I don't think this really stacks up. Weve bought Rothwell and Dack who both look like great young prospects. They didn't cost £7m each. What you seem to be arguing is that to get good young talent you need to spend £7m but we know that isn't the case from players who are in the squad today. Want him to do well, but he's got major work to do.

Part of the reason Hughes left was that he couldn't get the financial backing to secure players like DIarra, Kompany and Zabaleta. With investment (£20m ish) we could have made the Champion League I think under Mark Hughes. But without the cash Hughes, quite understandably, thought he had done everything he could and moved on. I can't really blame John Williams as he didn't have the cash to fund those sorts of signings, and he was trying to keep the club sustainable. For Hughes I think he genuinely thought it was only a matter of time before he managed the likes of United or Chelsea. Didn't really work out like that though, the top clubs were only going for very well established talent who won trophies. Hughes walking out on Fulham was real hubris.

He signed decent players at City (Kompany, Zabaleta), and he got Shakiri to sign for stoke which was something close to incredible. He signed Arnautovich there as well. To be honest he had a great time at rovers, a decent but unspectacular one at City, did well at Fulham and Stoke (until his last season). He had 2 disasters - QPR and Southampton. He'll come good for someone I'm sure, should his heart still be in it. One thing he does have is a massive ego so whether he wants to step down a division to get a job is the question. After Southampton I can't see a prem side going for him.

Harsh I think Dier is very good. Agree Delph offers little. Lacks technical quality and physicality. I've been a bit confused why Delph has played so much. Midfield three of Dier, Henderson, Barkley is our best setup. Alli, Lingard roam around too much to play that deep, Delph lacks the right quality. Im open to winks getting a shot.

Surely they have to put a time limit on the check. It's stupid how long it takes. 30 seconds should be enough. Sometimes their taking 2 or 3 minutes.

I thought Lingard was pretty good to be honest. Seems to get a lot of unfair stick. Speculative, but I would say if Henderson and Dier had started ahead of Rice and Delph I think we would have won that game. Weve got a really good squad generally but we could do with one real deep playing playmaker coming through to tie things together. A Tugay, Xavi, Carrick type. Winks is probably closest to that but I'm not sure he has the quality.

I agree that walker limits us, Trent Alexander Arnold or Trippier are better players. On the technically gifted side I think we have very good technical players indeed at nearly every position. I don't really see that as a major problem for us. More of an issue is the soft defence I think. We just need to keep chipping away.

This hits the nail on the head really. When we beat Spain using the same formation we had winks and dier in midfield alongside Barkley. Winks particularly is good on the turn with the ball. Dier is decent. Tonight Rice particularly struggled, and Delph was mediocre.

Our poor passing was due to an excellent Netherlands press, and our total avoidance of playing ball long as we were terrified of van dyke and de ligt in the air. Switzerland will be much more our cup of tea to play against. Overall we've played very well over the last 18 months, we're not as good as the best teams but we're decent and should be marginal favourites against Switzerland. Edit - one thing I would do is drop Rice. We need players who can play on the turn and he cant at the moment. Henderson or Dier would be much more effective in his role.

Nah, I think England should do well against them. Much mode porous side. Netherlands did us through being very defensively solid and marking well in midfield. We couldn't find any passes out of the back.

Wow, that was amazingly bad. Two goals like in the same match is pretty incredible.

Decent game. Pleased Southgate changed the formation. He's really good at figuring out how to change to the system. Could go either way. Id think about bringing Alli on for Rice who has struggled in my opinion. Have to say I really like Barkley. Think he could become a really top player.

Spurs have won one FA cup and two league cups in the last 35 years. They've only ever won the league twice in history. The possibility that they could win the CL tonight is absolutely mental. Seeing Arsenal battered by Chelsea in a major European final, followed by winning the biggest prize in club football after decades of mediocrity. If they manage it that will be one hell of a week for Spurs fans. I live next to Tottenham and it will be absolutely unbearable.

