DuncanRG

Out of interest, why does it not equal Clasie, Cedric or Van Dijk?

EDIT: Double post

What have they done in the transfer window? Made a phenomenal signing in Cabaye - which it's widely reported was only possible due to his personal relationship with Pardew - then some touch-ups here and there. Very respectable, but their good form is about a lot more than signings, just like our poor form is down to a lot more than signings. How this isn't obvious, when our usually good players are performing as badly as the new recruits, is beyond me. My housemate had West Ham and Palace down to win. Only Leicester and Villa deprived him of an eight-game accy with a £3,800 payout!

Not after we won three televised away games in a week!

Do you remember how much stick Bertrand, Pelle and Mane got from fans early on, and how much the board/manager got for signing them?

I have no idea whether Martina was on any list, but the cheapest option would be a free transfer or, even better, bringing someone up from the academy. We have signed two first-choice full backs in the last eight months, remember. Assuming we sign a centre half for £10m or more, we'll have spent about £10m less than last summer, when we had an entire team to build. Very few were complaining about 'cheap options' before we lost a couple of games.

What do you mean?

Sort of - he said Mane to Utd rumours have unsettled the squad, while Wanyama and his agent might be angling for a move.

The worst case of that so far this year has been 'let's play Juanmi'.

One of the staff (may have been Reed, can't remember) openly admitted in one of those behind the scenes videos that Cedric was being looked at as a signing for the future, to go behind Clyne. When Clyne left and our first choice right back target (who went unnamed) was no longer available, they sat down and debated whether Cedric was ready to go into the team and decided he was. So the club actually agreed with you. If your top target isn't going to come, you can't magic another one out of thin air - you go for who's next on the list.

I'm not sure which journalists you're talking about, but I don't remember anyone predicting we'd have our best ever Premier League season and qualify for Europe. Blackmore had some bad news too, regarding Mane and Wanyama.

Top post, though Premier League status is enough to draw great players to all sorts of middling clubs. See Shaqiri at Stoke, or Georginio Wijnaldum turning down the Champions League (!) to join Newcastle.

They won't, because they're not over-emotional, wounded animal football fans overreacting to a bad run of games. They're not attached, so they can see the forest for the trees. (That's not directed at you personally!) On topic, I wouldn't be upset if Van Dijk was the last signing. We've recruited in all the other positions we needed to and they all look okay to me. Get the best out of the squad we have and they'll do well. We could always use another great striker, but who wouldn't? I can't think of an obvious candidate (Austin's injury record is too big a worry for me) and there's no use spending money for the sake of it.

Right - and then he proved people wrong. It's daft enough branding new signings not good enough after 2/3 games, but it's something else when it's players who we've watched play well every or most weeks for years.

Like what?

It's what half decent teams in Europe have to do now, besides the established giants. Atletico Madrid and PSV have won titles and still had their talent stripped away! Koeman was used to it at Feyenoord.

Anyone unsure about how they should act on Sunday would do well to watch Jose's interview with the club.

Hurt to watch that.

That's a strange assumption to make. We don't know anything about him besides the fact he is A N Other.

Eh? He's been alright in my book, no worse than the rest of an underperforming team.

Time for bed.

Don't know what everyone thinks Juanmi is going to do.

Highly revealing piece, that, and quite worrying. I wasn't aware of a contract issue with Fonte, but Koeman's lack of faith in the academy is clear to see.

Managers don't always speak their minds to the press - not even Ronald.

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