david in sweden

part of the reason he got such a" bad press" from fans was that under Pochettino he wasn't a first choice, and when he did get a start ...it was often to plug a gap at RB. He looks much more comfortable on the left of the defence and ----TBF----looks a better player after a few consecutive outings. Koeman has more faith in him and he's getting the game time that he lacked before. I think he's dependable and will even improve - if he gets a good run of games.

it never ceases to amaze me how quick some people are to judge a new player ......unless he plays a blinder on his debut....... ..there are a few contributors on here who condemned Mane to the same category as Ali Dia in his first few games, which maybe why Man U want to buy him With half a dozen new faces in the squad - who scarcely share the same language. It 'll take time to blend into a good team, and Juanmi - like the rest - will need time. we may well see more unbalanced games before things start to fit into place, and with team changes between Prem. and Euro games we never have the same line-up.

Mmm....like the 8 times he hit the woodwork last season. At least that guy in Row Z felt safer than when some of the others had a shot ......

I suppose .....very soon people will get back to comparing him to Ali Dia

....even if (someone bought him) for £15 million ....on a £75k salary, a 4 year contact would mean ANOTHER £15 million too. I don't think so.

I think everyone is over-reacting, I mean ...we're on the same points as Chelsea..and they lost 3-0 ..and Mourinho thinks it doesn't matter because it was a fake result. so ....RELAX

......incommunicado.......and if they did know, don't think they wouldn't say anything if negotiations are so far advanced....

well.....he's younger at least, and has time to develop....but I don't expect Fonte to leave....and if he did how much would we expect to get for him?

.......and Liverpool in the 6th round

....some rather biting criticism of Matt Targett from fans - but are we really so surprised?. He's barely played a dozen Prem.games (and with no continuity)....and if we didn't blame him alone .....there were plenty of other candidates. only Jose Fonte was left from last season's back line - and tbf - he didn't distinguish himself either. Even if the "media story" was true, he didn't look very happy. Cedric looks good going forward, but was weak defensively but if Lukaku turns it on like that in the rest of the season, Cedric won't be alone with a bruised reputation. Tadic is good in an attacking role, but cannot defend.....(better choosing Reed).....and stengthen the midfield instead. Romeu looked more confident, but will need to watch that fiery tackling......it might have been a red card. Best chances fell to Pelle and Mane, but although they score good goals, they look lost when things are going badly. Bad day at the office - all round. Now its upto Ronald to shuffle the pack and come up with a good win on Thursday, because on the strength of yesterday's game - even Watford could prove a handful.

Jos Hooiveld has returned to "his spiritual home" - so it seems to the Swedish sport media after his surprise return to Stockholm club ..AIK. Dagens Nyheter carried a full page story on Jos' return to Stockholm-based side AIK, where the club has revived its fortunes after several very bleak seasons. Despite picking up an injury in his first game, Jos came back with a bang and fitted in like the proverbial missing jigsaw piece in the AIK defence. Last week's derby game against rivals Djurgården was played in front of almost 40,000 fans, and highlighed by Jos' outstanding defensive role - even after AIK were reduced to 10 men - they still won the game. The article highlighted his career in 6 countries, and his return to AIK (he said) was made easier by the reunion with some former players (from 2009). Speaking about his 4 years at Saints - " that it was a good time for him and he enjoyed playing in the Prem." A hectic period last week was highlighted by an overnight stay in hospital - as a guest - whilst his WAG (?) gave birth to their son Teun, but he still managed to turn out for AIK and put in a good display (against Anders Svensson's Elfsborg side), and has quickly become a fans' favourite with his very positive attitude. His former time at AIK was amongst his career highlights, when he was a key part of the AIK side that won the double of League and Swedish Cup in 2009, and AIK was never quite the same after his departure to Celtic. Jos had an unhappy stay at Celtic, marred first by injury and then a change of management and suddenly his face didn't fit. However, his transfer to Saints early in the Championship season proved to be a God send, where he and Jose Fonte held the CB spots and helped keep 18 clean sheets(?) when we were promoted. His contribution in the two league games against West Ham - when he scored twice (1-0) (1-1), ensured we got enough points for automatic promotion, whilst the Hammers were left to fight out the play-offs to get the third spot. Sadly, Jos was not alone in failing to find his best form in the top tier, and although he made some heroic performances, he lacked the consistancy that is so important in the Premier League. There is a nice clip on You Tube, highlighting his time with Saints, where his tally of 8 goals (all scored without penalties) in our Championship season is some sort of club record for a Saints CB. At 32, Jos will be well-suited to the slightly lower level of the Swedish League, and Stockholmers' will certainly look forward to seeing more of him playing for AIK in the remaining 10 games of the Swedish season.....and hopefully..... in the next couple of years of his contract. P:S. during the afternooon watched AIK beat Kalmar 2-1 with Jos commanding at the back, and AIK move to top of the table - (at least temporarily). Top 6 teams are only separated by 3 points, so we are in for a grandstand finish to the season in Sweden.

