S-Clarke

On another note, we are due some sort of payment from this - not from the sell on, but some sort of development fee. Is it 2%, 5%? It's still a decent little windfall for us, whatever it is. Could fund a nice little deadline day loan deal...

It was against Milwall wasn't it? If i remember that far back. He bombed up and down the line that day as well, was not scared to attack. I also remember how Derby kicked the kid off the park so he wasn't avalaible in the play off 2nd leg. Thugs.

They've just lost Capoue for the season with a serious ankle injury, so not a good start for their new additions. To be honest, I don't think anyone in their squad is capable of pulling games out of the mire as much as Bale was. Cant' see them having as good a season as last year, reckon some of their additions will flop big time.

Kaka, Di Maria and Ozil now available to grab from Madrid. Not saying they're for us, but it's going to be quite an interesting 24 hours I think. So many deadline days have fallen flat on their arses, but this one has the potential to throw up some pretty big surprises....

Watch the Bale transfer start a complete merry-go-round......

The best player I've had the privilege of watching live at St Mary's in recent years, even at 17 you could tell he was going to become a world class player. I always felt he was more than a LB, I think most of our fans did, and fair play to Spurs for developing him even further and turning him into one of the most potent attacking players in the world. I must admit, I do feel a sense of pride seeing one of our academy players turning out at Real Madrid. I hope he tears the league up.

The fact he's suggesting Le Fondre as an alternative to Osvaldo should be enough to prove he's on a wind up.

Demba Ba

tbf it's just a random twitter rumour, but kind of has legs if you think of all the wide/attacking midfield players Spurs now have.

Aaron Lennon and Adebeyour have apparently been told that they can leave Spurs before the end of the window.

Wanyama had a very, very bad game yesterday - there's no denying that. But equally, he was very, very impressive against WBA. He had a bad game, so did Lambert and so did Morgan. It doesn't mean he's a bad player or a bad signing. It was Osvaldo's full debut, and of the very few positives there were yesterday - it was how instinctive he was which impressed me most. Hits it first time, all the time. He will score goals as long as he gets the supply he requires. But agree on Lovren, he's taken our defence to an entirely new level. An absolute class act. Also, what's all the sudden panic about JWP and Chambers suddenly not being good enough? they were more than good enough last week, and the week before. It seems to be that if a young player has 1 bad game, they're not good enough. Well, both of them are good enough and will play a fair few games this year. So, overall, those 3 signings aren't too bad at all really, are they? We do need 1 more though to be honest.

That sounds better...

I can't see any Osvaldo bashing?

One of the positives I picked up from yesterday was Osvaldo's incisiveness. He literately hits everything first time, always hits a shot and brings out a save. Too many of our players want to take 1 too many touches and they're then crowded out, if Osvaldo can keep up the ''hit first time'' instinct he seems to have, then he will put them in as long as we stretch the play a little in the final third. His 1st time touch, turn and shot was excellent. We haven't got anyone else like that.

I doubt it was a non-story. Would be very surprised if Clubs haven't at least inquired, a key player for us last year and seemingly reverted to just a member of the 18.

Get with the programme. New manager and 11 new players required ASAP.

You managed to get quite a few bites on this one, B+.

People started talking because of the wins against Chelsea, Man City and Liverpool in close succession - the 3 games that pretty much kept us up. If you take those 3 games out of the equation, the record looks pretty poor and we didn't look like scoring at the back end of the season, which you can't really ignore - it's also manifesting it's self into this year. We have stepped up in terms of our play though, our football is better and more structured but also more frustrating. A fine example is that of Man Utd last season, we played fantastically up at OT but just couldn't score a 2nd no matter how much we tried. We should have also beaten sunderland for all our possession. Jury's still out in terms of results, however we do play better football and have more organisation about us - alas we look pretty boring to watch.

The funny thing is that if Killmarnock were offered Wanyama from Celtic, they'd sign him and he'd play him. He had an absolutely diabolical game yesterday, awful in every way imaginable. No one can deny that. But he had a very, very strong debut for us. He's still very young, let's not forget, so will blow hot and cold occasionally. In terms of attributes, I feel he adds what we were missing in that area - but we now need more pace in front of him to make his role a little more interesting.

That was from a dead ball situation though.

I don't think he's been effective under either manager to be honest. Couple of flashes here and there, but over 12 months since we signed him for £12m and he's now a substitute. Not anywhere near the impact the club or us fans were hoping for, he's been pretty average to say the least. Not sure how long we're going to have to wait for him to ''come good''. He's very frustrating.

But even Spain and Barca have pace, they don't play with ''out and out wingers'', no, but they play with attacking players who play across the line but have the ability and pace to take a man on and beat him. Spain deploy Jesus Navas and Pedro in that position, Barca deploy Neymar, Pedro and Alexis in those positions. So, even if he wants us to play like Spain, we still need pace to make it anywhere near effective.

I'm stunned that you have that view, absolutely shocked. Never thought I'd see you say that. Ever.

If we don't replace Puncheon we're mental. I think it has to to be honest. I don't want to come across spoiled as we've already spent a load of money, but we didn't ever address our massive weakness from last year (attacking pace) - in fact, we've actually weakened it. Go figure.

Watching Puncheon running at and beating players in the Palace game, is leaving me somewhat frustrated.