penguin

I wasn't aware of the number of assists, can't remember where I'd read he wasn't too good last season but it was clearly too much of a generalisation based on the poor performance of the team as a whole as 14 assists is clearly very impressive.

£15M for Townsend

Yeah for sure. Didn't have the best season last season by all accounts, but it does appear almost none of the Barca B players did as they finished rock bottom. From that ESPN piece the opinion seems to be he has the raw tools there to be a great player but his decision making, end product, consistency etc need improvement but at only 19 this is to be expected.

May have already been shared but there's a decent write up of him on the ESPN website, stuck it in spoiler tags as its quite long.

The early goal kinda ruined Pulis's strategy of parking every player in their box, it was all down hill from there really.

That Yacob has to be one of the most idiotic and dirtiest players in league, horrible bastard.

Careful, dangerously close to setting off the net spend police.

Can see them being a bit like Blackpool in 10/11; Will score a lot but concede a lot. I thought they played some great stuff at times against us but really need to take their chances, I'd much rather a side like them that plays positive football stay up then your Sunderlands and West Broms etc, good luck to them.

I think he'll do really well, he seems built for the Prem. Hopefully he'll be shite though.

What a ridiculous question.

Had a pretty poor one so far but still got Sterling to play and he's my captain so hopefully he bags a couple against the Tesco bags.

Incredible strike by Coutinho, harsh result on Stoke on the balance of play though IMO.

Hopefully this will be the season the turd will flush, always seem to look certain for relegation to go on a bit of a run at the end of season and save themselves.

Obviously an awesome athlete and thus can use his strength and pace to get himself out of tricky situations. Jury is still out on the more defensive intelligence based side of his game i.e positioning and decision making but only time will tell. This one game certainly hasn't alleviated all concerns for me about him raised from preseason games as it appears it has for some, but he certainly has the raw tools to be a very good player.

Great result, Rudy doing what we paid the money for. Fair play to Bournemouth though they play some really nice football.

Clark is immense great defending.

Where the **** has 5 minutes come from?

Get in! Gestede it's a header who'd have thought it.

Can see Gradel torturing Bacuna.

Haven't been able to watch this one. Is it as bad as it sounds?

We could just as easily get relegated as finish 10th or so IMO; there is just no telling how the players we've bought will adapt or gel. So I can understand that journalists will assume the worst just as, for the most part, us supporters like to think the players we've bought will form a successful team. It will certainly be an exciting season, and I'm all for the unknown ahead rather than the sleepwalking toward relegation we were doing under Lambert.

There are two things I can't get my head around If this Rondon story is true: 1) Why Zenit are letting a player go for less, or exactly the same as they paid, that scored 20 goals last season. And number 2) Why he'd want to go to such a tin-pot club as Albion.

Who can say how he'll fit in with another team. Don't see it as a given myself that he'll be a huge success, depends how much their play is tweaked to maximise him. For instance, I remember reading they played the least amount of crosses in the league last season, obviously if this continues then that's arguably his main weapon going under utilised. Isn't as simple as saying that because he's moved to a better team he'll score more goals, teams play with more of a defensive emphasis against teams like Liverpool and it all depends how he adapts IMO. Personally I hope he struggles; I hate Liverpool with a passion and I'll want to put myself through the window having to listen to the resulting media and Pool fan wankfest of how Liverpool made him and that he's the best player in the world if he has a storming season. That said I have put him in my fantasy team for a silver lining if he does bang them in left, right and centre as there is certainly a chance he will do.

Euros, though, so more like £11m-ish I'd guess? That's £11m for a sought after 19 year old from Barcelona. We paid £7/8m for a 21 year old from Genk. Which represents the bigger gamble? Traore by quite a distance imo. Benteke had played for and had a good goal scoring ratio for a few teams in the top level of the Belgian league, which obviously isn't the greatest but clearly a level above Spains 2nd division.

I've put C.Wilson in as I can see him bagging against us. I feel dirty.