doddisalegend

Straw clutching.. http://www.empireofthekop.com/2017/07/07/van-dijk-is-still-cryptically-threatening-to-leave-southampton/

Really of all the areas of our squad that need improving the back four (assuming no player sales of VVD Cedric and Bertrand) is not one of them. I'd have preferred another more experienced CB over the new lad but it's not a disaster. GK, central midfield and strikers are all more pressing areas for improvement right now.

West ham looking to move on Snodgrass for less than they paid for him last January... http://www.bing.com/news/apiclick.aspx?ref=BDIGeneric&aid=C98EA5B0842DBB9405BBF071E1DA7651530FFE51&tid=21E2E1E4FCDA4AA3AAD2A3832F5A8413&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.tribalfootball.com%2farticles%2fwest-ham-boss-bilic-weighs-up-cashing-in-on-snodgrass-4189023&c=1355993890844243319&mkt=en-gb

There was a chronic lack of leadership at the back last season with no one taking responsibility for organising the defence. One thing we had with Fonte (and Kelvin when he played) and with VVD was a leader in the back 5. This showed up most, as you point out, during set pieces.

He didn't get the chances he deserved? He played more minutes than any of our other strikers and converted the least number of goal attempts.......

We'll someone is doing very well out of man u. http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/40516483 Lukaku is a client of agent Mino Raiola, who also looks after Paul Pogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan - three players all signed by United last summer. The Belgian turned down the most lucrative contract offer in Everton's history in March and later said: "I don't want to stay at the same level. I want to improve and I know where I want to do that."

You get the feeling the Manchester United brand is becoming more important than the football. It's all about sponsorship and marketing now and big names sell.

how many Chelsea youth players actually get to regularly play in their first team after a loan?

looks a very saints type of deal would have thought it would be the perfect fit for player and club.

They're lovers?

We'll I guess this loan will be the decider on his saints career if he does well he could well come back and into the first team like Stephens or (it seems) Gallagher if it doesn't go well he'll no doubt end up with the many other ex saints youth players plying their trade in the lower leagues.

source...

Fonte ,Lovern, Toby and VVD....pretty hard for many defenders to oust any of them from the line up when they were at their peak.

They are the least of our problems player wise and did a decent job last season. Our goalkeeper, mis-firing forwards and average central midfield players are all more of an issue than playing Yoshida and Stephens at the back.

yeah seems a strange the ITKs have been telling us Black was a big part of the problem last season seems the club disagree.

Which is kind of the point we should be looking to sign better than we have instead we've plumped for a cheap young option instead.

I'd get the club to sign my nipper from his Sunday league team for £40 million as his agent I get 50%....

We need another proper DM to if Romeu gets injured we have no decent back up. Clasie, JWP, Hoj and Davis are all pretty Meh in the central midfield to.

Spurs at home was a much worse display we actually started well against them and then for no obvious reason just stopped doing all the thing's that were making us the better team after 20 minutes. City that day were just better than us in every department and played really well.

Harrison Reed is still there then surely he needs to go out on loan for a season. Even given the poor state of our midfield he doesn't look good enough to step up.

I imagine his wages demands would be an issue for us he wants at least 70k a week apparently. West Ham will no doubt give him what he wants. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-4650760/Burnley-s-contract-talks-Andre-Gray-stall.html

He was being played to deep Davis needs to be played further forward were he can link up play with the forward players or travel into space with the ball. Having said that he is 32 now so I'd expect to see him getting less time as younger players come through especially if Mope is going to play a high intensity pressing game.

I doubt King will be there when the season starts.

That applies to quite a few of the current squad I'll be interested to see if we can pull off a 100% high pressing game with the likes of Austin, JWP, Davis, Clasie, Tadic, Hoj and Boufal in the squad. I imagine Mope's first job in pre-season will be double fitness sessions...

Hopefully a start on clearing out the dead wood from a squad that has got bloated with mediocrity.