Smirking_Saint

It sort of is...... its just a bit more sophisticated in its application

Im not sure he is; - Top young CB - Breaks into England team - Breakthrough year last year - Brighton don't want to sell - English tax

Which is a completely irrelevant point and has nothing to do with the intricacies of the market To put it another way then, I don't want to sell my house but theres a wealthy landowner wants to buy it to demolish it.... its only worth 450k but I won't sell unless he offers me 1.5m plus.... which makes what its worth again somewhat irrelevant

I get that, but all of us were worried towards the end of the season, some more than others, we got away with it because of our early season form, which was fantastic We were lucky that those at the bottom of the table never really found any significant form I get what you are saying, and in hindsight we were fine, but were you really feeling 'comfortable' ?

I'd say comfortably is a bit of a stretch

This is what I'm saying though, we don't have to go hell for leather, its unnecessary... but when required we need the funds available to ensure we are comfortably able to remain in the PL This is one of those situations, Id happily nail my colours to the mast here and suggest without spending more than we receive it will be a miracle if we have a season outside of the danger of relegation Like you followed up... we're stuck behind a rock and a hard place.... overspend and we go bust, fail to secure the right playing assets, we are relegated... and probably go bust

This basically I appreciate our transfer strategy allows us to be financially viable and stops us from stretching beyond our means, but football finances are, and always will be intrinsically linked with on field progression At some point you need to stretch in order to ensure your PL survival, especially in a season such as this where we are so obviously calling out for reinforcements It doesn't matter how careful we are financially if we end up in the Championship as that event has the potential to decimate any financial plans we have.

Unfortunately quite possibly not for us

This is true but they are only under it by about 200-300k I believe (Which for a club like Barca isn't huge) Not sure if that figure includes Messi's wages or not, either as they stand or renegotiated. Still, they have so much overpaid crap, surely they can just dump Coutinho, Pjanic, O Dembele and be ok Their recent transfer policy has been absolutely woeful

It wasn't particularly successful when we tried to use Salisu there either Im assuming Ralph will go back to his favoured 4222 system, which both Perraud and KWP as the wingbacks

I can't help but feel completely underwhelmed by Williams

I can't help but think this 2nd half was made even more dull by Danny Murphy's monotone, insipid punditry bollocks BBC really have a poor punditry team this year

Hmmmm

I mean, you’ve obviously got an opinion to open your post with ‘fish lips’ TBH if somebody wanted to pay me a load of money to post pictures in my pants Im not sure Id be worried much about what people on a football forum said about me Again, its up to her and what she values to be honest

Tad harsh to be honest, as much as Le Tiss himself has gone full on conspiracist nut he isn't a bad bloke, and still does a lot for chairty So does Alex from what I have seen on twitter, again, neither of them seem like bad people If she wants to do OF, thats up to her... I don't know the girl btw, just seems odd throwing mud at someone for what they want to do with their own body

Pompey is definitely moat cailin

You can only play 11 So you have 15 alternatives, I have absolutely no problem taking our best CB and CM who are also both of our likely captains if they can play after the group stages.... especially when we were handed a group that in all honesty we should be winning going into the tournament

Is that the guy that keeps arguing with Lighthouse ?

To be fair, you win tournaments by not letting goals in. But he has to get the front unit to play more effectively, and I don't buy the 'kane is perfectly fit' bollocks as he has been an absolute passenger for the last 180 mins

Its a moot point though, as we have 3 extra picks

As far as the Scotland game was concerned, I'm not sure JWP would have made much of a difference, and tbh, if he'd of taken Phillips or Rice of for JWP, after my initial Saints based hype, I'd be asking why we were still persisting with a double pivot. Friday night looked predominantly to me like two teams that didn't want to lose, rather than trying to win. But that said, Scotland defended very deep, often with serious numbers... we didn't get the ball forward quick enough, and when we did we had no real adventure. He persisted with Sterling, despite having no room to get in behind. If he wanted to go for it, he probably should have pushed the fullbacks higher to create overloads, or employed Foden AND Grealish, who can operate in tighter spaces than the likes of Rashford or Sterling... but he didn't I would say Southgate is still worried about his goalkeeper and CBs, which is why he is employing effectively a block of 6 defensive players (Back 4 + double pivot) and is asking his wide midfielders to primarily track the fullbacks (He has already stated he has kept Sterling in the side for his defensive workrate) Ultimately we won't see a lot of adventure until Maguire is back, and likely even then there may be question marks over his fitness

Not sure... we've never had a larger squad pick before

Southgate can pick an extra 3 players this year, which means if he feels Maguire and Henderson can add something to the team in the latter stages then it makes sense JWP to me makes more sense as a Henderson replacement, as he isn't as good as Phillips or Rice in the positions they play (He also isn't as good as Mount or Henderson in theirs either). We can judge Southgate on what happens with Henderson later on but considering he has already played half a friendly means he is probably fit enough. This consistent JWP mantra is pointless, yes he takes a good free kick, but outside of that he doesn't have the skillset of the other 3 midfield options... and whilst most years I'd agree, taking half fit players is daft, this year he has 3 extra picks... so its worth a gamble

I mean, this is a perfect example to be honest, you have ignored countless counter arguments regarding Southgates inclusion of KP/DR over JWP. Deciding instead to point towards statistics which again paint only half a picture And the england selection team as well as a number of pundits seem to agree

I find that quite hard to believe really, your reading of the game always comes across as very superficial, unless of course it is an analyst role, relaying statistical data Stats have a huge impact in the game as it stands right now, but you still need people that understand what they are looking at, and unfortunately stats do not ever paint the whole picture, they need to be assessed alongside a visual assessment and taking into consideration tactical limitations etc I don’t really expect you to respond, like you didn’t to my earlier points regarding JWP vs Phillips/Rice or the Lemina stats you posted the other day, feel free to try to pick posts apart from a pedantry perspective and stop digging yourself a hole regarding the depth of your superficial knowledge