We did enough to win last week but were second best in every department today ...why do we always seem to stumble on the first sunny day of the season ? .......now is a good test to see how Ronald puts it right, but worth remembering that after two matches at the start of last season we had just ..... one point.

In the wake of the sale of Gareth Bale's £86 million move to Real Madrid two years ago...Spurs went out and spent over £100 million .....on 7 new players. To date; 4 of them have been sold at a loss of around £25 million, and that doesn't take into account the salaries they've all received in those two years. More interesting is the stats. of aforementioned players who between them have played in over 400 league and cup games and netted a total of ...just 69 goals. With hindsight perhaps only Eriksen can be called a good buy - as he alone was responsible for 22 of those 69 goals. Bale on the other hand has scored 39 goals in 92 games.... doesn't take much imagination to see who got the best deal. The response of the Spurs Chairman has been to sack two managers for bad results ...and still keep the idi*t who wasted all their money by buying them... Pochettino must hope for a good start to the season ...or it'll be his head on the block soon........

I think the mainpoint to note there is that ..even if they have retained most of their squads....neither team finished better than (our) 7th place last season:D .

unlike at Saints, you mean..... where the DOF only signs players that the Manager agrees to .......

this sounds like a purely English FA ruling..it's sounds like " a restriction of right to work" in another EU land. If a player from another EU country can play in the UK ....and has had the adequate training from a young age, where is the difference? ...or does the English FA / UEFA seek to set themselves above EU law?

ooo

Correct ....... although I suspect the managers of his former clubs didn't really give him a fair crack of the whip.....and no-one looks good in a poor side facing relegation.

...although I do recall Poch saying that he was offered Adkins' job in November.....so maybe he did have a say in the Forren deal ? ....but results picked up a bit and Cortese couldn't sack Nigel right away.....that is not until we only came away from Stamford Bridge with a draw ......

IF... this loan season works out well, we should certainly sign him properly, not just as cover but as competition for Forster (who hopefully will regain his proper form). Any team with pretensions to a regular top six in the Prem. or even a CL place needs two reliable international keepers, not just for form, but injury cover, too.

The point I made in the OP was that regardless of the "vision " to try and develop young players and bring them upto Prem. standard, there will be years when no-one actually makes it off the bench, or becomes a regular first choice. Of course it will happen...in time...but probably later rather than sooner. No farmer gets a bumper harvest every year, and as Les Reed stated in one documentary, we often look to work with late developers. The only problem being that players in general tend to mature earlier nowadays compared to 20-30 years ago.and you can't keep them all indefinitely. This season we kept; Turnbull and Stephens and loaned them out again fro more experience, but had to let go some U21 players. Cody Cropper had 3 seasons as U21 goalie but no first team games ahead of KD or Boruc. It's no disgrace for them, but there is no way that Rowe or Sinclair would be chosen get ahead of Long or Mane ....they still have talent, and it may well come to pass in a few years. What we are seeing / have seen...is being able to benefit from those players who just haven't made the grade with teams like Chelsea (Bertrand and now Romeu) simply because they won't get picked ahead of the world class player who's the first choice. They are still developing (even at 23-24), and if Romeu is half as good as Ryan Bertrand....it will be money well spent and for U21 players like Josh Debayo...(who I think was a Chelsea Academy reject ?)...more time to develop themselves.

