wilko154

For me, and I believe Purslow has said something similar, you always need two players in each position. CM - Grealish, McGinn, Hourihane & Lansbury DM - Luiz & Nakamba Sell - Bjarnasson, Tshibola Loan - O'Hare

We'll get both in

100% reliable source is Mr Terreur. Very happy with this, between Luiz and Nakamba we now have DM covered allowing Hourihane to push on to his natural position. The DM spot has been weak for a while, it's going to make a massive impact having a player there controlling games and breaking up play.

I think he is just a week behind everyone on Pre-Season due to his international duty during the Summer. I would expect him to play alongside Grealish on Saturday.

Could someone explain this fascination with Leao? Have we even been linked to him?

Imagine we comfortably stay up, next Summer will be ridiculously exciting. Instead of having to spend our money rebuilding the squad as we've seemed to do since 2010 we will actually be able to buy 1 or 2 quality players for obscene amounts of money to strengthen.

Your husband?

What a player he was, absolutely dominated us in both legs.

West Brom about to sign Romaine Sawyers from Brentford for £3 million. Would have taken a punt on him as backup to Grealish if we had stayed in the Championship. Would it be worthwhile in the PL?

To be fair to him we were crap! Couldn't really blame him for wanting out. In his three seasons we finished: 2012-13 - 15th - Benteke top goalscorer 2013-14 - 15th - Benteke top goalscorer 2014-15 - 17th - Benteke top goalscorer He pretty much kept us in the PL for 3 consecutive seasons

I can't remember how reliable he is, think he got a few things right previously. Probably just posting after John Percy though...

Sorry I didn't realise we were only allowed to have completely serious conversations on VT during this really busy period of the footballing season.

Random FIFA question. If Trezeguet signs today would this be the highest rated FUT player we have ever had?

Pyramid

To summarise that: Very happy that we played football on the deck in the same way both halves after changing 10 players. Some of the football we played, especially first half was really good. Steer - Didn't have much to do but worried me at times on the ball. Seemed to make a few odd decisions and was almost caught out. Wouldn't be against a new keeper coming in. Guilbert - Didn't have much to do defensively, very good going foward. Very quick. Taylor - Average game. Mings - Tyrone Pings, average game, some lovely balls forward. Konsa - Looked good, quite raw. Need's time to settle. Jota - Very good, not the quickest but great with the ball. Will be an asset this season. Green - Average game. Does some things very well then makes sloppy decisions/shots/crosses. Needs a full season on loan for me. Bjarnasson - Actually looked quite good, won the ball and made some decent passes from deep. Grealish - Different planet, I can't remember the last time I saw him lose the ball. McGinn - Average game. Davis - Held the ball up really well. Needs to add goals to become the full package. Needs a full season on loan for me as he won't get the game time this season. Bree - Average game. Targett - Average game, get's forward well. Hause - Average game, got caught trying to take the ball forward a few times. Chester - Very good, looked calm and composed. Currently would start him with Mings against Spurs (although Engels hasn't yet played) Hourihane - Very good, controlled the tempo well from deep. Lansbury - Very good, great range of passing. Looks to be getting back to his best, I hope he shows it this season. O'Hare - Worked hard, got himself involved but looks too lightweight. Needs a full season on loan. RHM - Very good, got stuck in. Looks to have bulked up and was a real danger at LW. Constantly fouled as he was causing the defence problems. Looks to be joining Tranmere on loan which will be good for him. Hogan - Average game. Took his goal well and linked up with Wesley well. Wesley - Held the ball up magnificently. Linked up well with Hogan, it makes me think if he had Maupay next to him it could be a frightening combination. Now need to see how he does in front of goal.

Where have you seen the bench?

Sturridge is rubbish. He's an injury riddled footballer who thinks he's some kind of A List Celebrity / Street Gangster. He would demand ridiculous wages and offer very little. I hope we have learnt our lessons on this and go nowhere near him.

We really need to be letting Green, O'Hare & Davis all go out on loan this season. Championship or League One sides for all of them so they can get a full season of professional football behind them. Being backup/fringe players for a season whilst playing U23 football benefits us in no way long term. If we can get them all out on loan then possibly next season we will see the benefit and be able to bring them into the first team where they can push for places. This would also mean having to potentially spend less money on 3 positions.

My home shirt arrived, it's actually quite nice. Not a patch on last season mind. The sleeve sponsor looks awful and is annoying, would have been better to have been an extra option. Word of warning on the sizes, I always buy a large as it is then big enough to wear over a hoody/jumper in winter. This year's large completely fitted, no way I can wear anything underneath it.

I think Hourihane was found out at DM a few times, he's much better further forward. Bjarnasson is garbage, he couldn't cut it in the Championship, at DM in the PL he would be horribly exposed. Nakamba would be my 2nd DM if possible.

Yes and me. I think we definitely need 2 DM's. Hourihane is a much better player when allowed to play as a centre midfielder, it's where his goals and assists generally come from. With two DM's available he no longer has to worry about playing out of position. Last night proved we need more depth on both wings. I imagine Smith knows this himself. RW needs some real quality, although Jota seemed to have a good game.

Judging on the reviews from last nights game (I've only seen highlights); it looks as though our current squad going into the season should be: GK: Steer, Kalinic & Nyland RB: Guilbert & Elmo LB: Targett & Taylor CB: Mings, Engels, Konsa, Chester & Hause DM: Hourihane CM: Grealish, McGinn & Lansbury RW: Jota LW: El Ghazi ST: Wesley, Kodjia & Davis For the remainder of the transfer window I would be wanting: DM x 2 - Hourihane then pushes up to the fourth CM spot. RW & LW - We are slightly short on firepower up top, ideally we should be looking at a player who can play on one wing or as striker if we are short on funds. GK - Not a major problem right now, it could be put on hold until January. There is no point overpaying for Butland or Heaton when we have 3 potential goalkeepers on the books. Sell: Bree, Bjarnasson, Tshibola, Hogan Loan: O'Hare, Doyle-Hayes, Green, RHM & possibly Davis if we sign another ST

In some regards it would be better to overspend in this window if it means we stay in the Premier League. Even if we break FFP. We then have a 3 year cycle to sort our FFP out, a lot can happen in 3 years and we have signed a lot of young players who could be worth a lot of money over the next few seasons. Relegation after spending £120 million would be a disaster. I think the board and owners are on this page, pay the money now to retain PL status going forwards.

I was there last week and saw that they had started work on it, although very small-scale. As was mentioned at the time, there are much bigger problems in Paris for money to be spent on. Homelessness is a major problem there. I hope France don't pump money into a rebuild themselves, if the billionaires don't come forward then the building should be made safe and left as is.