Lallana's Left Peg

It's all posturing by clubs and agents alike. Neymar is after a new contract at Barcelona so the easiest way for him to publicly grease the wheels is to be conveniently linked with a move elsewhere. The same happened with Ramos. And in terms of clubs briefing the media, Levy has gone into overdrive the past few weeks. Papers reporting Spurs targets unhappy at their parent clubs all over the place.

It's all relative. When Rio Ferdinand transferred to Man Utd in 2002 he had over 180 appearances in the Premier League under his belt, 17 appearances in Europe, and 20 appearances for England (and had established himself as first choice in his position as well). If John Stones gets transferred his CV reads 47 appearances in the Premier League, 3 in Europe, and 4 for England (where he is not first choice). So relative to the fee I think it is a huge jump.

Then I look forward to seeing him showing it. But it's never really been our way to sign players instead of giving Academy kids a chance if that kid is worthy of a chance. Les Reed said Harry Reed was the best player we've produced for a long time (which I doubt personally) however regardless Romeu is tasked with the same role that Reed would fulfil if he played so as I said, I think Romeu is a decent player but I have yet to see whether or not he is better than Reed. Far too early to make judgements of course, so time will tell. The low fee and just a three year deal for Romeu doesn't seem worthy of player with his CV so perhaps the club have some doubts too. Who knows.

I like him, I just need to see in time why he is worthy of being purchased ahead of giving Harry Reed a chance.

Pelle will be vital to us if we presume they will sit back and look to manage the game for 90mins. It's how we play around him that matters. He has a presence and we need that as far forward as possible so he can occupy one, if not two, central defenders.

FFP was not brought in to stop investment in football. It was brought in to stop clubs spending money they don't have and stop clubs being screwed if their wealthy owners leave them. Unfortunately the existing FFP rules also do a brilliant job of maintaining the status quo in football which needs to be looked at. Personally I don't have an issue with 'sugar daddy' owners as long as their investment is safeguarded and they can't just walk away from the club and leave it in a bad state. The current rules make the assumption that as long as the owner doesn't have a criminal record he won't do that, which is pathetic.

Yes - he's English which means Chelsea are paying far more than he is worth. Assuming they get their recruitment right, they can become a better team with £40m to spend.

A good draw for us - not too far to travel, lower league opposition, and one that likes to play football too. Should be a good game as they will fancy their chances and we will see our fringe players.

Let me rephrase it then - I think it is a significant factor that is only overcome through money.

Location is definitely a factor when signing a player. There are countless examples of it mattering.

It's fun to see but in my opinion it doesn't reflect too well on them. What happens when they do sell him? It'll make these statements seem silly. I think it would be better just to remain silent as the press speculate regardless of how transparent you are.

Last season wasn't a bad season for him at all - 36 appearances (23 in the Premier League) is a very good record for someone so young at such a good club. His issue now is that he is the fourth best right back Arsenal have and fourth best centre halve and games will be harder to come by as the emergence of Bellerin and signing of Gabriel is going to severely impact his gametime.

We have to increase revenue streams so we can pay more. This can be done in several ways. None are easy. Most are linked to success. It's hard to have success (i.e. Champions League qualification) without at first having a team good enough (and paid enough) to qualify. Hence, Saints will never be in the Champions League in the modern game.

That's a first U21 callup for Stephens I think?

Well if we're dealing in pure fantasy then I would sign a £30m player and that player would be Edison Cavani. He'd cost more than £30m, but this is fantasy, so we'd sign him for £30m.

It's going to be interesting to see what position he gets a chance in, when eventually he does get a chance. As an attacking midfielder we've seen Tadic, Davis, and JWP all selected ahead of him. As a second striker we've seen Mane and Long both selected ahead of him.

Runs like he is wearing wellies these days and has the turning circle of an oil tanker.

My own unsubstantiated theory is that the new ball is said to move a bit (according to a few goalkeepers) so players are having a go and seeing what happens after noticing something in training but as with most things what is looking good in training does not work whatsoever in a game situation.

Harry Reed a one man unnecessary fouling machine. Not sure why he plays like that. It's not very controlled.

Thanks for the link - forgot about this.

The only thing I don't understand about 'the model', which is more imposed on us than through choice admittedly, is what we'll do with all the extra cash we generate from buying a player, developing him, and selling him on for a lot of money. Eventually there should be a decent cash surplus - but how do we make that work for us in current FFP rules etc.? That said, I don't think there is anywhere near as much cash in the bank as people think from all the sales.

We're going out unless we significantly improve.

Six competitive games in and passing still not right, and balance between attack and defence not right. Have no idea how this has happened to be honest, it's like night and day from last season.

He made a claim after the Everton home game last season that his best position is in front of the back three. I'd imagine that would severely decrease his chances of being a starter in our team. However Reed also played an important part in January when we were down to the bare bones and be played very well as a part of a DM two in that period when we had to grind out some results at Ipswich and Newcastle.

It depends on the extent of the damage and how quick his body is at recovering. It could be 3 weeks or it could be 3 months. Remember the Lallana saga from Christmas 2012? No-one knew how long he would be out for.