No-one can expect a "conveyor belt system" where we sell two or three stars every summer, and then instantly replace them with a ready-made " Academy clone ". We have been fortunate to see quite a few lads (aside from the Walcott, Bale, AOC examples) who have come through the ranks and left to make a career elsewhere. Nathan Dyer has clocked up a couple of hundred games since his move to Swansea, and Andrew Surman (who was forcibly sold to help make ends meet in 2009), has finally made it to the Prem. under his own steam. It will take time to find new talent.....and it's most unlikely that we will see another teenage Luke Shaw emerge as a Prem. regular and England player in the same season. I'm not overly concerned about the apparant lack of obvious replacements and as others have pointed out here, the likes of Seager, McQueen, Slattery and McCarthy may emerge as a new revelation.... in a season or two. History shows us that Alan Shearer (45 this week) took almost 3 seasons to become a regular, and MLT spent an eternity on the bench before he got to be first choice. I think we will see more Academy lads getting game time, and possibly different personnel for Prem. games.... and those for Euro. / and various Cup competitions.

not really familiar with the British journalistic scene, but his name is an unfortunate coincidence for a member of the Press meant to be reporting the truth.

espn.com ran a story suggesting that Saints had somehow "betrayed Nicola Cortese vision" of a Saints team with 50% of our own Academy products, suggesting the signing of Romeu meant that we had abandoned the concept of bringing in youngsters. Admitedly, most of Ronald Koeman's recent buys are European - several of whom he knew first-hand from the Dutch League and previous coaching jobs, but all have a proven record at a higher level than U21. Despite our whirlwind start to last season, we finished with a whimper (with the exception of the Villa game) and losing Schneiderlin, Clyne and Alderweireld (internationals-all three) from the line-up... made holes that needed to filled with experienced players ASAP and the prospect of a season with (potentially) a dozen or more Europa League games ...it's surely obvious that Koeman can't just drive over to Staplewood and pick the next lad in line... Players and pundits alike are always quoting that the Prem. is the best / one of the best / toughest/ Leagues in the World, and there is a long list of those expensive foreign imports who haven't been able to cut it at this level (as Spurs and Liverpool in particular) have found to their cost. The Espn journo. who wrote this piece ....clearly thinks Saints are failing in their endeavour to fill the side with the next generation of Shaw's, Lallana's and Chambers', and cites the signing of Romeu as a betrayal of the youth players. Historically;goalies, CB's and Strikers are hard to come by at this level, although our greatest success has been with midfielders and defenders, Saints' fans would need to think hard to make of list of former players in those positions who've gone through the youth set-up with success and become first-team regulars. Coasting along with an "in-form" team has greatly helped those lads who got game time last season, but to expect them to compete in the Prem. / Euro League against top class opposition is surely stretching credulity a bit far. Several former Academy prospects have had loan-outs (even at a lower level) it will give then a chance to prove themselves. The best current prospects; Turnbull, Stephens and Gallagher have come on well, but they are not there yet, whilst several others have " fallen by the wayside " and moved onto other clubs, but the gap between U21 and The Prem. is much greater than even that between the Championship and Prem. (as many clubs find to their cost). The average fan recognises that you can only bring in players who are good enough. Whilst the above-mentioned three clearly were the right player at the right time, our current crop includes; JWP, Targett and Ward-Prowse have come in a DAJFU when required and not disgraced themselves. With the prospect of a tough 38 game Prem. season plus (eventual) Euro League and FA / League cup games - we might be looking at a 55-60 game season. The whole tone of the above-mentioned article really made me think.....what sort of world some of the so-called journos live-in. It was totally short-sighted. Bringing in fresh faces into a side isn't just a case of fitting a new wheel on the car.....but a thoroughly tough MOT.....as many of the clubs who have already spent £ BIG so far this season will soon discover. I doubt if many of them will have the same degree of success from their Academies that we have had, or be able to bring in so many youngsters as Saints undoubtedly will in the coming seasons.

apparant "quote " from Celtic ..(unsure if it was the manager or the Chairman ?)......" we don't need the money...". well we'll see about that . His agent surely will have say in that, and when he's into the last year of his contract, or OOC.... he'll be up for grabs.........