stpedro

Only if you start using capitol letters.

 

Dost, Zyiech and Walcott. £30 mill won't stretch far so I'm buying two of them in other fantasy scenarios.

CapitAl letters. And a question mark would have been useful as well in the first attempt.

If he only made the Brazil squad last week, then he won't qualify for a work permit.

no this isn't how it works now, things have changed. Richarlison got a work permit having only played 9 games for the U20s. Luan was a star at Rio Olympics for Brazil so just as likely to get a work permit. If people want to hear Luan discussed in much more detail as a player, you can listen to a podcast on him here: https://player.fm/series/world-football-index-podcast/wfi-scouting-spotlight-luan-gremio

Well after our experience with Arias, Delgado, Chala, Ramirez, Osvaldo I am not sure it will be well received do you?

No reason why it can't work. I think clubs in England used to be a long way behind the times about how to look after foreign players, particularly those from South America, who come from very very different backgrounds, and often were poorly integrated and not helped settle in a new country. Now that we have a much more globalised game, and a more professional approach to these issues as well, there is no reason why South American players couldn't succeed. It's always a risk, but we could equally point to a lot of English players that were bought and failed as well. If you do the scouting and research properly and make sure you help the players settle in then it could work.

Also, as Richarlison has been granted a work permit despite the fact that he has only 9 caps for the Brazilian U20 team and is a long way away from getting full caps, it would not be too difficult for Sánchez to get a permit. The situation is rather different with players from lower ranked teams in the world rankings, as can be seen in the case of Peñaranda, also at Watford, who can't get a permit yet and has had to be loaned abroad. Similar situation to Richarlison, but more caps, but Venezuela have a very low ranking. For what it is worth, I wonder if there is any mileage in trying to set up a scouting network in South America. There are some bargains to be had, and many young players would have good sell on value - obviously does go against our own youth policy.

Excellent player, though probably not as good as Yerry Mina, the Colombian centre back at Palmeiras. Suspect both players are on the shopping lists of bigger and better clubs than us, both have been mentioned in dispatches as targets for Barcelona etc in the past. Don't think work permits would be that hard though given Colombia's high FIFA ranking.

Presumably this means that a contract will have been offered to Jason McCarthy who I believe was out of contract this summer?

Perhaps Cáceres doesn't want to be here?

 

In any case, we've got VVD, Yoshida and Stephens for next season, and we were always going to sign another CB anyway (probably a younger one), so there's no room for him.

Gardos is still there as well at the moment?

Didn't we have a young midfield player, Paul Hughes who scored either on his debut or after only a couple of games, possibly when Alan Ball was our manager ? Then injured and disappeared.

Was that David Hughes?

listened to talkSPORT with Phil Vickery earlier eh.

no never listen to Talksport. I do however research a PhD on Colombian football and politics (yeah, I know doesn't sound academic really!) so watch a lot of the Colombian football team.

Would rather have Jeison Murillo of the Inter defenders. Another decent bet would be the other Colombian centre back Yerry Mina. Good player, expect him to come to Europe soon in one of the big leagues.

Could be seen as a great fit for Giggs to cut his teeth proper?

Can't see this happening. This would be a massive risk, giving a big job to someone who has no management experience of any note. 4 unremarkable games and several seasons as a senior coach having no discernible positive impact on a team visibly going backwards is hardly a great CV. I have a real problem with big name players walking into senior management jobs like this. I'm much more for them having to prove themselves in lower leagues to learn the job and show that there is more to them than once having been a good player. Can they develop season long strategies, inspire players, run coaching sessions on a daily basis, conduct transfer deals, and actually manage a squad? There is no evidence really that Giggs can do this, and I'd rather someone else took that risk than us, as there is more chance of him taking us backwards than forwards. Playing is much different to coaching and managing. Personally, I don't see why the fans are rushing to sack our manager and press the panic button. It seems some fairly hysterical response to a couple of bad results when in actual fact we are in a decent position and are doing pretty well given the considerable demands on the squad with fixtures.

Frank de boer for me but after the shambles in Europe in which our stock would've been high we've become a lot less attractive to higher end managers

Were you not watching Frank De Boer's Inter in Europe? An even bigger shambles than our supposed one. He lasted 85 days there and was absolutely appalling despite making some big signings. Just how he is a better manager than what we have? Being a bigger name as a player means absolutely nothing in football coaching or management.

Turkish will be in melt down mode when reads this. Its like Quinn is a member of the Cult of Cortese.

The issue that Quinn misses though is that the Academy conveyor belt has not worked for thr lsst 2 or 3 years, the model Quinn is talking about requires 2 or 3 new young players to come through each year. But it isn't happening amy more. Aparr from Targett none have really come throug now for 3 years (JWP broke through 4 or is it 5 years ago now (and is still not a regular first pick). The Southampton Way referred to in this article is no more. It is deceased.

deceased is a bit harsh. Perhaps dormant and hopefully stirring would be better.

it's a sad day when an overhead kick is 'dangerous play'.

