Minsk

According to another link you posted, it looks like we are asking £20m for Vestergaard. If that's the case, I really can't see us accepting anything less than £35m for Ings - nor should we. Plus, on this occasion (unlike Hojberg last summer) I actually believe Danny when he says he only wants to leave to play 'at a higher level' - i.e. at a club in with a shout a regularly being in the CL. Therefore, unless Utd, City, Liverpool or Chelsea are willing to pay what we want this summer I can see him staying for the coming season. Of course, there will always be a possibility of him moving on in January if one of them suddenly have a need at that point in time. In the meantime, Danny may pick up an odd niggle or 2 and decide his long term future would be best served by signing a new deal with us. Optimistic? Maybe (I usually am). However, not unbelievable IMO. The club know we can't replace him at £20m. For £35m we can get 2 replacements (Armstrong + probably someone not even on our radar) neither of whom are as good right now, but with potential to be of an adequate level for a mid-prem club.

Agreed. I expect Vesty's probable departure is why we have been trying to get Saliba on loan. Unfortunately, looks like he will be heading to France for the year. But a back 4 of KWP-Saliba-Salisu-Perraut would at least be very mobile. Still don't get why many people think we will sell Ings for £20m. Sounds like £20m is the least we are asking for Vest. No way we will price both of them the same. Huge difference between the two. We shouldn't sell Ings for any less than £40m this summer; maybe take £25m for him in January, if we must. Would be happy for us to let him do a Bertrand and leave for free next season. Just use the Vest money to bring Armstrong in and give him a year to adjust to the prem.

Thanks for that. Very good read. Quite excited by this signing and really looking forward to seeing him play in a Saints shirt.

Back in the day I used to play LB, RB or DM. I could use either foot (really bugs me that some professionals can't) but with a bit more accuracy in the left and could generate more power with the right. I was good at winning the ball and passing it to others who could do more with it. I wasn't too shabby at putting crosses in (for the level I played at) and took a decent corner too. Just a pity the level I played at was pretty shit! 🤣🤣 Shame about us not wanting to make a move for Delaney. I like what I've seen of him. Maehle would be a dream, but I fear that ship has long since sailed. Could have really done with bringing him in last summer, as well as KWP. I guess what we could really do with is a Nick Holmes. Pretty sure I saw him play every posisition for Saints, except maybe in goal - but it wouldn't surprise if he played there as well, when a 'keeper went of injuredback in the days of only 1 sub being named/allowed). Not sure if AMN is that player, but could be worth a go......

As with Saints matches, I prefer to concentrate on the game and not look at the pessimistic shite posted on here in match threads. Then, after a well deserved victory, it is always amusing to read all that the forum experts posted. I'm sure some is purely just pessimism, whilst desperately hoping for the opposite outcome; but I am also sure there is an equal measure of people really thinking they know more about football than those who have made a career, and a very good living, in the game. The latter of these generally tend to be the 'I'm always right in my opinion' type of person - who will no doubt take umbrage to these words. Anyway, well done Gareth Southgate and England. I would much rather that type of match, and outcome, than concede 3 and go to extra-time - and most certainly more so than penalties!! Kept to the game plan and got the deserved win. All 3 CBs were fantastic; Walker my pick of them. Shaw was great in the 2nd half - assisted the first and created the second. Rice and Phillips both very poor in the 1st half, but got better as the match wore on. Sterling excellent throughout (probably just my MoM, ahead of Walker and then Shaw); Saka did really well, as did Grealish when he replaced him (especially his involvement in both goals); Kane shite until the goal. And a special mention to Jordan Pickford, who I think is a limited goalkeeper for Everton but, boy did he pull off a couple of very good saves today!! Can see an England Vs Italy final on the horizon.

Given how he was tinkering with the formation at the end of the season, and the statement that we will see much more of Salisu next season, maybe Ralph is thinking of going 3-4-3/5-3-2 next season? In any event, it will be nice to have good attacking fullbacks on both flanks.

Post of the summer thus far Sue!

