Lighthouse

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.

We aren't in danger of relegation. Every year some absolute garbage manages to avoid the drop. Look at Sundeland and Bompey last year. If you think teams like Burnley, West Brom, Bournemouth and Hull are better than us because we've lost Mané, you need your head looking at.

There seems to be a certain amount of having cake and eating eat going on on this board. On the one hand people are bemoaning our signings for being too late in the window and leaving us underprepared. On the other, people expect us to sell players right at the end of the window and somehow expect more cash. Other clubs aren't all run by mugs, even Liverpool. If we don't come close to agreeing on a valuation, they will move on. The rest of my post is pretty much a given. He wouldn't sign a contract extension and obviously nobody else was interested at £40m. He would almost certainly have thrown a strop and we would be in a very weak position to negotiate next summer.

Then you're just comparing a player from last season with another, if we're talking about the strength of our squad it's Hoj in for VW. Victor may have played that role last season but he was along side Clasie or JWP, both of whom are weaker than Hoj.

Alternatively... We hold out for £40m, Liverpool refuse to pay it and sign another target. Nobody else wants to pay that much for him either so at the end of the summer he is still here. 'Great' you say until about 5 games into the season when he obviously doesn't want to be here and looks as disinterested as he did both winters he's been with us. Then next summer he has a year left of his deal and we are forced to sell for about £12m like we did with Clyne and Wanyama.

Yoshida and Target started pretty much every game when Fonte and Bertrand weren't fit, which is obviously the case here. Not sure why you are comparing a couple of short term injuries to players being sold. JWP started plenty of games last season, as did Romeu. We may not have Wanyama but if Spurs offered me a straight swap for Hoj, no strings attached, right here and now I'd probably say no.