MarkSFC

I refer you to post 432 on page 9 of that thread mate!!

when do we get to 70 is more pertinent.

Just bung Burnley 12-15 big ones for Ings and be done with it.

Assuming this is not a "sign him in the summer" deal, he only needs to "behave" for 4-5 months. Could be a very shrewd move.

Well that result and performance is incredibly depressing but the glaringly obvious truth all season is that when our best 12-13 players are fit and on top form we have a very goo side indeed. The problem is though that when you have the depth of squad we have 16-17 plus kids, it is virtually impossible to maintain peak form, fitness and avoid suspensions. Take Arsenal at the weekend, i think they had 8 or 9 players out, most of whom would get in most teams in the league and still had a strong result. We are at least 5-6 players (plus JRod!)short of being genuinely top 6, but with the start we have had and 2-3 decent signings in Jan (and JRod) we could just do it as others like West Ham will inevitably suffer with injuries and suspensions at some point. A depressing night no doubt but just the result of squad depth, injuries and suspensions which in themselves cause dips in peak performance. The best teams are not the best teambecause they have the best 11...they are the best because they can get 11 players in top form out on the pitch every week, near as damn it.

I hope we get Alderweild and Bertrand signed up permanently, if that's possible under the terms of their respective loans. I think we do need another attacker of some sort. Tadic, Pelle, Mane, and Long are a good group and add in JRod and that's very good. But we do not know whether JRod will come back to full tilt quickly or at all, and Mane is off for a month, so someone else may be the difference between top 4 and top 8. Shakiri seems to be available!!

Good post and summary. I would much rather we have a sustainable and financially secure club that remains a club just outside the top 6 but every now and then gets a great group together that challenges the stays quo for a season. Realistically we will never be a consistent top 4 club but a financial and football model balanced in the ethos of sustainability and consistency sounds like a club to be proud of. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The start has been really good and at this rate we are on target for 70 plus points. Of course we still have 9 games against City, Arse, Chelsea, Utd and Liverpool, so the ratio may well drop, but you never know!! I think the target should be 60 points so these 5 games v Sun, Stoke, Hull, Leicester and Villa need to glean 11-12 points probably. Get them in the bag and suddenly the run against the top boys becomes relatively pressure free! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

and the problem with that is.......??!!!

V Newcastle Same as West Ham but perhaps Wanyama for Davis. Over the season I'm guessing first choice team when ALL are fit FoRster Bertrand Gardos Alderweireld Clyne Morgan Wanyama Tadic Mane Pelle JRod Until JRod is fit Tadic out wide instead of more central with JWP or Davis Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Announcement tonight? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Please supply the link to video or quotes as I do not recall these exact words, I just recall that it was hinted or from what he said made it sound like that. More than happy to be proved wrong, it's just a few people have said that to me and I think I've followed everything this summer! Maybe the logic in my head that we definitely need another CB has effected my memory! And if we did I doubt Gardos will be fourth choice, I fully expect him to be first choice, yes better than Fonte!

And it will get better. One or two more additions, Ramirez getting more game time and JRod back in a couple of months hopefully. Confidence will build now; big win psychologically today. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

yeah lets take their wages too! at some point players like that will need to realise that their wages will drop or they don't play. They will need to work out whats more important to them. I doubt any of those "need" 60-70k+ per week!

I agree, he did not look great but I feel more confident with him at RB than JH at CB. Nightmare scenario is both have to play!!! We definitely need a player like Yoshida who can do both, but better!! Tough though. Micah Richards would be perfect.

It's interesting that so many people are convinced that we need a RB more than a CB. Koeman stated early in his tenure that he wanted 2 players for each position so I understand that with Chambers gone why people think its important to get another one. My argument would be that we need a CB more than a RB. Yoshida plays RB for Japan fairly often, Crk "could" play there and then there are the up and coming Stephens and McCarthy (I may be wrong with that name - MLG will correct I'm sure). As soon as one CB is out for whatever reason it leaves Jos (or Stephens) as the CB on the bench, and if another is out....scary!! So I guess my point is really this, would you prefer to go the season with Jos as CB cover or Yoshida as RB cover? If we only get one of these, which does seem the most likely scenario know.

He may well be totally ITK, but I think he is just certainly ITK some of the time, whereas K, Billysound appears to be 100% ITK. You've over-reacted to my post. He uses words/phrases like "I think", "I cant see". Now this may well be his way of not be blunt with his information. Equally it is ambiguous and non-committal. My initial response to your post which was based on Guans latest "hints" just meant to point out that you (as others also do) had and tend to use his info and other rumours etc, as gospel. You are a poster worth reading alot of the time, but that post highlighted your flaw on here. Making assumptions and fluffing them out does you no favours. Dont get sucked in. Anyway, third post done. Till tomorrow!

