Baird of the land

I can see why palace might be desperate enough to throw that sort of money at Benteke considering their striking options consist of Connor Wickham currently. Article i read said Benteke was on 140k a week at Liverpool. I can't imagine he's taking a pay cut, so are palace funding it all or Liverpool partially? I'd assume there may be some internal strife at Palace if he's earning massively than other first teamers. So personally i'm not convinced it's a great move.

No I don't think we are thin at centre back. Both yoshi and gardos are capable backups and we've also got England u21 Stephens. We definitely one quality attacking addition and I'd be pretty content if that turned out to be all we get.

The sums being mentioned are rather a joke. Personally i think we should keep hold of him as he's a good player.

I don't think Cedric should have been on Deeney. If We'd had Fonte organising the defence i'd hope him or Van Dijk would have been challenging for that header.

I don't necessarily feel the diamond is completely unsuited to our personnel even if it's not my personal preference to how i'd like to see us line up. Koeman didn't stick to Poch's approach anymore than Puel is sticking to Koeman's. We clearly have decided Puel is going to be an important figure so it is worth setting a new preferred formation down the age groups to accomodate him. Personally think Austin is probably better suited to diamond formation than 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 we've previously played. As to personnel we clearly have invested and hopefully will invest more. Austin came in January in advance of Pelle's departure, Redmond, hojberg, Pied and Mccarthy came in this summer.

Yeah does seem odd i assume suggesting Redmond/Hojberg are bargain basement whilst suggesting spending the same amount on 3 new players who apparently wouldn't be. I'd be amazed if we signed 3 players as that would leave us with a rather bloated squad.

One more quality signing if we don't lose anyone is fine. At the weekend we had a strong bench(Mccarthy, Pied, Fonte, Clasie, Hojberg, Austin, Jrod), that's with the likes of Bertrand/Gardos out injured and ignoring the academy prospects. Signing players just to clutter the place up seems nutty imo. Sustainability is obviously a dirty word to you. Most of our buys i wouldn't consider cheap(10+m). Because we invest in talented young players, we're left in a position where when some of those players don't want to sign contract extensions after they've proved themselves and are being targetted by much bigger clubs. There's not really much the club can do but get the best fee possible before their contracts wind down and we get nothing. There are plenty who have signed new contracts this summer who we haven't sold who no doubt we could if the club was pursuing the agenda you claim. You seem to have a distorted view of our owners financial capabilities imo.

Good news as far as i'm concerned. See no point in bloating the squad further with multiple signings. If we can focus on getting one good attacking player in to the club that should leave the squad in a pretty good condition.

Odd i personally thought Redmond's second half display was a definite positive. Scored one, was just offside timing his run when he scored a 2nd, had a decent effort late on just wide. I may not be a huge fan of the diamond formation currently but Redmond showed he definitely had promise to play in the striker role in that formation.

Like most i'd like to see Hojberg in for JWP. We need to keep Long in as his pace will be vital if we are going to get anything there. The other 2 contentious areas are centre back and right back. Given how poor cedric was i'd be tempted to start Martina or Pied. Despite how much difference fonte's leadership would make, i'm rather dubious he'll be fit enough if Cedric's performance is any indicator. Other thing i'd like to see is the team reverting to 4-2-3-1, though once again this is probably unlikely.

First half we were utterly terrible. Nobody wanted the ball. Goal was poor, blame all round, felt one of the centre backs should have been with deeney and then romeu was too slow to the 2nd ball. 2nd half much better. It was good to see Redmond looking dangerous after an anonymous first half. Long worked really hard but air shot really summed up his day. Hojberg looked good and composed. I'm with others in thinking our team is much better suited to a 4-2-3-1 than this diamond we were trying to play but maybe it settle down better. Would have preferred to see Davis or Romeu taken off to bring on Austin. Felt a bit of a safe move against 10 men. Tadic was mom for me. Feel a bit sorry for Martina. While he's a limited player he did a good job at end of season and is only right back to have full pre-season, yet instead unfit Cedric got the nod and played horribly.

I can see why Puel might want to ease Hojberg into the Premiership. I think the midfield and attack looks fine. It's the defence that gives me jitters, we really need Van Dijk to show some leadership in the absence of Bertrand and Fonte.

Great news that Tadic has signed a new deal especially since his current one was getting low. Hopefully he can continue the rich vein of form he had at the end of the season.

I wouldn't want Depay anywhere near Saints. Large wages, bad attitude does not equal good signing in my eyes no matter how talented he's supposed to be.

I'd really like to see Hesketh get a chance this season as he's the player who has stood out when i've seen the u21's in action. Wonder if he will though, or if he'll even get his contract extended.

Yeah i can see why Koeman is keen. Basically he's an explosive game changer a bit like Mane even if he is 3 years older.

Or we signed Redmond 25th June before selling Mane on 28th.

Good national PR for Virgin Media whilst the club doesn't lose out either. Hopefully other club's sponsors will follow suit.

It's a bizarre world in my opinion when people are considering 12/13 m purchases to be on the cheap.

Swansea's deal for Llorente could finally provide them with a decent striker again, if a short term move considering he's already 31.

What do i expect & consider acceptable, top 10, get out of europa group, getting past first round of FA cup. Anything above and beyond these what be good.

Very good signing. Didn't think we'd get someone that talented to be back up to Fraser. I guess he's going to be our league cup and possibly fa cup keeper.

Would be good if we could get all 3 tied down. Hope the noise around Fonte is nothing more than pressure being exerted to maximise what will likely be his final big deal. Would be a profound loss on the eve of the season.

odd deal by Koeman. Everton already have a thirty something international centre back in jags. Bringing in a 2nd just seems complete short termism. Guess it shows how badly Everton are struggling at getting in players that they had a resort to that move.

Yeah pretty terrible deal. We get all the financial risks(£15m) for little benefit. If he's poor/injured we're lumbered with another very high wage player on a long contract. If he's good they buy back for same amount we bought him for if you factor in transfer inflation. Essentially it's a far worse version of a loan.