tajjuk

Objectively no, he'll be 32 in the summer, has had injury problems with little evidence he has really gotten over them, I think his legs have gone and his wages would be massive. Not only because he is a on free which drives wage requests up but also because I think he has a very high opinion of himself that is probably a lot higher than his actual ability now. 2 years ago yes, 100%, but he has gone downhill. I'd also expect him to demand like a 3 year contract, so whoever signs him will be lumbered with a 35 year old probably on 100k a week that is injury prone. You also have to question his mentality to be honest, he'll have a champions league and league winners medal, has no hope of playing for England again that screams player looking for a pay day. Danny Ings was a risk with his injuries but at least he was 26 and clearly had the hunger to prove himself again. Luckily the club just won't go for him, it's just not our model at all luckily, as the OP said, has West Ham written all over it.

Massive credit to Atalanta, looks like they will be in the quarter finals of the Champions League in their debut season.

LOL, those choices, Liverpool, Dortmund, Leipzig or Southampton. At a guess he's probably being looked at as back up for Liverpool or a replacement for Sancho at Dortmund, so is being scouted, might not necessarily mean its that player they chose. Liverpool are losing Lallana on a free and probably Shaqiri as well, so lack a lot depth in those wide areas for someone like Mane or Salah, so I'd reckon they are looking a whole a host of wide players. And Dortmund must be expecting Sancho to go this summer.

I think we'll win, maybe comfortably. Two reasons, one since our turn around when we have had a disappointing result/performance, Ralph seems to have kicked them up the arse and we have been much better the next game (and he has a full week of training to do that). When we were bad at home to West Ham we bounced back and were very good against Villa then Chelsea, when we threw it away against Wolves we bounced back against Palace. Secondly Villa don't have the mentality, discipline and personnel to play like Burnley did, if Villa want to beat us, I think they are going to have to play and attack us, not just defend 90 minutes, too many mistakes in them, too many attack minded players. Which will suit us. Grealish is good and a threat, but we have one of the most in form strikers in the league, against one of the worst defences, so IMO they have more to worry about. Also whilst Grealish is massively important to them, the loss of John McGinn has been massive for them, he was very important in how they played and how he linked their team together.

Can we not play this bang average football team in conditions where football is actually played for us, their effing luck against us is unbelievable.

That would be punishing the English League for one club, we'll still get 4 places I'd imagine and it'll just drop a place. Whether it would be this season though is doubtful, it'll probably get suspended whilst the appeal goes on. I'am also not really sure we should be celebrating this, its basically punishing Man City for breaking into the big boys club and upsetting the regulars, that is what FFP basically does, it doesn't make league fairer or more competitive, it keeps the rich elite big clubs from being challenged by a smaller club with outside investment. It's basically designed to stop a Blackburn, Chelsea or Man City happening again, so that the likes of Liverpool, Man Utd, Bayern, Real, Barca, Juve etc. get to hoover up all the money and global fans, can't have any upstarts backed by money rocking the exclusive boat. This also pretty much guarantees Liverpool the title for the next 2/3 years at least, the only club capable of challenging them is Man City, and this will hamstring their ability to do that.

Redmond is a big loss, but Boufal and Djenepo both carry a lot of threat so I am not sure that weakens us too much. JWP and Armstrong back in is a big positive. Vestergaard is a big call, Bedenerak and Stephens have formed a good partnership over the last few months, so unless there is a knock it looks strange, is it a horses for courses pick to try to deal with the height of Wood. No Barnes and Gudmondson for them which is good, I think those two have caused us problems before, Hendrick looks a very meh player all round and even more so as a winger, Boufal and Bertrand getting at their right side should be interesting. KWP up against McNeil is a test, probably one of their few players I'd have in our team, a lot of their team looks very championship on paper, shows how much a well drilled unit knowing their roles can do.

The other article, not the first one.

Yep depressing and pretty much shows how pointless the whole thing is.

FFS, the luck is astounding, we play Burnley in August, supposedly the summer that somehow had a day from January dropped in and now we play them again and a storm is arriving just as we play them.

Have no idea how he is doing but whoscored seems to have him getting decent ratings for Galatasaray. They also seem to be in what looks like a 6 team battle for the title, so hopefully if they finish in Champions league places and hes done well we might be able to get a decent fee off them. Can't see him coming back, just not committed enough I don't think for Ralph's liking. The Turkish league is probably good for him, he can probably play at like 70-80% and still be good in that league in most games and he'll get some appearances in the Europe league or Champs league to placate his giant ego.

Leicester who the last two summers have sold a player for £80 million and before that £60 million? That Leicester? Who have pretty much just spent what they received in sales. Nah they don;t sell to buy.......

