier to post the link here reggae. Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk

Thank you.