S-Clarke

I don't buy that ''best team that's ever existed' mantra. The Barca team with Messi, Villa, Pedro, Xavi, Inesita, Mascherano Alves, Busquets, Pique. That was on another planet. The one with Neymar and Suarez wasn't too bad either. I don't see City on the same planet as those sides to be honest.

Why do people get in a tizz about Garth every week? Just take his opinion with a pinch of salt as he's only employed for his comedy value, he isn't a professional pundit. I don't take anything he says seriously and I don't think anyone in the world of sport does.

Sadly he was always a bit of a broken player, as others have said it's a waste as technically he had all the tools. His attitude and professionalism is why he'll never make it at the level his talent should be seen at. A modern day nothing-footballer who is all about the $$$ and celebrity. Our due-diligence went to sleep when we signed him.

Goalkeepers can probably be an exception to that rule though, they can go on much longer than an outfield player. Sam Johnstone, rumoured target, is actually 29 himself.

Bartłomiej Drągowski is someone the club has tracked, there were links to him in the summer and maybe before that. Plays for Foirentina, seems to have been injured a fair bit this season to be fair.

There is similar rhetoric if we lose 3 on the bounce as well, certain posters bump this thread and 'the cult of Ralph' gets trotted out etc. For a club like us I've always said that you're not going to get a better fit than Ralph, no chance. It's a bit old school in the sense that he's not just the 'first team coach', he's involved in all areas of the club and across all age-groups. Some people may be a bit uncomfortable with that, but if the club and the manager believe in the approach then I don't see what's wrong with it. The lack of a squad was always looked at as an excuse last season, but it very clearly wasn't an excuse. When you have to include the likes of Watts, Vokins, Ramsay, Jankewtiz, N'Lundulu in the squad on a regular basis in PL games then you really have no chance. The fact they're all now playing at a much lower level says it all. His approach is absolutely spot on for modern football. High press, intensity, counter pressing. You never really get bored watching us and we are always on it, I certainly don't miss the days of watching us under Puel where we'd just pass it around the back four for approx 85 mins. Or Pellligrino where we'd have no idea where we were actually passing it. I like a club with a philosophy and a style to get behind and he's 100% created that. There will be bumps in the road, but it was always a daft idea to do away with him.

That was his last goal for us, think he only scored 2 or 3 so he'd definitely got at least one before that game. I'm sure he scored a header.

Yep, that's the winner for me. That was outrageous.

A very tenacious little player. Doesn't have much in his locker technically from what I've seen, but he doesn't half get stuck in and isn't afraid of the battle. Bit of a warrior/fighter and you need players like him in and around the squad.

I'm not a Redmond fan at all, and he didn't have a great game today (bar the assist) but he's not been bad this year, fairly decent when needed. But without question we need to invest big money in a quality immediate starting number 10, the lot we have at the mo aren't up to it. Just imagine if we had threat on the break through an Saint-Maximin type player along with Broja, it would give us an edge. We struggle to get out because our 10's are very, very limited. Tella is probably our best.

He gives us an outlet we didn't have last year, pace and power on the break. He's getting better with his hold up play as well. So many good attributes to his game. I didn't think he'd end up being the 'Ings' replacement in the summer, but he's streets ahead of Armstrong in everything.

He's progressing really, really well. From the first moment he stepped on the pitch for us he just knew where to be, he has this uncanny knack of sensing danger which isn't coachable. It's just part of his makeup and that's priceless. Add that to his unique physicality and pace and he has the potential to be a proper royals Royce of a defender. He's still rough around the edges in some parts of his game, but they're getting smoothed out as the months go on. He seems quite a switched on lad given that he turned down Ghana to focus on his club career first, so I'd like to think that he'd do the sensible thing and sign on here for the foreseeable future. We won't keep him forever if he continues his development, but it's important that we protect our asset as he could be worth VVD money to us in a few years.

