Cronky

The ugly truth. He only became captain for want of an alternative, and the team has sorely lacked leadership on the field. Trouble is, it would be difficult to hand the role to someone else, whilst Colo is still in the side.

I think we'll now see the advantage of getting all the coaching staff in place before making signings. When Wijnaldum comes to look round, everything will look organised and ready.

Methinks Mr Jongsma is talking bollocks.

Good point. I can't say I'm too bothered about this. It would be a good signing for Palace, but as far as our club is concerned, I think 'never go back' applies in this case. People seem to want Palace to fail so that Pardew fails, but as far as I'm concerned we've got plenty of other things to worry about.

On what I've seen (ie the World Cup), yes.

The Ameobis seem to be a close-knit family, and so both Sammy and Shola have shown an attachment to the city, if not the club. Sammy isn't being well treated here, but he seems prepared to take it, in the hope of proving himself over the next two seasons. The club seems generally in two minds about the player. He's shown enough ability to make them reluctant to let him go, but they don't want to commit either. They seem to be getting away with that indecision, though I wonder whether Sammy would be better off with a stronger vote of confidence. I suspect the club will want to give Aarons a chance, and this gives them a bit more room to do that.

I don't blame a player for wanting a move to a club in the CL, or one the size of Liverpool. I do get annoyed though when players make public statements about being prepared to leave if the right offer comes along etc etc. They are under contract and making a public show of wanting to go is disrespectful and unnecessary. French players seem particularly prone to this.

I think we can be pretty sure they weren't heartbroken.

Punt, not a punk, but yes. My mistake. What value do you think there is taking a punt of these "lost causes"? I can't find many examples of players rediscovering themselves after falling off the rails. Well, Cantona is an example of a bad boy coming good in the right environment. But yes, these are gambles with risks, and it all depends on how you weigh up the individual situation. Richards I'd see as a player whose talent ended up as a problem, because he achieved a lot of success at an early age, didn't work on ironing out the faults in his game, and obviously if you don't keep improving, you slide backwards. As a free transfer, Villa have made a decent decision, but he'll need to knuckle down. Hoilett has his father as his agent, and it never strikes me as a good idea to have family in that position. He ended up following the money and joining a toxic dressing room at QPR, where he's gone backwards. Put him in a different environment, and you might re-energise him. £2.5m is hardly a fortune these days. Ultimately, in the position we're in, if we're going to make it back into the top six, we need one or two gambles to take off. We're unlikely to get there playing safe all the time.

Punt, not a punk, but yes.

The Mirror is saying that the Mackems have bid £2.5m for Junior Hoilett. He's well worth a punt. He's a talented player who has lost his way, but his career could yet revive in the right environment.

Wijnaldum is an attacking midfielder, not a anchor man. I can only go by what I saw of him in the World Cup, and my memory is of an anchor man. I assume he's versatile though. Maybe box-to-box along the lines of Gary Speed is a better description.

Crucially, we don't have a good anchor man in midfield. Tiote can't pass, gives the ball away too much and slows everything down. Anita isn't strong enough defensively. Colback and Sissoko are better going forward. Abeid is a possibility but he still looks raw and I wouldn't want to rely on him. I'd back Wijnaldum to solve that problem. That would make a big difference to us.

Suárez would have to sue them for breach of contract I suppose. I don't think he's bothered right now. Honestly, I'm pretty sure Suárez or his agent would have pressed the clause if Suárez really wanted to go to Arsenal. Wasn't there some ambiguity in the clause that Liverpool exploited? Something like it said that Liverpool had to allow Suarez to talk to any club that bid £40m, but it didn't spell out that they had to sell him.

FWIW, I remember Wijnaldum in the World Cup and I thought he was excellent. If I recall right, he played an anchor role in central midfield, and would be great for us in that position. Great signing if it comes off.

She should reduce her hours and learn to pass the bleeding ball.

However you look at it, its still horrendous bad luck for where the ball went. Awful way to lose, not truly beaten. Well at least she's got the worst moment in her life over with.

he didn't. he left to be closer to home. Most of the time, location counts against us. Let's not quibble when it's in our favour.

In Sammy's shoes, I'd be looking to impress the new regime in pre-season training, and either get a better contract, or receive sufficient encouragement about my prospects that I'd sign the existing one. I think this lad has got something, and who knows, maybe our new Scottish maestro will be able to bring out the best in him.

Unless Cech's form or fitness has deteriorated badly, that's an incredibly good move for Arsenal. One that could make them champions. I'm really surprised that Chelsea are letting him go to a close rival.

Not if we were ran remotely decently. If you look at it that way the only players we can get are at worse clubs than us and there isn't many of them knocking about There's literally no reason we can't get Benteke, Villa finished below us. We could get Berhaino if we wanted to, Lacazette/Fekir would want to play in the PL. Bacca prob an unrealistic shout but f*** it. The amount of money kicking about, in particular at NUFC means we should be able to attract good players. Except the fact a number of Champions League clubs would take him and he'd get at least double the wages we'd be willing to pay. Other than that, literally no reason. Would they? Who? Spurs but they aren't CL? I can't think of any in the PL, Pay him the right money and he will come. What you mean is pay him over the odds in order to overcome his reluctance to join.

Yeah, I'd say Clyne was England's best right back now. The bigger clubs missed a trick in not coming in for him earlier.

I didn't think any player could be officially signed before July, so whatever fees get paid would have to go on the post-June balance sheet. Announcing a signing before July won't make any difference to that. No?

I've put a bet on them to win the entire thing. Sometimes in these tournaments, a team develops a momentum and a belief that carries them through. Our girls defend well and have got it in their heads that they're not going to get beaten. Bit like Denmark and Greece in previous Euro tournaments.

I don't think there's an issue with the quality of young players that are now coming through. Southgate is right about that. When you think about the players that could have played - Sterling, Oxlade-C, Barkley, Wilshere, Jones, Chambers, Shaw - we'd have a team that would be favourites to win the thing. I'm not saying the decision to leave them out was wrong, but the Greg-Dyke-ish doom and gloom attitude is misguided. But I'd say Southgate has been over-conservative in his approach. Possession football doesn't in itself lead to goals if the ball is constantly going backwards or sideways. And unless there's a serious fitness issue, I can't understand why he hasn't played Hughes more. From what I saw of previous games, Hughes was the absolute fulcrum of the side. So much good play seemed to be coming through him.