pingwing

We already knew he could... His header down set up Lambert for that key goal away at Leeds, real leap on the guy!

I will buy a season ticket for every year of his contract if we sign him! (did have a look on FM to see what his estimated current wage is of 17.5k p/w which would explain the Spurs snub)

Got him on a free on FM in 2016 (and is the tapping up case from a few years back) Could be good, though looks like so far he's a brilliant advert for the Chelsea "buy everyone and see what happens" rout of management (otherwise known as get paid a lot to do not a lot). If his fifa/fm rating lives up to reality, he's a proper step up from punch.

Would very much like to see him in a prem team. Only because he's stupidly past it and would be nice to see a prem defence that is completely hindered by how terrible his is. West Ham can pay him a lot to basically be stuck with 1 CB all season...

Exciting game, TV means I don't miss it! 2-0 saints city end the game with 8 men on the field. Lallana gets taken down in the box in the first min, Lambert converts the pen and that Kompany fellow is given a straight red. Steven Davis scores a screamer about 60 mins after Ballotelli punches Clyne for winning the ball of him and their keeper handles the ball out of the area for a second yellow... Can dream!

The first one is just shoddy shoddy journalism, second one is a little more realistic/informed. Interesting points are what happens if someone comes in with a massive offer for Lambert?! I was also wondering where everyone predicted the West Ham side that got relegated...

Urm no. Kitson really isn't any good at all and Ben Haim is a money grabbing idiot, why would he sign such a stupid contract with a club that clearly couldn't pay it. His only redeeming feature (from being a shocking cb) is that he held pomp to most the money from the deal (clearly in the knowledge he'll never earn like that again).

Think more shows how truly terrible Brighton are instead of Zaha being good... Noone is deluding himself that they stand a chance of promotion next season.

We can easily finish above, Wigan, Reading, West Ham, West Brom, Stoke, Norwich, Swansea, Villa and QPR (and maybe Sunderland) which leaves us 11th/10th area. Most of those teams are either a. selling all their decent players and replacing them with champ standard prospects on prem wages, b. buying aged players who are past it or c. wasting money on over rated players that will get them no where (Sunderland/Stoke especially). These teams we should target to beat home and away without too many problems (Reading probably wont be in the form we met them in last season), with Fulham, Everton, Liverpool, Newcastle and Spurs to concentrate on the home games and let the aways be a bit of a laugh. We should be fine more because at least half the prem are living on borrowed time, buying prem "stars" from the big clubs that they haven't quite made a name at to hang on to their undeserved big earnings, or going one season showing what good management is then loose the manager to big money and not really be able to make anything more of it. Will be a fun season!

Then it couldn't possibly worth 45 quid unless we get pre and post match strippers.

The key question is what drinks do they serve?!?!

Who all think we go to football just to see united...

He had 12 bashes at that! Took him 3-4 attempts to get one in the right goal scoring area and far to many went straight into the crowd behind the goal fifa style. Steve is such a frustrating player, full of potential, looked good when not put under english league style pressure of very tight marking, but appalling at game changing moments. I think it was pomp at home he was clean through to make it 3-1 where his touch was so bad it went out for a goal kick, all he had to do was hit it at the target or cut it back for the 4 players rushing the goal. I see why Adkins would be frustrated by him, he's very like Forte with speed being his predominant attribute, which can only do so much. Shame as he has been aprt of a few really key moments, just not consistently.

Meh, he's been good over all this pre-season but that doesn't necessarily count for all that much come the start of the season. I'm not much of a fan of him anyway as his performances last year when he could be bothered to be about generally weren't much to shout about (after his first game back). Just seems not to have that consistency we have from the rest of the lads. Hopefully if he goes its on our terms and we replace him with someone better.

Hooiveld

But Reading, Norwich, Swansea, West Ham, Wigan even Sunderland really don't look much good at the moment. Hardly think its time to wet the bed saying we have the weakest squad in the prem. We could do with a CB, a LB and a RM but there's still 2 weeks before we kick off the season and 30 days before the transfer window shuts so no need to get too worried.