I fully get all you're saying and really can't find fault with much of it. Being ex-RN I have many friends from all corners of these isles. We always have great banter over sports, especially football and rugby. I have also lived in Glasgow a couple of times and spent a few days on the razz with the Tartan Army when Scotland played Belarus in Minsk (even though I openly admitted to supporting Belarus in the match, in support of my wife, her family and our friends). Only a very small minority are rabidly anti-English, and they were always put in their box by their fellow Scots. Was chatting to a Polish mate this morning who also really enjoyed last night's match. For a neutral, it was a good game to watch. Good matches don't have to have lots of goals. For me, too many England players went missing last night. They simply weren't brave enough and Southgate had us set up too defensively. But hey ho, we will still qualify from the group and progress to the knockouts. Then we really must up our game or go out. As for Ducky (like a few others I could mention) he is full of his own self-righteousness and will never, ever, admit to being wrong about anything. He will keep rolling out the same bollocks over and over again, as if trying to hammer his opinionated views into anyone who reads them. He will rarely, if ever, actually back up his ideas or thought process with actual fact and will ridicule any fact given against his ideas. Basically, yes, he consistently acts like a 7 year old. I don't bother arguing with his ilk very often as it is like banging your head against a brick wall. And the fact there are few like him on here is the main reason why I deliberately restrict myself to only 3 posts a day. Anyway, cheers for the decent posts. Have a great weekend and enjoy the rest of the tournament. I will try to do the same.

Some very dire performances there. Phillips as bad tonight as he was good against Croatia, everything backwards. Foden played well and was rewarded with being the first to be subbed off. Oh well, another 0-0 draw (or any draw) against the Czechs and we go through in 2nd place - leaving the Czechs to face Germany, Portugal or France in the next round.

Pretty much this. Thought Phillips was MoM, followed by Sterling. I don't rate Mings at all but he had a very good game today. I wasn't impressed to see Trippier starting at LB ahead of Shaw, but understand the reasoning for it and proved to be the right call. That said, would like to see Shaw start against Scotland with Trippier moving to RB. Walker made some decent tackles and interceptions today but couldn't pass the ball for toffee.

Restarting in 5 minutes. The 20.30 was Central Europe time.

Match being restarted at 20.30.

Been on the news that he is in hospital and awake. Both teams want to complete the match later this evening.

You have always had a hatred of JWP for some reason. No surprise to see you here giving it large about him not being included. As with your mate SKD, you are always very good at repeating your opinion as fact (over and over again as if the simple act of you repeating yourself gives your own opinion more substance) but rarely ever back that up with anything of any substance. Go rewatch the first half of our home match against Leeds. There was a reason Phillips was taken off at half-time. The reason was that JWP simply outplayed him. JWP is superior to KP in every aspect. Taking 4 right-backs is absolutely mental. IMHO, the only reason Southgate has done that is because of all the flack he received in the press when he last omitted TAA from a squad. Yes, TAA is a good RB - but he is 4th choice. JWP offers more to the SQUAD. How many times have England lost competitions via penalties? JWP is a good penalty taker. Would have thought Southgate would know all about players taking penalties for England! All that said, I am English and so will cheer on England. Doesn't mean I don't think Southgate has got this wrong. Hopefully, KP or TAA, or Henderson will aggravate an injury during the upcoming couple of friendlies and JWP will be included. If not, I will look at the bright side of him getting a good rest over the summer so he can come back fresh ready to captain us for every minute if the next campaign.

And has missed the last 2 matches through injury. Yet more reason not to make a move for him. I would rather our primary LB wasn't one who is likely to spend more time out injured than available.

They didn't. Our 'star player' (the one in the current England squad) and captain was first one up! HTH

For stripes, a very nice looking shirt. Love the video. Why haven't you got the call from Liverpool yet? 🤣🤣🤣 Oriol looked pretty chilled; almost as much as Che.... 😂

It was meant to be a multiple quote, with a few people talking about Tuchel would do a better job here than Ralph has done the past few months. Somehow I coked it up and only your quote was added. So this wasn't aimed at you per se, just a 'what's the point of discussing this' thing as there is no way in the world we are going to replace Ralph with Tuchel. I then tried to divert an inane conversation about someone's dream (of having Tuchel leave Chelsea to come to us) into some more realistic player transfers that could, very possibly, happen. I get that people are upset about our end to the season. I am as well. But I understand why Saints won't be spunking limited funds on sacking Ralph and head-hunting another manager. (Especially one we could never afford.) No one was complaining about Ralph prior the New Year. Indeed, most of the people now suggesting we get rid of him were crapping themselves that he would leave us whenever a manager left another club. Fickle fans. My take is that we get behind him and try to improve the squad the best we can. Then pray he stops with his crazy antics of dropping in form players whilst continuing with out of form ones. (I am still baffled as to why Forster and Stephens didn't start on Sunday; both have played far better than McCarthy and Bednarek recently. That said, had we taken a couple of the chances we had in the first 30 minutes, and gone on to win, we would all have been applauding him. So maybe he did set the team right and it was the players who let him down? Anyway, I digress. Just thought I would try to explain my earlier post.)

