Saint Charlie

Caulker also seems to get into a few off field scrapes...

Pretty sure West Ham were very strongly linked with Bentley.

Caulker would be ok as a squad option but not as the replacement for Toby.

The whole point of the article is that Chambers ISN'T going anywhere on loan.

Griffo will hate this ****.

Arsenal aren't loaning Chambers out. Pointless rumour.

Mirror says QPR willing to let Caulker go on loan as nobody will meet their £8m asking price. Say Saints amongst the clubs interested.

Does that include the technical area seats?

Me too. Would rather spend the extra cash on another defensive midfielder.

Great news. Good pricing and the Club's whole positive attitude towards Europa League rewarded.

West Ham Chairman's Son: @jsullivanwhu: Transfer update - We are struggling on most of our main transfer targets, but we expect some progress before the start of the season! Makes our "don't comment on speculation" approach look very wise and professional (legal action threat leaks apart).

Away leg might be easier to get at them on the break, especially with Mane.

He loves a favourite.

There are also other good CBs alive other than van Dijk. Just worth saying. He may not be a first choice for us.

Probably about 7 or 8. To caveat that though, I don't think anyone else apart from Villa lost two of their best players. So I would say whilst our signings have been great, only Juanmi is an addition rather than a replacement. (Martina effectively a delayed Chambers replacement). Our squad looks really strong and balanced though, centre back aside - and we will be sorting that.

Not the last few summers. Have made some excellent CB signings since returning to the PL.

Probably more than anything is timing. With Gardos fit, Koeman had tried and tested options to rotate or deal with an injury/suspension at the start of the season (where we have winnable games). As often good players become available at the end of the window we could have held out to replace Toby and got someone of real quality. Now we are in a position where we have more games than usual due to Europa League and yet only have two senior CBs, where most other teams have four or five. Not a problem now because we aren't playing matches yet, but surely the Alderweireld replacement is now needed by early August, so we lose the flexibility of waiting to see who becomes available later on.

Haha. Tenuous doesn't even come close. We don't need another striker.

Of the EL games its hard to see too many upsets. Looking at those ties its clear ours was the toughest ranking wise. I guess if we win and are unseeded we just have to hope the draw is as kind as possible.

I wouldn't mind Stephens as no4 if we get a really quality player to partner Fonte. That for me is the key one. Going from Lovren and Toby to either having Maya as first choice, or bringing in someone like Chester as a starter would be a big step down. So I'm sure we will looking for high quality as with all our other signings.

Big club, good home pitch, good Manager, likely to get minutes.

Chester would be a decent addition, but not as a starter i.e Toby replacement. Neither would Maya. If we want to keep improving we need someone near Toby's level to partner Fonte.

Would be great for him to get regular games in a decent side. Someone like Wolves would be good.

Kind of stating the obvious but big benefit to be seeded from looking at that.

Sam Ricketts is a Wales intl too.