Shame he could do a good job for them, no idea why he'd stick around here to be 5th/6th even 7th choice in the midfield when the second half of last season he really didn't recover well from that injury.

Maybe we can make a Clyne song about "sod your Micah Richards we have our Clyne"

What happened with block 3?? I renewed and moved from 4 to 3 on the 1st day I could without any problems (saved my self best part of a hundred quid and moved next to a mate)

What happened with block 3?? I renewed and moved from 4 to 3 on the 1st day I could without any problems (saved my self best part of a hundred quid and moved next to a mate)

Apparently (hear me out) the Carroll loan move and the Aquilani stories have been made up by Liverpool to find the mole in the club that has been leaking all the transfer stories early... Makes Liverpool look rather stupid either way. Waste over £100m in the last 2 seasons to discover that you have to off load all the rubbish in this manor at a tenth of what you paid to build a squad that's just good enough for 8th, only team in a stupider position is West Ham (willing to buy some of the dross). To make it Saints related, I'm so glad we don't have to put up with a mess like this from the club.

Yeah they were the only useful quotes I could find on him, thought it was funny Chelsea had to buy him too as part of the Edin deal. Chelsea need to sort out their buying policy as they seem to have everyone who's massively rated on FM on their books... Sticking out on loan gets round this but it would help us more if there was an option to buy if it goes well.

Lens youth coach Eric Assadourain thinks "he's a technically gifted player who can settle a match by himself with ease" and his older brother has stated that he believes "Thorgan is the better player of the two" (from the wikipedia) If he's like Edin he's be worth a go, but needs to be loan to buy really... Don't want to loan a player just to give him first team from a team that just has too many players

He looked something really really special. I imagined the original plan was this season would be another champ year, offload a midfielder that wasn't 100% prem material (looking at Hammond vs Chaplow for this spot, Chaplow being more likely given Hammond's captaincy) and make JWP some space to shine. Instead he's going to have a good set of cup runs and the odd prem game when we are safe... Truth be told I am very excited for him as he looks like he can only get better from a really top starting position considering his age. Finally seeing the academy turning out players who not only will break into the first team, but will stay there for many season to come.

Well Clyne was really quite something, worried he'd be one of those over hyped transfers but I'm really excited to see him as no.1 right back next year (no.2 shirt) with his first 45 mins today looking very much like the real deal. JWP also looks like something really special, second half he was doing that european style deep lying play maker role very well, sitting next to Morg in front of the back 4 with the energy to push all the way to their box and set everyone up on the way. I see a few games for him next year in the prem hopefully to get his confidence up. Him, Cork, Morgan, Davis with Hammond as back up has the central midfield sown up with Chaplow making way (as a guess). The formation first half was terrible, Guly and Rodriquez don't work as left and right midfielders very well. They both got Clyne and Fox forward (things they both do well) but it gave no room for either LM or RM to go anywhere with the ball. The role change at half time to more or less inside forwards up with Lallana (covering the hole and wings between the 3) looked very promising if the 2 midfielders can sit and control the ball well (big pressure on Morg, Cork and Davis but should be doable). Lambert needs to do some fitness training and Sharp needs to become a little more decisive, which will both come in the next few weeks. Most worried about Fonte and Fox really, Fonte still looks a little shakey and needs some proper competition (which has to happen so not to worry) and Fox was torn apart by their winger. Fine line between him being excellent and Fox being poor but with Harding out there has to be some real first team pressure there (despite Shaw looking good). Gazza was fun, the guys I was sitting with hadn't seen the videos of him and were very surprised at the 80 yard kick! He looked one for the future as his positioning is there and he looked to have decent reactions/dives. Not 100% sure for no.2 keeper this year but looked worth snapping up now instead of fighting everyone for him in the future. All in all, we were unlucky to concede but at the same time weren't 100% ready to win. Excited to see how we build for the season opener in 3 weeks.