tajjuk

Hope that doesn't mean we miss out on some players.

Just because Wales as a team are having a great tournament does not mean we need to start buying Wales players, Robson Kanu was at Reading for a reason and Joe Allen could not get into a team that finished two places below us and is pretty identical to Clasie/JWP in style of play. He is also no better than those two, so no to both IMO. It's bad enough we are sending so many players Liverpools way, we don't need to start picking up their rejects, the only Liverpool player we should possibly look at is Benteke.

We should have offered him to be King of Southampton - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36679310

Puncheon played through the middle in the no.10 spot quite a lot for palace last season and they seemed to be trying to turn Bolasie into a striker, which is where they need investment. Strange move for Richie, that's just got to be money really, has a lot faith in Newcastle to get out of the championship first go and Bournemouth to go the other way, I wouldn't be so confident. Championship is not an easy league to get out of and Rafa has no experience of it.

If we are being linked with Amavi and Brady, either..... Bertrand is going. or The press just assumes Bertrand is going because he's been linked to Liverpool and we have form there so the natural progression is we then have to replace him. or We might be going to 3 at the back + wingbacks/Bertrand is being converted into a possible centre back?

Well it would still I think be a good idea to get another quality centre-back in to challenge both VVD and Fonte. With decent cup runs and if we get through to the Europa knock out stages we could be looking at 50+ plus games next season. Not sure Gardos or Yoshida can be relied on for any length of time.

If signings are on of his weaker suits that doesn't really bother me because he won't have full say over signings. We have a committee and a very extensive scouting process so he'll only have a small input. Seems more he is the improving players on the training ground type manager, similar to Klopp, so he'll probably just have input into where we need improving and then the team + black box go look for the best player to match that criteria.

No I agree with that, for me he is there best midfielder, maybe he didn't hit peak form last season but to write him off after one season seems odd, though Mourinho always has his favourites. If he gets Matic and Pogba in like they are talking about then he'd be down the pecking order. ----------------------------- I like Brady, but he's essentially a left back now isn't he?, arguably that is one of the positions we are strongest, unless of course Bertrand is going................ Also out of those teams listed surely he'd chose Leicester?

That'll be a disappointment IMO, we can't just stand still so we need replacements for those players AND improvement in other areas. I doubt much improvement in any of our current players, though the likes of Cedric & Clasie may improve as they won't be new to the league anymore and hopefully JWP and Targett will kick on a bit but aside that we don't have any youngsters that will suddenly burst onto the scene and most of the other players are probably as good as they are going to be. There are of course question marks around Jay Rod and to a lesser extent Austin, fully fit and back on form those two could be massive but it's a big IF, especially for Jay Rod. Every other Prem club is awash with cash and will probably improve, with their new managers it's almost certain that Man Utd, Man City and Chelsea will improve a lot. Biggest improvement are for me would a no.10 as other have mentioned, someone to score us some worldys, turn a drab game around etc. If we had a Payet, Mahrez or Coutinho last year we'd be currently in the Champions League. I'd also worry about our centre back cover as well. I'd be looking for someone that could challenge Fonte's spot. Plus maybe a better right back or more quality there and there are question marks about our Strikers, though I think a fully fit season from Austin could easily be a 20 goals man and considering that guy is on the bench for Belgium and scored 17 goals for nice is going for nearly £40 million it might be an optimistic area. I'd hope if the rumours about them being available we'd look at Ox-Chamberlain, Morgan and Chambers, plus I quite like the potential interest in Behrahino, also depending on price and wages maybe look at Benteke.

Well yes, until you realise that MLB players you've never heard of are getting paid £24 million basic salary.

£500k tax man will take pretty much half and depends if they want to be an actual footballer and you know play some games of football. Depends what your motivation is. I'd personally rather play for a club that wants me, where I'd be a fan favourite, playing ever week and living in one of the nicest parts of the country and still get £80k a week, over sitting on an extra £500k to sit on the bench or play for the reserves in Manchester. There is also future earnings to think about, he's only 26 dropping out not doing anything at Utd for a year or two will hurt his earnings in the long run.

