Saint Pete

Well, Hughes and coaching team certainly improved performances and commitment of the average set of demoralised players at the back end of last season. Or have we forgotten that already on the back of one defeat in a meaningless early pre-season friendly?

Still hoping the second part of that is wide of the mark and we have a better and less injury prone striker target in mind.

Hmmm, bit of a reality check that! Probably a good thing at this stage as reinforces the need for more quality to be brought in attack wise. Also a reminder to Hughes if he needed it that Hoedt and Stephens are not good enough as starters if we want to improve this season.

Don't you mean we've moved down and he's moved down?! We can hardly be too smug about the direction we've been heading in for past couple of seasons. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

Personally, I think Origi would be a better signing than Ings. He looked promising when he first came on the scene at Liverpool and seem to remember him looking quite good for Belgium at that time as well. Seems to have gone off the boil since then, but if he was available for a decent price, could be one that we can develop as still only 23.

What you seem to have forgotten is that Forster was given another contract extension at the end of 16-17 season when he had been far from impressive and arguably when the rot was already setting in. It's this that most fans feel was bizarre and indeed said so at the time! Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

Wow, that's pretty special, even by FIFA standards! Lovren in but no Godin. Paulinho and Neymar but no De Bruyne. And Ashley Young. WTF. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

Absolutely. I too have become accustomed to not giving a toss about international football in recent years so thank you Southgate for restoring faith and pride in this young England team. It's easy to pick holes in strategy in hindsight now we have gone out, but I think it was his consistency of selection, formation and game plan that have coaxed such improved performances out of what is in reality far from the most talented of squads in this world cup. He seems to be a good fit for the England manager role at this point where there are no massive stars but a number of reasonably promising young players that he can work with. The challenging thing for him now will be dealing with the rise in expectations after such a positive world cup. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

Problem is even at a good price he would be taking up another place in the squad which would be a gamble with his injury record. I think it only makes any sense at all signing Ings if we move Austin on. Not saying I think we should but we can't afford 2 of our main strikers in the squad to be as injury prone as Austin and Ings. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

Not sold at all on the idea of us signing Ings. He was good before his injuries but not enough evidence that he will return to that form and we don't need another striker with such a bad injury record. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

It's definitely encouraging - seem to be addressing the right areas of the team that need strengthening and it's also good to see some clear decisions being made on those who need to go to clear space in the squad. Suspect the appointment of a stronger manager like Hughes who will have clear ideas has helped in terms of pushing through the decisions on Carillo, Boufal, etc. The unknown factor at this point though is who else may go or at least want to go who we may not want to lose - Bertrand, Cedric, Romeu come to mind. Hopefully they will want to stay given the apparent improvement in willingness to improve the squad though.

MP didn't sign the cheques though did he? Whoever did sign off on this at board level really shouldn't be at the club now. Shameful waste of money given what Ralph has been spouting about needing to sell to fund new players. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

I agree. We had exactly the same comments as above regarding Gaston when he was here, "needs more of a run in the team" etc. In my opinion he has had his chances like everyone else, but clearly has not impressed enough to get ahead of the likes of Redmond and Tadic. He may prove me wrong (hope he does) but I would rather we move him on now if we can and get in someone fresh with a better attitude and more drive to succeed in the premier league. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

Agree completely. Trying to be too clever will backfire and end in tears no doubt. I expect a few changes to rest any players with knocks etc, but replacements should all be keen to impress. Keep the momentum going and win the group. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

Very disappointed to lose our most creative player. Not at all confident that we will replace him with someone of the same or better quality based on our recent transfer dealings.

I am now a VAR convert

I think a problem with VAR will be that refs will start to not make decisions themselves and rely on VAR too much. As you say, the second half one is right in front of the ref so he should be making that decision, should be no need for VAR there. Main problem in this game was not VAR in my opinion, the ref and linos were just absolute gash throughout, you can't expect VAR to solve everything. They were letting Tunisia get away with murder with their cynical tactics. Was almost comical at one point in second half where I think Trippier was trying to take a free kick and their player was continuously standing on the ball and not retreating the 10 yards for a good minute or so, ref did nothing. Weakest officials of tournament so far. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

No, it was just a half hearted attempt by the club at the time to feed a few media contacts like Blackmore and Wilson with some vague bull about having an agreement in principle for a deal in the summer - with the aim of persuading the more gullible that it wasn't such a complete balls up of a window after all. I think most at the time could see it for what it was. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

Tadic looking good so far. Interesting that he is on the right for Serbia as well. Makes you think it maybe him who expresses preference to play there rather than on the left? Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

Amazed he's been left out, but does put into perspective the huge gap between the likes of Germany and us that they can even consider not picking someone as good as Sane! Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

He did also get Watford promoted to PL to be fair, finishing 2nd I think. But I agree that he would be a gamble not having had experience at PL level. Personally would be happier to go with Hughes in our current situation. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

Totally this. If the club really are saying there is no money at all to strengthen unless we sell despite what you have said above, then hard to see how we will attract another decent manager if we don't secure Hughes. There are clear areas of weakness in the squad that need addressing and Hughes would be right to push for assurances that the club are serious about backing him to do something about them. That's not to say we can throw huge amounts of cash about but there must surely be something left from the Van Dijk sale and getting the highest earner off the books? We have to also take into account that there are far fewer of our current players who you would expect to be sold for big fees after this last season. So if we are relying solely on that, we will really be shopping in the bargain basement! Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

Can we necessarily assume that Hughes wants to play with 3 big centre backs next season though? I think he went with that formation by necessity for the run in because we are so weak at centre back. If we can sign at least 1 maybe 2 better quality CBs, maybe he will look to return to a back 4. But that would probably mean moving on at least 1 of our current players in that position. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

Pleased if he is staying as I think he is probably our best centre back now. But we do need to get better quality in for this position, which means someone will need to go to make space in the squad. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk