S-Clarke

Diallo should have never been seen as a Romeu replacement really, totally different type of player. I think he's better in a more advanced position, but he's also painfully average I have to say. Mane, VVD, Tadic etc were signed from lesser leagues and they turned out alright. But one main thing has happened since the 2014ish time. Player values have moved on. We cannot get a Mane for £10m anymore, more like £25m. Ditto Tadic. But the problem with us is that we've stood still, we still seem to have this blocker on anything over £18m and that doesn't get you much these days it has to be said. Sheffield United spent £35m on Berge, so I think that shows you where the values have gone The club thought they were being clever by signing Redmond for £10m and expecting another Mane, or Elyounoussi for £15m and hoping for another Tadic. It was a dumb tactic that has backfired miserably. I know football isn't all about spending, but when you have a squad that is so horribly underinvested then it's no surprise we struggle. It's horrible watching us every year at the moment, but part of me thinks it's a bit of a mini-miracle that we're still at this level. Let's not waste that opportunity with new owners.

I don't think Diallo was a punt, he was a 7-8m signing which should just be pocket change for a PL club and a squad filler. I'd say Elyounoussi and Moussa were certainly punts in the £15m+ region that we would have expected either a return or at least a profit. Same could have been said for Hoedt, Lemina, Boufal etc but we had to give those guys away for free. I know we always had a laugh at Alpine when he said we were run like a seaside B&B, but it's safe to say in the last 5 years we have been run just like that. Maybe worse.

Apart from that, we're doing well and have a clear plan.

Scouting needs to be spot on for clubs like us, we were saddled with FFP because we filled the squad up with failed big signings on shit wages, so we couldn't ever truly fix those mistakes, we kept either having to 'try' to get them to work or shift them out on loan every year. We haven't seen the back of that just yet, but we're getting there. I have hope that our scouting is better, but we need to stop with the ''we want to find the next tino'' bollocks, as that is not a basis of a transfer plan for a club that only has a handful of PL players as it is.

Still painfully average though and prone to absolute headfucks. Need much better.

It's a big summer for sure, but it's too early to really judge as it stands. You are correct in that the rot starts at the top, no doubts about that at all - and that rot started with Gao and that previous hideous regime that has led us down this awful non-ambitious path we are on today. Yes, we are absolutely great at spin and all the Southampton way bollocks. I would say we were much, much worse under Les and Kruger though. Those years were full of self-indulging bullshit. But what I don't want to hear are the words ''Things are going to plan, we are doing it our way''. ''We are calm'' Because this can't be the plan, and we can't be calm about the current situation. The plan can't about selecting a team for damage limitation purposes. The plan can't be about buying 17 year olds every summer and singing to the media about it. The plan can't be about losing 15 games on the bounce at the end of every season because the squad is shit. The plan has to change. We need established coaches, established first team players, established scouts. None of this jobs for the boys bollocks we've been peddling for years, Davis, Fleming, Theo etc etc etc. We need to use this summer as an opportunity to be ruthless and get rid of utter, utter shit that we've been fannying around for years trying to get it to 'work'. Whether the manager is part of that plan is up for debate, but I will always say the problems are a hell of a lot deeper than him and have been going on much longer than him.

Tonight was an admission, in my eyes, that we have a terrible bunch of football players who cannot compete against the best. So we have to play a way to prevent damage limitation. If that doesn't prompt us to invest then there is just no point anymore.

Almost everyone said we'd be done, people were calling double figures or some ridiculously over the top predictions. We as fans obviously feared the worst and sadly it seems like the club feared the worst as well, so that team and that tactic was pretty much a damage limitation tactic. If we'd have opened that up and gone for it, we'd have been picked off for fun and it would have been an apocalyptic score line as some predicted. It was a weakened Liverpool team, but still...every single one of those players in that Liverpool team starts for us, so it's weak for them but still better than us. Most teams in this league are better than us, we are pretty much where we deserve to be. Should the manager have been less passive? Maybe, but it just feels like a case of him being a loser with either approach. He was on a hiding to nothing tonight and it's not worth reading a great deal into it. But what is clear, without any question, is that we have in the main - bar 1 or 2 players - an absolutely horrific team of footballers and without significant changes in the playing squad, no matter who is manager, we are long gone and the fat lady will be singing by November I'd imagine.

Absolutely, and it's even more important for us to get scouting right as we can't really fix our mistakes. I think this is the first summer in many, many years that we've had a bit more leeway though and more flexibility. We're not going to be competing with Villa or Newcastle, West Ham for wages or transfer fees, but what we can compete with them on is scouting. We won't spend as much, but it's not always about how much you spend it's how you spend it. Brentford have got no right to be above Everton for example, there's like half a billion difference in transfer fee's between them over the last few years. But crappy scouting has done for Everton, not a lack of spending. We were also guilty of crappy scouting after Koeman which hasn't helped us either.