There's quite a few more decent ones than the 4 you mentioned, including a few who were absolutely key players. Kazim-Richards, Gestede, Tommy Hoban, Baptiste, Tunnicliffe, Jordi Gomez, Danny Graham, Tom Lawrence, Emnes, Harry Chapman, Adam Armstrong, Jack Payne. I wouldn't say loans have hurt as at all. Our hit/miss ratio for loans is about the same as buys I would say. What's hurt us most is bringing in over the hill rubbish like Murphy, Etuhu and Best on massive contracts. We would have been better off with bringing in loans in those cases. About half of any years recruitment will be loans, and the teams that go up usually have made a number of great loans. We have to emulate that.

I don't think getting in the top six next season is unrealistic, and should be the target, and I am sure it will be. I guess the key question is what is the minimum acceptable position where heads will roll if not achieved. I would say that's 9th-10th. Based on the other teams in the league and the inherent highly unpredictable nature of the Championship I think the above is reasonable.

Not sure about that. He was unbelievably bad in the second half of the season, and not much better in the first half. I would say when he starts he is our number one weakness. We can't afford to rely on him.

I would say in today's market Dack could be worth 20m off the back of some good form. Not at the moment because he's had some poor games, but I can see him hitting the heights again. With the best will in the world Reed and Gallagher are more like 10m combined. So no....

I'd pay 3.5m tops for Gallagher. 5m is way too much in my estimation. If we say got Gallagher, gk, a lb, a rb and a cb that would be decent business. How we do that on our budget I'm not sure. Linked to this I don't really think we should prioritise buying a central midfielder, but that seems to be near the top of TMs shopping list. I'd be happy loaning someone in again as we have Travis and Davenport coming through, plus Evans and Smallwood hanging about. Obviously I would like an upgrade but limited funds need to be spent up front, at gk and in defence for me.

Bellamy is the best striker we had since Shearer. Absolutely sensational on his day, could (and did) win games on his own. Quality he showed was up there with Henry or Anelka. If he'd had half a brain and more luck with injuries could have had a much better career.

Like a lot of players during that period he had one or two really good seasons but couldn't sustain it. Same for Bentley, McCarthy, Santa Cruz, Reid, Savage, Dunn. I guess testament to Hughes skills to get them all firing at the same time when we ha finished 6th. Only genuine top class players were Tugay, Freidal and maybe you could argue Nelsen. After Hughes left a lot of performances dipped.

I'm excited about the nations cup. Should be a cracking set of 3 games, a bit like the playoffs. I think weve got a really exciting squad. Alexander-Arnold, Stones, Maguire, Chilwell, Henderson (who I've come round from skepticism to really liking), Sancho, Sterling, Kane, Radford are all really decent players in my opinion. I reckon we can do it.

I honestly reckon that's on the low side personally. Could easily be 200 pages before we see someone come in.

There is a certain level of realism required. How on earth do you level the playing field? One option is to close down the CL and the PL and actively force away viewers somehow as they are the ones who are generating ever escalating mountains of cash soaked up by the big leagues. Other option is to tax the big leagues and give it to smaller teams. That's already happening to an extent but it needs to be hugely extended. But which turkeys are going to vote for that Christmas? It's only a matter of time before we see the drawbridge go up and a European Super League is formed relegation free. The sad fact is it would be quite self sufficient and successful. Some fans would be sad to be playing Ajax or Milan every Saturday rather than Everton or Wolves but they'd get over it. I suppose other side of the coin is would we and the other 85 league clubs be that devastated if we lost the top six but had a more competitive domestic league? I think it could be better personally as it's so predictable (that one Leicester season aside) who gets in the CL anyway.

We've only got 4 players who look like they might have the required quality to get promoted - Lenihan, Travis, Dack and Rothwell. We need to hold onto them all if at all possible.

Fair enough - always like to see a bit of data supporting an argument. Personally I don't think we're going down the crossing route. We're more of a passing side as you say. Would be very useful for us to have some fullbacks who can cross mind.