stevegrant

Did you see some of the **** Martin Skrtel got away with last season??

Three runs short of another batting point, which will have been a bit frustrating, but Tomlinson got his maiden first-class fifty. He and Balcombe rather put our middle order's "efforts" yesterday to shame.

Did a clean sweep of all their Player of the Year awards last season.

If they do go to £25m, then of the three I would argue the only actual "value" signing they've got there is Lambert. Lallana and Lovren would be significantly overpriced, but in what is (in theory, at least) a seller's market, that's the way it is. I'm sure we'd have liked to have only paid £5m for Tadic, but Twente were well within their rights to demand more than that.

Perfectly acceptable.

Has Schneiderlin said anything more recently than his "I'll meet with the new manager and see what he has to say" quote? I must admit I've not been following that particular saga too closely.

As I said previously on this thread, I'm not 100% certain the quotes attributed to him in that Croatian newspaper actually came from him. I suspect his agent - or someone else working on his/Liverpool's behalf - has been authorised to attribute quotes to him with the intention of forcing this move through, but it doesn't appear to have worked very well so far. That's not to say that he doesn't want to go to Liverpool, he clearly does, but I'm far from convinced that he'd actually go on strike to force it through. He's due back next week, I believe, so I guess we'll find out for sure then.

This assumes the wage figures in Football Manager are accurate. I would suspect not. Wouldn't be surprised if he was on £40-45k with us, that seems about par for the PL these days.

The question was what's your starting XI based on the players at the club right now. Fair to assume the Tadic signing is done, so he's included. On the flipside, we know Rodriguez won't be available until near Christmas. With that in mind, I'd go: Boruc Clyne - Lovren - Fonte - Targett Wanyama - Schneiderlin Ramirez - S Davis - Tadic Osvaldo ( )

I don't think Spurs are in the market for him. At this stage, it's Liverpool or nobody.

£25m is what we are asking for, with Liverpool so far having offered £18m. Suspect we will accept £22-23m, but I'm not convinced they'll go as high as that. They could get much better for less if they actually scouted a team other than us for once.

Liverpool haven't bid £20m, though.

Not heard any different.

Just as well he didn't get the Eurostar over today...

City would be happy to get shot of him but I fear his attitude to his career has changed somewhat. No idea whether Koeman's got any history of reviving failing careers, but if so could be worth a speculative punt. Would certainly give us the genuine pace that we've lacked since Rodriguez got injured.

Sinclair's stock has fallen pretty dramatically since he left Swansea, he barely even made the bench for that woeful West Brom side last season. Everyone knew it was a suicidal career move to go to Man City but I guess the cash on offer was too good to turn down at the time.

This is my view as well, I'd deal with anybody outside the Premier League for £15m+, but refuse to deal with Liverpool even if they doubled their current offer. There was talk that CSKA Moscow were interested, not sure whether they'd be able to afford that sort of money for a transfer fee, but they'd certainly be able to do the wages and offer Champions League football every year, unlike Liverpool who will be in it this season and this season only.

Yes, because that's the way news works. M&Y's sports journalists will predominantly focus on Saints because we are the only club on their "patch" with Premier League exposure. Despite being based in Portsmouth, pretty much the only work they'll get connected to them is match reports.

No chance. The "tapping up" rules that have been in place for years are an utter waste of time. I'm not sure any club has ever actually been properly sanctioned, even in cases where it was so obvious it had been going on.

No, FA and Premier League rules forbid that sort of deal as "Third Party Influences".

Liverpool are absolutely complicit.

Good source, but you can never be 100% with these things as they can drag on for a while (as we've already seen!)

Probably worth somebody doing a bit of research into the people Lovren has around him to conduct his footballing business. From what I've heard, the "quotes" attributed to Lovren have been planted by someone working for him - that doesn't mean to suggest that the words aren't what he feels, but this situation is being controlled by a Croatian agent close to Lovren (described as the Croatian equivalent of a Mafioso, FFS! ), and Liverpool have allowed him to leak all sorts in an attempt to force the deal through. Liverpool's offer is currently £18m, Saints are demanding £25m (personally I'd sell to anyone but Liverpool, even at a lower fee, just to not do business again with those ****s) but will probably accept a couple of million below that.

I'm led to believe Tadic will be signing tomorrow, with paperwork being finalised tonight.

What's happened there then?