egg

He'll get kicked about in the championship, too good for league 1, but not good enough for the prem. It's a decent enough standard and he has enough flair and pace to do well in that league. Makes sense to me.

Great move for the lad. Not quite prem standard but not suited to the hustle and bustle of the championship. Good luck to him.

Quite. It seems that our fans think that we dictate the terms on which we offload players.

Who cares, we ain't got the player or getting the cash. Whether Pompey or Ipswich get a sell on makes no difference.

What's the suggestion, that Danny has been handling pre-season at another club ready for Ralph to fly in last minute and take the reins leaving us in the lurch?! There's nothing to see here. Danny has moved on and Ralph had a gammy leg which he got sorted before the season began. Relax and enjoy the fight for 11th place.

Broadly similar to my thinking. Leicester Everton, Watford and Wolves will all compete in that group beneath the top 6 and I fancy Leicester to come out on top and actually push the top 6. We'll be below that lot but points wise I fear closer to the team in 18th than 7th although relegation isn't a danger in my opinion.

So his qualities are that he's a weaker, slower, worse version of JWP?

That's the point. Verlaine talks about the club being in debt but refers to a debt that the owner apparently has. The 2 things are completely different.

I'm not sure whether you're a tedious troll or what. Decisions from last season are completely irrelevant to your stupid argument that we are weaker with Cedric/Hoedt/Vokins in place of Targett. We aren't.

Your point was that having them around makes our defence weaker than last season. I don't get your rationale one bit. We'll have to agree to disagree with your assessment. To my mind nobody could seriously argue that Cedric + Vokins + Hoedt in place of Targett make us weaker in defence. Very odd.

They make us stronger because we didn't have them during the second half of last season. Do you seriously say that having Cedric available as an option at RB or LB makes our defence weaker? Seriously? Do you also believe that having Hoedt as strength in depth/an alternative to Stephens makes us weaker than not having him? I suspect you agree with me and you're just trolling - nobody can seriously say that our defence is weaker now than it was at the end of last season.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Bertrand left of a back 3 with either Cedric or Vokins left wing back in some games. Not ideal but it gives extra quality, experience and pace back there.

Feck me, you're obtuse. We shipped Cedric out half way through last season so he was barely available for RH. He's a new player to RH this season. People (you I suspect if I could be bothered to look) slated Targett as not good enough. Cedric is no less able than Targett to cover Bertrand. He can cover RB also so unless you're arguing that him covering there ahead of Ramsey is not an upgrade then even you'd accept that RB has been strengthened. Vokins is a huge talent (and don't be a huge helmet again and ask me to define huge). Hoedt at least gives another option ahead of Stephens and injury cover so we're better placed. Our defence is better than it was for the latter half of last season.

Sophist, ha!! I have not stated any position as a "fact". Its you who refers to purported debt. Debt apparently taken by the owner in his personal capacity, but not secured against the club or its assets, is not germane to the club's overall financial position. You appear bright enough to understand the concept of 2 distinct entities, and that the club only has a debt issue when it a) has debt and b) cannot service it. I am in little doubt that the club has liquidity issues (re expansion at least), but I've seen or read nothing credible to point to the club itself having any debt concerns.

I agree that we're a long way from being comfortably top half, but how has out defence got weaker? We've lost Targett and gained Cedric (and Hoedt but that may not be a gain). Midfield / attack has gained Boufal, and up front we've added Adams and Djenepo. Looks like we've strengthened from front to back to me.

What's this debt you talk of? Back to the topic, if the kid is an upgrade then a loan makes sense, but any CB we sign surely has to be 1st team ready. A19y/o CB has to be very very good to step into a Premier league team.

Who gives a monkeys. He's had it.

Band

I'd be delighted with either Bakayoko or Drinkwater.

You're ****ing tedious pal.

Don't ask stupid questions. It's an opinion. Do you have an opinion on his season ahead, or potential generally?

No offence was intended. To me as a layman, the notion that a major sports clothing company cannot supply a shirt with a label that stays on makes no sense. Like you say thoug we don't know what the issue is, but my suspicion remains that it's not that UA can't put a label on properly.

He'll play a huge part this season. Pre season involvement doesn't dictate the season ahead.

Gotcha. We are where we are sadly, which ain't a great place!

That's his natural position but it looked at times last year that we were trying to convert him. The move makes more sense if he was going there to get game time in a different role, otherwise it looks like an acceptance that this is his level and he's putting himself in the shop window. From what I've seen he's a bit above the conference.