S-Clarke

I wouldn't say he's a technical ball playing midfielder by any means. Lots about his heading ability in that video! I guess our intention is for him to break up the play/the oppo defensive lines by winning headers, and have the likes of JWP/Armstrong pick up the loose balls and open teams up. That seems quite a simplistic tactic, but could be a reason. We don't really win a great deal in the air via midfield at the moment, not sure we have since Morgan and Wanyama were here. I don't think he's a pretty player or someone who will get you off your seats, Reed is probably more technical by looking at the reviews/write ups on this fella.

Home game, easy?? After the last 3 seasons I'm not sure. I don't think it matters who we'd play at home! Better to face a team that will at least attack us.

What's changed today? It's rapid.

Just a tiny bit pedantic...

Espanyol are Chinese owned too. I hope the authorities look into this deeply, it's disgusting what bogus owners are able to do. The PL changed the rules AFTER Gao took us over, so if he tried to take us over now he wouldn't be able to. I think that says it all. Please, please can we have some good news that he's pissing off! Even if we get taken over by someone who has no investment immediately, at least it's not Gao. Chinese involvement atm stinks.

No, that's all stopped now. Back to normal broadcasting arrangements. There will be a % of fans able to attend, so they'll be the lucky ones! For the rest of us it'll be a case of finding streams!

To be fair he's third choice for them, behind Lloris and Gazzaniga. They let Vorm go on a free at the end of the season, so they needed a new GK and he's english...so boosts their home grown count etc. Easy money for Joe. He's pretty much retired now.

Quite a balanced fixture list really. Happy with the start, avoid Leeds until January. Decent set to start with, I think.

Doesn't seem to be any pattern as to when it's slow for me. Getting onto the forum listing, hangs, bad gateway. Clicking on a thread once I get in, same experience. Posting, it hangs on submitting reply for ages and sometimes gives me a gateway timeout there. Happens if I search, log in, log out...no rhyme or reason to it for me anyway.

Not surprised at all. The club obviously need to cut costs somewhere, so with less footfall through places like West Quay, it makes sense to shelve that place. It's a shame, but it's all kind of inevitable really.

He made so many people miserable when he was there, I have that from someone who worked there. A very strict authoritarian way about him, literally no one could do a thing without going through him first. I'm surprised people didn't have to ask him before they went for a toilet break. He did meddle in transfers and we lost out on people like Ward, Jamal because of his pedantic ways. The guy was a control freak and a nut job. He was using someone else's money and that's when KL got involved I guess, she'd seen enough and I would imagine she'd heard some stories about how he was to people at the club. I know it was plastered all over the news as 'MELTDOWN' when he left, but there were parties in the corridors of St Mary's, trust me.

Apparently the issues aren't around to a lack of spec in the new setup, the kit and setup should be more than enough to handle our traffic. It looks like the issues we are seeing are Forum bugs and SQL query issues which are doing some weird things. The worry I have is that, as Steve said, these things can take months and months to unpick and pin down. I don't think this place will survive these issues for a couple of months! If money was an issue with the other place, I'd have been more than happy to pay a bit more and help support the upgrade and on-going running of the existing infrastructure.

The interesting thing is that all the rumours are suggestive that we have 'offered' a certain amount, or are at least prepared to - that suggests we have that available, because you couldn't offer 22m on the hope that we shift Reed and Lemina for e.g. I reckon the overall problem is that we need to shift players to free up wages, that should be easier because even loan deals subsidise the wages - let's see what happens. Whatever Adam Blackmore and Carl Anka said previously, I genuinely think we want him and have wanted him since the start, no smoke without fire and all that.

Not just you, I was trying to figure out who that was at first. Thought we'd signed Hamsik

Only 5 players have returned FFS 😉

Decent player at that level against those sorts of opposition.

He went out on loan for season number 2. They've got him until 2021.

I wonder how interested we ever were in Upamecano? He was heavily linked in Ralph's first window with us, but I'm not sure if that was just former player rumour. He really is an elite defender though, same level as VVD.

I keep seeing Poch mentioned, but how was he even an option? He's Espanyol through and through! There's no way he could have managed Barca, he's a very loyal bloke.

There's nothing stopping us from offering him a deal, and then allowing him to speak to Fulham as per the agreed fee. I suspect that's what we've done and he's probably weighing up his options IMO. If I was him, I'd go to Fulham. He's a main starter there and could be seen as a key player in the PL for a side just promoted. He'd still be on the side lines here initially and he would have to work himself in. I think he's played that role for long enough and he deserves his break as a guaranteed starter in a team.

I remember he was deployed at LB at the start of the season, and he looked full of it - power, pace etc. But absolutely hopeless positional sense. That didn't change, and he was never used at CB because he was a disaster in his natural position at this level. I think he was someone Ralph knew and believed he could polish, but clearly not...if Vestergaard is in front of you then you know you're shit.

Yeah, similar was said for sure. But it was because he was 'too good for the league' and he used to stroll around a bit, according to them He certainly was too good for that league!

We broke the trend on the contracts when we signed Lemina, Boufal and Carrillo straight on big money though. Although I agree, signing on a lower wage with increments as you go along is definitely the best route. Honestly, Reed and Ross need absolutely shooting for the position they've put us in. £75m for VVD and we pissed it up the flaming wall and put ourselves in the shit. In that period we were the worst run club in England, IMO. To cock up £75m income to the rate we have takes special skill.

It's certainly a good news pre-season so far. This was mooted before in the Daily Telegraph article I think, where they mentioned JWP too. Been waiting for the official announcement on this, so it looks imminent now we're all back in pre-season.

There's clearly some interest in him, multiple sources have hinted at it for a good few weeks now. I just think any further transfers rely heavily on our ability to move players on, and as mentioned above this may be to do with wages more than transfer fees - maybe.