Lighthouse

Who the frig is Daniel Emery?

Assuming Chelsea and Liverpool have got their act together, 7th is about as good as we can reasonably expect this year. It only takes 4 from the likes of Leicester, West Ham, Stoke, Everton, Watford, Swansea etc. To have a decent season and we will be bottom half.

Can't see 3 players arriving, not unless 2 are leaving. If I was a betting man I'd say no sales and we sign one attacker.

I don't think we need JWP, Davis and Clasie all in the same squad. 2 from 3 for me.

Chelsea losing to Watford, so they're definitely going down. Stoke lost to one of the Manchester clubs, so they're definitely going down (because it was at home, they have to go straight through to League 1) Just leaves one more relegation place for us to avoid. Hopefully Liverpool can confirm theirs with a defeat at Burnley.

This is what I would play. It has no bearing at all on what I expect to see, just what I'd do Forster Pied - Fonte - VvD - Targett Hoj - Rom Redmond - J Rod - Tadic Austin

Dalek doesn't have an opinion, he just posts nonsense about 17th and sleepwalking into relegation and has done continuously since we were promoted from League 1. Even when we were top of the Championship, he was talking about how the '45 point mark' usually ensures safety. It's not an opinion, it's meaningless, attention seeking drivel. He has even admitted in the past he's doing it to wind people up. Sadly we don't seem to have mods anymore so this kind of sh*te goes unchecked.

What's with the fly tipping in TMS recently? The mods have been at this before.

Three things I find astonishing... 1. Why the mods are seemingly oblivious and haven't banned him. 2. Why people still continue to respond to him. Even sarcastic remarks about how 'hilarious' his routine is just feed his ego. 3. How an individual can be this utterly tragic. It's been like 12 years since he started with all the Hoddle stuff and he's still at it.

I await CB Fry with a suitably amphibian analogy.

True but he has been distinctly average the rest of his career. I don't particularly rate either personally, neither would be in my first choice 11. I'd go back to 4-2-3-1 with a front 6 of Hojbjerg - Romeu Redmond - please for the love of f**k a decent #10 - Tadic Austin

Shaw tripped over his own leg. Never a penalty. Positives to build on from the first half. Still not sure on the formation and we need a bit more firepower but my bed remains resolutely dry this evening.

What's really weird is that Robbie joined this site 10 years ago but is apparently only 6 years old.

So you're saying if we draw at home to Stoke, we will definitely finish higher than last year?

You should apply for the Chairmanship of Juventus. Those poor deluded fools p*ssing away their best asset for a meagre £86m. If only they'd left it to 9pm on deadline day, they could have got £200m for Pogba easily.

He could have been as good as Beattie in 2004 when he didn't want to be here, or Rasiak in League 1, or David Speedie, Wanyama in last years Europa league. You get the idea. Well, everyone else does anyway.

I remember that time we lost Skacel and Rasiak in the last hour of the transfer window. We had a meltdown of Chernobyllian proportions.

No he isn't. He has a contract for 2 years, we don't have to offer him anything.

Pretty much agree with this. Top half and into the knockouts in Europe would be decent. Domestic cups are more of a lottery. Losing a semi against Port Vale would be far more disappointing than being knocked out at Old Trafford in R3. Depends entirely on the draw.

I don't know who to trust between David Sullivan and Glasgow. Both the mark of upmost integrity.

How can people not get this.... We sell players for so we have money to reinvest in the club. If we didn't, right now we would be trying to replace Lallana for free. How good a replacement do you think we'd find on a Bosman? Good news though, we wouldn't have sold Mané because without selling Lallana we couldn't have bought him in the first place. People genuinely can't see to realise why players leave us for Liverpool and Man Utd. They have more money than us, it's that simple. If Everton offered Tony Pulis or Aitor Karanka £7m a year, they'd have gone to. The just didn't because Koeman is better. It's the same with players. We aren't the only club either Everton sold Rooney, Lescott, Fellaini, Stones, Arteta, Gravesen and Peinaar West Ham sold Defoe, Carrick, Ferdinand, Tevez, Mascherano and Lampard Spurs sold Bale, Robbie Keane, Modric, Berbatov, Carrick and Sol Campbell (who buggered off on a Bosman)

Yes but they almost always involve people like Mike Ashley, Schteve McLaren, Rupert Lowe and Steve Wigley. Even the Newcastle and Saints squads which went down were far weaker than ours is now.

So you'd rather we just had players like Callum McManaman and Ben Watson, so we could keep them for ever and no big clubs would ever steal them?

Happily? we sell them because we don't really have a choice. If we'd held on to them we would be well over £100m poorer by now and have a badly motivated squad of players who didn't want to be here. Even so, we held on to Morgan and Victor longer than they wanted, so we aren't exactly a soft touch. How is are back 4 shaky? Virgil, Forster, Bertrand and Fonte are all top draw. Pied, Yoshi, Targett and Cédric are perfectly fine too. If you see Romeu as VWs replacement then Hojbjerg is a 'bonus' signing and not replacing anyone, which means we've gained some excellent depth to our midfield.

We've replaced Wanyama with Hojbjerg. It isn't like for like but he looks a very good player, with passing and dribbling skills Wanyama can only dream of. We have no reason to sell Fonte unless it suits us, I don't know why anyone is fretting about this. We hold all the aces. He is contracted here for the rest of his Premier League career. So Redmond isn't as good as Mané, he was still one of Norwich's better players. There is nothing about our club that a neutral would look at and think 'relegation candidate'. From the stadium, sate of the art training facilities and boardroom all the way down to the youth team.