UpweySaint

Signing to be made with a vowel in their name. Utter wang.

If we could afford a shopping spree why not but looks like we wont have much to play with. Rather see what pennies we have go elsewhere.

Snap, longevity normal wins out! I hope to be able to stick a world cup version. Normally miss a few weeks in a full one and realise that my cb has been suspended, striker injured and everyone else managed 80 points from whoever was sticking goals past Stoke each week.

The Poch season. As angelman said seeing the academy players get so much game time and genuinely kick on was a real highlight. If he had our lot now I could envision Sims being a consistent first team player among others. We played good football and looked like, on our day, we could go toe to toe with most teams. There was a real sense that we were building towards something and a feel good factor around the squad/club broadly. It was weird to think how optimistic we (Dalek and whatever version of Glasgow existed at that point aside) were as fans compared to the doom and gloom of recent times.

Nice one for sorting one out, added my team.

Mawson (2nd choice Gibson), we have some ok CBs who need a leader to help them develop and command a little more, Promes (2nd Sisto), we need more pace and attacking threat from out wide, a little unpredictably would help too, Maddison (2nd Grealish), we have been missing a '10' for years though either could potentially play alongside a more traditional forward, both look like they could step up to the premier league and develop, Rondon (2nd Ings), okay Rondon hasn't screamed goals lately but we have lacked physicality up front that allows others to play since the days of Pelle or Lambert - Ings may be a cheap(ish) option and may find goals with a consistent run ... open minded for continental options though if we can find somebody who could manage in the premier league. 5th (dependent on Forster not wanting to stick out as a reserve keeper) Bentley - always looked decent when I have seen him play, good potential, English.

Yes. I like the way his sides play and think he has done well with both Watford and Fulham. He has also won titles in a few other leagues too which isn't easy.

Not sure his nationality is particularly relevant to anything other than your own prejudices. For what it's worth we played a relatively high press under Adkins - that Northerner! We played arguably our best football in the last decade under Poch who was very much focused on possession and pressing. What's more some of the best footballing sides around currently, Liverpool and City, play this way! Jokanovic has had relative success already in England and elsewhere.

Probably not but then I suppose what his options are and a possible Hughes link up could be a pro or con, fully expect he may have better offers though both here and across continent.

Apparently Shaqiri has a £12mil release clause, a bargain fee by current markets. HCDAJFU or most teams in the league though to be fair and will likely have a range of suitors.

I wasn't exactly comparing the two records like for like, simply pointing out that waiting can be a negative as part of a point about a hypothetical situation in which we might be considered an option for a 'proven' manager. Though in Curbs defense he did more than okay at Charlton. They overachieved under him and swiftly fell apart after he departed.

It was an example of waiting out too long for 'the right offer' and managers being forgotten.

To an extent yes but there is always the Curbishley counter argument. Waited too long and now get's "Alan Who?" when he goes for jobs. I agree he could wait and probably do better. All I am saying is that he might not want to. If he is burning to prove himself, wants to manage in the premier league etc it is not entirely implausible he, or any other manager, might fancy working with our les. Not really sure I take your point on Moyes. His work at Everton got him the Utd job. His decent showing at WHAM would likely get him another premiership job despite some poor showings in the interim.

Fair shout they slipped my mind. Though the same really applies say they go for a manager swap with Napoli. We could end up best option by default.

By all accounts he could probably do better than us on the continent. Indulge me a little on this but let us say he wants a chance to manage in the premier league. How many jobs are there that appear to be available and are better bets than us? Arsenal look set on Arteta, Everton seem to want Silva - probably have more going for them than us right now though but not by much, the Allardyce saga might also be a red flag to anybody considering taking over. WHAM, linked with a range - again probably have more going, finance, stadium, london etc. Though would he want to work with the dildo peddlers with the rent a gob sprog tweeting about all things WHAM? Leicester - will it be available? Nobody seems sure in the media. That sort of leaves us. He couldn't really do much worse than this season. We have a few pennies to play with, an decent squad, the academy is always a plus. I don't think it is any way likely but I would suggest we would make an interesting challenge for the right manager. All the same I still think Hughes is probably the safest and most realistic bet. He wasn't my first choice by any stretch but he's probably done enough to be top of the list.

Agreed. I respect he is an okay tactician, we had a good cup run and probably should have won. He's been successful in France. No doubt he was the wrong man for us. We played our best football when we tried to impose ourselves on games tactically. Europe we allowed games to pass us by when really we could have achieved more.

Call me a fool. We missed our chance in Europe which may not come around again, this was largely down to playing such negative football. We scraped to 8th in the league. We played some of the worst football I have seen from us in the second half of the season. We lost any identity to how we tried to play our football, particularly with his weird diamond experiment that didn't fit our players. I'd say we were probably at about our level under Puel but we lost any of the optimism of genuine possibility that was present under Poch, Koeman and, to a lesser extent, Adkins. It was certainly not all his fault he certainly played a significant part in our current slide.

*Burton bradstock, just down the road. But I take your point! Good to see him doing well, always thought he might make the break through with us but his progress seemed to stall and it never quite happened.

Yhep, far too many in the media keen to stick the boot in. Quite a few of the 'you can't keep selling your best players' mob were happy to see our failure as if we willfully planned to see our best players be tapped up in Blackpool hotels year on year. Puel is/has been a decent manager, just wasn't right for us. Probably not a good fit for this league by all accounts. No shame in that. Pellegrino was never the right man for the task at hand. I think some go OTT on their attitude towards him but clearly wasn't up to the job. He was a nice chap all considered but that kept him in post too long.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/apr/26/claude-puel-leicester-city-manager-future-uncertain Similar piece, sounds fairly similar to views of him here. Sacking Puel was never the mistake some of the smug kn*bs in the media made it out to be, we just royally buggered up the replacement!

http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2018/03/21/name-to-watch-16-year-old-southampton-talent-enzo-robise-feature/ Nothing too detailed but, for what it's worth, a fairly recent brief mention for Enzo.

Care to elaborate?

About three hundred quid, that's decent and my car is falling apart! Never the less I briefly lived in Pompey and now too many smug knobs who would be giving it the big'un if we were in the same league to make it worth it!

I got a very good price on a double, us down pompey up. I thought, and certainly hoped, it would be a few quid down the drain but, after seeing our slump last season alongside the mickey mouse takeover down the road I thought it was worth a punt just in case. Of course I would much rather see us stay up and lose but I am genuinely torn on Pompey. If we are screwed anyway a few hundred quid wouldn't be a bad thing. Ideal scenario, Pompey charge into the playoffs, we manage to escape last day of the season, pompey proceed to f*ck up the play offs and I find an appropriate time to take a decent cash out.

I suppose it depends on your age, as a product of the 90's I can appreciate greats from before but, if you asked me on the spot, my answers would probably reflect my own 'heritage' as it were ... For me Liverpool would be Barnes or Owen though only as Kenny was before my time. Arsenal, Bergkamp or Henry? Chelsea, Zola. Palace, Wright. Leicester probably Mahrez. City, Aguero. Mn utd, probably Best though Scholes needs a mention. Newcastle, Shearer. West ham, Rio. Stoke, Shaqiri, never understand what he's doing there! West Brom, probably better historical examples but Gera was decent on his day. Spurs, Hoddle. Kane/Bale both worth a shout though. As does a fit Ledley King. Some of the teams with less time around the top flight it's tricky. Will always remember Fletcher for Bournemouth.