S-Clarke

A positive, forward thinking central midfielder....

Yeah, something I noticed today. Always been really critical at his reluctance to take people on, but he did that plenty of times today and committed their centre backs.

Injected a real freshness to our play, sharp and alive. Starts for me. Makes our attack more mobile (not hard tbf)

Wtf was that first half, seriously. No point mentioning any more on that. 2nd half was better (after about 55-60 mins). We looked more comfortable and familiar, like we knew what we were supposed to be doing. I've never seen a back 3 be any good for us, I remember the occasions when Komean tried it and it was often reverted before the first half had ended. Glad that Hughes wasn't like MP and Puel in the stubborn sense though. Hoedt is bambi on ice, a truly horrific professional footballer. He's never going to improve. Vesterguard is everything we have needed. Strong, good on the ball, dominant in the air. Early signs, but he has potentially filled a HUGE hole in our back 4. Burnley aren't an easy team to come up against on your debut, but he swatted them away. Looks quality and everything Hoedt isn't. Austin looked slow and unfit, not sure what he offers us apart from being a fox in the box type. Ings offered far more in an all-round game when he came on than Austin has offered us for a long time. So, first half - something to forget. A decent side would have put us to bed on that showing (but credit to Vesterguard and McCarthy for keeping them at bay). 2nd half, learnt from our mistakes and benefited from a tiring Burnley. Lots to improve on, but also plenty to take into the next game at Everton. Still a familiar Southampton-Nill at home ring to proceedings though..

They say you do, but I watched the game last night without a VPN....

bantz.

Yeah, they did play together a bit. Austin was the standout 'central' figure in that team though, he scored shed loads that year. Ings was more of a support/sub that year, before Austin moved on and he took the central role on himself the following year and tore it up himself.

It's just a bit of software (free) which can play m3u streams - which IPTV providers distribute. Best full IPTV provider I've ever used is epicstream (resold by boss hosting). I've mentioned them above, but they really are impressive. No logging into websites, no need for Kodi apps....just get yourself a free IPTV app on your TV or PC/Phone and you're away once you put in the URL they give you (and the username/password). They're not the chepeast IPTV provider, but so far the best I've used. You can get around 2,000 channels all in from all over the world, plus tons of on-demand and a really nifty catch up feature. It works out at about £10 per month for everything. Full 4k Streams of all the Sky Sports channels too. Not a single hitch last night when I was watching the game on Sky Sports PL 4k.

Lambo pen in the last min. Wanyama, Chambers and Lovren's first games for us.

So here we are then, back in the grind! This summer has been great football wise, really enjoyed the world cup, which is probably why I'm not as excited about the start of the season as I usually am - no football gap this summer...! The teams I'll be interested to see this year are Everton, Fulham and Wolves - both in terms of their recruits and their mangers, who are equally high rated in coaching circles. There's always a surprise team who come from no where at the start of the season though - it was Burnley last year, and to a lesser extent Watford at the start.

Everywhere I've read, including from Jeremy Wilson, has stipulated that he has signed a 4 year contract already.

He's better than what we had, in the sense that we only had 3 strikers. Now we have 4. He's an upgrade on Carillo, without question. So that's a positive.

Not sure if 'Big Sam' was chatting crap or not, but when they were discussing this on SSN the presenter put it to him like - ''Ings and Austin, backup for each other as both have had injuries'' etc. Big Sam then said ''It will be different with Ings. Austin has a problem whereby his knees are permanently damaged, he has to manage his training and take anti-inflammatories - so this is an on-going issue. Ings will be different as I understand he has been fully fit for a while now'' It was something like that anyway. Does this harp back to the time WHU tried to sign Austin and the dildo brothers said he has no cartilage in his knees? Obviously Sam (if this was when he was manager) would have been privy to any medical results..

It's hard to call really. It's a bit easier now that everyone has done their business, so you've got to look at Watford and wonder if they have enough quality. They are one I believe will struggle quite badly. Cardiff look short of genuine quality. Then anyone else from about 10 other sides! Although I think Wolves and Fulham will have enough to be towards the upper end of the 'middle' pack. Us? Who knows, it really is down to the fitness of Austin and Ings. Keep them fit and get Gabbiadini and Long supporting both/one of them, and it could work out quite fruitfull. I still worry about our lack of pace and power through the spine though....

Cool, could still see a bit of movement for the likes of Hesketh/Gallagher etc.

He's effectivly signed a 4 year contract today, fee will be close to £20m in total. It looks as if the loan initially is more for our 'cash flow' purposes/management as opposed to anything else, as Shurlock alluded to earlier.

Don't think he can now, can he? Only to european clubs? Or can Champ clubs still trade....?

Scary thought. Could have bought you Salah 18 months ago for £37m....... Oh well, football is broken!

Not that it will make much difference come Sunday....but christ alive, they are absolute bilge tonight. Dire in every position. Awful.

If he's fit, then I don't see why not. ''If'' being the key word with him...!!

Why are people ignoring the season he had in the PL with Burnley....? (he scored 15 in all comps that year iirc). 11 in the PL. I'd bite anyones hand off for someone who can get into double figures for us...

I notice Lemina's still here.

Because we don't have the ability to pay that outlay at the moment? So we pay a smaller amount now, for a loan fee, and pay the rest next year.

Doesn't sound like a try before you buy, this is all but a permanent deal by the sounds of it. I've seen it mooted that it's a £20m deal, £4-5m paid now in a loan fee - so £15m left to pay next summer. Says he's already agreed a contract to 2022 which will become active next summer. Seems a lot of money.

Leicester lost their best player. Watford lost theirs in Richarlison - don't think they spent any of that fee either...? (might be wrong) Think that's it