S-Clarke

When I get home, I'm going to make a moneyball signing on FM.

No idea, but I can't see that being possible at all, based on this sort of injury (It's worse than what Jay had). He had to have an operation, which suggested there was a tear, not just a strain or a small tear...possibly a full tear based on how he went down. I don't think you can make absolute 100% judgments until he's had another scan once the op has healed, as that will be the real guideline. But in my opinion December is very, very, very ambitious. Jay was supposed to be back by October, but that never happened. (Although, that was because he got an infection in the knee) Knee injuries are impossible to predict in most cases, but as there are often bumps and compilations along the way you can kind of be sure that it's often a very long road back to first team sport, and come back dates are often altered all the time.

I wouldn't expect to see him next season at all. He'll probably miss part of next years pre-season as well whilst slowly building himself back up again. He's on a very long road I think, which is why we need to act like we don't even have FF anymore and get a top quality GK. No one knows if he's even going to be able to come back in a good way. We can worry about competition and fighting for places when he's available for selection again, but I'd hope...if we've done our job properly...he'd be a stand-in for our new number 1 until such a time he gets a chance.

That would be a great job for him, decent sized club, good infrastructure, decent potential to push up the leagues for sure. Hope he gets a crack.

Very good info The9, thanks for that. Another reason why the EL is good for us is to boost our coefficient rating......as for example, if we did go straight into the Top 4 this season and got to play the qualifier tie, we would be up against a European mega-power. So if we can just bide our trade in the EL for a few seasons, boost our coefficient and we'll be in a better position to have a crack higher up. (Obviously, come on Arsenal..!) If we did get into the Groups, we'd be in Pot 4, so potentially a very tough group to get out of as well. When you look at the EL and the teams in it, you do feel that the CL this season would have been way too much way too soon. We'd have been bumped right out of it.

I doubt it's a ''short-list''!

Which is actually a worse injury, but oh well.

It's true, but it's still not the case that ''we're mostly'' wrong! Our record points to the fact that we know what we're up to, and whilst there will always be castoffs due to the amount you recruit at that level, we have a very high success rate compared to many others.

Probably not, but we're in a position to see a lot more mileage out of them now. Before, even a ''PL'' club was seen as a pull for our young players, i.e Bale/Theo/Ox, but now we're established in the big league....only really the top 4 can tempt them away (in fact only the top 4 could tempt most of our guys away), so they'd need to have got to a pretty top class standard to move away now. So whilst we may not see them at their absolute world best, we will get to see them develop a lot more than we would have in the past.

Not sure why you're always so negative about our academy. We're simply not mostly wrong, are we? Terrific academy.

Monday 1st June.

All out of contract. Boruc was never a long-term option here and once Fraser was brought in, he was never going to stick around.

The only issue with doing it that way is they have to go through a first round qualifier, 2nd round qualifier, 3rd round qualifier and a play off before they even enter the group stages. All starts in about a months time.

And then there was the Cesc debate....did he dive...or didn't he.

His goal at home to WHU was massive, great moment in our season and it proved to be a pivotal goal. Was very consistent in the NPC, but was found out in the PL pretty badly unfortunately.

Elia doesn't offer anything. He isn't worth a place in the squad, really isn't. He's in his last year at Bremen so they will want a fee for him, and sod paying anything for him. Whilst it's true that Djuricic hasn't had a lot of time, in the games he has played he just looks incredibly lost and ineffective, pretty on the ball which will make people sit up and go ''ooooooh'', but actually doesn't achieve much. I don't personally feel he's suited to this league - just my 2 cents. I hope we have better targets up our sleeves. And for what it's worth, the squad players for next year will be supplemented from the U21's and the Academy more so. Pointless filling up the wage bill with dross if we can promote from within.

I heard that Gundogan has said he wants to leave, last year of his contract apparently - so Dortmund are in a similar situation to ourselves. No idea where he'll end up, but that's another top CM on the market this summer. I think City are just playing a bit of hardball, I think he'll go in the end and City will replace him with Pogba. Strootman is still being linked to Man Utd, although he did have a bad injury. Vidal is the new main target on Arsenal's list going by the rumors, and Khedira will surely attract quite a few suitors. Now that Morgan has pretty much said that he will only leave for a CL club, it makes you wonder where he will end up in the end. There are lots of other top players in his position on the move. I guess it'll come down to price in the end.

Yeah, and he bloody well had to score the winner against us as well. Typical. Just thought....Morgan's shot in the 90th min at Anfield, came off the bar and bounced on the line....that was the difference between 6th and 7th! Small margins.

It's a good read, but if you go back to our pre-season threads I'm sure they'd be a bit of a laugh as well! Hindsight is a wonderful thing! But one thing I will say, is that I never quite understood why people tipped us for relegation. I mean, just look at who was in the league with us.....Sunderland, Villa, Burnley, WBA, Hull, QPR. What made us so bad? and so much worse than that rabble? We lost 4 or 5 players, but replaced them all. Whilst still keeping hold of Morgan, Wanyama, Fonte, Clyne - those 4 right there were never going to be in a relegation battle. It was just the easy pundit line to use, people who don't really know a great deal but jump on the band wagon (Hi Savage.)

I don't want us to be complacent. If we do lose Toby, I fully expect us to sign a first choice top level CB to replace him. Yoshida will continue as 3rd CB. I think we should get the most we can to be honest, sentiment in football is all well and good...but we shouldn't just sell him for a small price just so he gets his move. We hold the cards, if someone wants him, they pay us exactly what we want.

But Gazzaniga still has 1/2 years left on his contract.

Was going to say - this means for sure that we'll see 2 keepers IMO. That just leaves Paulo as the U21 GK. (unless you count will britt) Not surprised by the list, really. Sinclair for example was never going to make it here. He was sent back from Hibs because he was a bit pants! Will be interesting to see where they end up. I hope Jos gets himself a good club back in his hometown to bring down his career, good pro.

And if last summers signings hadn't already gone badly enough.... Meanwhile, 20-year-old Reds forward Divock Origi, on loan at Lille, has had the dubious honour of being named in Ligue 1's worst team of the season by French daily sports newspaper L'Equipe.

But it won't stop our old friend Charlie trying to position himself so he's ready to spring into action.

Ah good, Saint Charlie is back on form as Meltdown v2 begins.