S-Clarke

Well, they're not. We want another striker, so we've got one, we're not going to sell and then put ourselves in the same position again.

Makes you wonder what Bournemouth have been smoking. £20m on Afobe and Grabban, yet £4m for Austin

Nope, seems as if it's done, dusted and 99% rubber stamped.

Also, lol @ crook. Once again, clueless.

There's probably add-on's I'd imagine, and also we've probably done a better deal due to the Caulker situation. All sorts went on.

Bargain!

It also makes me wonder if there was more to the Caulker loan cancellation than meets the eye, maybe talks were happening on a few fronts.

Not as far as I know, I think pre-contracts are only for non-english clubs. I'd imagine this is a signing for here and now. We need goals, he feeds on goals.

What the actual ****? Did Klopp shut his eyes during his utterly pathetic performance at St Mary's? I've never seen such a poor CB performance, it was Makin - Bennett levels of ineptness. Hilarious.

I have no problem with people sharing their articles, but don't try and pretend you're not. Screams spam. But Virgil has been ok, nothing amazingly special, but the talent is obviously there. Gets caught asleep a bit too often for my liking though.

There's a reason they want him out, he's pretty naff.

Because he's not at the level we need, or most PL clubs would need.

That is the most annoying chant I think we've ever had. Seriously, it's cringe.

I think he's been alright in the last few games if I'm honest, started to see his ability coming out in terms of passing/dictating. I'm not sure what people expect from him, but he's not a box to box type. He's a CM, who will probably just stay in CM and spray the ball around whilst breaking up occasional attacks. Not a glamorous role per-say, but it will become more influential as time goes on.

I think it's pretty clear Caulker is off, isn't it? Not included in the squad at all for these last couple of games, and what with talk of Sunderland wanting him (for some bizarre reason) it may be that we're talking to QPR to try and get that terminated. I Imagine we'd have to get some sort of payment back on it as well.

If you expect either of those, then your expectations are skewed.

Nice fans.

Oh yeah, there's nothing worse than coming home every week on the back of this. Makes you feel pretty **** for most of the evening, but we've had it damn good for the last few years. We were due a year like this, let's be honest. We just need to make sure not too much damage is caused. I personally wouldn't pull any trigger right now. It's Koeman's team, Koemans support staff and he's the one that can get them out of it.

A hell of a lot of OTT comments on here, although the amount of defeats is quite glaring now. Again, we played ok, but in my opinion we don't create enough clear cut chances - and the ones we do, we seem to fluff. We're too predictable once we get into the final third, and whilst our defense is light years away from anything we had last year, it's our attack and lack of killer instinct which is really killing us right now. 2 huge games coming up. This time in a weeks time will answer a lot of questions, but we can't keep dictating games like we are and losing.

We have a terrific academy, such a huge reputation around Europe....but we will have dry spells, and this is seemingly a dry spell. What has been mentioned on here before was the state of the club in 07/08 and 08/09. The budgets I believe were dramatically cut for the academy and the recruitment would have been of a much lower level, and we're now probably seeing the effects of that. I believe the younger age groups over the last year or so have had to be topped up with kids released by other clubs, which kind of shows that the production line wasn't there 5/6 years ago. Give it another 5/6 years though and our current structure and what we've done over the last few years will come to fruition. What Koeman said is probably a little harsh, but I've never really thought much of this lot is up to it. I don't really rate Mcqueen, or Isgrove/Gallagher - and I've never quite understood the shouting to get them included, they're simply not good enough. In my opinion, if you're 21/22 and still haven't broken through in the PL...then you're not going to. So I'd say the likes of Mcqueen, Isgrove, Gallagher etc will probably end up finding employment else where, lower down in the pyramid. I have high hopes for McCarthy though, I think he's an excellent prospect - as well as Reed. But what Koeman said may also be a message for the board, obviously there's all the talk of not blocking the pathway etc, but if there's nothing coming up the pathway...then you can block it for a few years!

Pretty broad agreement from most on there. Of the players we sold that summer.... Lambert - total flop, now at WBA and they're also trying to shift him on (apparently). Lolvren - no more needs to be said Lallana - I think Liverpool fans have made their views pretty clear... Chambers - pointless move Shaw - crock

Shelvey is exactly what we need in midfield, energy, grit, bit of bite, speed, agility, goal threat, english, young. Absolutely every box ticked. I'd say that this signing would transform us, it could have such an obvious effect on the side.

2 hours according to Koeman. Which is kind of beyond acceptable levels of late.

He was alright, he was pretty limited but he put the ball in the back of the net on regular occurrence. You'll have to ask Burley why he decided to drop him at the back end of that season. He was never a PL player though if we're honest, but more than good enough for us at that time and scored some important goals.

Like Adkins?