Wes Tender

It says we will miss Lallana's influence. Infers that he was worth £25 million, and is followed by the statement that we will not be as good next season and that there is no point in believing otherwise. This is just one such statement among many that I can't be arsed to trawl back to that insinuated that the players lost could not or would not be replaced with equivalent or better players. So I counter argue that he was not worth £25 million, that if he and the others are replaced by players as good or better, we will not miss them and will probably do as well or better as a result. I have always then said that we needed to see what signings were made by the closure of the transfer deadline before assessing where we were or might be this season. Please point out where I have denigrated Lallana's contribution to us before he left us. Which part of that do you disagree with?

I think that this is him. http://www.bundesliga.com/en/liga/news/2013/0000284113.php

CB missed the point I was making, because i employed sarcasm. OK, he doesn't think that it was a good point even then, and when it comes to sarcasm I bow to the master. So, you're another one who thinks that Lallana's departure leaves a gaping hole in our team that apparently cannot be filled by any other player. If we signed Messi to replace him, would we miss Lallana? Well, we have just signed two creative midfielders and Ramirez will also have a chance to finally show the flair that brought him to our attention. As my position is to wait and see whether these players prove to be as good or better than Lallana, how am I re-writing history?

OK, so instead I'll challenge your statement from a different direction. We will not miss any player, regardless of their value, if we manage to replace them with somebody as good or better, will we? With me so far? And you state with some certainty that we will not be as good this season as we were last. You can't possibly know that. Nobody can. It might be your opinion, but please don't try and present it a fait accompli, it isn't.

The point I made which went right over your head, was that the value of Lallana was massively inflated, in the same way that Carroll's was when he joined Liverpool. They spent £10 million more for Carroll than Lallana. For somebody so adept at sarcasm, I'm surprised that you fail to notice it when others use it. Will Lallana be a significant player in our history? He left too early for that, but he might achieve a footnote stating that he showed enough promise for us to convince Liverpool that he was worth far more than he actually was. And as I say, we will have to wait and see whether he was so great that he couldn't be replaced by somebody as good or better for considerably less money.

Forster signed. Now just the CB to come before the Liverpool match and any other signings will be a bonus, yes?

It seems that according to the media, Man Utd might seize the opportunity to pounce for him. I recall the last time that United took a tatooed FB from under our noses and wish them the same success with this one.

Just like the Liverpool fans will have been bemoaning the absence of a £35 million player when they sold Carroll on, eh? How could they manage without such a valuable player? Oh, they signed Suarez. Just as we will find out whether we miss Lallana's 60 minute contributions when we have had enough time to assess whether Tadic is as good or better than him.

Fair enough question. As Hypo doesn't appear to realise that the season hasn't started yet, nor has the transfer window closed, he feels perfectly at ease making his predictions on the team we have now, not the team we may have then.

Or out for the next six weeks injured.

That rubbish signing we made on loan, you know, Bertrand; how did he do?

It wasn't a bad performance from us. It just looked as if the new players need just a little bit more time to adjust to the pace of the English game and to their team mates. We certainly weren't overawed by a good German team and I think we shaded the game in terms of possession and intent. There didn't appear to be much between Bertrand and Shaw and he looks a good signing with the same pace down the left. Clyne is quick down the right wing, where on balance the greater threats came from us. We have that strength on both wings, but need to add depth in case of injury or suspension to either player. The midfield was good, even without Morgan. The main thing that he gives that we lack without him is the telling defence-splitting through ball, but today we did manage to get behind their defence on several occasions. Pelle had some nice touches and has some class, but needs somebody like Rodriguez to play off. He's strong on the ball and holds it up well though. There has been some criticism of Yoshida, but I thought that both he and Fonte were pretty solid and Boruc hardly had anything to do the whole match. Mayuka looked as lively as usual, but runs around a bit like a headless chicken. Two or three times he was in the box, ball at his feet, then wasted it with a wayward pass back to a team mate, when a good pass laid on a plate would have reulted in a goal. Decent contribution from Davis as usual and Cork and Ramirez looked good when they came on too. I'm not too far from agreeing with Le Goddard, that we are only a CB and striker short of being as strong or stronger than last season's team. But that's additional to Rodriguez coming back fit and Schneiderlin buckling down, and is a comparison of the starting 11 first team, just to qualify it. Additional depth in the squad could yet be achieved, something we lacked last season.

