benali-shorts

Also a lovely cross for Steve Moran at Fratton Park. Happy days.

Excellent player, fond memories of him. £600k very well spent.

Agreed as well. The vision and quality of incisive passing from our attacking midfielders is very poor.

MB, do you know if they're also playing 3 x CBs? Is it a club-wide dictate now?

Plausibly it's the usual case of having to try and sell with two years left if Che has indicated he won't extend his contract? Shame if he goes, decent player and I always feel we have a better physical presence when he plays.

Whilst acknowledging that there was a top flight before 1991, we've punched remarkably above our weight since then. https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/iWda6/2/

Lovely second goal from him

Interesting that you've fixed your expectations despite not knowing how our squad will look compared to the other 19 teams at the start of the season. I based it on how our squad is currently, and generally I'd base my expectations on knowns. I'm not sure how that makes me "thick" but thank you for your observations.

Wow. We have no chance of top 8 as things currently stand - we clearly have a squad that is bottom 6 currently, including only Che as an established PL striker; and AMs who are proven inadequate at PL level. How would top 12 be deemed satisfactory as things stand?

£12m fee seemingly. Burnley in a terrible state.

Allegedly it was 20% of profit over original sale price of £34m, and I think Liv sale price is c£26m plus up to £9m add-ons.

Isn't the issue that we can't afford £25/30m, given investment required in multiple other positions this summer?

You seemingly have to sort by the final Total Salary column - it default-sorts into a nonsensical order when the page loads. We were 10th highest in 2018-19 apparently.

I don't think we've ever been near the top 3 salaries in the PL......

Thanks for posting. Oriol studious and thoughtful; he has the attributes to be a potentially excellent coach.

Sorry, should have read your comment closer. Long or Armstrong akin to shuffling deckchairs on the Titanic.

Fair enough. A little bit of me dies when I see Long in the starting line up. Agree Armstrong at least offers the hope of perhaps coming good.

I hope so. He seems to have some good attributes - pace; finding space - but has just appeared totally shell-shocked in the last 6 months. Sometimes a goal can be enough to rejuvenate; sometimes the step up is just too great. Let's hope it's the former.

He needs to recapture his confidence, so I’d imagine a return to the Championship (or eg Scottish prem) would be the likeliest level. Although you state he’s “too good” for the Championship, I’m not sure he’s seemed ready for the Premier League based on this season’s performances, and his experience over the last 9 months seems to have adversely affected his confidence, so he might need to take a step back to a more familiar level to regain his self belief. What would you do with him?

Armstrong has looked totally and utterly broken for 6 months+. I’m amazed anyone advocates him starting. We all want him to come good, but his last start (City cup game?) was a painful watch. He needs time away on loan.

Broja's form at Vitesse tailed off at the end of the season too - he scored one goal from Feb onwards - so would be interesting to know if it's a physical/fatigue thing, or if it's an issue of a lack of focus on / motivation for remainder of current campaign. Napoli link at EUR18m seems the right sort of fee, let's hope we're very much in the race at that level.

That's a good point and definitely true that the second game in quick succession is often our nemesis. We outplayed them at ours with a 442 so would be odd (particularly after Thursday's ineptitude) if we don't revert to that. I'd go FF - Livramento Bednarek Salisu KWP - Armstrong JWP Oriel Redmond - Che Broja.

Agree with the injury risk, but then again any CF signing sub £20m comes with its own risks. I think Potter would be capable of evolving Brighton to accommodate the abilities in his side rather than rigidly sticking to this season’s format, especially in light of their form in the last 2/3 of the season. I think Ings would work well there, they create plenty of chances and if Ings had been on the end of them rather than Maupay this season, they’d have a decent points tally.

Intriguing to consider if he was available for 15-20m.

No. Pre-existing contractual agreements continue to be honoured.