As above said, what he said are mainly facts, he does have so so results and has no experience outside France. Also are our younger players good enough? The results the U21s and U18s have been pulling in over the last 18 months doesn't suggest so. Outside of Reed, JWP and Targett I'm not sure any of our young players are good enough for that squad.

Yeh maybe it's a little dig at Koeman referencing his falling out with some players?

Welcome Claude. Thought this bit was interesting in the statement - Have any of our players played under him before? Or am I misinterpreting that?

it's official.

I'm pretty sure they could cope with only being paid £80k a week instead of £100k.

Oh yeah, but then who doesn't do silly things occasionally at 20. Still think classing him alongside Osvaldo is harsh.

They'd all probably take a pay cuts I reckon, certainly to 're-build' their careers and we must have been offering mane at least £70-80k to stay. Remember Gaston's, Osvaldo's, Mane's and Wanyamas wages have just gone and they were probably our highest earners before the likes of VVD and Forster signed new deals. We also have to be realistic, the amount of Premier league TV money, top half clubs will be offering their top players close to the £100k a week.

I understand that reasoning, but IF he has the choice of basically being told he won't play at Utd or going to some other non-top 4 Premier League team (basically saying Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, City, Spurs won't go for him) then out of the options of say Everton or West Hame why not come back to us? Already held in high regard here, Europa league football, will slot straight into the first team, loved by fans, knows the club and area and presumably liked it. They'll be no mention of failure from our fans, so we can easily nurse his bruised ego. Sure if Liverpool or PSG or Atletico Madrid or something come knocking for him he'll be there, but based on the current rumours I think it's worth a go for us. Ian Rush and Mark Hughes quite successfully returned after big albeit foreign moves, Zaha is a more recent one of course as well, so is Kaboul and Defoe both returning to Spurs.

Don't really see why that should be true in either case. Unless Everton is a massive step up all of a sudden?

If he's surplus to requirements at Utd as being reported and Everton want him I don't really see why not and would be disappointing if we at least didn't try. We need a first team DM and he's one of the best around and could be available.

Ben Arfa is the Puel link. On Berahino people have made a lot out of one incident, aside from that angry tweet probably done in haste what other 'bad boy' things has he done? Think he had a falling out with Uwe Rosler when on loan. From what Pulis and other players have said his approach to training is very professional and played as normal for West Brom, there were no strikes or anything. I mean to be honest his reaction was not really any worse than Morgans and Wanyamas were after being told they couldn't get the moves they wanted?

Agree. Him and Chamberlain should be out priority signings. People would have completely forgotten about Wanyama and Mane if we got those two back.

Puel's Nice played with the full backs as their main source of width, so links to more fullbacks is understandable. Though with Bertrand and Targett you'd think left side we are stronger than the Cedric/Martina. Still think Morgan, Chambers, Ox. plus back up keeper, maybe Ben Arfa on a free. Reckon we could get that lot for about £55 million (£20 mill for Morgan and Ox, £15 million for Chambers) which is only around £8 million spend on our sales amount (£34 million Mane + £11 million Wanyama + £2 mill Juanmi)

Interesting stat in that Echo article about 20 managers in 24 premiership years, I wonder whether that is part of choosing Puel, less likely to leave and more committed long term? Rather than the up coming starlet a la Poch that if succeeded would just be off after a few seasons. He's a Wenger protege and he's one of the longest serving managers around so maybe he has a more loyal character and likes a long term project? One club man as a player, 6 years at Lille, 4 at Nice. He is still for me a little underwhelming, but I'm not going to write him off as the club does it's due diligence. A lot about our club is the set up and the environment the players and staff work in, a lot of players we've had have not hit the heights they did since they've left and quite a few other players have prospered coming here despite indifferent records (i.e. Bertrand) so we can only hope that with the environment we have will maximise Puel's abilities as a manager, and he must have qualities there to build a team up like Lille last season. Be a shame to see Sammy Lee go, think the players like Lee a lot, hope he doesn't and Black is just additional to help with the language.