saintwbu

There is absolutely nothing to gain by selling Van Dijk this summer. He is our best player, he's probably the best centre back we're likely to see for a very long time, anyone we replace him with is going to weaken the team. For once, just to set a tone for the future, we need to not sell him. Remind everyone that we do only sell on our terms.

Heisenberg is gonna be in here saying that Everton can get top dollar for their players. Well their forum this morning reckoned they'd be getting £100mil for Lukaku! After his Van Dijk maths, a £75mil deal for Lukaku, subtracting agents fees, signing on fee, petrol money, lunch money, new training kit, leaves them with about 50 quid!

Anyone in the Premier League other than those that get Champions League football are also-rans. Fair play to any Everton or West Ham fans that take pride in being a 'big' club. But they're not. They're competing with us. No player is going to choose them over us because they're 'bigger', it'll come down to who pays them the most money. Also when I say 'those that get Champions League football' I basically mean Arsenal, Man United, Chelsea, Tottenham, Man City, Liverpool.

But he's evil isn't he? The most influential assistant manager in the history of football, it was ALL his fault ffs

Guly definitely in with a shout but for me it's got to be Maya Yoshida, never rated particularly highly by most here, but just a great team player who gives everything he's got, bloody love the bloke. One of those guys where it feels extra good when he contributes something big to a game, when he scores it feels like the whole stadium turns to one another in surprise when they realise it was Maya that popped up.

I guess it'd be better to say 'a significant upgrade'. All of those CB's have been a big step up from the previous (Toby is fantastic, a world class defender in my opinion, but for me Van Dijk's quality goes way beyond his ability as a defender), we will never get a better defender than Van Dijk I don't think, and in my opinion there aren't many.

I guess it'd be better to say 'a significant upgrade'. All of those CB's have been a big step up from the previous (Toby is fantastic, a world class defender in my opinion, but for me Van Dijk's quality goes way beyond his ability as a defender), we will never get a better defender than Van Dijk I don't think, and in my opinion there aren't many.

Everton can be judged at the end of the window. So far they haven't broken the £100million mark, which is the sort of sum Lukaku and Barkley are expected to fetch if they are sold. So if their spending stops here, and they recoup it all by selling those two, then they'll have operated just like we do. If they sell Lukaku and go and spunk another £100million then fair play, but they didn't spend anything more than they sold last summer so i'd be surprised if they did this one.

Everton can be judged at the end of the window. So far they haven't broken the £100million mark, which is the sort of sum Lukaku and Barkley are expected to fetch if they are sold. So if their spending stops here, and they recoup it all by selling those two, then they'll have operated just like we do. If they sell Lukaku and go and spunk another £100million then fair play, but they didn't spend anything more than they sold last summer so i'd be surprised if they did this one.

Michael Keane for £30mil again reinforcing that £70million for Van Dijk is in no way unreasonable. A good centre half, comfortable on the ball, room to develop, but not even close to being as good as Virg.

Michael Keane for £30mil again reinforcing that £70million for Van Dijk is in no way unreasonable. A good centre half, comfortable on the ball, room to develop, but not even close to being as good as Virg.

I'm not sure there can be much debate as to whether Austin is good enough for the Premier League, he's proved that he is with a more than respectable goal record. But if his physical attributes make him suitable for us, i'm not so sure.

I'm sad to see him go, but I don't think he can feel hard done by.

'penny pinching' has seen us field Toby Alderweireld, Sadio Mane and Virgil Van Dijk in recent season, three of the best/most sought over players in the league at the moment, so if that's what penny pinching is then i'm all for it. The other option is be like Palace or Stoke and spending millions on very average players.

That article must've been written by a Scouser. 'Van Dijk replacement' in the title and then saying we tied VVD down to a long contract to ensure we got the best price for him. Bloody hell.

Chelsea look to be signing Alex Sandro so i'd imagine they aren't interested in Bertrand. Would Arsenal be out of the question? They do play with wing backs now.

I know Long is terrible in front of goal at times but for me he has to stay. I loved Austin at QPR, but if he had to go I could live with it. In this day and age pace is such an asset, J-Rod and Austin don't have it so in my opinion are only ever gonna be back up to Gabbi, whereas Long can be an alternative.

Has an assistant manager ever had as much of an impact on a club as what people on here think Eric Black has had?

I'm sure Ryan will feel compelled to stay after some absolute helmet insinuated him posing on a yacht in Cannes on Instagram meant he wasn't fulfilling his promises regarding the Grenfell Tower re-housing. I hoped, in vein, that it wasn't a Saints fan but alas his follow up response to Ryan's shutdown was based on his frustration at our players always wanting away. ****ing hell, people. * I must add that I realise multi-millionaire footballer's are unlikely to be influenced by the behaviour of moronic fans on social media when it comes to decision making.

Expect him to be linked with Chelsea and end up at Watford. Seems that's 'the process' in Fonte's eyes.

Fonte also replied to that post saying 'trust the process'

Various Twitter sources now saying a deal to Chelsea is close. So there we have it, he's now officially been close to joining all three teams that were interested this summer. Are Chelsea using us to get a deal done for Bonucci? Or is this the beginning of the end of this saga?

I don't remember many people in the press urging him to do so though to be fair, which is what has people irritated here.

But Bayern should be grateful that someone wants to buy their players! They'll make a profit they should be pleased with that! Stop whining about those pesky 'rule' things, bloody Bayern, crying like babies because someone spoiled their auction, small time lol.

I don't think City and Chelsea will though, seems like Liverpool are putting up more than anyone else to try and attract him, from an article I read. If City or Chelsea were offering the same money he'd undoubtedly want to go there, everyone wants to play for a big club but at the end of the day money talks.