Ah well, that's it then, all we have to do is persuade Tuchel to leave Chelsea for us. That should be easy enough, especially when he finds how much we pay compared to them....... 🙄 (Not referring to the two quoted above, but..) It is quite laughable how many people are on here complaining that we don't have the money to buy any decent in one players in one breath and then, with the next, saying we should pay off Ralph and the coaching staff and go buy off another manager and his coaching staff from another team. Funilly, though, I didn't see any of those same posters saying that prior to January. Fickle fans? Possibly. I seem to recall a witch hunt on here after we finished 8th with Puel. Anyone care to remind me how we got on with his replacement? And the one after him? Be careful what you wish for people. As for player sales: really hoping Norwich offer around £4-5m for Gunn; get whatever we can from Celtic for Elyounoussi - maybe another £4-5m? would even take £3m; Lemina to Palace/Newcastle/promoted team for £4M?; Valery to some French team for sub 500k; Long to Bournemouth on a free (as a sweetener for Danjuma coming the other way); maybe Redmond to Norwich for £7m? Hoedt to be loaned out again. All wishful thinking, I know. Then with money saved on the salaries of the likes of Bertrand, McQueen and whoever else's contracts end, go sign a good LB (no idea who), a flexible defender to cover LB/RB (again, no idea who, but think we will once more chase the lad from Utd); Danjuma and a solid DM. (Would also like a better GK whilst offloading McCarthy if I were to be greedy.) Think we will again loan in 2 players. Probably one will be the covering fullback and the other will be an attacker (quite probably Minamino again, but hoping for someone better.)

Yep, nice read. Cheers for that. Wouldn't be averse to us lending Nige a few youngsters for next season. Hope he takes Charlton up, and hammers the Skates home and away in the process.

Well, that's us down now that Fulham have gone above us.... Useless Ralph, what was he thinking? No plan B; ineffective subs; why did he play experienced internationals instead of untried kids?; if only we had Loftus-Cheek (1 goal, 0 assists, in 28) instead of Walcott (3 goals, 3 assists, in 20) to come of the bench and create something for us...... Adams absolutely dreadful in front of goal. Should have buried that chance from JWP's free-kick. If Ings doesn't score we never win a match....... Meanwhile, back in the real world: Good performance. JWP and Armstrong completely ran the midfield. We barely had to come out of 2nd gear all match. Unfortunately, the first time we did was to go down a gear after we had gone 2 up; but once they got their goal we upped the anti again to kill the match off. Minamino not as bad as many have out. Watch the highlights from MotD. He was involved in most of our best attacks. Great to see the first 2 subs make such impacts. Unfortunately Diallo not as much, but still thought Ralph did the right thing taking Armstrong off seeing as we have a stiffer test on Tuesday. Seeing Tella get his first goal, and that smile, really made my day - and what a cross from KWP; but thought the 3rd goal was the pick of them - excellent build-up, passing, and that lovely little back-heel. The icing on the cake would have been for Tella to have scored his 2nd after some great play down the left - didn't give up, won the ball back, cut back inside, 'keeper did well to tip the shot around the post. A 30 min MoM performance? Why not!

Going for my hat-trick of starting match threads which culminate in 3-1 wins. Although, to be honest, I will be amazed if that is the result of this one. A much sterner test than Palace or Fulham gave us, but still possible for us to get something from this game. Hoping to see Forster back between the sticks, but expect Macca to start again with Fraser getting the nod away at West Ham. Would like to keep the defence the same as it was yesterday. Also want to see JWP and Armstrong continue their CM partnership, as well as the Adams-Ings front 2. So I guess the only changes we might see are the number 10s, but not sure we will even see that. Personally, I would opt for Moussa and Theo, as I think they give us more defensively than the other options. Whatever the line-up, I hope they give all those lucky home fans in attendance plenty to cheer about. COYS

Care to explain your reasoning for the belief that RLC would have been a better loan signing than Theo this season? I will offer the counter of, this season: Loftus-Cheek 28 appearances 1 goal 0 assists; Theo 19 appearances 2 goals 3 assists Moreover, Loftus-Cheek only has 10 prem goals and 6 assists in 106 career matches, compared to Theo's 77 goals and 54 assists in 377. That gives Theo a twice as good strike rate and 3 times as good assist record. Theo is also. apparently, on a much lower salary.

