S-Clarke

Other midfielders who would be perfect for a high tempo/counter press game: Sofyan Amrabat Konrad Laimer Yes, I've had spare time during lockdown to play FM.

Significantly different profile of player though. Reed is a smaller player, slower and not as strong. Mangala is a 6ft powerhouse really.

Weird. Maybe I'm ITK, I signed him on FM for my Southampton team. Looked for specific attributes which are good for midfielders deployed in a high press/counter pressing team, he came pretty high up on my affordable targets. Very good as well, for what it's worth. But back in the real world...

It's a balancing act which is quite simply impossible to get right for 100% of people, there will be unhappy folk and there's no getting away from that. Ballot is the way, how about excluding the 'winners' of the ballot from forthcoming ballots - so everyone gets a fair shot? I haven't renewed yet and I guess one of the reasons is because of the total unknown about how this will be managed - I'm not sure I can fork out all of that upfront, not knowing what games I'll be able to go to and then wait for potential refunds if they come my way etc. Hopefully we get some clarification in the coming weeks, as I think deadline is first of Sept for renewals.

I reckon it'll be what was reported by someone a few days ago - 18-20m guaranteed, rest in add-on's. Hopefully realistic ones. 8m guaranteed for KWP is my hunch, with the rest in add-ons. Not a bad deal for either all being told. Should break us even in the transfer funds. Will need to sell further before we can buy anymore unfortunately.

I'd heard so many good things about them, so I started watching them from their Stoke away game.....and if i'm truly honest, they have looked utter dross in pretty much most games since then! To me it looks like they're full of bottle jobs, when the pressure was really on they had no one who stepped up and got them over the line. West Brom kinda went up by default in the end, they should be nailed for 19th or 20th next season, horrific side. I think Brentford will be picked apart though - they've clearly got good players, I just think I watched them at a bad time! I think Watkins would be a good fit for a club like Villa.

Working really well today, as fast as it's ever been, nice work!

I reckon we'll see KWP, Salisu - new contracts for JWP, Bertrand announced....and then we'll settle with what we have, but keep an eye on the market - that's my hunch. Any other additions are going to rest solely on our ability to shift Lemina, Vestergaard, Carillo, Hoedt, Boufal etc on permanent deals. So, we may have some money in the bank come the end of the window! We'll have to see what happens...

Not 606 is decent too - https://www.not606.com/forums/southampton.62/ I've always used that as well, got a decent following on there.

Good point, so...maybe 13m to play with? Or we could say we're totally broke even with the Salisu transfer. Would need to shift the likes of Lemina, Hoedt, Carillo and co for fee's before we get anyone else, I imagine.

So potentially 8m for Reed, £15m for PEH. (they both sound like up front fee's as well, so available to us straight away) £23m to put towards a new midfielder? Should get us McKennie I'd have thought.

Agreed, if that's what it came to! This is pretty unusable bar a few days a week. Painful again this morning, not as bad, but just about 20-30 seconds to just open a thread. It's not like it's peak time or anything, I wouldn't even attempt to use this after a match these days.

It's not confirmed yet!

He played LB in the first half, less said about that the better! 2nd half we improved, but he still slowed us down I felt (lots of sideways and backwards, little penetration). I guess in a way that's not really his role, but you'd hope he could do a slightly better job of it.

I agree, it's pretty unusable. Might as well just put a holding page up until the fault is fixed - as someone mentioned above.

Great, Fulham score. They've come to kill this game and they've achieved it so far. Don't want these sort of sides in the top league.

Brentford haven't really turned up tonight unfortunately. Fulham have setup to nullify their 3 attackers, the game will open up in the 2nd half hopefully...that should suit Brentford

#ITKWatch

Don't forget Brighton at home either, the first half was utter dross and an example of what has been served up at home all too often.

I assume you're still tweaking stuff Steve? It was fine Sunday/Monday, but today it has been absolutely unusable for me. Sometimes it will fly to life again, but then when i go to reply to a post it'll just sit there. I hope this isn't by design...!

I don't agree with that at all. I think most of us have been fairly fair over our assessments of him, he is honestly nothing special and I have always maintained that - not just because he's now leaving. Bog standard is how I'd describe him, offers nothing more than Tottenham's midfielders currently do. As igsey put above so well, in isolation his stats look impressive. But I know what I've seen for the last 4 years. I've seen the most dull, boring, safe midfield player. Someone who gives up possession just as much as he wins it, someone who waves his arms about and shows passion, but never really did the talking on the pitch. I'll remember someone who shows no composure in the final moments of games. I'll remember someone who makes you nervous rather than excited by his presence. I'll remember him as someone who was a pivotal part to our horrific, unacceptable home form for the last 3/4 seasons. Luckily other managers see a gap in their side for him and are willing to buy him, as this will enable us to buy someone far more dynamic to improve our style at home.

But we then gave him another new contract, a year after his original one - after he'd had a very substandard year. Absolutely moronic from Reed.

You're not wrong, I've never really rated him that highly to be honest. He's what I'd call a bog standard mid-table PL midfielder, no more than that. I just feel he lacks that real 'star' quality that other 'defectors' have had. I don't rate him as high as Morgan for example, not even as close to being as technical or mobile as him, and Morgan struggled at Utd and Everton. I think Spurs already have better players than him, that's why I'm curious as to their hunt for him. Lo Celso, Winks, Nndomble, Sissoko, Gedson Fernandes - all seem to offer what PEH does, but slightly better technically. I don't think we're missing anything, I just don't think he's half as good as the media make him out to be.

🤣

Can someone please do us all a massive favour and ban MLG? Or at least remove his sub? Absolute pedantic WUM.