pmcla26

100% agree. He'd be like our new Albrighton.

I think that he would have if he had the option to, hence why Kristiansen was thrown in as soon as he was match ready.

Are you sure? Rodgers has been the one persisting with him previously, when it was obvious he was a weak link in the back line. I'm sure Thomas will come good in the future, but he's not ready yet, needs a loan move and to bulk out. There's no shame in it. KDH wasn't ready until 23 and look at how important he is for us now.

Don't really need Maatsen with Kristiansen here.

Foley said he wants a new one that's going to be between 20,000 - 25,000.

Spurs are worth £3.75bn? Wow.

Could see him at someone like Juve, AC Milan or Atletico - a big name club that aren't actually that good at the minute.

When did he scrap with Leicester fans in town? (Not saying you're lying, I've just never heard this) And the Derby shirt was a joke/bet, was it not?

Yeah, exactly. I'm sure Southampton wish that they had kept Hassenhuttl now, even though it wasn't great under him, either. Imagine how silly we'd look sacking him and him walking into the Spurs job when Conte leaves in the summer. Or West Ham or Everton coming good because they got a decent manager in in Rodgers, and we'd be looking at Dyche (who I like, but not going to take us to heights like Rodgers has previously), Lampard, Gerrard, Marsch etc. I'm sure others would mention other fancy names from abroad that we could take a chance on, but we tend to appoint domestically or managers that have managed in this country before. Rodgers is like all good managers - Guardiola couldn't get Man City to instantly win the league in 16/17 when he didn't have the players, Liverpool have struggled this season because Klopp's teams rely on energy in midfield which they have often lacked due to injuries, Conte can't get Spurs ticking because his defence just aren't reliable enough and Son's form has dropped off of a cliff. I don't think Ten Hag would have made United any good without Martinez or Casemiro, either. When Rodgers has the components, he gets us results. His three full seasons, particularly the first two, prove that. This season, he hasn't had as good of a starting line-up up until the last 2 games, due to the new signings, and all of a sudden we are winning games again. It's no surprise to me that with upgrades in the problem areas of the side, that we are performing again. Obviously if we revert to our performance levels as before and drop off with these new lads in the team who are quite clearly good players, then we may have a problem with the manager.

Left footed, could cover left back at times, too, or play wide in a 3. Get Thomas out on loan playing consistently, without the fear that we're short of full-backs if JJ and Ricardo can't stay fit.

If Youri stayed, it would be huge. We would probably go back to 4-1-4-1, with Ndidi in front of the defence and KDH and Youri as 8's, Barnes and Tete either side, and Iheanacho up top. You could then get a young prospect at number 10 in like Alex Scott or someone else, to bed in slowly as the heir to Maddison, when he inevitably departs in the summer.

Probably having to spend that sort of money on him. Early days with Souttar, but I can't imagine we'll spend massive money on a centre-half in the summer. Think we've got our partnership now for the time being, and anyone else coming in will either be someone experienced for cheap, or a young prospect with potential who can come in from time to time. The middle ground and ideal signing would be someone like Ndicka on a free, but I think he goes to a bigger club than us.

Yeah, you may be right. I think what I put was the minimum I'd expect to happen (obviously could be different incomings, but they are the ones I'd like to see ) Scott is only 19, so that squad is only 23 man - so space for 2 more to be registered. Maybe another attacking midfield player and/or centre back to be added to that squad list of mine. I do recall Rodgers saying he likes to work with a smaller squad, though. I can also see maybe Vestergaard, Praet or Choudhury being hard to shift, and therefore one or two being in the squad. I'd be open to keeping Praet as he's versatile and a decent squad option, but think he wants to go. I'm not sure 7-8 players will be the minimum, that would be 11-12 new players since the start of this season, including Faes and the Jan buys. Only way I see 7-8 coming in is if a couple of them are punts on cheap-ish young players, maybe with a view to loaning them to Leuven, but that's not something we've done in recent years - Opoku in January being the exception. I think the 4 I put in the original post will probably cost around £65-80m + wages, and I'm not sure how much we'll fetch for Maddison. Probably £40-50m? I can't see us having a huge net spend after we've spent £45m-ish since the summer + whatever Tete's loan has cost (albeit with Fofana's departure). Again, though, I may be wrong! Things could also depend on if we fetch fees for Vestergaard, Choudhury, Praet and Iverson - may be another £10m-15m to play with there. Plus the relief of Bertrand's wages could play a part. What do you reckon will be additional to my squad list?

Sometimes in football you just need players creating overloads in the right areas to benefit others, rather than scoring/assisting themselves. I imagine that you'll see that often between Tete and Barnes, with both supported by Kristiansen and Castagne. Some games we'll exploit the left hand side, and other times we will have it on the other side. It's what Liverpool and Man City have been so good at over previous seasons.

There were many of our fans in the Summer who were criticising LCFC for letting him go. Don't get me wrong, the money that Rangers made on him was great for them, but don't think he would have ever looked like a £20m player in the Premier League (I could be wrong, of course). He was decent in the Europa League, though. He reminds me a lot of Amartey - physically very good, technically meh, and doesn't seem to read the game that well. Either way, never nice to see someone formerly of our club not doing well. Hopefully he turns it around, but thought it was a weird and overpriced signing when Ajax paid what they did. Think he might be suffering from the Ayoze Perez syndrome of not being that bad, but the price tag compounding things for him when he's not performing.

Definitely. Hope the announcement is received positively over there.

Is he the first to come out in one of Europe's major top divisions? EDIT: Just realised he's back on loan in Czech Republic.

Must be particularly hard for Saints' fans, considering they got so close to winning the League Cup, been in the Semi-Finals a few times and were fighting for Europe, all for it to fall away.

Better value for money out there. Player will probably think it is a sideways step, too. Plus the London appeal. I do like Bowen, though.

I wonder where he'll go if he does leave. I think either of Spurs/Newcastle are most likely, depending on who makes top 4. Can't see him at United with Fernandes there. Man City is possibly an option if Bernardo Silva goes to Barca/PSG - although I think they're more likely to target Bellingham. Arsenal is a no go with Odegaard there. Chelsea I think will get Felix permanently. Liverpool might be an option, but both parties will have to adapt to each other. Could see Mount being more likely for them if he doesn't re-sign for Chelsea.

Really pleased for Rodgers. He's made some silly decisions at times, but he's proved in his time here that when he has competent players, his teams get the results. A few more signings like Tete, Souttar and Kristiansen in the summer and I can see him getting us back in to the top half again.

I think that the reason Rodgers didn't use him earlier in the season was because of a lack of pace in attack to stretch teams or hurt them on the break, hence why Daka was preferred. I get the feeling that Rodgers felt that without that pace, we'd be static and teams would just encroach our half without having to worry about the space behind them. Tete now negates this issue. In hindsight (and it's easy to say now, of course), Rodgers probably have used Iheanacho anyway as Daka didn't put a consistent run of form together, but still, I'm glad he's back in the side and scoring goals.

2023/24 Squad: GK: Lafont, Ward, Smithies RB: Castagne, Ricardo CB: Souttar, Faes, Evans, Amartey LB: Kristiansen, Justin DM: Ndidi, Mendy CM: Kokcu, Soumare, KDH AM: Alex Scott, Praet RW: Tete LW: Barnes, Harrison ST: Iheanacho, Daka, Vardy

I'd love him to stay and build the team around him, but I can't see it happening. Alex Scott is the one to go for if/when Maddison goes. Probably cost around £20 million but I can see his career following a similar path as Maddison's.