Chris27687

it's what Chelsea paid for him. Would imagine it would be something around that though.

He's not having a dig at Southampton he's having a dig at Everton....

https://decorrespondent.nl/2607/How-data-not-humans-run-this-Danish-football-club/230219386155-d2948861 This is an excellent read and a must for any avid Tim Sparv fans out there. Also we need to keep our eye's peeled on set pieces!

10/10

------------Stek---------- Cedric Fonte Yoshia Targett ------Davis Wanyama------- JWP------Mane-------Tadic -----------Pelle------------ Gazza, Clasie/Reed, Caulker, Martina, JRod, Long, JWP

It appears West Ham are bringing a 3rd choice team to Romania for tonight. Likely starting XI: Randolph, Page, Jenkinson, Oxford, Burke, Poyet, Lanzini, Jarvis, Samuelsen, Nolan, Maiga. I would be livid if we took that approach, they also have arsenal first game away - which they are never going to win.

Louise Taylor has written her seasonal comedy pre season piece. It's worth reading the last couple to get the full feel for it. http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/aug/05/premier-league-2015-16-season-predictions Surprise of the season: Rolando Aaron's Signing of the season: Stewart Downing....

Jose is going to go down as a saints legend. I imagine his contract negotiations are done in 5 mins and there's none of the modern day nonsense that seems to go on forever. I imagine he's got rid of his agent as he's going to retire at saints and there isn't much point in giving someone 15% if your not going anywhere....

I was referring to all Competitions. Back 5-10 years I would have agreed it meant the league, nowadays not so much - its very rare to get a 15/20 per season striker in the PL, as you pointed out.

think that's a bit harsh. He's never had a proper run really and has moments of genius. If he gets it together at Palace he could easily be a 15 per season striker which is what they need.

I imagine they will be slowly bringing him back into the fold, he will probably play the last 20 mins or so. When everyone is fit that front 4 would be the 1st choice line up.

Switch JRod with Stevie D and that will be the squad.

My 'ManeManeMane' team name is infinitely better than Chris Garretts' 'Mane Mane Mane' team name.

I don't really mind Caulker, he was in a really crap team. Would obviously prefer Van Dijk but who knows how that will go, regardless who we sign I can't see Fonte & Yoshida not being our CB pairing for the first month or so. If we got Caulker on loan we could buy another DM to put up a solid screen when playing better teams or away in EL - not sure who that would be though/

He would only realistically get game time in the League Cup so it's probably best he plays 35+ games for someone in the Championship - ideally someone who plays a similar style to us.

Bolasie isn't going anywhere for less than £20m - probably worth a £10er that he ends up at liverpool next season when they realise they need someone to cross the ball to Benteke.

What's quite interesting is the total spend last year was £835m, according to this http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/competitions/premier-league/11069625/Premier-League-clubs-spend-record-835m-in-summer-transfer-window-with-Manchester-United-biggest-spenders.html. So far teams have spend around £350m, i think its fair to say that spending from last year would be eclipsed in a normal year but with the added incentive of the advertising deal for next season it seems quite likely that teams are going to go mental on signing players. Seeing as not everyone can be successful its probably pretty fair to say that one of the teams in the bottom 10 who spends a ton and ends up getting duds has a reasonable chance of doing a Leeds. It's always on the cards for some of the teams but with the big sponsorship deal next year it should rev it up an extra notch.

No Van Dijk in the Celtic squad tonight. I assume you can't play for 2 different teams in European competitions?

even a broken clock is right twice a day.

Well it is a lot of money, but we will take a far bigger hit if we end up with a 7th place target for CM and come 1-2+ places lower that last season - due to the prize money + also the prize money, albeit smaller, for all the cups (Europa, League, FA) we will do worse in.

As in between £2 mil and £5mil......

If this is happening, it really needs to happen sooner rather than later. It's probably worth taking a 2-5 mil hit on the total fee so we can actually get our first choice replacement, who probably won't be available on the 25th August.

That's a lot of assumptions that are quite likely not to be true. You seem to forget that there were a lot of new players last year and they have only had 1 season together and in the premier league for a lot of them. Plus a lot of our younger players are a year older which is not to be understated. I'm expecting for Pelle, Tadic, Mane, JWP, Reed, Targett, Stephens & Gallagher to all have better seasons than last year. With our excellent experienced core continuing to play to the standard of last season + Throwing in a JRod to the mix! CB and a replacement for Morgan is all that is really required this summer. If we sell Gaston for some small £££, then there will probably be an AMC as well - Praet seems quite popular according to he press.

What? Rather than travel to the Britannia and play in front of 12,000 Neanderthals on a raining Saturday?

Fairly certain Rodgers & scousehamptons coaching staff will **** him up somehow. Probably end up partnering kolo toure at CB! Don't really feel much about this news tbh, it's been coming and it's not the end of the world. Would be surprised if clyne or schniderlin get booed next season though.