Saint Pete

Micah Richards off to Fiorentina, according to BBC.

Agreeing to sell so many of our players early in the window and before we had secured replacements didn't help us much either.

Exactly. So why aren't we offering him a new deal?

So Koeman says Cork wants to stay and is doing very well, but club have no plans to offer him another contract. Just don't get it! With all the upheaval this seems on the face of it a relatively easy and obvious one to sort out.

Anyone know if we have offered him a new contract yet? If not, very difficult to understand why, especially given that even if Morgan stays for now, realistically he is likely to go in January. Don't see the sense in letting a proven performer like Cork go when so many others have left. Hopefully, common sense will prevail...

I think this is a fair post. There's no doubting Boruc is and has been a very talented keeper. He may not be expressing his frustration in the right way, but it's understandable at this stage of his career if he wants to move on when Koeman has indicated he views him as very much second choice now. Time will tell whether the club and Koeman have made the right choice in spending big on Forster and sidelining a keeper who could have continued to do a good job for us (as he did last year) for another few seasons.

I see QPR have signed Vargas on season loan. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/28868727 Hate to say it, but reckon they've got a good one there.

I don't think Townsend is as bad as some are making out, but definitely a question mark over whether he is worth the price quoted. He's certainly not the finished article, but personally think he has shown potential to be a player than can have an impact. Needs more end product, but maybe enough there for Koeman to work with to improve him? However, if available, I would rather see us make a move for Gnabry, although that would probably only be a loan I guess. Have been impressed with him in his brief appearances for Arsenal to date. Not sure if he's injured at present though?

To improve as a squad, you need to have backup players who are good enough and feel like they are part of the squad - it's called man management. I thought the whole point of signing another keeper was to improve our options in that department, which was a problem last season. If Koeman's comments push Boruc towards the exit, I personally don't think we will be any better off than we were last season (i.e. one decent keeper but no backup) and will need to go out and recruit another keeper.

I agree. Can't help thinking the club are managing the Boruc situation badly. I don't know why Koeman had to come out so publicly at this stage making Forster his No.1 keeper and talking about Boruc contract, rather than just saying "We have 2 quality keepers now who will provide competition for places". Would have been far better for team morale in my opinion.

The club really do some hell bent on dismantling the entire successful team from last season, don't they? I fully expect Cork and Boruc (and probably Morgan) to be gone by 1st Sept.

Interesting that he describes keeping a core of disgruntled players as an "insane risk". Personally, I think selling off said players before lining up adequate replacements is an insane risk.

I've stopped listening now - nothing to hear here!

I agree. Lovren is a key signing for Liverpool as they were weak at CB last year - you would certainly expect him to get the most games of the 3. I think Lallana could do OK eventually but think he will need time to settle in, so it's a case of whether he is allowed that time.

Don't really understand the logic in signing Taider unless we are going to sell a midfielder, as we are already pretty well stacked in this department. I fear this could mean the end for Cork? (assuming Morgan is staying now).

Good post - totally agree with all of that.

But Ralph says we are going to re-invest all of our sales in the team - surely he wouldn't say something like that if it wasn't true, would he?

Unbelievable incompetence - the board just seem to have had no proper strategy throughout the whole of this summer. Unforgiveable given that everyone knew we would be targeted with bids for many of our players. It's astounding that they were taken aback by the fans reaction when it became clear they were happy to sell the entire 1st team!!

Can't listen at work - did he ask about Fonte and Cork?

Absolutely. I think I will only be confident in this "guarantee" of Morgan and Jay staying if we hear something from them confirming they are happy with this apparent "about-face". I still think it's more than likely that Morgan will be sold if he digs his heels in and says more publicly that he wants out. I just don't have confidence in our board to see this through.

This is the message that should have gone out after the sales of Lambert, Lallana and Shaw - a much more definite not for sale. However, I have zero confidence that we will stick to this based on what's happened to date. I suspect Morgan will ask to leave and then we will cave in again saying that we had no choice. I think Jay is more likely to stay but only because of his injury.

On an individual basis they can all be argued as good value deals for us (with possible exception of Lambert), but it's the cumulative effect that's the problem. I am sure we are intending to make purchases for replacements which we HOPE will be somewhere near as good in future, but there are absolutely no guarantees of that, which is why it is always more sensible to operate a policy of "evolution" of the squad rather than revolution. I simply cannot accept that selling this many of our first team in one window is a sensible policy, no matter how good the individual deals are. We are risking too much on all of the signings (assuming we make them) and/or promotions from the youth set-up working out quickly enough. You refer to Pelle being an "exciting upgrade" on Lambert for instance, but we are still replacing a proven Prem striker with an unproven one - a great record in the Dutch league is no cast iron guaranteed of success in England. It is acceptable to take 2 or 3 risks of this nature while keeping the rest of the spine of your team intact but not 6 or 7 in my opinion!

Yes, perhaps he tried and stuck to his guns for all of 5 minutes before caving in! The point is that we should have layed down the law with the players a long time before now on how many we were prepared to let go and after that put down the shutters and that's it - no more negotiation. "You are under contract - get out there and train". It's as simple as that. With a young player like Chambers, I don't buy that he has the power to force through a move just by saying he wants to go - if we told him No, for the sake of his career, he would have just got his head down and got on with it. What the club are doing gives us no power to hold on to any of our players now - it's open season.

"Determined to keep our best young players at the club". Really? Clearly not that determined that we are able to say a simple "No" to a 19 year old who has played only 25 times.

Why?