 

He was pretty spot on to be honest from what I saw. I liked his assessment of Claudio Bravo, basically called it nonsense for Guardiola to claim he was excellent because he managed a few passes that to be honest you'd expect most professional goalkeepers to do and said it was pretty pointless being good at passing the ball out from the back when you gift the opposition easy goals.

 

Bravo was a complete clown in that game, a few short passes don't cover that up and I think Guardiola is saving face over the way he treated Hart who's twice the goalkeeper Bravo will ever be.

curious claim to say Hart is twice the keeper Bravo is. Bravo has won two Copa Americas with Chile proving he can do it on the big occasion in major tournaments. He has also played for one of the best teams in the world and won trophies with them. He is a very good keeper who had a poor game having had very little training with the team, on his debut, having returned from South American before the match and never having played in England before. All reasons to excuse a poor first game. I have no doubt he will improve and answer the critics who are leaping out to defend a England player (possible little-Englanders raising their heads again?) Hart also cocked up in his first game, having proved to be susceptible in big tournaments with his poor performances when it mattered in the Euros. he is a good keeper but not rated highly enough seemingly for big clubs to go after him, and ends up at a 2nd rate, if historic, Italian club. He's a good keeper but not a great one. Being England's number one does not immediately confer some kind of greatness on a keeper, particularly when there is very little competition in the league, and the two who might have replaced him for the Slovakia game (Butland and Forster) were both unavailable.

He's hamming it up to carve out a niche as a Savage deputy. Says daft things to generate chat.

This is probably true. Got to know him fairly well as I taught and coached a couple of his sons. He's a pretty intelligent bloke, and has realised that to stay in the punditry business you have to generate interest in what you say and have fairly direct views. If you sit on the fence as a pundit and be reasonable no-one will react

lots of things to be positive about but we don't have the best array of midfield options in the Premiership....Think most of our options wouldn't get into the Man City, Arsenal, Man Utd or Chelsea midfields. Having 2 England goal keepers also says a lot about the lack of English goalkeepers in the Premierleague, good as Forster and McCarthy are

I'm happy to give Puel enough time until players are back from injury or back on form but the early signs are worrying. I was rather underwhelmed at his appointment from the start and if the manager loses the players the it'll only go one way (see Chelsea last season)

 

One thing I haven't seen mentioned is the Europa League, we should be too good for Sparta Prague and Hapoel Beer Sheva home and away and there are no excuses if we don't get through the group stage.

 

Either Puel will get the diamond system working in some way, the diamond is scrapped and he gets us performing, or he'll be gone by Christmas.

Sparta Prague will be a very tough match. They will be a team very used to playing in Europe. Just because they are from a league you don't know much about doesn't mean they will be easy. Just look at West Ham. Thought they were favourites two years in a row against Astra Giurgiu and lost both times, and were second best fairly clearly both times in tactics and attitude. Just because players in our league get paid a lot more and cost more doesn't really mean they are that much better. Hapoel Beer Sheva should be the weakest team, but they won their league. We have no European pedigree to speak off, think if we get through the group we will have done well. This 'no excuses if we go out' rubbish is a very arrogant approach assuming we are better just because we play in a 'big league'. Let's not get ahead of ourselves

Pellegrini is Chilean

about time. They should have been doing this for years. Hopefully there will be a lot of sendings off applying it, I've got no problem with that. It will soon stop when players are costing their teams by getting sent off. The same should happen with grappling at free kicks and corners - if there are loads of penalties then that would be great. Penalties happen a lot in rugby for foul play. As soon as refs show they are serious and blow all the time then teams will stop doing it

most of the English so called 'experts' and commentators have problems articulating what they think in English, in fact are probably worse and have less tactical acumen

What are people's views on Sweden's Lindelof? Looks decent to me, has done well in Portugal for Benfica.

The Portuguese league wouldn't be a bad one to target for a foreign partnership, some very good teams like Porto, Benfica and Sporting, and then quite a few small teams who might jump at the chance to get a bit of money and talent. Teams like Vitoria Guimaraes, Maritimo, Academica etc who occasionally get into Europe would be decent.

I saw Crewe against Coventry earlier this season. Their defence was abysmal, but they still pass it about and created quite a few chances which in that game they failed to take. They play the type of style that will suit his play which hopefully will help him do well

Good player - I was surprised Porto sent him out on loan to be honest, and curious that no-one bigger than Rennes picked him up. 16M seems steep though.

I strongly agree that players need to go out on loan, and am slightly surprised that more of our 18-21 year olds aren't playing at League 1/2 clubs as I feel it would do them good. It is difficult to see many breaking into the team or matchday squad at the moment, and it would be interesting to see if they have what it takes at a lower league club to start with. The only problem with the loan system is when they don't start - obviously there is no right for them to do so, but the whole point of them being on loan is to play matches, so Gallagher and Stephens' situations are not ideal if they are not getting game time. I've seen a number of loanees this season in League 1 or 2 benefitting, (for instance Kaikai at Shrewsbury from Crystal Palace) and it really must help clubs get a better feel if they can make it or not. even if they aren't going to make it at Saints, it should help their careers by proving they can be pro footballers