JGL

De Telegraaf basically saying that us and Dortmund have enquired about him through intermediaries. Price €12m. Fairly accurate source usually, but could just as well be us putting pressure on Seville.

Blind moved into defensive midfield last season and played most of his games there. I have long though he'd be a great squad option for us since he can cover two positions, but his lack of pace is a big problem at left back, not good enough to be first choice for us IMO. He's very good on the ball though.

Sterling came close to breaking through Italy on his own time after time, and that's Italy who are brilliant tactically and basically played 3 defensive midfielders. He could absolutely destroy Costa Rica or Uruguay (perhaps especially, were wide open through the middle their first game), would be mad to move him wide to accomodate Rooney. Also, this thing about playing Rooney as a no 10 and the conception thats his best position is a bit weird isn't it? Been years since I saw him have a good game not playing as a striker.

Would have been a strange move, no way they are moving Messi from the centre.

Messi losing the ball a lot, Roy wouldn't have this...

Love how the world cup is preceded by repeated mentions of not signing players based on wc performance, but then as soon as it begins...

England really need to go 433, was way too open in midfield even though Hendo did his best to cover the gaps. Fits Gerrard much better as well as we all saw last season. What is the point of Whilshere by the way? Is he meant to actually be good at anything? On par with Cleverley...

The keeper debate centres around the questions of 1. is Mignolet good enough? 2. what to do with Reina? While both are valid points for discussion, there is no correlation between them. Reina is extremely unlikely to come back for many reasons. There are clearly issues between Pepe and Rodgers, his high wages, and most importantly: he was pretty bad for us for far longer than some seem to remember (since Kenny came in at least).

Atletico have already signed Siqueira, Chelsea have backed off Moreno and Shaw.. Just a matter of time.

Courtois Ivanovic Cahill Terry Felipe Luis Fabregas Matic Willian Oscar Hazard Costa Some team that.

Well we'll see, but i'd argue that they still have the strongest squad by some distance.

Huh?

Good enough to make Spain 30 man squad and to be on the radar of the CL champions so can't be too bad.

For all his flaws, Welbeck is someone that can be used as an effective tactical tool, think Rafa would have liked him for example. Hodgson talking up Jones and Wilshere is a lot more worrying, both rather pointless in this squad IMO (not that there are many alternatives for the squad but no way should thay be starting).

It's the same thing that Real Madrid did with Carvajal and are looking to do with Moreno as well.I guess the idea is that the other club is more inclined to back the player if they own him rather than just loan. The key for it to work though is that the player is desperate to go back to their original club, which Can clearly wasn't.

Gives us interesting options. With Can and Henderson in front of Stevie we'd be a proper physical force.

Would expect Sturridge, Henderson, Coutinho and Sterling all to sign new contracts on fairly high wages in the near future. Regardless of the size of the wage bill, we are certainly getting better value for money than when FSG came in.

Playing Yaya in a two man midfield is always going to be unbalanced, main reason why they keep struggling in europe. Works great against bottom 13 in the league though.

I think the word on Koke is that Atletico won't accept anything below his buyout clause which is around €60m.

I think the bonus structures of players' contracts vary a lot making it almost pointless to discuss. Some will get sign-on fees upfront, some will get them spread out over the length of the contract. Same thing goes for loyalty bonuses. Some will have a higher bonus and lower wage, others the other way around. Some will have in their contracts that a transfer request takes away their right to outstanding bonuses, others won't. The main effect of a transfer request is still upsetting the fans and management of the current club, helping to push the move through. But as shown by us last summer, you can of course also just ignore it and move on and it will be forgotten eventually.

It seems the whole Southampton squad are fed up with their owner/board/CEO now that Cortese and Pochettino has left. Hopefully makes both Lallana and Lovren more likely to force their moves through.

Confirmed in his interview on the offal that he has a liverbird tattoo.

Agree with this. Seems under rated mainly because people yet haven't realized just how good mainly Sturridge and Sterling are. On the other hand, the Hodge factor is huge. Read some quotes from the Italian manager the other day who sounded like he had just done some research on us and suddenly gotten dead scared since everyone in Italy thinks England are crap.

I agree. Just dont think he would be at his best at Liverpool, much in the same way that he clearly never really fit in at Barca. Think he would be excellent for the Mancs or Chelsea for example.

For being their worst team in forever, I don't think it's THAT bad. Midfield is weak but there are a few decent defenders in there and some exciting talent in attack. Holland on the other hand......