That was exhausting to watch, f**k knows what it was like to play in. A miraculous point really against a team that just didn't stop passing the ball, they always found an angle or a touch even in the tighest of area's. You have to be mentally on it as much as physically. The goal was a great finish and KWP has threatened to do that many times, but the build up was equally as good. Really good football, switch of play, reverse pass, underlap etc. All top quality build up and an equally top quality finish. We held them at arms length for most of the 1st half in the main, we were able to shut them off with a low block quite well I thought. The only area causing us some problems was our left side as that's where their pace was (Sterling), his open goal chance was because Redmond didn't follow him in and Perraud was dragged centrally. 2nd half it was backs to the walls really, whilst we didn't get any noticeable possession we still should have scored a 2nd through Broja's header - it wouldn't have been ruled out. We play that high line for most free kicks we defend against and it really is a calamity waiting to happen, you need a front foot goalie to play that way really but we don't have that. That's not discrediting Forsters performance by the way, as it was his best in a Southampton shirt since the Koeman days. Overall that's a result I didn't expect, I thought we'd cause them problems but I didn't see us collectively shutting them down as well as we did for 90mins. That was a proper team effort and it's never fair to choose a MOTM on these games really, but you can't look beyond Salisu. Giant.

Is anyone really surprised by Watford? How can you create any sort of football club when they change their manager 2 or 3 times a year? I don't know what their owners expect really, they don't give anyone the chance to build anything. Must be a very empty experience following that club. It's a good example of how a football club would look if the fans took charge of it and knee-jerked at everything.

The drop off in quality with the bottom 4 lot is huge. They'll get a few sneaky results along the way, but I just cannot see how they can sustain anything in order to survive. It's like watching a Championship game.

That is staggering really. The PL really manufactured a truly pathetic situation here. But clubs like Newcastle took full advantage. Respect to us for actually 1) getting on with it and 2) not lying about positive tests.

To be honest, as an attacking full back in this day and age you need to be able to cover both sides. He can still offer a threat on the left, he just has to learn when to cut back in etc. Cancelo at City (obviously at a different level) does this brilliantly, he's naturally a right back but flops between left and right. It's not like KWP isn't getting regular first team football anymore, the LB spot is up for grabs and it's up to him to take it and become a name on the 11. (which he probably already is)

That's a blow, that would have been a good loan for him.

Too much of this cancel culture at the moment. There's not enough evidence to say either way if there was any wrong-doing on his part, so as it stands this is a non-story. The guilty party of the horrific acts in this has been put to account and been jailed. The club have put their hands up and admitted failings, these failings were in the past and under ownership and management who aren't around anymore. Ted would have been part of that, but to tarnish him with the same brush is incredibly harsh because none of the other people who were at the club will be treated in the same way. It's just the visibility I guess, but that shouldn't make it the reason alone.

Just..!

They're panicking, which is why you're seeing this really slap-dash, hap hazard player search. There doesn't seem to be any plan or strategy to what they're trying to achieve. When City got their millions there was a plan (with the Sheik takeover) they had the bonus of being somewhat established, but they went out and got up-coming players like Kompany, Zabeletta etc and experienced signings like Lescott, Kolo Toure etc. Then once they'd established themselves further, they went after the likes of Silva, Augero, Yaya etc to really push them to the next level. Newcastle's attempts at the mo has close parallels to QPR. They were also relegation candidates when they got their billionaire owner. So they were throwing money at so many average and over the hill players who just went there for one last pay-day. Loic Remy, Samba, Bosingwa, Cesar the GK etc. Exotic names at the time and I remember a poster on here called Flyer who was very excited by it. Didn't end too well though. Moral of the story is that you can have all the money in the world, but if you have no real plan of what to do with it then you might as well open a window and let it fly away.

Interesting list, most of those have been absolute disasters. I can count the successful one one hand - Van Dijk, Tielemans, Ings, Sarr (although he was a bit too much at the time). Jury is still out on the likes of Mwepu, Ajer and Buendia, but if those clubs want to keep progressing then those records will be eclipsed in forthcoming windows anyway.

They haven't played too bad tonight really, and Toney does have one now to be fair...! They just didn't take their earlier chances.

And that is why no one gave a shit when Vestergaard was sold. Awful defender, his every day job and he's horrific at it. Shocking from Tiliemanns as well, such a sloppy give away from kick off. But to have your CB's split by one ball with Vestergaard running the other way is just ludicrous. They need a bit of a defensive rebuild in the summer in my eyes.

If people haven't seen him play, this is an obligatory Youtube vid. He's an attacking midfielder who scores goals, oh boy don't we need that.