saintwbu

The general consensus everywhere seems to be that Bednarek is for the U23 team. Everyone has been begging for a 'Fonte replacement', surely Hoedt could be that? But I am inclined to agree with your assumption sadly.

Ward-Prowse has to start for me. I was often one who wasn't sure what his purpose was, but we seem to always play better when he plays, so for that reason he gets in for me.

You'll never get a perfect society, but I think most do. But media clamour over someone's 'difference' maintains its abnormality. Also, maybe i'm being naive, but i think you'll find a very small portion of people in our society that are genuinely racist, or homophobic, or xenophobic etc., like actual hatred.

I think that whilst it still makes newspaper headlines that someone in football has come out as gay, it will never be 'normal'. What needs to happen is a player comes out to his peers, maybe announces it on social media if he feels he has to, and then it doesn't make it national news and back pages. We try and say 'oh why hasn't a player come out yet it's 2017' but then we still get pandemonium on Twitter when there's a rumour of an 'exclusive' story about a gay footballer about to be revealed (which of course has so far ended up never happening). Well done to Hugo for discussing how footballers are just normal human beings, most will be perfectly accepting, like most people are in this day and age (not all, of course), plus he seems an extremely popular figure at the club.

Very impressed with Prowsey today, popped up 4 or 5 times arriving late, could've had a hat trick with better composure but hopefully that'll improve if he continues to attack in this way, shame he was subbed because Tadic was overplaying as per. I still think our biggest flaw is not taking any risks in our passing. There was a spell in the second half where JWP kept going behind the two Swansea CM's and holding out his arm for Davis & Romeu to pass it through the middle of them both and all of a sudden we'd be just outside the box, squaring up the CB's. But they'd look, think about it and then go sideways. Of course there's a chance that pass gets intercepted and we're in danger, but with the quality of our players those are risks we should be taking and that could win games. We look too hesitant for me, hopefully we get some confidence and that changes, because we have a lot of players making great movements but being ignored.

Yeah I was suggesting that because the two tend to be linked!

Also Barkley fits perfectly the profile of player we look to sign; Young, clearly very talented, burst on the scene but has lost his way and now looking for a fresh start/challenge. Sadly he's English so there's about as much chance as the Pope starting in holding midfield for us.

For me Gray is a perfect example of someone who called play out wide, and also play behind/off a striker. He also absolutely would improve us, in my opinion, but I reckon his sights are probably set a bit higher, Tottenham/Liverpool signing probably.

Breaking on TalkSport tonight, Danny Rose in The Sun saying he's not being paid what he's worth, quite a damning interview apparently. Few top clubs looking for a new left back at the moment!

Why would EVERTON be haggling for a measly £5mil over Sigurdsson? Shouldn't they be busy paying Messi's release clause?

Very tempting!

He's probably the best CB in the league, so as the 8th best team in the league yes we would be lucky to have him because he is better than us. Sorry i'm thinking about winning football matches, not whether he loves the club as much as I do. He's the player the club decided to keep, I don't doubt plenty of other players we've sold would have behaved in the same way if we had have stood in their way. And the reason the club have decided to keep him, is because he's ****ing good. So hopefully they're not as emotional as most of us lot, and are going to stick to their guns. Also regarding Coutinho, it seems a lot of their players & ex players have this weird lovey dovey relationship with the fans, I guess you only have to look at Gerard's treatment when he wanted to go to Chelsea to understand why their players don't tend to act up that much. I can't imagine many Saints fans threatening Virgil's family, to be honest.

Handing in a transfer request and releasing a statement like that aims to enrage the fan base and break the relationship beyond repair. This is last chance saloon for his move. Sadly it seems it's having the desired affect with a lot of the fanbase. Let's all have a reality check, very few players play for the love of their club, Virg is just doing what he feels he needs to do. Yes it's not nice but id much rather have him here on September 1st, even if he has acted like a ****. He's a ****ing exceptional player and we'd be lucky to still have him.

Have The Sun ever correctly guessed any of our transfers before they've happened?

Let's be honest, he'll play if we don't sell him. He won't have typed up that statement himself, his agent will have. He isn't at the training ground kicking down doors, he's probably still chatting to everybody like normal, this is just part of the game to get the move that he wants. He isn't sat at home hyperventilating at the idea he might not play for Liverpool next season, he's just trying to get what he wants. Let's not go all crazy over how 'disgraceful' it is, it's part of the game. This doesn't force us to do anything, Everton rejected John Stones' transfer request to go to Chelsea, not sure why everyone thinks these things are so important.

Imagine supporting a team that plays James Milner at left back, and not being happy with Nathaniel Clyne

Take it there's no chance of us getting extra allocation for this one? Was desperate to go to this one but sold out two days before member sale! Presumably we'd have been allowed more than 1500 in a 25,000 stadium? Bank holiday weekend against a Prem newbie, surely we'd have sold loads more than 1500!

I seem to recall a thread from Koeman's first pre-season that asked the question "Where are the goals going to come from?", we won 8-0 about 4 weeks later. I wouldn't read too much into pre-season games, good or bad, personally.

I'm definitely one to be realistic and say when players are not as good as the pandemonium that follows their departure. Lallana, Shaw, Lovren I felt were all easily replaceable when they left, and so it proved. But for me there's been two players we've had over recent years that are destined to reach the very top of the football pyramid, and that's Mane and Virgil. We will not get players as good as those two any time soon, if ever, in my opinion. So people saying 'yeah he's good but..' are lying to themselves i'm afraid. He is exceptional. He is mentioned as 'one of the best CB's in the league', but the day he pulls on a different shirt he'll become 'the best CB in the league' without a doubt. Just like people are now talking about how brilliant Mane is even though he's doing the exact same things he did for us, except it's shown live on Sky most weekends rather than for 5 minutes on MOTD, so people believe it. There is life after Virgil Van Dijk, without a doubt, but we have a ****ing diamond on our hands and if he has to go it's got to be for absolute top dollar because we won't see the like of him for a very, very long time.

If you want to find a funny side to it all, it's always good seeing how much the Scousers think Virgil is desperate to only play for them at all costs. If Man City, Arsenal or Chelsea were even remotely interested in him and were willing to pay the wages Liverpool are offering, they really think he'd go 'no thanks i'm waiting for Liverpool'. Christ.

Can we stop talking about him as a £60m player, or this as a £60mil deal. He is worth far more than £60mil in today's market, given that John Stones cost £50mil. Van Dijk is arguably the best CB in the league (he is, in my opinion). John Stones probably isn't even in the top 10.

Will be more interesting to guess how long it'll take a United, City, Chelsea or Liverpool player to get banned. My guess is they definitely won't be the first!

I'm sure we were told when Gabbi joined that he couldn't play through the middle, and was more suited to coming off the left. Obviously for us he has demonstrated he definitely can play through the middle, but would still be interesting to see him on the left of a three to cater for Charlie.

Think it's what Tom28 said (he was right about the strike)

Watching that video has really given me a buzz for the season to start though. The thought of Boufal fulfilling his potential, and if Gabbiadini is really the player he looks to be, could we finally score some goals!?