Whilst it is always interesting for us, as fans, to see what a new, young, player can bring to the team now is not the time to just hand out starts to untested (or barely tested) youngsters. The difference between finishing 17th and 12th is likely the fee we will spend on our new LB. Even the difference in finishing between 17th and 14th is what 2 loans fees would cost us. Moreover, should Ralph hand out starts to youngsters 'just to se what they could do' and we lose that/those game(s) I guarantee that the same people on here calling for him to just that would be on here slating Ralph (a) for us losing and (b) for being in such a low league position (just go look at the posts prior to the Palace match). Having played on Tuesday, and with another match this coming Tuesday, no doubt there will be changes and ''squad rotation' for tomorrow's match. The likes of Jankewitz and Ferry won't, nor should be, included as starting players. They may well be on the bench in case of emergency (i.e. multiple defensive injuries or 2 x CMs being getting injured, etc) but that doesn't mean they are good enough, or even that Ralph thinks they are good enough, to start. I expect, despite Frasers heroics against Palace, that Macca will start in goal tomorrow. (I would keep Fraser in goal.) Defence is interesting. With Bed likely out does he go with a Vest/Sali CB partnership with Stephens remaining at LB? Or does he go with a Stephens/Vest CB pairing with Sali at LB? (I would go with the former.) He needs to keep the Ings/Adams partnership up front, and I think he will. Which leaves the midfield 4, where we have the greatest number of choices and players available to him. Tella and Theo were rested last time out; Ibra and Moussa have finished Ramadan, so should be back in contention. JWP is a given starter; do we rest Stuey and/or Redmond for this match, leaving them fresher to play against (the probably harder test of) Leeds? I really have no idea how Ralph will roll with this, but I would be tempted to go with a midfield of: Theo-JWP-Diallo-Tella against Fulham; bringing Stuey-Redders and Moussa in against Leeds.

I do apologise, I didn't realise I was attempting to debate with a child. Maybe don't bother asking questions if you don't want to read/hear a reply, which may just happen to challenge to your over opinionated view of any given matter. No wonder many on here accuse you of being a WUM or Skate when you act like a 6 year old putting his fingers in his ears and shouting 'La, La, La, I can't hear you' just because you are unable to validate your point of view other than by repeating the same 'well, that's what I think' over and over and over. Anyone can sit and scream that they don't like something over and over without offering up reasonable alternatives. as you have done in the vast majority of your inane 4.5k+ posts. Maybe you were just having an off day yesterday? I will give you benefit of the doubt and a bit of advise. If you do want to be taken seriously, or if you do want a serious discussion, actually take the time to read what others post and answer the points made. Try giving some balance to your viewpoint with something tangible, or by giving valid alternatives. Maybe go back and read all of my post from yesterday and reply to the points made (I shan't hold my breath) and if you do also consider, and respond to, the points below: Danny and Che have had the exact amount of shots on goal thus far this season. However, Che has managed to get (one) more of his on target than Danny has. Danny obviously has 4 more goals than Che. So we can certainly Danny's shooting is more clinical - as In he puts the ball beyond the 'keeper/defenders than Che - as we all know. But, that aside, he misses the target as much as, indeed so far this season, more than Che. So if Che is (in your mind) 'absolutely dreadful' in front of goal, does that make Danny simply 'dreadful'? Moreover, if you are saying that Che is 'absolutely dreadful' in front of goal because of the amount of big chances he has missed (which is certainly far more than Danny) does that mean any other player who has missed an equal number, or ore, of big chances is also 'absolutely dreadful' in front of goal? Just wondering, because so far this season that would include the likes of: Salah, Mane, Calvert-Lewin, Wood, Werner, Vardy and Bamford! All that said, what do you reasonably suggest we do with Che? Sell him this close season, whether or not Danny also goes? If so, how much do you think we would get for him and who might we replace him with within our budget? Or should we persevere with him, given how well he works within our team and system?