S-Clarke

There's a few things that make me feel it could be a goer, I guess financially we'll see how Spurs want to play it. He's their asset at the end of the day and they want to protect that and potentially get the most value they can in the summer, if they decide to move him on. Him sitting on his arse for 6 months at Spurs is not good for anyone, so he'll go somewhere in the next week - will be interesting to see how it pans out. I mentioned in the other thread that another personal choice from his point of view is that his best mate plays here. I know that's not really important in the world of football transfers generally, but for a 6 month loan deal it may swing it.

I too feel this thread is a tiny bit premature, but it's not as far fetched as some are saying I don't think. If you look at the clubs interested in him, they're below us in the league. Everton don't even have a manager, so you can't really call those more glamorous options in the here and now. Financially no one can make any difference to him either way as it's a loan deal, Spurs will decide how they want to play it. He might just want to play football for 6 months in an environment which best suits him and then see what the summer brings in terms of 'bigger' options, as there doesn't seem to be a huge queue of elite clubs for his signature at the moment.

It's not as far fetched as some may think, he is best mates with KWP for a start. We wouldn't pay all the wages but I'm sure we could handle 50%. If he can sort his mind out then he's exactly the sort of goal scoring 'number 10' who'd be perfect for us.

I don't see a problem with the buy-back/first refusal in our model to be honest. We may sell a tiny bit below going rates at the time of the buy back, but we'd still gain money from our initial outlay 2 years prior. (that's if the selling club are interested in having them back) At the end of the day anyone decent we sign outright is here for 2 seasons max. Mane, VVD etc, so it probably doesn't make a huge difference. With the buy back approach we put ourselves at the front of the queue in grabbing really good youngsters from the top clubs.

I did wonder that, they were supposed to be installed in the Sept international break, then the November one...but they're still not there. Given the current climate of tech chip shortages etc I wonder if it's just caught up in that can of worms.

I can only assume the Watford owners are trolling their fan base. Where's Buzzin 'Orn these days?

That is such a pointless football club. Their fans have been conditioned to want the manager gone if he loses a few as well. It's a poisoned chalice for anyone, and no one is ever going to be able to build anything there. That must be a horrific club to support. Pointless.

Their approach is incredibly slap dash, it's embarrassing really. They should have been planning throughout December. I really hope there is a massive meltdown this time next week when they haven't actually signed anyone else.

Livramento will be back after the break according to Ralph, so not as bad after-all thankfully. Let's hope there's not flareups over the break. Personally I don't see us being in a position of desperation for anyone new, more of a position of 'nice to have' and getting 'nice to have' signings in January is probably not the best idea. Might as well wait until the summer to sort the GK and number 10 situation out, we should have enough for the remainder of this season without having to panic in the next week.

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.