S-Clarke

He's not fully match ready because he needs match time. He doesn't need a flaming rest!

Lazio? He's the stoke utility player. A pretty solid player if all is told, unspectacular, but a solid squad addition. Pretty much bang on in terms of a mid-table signing.

He hasn't.

Not the forum for that sort of talk, ART.

Do we need yet another thread on this?

Seems as if it's a case of ''They've left, so they're ****'' Really quite dull.

Don't forget Target, he's the cover at left back. Also pretty sure we'll see a utility player come in who can cover RM/RB and CB. I'd say in terms of depth we're stronger up front. Last season we had Lambert and Jay, and an unproven and inexperienced Gallagher. You could even say that as Jay wasn't often played up front, we only had Lambert and Gallagher. We've got Pelle, Gallagher, Long and Jay in the forward areas this year - so more depth and quality to choose from. Not sure what you meant with regards to the club missing an opportunity in the GK position, I'm pretty sure we just signed Forster with the general idea to have Boruc as the competition. It's not the clubs fault that he decided to throw his toys out, even if it was him who laughed at his lack of competition last year. Bit of a mental head is our boruc. So I think by the end of the window we will end up with a wider squad, but about 2/3 notches down in overall quality.

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/395972/Arsenal-lining-up-move-for-Belgian-star-defender-Toby-Alderweireld

As the season goes on, I think we'll realise just what Rickie offered us in terms of assists and goals as we struggle to break ourselves away from the bottom half. A unique player of which Pelle is nowhere near. Tadic looks ok, but a little slow in thought and speed. Will see how he adapts as time goes on.

He's all but moved to Porto as far as I know.

I think it's that he's realised Jos and Yoshida aren't good enough. Have always felt that we'd get 2 CB's, not sure this is based on anything other than a random twitter rumour though. Apparently a Merc with a number plate V4 LAR was spotted on Marchwood bypass yesterday.

He has seemed very half hearted in the 2 games so far, he's dropped a level as it stands, it's clear to see. I'm hoping that's just because he's not had a pre-season though.

He's a great coach and has them already playing the high tempo, high press game I was so used to seeing here. Quite a depressing watch, all being told. We had something very good for a 18 months.

The goat, one of Spurs ITK's The Goat has heard that Southampton's stance on Schneiderlin has privately changed over the course of this weekend. Also that allowing us to sign him would be further entertained should Levy provide assurance regarding Townsend and agree not to make a move for Rodriguez. (No idea why he refers to himself in third party)

Still really nervous that we're floating around Spurs, what with their interest in our 2 players.

Because it awarded a goal which was a goal. What happened in the build up is irrelevant in regards to the technology, it did it's job and gave the goal correctly. At the end of the day it was only a throw in, you'd hope it could have been defended a little better.

Utd are simply atrocious. As long as they start with players like Cleverley, Young, Smalling, Fletcher, then they'll never play in europe again.

Their back line has had to take a days release from the retirement home.

Lambert was not a gamble. And agree, we do need to be patient. Things will take time, but I'm just trying to say that we won't be at the level of last year and people hoping/expecting that are just going to have 10 months of sheer frustration!

I assume if he said we'd finish in the top 6 after 2 games, he'd have been hailed as a revolutionary genius? We won't be relegated, but we'll be likely in the mix for a good part.

If we're competing for Europe at the end of the season, then I'll happily come and admit defeat. It confuses me how people use clubs like Liverpool as examples for changing a lot of their team. They added to the quality of the team, they improved the overall quality, they lost 1 player they would have kept - but bought to replace. We've lost so much quality it's frightening, yesterday was a frightening notch down in terms of what I watched last season. And people who say otherwise are sitting with their heads in the sand. You can see we're not as good, it doesn't take 10 games to work that out. We're just not as good. I cannot see in the realms of the universe how a team who has lost so much quality can compete at the top half of the league. I guess this is where people come back in and say that Shaw/Lallana/Lambert/ weren't that good anyway.

If I'm honest, his showing was very worrying. He didn't show any ability to be able to win the ball, the timing of all of his jumps were all out. When he did win it, his touch gave it away or it was headed into no-mans land. It's still early days and the jeering is an absolute joke, but there is a slight reason to be worried. I hoped by now I'd have seen some sort of attributes, ability, presence from him - but there's been nothing so far. We may well have been spoiled for the last 5 years with a proper target man, but let's hope we've not gone from 1 extreme to the other!

Which signalled a short-term change in direction.

Last season we were in that group, we're not anymore though.

Di Maria to Utd is a done deal, a British record transfer fee (£60m ish)