st albans fox

I think we can all agree that there was more wrong with the team than just vards for the first 25 games no argument with you, just the way I see it. We aren't a top five club re wage structure (like Spurs) so can't expect players who consider themselves to be 'first choice' to sit around most games. It's a problem for teams like ours to make the jump to be consistently able to challenge for top four and then be able to stay there re squad depth/quality

But it isn't rotational at the moment because JV is always going to be one of the first names on the team sheet (like Kane is for Spurs). Decent Players know this and will only accept it if they are being paid 120k+

About to board my flight to HK and no sign of kelechi ...........

I agree 100% but the reality is that unless you are going to pay the six figure sums that the top five pay for squad players, good strikers won't want to come and sit on the bench. Spurs have that problem recruiting a backup for Kane.

No more than Philip coutinho would and no more likely!

I don't believe slim will be happy to stay to sit on the bench and be plan B or C leo will thats the fundamental point here

We need shinji to stay for this campaign. . If we run into a bad patch of form then he is the key to playing 'our way' which may be required to get us back on track. Also, we haven't seen him able to play a different way as he is always tasked with neutralising the opposition holding midfielders .

I wouldn't need expect him to say anything different. Doesn't mean anything though - that someone could be his agent!

Good news if he doesn't look like getting regular game time off the bench after the first couple fixtures then we should loan him to a championship club till Jan. He needs to play

Like we did last summer with Riyad which meant no actual offers came in We will see if coutinho gets through another two windows

He looks prepared to track back a bit more than Riyad but he doesn't have Riyad's positional sense where he manages to cover the pass to the full back/winger without actually fully covering the ground. I think that was something claudio managed to coach into him. teams see the option but are concerned about the pass being cut out and have to double up on possession to get around him. Gray needs to learn these things - is he able to ?

Not sure when Sakho is due to be fit again.

After not being told that Roma had made a bid for Riyad i suspect he won't answer any questions about transfer speculation from now on!

Course he looks happy - his agent has texted him to say a few clubs are now interested and we know Roma did actually make an offer noticed ac Milan have crept into the betting - a club with money but surely they must have already bought someone of riyad's ilk this summer!

The fee is very reasonable re buy out but the 140k/week will mean in reality an extra 8m on top of the fee over four years (he is 100k/week max player)