Caulker thoughts so far?

good? bad? better/worse than Yoshida?

meh

unless he improves a great deal, cant imagine the club wanting to spend anything on him

Probably 4th choice to be honest. He hasn't really shone in the games he has played for us, looked a little dodgy in terms of letting his man go - all the time. But he's not a bad 4th CB to have, not at all.

From the first game, Virgil is on a different level.

Looks a threat attacking set-pieces. Bit of a lump at the back, something different to what we had in Fonte/Yoshida. Will have his uses.

Sometimes gets turned too easily.

Fonte and VvD the natural pairing to start, though.

Probably on par with Gardos. Wouldn't be too happy with him playing every week but you wont find many better to be our 4th choice CB. Doubt we every planned to keep him permanently.

Probably on par with Gardos. Wouldn't be too happy with him playing every week but you wont find many better to be our 4th choice CB. Doubt we every planned to keep him permanently.

forgot about Gardos.

as for Caulker, you would think he will play in the Cup next week.

I hope Juanmi does ffs

forgot about Gardos.

 

as for Caulker, you would think he will play in the Cup next week.

I hope Juanmi does ffs

I imagine that cup side will have Caulker, Juanmi and Martina starting. Potentially Long and Reed I'd have thought. With a bench of U21s.

I hope anyway.

My thoughts are that he is a better fourth choice than Gardos but regardless I am just happy he is fourth choice.

My thoughts are that he is a better fourth choice than Gardos but regardless I am just happy he is fourth choice.

Who brought Gardos?

Who brought Gardos?

Not very good, so Les.

Caulker is definitely 4th behind Yosh. I think you may be being a bit hard on Gardos as he has never really had a run of games. Looked a little off the pace in the early games I saw him play but to be fair he was new to Premier League.

Certainly agree that he looks a threat from set pieces & he's probably an improvement on Gardos.

Needs a run of games to get up to speed. I'm happy we've got him around though.

Wins lots of headers , Never heads it where you want it !

Slowest turning circle since Andreas Jakobsson.

Not very good.

Fourth choice so really can't complain. Been playing with sh*t for a few years now, he will improve immensely under Koeman and playing/training alongside the defenders at Saints and will probably go on to do well providing he signs for another team with a decent set up - Palace, Stoke, someone like that. If he goes to another relegation threatened team he'll just get sucked back into the cycle again.

Gardos after a shaky start looked ok, thought he was decent at United.

Caulker looks ok, not as bad as some make out but on first showing VVD is different class.

Was the loan period all season or till Jan? Was there a fee set for purchase if we wanted to?

Possibly lined up as a longer term replacement for Jose, but how much are we prepared to pay for a back up defender?

Being out of Europe so early may be a deciding factor on not keeping him.

Loan was for the season. £1.5m fee + wages. Like Stek, I don't think there is an agreed option to buy.

No composure whatsoever.

Who brought Gardos?

FlyBe

Forgot we even signed him :-)

Full expect us to release his loan once Gardos is fit to be honest.

Even though he's not as good as Yoshi, I would suggest he's no worse than Gardos and let's not forget that it will take Gardos quite some time to get back to match fitness after he recovers from his injury/surgery. The club probably expect him to move on at the end of the season I would imagine, but who knows, perhaps Gardos may not make it back at the same level and Caulker may be seen as an OK replacement if he's known to the changing room.

Typical Saints signing. Young enough to improve & add value if we sign him. FWIW, I can see him staying & replacing Fonte eventually.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_PsOVPaW4w

Anyone know what Tony Adams is up to these days ??

He may have been a donkey, but he was a very successful donkey!

A good defender is definitely in there, he just has the look of a battle weary defender who has spent the last 2 seasons in defences that have been under the cosh, so clears the ball in the vain hope that one of his team mates will get hold of the ball and keep it long enough for him to catch his breath.

That said looks a menace in the oppos box when he goes up there.

Full expect us to release his loan once Gardos is fit to be honest.

Maybe so, but I still think it was a good, low risk move by the Saints. We desperately needed some PL experienced depth at CB and we got it. Remember... when we signed him, we had Fonte and Yoshi at CB.. That was it. So in a way it was a bit of relief when we got him, just for depth sake.

As far a Caulker, the player....As it stands now, I don't see much reason to sign him come summer, but he has a year to convince Koeman otherwise. It would be nice if he could step into Fonte's position once Fonte's age becomes a factor and he loses a step, but so far the outlook is mostly cloudy.

Caulker looked spooked by other teams attacking and showed panic clearance signs associated with a beleaguered defender at a relegated club.

What he didn't do was remove that hoof-tendency completely from his game prior to us signing Van Dijk, so unless he's suddenly become a cultured passer from defence he's going to be more of a Gardos replacement than Alderweireld one. He's clearly behind Van Dijk and Fonte, and if he remains a hoof merchant he's not even challenging Yoshida unless we're playing a strong aerial team - as he's clearly better in the air than Yoshida whilst worse on the ground.

