S-Clarke

Won't be Spurs, they don't really spend big fees. Their model is pretty sound, they seem to operate in the £10-20m player bracket. Main difference between themselves and us is that they keep hold of their players longer term and they've been able to build a team. I don't think we'd be far behind where Spurs are if MP had stayed and was able to keep the side he had together. But Liverpool, if it is...people are going to start working out if we have something going on! It's insane. Who needs Russians and arabs bankrolling us, when we have Liverpool? Maybe all along we've actually had a rich benefactor supporting us.

Personally, you always get people at this stage of the season saying they're not renewing for certain reasons. The guys around me say it most years, but then they're still there the following season! I haven't renewed yet, but it's not because I'm not going to...just leaving it to the last moment. Not waiting for the club to show their hand or anything, I just always leave it to the deadline. I've done that with everything all my life, even homework.

Go on then...

If we do get a Chelsea player, then I can't see them just giving us one of their highly rated players for free....it'll probably be a loan deal at best, if anything is muted. Not sure that's an amazing idea, as then we'd be back in the same boat again. I do like Christensen though, rave reviews over in Germany. Had some big, big clubs looking at him. I'd probably accept a little less than £50m for VVD if we were getting a prospect as good as him thrown in permanently

There have been quite a few incidents this season. Long bursting down the tunnel, Hoj doing the same, Boufal doing the same. Fonte having frank/animated discussions with Puel on the pitch before the game, unsubstantiated reports of Bertrand/Redmond etc. I think there is clearly tension around the place, Hoj in particular doesn't strike me as the sort of guy who would react like that...so he must have been pretty ****ed. There has probably been a lot of miscommunication as well because of the language barrier, the fact he's quite softly spoken and not very animated doesn't help with that either. I think players are a little up themselves, generally at all clubs (Look at what happened at Leicester) - but they are in the thick of it all day, so they know what's going on and they feel they can justify how they react. You can't say that getting rid of Claudio has been a bad thing for Leicster...there were lots of talks about player unrest there before he left. Ulloa being an example ''I'm never playing for this club again'' etc. But now he does. Player power isn't something I'm comfortable with, but with the amount of money these guys get and the importance of their assets to the 'club'...then they probably will have the overall say on this kind of thing. Wonder if Kelvin has been at the heart of all of this? Seeing as his role is the bridge between the first team and the ''board''...

We all know that Crook just reads everyone else's stories and then puts one together himself. I think all this 'chat' came from that L'Equipe article, but then wasn't that just speculating anyway? Still, no smoke without fire and all that.

Jeez, Pekhart. He was another highly rated player, could have made something of him in a better setup. He's doing alright at AEK now. If we're reminiscing, Jordan Robertson....1 amazing goal, and that was that. He's now playing for Harrogate. Jesus, that season was just a torture.

All being discussed in the Puel thread - quite a few stories floating about today, albeit rehashes of each other.

I remember that Lallana goal, live on Sky iirc - and it brought it to 1-1 at the time. Then we were just weak and were played through for the remainder of the game (pretty much like the rest of that season) and if people are bedwetting too much about this year, then thank your lucky stars it's not the same situation as it was back then. Too many young players, too little experience, and then the experience we did have wasn't very good. I'm sure that season ruined some players like Jake Thompson, Jamie White, Ollie Lancashire - all highly rated players, but thrown to the lions that year and never really made it back to any sort of level. Only Ollie is making a little bit of a name for himself in the lower leagues. Whilst the idea was decent, it wasn't the right time or the right environment to try and integrate so many young players. The intention was right...but the timing and execution of it was all wrong.

I must admit, I'm very very nervous about the intentions and strength behind them. Careful what you wish for and all that.

He hasn't helped himself at all this season, he has been pants. He's never been a prolific goal scorer and last season was probably more of a fluke....5-10 goals is about his standard return at this level. What you do get from him that no one else gives us is pace, running the channels, pressing etc. He'll do that until he dies, but for his pressing and harrying to be effective you need better players in and around him to take advantage of the mistakes he gets out of CB's. We don't play that way this year, and that's why his play has looked even more poor than usual.

I would totally agree that Hoj isn't a DM type, he's more of a mobile CM who can drive forward. I think his best games are when he's allowed to move forward with the ball and drive towards the box. Potentially he could be the replacement for Davis, but what with the captaincy situation I don't think Davis is 'droppable' at the moment. For me, he'd play in front of Romeu and another. Flanked by Redmond/Boufal or Tadic and Gabbiadini up front. I'd happily lose one of the ''attacking'' 3 to accommodate him.

Something is brewing I think, but I just hope the 'new' owners (if it happens) aren't the sort who will just fly names about and advertise interest in anything that moves. I kinda like how we do things at the moment (bar the selling..!)

All Hoj needs is some game time, he really should be one of our first choice CM's. Not sure why he's never held down a place, the in and out nature of the season has not helped him at all. I think he's class.

25 years old...and just been relegated from Serie B? Umm.

Absolutely no chance of them 'giving him away'. He'll either be in their team next year or be sold for mega bucks.

Our recruitment has been excellent. You've just cherrypicked a few there, but even Tadic and Pelle - have they really been poor copies/poor players? They've both been excellent for us and I'm still struggling to understand why people still cannot see how important Pelle was to us at times over the last two years. Toby for Lovren, VVD for Toby, Bertrand for Shaw, Cedric for Clyne. Romeu for Wanyama, Mane. I think Boufal and Hojburg have huge potential as well, there is no way people should be writing either of those off already. Utter mentals. But generally, our recruitment has been spot on. We've had a few stinkers, but every club has them. Given what we had to replace back in 2015, we did a f**ing heroic scouting job.

But imagine a team who can pair them both together in the same team. Oh.

What's your thoughts on Walter? Reckon you'll stick this summer or appoint another new manager?

Wanyama was excellent yesterday, he was bursting forward with the ball and actually made a couple of forward passes to Kane! Can't say I remember him doing that too much. Anyone can see that he is exactly what Arsenals midfield need/needed, yet Wenger is just stubborn. It must be so f**ing frustrating being an arsenal fan.

wtf are you on about.

tbf, he hasn't been in charge all season. Although I'm not one to jump on this hipster train, let's keep the argument fair...

Gabba up top, 3 behind of Redmond (or tadic/or boufal), Davis, JWP. Then Hoj or Clasie in alongside Romeu.

0.1/10

It was very much like that when I saw the team, balls on the line kind of selection. We didn't have a midfield and it was always going to be a case of a Tadic/Boufal/Redmond having the game of their lives, the fact we carried all 3 for most of the game is why we struggled. There was no basis for a performance to be built from, the lack of midfield meant that the gap between the midfield and attack was even greater than normal. It was near on impossible to service Gabbiadaini, especially when Redmond/Tadic both had awful days. This was more of an extreme illustration, but it's been our problem all year. The gap between the rest and the attack is always too big, we control the ball in the centre back positions, through to central midfield..but then the gap is too big, so it slows down and there isn't the ability to quickly link. This is personally why I'd play Hoj or Clasie alongside Romeu and if Davis plays, it has to be in place of a Tadic/Boufal - because he can be that link, and that's what he has done for us in previous season. He is not a PL central midfielder, he's an attacking midfielder and thats where he needs to be deployed. Now, if we could evolve Davis's position with someone like Siguardson...