Respect to Bob, but just because it doesn't offend one parent, it is ridiculous to assume that it doesn't offend others.

But of course the people using this puerile insult don't use it in that context. Why would they infer that somebody was a mongrel when they can really insult somebody and cause massive offence to the parents of Down's sydrome children at the same time?

The use of this word really should be stamped out. An infraction for its use ought to do the trick.

Exodus Last of the Summer whine

It's all fine for you to dish it out when it comes to accusing the board of all sorts of things, but you can't take it back, can you? You need to grow a pair if you are so easily offended if somebody accuses you of being naive or misguided in your opinions.

A bit naive to expect these idiots to apologise for their premature predictions of doom and gloom. These aren't the sort of people who could ever admit that they are wrong. They'll simply deny that they ever thought that things were quite as bad as they painted them and move on to the next aspect of the club they wish to moan about.

I think that you will find that he will NOT go to Spurs for a bargain price. If Levy and Pochettino think along those lines, then they really are as naive and misguided as you are. If he goes to Spurs it will be for a premium price that can be excused as being too high to resist. Otherwise if he is to go at all, it should be as you say acceptable to sell him to some Russian, Turkish or Greek team just to **** him off royally and to serve him right for throwing such a childish strop. Either way he needs to be made an example for others as how not to go about trying to force a move.

It's a shame that you have to slag him off like this. He speaks very highly of you.

I think that they are making a serious error of judgement if they believe that they (Levy) have a stronger hand to offer a pathetically reduced price because Schneiderlin has thrown his toys out of the pram. Because Krueger has stated publically that he isn't for sale pretty well at any price, the worst strategy that Spurs could employ would be to try and get him on the cheap. If we arrive at the stage that we have signed a marquee replacement with the cash that is sploshing around from the sales of the other players and if we decided that he was a disruptive influence, then we might be in a position to wriggle out of it by putting a mega-premium price on him and then saying the offer would be too good to turn down. That figure for me would be about £30 million. Otherwise, I'd feel inclined to let him rot in the reserves to send out a message to other players that there is a club prepared to make a stand against over-powerful players and that signing a contract ought to carry some weight in the way of obligations on the player's part as well as the club's. If Schneiderlin doesn't relent soon, he will do his chances of ever playing for France again serious damage, as well as it affecting his standing in the game when he wishes to move on in future. Stay here another season, or even until the January window, behave yourself and knuckle down in the meantime and then you can maybe get an even better move, especially as Pochettino might well have left Spurs by then and you will breathe a sigh of relief and be thankful that you missed being stuck there without him.

A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on.

All very well providing stats to show how potent our attack was and how mean our defence was to prove a point, but then the maxim that there are lies, damn lies and statistics appears to be very apposite here, where comparisons are made which disregard several important factors, such as the change of manager, change of tactics, as well as the change in the players. Also worth noting that 99 percent of all statistics only tell 49 percent of the story and that facts are stubborn things, but statistics are pliable.

What became of Tadic? Has he gone to Liverpool already?

Just because I have countered your arguments one by one, you now say it really shouldn't be on this thread about confidence in the board, even though it was you who raised these issues in the first place. It was you who expressed the opinion that loan players cannot be considered as good as purchased players in terms of confidence building and now at least you accept that it rather depends on who those loan players are. As for feelings of discontent that promises have not been kept that the money earned from the sale of players will be spent on replacements, of course the response is that the time-frame for doing that has not yet been completed, but as usual it falls on the same deaf ears. As for the labelling of those who will allow the board the time to prove their ability to manage the situation as loyalists and having blind faith, this is a typical tactic to disparage them. It is suggestive that they are sheep, who can't think for themselves, whereas it is far more likely that it is the impatient and negative posters who have made up their minds before the season begins or the transfer window closes who are the ones with the sight difficulties, as their views are clearly blinkered or short-sighted.