Pamplemousse

Is he better than Guly do Prado though?

He was injured a lot in the first season which obviously disrupted him, and then when he was fully fit played under a dour negative Pellegrino, probably got frustrated with his first two seasons and that boiled over. IF he knuckles down and works with Hughes, he can be a big player for us, if he decides that is what he wants to do. My gut feeling still is that he will head to France, but he's still young so I can't imagine we'd be willing to take a loss on him, and very few French clubs have the resources to afford him. Maybe a loan deal of some sort.

Fantastic news. Where does that leave us with the 25 man squad?

Good news all round

Perhaps him and Hughes have sorted out their differences then.

Croatia have looked very good too. Uruguay had one good match against Russia but were very average against two poor teams. I think Portugal will beat them.

There haven't been any rumours about him recently, I would have thought if he definitely was leaving that his agent would be working non-stop to push a move, probably back to France. Last thing was a couple of weeks ago.

Hopefully Ashley Young gets himself a red card

Did he turn up today for pre-season training?

Really happy with this one. Get a centre back in and I'll be pretty happy with our business.

We will, as backup to McCarthy Forster will probably be sold.

I think it's too cheap. I'd rather we just kept him and risk losing him on a free.

Surely Fraser Forster is leaving then

That's a good point. The strategy of going for very good players in lesser teams worked for us before - Celtic players (i.e. VVD), Mané from Salzburg, Tadic from Twente etc. I think the club has tried to be a bit too clever in its recruitment in the last couple of years - hopefully these players will work out for us. He certainly looks good on paper.

They had a debate about safe standing in parliament. A Portsmouth MP spoke - within the opening sentence mentioned how Portsmouth have a prolific history of European and top flight football (cue the facepalm gif) and then made a joke about Southampton fans having to sit because the quality of football is poorer apparently. Royston Smith hit back though with a few jibes of his own. It’s all on Hansard if any nutjobs want to take a look for themselves.

On another forum I'm on, I get complaints because I mention Southampton too much.

All those six teams on the same side of the draw as well! England will be if we finish first, if we end up second, the only tricky teams really will be Spain, Croatia and Mexico

Hughes played three at the back with Stoke I seem to recall? Wouldn't be all that unlikely for us to use it as our main formation this season.

I asked a couple of Scottish people I know what they think of him, one's a Patrick Thistle fan, the other supports Aberdeen

We have Gabbiadini, Austin, Carrillo, Long, Gallagher... No way are we signing a striker unless at least two of those five leave the club.

£18million still too cheap IMO.

He's right about high-pitched commentators being annoying - both male and female. There are plenty of women commentators on the cricket, for example, whose voices are low enough and it's no issue at all.

Bednarek had a bit of a bad first game, hopefully he puts in a better shift tonight.

It is strange you're right. Sterling was largely anonymous, and Young just doesn't offer us the attacking threat we need from a full back.

Indeed, those questioning it are the same people who think Wilshere would be an amazing signing for us because he plays for a big team I think these people get most of their footballing knowledge off FIFA or something