All that says is that we're a mid-table side, and funnily enough that's exactly where we've finished - albeit in the lower portion of mid-table. We're only talking two wins difference from being 10th. The wage table posted above is more reflective in my opinion, but again that just shows we're a mid-table team.

If that's the level we're replacing Broja with then I'm happy with that. Absolutely huge CF. I think he's Peter Crouch height, he certainly looks it anyway. Bayern are/were looking at him for the Lewandowski replacement.

Those sort of decisions are shocking really, that could cost them a place in the league. They were doing well up until that point and had a clear way of playing, which was to frustrate and contain. They were set up to defend, so I can't see anyway for them in this one now as they're going to have to chase, which means gaps and breaks against them.

I did have this same problem, just after the forum had been updated. But mine is fine now, I just cleared my cache. I haven't had to do anything else. I can only think your devices are keeping some sort of cache and not clearing properly? Bit weird though!

An interesting RB option we may go for... Ryan Fredericks, out of contract at WHU. We were very keen when he was at Fulham. Could be a decent freebie to add some experienced depth.

For real? Raphinhia would walk into our team and probably run rings around our existing players. He's like 4 or 5 levels up on any of our number 10's. We wouldn't get him though, he's off to a big club.

I did read that, but I'm trying not to believe it...

I think Jack is out of contract, so that's one down. Redmond and Theo have reportedly been told they can go, I'm sure there will be takers for Redmond - maybe Norwich? I wouldn't expect much more than a couple of mill for him though. Walcott - who knows, absolute daft to sign him. The loan should have been it and we should have moved on, but the club played a PR blinder with that move and that's all it was about sadly. I'd say Crocker had a huge say in that deal. I'd assume we still have a 'bit' of money left over from the summer, as we got in around £50m and certainly didn't spend that much. If you think we can usually spend about £10m without selling, so I reckon we may have around 30-40m to use without selling first. That's a big guess though but I don't think it's out of the world to expect a PL club to have that sort of finance available.

I wouldn't be against the idea, but it may leave us a bit short on options and with a little bit too much to do replacement wise. I don't think he's great by any means but I still think he could offer something as an occasional option, he just shouldn't be playing every week.

We need to do a lot! In terms of players to leave the club permanently - Forster, Redmond, Moussa, Stephens, Long, Theo Players going out on loan - Smallbone, Small New Contracts - Salisu, Cabellero (1 year ext. as third choice) Bring in. 1x GK, 1x First Choice CB, 1x full back cover for both sides (loan), 1x Number 10/wide, 1x Striker, 1x Number 6. GK - Mccarthy and new Number 1. CB - Lyanco, Bednarek, New number 2 CB, Salisu RB - KWP, Valery (additional cover from the loan for LB) LB - Perraud, loan cover (who can also cover RB) CM - JWP, Romeu, Diallo, new number 6 (Romeu style) AM - Elyounoussi, Armstrong, Tella, New number 10 at least 1 - potentially 2. ST - Adams, Broja, Armstrong, New ST (or 2 new strikers if Broja doesn't sign on). One of the new strikers could also act as the '2nd' number 10. Looking at 6 or so additions, which is the same amount as we made last year with no money.

In most cases that's a sensible approach, but our first choice goalkeepers are shit so we really cannot go with a young one who will be good in a year or so. We need a starter from day 1, but sadly I think what you suggest is likley to happen. Young GK to play second fiddle to McCarthy.

I thought he was going to go on and have a good year too, based on what he was showing in pre-season anyway. He's certainly gone backwards this year but then he hasn't played a great deal, long spells out. I'd be tempted to send him out on loan to the Champ next season, along with Will Smallbone - get them both toughed up for the rigors of regular football as they're of no use to us in their current states.

Dortmund have had a bit of a nightmare with the Haaland deal you'd have to say, player holding the power and not renewing the deal so a clause came into effect. They've lost one of the best strikers in the world for what I'd call a messily £50-60m quid. Barca paid £55m for Ferran Torres in Jan! Good bit of business for City though without question, although I'd be interested to see what all the agents fees added up to as that's probably doubled the transfer fee.

He signed a new contract a couple of months ago, he's not going anywhere. Certainly not to us!

Bednarek up against Haaland should be fun to watch next year.

That's always been a worry with Armstrong for me. He looks way too small and fragile to be a success at this level, he can't hold the ball up and he's food and drink for any half decent CB at the top level. He then gets frustrated and when he does get a chance, he often snatches at it - the offside finish was a rare composed finish from him, I still have nightmares of his 'finishing show' away at Watford. Adams is bog-average and it took him time to get used to the league for sure, but what helped him adapt a bit better was his physicality. He can hold it up better, he can back into defenders and play others in etc.