benjii

Pelle's been dreadful but i suppose it's his first game. Martina doesn't exactly look great defensively. Gassaarrniga has been solid enough. I like Juanmi.

Cool! Make sure you get absolutely plastered. I look forward to reading about how ****e our support was.

More like a £10m defender and a £15m midfielder, I would hope. I don't think we will be signing another striker. If we are going to play 4-3-3 then we have: Pelle Rodriguez Long Mane Juanmi Tadic Ramirez Gallagher competing for 3 spots. That's 3 from 8. Even if you say that Tadic, Ramirez or Juanmi might play more as a supporting forward as one of the midfield 3 that still leaves Pelle, Rodriguez, Long and Mane competing for three places with Gallagher and other academy prospects on stand-by. I don't think we can really justify spending £15million on another striker unless they are a clear upgrade on Pelle or unless Pelle is keen to leave for some reason. The current personnel are capable of covering Pelle's absence (whether enforced or tactical) without weakening the team signifcantly - and in fact, away from home in particular, a front three of Mane, Rodriguez and Juanmi/Long could be pretty useful. We would be better placed spending that money on a midfielder because if Morgan goes then we are a Big Vic injury or suspension away from looking pretty vulnerable in midfield.

I think Osborne is one of the stars of the Commons currently. Accomplished, clear and well on top of his brief. Will be interesting to see whether he or Boris is the next PM.

Quite. I know it's fashionable to slam the "bed wetters" but the most likely looking explanation is a massive **** up by us. We would already have agreed terms with him last year. Something has gone on with us and Madrid which has screwed this up.

Any idea how it got to this? Even if Madrid made a procedural error regarding the buy out of the option how did the whole thing become so acrimonious? We still should've been the front runners to get this sorted.

I think he would be well advised not to sign for anyone until Saints and Athletico have sorted this out. If he does and then can't play for some reason he is going to be pretty miffed and will probably end up getting loaned out to someone again.

The risk is that he's ****e and we lose games as a result.

Often there are additional formalities that need to be completed to effect the actual legal transfer of an asset (for example, an option agreement over shares wouldn't actually operate to transfer the shares, it would just create an obligation to do so when the option is exercised; similarly an option over land would require that forms are submitted to the land registry to perfect the transfer legally). I have no idea what formalities are required in a football transfer but it strikes me that the loan/option agreement is unlikely to be the actual instrument of transfer so I suspect he is still "owned" by Madrid but that they are in breach of an obligation to sell to us. If there were doubts about Madrid's ownership then Spurs would not be rushing to complete the deal (assuming that is what they are doing) - unless they are incompetent. So, actually, I think the more pertinent questions are: 1) what is our remedy for the breach? 2) is there a point at which Madrid and Saints can meet to make all this go away? Re number 1) - unless there is some footballing-sepcific forum for this king of thing that is willing to force the transfer through I would expect it to be financial damages. An English court would not generally force a sale, it would just work out what the damages were (in theory the difference between the pre-agreed price and the Spurs price, I would guess - hard to prove other losses other than procedural costs). That's assuming the agreement is governed by English law. It could be Spanish or some other neutral law - who knows? In any event, I doubt it is as simple as, "they didn't pay up so now he's ours".

You've made a lot of assumptions there. You have no idea if the agreement with Madrid actually operates to transfer Toby's registration or if it simply puts Madrid under an obligation to do so. If the latter then they would still hold his registration. We don't know what the governing law of the agreement is or what forum a dispute would be heard in. English courts don't generally make parties comply with agreements, they just make people pay damages for breach. Goodness knows how we would quantify losses arising from not being allowed to spend money on a player. You can't really with any certainty. I reckon, if SFC is in the right over the agreement (and I do agree with you there - it should be pretty straightforward if it was drafted competently), then we will end up doing a deal with Madrid.

Not sure he will see that he needs to knuckle-down really. What is his motivation? He has been a prize tit for several years without any great footballing success and has made millions. He had a chance to knuckle-down and play at a huge club and win trophies when he was on loan at Juventus but didn't do enough to stay there. If Palace are stupid enough to offer him a decent contract now he's 29 then why does he need to knuckle down? He certainly isn't going to win anything there (ok, maybe a cup if they get lucky, but he will hardly have the carrot of footballing greatness dangled in front of him). Just carrying on being a complete helmet for the next few years, mince around London and pocket the money. Happy days.

I've never watched the guy play so can't claim to have any sort of informed view myself but I find it hard to believe that the Portuguese national right back is no better than, for example, Danny Fox.

Nonsense.

Another endorsement from me. I will not boo Clyne. He has left in the same manner as he arrived. A shame to see him go but a full-back will never be as important as a centre back, central midfielder or striker. Lallana will get a special reception again though.

My sources are telling me this one is virtually done. Will be signed imminently.

Well, he will have to like it or lump it, really. If the top clubs won't offer a price we can accept he will just have to wait it out until his contract runs down. If he was that set on joining a Champions League club he should have insisted on appropriate release clauses before he signed his last contract. I can't see him going on strike as that would send him out of the France squad pretty pronto, as would a bad drop in form.

At the start of last season, Koeman's preferred midfield set up, from back to front, was more like this: --------------------------*---------------------------- ---------------*------------------*------------------- ... than Poch's one of this: ------------*---------------------*-------------------- ----------------------*--------------------------------- Indeed, away to West Ham, people may recall that Morgan played at the base with Davis and JWP in front of him. Even when Morgan and Big Vic both played they seemed to have a lot more licence to get forwards. I don't think Big Vic would have scored that goal at Swansea if Poch was manager. There is no rule that we need two sitting midfielders in every game, particularly if we have the players on the pitch who are capable of dominating possession. I'm intrgued as to how we are going to set up next season, particularly with the Juanmi signing. He won't be too happy on the bench, I would've thought, so I wonder if we are looking at a system without a "big man" (ie. Pelle) for certain matches. Clearly, last season, Pelle was not all that effective in Premier League away matches. And where does a fit Tadic fit into this? I think next season could be a right laugh. Back to Chrissy Nichol 4-2-4 times.

At least Clyne hasn't been spouting his gob off and making himself look like an utter ****. He does, however, have an awful haircut. So there are similarities.

I can't really see the point of Liverpool, other than more money (which is fair enough) but there is a risk that by joining them and not holding out for a better team next summer he is foregoing any chance of football success for the next few years. I guess Clyne is young enough to sign a three or four year deal with Liverpool and still have another big move to a club with a realistic chance of winning more than a league cup every decade when he is 28 or so. I wouldn't be surprised if he runs his contract at Liverpool down and does exactly that - and fair play to him. In the meantime he probably doubles his wages. If I was his agent I'd be asking for Glenn Johnson's wages!

Hope not.

Matt Oakley was a very good Premier League player so if JWP turns into that, then fine. Neil Maddison was not, really.

I like it when they mince about in Lycra with a shiny glans on their head.

If we're lucky it will coincide with Almaty folk festival and we can take in Right Said Fred and Corky Bulzseck whilst we're there.

Interesting, cheers! If you think Kairat is a long way then at least we can't get Vladivostok!