Ken Tone

I imagine we we offered him say half the rest of his contract as a lump sum, so he could then sign on at a new club, I suspect for rather less money per week than we are paying him. Depending on the detaills of how much less per week at a new club etc, that might well mean he gets more overall, and be playing. But presumably it wasn't a good enough offer for him, so he decided to stay on with us, with to the end of his contract, or until we make a better pay-off offer, or his agent finds him a new club that will pay closer to his wage with us.

If we don't play Gazza, when does he get any match practice? He doesn't even play in the reserves/u-21s nowadays. It it must be quite an issue for reserve keepers, to keep 'sharp' without playing games.

These youngsters look pretty good. It's sad that there seems so little chance of them getting to play in the first team in the near future. I miss that from the lower leagues ... Seeing the young players come through. Seager for for example is a cracking goal scorer, but how likely is he to displace Pelle, JRod, Long, Mane , etc, if Juanmi can't get a game?

It's the risk of big injuries like this that makes it the sensible thing for young players to do, to move for big wages even if it is too soon in playing terms. Luke will be insured for much more now that he would have been at saints, and (God forbid) were this to be a career ending injury he'd be much better off with compensation based on his much bigger salary at Man U.

1-1 now. Only 400 people watching on YouTube . Given some of the apparently obsessive types on here, I'm surprised there aren't more!

Wel it would be ... for us. But for him, it's better to get us to pay up a sizeable proportion of the rest of his contract, THEN go to another club on a free. (Where presumably he won't be able to con them out of such a big wage) So why should he agree to just go? It could cost us quite a bit to persuade him to leave.

I hope Ron tells him just to concentrate on defence to begin with. He won't be able to go steaming up field like he's used to, at least not till he's settled in properly.

Do people think Van Dijk will start this match, or will we phase him in to the PL? It is such a higher standard than the Scottish Premiership - he will need to adjust.

ditto. Not good enough for us now, but one of my favourite players , and unlike the mercenaries we've had more recently, only left because we needed to sell him, not to make himself richer.

Correction ..no Reed, but Stephens is on bench. (Also Cropper and Chambers playing)

Ward-Prowse and Targett start. Reed on bench.(I think)On BT sport 2, and presumably live streams, if anyone's interested.

What happened to Qpr's penalty from the football league for overspending in the year they went up? I thought they were supposed to have to pay a big fine this year , and/or have a transfer ban etc ..... And that they'd have to sell big earners to avoid breaking the rules again?

So he's just been appointed captain of the England u21s - yet still we have people on here writing him off as not good enough.

...who got expelled from school twice, spent a few months in prison, and got his A levels at a Norwich FE college. Something future generations won't be able to do after the cuts to college funding by the way.

This

I just can't understand how so-called fans can slag off a good young player like this ... And he IS a good young player.

Well really, why would a player follow his current team? What would a twitter feed tell him that he doesn't already know? Whereas following his old club makes much more sense. I preferred your earlier post !

Havent been on this thread for a while. Good to see Rallyboy is as readable as always! Personally I want them to sit in safe mid-table obscurity for years to come yet .... No promotion near misses or plucky relegation escapes. No exciting cup defeats against Saints or other big teams ... Just boring nothingness as their support gradually fades away, and the 'floating voters' and the new-to-the-game kids move to watching us or Brighton, or even Havant.

ah...... There was a player! Ramirez. .... I'd be delighted if he could play for us at the level he showed in that Villa game, but let's face it he's had nearly 2 seasons of mediocrity since then, so the chances of him being brilliant aren't great. He seems to be the latest example of a player somehow getting better in people's rating when he isn't playing. Tadic .... As someone has said a blood test could just be showing a virus or similar, so no need to worry too much as yet. I am in the "play him on the left" camp personally. He looks much better on that side. But Ron seems determined to put him on the right. Now if only I had a lifetime's background of playing and managing at the top level, maybe ........

Cedric has looked better attacking than defending IMO.

Why don't PL teams use the long throw more? Delap always unsettled the opposition, and this bloke is also a bit of a nuisance. You'd think more teams would have someone who could throw well, as an another occasional attacking option. It must be mostly just a matter of practice surely?

Don't know who the commentator on BT is , but he keeps wittering on about Yoshida being left- footed and having to cope out of position on the right! he also said we weren't very convincing against Vitesse. Personally I thing 5 nil is pretty convincing?

To be fair, Brentford play in a better league than Celtic.

Might make sense IF he gets to play regularly. Was disappointed to see that Stephens was only in the subs bench for the last Middlesborough game. Not much point in loaning out players to be part of another club's reserves

How can anything beat "there's only juan -mi", to rhyme with "there's only one me" ?