S-Clarke

Another absolute panic signing from Everton.

Not speaking too soon......but.....Everton target Malcolm wants to move to Italy instead, looks like Inter will be his destination. So still no signings for Everton.....clock is ticking.

But on the flip side of that, if he'd have performed anywhere near his expected level for us and hadn't acted like a billy big ********, then we wouldn't have even been in that situation.

How many more attacking midfielders/number 10 types do they need FFS.

Yeah, Laxalt was one of Uruguay's best players I thought. Good little player. Lerma came on a couple of times for Columbia and added some physicality - he's done pretty well in La Liga in recent years.

He was more than good enough for Fulham in the NPC though. And more than good enough in the World Cup too, although could have probably got a couple more goals.

Ashley Young, what the actual? The team the ''BBC Player Rater'' automatically picked was fairer - it even had our Yoshida in it! But young, seriously, wtf.

I don't think you can say he's a proven goal scorer, he hit a purple patch when he arrived but was then largely ineffective. He's never been prolific in terms of numbers, which is why I've always seen him as more of a supporting striker/inside forward type. We certainly need another centre forward, as we'll end up with the same situations as the last 2 seasons if we ignore that. Can't rely on Austin, he will always miss big chunks. And you certainly cannot rely on Long to score goals. So we need some work up top for sure before this can be classed as a really good window.

What a truly pointless addition and waste of a squad space that would be for Watford. He needs to go to a country where he will play every week, unless he is more than happy to sit on his backside and just collect wages. Shambles of a player.

That’s what they do in the Brazil national side.

The French talent pool is ridiculous. You even have Dembele, Coman and Lemar who are quality players, yet they can't get in that side. Lacazette and Benzema left at home...

Yeah that's a fair view. Sterling is going to be one of these players who always promises lots, but actually delivers very little. I actually thought Henderson was decent in some of the games, but the problems came against the better sides and he was expected to do the job of two. Looking forward to seeing Sessengon at this level next season as I think he's an international wing back waiting to happen.

I wonder what name Barry Sanchez posts under these days? Larry I reckon.

Taking 5 game season rose was the bigger error. Young should have been backup to a better lb.

I remember the season we beat some random Swedish teams 15 or whatever nill. And we were relegated. Honestly can’t come to any judgements to be honest, other than wondering how much a big win against a pub team really prepares them.

No idea what benefit these sort of games have on teams tbh.

That’s a good post. Let’s remember that this is the Gareth Southgate who was derided by boro fans and relegated them. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a decent guy and has at least tried to approach it differently, but he’s not some sort of tactical genius.

Oh well, still been a fun world cup but I just hope the media and the pundits don't go OTT about this side. The bare stats are out there: - Only Iran created fewer oppertunities - One of the lowest scoring sides in open play - Only beaten Tunisa, Sweden and Panama. The luck of the draw and how the other sides fell away opened it up for us and certainly flattered our final position. If you look at Germany's and Argentina's group, we'd have probably struggled just as much as they did. I hope that's the end of Phil Jones international career, probably one of the worst CB's I've ever seen make a living. All he does is chase after attackers after they've beaten him and pull weirdo faces. This hasn't been the sort of build up to us becoming a mega-side as some of the media are making it out to be, but there is talent beyond this first team which should hopefully start to get in and around the side over the next 12 months. Sessengon, Cook, Maddison, Gray, Gomez, Holding etc. But we're still light years behind your Spains, Belgiums, French, Brazil's and probably even Germany. Lots of work to do and not really a huge difference to previous world cups really.

Jones is utterly horrific

No world beaters here, never really have been. The World Cup has been great fun but there’s no denying that the draw has really flattered us and the media are typically going a bit ott about it all.

Yeah, if we continue to play this way Sessegeon is a shoe in for that role for many years.

I wish we had a midfield. Any sort of competent central midfielder would do.

They look on a different level to us.

I think our friend Ziyech is off to Lyon...

Still no Les.... but i've got a good feeling about this lad. When we were linked with Gibson, Marlon and Vestergard this lad was always my choice. Seems to cover the most obvious holes we had at the back in terms of height and physical presence. Only slight concern will be his lack of pace, but maybe we plan to use Ryan as a third CB to cover for that. But overall we mean business this summer. We've gone about filling some obvious gaps and adding some genuine first team quality, not just squad players. We still need a proper centre forward though...