Saint Without a Halo

Yes Romeu whilst not quite the beast Wanyama is on breaking up play is much better with his distribution and all round play

Yes defensively but they dont break in numbers!

Well the one good thing is we shouldn't need Wanyama with them down to 10

FFS Davis pass

lucky lucky Jerome should have got that

I believe ours is well under our limits (look at recent salaries offered by Palace and Stoke) hence the more reason a lot of our players see leaving as a reason to better their income when they see what their peers achieved!

I do agree with Alps on this, as not pulling out the stops on Toby has most likely been interpreted clearly as a lack of ambition by the club in the eyes of other players. We did after all have the option on Toby and could have offered him a significant wage increase and still come in under Spurs offer with him then on side I suspect the decider was the fact we did not offer Toby a salary near that that Spurs did, on the basis we needed to remain under our wage ceiling if we were to avoid upsetting others. However it now appears others have been unsettled as they realise the wages they can command in this market when they talk to our departed players and Toby and this appears to have unsettled some key remaining players like VW and maybe even Fonte etc who feel they should be allowed to cash in too. So the perceived lack of ambition and allowing some players to go off and earn huge increases but not others have actually been major contributory factors to our recent loss in form and lacklustre performances. It was after all the likes of Fonte that were apparently responsible for the great team ethic we had and in a funny way that may be why he himself was not allowed to move on and cash in and this was what Morgan felt last year. My concern is if the players don't want to play in a committed manner to their full potential it doesn't matter how many super stars we get in we will just be a bunch of uncommitted expensive mercenaries like QPR were. The question is do Les and co have the necessary emotional management skills to repair this damage or has the cancer spread to far already? This to me is much more serious than the quality of players we may or may not have and it really is out of Koemans hands which is why he looks so frustrated. He can only train the players put in front of him but cannot seriously influence their perceptions of the clubs ambition or the perception (and reality) that they are being paid less than their recent peers! Only Les Reed and co can resolve these issues not Koeman.

Ronald says we were unlucky and produced a good performance! Was he watching what I was?

More likely a complete breakdown in communication morale and team spirit by the team on the pitch

We are dire we have got worse every match this season

Well they at least are playing it on the ground we are new advocates of the hoof ball aimlessly up field trying to find Pele who even in the lucky event it reaches him has no one to knock it down to

Agree totally how many of us who have great love and affection for the club would plough our families money into it in full? If that's the basis of measuring affection we would have virtually no fans

Just what Pompey did?

Would be embarrassing if it happened for spurs they got rid of Caulker and paid a fortune for Toby!

Talented youngsters will very rarely sign five year contracts and these are also a risk to us if the player fails to succeed and can cost lots of money (look at Osvaldo Gaston etc) if we deny players a move and stand in their way other good players will be wary of signing for us too. Older players nearing the end of their career will sign five year contracts but do we really want them in the team when their money is based on a deteriorating performance as they get older. Better to get ambitious younger unproven players on cheaper contracts whose standard improves ahead of their cost and then sell them off for a profit this is a much more sustainable plan and yes it has its risks in identifying good talent but is the best strategy for a club of our current size and finance. Maybe it is because we allow players to develop their careers here that we get the good ones other teams later want in the first place?

Spot on and the fact we are known to allow young players to prove themselves when they would never get a first team place at a top club means we can get the Clynes, Wanyamas and Manes to join ius as see us as an essential career stepping stone and we get up to three years of their services. This is not a bad model for a club like ours and helps attracxt young talent rather than burned out talent it is both cheaper and more exciting

True he is now one of our best players if not the best, largely through improvement but also because the other candidates have either, left, regressed or are injured.

Positives just 2 points off last years finishing place Romeu and Fonte did their jobs well! Negatives too many to mention

We cant even get the bloody ball now!

Great Arabic commentator over here saying Jrod has not scored in 18 months! without actually saying (or probably knowing) why! I can understand why he has made that assumption seeing todays game!

But this is Watford we are playing!

Cedric has a shot on goal! well almost on goal

Imagine if we had the start we did in season one back

The player we bought in league 1!

We are sticking to the plan! lots of through balls to a non existent Mane! Watford just miss a sitter from 2 yards FFS