His passing was showing some signs of improvement at Watford (at least in terms of choices, if not execution) but he didn't do enough with his opportunity to justify challenging the starting two - though as his preferred side is the same as Fonte's he's probably not competing with Van Dijk anyway.

I do think he's better than Gardos though.

Caulker looked spooked by other teams attacking and showed panic clearance signs associated with a beleaguered defender at a relegated club.

 

What he didn't do was remove that hoof-tendency completely from his game prior to us signing Van Dijk, so unless he's suddenly become a cultured passer from defence he's going to be more of a Gardos replacement than Alderweireld one. He's clearly behind Van Dijk and Fonte, and if he remains a hoof merchant he's not even challenging Yoshida unless we're playing a strong aerial team - as he's clearly better in the air than Yoshida whilst worse on the ground.

 

His passing was showing some signs of improvement at Watford (at least in terms of choices, if not execution) but he didn't do enough with his opportunity to justify challenging the starting two - though as his preferred side is the same as Fonte's he's probably not competing with Van Dijk anyway.

 

I do think he's better than Gardos though.

Yeah this seems a pretty decent assessment. I think he could develop but we'll just have to see. It would be nice to develop an English defender into our side and it would also be great if he could one day replace Fonte.

It would also be cool to have another success story like with Bertrand where there were reservations but then the player really blossomed under us. For sure there are bigger reservations with Caulker, and all of this is the root of being from relegation teams as opposed to Bertrand who was with Chelsea in the CL. However I reckon he could improve and he's under the perfect manager for his position as well.

Still early days but don't see him being anymore than a 3rd/4th CB. I would say that it was a good move in that it enables us to loan out Jack Stephens to get regular first team football but he doesn't appear to be getting that at Middlesborough at the moment!

I wonder what Caulker thinks of us? he must have come expecting a regular first team spot, and he's nowhere near it, nor likely to be unless we have multiple injuries/suspensions (has been known). And if there are multiple injuries and suspensions he is probably only fourth or fifth choice. Good for the club to be so well covered but I should think he is thankful it's only a loan, could be a dead season for him

I think Caulker is decent enough and i'd have him as third choice behind the obvious two.

I wonder what Caulker thinks of us? he must have come expecting a regular first team spot, and he's nowhere near it, nor likely to be unless we have multiple injuries/suspensions (has been known). And if there are multiple injuries and suspensions he is probably only fourth or fifth choice. Good for the club to be so well covered but I should think he is thankful it's only a loan, could be a dead season for him

He'd probably prefer that to the championship with QPR. Clearly we wanted him for the Europa but we crashed out early door so he will get less game time.

He'd probably prefer that to the championship with QPR. Clearly we wanted him for the Europa but we crashed out early door so he will get less game time.

This. We're a bit lumbered with a few Europa makeweight squad-meat signings. Might still help us in the old League Cup though.

Could probably develop to 3rd choice with better quality players around and coaching.

I wonder what Caulker thinks of us? he must have come expecting a regular first team spot, and he's nowhere near it, nor likely to be unless we have multiple injuries/suspensions (has been known). And if there are multiple injuries and suspensions he is probably only fourth or fifth choice. Good for the club to be so well covered but I should think he is thankful it's only a loan, could be a dead season for him

Why do you think that?

23rd July - Gardos announced as injured for 6/7 months

29th July - Caulker signs for Saints

He would have signed as the replacement for Gardos as 4th choice centre back and I find it hard to believe the club wouldn't make him aware of that at the time. The club when Gardos signed were chasing van Dijk but had to wait for Celtic to finish their qualifying games.

Full expect us to release his loan once Gardos is fit to be honest.

...sounds logical, but if we need him urgently for a string of games... will be able to make a better judgement.

Conspicuous by his absence recently.

Maybe this is why?

http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/news/west-london-news/qpr-defender-steven-caulker-fined-10245529

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This. We're a bit lumbered with a few Europa makeweight squad-meat signings. Might still help us in the old League Cup though.

And we might not be as vulnerable to injuries as we were the past two seasons.

Why do you think that?

 

23rd July - Gardos announced as injured for 6/7 months

29th July - Caulker signs for Saints

 

He would have signed as the replacement for Gardos as 4th choice centre back and I find it hard to believe the club wouldn't make him aware of that at the time. The club when Gardos signed were chasing van Dijk but had to wait for Celtic to finish their qualifying games.

I am sure Caulker was told (correctly) that he would have the chance to prove that he deserved to start. So far he hasn't done that but I am sure if he started to outshine Yoshida and Fonte in practice he would be given a look in.

Conspicuous by his absence recently.

Maybe this is why?

 

http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/news/west-london-news/qpr-defender-steven-caulker-fined-10245529

 

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Doubt it, the offence took place in March. Some time in court today, possibly oneprevious very short hearing. There were rumours a couple of weeks back about something like this. Was it this or another issue more recently?