Midfield_General

Really nasty challenge. Because it’s Van Dijk though it can only be a yellow, because he can’t possibly have meant it when he went over the ball with his studs up at ankle height. And Peter Walton - what a craven, snivelling toad that man is.

My god, we've actually got a proper Premier League football team and bench!

9/10. But for me, what has been so impressive is not just the volume of change and the quality of who we've brought in, but the incredibly low prices we seem to have been able to get them for. £9.5m for a player of ABK's ability? £12m for Lavia? In a world where Wesley Fofana is valued at £70m+ and Anthony Gordon is considered a £60m+ player, that is chump change. Aribo for £10m, Bazunu for £15m, the City kids - who knows how good they will ultimately turn out to be, but at those prices even if they just turn out to be solid PL players who make a regular contribution, then we've got them for an absolute steal too. For the first time in years our scouting and negotiation teams look to be operating right at the top of their game - with the extremely shrewd appointment of Joe Shields at the heart of that. For a club of our size and resources, with our model, nailing that side of the operation is absolutely business-critical and if we've got these signings right, which early signs suggest we have, then this could set us up positively for years to come and really give us a foundation upon which to build and kick out of mediocrity into something much more exciting and akin to the Koeman/ Pochettino years. It's obviously not as sexy as signing a £40m striker, and that would have been the absolute icing on the cake, but that's what's really giving me a warm fuzzy glow. It feels like we've got the foundations right at last. The future is bright - it's red and white. COYR.

Staggering insights as always. I wonder how much he charged them for that. God, I hate him.

I hate to tell you this, but you're going to be disappointed.

They don't want to sell him anyway.

The Athletic saying we have been sniffing around Nat Phillips. https://theathletic.com/3557705/2022/09/01/aston-villa-southampton-bednarek-2/

No, he hasn't. Not yet, anyway.

Bednarek hasn't gone yet. I don't think we'll let him go unless/ until we've got Caleta-Car or another CB actually signed up.

48h ago he was superb against Chelsea.

Official - Romeu gone to Girona. £5m. What an unbelievable signing he was for us. Loved him, best of luck to him.

Adam Armstrong, Elyounoussi and Adams all left everything on the pitch. Gave it all, just brilliant to see. Delighted for AA finally getting his goal, and Adams bullied them all night, his hold-up was unplayable. Lavia was a further cut above. Wishing him a speedy recovery. But ABK... damn. Absolutely different class. We have got a serious player there. Has transformed the defence, not just by oozing quality himself, but also by making Salisu a better player by playing alongside him.

The best football documentaries aren't the big, glossy Netflix ones, they're the ones that show complete car crashes from the inside. Some great ones if you haven't seen them: 'Chester City - An American Dream': An American called Terry Smith, who had no experience of football, bought Chester City, decided he could do a better job than everyone worked there and ultimately made himself manager, with predictably disastrous results. 'Orient - Club for a Fiver' - Featuring possibly the most famous and hilarious half-time team bollocking in history, where the manager offered to fight all his players: Plus of course 'An Impossible Job', the one about Graham Taylor's time in charge of England:

Copying over from the general transfer thread: Got a nasty feeling Che may end up Everton - but for a much bigger fee than was originally being discussed. Chelsea are going to throw silly money at the Gordon deal. Everton desperately need a striker. Che goes into the last year of his contract next year and for one reason or another it seems we were ready to listen to offers for him two weeks ago. If Everton come in with the sort of big, desperate offer that they’re so good at, I still think we’ll sell. His current purple patch may just be seen as a fortuitous opportunity to crank the price up on a player we were prepared to move on anyway. I really hope not, as I really like him, but I could see that being seen to make longer-term business sense. I think we do need to sell someone to help fund the other signings, and no-one’s biting on the players we really don’t want. As I say - I hope not, as I think he’s shown what a valuable player he is for us. And we’d need to be very confident about the player(s) we brought in to replace him.

Got a nasty feeling Che may end up Everton - but for a much bigger fee than was originally being discussed. Chelsea are going to throw silly money at the Gordon deal. Everton desperately need a striker. Che goes into the last year of his contract next year and for one reason or another it seems we were ready to listen to offers for him two weeks ago. If Everton come in with the sort of big, desperate offer that they’re so good at, I still think we’ll sell. His current purple patch may just be seen as a fortuitous opportunity to crank the price up on a player we were prepared to move on anyway. I really hope not, as I really like him, but I could see that being seen to make longer-term business sense. I think we do need to sell someone to help fund the other signings, and no-one’s biting on the players we really don’t want. As I say - I hope not, as I think he’s shown what a valuable player he is for us. And we’d need to be very confident about the player(s) we brought in to replace him.

Pound for pound, one of the best signings we’ve ever made. Terrific player who will be really missed. Never once let us down - good luck to him.

Bournemouth pens about to be shown live on SSN

Legend. RIP Dave.

Totally agree with this. The concern around CB seemed to be whether ABK was ready to step straight in as a reliable first choice. If he is - and on yesterday's showing he definitely looks like he is - then I think that's CB sorted. Lyanco and Stephens are perfectly adequate back-up to Salisu and ABK as the starting pair, with Valery as fifth choice for emergencies. Ship out Bednarek for a decent fee to reinvest elsewhere and job's a good 'un. Only reason I see we'd spend on another quality CB would be if we're going to persist with 3 CBs. So if we don't buy another, then that hopefully suggests the end of that experiment.

Our point against Leeds starting to look better by the minute

Nah. We didn’t create much but we were generally solid in a way we haven’t been for a while. The free kick aside, how many times did Bazunu get properly tested? We kept them at arm’s length, stayed in the game and then picked them off by taking our chances. We definitely need to improve our creativity in the final third, but it was a pretty sound away performance.

Yeah, that was ridiculous. Cleaned him out. It was easy to tell he hadn't got any of the ball as the ball continued in the direction of the run. Yellow all day long.

Defence looking better a) as a 4, and b) without Bednarek in it. A few wild early swipes aside, Djenepo doing just fine at LB. A Armstrong a weak link, again. Given the ball away so many times when the pass has been on. 0-0 at HT is decent though. Hopefully see Adams before too long in the second half and maybe then something will start sticking when we play it forward.

Also, ‘Garner’ doesn’t rhyme with ‘saga’. Do you know what a rhyme is?