qwertyell

He's totally deluded. He wants to join someone who'll let him play in his self-declared "best position" in central midfield (disregarding the fact that he can't pass, tackle and has no interest in defensive duties). Chelsea want him as a wing back. But he's not going to get in the Liverpool midfield either. The only club gullible enough to give him a regular gig in the middle of the park is the one he's at now. Yet even Arsenal, who play right backs at left back and left backs at centre back and strikers as wingers, think it's a bit risky to play him in midfield. Even Arsenal. If he was serious about his development, he'd lower his sights and join a club more befitting his current ability, where he might be able to develop, but he thought 30 games in League One made him a Champions League player, so I'm not sure humility is his strong suit. Wasting his career. Made some money, got plenty of Instagram followers and sparkly earrings, but has barely made any progress as a player in the six/seven years since he left us.

Option B for me. Van Dijk has played his last game for us, regardless, so we might as well try and turn this unsavoury situation in our favour as best we can and try to address the glaring issues in our team. Selling him isn't the outcome anyone wanted, but he is leaving - either in a few days, January or next summer - so why not draw a line under this ugly saga and move on.

Not sure I'd use the words fast and dynamic to describe Slattery. From what I've seen of him, he's more likely to make the grade as a Michael Carrick type of steady, deep lying midfielder. If he makes the grade at all. He hasn't stood out as anything remotely special thus far.

Did we wrangle a sell on clause with Arsenal for Oxlade-Chamberlain? It was rumoured Cortese insisted on all kinds of clauses when the 17 year old with one season of League One under his belt declared that he wanted to play Champions League and condemned his development to seven years of stagnation.

Us.

The extra time was justified. The board didn't even go up until the 91st minute because the referee and 4th official were busy intervening in a prolonged squabble between Pep and Howe. And then once play finally got underway Adobe got injured, received treatment and needed substituting. There were easily more than two wasted minutes to add onto the "minimum 5 minutes" first announced. Probably wasn't a foul, though, but robbed is a bit of a stretch.

Who the hell wants to sign Tadic? He's been garbage since Koeman left.

Not sure about Southgate as a coach, but dropping Forster, Ward-Prowse and Redmond at least suggests he's paying attention.

I don't think Tadic has played well since Koeman left - and the insufferable prima donna hated playing for him. Probably because Ronald wouldn't put up with his crap. He was supposedly happy to "finally" be playing in his "best position" at 10, under Puel, but he was predictably disappointing and soon started complaining about being substituted all the time for being predictably disappointing. Frankly, for the one or two good games he might give you per season, he's just not worth it. In my opinion.

Going to be a long season, folks. We couldn't have had a much easier start - three home games in a row against relegation fodder, 10 men and a Championship 2nd XI - but we've struggled in every match. I wouldn't be confident of that trend changing away to Huddersfield (another soft fixture) at the weekend.

Bank the points, thank West Ham's incompetence and Lee Mason's generosity, move on. I guess. Not sure what the positives were to take from that. West Ham were more dangerous than we were with 10 men. It never really looked like we had a man extra, so slow and ponderous on the ball were we, so easily hustled out of possession. The Swansea game at least showed some encouraging signs - we pressed enthusiastically (didn't today) and consistently got into some good positions. But, as evidenced by their feeble capitulation at home to United earlier, Swansea are going to be bottom three this season, which should put our "encouraging" 0-0 draw into context. We were poor today, right across the pitch. Our defensive frailty in the air is so painfully obvious it's scary. Why isn't our giant sack of potatoes of a keeper coming out to try and help his beleaguered centre backs? Full backs not covering around. We can't carry on like this. Lemina did all right, Prowse had a decent cameo, Gabbiadini kicked the ball twice - one goal, one brutalised crossbar. That's about all the positives I can note, aside from the very fortuatous result. Has Redmond been linked with a move away? He phoned it in today; didn't fancy getting involved at any point.

The ball travelled so far and deep that a stupid person might expect a 6' 7" goalkeeper to come and help his teammates out... Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

Unconvincing, but thanks to agent Fonte and Arnautovic's idocy, we were well in control - until a really poor concession on half time. Romeu was too easily turned, Forster pushed the ball back into danger, and Hernandez reacted quicker than Bertrand - which was a trend throughout the half: their attackers got inside our full backs way to often. I can see West Ham's aerial dominance yielding another goal, so we can't rest on our laurels in the second half. And Lee Mason (a consistently awful referee) will probably be on the lookout to even up the numbers, so I'd take Tadic off right away. Speaking of Tadic, how is he still on penalties? After squirting another garbage spot kick in today, the question still remains. Isn't Bertrand one from one from the spot for us? Wouldn't Gabbiadini (I know he missed one last season), with his finishing quality, be a better bet? Anyway, hopefully we're refocusing and can get an early goal to put this game to bed.

