Lighthouse

It's like saying 'not wearing a seatbelt is only stupid if you have an accident'. If one player getting injured makes it stupid, then it's already stupid. Gardos (right now) and Stephens are not first team players. Having 2 capable centre halves and going 'oh bugger' when one of them gets injured just stinks of poor planning.

How could he have 'thought' Fonte would stay? It was his decision, Fonte had no say in the matter, short of actually refusing to play for the rest of the season. He shouldn't have sold Fonte until after we had actually bought someone in; signed on the dotted line. That's the irrefutable act of stupidity he committed on January, when finding the right players is notoriously difficult.

To answer the thread title - Tadic However, the entire OP just seems to be another of Charlie's moans about how the club is being run and nothing to do with favourite players.

Especially as one of the party involved does nothing other than b*tch at other posters. I wont SAYWHOIT_IS but you can probably figure it out.

Cake Ears?

I'm going with mar-teen Car-se-rez, until I here differently from the horses mouth.

Romeu, Hojbjerg and Bertrand have won it but I don't know if they qualified for medals. Utd have Rooney, Schweinsteiger and Mata. Off the top of me 'ead.

The difference being, that was quite obviously the case. I think we only signed Gabbi because of the combined injuries and form of Austin, Long and JRod. Don't be surprised to see one of them leave in summer and "not replaced FFS Les!"

Absolutely. Just like when we sold Shaw and failed to keep Toby, then replaced them with garbage.

As anal as he is, MLG does have a point; this isn't 'must win' just another 3 points to be gained.

Can't see them being any higher than Fonte's wages. I don't know how big signing on fees are these days but for a man with fitness issues who's been out of contract for a while, I can't see it being extortionate.

According to one of those Italian journos, he was demanding half of that. In reality, he can demand whatever he wants, he isn't going to get much more than £50k off anyone with his recent history. He will go to the highest bidder.

Seems to want about €60kpw, which I'm sure Les can negotiate down to about €70kpw. Would fit within our wage structure.

If he's half decent I'd give him 18 months on reasonable wages. He'd still be 2 years younger than Fonte by the end of it and it would be good to have some continuity in defence going into next season, assuming Bertrand and Virgil might also leave.

I'm trying to figure out how many teams are going down. I've been reliably told by some on here, we're as good as down. Leicester and Bompey are in similarly poor form, so surely they go down too. Palace just got battered by Sunderland and Hull beat Liverpool. Boro lost 3-1 at home to West Ham, so they've got to come down too. Swansea beat us last week, so they're staying up. Watford, have just won 2 in a row, so they're staying up but before they lost 6 out of 8, which is similar form to us, so they're going down. As far as I can work out, Sunderland, Swansea, Watford and Hull are definitely safe and we're going down with Watford, Palace, Bompey, Leicester and Boro.

Never thought I'd be dreading playing Sunderland this season. My team: Jellyfish U23 defenders Sideways passing midfielders 'Its in the car park' strikers

There wouldn't be a bidding war. If a release clause is met, they have to accept. E.g. If a player has a £30m clause and someone bids that, another club could bid 50, 60, 70 million or whatever they want but the selling club still has to accept the other £30m bid. Hence there's no point in bidding higher and everyone would just bid the release clause.

Hull have not turned a corner. They've won one league game in 3 months and twice since the end of August. Swansea have won a couple of games in a row but still leak goals like a sive. 4 against Arsenal, West Ham and Palace, 5 at Spurs, 3 against Bompey, Boro, WBA etc...

35 will almost certainly be enough this season. Even if it isn't, 40 points is 3 wins, 4 draws and 8 defeats. To put that in context, this coming weekend in 04/05 we were drawing 2-2 with Everton after that injury time Bent goal. We then got another 14 points in the remainder of the season playing Bernard, Davenport, Jackobsson, Delap and an aging Claus in defence. I'd take our current options over that lot.

Agreed. I've always defended the club and our transfer policy (in the main, there were a few WTF signings) but there was absolutely no need to sell Fonte at all. Forget 'having replacements lined up', we shouldn't have sold him until a replacement was signed, sealed and on the OS holding a scarf in front of the Itchen stand.

I'd sell or release Martina, Long, Clasie and JWP. Bertrand and Virgil would depend entirely on whether they'd stay for an affordable contract. I'd go back to 4-2-3-1 and find a new manager who plays that system. Not a clue who I'd sign, I've rarely seen or heard of half the players we sign. Fonte will need replacing and please, my kingdom for a midfielder who is over 5'9" and can either kick or run in a forwards direction. Starting 11 Forster Cedric - Virgil - Yoshi - Bertrand Hojbjerg - Romeu J Rod - Boufal - Tadic Gabi/Austin

No he didn't. Between the end of October and mid April, he only scored in one game. We do miss him but there is much more to it than this. Long and Tadic were both playing a lot better, plus we had Pelle and better tactics.

Van Dijk hasn't been shot guys, he's not a horse. I agree we need to replace Fonte but talking as if we're playing the rest of the season with JS and FG is a bit dramatic.

Because they're chucking silly amounts of money at loaning a distinctly average player.

Not sure I approve of deadline day without Natalie Sawyer.