Lighthouse

To me it’s more of a highlight of why we should be trying to trim the wage bill and not keep Bertrand. Let’s suppose, for the sake of easy maths, that he and Walcott want £60k per week and Forster and Lemina are already on similar. I make that around £3m each a year, or £12m total. So if we can offload those four, we could in theory sign a new LB for £18m (paid over two years) and a £60k wage packet, for exactly the same money. That should leave us with hopefully a younger, better LB and a saleable asset should the need for money arise.

That’s a pretty sad indictment of our recruitment and I’d like to believe it’s not true. There are plenty of decent young players out there not getting game time at bigger clubs. In the past we’ve done very well out of the likes of Bertrand, KWP, Romeu, Hojbjerg and Cork. There must be a player out there somewhere who is an improvement on a declining, slowing Bertrand.

The number of people in hospitals is dropping by around 1,000 per day and is currently around 15,000-16,000. If we stay like this for another two weeks, deaths and hospitalisation should be very low. I think we’re now in a position to reopen outdoor sports clubs to allow people to get out and exercise socially.

The original is now in Golden Posts, should anyone want it. Seems to be what’s making the lounge run slow.

Agree with that, went to Sharm in 2009, back before the Arab Spring and Sinai airliner bombing. Luckily, the ones in our hotel weren't that bad but when we went out into town and all the bars... f**k me.

I know, I flew you home. Ive heard good things about Agadir before, so it’s definitely on the list.

Well, we can either: Sign him on considerable wages, knowing we’re going to see diminishing returns on a player who was never anything special to begin with. Sign Minamino permanently, if Liverpool’s price is reasonable. Sign another player, from abroad or the lower leagues, who’s probably ten years younger - if our finances will allow for a reasonable transfer fee. Sign nobody and make do with Redmond, Djenepo, Armstrong and Tella in those positions. Obviously not a popular option but if finances are limiting it might be what we end up with.

That’s not the choice on offer. The other two players have contracts, plus they’re five and ten years younger respectively.

Apart from being 32, sporadic fitness issues, high wages, a significant lack of composure and poor decision making. There’s a reason a bottom half Everton squad didn’t have room for him. As he gets older he’ll just get more niggling injuries and lose his main asset - his pace. I’d prefer we didn’t sign our own version of Defoe or Gary Cahill. Put it this way, if Walcott had no previous connection to the club and had put in the same performances for Newcastle this season; would you be happy to hear we were signing him in summer?

It is if you go there alone but when I do I’m not paying for any accommodation and my friends all have discount cards for many establishments. It’s still not exactly cheap but in mid March, when I’ve had enough of the English winter and the med is still too cold, it’s a decent enough 10 days for me.

I’d say Dubai was more ‘yuppie’ culture than anything.

I’m not sure I get where the ‘it’s tacky, flash and not remotely cultural’ argument really comes from. I’ve never seen anyone trying to claim otherwise. I’m just not sure where you get ‘chavy’ from. That to me suggests people on low income or unemployed, Nissans with body kits and stupid exhausts, public drunkenness, smashing up bus stops and the phrase, "I swear on me’ nan’s grave!" I’ve never seen anything like that in Dubai.

That’s gotta sting. 😯

If Fulham were to win their three most winnable games - Palace, Newcastle and Burnley - That would put them a whole point ahead of where we are now. We would have four games in hand, including Fulham, Brighton, Palace, West Brom, Burnley and two games against Leeds. All their other games would be against 10 of the top 13, Saints being theoretically the worst. We aren’t in a relegation fight.

Can’t say I’ve really noticed chavs being there. When I said it’s cheap to get to, I didn’t mean EasyJet - €50 return to Mallorca - cheap. If I was going to complain about anyone it’d be tw*tty bankers in flash cars who think they’re the bee’s knees.

Sunshine, it’s cheap, quick and easy to get to and I’ve got 6 or 7 mates out there I’ve not seen for a while. Never been there for the culture.

Out Ings - assuming he won’t sign his deal, he’ll probably end up at Spurs or Leicester. Bertrand - his contract is up. Maybe he’ll sign a deal with someone closer to home in London. Long - it looks like the penny may finally have dropped that he isn’t a Premier League player. Forster - think he’ll see out his final year on loan somewhere Hoedt - one more year somewhere, not that anyone cares Lemina - Wouldn’t mind Fulham staying up so that they keep him. Valery - I don’t think he has a future here. Elyounoussi - Probably another loan Ive no idea who we’re bringing in obviously but hopefully not Walcott. He’s 32 and really hasn’t been all that for the wages he’s on. Wouldn’t mind Minamino, permanently as a replacement for Ings if we can come to an arrangement with Liverpool - assuming he does enough in the remainder of the season to impress our coaches. We’d need one more attacking player, a LB and someone versatile who can play both fullback slots. Either that or a Telfer/Tessem type who can cover fullback and play further forwards.

Everyone remembers Dia but I’m pretty sure we’ve done it with Bleidelis and Folly too.

I’d take Mina scoring two in three and ‘not being on the same wavelength’ over Long scoring two per season and being ‘a great lad in the dressing room’ any time. People were convinced Boufal hadn’t been given a fair chance after four years, I won’t be passing judgement on TM for a while yet.

Burnley making a right hash of playing an hour at home to 10 man West Brom. Glad to see it’s not just us.

Who’s Amy?

All part of the ploy to get him cheap in summer. He’ll replace Ings and get 30 goals for the next two seasons.

That ‘handball’ was further up Brownhill’s arm than some goals we’ve had disallowed for ‘offside’.

We don’t have any. We drift around in mid-table, like a hovercraft.

Bednarek has been competent for us but never really anything more. A couple of brilliant games here and there and a couple of stinkers. I can’t say I’d be upset to lose him from the XI.