West Ham were just as crap last season, yet contrived to easily turn us over at St Mary's in one of our worst performances under Puel. Best not count any chickens. Who even knows if we'll ever score another home goal?

We played some good stuff - albeit against a side of very limited ambition. But 29 shots and 2 on target tells a familiar tale. The problem is a lot of our chances tend to fall to terrible finishers like Tadic and Redmond or rare scorers like David and Redmond. Hard to be too harsh on the team - you couldn't pick out anyone who didn't play quite well - and overall it was more positive than the death throes of the Puel era. And Forster got another of his fabled clean sheets where he didn't have a single shot to save but the statistic will be held up anyway as iron-clad evidence of his quality. So that's nice...

Played pretty well. Tadic missed a sitter and should've had a penalty; we've generally looked quite dangerous but lacked composure when it comes to the finish/final pass. There's a lot of anxiety out there to break this goal drought. Abraham has predictably looked a threat in the air for Swansea, but otherwise it's been comfortable at the back. Wouldn't be surprised if they nicked a goal, though. Davis seemed to have a knock - we might see Lemina after the break, which might not be a bad tactical move in any case. Mike Jones is not an adequate referee. Never has been.

That's a more balanced appraisal. Technically, he's very good, and in a central role - and more responsibility - with the u21s this summer he showed a lovely range of incisive passing that we don't see enough of from him in a Saints shirt. His weaknesses are all physical. I can't think of a slower midfielder. Gareth Barry and Michael Carrick have proven you don't need great pace to succeed in a central role in the Premier League, but Prowse doesn't have anywhere near their physicality. And without that ability to use his body to win/shield the ball, he's a bit of a sitting duck in the middle. Which is a great shame as he should be dictating games from the centre of the park, but instead has to be shoe-horned further forward, out wide or in the 10, where the limitations of his mobility are even more starkly exposed. It's pretty telling that he's played 150 odd games (including internationals), under four or five different managers, and still no-one is any the wiser what his best position is because he's compromised in every role. And so Pellegrino will no doubt continue the cycle of flipping him from one role to another, from starter to substitute, hoping that he'll finally settle somewhere and excel. But until he can develop the physical attributes to play in the double pivot in men's football, as he did in u21's football, I think the debate will continue as to whether he's actually any good or not. As someone suggested earlier, I don't think we'd have any interest in signing him if he were a West Brom player. Which isn't to say he's appalling. Just too often underwhelming at present. I hope this year will be his "breakout" season and all of us unbelievers can tearfully repent, shamed by being on the wrong side of history, but I won't bet the farm on it. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

Really, is it expecting too much to find an attacking option who can play out wide and through the middle with some level of competence? We've been linked to two such players - Karamoh and Vietto - and had another in Juanmi on the books not so long ago who might well have fit the bill now. Yann Karamoh, 19, seemed like a transfer rumour with some substance earlier in the window - a young, versatile attacker probably within our price range.

Would have no problem with selling Long and bringing in a more versatile option. He was hideous on the wing, but not good enough in front of goal to play centre forward regularly. Gabbiadini, Austin, Gallagher and a winger/10/false 9-type would keep us well stocked considering we're only going to play one up. And we still have the "new Henry" up our sleeves if things get desperate...

Hmmm... Weren't ITK-ers suggesting Bertrand was going to Spuds this summer? Made no sense initially - to play second fiddle to Rose - but perhaps this knobhead's interview is about to have an unwelcome knock on effect for us...

So we're selling Van Dijk for, presumably, a flipping fortune, but are only looking at signing two permanent deals and a couple of loans? We really are skint, aren't we? The Fonte money paid for Bednarek, the Rodriguez money looks like it'll cover most of the Lemina fee. And I'm guessing our Van Dijk replacement won't cost £50m. Another profitable transfer window, then...

Gibson is another Roger Johnson - looked okay in an ultra defensive set up, but totally at sea in any tactics more ambitious than playing for a grim, backs to the wall 0-0 draw. He's not quick, particularly strong in the air or good on the deck. £30 million? If anyone pays even a third of that, they will have been royally had.

All those words and yet no mention of the lucrative six year contract he signed last year. Needed another draft or two - not nearly enough self-pity. Hard to imagine bridges aren't being burned at the moment. It'll be interesting to see the club's response.

IIRC we were quite strongly linked to him when he was at Marseille. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

Semedo was surely one, as we were supposed to have been lining him up for 18 months. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk