RevidgeBlue

Agreed. Hence my comparison which people laughed at a few weeks ago of offering 1m for Messi. If Charlton want £2m for the player you'd imagine our opening gambit would have to be in the order of £1m with a view to hopefully landing him for maybe something like £1.25m plus some add ons. Otherwise We're just wasting ours and Charlton's time instead of pursuing targets we might have a chance of landing.

Apart from wishful thinking, is there any evidence whatsoever that We're in for any of the above? (Apart from Bauer, who we 've no chance of landing unless we get part way realistic with our offer)

Completely agree. Seems to be a case now of "might" and "hoping" we get some of the players we need. Still all smacks of not enough money being made available to bring in the targets he wants to me. Two other points stood out for me reading that, extremely depressing reading if you're one of our younger players finally hoping to make a breakthrough here and disappointing to see Conway cited as a reason why we might have a decent season.

No. That should be taken as read. Their basic wage should reflect the fact they are Premiership players and they should be remunerated accordingly. If however they fail to achieve that and get relegated then the contracts should allow for a pay cut. Paying bonuses for merely doing the absolute bare minimum which is acceptable doesn't appear to have been a sensible policy for Bolton as they seem to be in all kinds of trouble.

Can't be anything in it. Chaddy doesn't approve! ☺️

Ludicrous. It's an open invitation for the players to knock off for the season early if they were to reach relative safety by say the end of January. Plus, not being relegated should go without saying and there's no massive financial benefit to the the Club in scraping survival. It's a bit like Having a normal job and being told "Don't make a massive cock up which will bankrupt us and you'll get a huge bonus". (Which might).

Well, as you apparently have an important European qualifier on Thursday, yes!

Do you want numerous changes for Wednesday then? If not you're just being argumentative for the sake of it.

As a general aside how bad must the Scottish League be when our squad can turn over one of their best sides so easily at home in our very first warm up game?

I thought Sterling was very fortunate to start the tournament ahead of Rashford and even more fortunate to retain his place in the side on the back of some dire performances prior to yesterday. However, whilst he still didn't look like providing a goal threat, his overall play was much better yesterday. Delle Ali for me is a class act who if he is anywhere near at his best is always likely to pop up with an important goal when it really matters which is exactly what he did yesterday. I Wouldn't change anyone on the back of a solid performance. We made a load of changes for the Belgium game and arguably lost all the momentum generated by the Panama game. Expect 4 or 5 changes then. ☺️

Good to see Tomlinson scoring. Would like to see him in contention for the starting eleven this season

The second half side looks a lot more promising than the first.

Is it normal practice for Clubs to pay large bonuses simply for not being relegated? I'd have thought that should be taken as read and the bare minimum that should be expected. No wonder they're in trouble if That's what they've been doing. Bonuses for promotion or wage cut in the event of relegation maybe. But not bonuses for staying up!

He said it in the context of "certain games" to be fair.

That's about right. Like Tyrone I'm not convinced by Southgate and in devil's advocate mode we arguably haven't beaten anyone decent yet but that doesn't matter now. It was a pretty good performance yesterday and all that matters now is winning the next two games by hook or by crook regardless of performance. These players Don't want to be remembered as the team that blew the best chance ever of winning the trophy by going out to Croatia in the semi final or the guys that lost our first World Cup Final for 52 years.

Don't especially recall that. He has though made a point of saying that having an hour of Craig Conway plodding up and down the field is often better than these "flying wingers"!

That's the impression I get "Wouldn't be a starter" etc. More to the point I'm not sure why the player would want to come when he rarely got a start last time he was here and has already been told he Wouldn't be a starter if he came back. Of course TM might simply be trying to play down any interest to keep the fee down but I think he'd have to be telling the player another thing in private to what he's said in public.

Have to say Brazil going out makes the unthinkable even more plausible than before. Notwithstanding the fact Belgium beat Brazil I reckon you'd still far rather face them or France in the final than the multiple former winners. Not keen on the rumours that Henderson will be replacing Dele Alli with Diet dropping into Henderson's slot though We're bereft enough of creativity as it is. Might not be a game for the neutral!

I'm thinking exactly the same way which is a very dangerous state of affairs given my record as a football tipster over the last couple of seasons. I can't actually see that Sweden will give us any problem at all and I expect a two or three goal victory. I would also expect Croatia to dispose of Russia in similarly comfortable fashion and for the resulting semi final to be a completely different proposition. In the other quarters I think Uruguay could possibly pip France and expect Brazil to edge out Belgium in an entertaining and possibly high scoring game. So the value bet would be...... Do exactly the opposite!

Then imagine if we didn't........ Lol. Long way to go yet in my book. 2 young lads in who appear from TM's comments to give here to provide competition for places in the squad at this stage as opposed to being automatic starters, no new contract for Dack yet and none of the real priority positions addressed for me ........yet. May all happen of course but until it does still much to do and far too early to be talking about play offs etc.

Wouldn't have thought he starts as part of a two up front for City though does he? As for the rest of it, if he is feeling pressure for any reason, unlucky, he's a professional sportsman so he has to find a a way of dealing with it. People can't make excuses for him forever, is it nearly 40 games now? I would also have to differ when you say he does nothing wrong off the pitch. No - one forced him to do laughing gas or tattoo an AK 47 on his leg. He brings the media attention on himself imo.

Thanks for the reply. I'm not a fan of Sterling but it seems obvious to me if you must play him you need to play him as an out and out winger aswide as possible on one of the flanks. I think sometimes managers on millions of pounds a year think they can be so much cleverer than everyone else and shoehorn players into unnatural positions to accomodate fancy formations and ignore the blindingly obvious which the man in the street can see as plain as day. And that's not specific to Southgate by any means.

I'd have liked to have seen Kane and Vardy together at some point but it seems Vardy is struggling with an injury now.

I Don't have a problem with chaddy unlike seemingly 99.9% of the m/b and there was no offence intended whatsoever. It's just that at the moment he seems to be picking up on what TM has said in interview at various points and using those criteria to either absolutely slaughter or praise to the hilt any name mentioned. Thank you for being offended on Chaddy's behalf. I'm not that sure I'm the one who needs to get out more. Sorry Chaddy. Intended in jest. No offence meant.

I'd say consistently "scabbing" games in normal time was more a sign we had mastered tournament football than unexpectedly coming back from 2-3 down on penalties with 4 to go but good point.