Rival watch

We wouldn't be looking for a starter, so there's no way we'd move for him, but I hope that locking him down works for you.
He's done well and settled quickly though and a number of rich sides will be looking for proven Premier League centre-backs in the summer.
Holding onto him would definitely send a message.

 

Lots of clubs are looking for decent CB's. Stones & Cahill have had poor seasons. With Pep coming in, he won't be happy with Cities choices.
A year ago I'd have laughed if you'd said that would be Englands biggest problem for the Euros, but it clearly is!

 

Soton will keep van Dijk, he's a top defender and has had a really good season but I'd say it's gone under the radar of the money sides - as did Toby for them last year. Chelsea and City will no doubt still pursue Stones for crazy money because the media still tout him as the next big thing, while they'll also look at the players making names for themselves abroad, you'd be silly in thinking they'd be wise enough to look at a guy like van Dijk who'd actually improve them massively.

To think City paid over £60m/ £70m for Mangala and Otamendi, yet us and Soton signed Toby, Jan, Fonte and van Dijk for a combined fee that probably cost less than just one of those guys just shows the sheer stupidity these money sides have.

 

I thought he was shockingly bad when you played us but obviously you've seen far more of him than I have, so fair enough.

 

POTY for me. But quite a few have gone missing at various stages of the season.

 

100%. This is why I now open the newspapers, see <BIG NAME MANAGER> + <WAR CHEST>, yawn, and turn the page. The fact that the PFA team of the year was an average fee of around £5m each tells its own story. The 2015 team cost over £200m. The 2014 team over £100m. I'd like to think that together with Leicester and the ramifications of TV money, we have helped to change the face of football in this country.

 

City 0 Ronaldoless Real 0

 

Hart was excellent again. The defence might be dodgy but with a top 'keeper behind them we might just be able to do something at the Euros.

 

Made me chuckle, though cue him having a blinder on Monday now.

 

I think like Spurs, this is potentially one of the best England sides we've had in years, the pool of players to select from is encouraging and exciting but unfortunately - and I sound like a broken record for saying it - having Hodgson as gaffer just fills me with no confidence. I reckon he's going to persist with the same failures that have let us down in recent tournaments. I worryingly expect Baines, Jagielka, Wilshere, Milner and Rooney to be starting the match against Russia.

 

Bayern Munich want to sign Arsenal forward Alexis Sanchez and have enquired about the availability of the 27-year-old Chile international. (Mirror)

Usually I disregard rumours in papers but this would be pretty funny should it have any substance too it.

I can't see a guy like Sanchez being satisfied with the season Arsenal have had and seeing as Ribery is 33 and Robben's 32, Bayern could well pursue someone like him.

The meltdown from gooners would be terrific.

 

About time Dozil went home too, isn't it?

 

Thing is, both of those players are far from "pension mode" , and probably have at least
another 3-4 good seasons in them.

Just shows you how silly La Liga "arms race" is, when players like this can be discarded in
favour of the new shiny toy.

 

The Gooner I work with reckons that Ozil and Sanchez could both ask to leave, he's a massive Wenger-out supporter too so I can't help but laugh at his rants, though he genuinely feels they won't want to stick around as, in his words "it's a team that's dying under Wenger".

 

The only reason Ozil, Sanchez and Di Maria moved to the Premier League is because Barca and Los Ladrones needed to break even on their summer spending to meet FFP guidelines, and the only way they were going to be doing that is if there was a willing patsy with more money than sense - and the Premier League certainly has its fair share of clubs who fit that criteria.

 

And as I said, to treat the likes of Ozil and Sanchez as the Alan Huttons' of their squad
speaks volumes about the arms race.

If Spurs could have afforded any of them, it would have made perfect sense to buy them to move
the club upwards. But what has happened is the PL clubs that signed them have failed to provide the
pieces that gets true ROI on their talent.

We know this at Spurs from Modric.
What true damage would he have done if he had Kane, prime Berbatoss etc in front of him.

 

Urge to vomit rising...rising...

 

One of my brothers lives in a village just outside Leicester, married a northerner.

He's a Spurs season ticket holder. I'd board up the house and leave and not look back.

 

... bit harsh ... if all Spurs season ticket holders did that there would be a lot of perfectly good, if rather plain and functional, houses unoccupied ... and there is a cronic lack of social housing in this country, don't you know ... ... note the blue font ... it's blue day

 

Fixed.

It's fine, he owns half of Leicester and lets it out to you lot. #LeicesterRachman #KingoftheSlums