tajjuk

Just watched the England game and saw Ahmed Musa come on, possible warning sign for Promes? Mus is a similar quick, young forward who did well in Russia and then was pretty rubbish in the PL and has been loaned back to CSKA, and has started scoring goals again (6 in 10 I think)

Hmmn thought it was a Walkabout at the time, but we are probably talking about the same space, it was definitely under the stadium, like literally under the seating and I am sure it was an Aussie bar.

Yeh Walkabout.

02-03 for me, wasn't old enough for the 80s. Cup final (I actually went, couldn't get a ticket but watched the game from under the stadium and could hear the crowd through the ceiling) 8th place finish which was unheard of for us in that era. Beattie banging them including some belters, he was like the complete striker that year scored all sorts of goals. I remember us not really thrashing anyone but also being competitive in most games. It was the first time as well I remember fans of other clubs actually talking about our players positively and not just that player being Le Tiss, we had Bridge, Oakley, Beattie, both Svenssons, Chris Marsden, Lundekvam, Niemi etc. Like I had mates who could probably barely name any Saints player of like the mid to late nineties aside Le Tiss, but they still remember the players from that 02/03 team, like the Lundekvam/Svensson defensive partnership.

Wouldn't want Slimani, but Loftus Cheek looks like the sort of player we need, a proper attacking mid with goals potential.

Rarely is that a full back, people that are quick, tall, good on the ball do not generally get played at full back. Also rarely are people who are big and strong that quick, hence why people like Drogba are such rare commodities. Most full backs are not very big. What rubbish, he's easily been one of the consistent full backs in the league over the last 3 years, he just had a below par season like everyone else did and even then was probably our best and most consistent defender. No idea why he gets such stick that he does when he is clearly a quality defender.

Eh? Do you actually watch football? I am not saying he isn't a good prospect, but he's very far from the finished article and still will be next year, he's got plenty of mistakes in him and needs more time to develop and get experience. Plus clap clap they finally produced a decent talent that actually makes it into the first team, first one since what Gerrard? hardly like it's an achievement. ---------------------------------------------- If they get who they are expected to get their spend over the last 3 windows is going to push £350 million, if they don't win the league they have failed IMO.

Defence is not that good, Trent AA is error prone at right back, Lovren is still a disaster waiting to happen in defence. Plus as someone above says they'll get raided, easily one of Mane, Salah or Firminho could get poached by Real, Barca, PSG etc. They'll spend like £200 million on players still finish behind City and Liverpool fans will claim City bought the league.

Remember they are also buying Naby Keita this summer for like £60 million, so that's like £100 million on centre-mids.

They don't all have to fit, we need options in those positions. Tadic was woeful for 3/4s of the season, maybe bad management, but if we had Shaqiri there to challenge him then he should play better and we'll score more goals. The most valuable thing I think Shaqiri would bring to us is goals from outside the box, we have barely anyone that scores from longer range and those sort of goals can nick wins where we don't play that well. We definitely need some more pace though, if not Promes someone of that ilk.

You have to wonder what motivation for trophies he has, already won 4 champions leagues, as many as Messi, he's got Wales to a major tournament, is Wales's all time top goalscorer. Be interesting to see where he goes, might hinge on Ronaldo who is also hinting at moving. If he does come back to the PL I hope it's to Spurs (or us lol) but not Utd

If they were chasing trophies they wouldn't have gone to Liverpool. They haven't won the league for 28 years and to be honest they are not even regular top 4 candidates, in the last 10 years they have finished outside the top four 6 times, outside the top 6 on four of those occasions. They have won just ONE trophy in the last 12 years and that was a League Cup against Championship Cardiff. They went for money pure and simple, they moved from a team that was challenging for the top 6-8 and looking to move up, to a team that challenges for the top 4-6 most seasons. It's a step up, but hardly a big one and several of left without zero good grace or thanks for the club that made them into the players they are to get that big pay raise, they instead threw tantrums and forced through their moves.

Brilliant, couldn't have written a much better final I reckon, Bale scoring two including a wonder goal, Liverpool literally throwing it away.

I'd imagine pretty much every PL club could easily afford to spend £30 million on transfers considering the TV deal, wages is probaby more a stumbling block than transfer fees these days.