Ha, that post was not a debate, it was a statement which I then referred to. The reason for the insult as you have taken it - although it could be argued that I was debating - is that I think your rationale is flawed. I'm permitted to state that in the spirit of free speech and you can then debate using facts and theory. You almost always use guess work based on little more than rumours and the words of anonymous posters - who you may or may not know in real life. Nothing you said offended me, it would be very difficult to as it is literally words on a screen from someone I don't know. It's quite simple. I think it would be a benefit to the forum if everyone was restricted to the number of posts as I think we would get a far better level of 'debate'!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

you're very good of making 2=2 = 39!! You're assumptions are based on rumour, counter rumour and b******* and you try to make yourself sound clever and knowledgeable at the same time. Sad. Enjoy your game of FM though....

Get rid of the ungrateful, unprofessional, and previously unwanted egotist. Rather a weaker team of understudy keepers who want to fight for their place than a better one who will not fight. We are better in first choice, significantly stronger in the long term but identical in back-up if he goes. There will be options.

On the face of it, I agree, but the more you see of Chambers and read his tweets, the more he strikes me as a young lad who has progressed very quickly into the big time and it seems like his ego is hugely inflated. Possibly the stereotypical "cocky little t***"!! Assuming this then it is very possible that this is a major reason why we agreed to let him go. There is no doubt that on the basis of three games it looks like a mistake and it may well be one that we live to regret - from purely a football perspective - but those who know hi within the club may not feel like that. No team needs a bad apple. We will see in the next few months how good he really is likely to be and when Hodgson calls him up we will know a bit more. Very early days, we have seen lots of young kids look the part - many at Arsenal - but turn out not to be as expected.

Judge him in two years time!!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What a nice way to call me an idiot. Far too many people like yourself are unable to see the future and judge the future because they have very little understanding of sport, coaching, psychology and live in the paradigm that sky have created call the Premier League. Reality is vitally important to grasp but without visionaries, optimists, leaders, and believers, the reality never changes. If nothing ever changes what's the point of sport, what's the point of life? I'd rather die with a smile on my face than a look of boredom and acceptance. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This will sound like a very strange thing to many but I truly believe that this has been brilliant for our club. Over the last four to five years the team had remained very settled with two or three additions each window and the inevitable 'wastage' as poorer players slowly get replaced. The only big sale was Ox when we were still in League One. When poorer players leave and better arrive no one really cares as they see perceived improvement, even though that does not always happen, we have been lucky that it has recently. As the Club rose back up the leagues the core of the team obviously improved until we finished 8th last season. International call-ups and contact with players already at bigger clubs and who were obviously being paid many times more and competing for titles turned the heads of some. This is understandable, but the way some appear to have gone about getting their move is what leaves a bitter taste in the mouths of many. When 5 really good players leave within weeks of each other fans start to panic, media have a juicy story and recruitment becomes far more important. On top of the players, the manager walks out too. Change is very uncomfortable for most, and for those who's emotions are permanently tangled up in a football club, change of the ilk we have seen is difficult to experience and make sense of. Rational thinking for most is lost in the turmoil of change, fear, anger, frustration, and whatever other feelings manifest themselves. But this change could well be the most important and good thing to happen since we came out of administration. Let's assume that Pochettino had stayed. Would all the players have stayed? I doubt it. They were not here for him, if they were why did they not go to Spurs? No, they wanted moves to the Champions League with a big club, fair enough. If we said no to all of them then we would face the potential dilemma of having 5 or 6 disgruntled players who would probably not perform at their peak - no World Cup squad to motivate this season. And so if their form dipped who would come in? Worse players. And without 100m to spend we may have purchased a couple more players but in a side that was under-performing values of Lallana, Lovren, Shaw, Chambers would probably drop and then either January or next summer we would of been faced with the same scenario but now they would not command as high fees. So in my opinion the club have done brilliantly given the fact that the egos of a few have caused this situation. But they were the egos of the leading characters in the club and they effected the culture of the group. We have cleared those egos and begun a revolution, which has no expectation. It's a great place to be. We have a very sound, very experienced, very well respected, a footballing legend as a player and I think a very honest and very cool manager. This is not a club with a project or a five year plan, this is a club with a philosophy. At the end of this window everyone will be able to judge fully the net product of transfers. As it stands I think we are ahead already. We have a better goalkeeper, a CB who like for like cannot be regarded any less good if not better than when we signed Lovren, in Bertrand we have a very capable player and CL winner, Pelle and Long look very strong and offer as much if not more than Lambert and Osvaldo, Taider adds real depth and quality to CM, whilst Tadic looks the real deal. Better than Lallana, who knows, but as he is younger, probably has more development left than Lallana. With a winger confirmed as a target we will certainly have a lot more speed in the side, and a group of players with lots to prove. We have a manager who is quoted as saying he is here for the long haul. I hope he is and if so I think we will look back at this Sumer as the best summer ever.

If Artur Boruc cannot accept that his boss has chosen to make someone else the number one choice goalkeeper when he is at the twilight of his career then he can **** off. These overpaid whingers need to grow up. Pathetic. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk