TRon

Serious answer, no. He could have done a job for Forest, but Cooper dropped him for having a poor attitude which the manager felt was potentially unsettling the squad. Cooper was vindicated as the subsequent results proved. I thought Forest was a good move for him, he should have fought harder to get his place back IMO. All he did was prove Cooper right.

I think when you put Big Joe and Little Joe together, they work well together because they both can interchange to middle or wide depending on the play. Both can press like monsters as well, but I would imagine it would be Willock with his extra pace who would end up wide more often. The downside would be the goals, but they can both score, and they must be a nightmare to play against.

Agree, don't think Dubs will be happy being no 2 goalkeeper with him being an international regular, it could affect his position as his country's first choice goalkeeper. We could also look at bringing in a highly rated young keeper to develop and challenge Karius for the back up role if we don't want to go the Forster/Krul route. That would give us a nice mix of experience and/or promise for back up keepers.

I get the feeling Maddison would probably be Howe's preferred choice, he's a proven high class PL performer. But I think the club might be more tempted to go with Szoboszlai because he's about 4 years younger in age. Maddison will be in his prime at 27 next season, Szoboszlai will be 23. Even if the Hungarian costs more in transfer fees, his value will probably increase if he does well.

Wonderful stuff.

Yep it's a fair point. But it's also only fair to point out that they managed to get rid of Poch when he probably needed a bit of extra support to win trophies, and they decided to get Mourinho instead, then stopped HIM from winning a trophy purely out of spite.

There's no getting round that in the short term though, FFP, and the the way UEFA have structured financial renumeration heavily favours the existing big clubs. That means for a few years we will have to be creative to get the best talent around, which probably means aiming for up and coming talent ( like Isak for example) rather than the established superstars in world football. We just can't compete on wages alone for those.

Don't think anyone can do much at Spurs these days, they've hired some of the best managers around, but Levy always manages to find some way of sticking hurdles in their path.

Only really noticed that in the last half hour or so, at that point we had had a good go at putting them out of sight, but then we didn't want to get hit by a sucker punch when we only needed a point. We didn't need the win, but we definitely went after one as long we could without leaving ourselves vulnerable on the counter.

Tbh with so many super clubs circling the highest value targets like Rice and Ugarte, this is the sort of signing I could see us going for. The price is doable, and the upside is the potential. A bit like the Jao Pedro signing which never happened, but that he's now gone to Brighton says plenty about the potential in that one as well.

Can never under-estimate the importance of such attributes. I'm in!

It depends which players or coaches though. I'd take Rice or Foden in a heartbeat. Now I might have hated the idea of Gerrard or Lampard coming here as manager, but I was always keen on Howe, and would have been happy with Potter as well. I don't think it's anti-British sentiment, just no one wants to buy someone's cast offs. McTominay or Gallagher would have been good signings a year ago, now we are competing in the CL our sights might be set a bit higher.

Good way to seperate the genuine players from the wasters tbh, if they choose them over us, then that's where they should be. But let's not kid ourselves, Spurs have been part of the big six for a lot longer than us in recent years, in some players minds they will still be seen as a big club. You would think British players especially would prefer Newcastle now though.

I'm in agreement with this. Lacelles comes in for a lot of stick, but when he does come in, he usually puts in a solid shift. Given he's also a good character, think it's worth keeping him around unless he wants to leave.

They definitely are. I come into this thread for the first time today and there's talk of signing nine players.

He's done ok, definitely showed he can be given a role and will do a more than passing job as a first team squad player. But it's also a big step up at this level, and he's not found it as easy to dominate, which is fine at this stage of his career.

Sky Sports reporting that Ugarte is in talks with Chelsea so guess it will have to be Szoboszlai.

We'll have to be cute with our transfer targets, a lot of our first choices will be chased by the big 6 teams, and we aren't allowed to spend like they do.

That just sounds like he's checked out playing for Leicester, not that he's always been lazy. I would also add Leicester themselves have checked out as a club, they have invested very little in the last 12 months, is it that surprising players aren't motivated?

Not that surprised tbh, I really like how he holds the ball under pressure, he can usually find the pass at the end of it as well.

That's all I need to hear tbh, when the insiders at Leciester tell you how good he is, they'll be a lot more informed than people on here.

Of course he's happy here, but it's Barcelona, I think Spanish clubs have a certain pull for Brazilians. I don't see him moving this year, but next season not so sure.

Sounds about right tbh, based on this season anyway. You do wonder though if he's not putting it all in because he's not feeling Leicester any more. I honestly don't think Howe would be in for him if he thought he was lazy. Look what he did for Willock's game.

You're right, I'd take Mike Williamson any day of the week.

Nah he was just at the wrong level. He'd be great at local level like Mike Williamson.