Vitesse Arnhem fans from what I read don't seem that bothered about being Chelsea's. It's only likely to benefit them until such time they get to a similar level as us.

I'll be supporting Madrid, don't get this 'you must support other English clubs' stuff people say, I don't like Liverpool, they are a scummy club. Plus I can support a Saints youth product who we can actually be proud of. Bale seems to be back in form as well over the last few games, hope he runs rings Lovren and Van Dijk so they end up flat on their faces.

Obviously both, there are some good players in the lower league worth going for, I mean we got Clyne, Spurs got Bale and Ali, so there are potential top level players there to be had. But I wouldn't give up on the European market just because we've had a few duds.

Proven PL right back coming into his prime? You'd expect £25 million in today's market, if not more to tempt the club to sell. I'd expect £35 million for Bertrand, if the board sells for like £25 million that will be a poor deal IMO.

Not sure how accurate that can be, almost every team's wage bills jump by about 25-50% in some cases like us, crystal Palace, Stoke, west brom, west ham, swansea, all seem to jump from about 50 - 60 million to £90 million the next year,

It is very likely that EU players will not be restricted that much, especially in the PL. Most of the players in the PL are from the EU, the PL is not going to jeopardise their product by having many of these players unable to play because they are suddenly counted as 'foreign' or whatever and need work permits, nor any future players, so I fully expect there will be a deal with the government that allows EU players into the league pretty much unrestricted.

Both those clubs could easily be in trouble next year IMO. They are too messy behind the scenes, our board/football directors etc. have made mistakes over the last 2 years but IMO there is much more stability, clear thinking and planning at our club, they just got their big decisions wrong (manager choices, recent recruitment). Everton and West Ham need some stability and clear planning, but with their owners I doubt that is going to happen. Silva is a good manager, but if he does well and a bigger club comes knocking it could all unravel for him, plus their squad clearly has issues, most of their squad is in the 28 - 33 bracket, with like 3/4 of their defence approaching their mid 30s and like us they lack pace and unless Tosun turns out to be a good, a quality striker. Plus I suspect Moshri will throw some more money at any player available and expect to challenge for top 6, which will put Silva under pressure straight away. And then West ham have a pair of clowns running the club and their transfer policy seems to be to go for anyone and everyone half decent in Europe and then get the owners son to announce it on twitter. I also suspect that they could easily do a Stoke, in signing some talented but unprofessional players that'll end up upsetting the team spirit. Easily could see one of those teams struggling next year whoever they get in.

Doesn't really say a lot, though he is right, Gao owes us nothing really if he wants to keep his reasons for buying private that is his business. Good to see there is some more investment going on round the stadium, hopefully there are some plans to develop the land around it and make the area more than just a indenti-kit stadium plonked into an area of a city like it is now. The feeder/link club is interesting, also the choice of country is interesting in Austria/Switzerland, quite a few talents have come through those leagues recently like Naby Keita, Mane, Shaqiri etc. Obviously they feel stepping up from the youth teams through to first team in the PL is harder than it's even been, which we have seen with a lot of our recent academy graduates. Question is whether this model works, Chelsea have it with Vitesse, they have sent a lot of players there but not sure any have broken through to their first team yet, though Chelsea might have made some cash from selling these players on. We also could have this odd thing where our feeder club gets into Europe whilst we don't.

the midfield looks very pedestrian, lacking anyone there that will be able to link the play between midfield and attack, do something a bit different and change the tempo of the game. Lots of good forwards and pace, but there is no David Silva or similar in there, no playmaker, which is why IMO it's odd that Wilshere has been left out, he's the best we had and he's probably played the most football this year than he has for 5 years, I think I saw he had 38 starts in all competitions this year. Plus Lallana is only on the stand by. The Ox missing is also a big gap as well. Almost all the playmaking/creative midfield play is going to revolve on Dele Ali who tends to go missing, after that you have a load of defensive mids basically.

Can't see the justification of taking Rose over Bertrand, Rose has barely played all year and not sure even at his best he's any better than bertrand. I also detest Ashley Young and he's not a left back, he's right footed for a start and always cuts back.

He would not have been my 2nd, third, 4th or even 5th choice, but to me we looked down, he had 8 games to turn around a heavily underperforming squad, overcome a points deficit and most of those games were away. In short he deserves it.