Indeed or we could also point to West Ham as well. That 'ambition' is working well for them, in the bottom 3 with David Moyes as their manager and a stadium their fans hate, fun times. I don't really get why people like Turkish can't seem to grasp its not transfer fees that are the issue its wages, we probably have/had half a million a week or more in wages that are no use to the first team either 3rd/4th choice players like Yoshida or expensive flops out on loan like Hoedt and Carrillo. And that we can't just imagine a sponsorship from nowhere to fiddle FFP numbers like Man City can, we have a high wage budget, IIRC around the 8th highest in the league and to sign new quality players we need space in said wage budget because you can't increase it massively each year because of FFP.

The same Everton that have announced record losses, have a massive wages to turnover ratio, also have loads of players on massive wages they want to shift but can't and are whole giant 2 points above us in the Premier League? That Everton? That are also bankrolled by a Billionaire.

Ok 4 points of 7th then because that is probably more realistic and should be a Euro spot if City win the league cup and one of City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Leicester, Spurs wins the FA Cup.

Not said that anywhere, but if you need to argue a strawman to make you feel better then you do you. Ralph said what Ralph said, you provided a link with his current quotes which said he didn't feel the need to make signings for the sake of it. That is contrary to what you have claimed, if you have issue with it maybe contact him directly. --------------------------------------------------- The window has been officially confirmed back to September the 1st now, so less pressure to rush in signings before the rest of Europe, which makes sense, the idea was sensible but not if our league was the only ones doing it.

Yet we tried to put an option to buy him in the loan deal.

What it is a golden opportunity for this squad to turn a season that looked like despair, on the back of 3 seasons of treading water at best, into something potentially special and maybe reclaim a spot that we squandered away 4 years ago through sales and bad buys. We are 3 points away from 5th in the league, with a fixture list of teams we know if we play well we can beat, with inconsistent bigger teams around us, whilst in good form, and pretty much only having to play a game a week. I don't expect us to win every game, but I hope the squad recognises that if they take their foot of the gas and cruise the rest of the season it will be a criminal waste of a good position to progress the club.

he's got a cut apparently, not that serious and may be available to face Burnley.

We are generally decent after having a good break and time to prepare for games. We should in theory, providing JWP's cut is not too bad, have a full squad to face them as well. But its would be very Saints like to produce a flat performance struggling to break down a horrible Burnley team who nick a goal from a corner or something, after playing so well vs Spurs and Liverpool.

Sterling was tripped by Lloris last week and that was not given as a pen, when it looked more like one to me, this looks like a clear dive and if he does get a touch its minimal, given as a pen, both cases not over turned. VAR is too scared to contradict refs, that was a clear and obvious error by the ref, Son was already going down and if there was contact it was not enough to bring him down, so they should be over ruling that. People make the fuss about the narrow offsides but at least that is objective and to the letter of the law, where VAR annoys me the most is in situations like this because it is confirming bad decisions of refs. Another good performance with very little to show for it. It shows I suppose where we really need to strengthen in the summer, our first 11 is good, at its best its very good and can cause problems to everyone, and we can freshen up our attackers and still provide a threat, Obafemi, Boufal, Djenepo etc. have all shown good cameos where they have come in for Ings, Redmond etc. but our rotation/sub options for midfield and central defence are not good enough. Romeu just doesn't cut it, he's never been that mobile and seems to have slowed even more and Vestergaard is clearly not good enough and should be sold. Of course signing good players in January for these positions was never going to be easy but if they eff them up over the summer then even if we start much better next season we'll have a season of promise that ultimately will disappoint and frustrate. We have to get some quality in centre-mid to help out Hojberg and JWP, and we have to get a centre-back upgrade. (but we've known that for 3 seasons). Then we might be able to see out games better. Had JWP not been injured I doubt we would have lost that game and had he not had to play right back then I doubt we would have conceded 4 against pool. The team has 10 days off now, sounds like JWP injury was not too bad, Armstrong has returned earlier and Valery/KWP should be fit and up to speed by then, so barring some training injuries we should have a full fit squad for Burnley and we can push on over these easier fixtures and maybe have a sneaky challenge for Europe. It would be very Saints though to play that well vs Pool and Spurs, then produce a flat dull performance at home to Burnley.

Standard these days, you aren't even surprised, big team biased refereeing and VAR bottles it.

Ah the old classic passive aggressive 'pal', the bed rock of a good argument Also did you even read the last one you quoted? yes I was listening to the manager, you even provided a link with direct quotes from him, he literally said - “So we don’t have a ‘must’ now, we can do something if we want.” Which seems to suggest he was generally happy with things, whereas your other quotes are from November and December, so BEFORE the window and then the one DURING the window supports what I said. LOL, I believe some one said - 'when you can’t even get the basics right it negates any other points you might be trying to make'

77% for Hojberg and JWP pretty much, though I don't think our pass completion rates mean much, we are quite a direct team that tries to play forward quickly on the transition and even at times give the opposition the ball in their own half to then win it back.

We are crap at home and we were only just turning it around when we played them, we are so much better away from home and there is more pressure on them to win that game.