24 minutes ago, Osgood is Good said:

Have we ? 

As I said it's what I hope happens. In all likelihood I think he'll join City tbh.

Edited June 4, 20179 yr by the special one

3 minutes ago, the special one said:

That was my exact reaction when you compared vvd to bonnuci/chiellini.

2 minutes ago, didierforever said:

That was my exact reaction when you compared vvd to bonnuci/chiellini.

Fair enough. It's an opinion. I may be wrong but I used to be a CB, for me vvd has everything.

Did you not know that VVD is the best CB in the premier league and has achieved a lot more than 2 mediocre seasons at a mediocre Southampton and therefore deserves to be the best paid defender in the league

Maybe the question should be.......why didn't we purchase him before Southampton paid about £11 million transfer fee in 2015. Slightly off topic, but our scouting network appear to be idle when players like Kante, £5 million, Dele Alli, £5 million are available. We were offered Dele Alli, but apparently turned him down, because we had RLC.

Just now, Osgood is Good said:

Maybe the question should be.......why didn't we purchase him before Southampton paid about £11 million transfer fee in 2015. Slightly off topic, but our scouting network appear to be idle when players like Kante, £5 million, Dele Alli, £5 million are available. We were offered Dele Alli, but apparently turned him down, because we had RLC.

Our first team squad, loan army and reserve squads are generally quite saturated of late and are already very large we can't be expected to pick up every single player ever, if I remember correctly we were linked with Dele Ali but Tottenham's offer of giving the chance of actual first team football in the Europa league, (with the likes Kane and Tom Carroll etc) was obviously more attractive than not playing sitting behind the likes of Ramires and Mikel or going on loan for a year or 2.
    

9 minutes ago, Osgood is Good said:

Maybe the question should be.......why didn't we purchase him before Southampton paid about £11 million transfer fee in 2015. Slightly off topic, but our scouting network appear to be idle when players like Kante, £5 million, Dele Alli, £5 million are available. We were offered Dele Alli, but apparently turned him down, because we had RLC.

It's hard to see how a player will develop to be honest, every week there are hot new prospects, a mate of mine was with teh chelsea scouting system for 5 years, under the head scout for Scotland and the North, they used to watch celtic a lot it was my mate that scouted Firuz, which never turned into anything, and I suspect he moved on because he wasn't good enough, but like I said, it's so hard to see how a player will transform.

According to him we have a huge scout network, the scouts each follow a player, write a report, its approved by the head scout, then uploaded to a system at cobyn,  the technical team and manager can access thousands of scouted players and see the report, but scouting is a complicated process, even if they look like world beaters they can turn into sh*t in a couple of years and vice versa, but I agree for teh size of our network, our budget and draw we should be getting in much better prospects.

41 minutes ago, Osgood is Good said:

Maybe the question should be.......why didn't we purchase him before Southampton paid about £11 million transfer fee in 2015. Slightly off topic, but our scouting network appear to be idle when players like Kante, £5 million, Dele Alli, £5 million are available. We were offered Dele Alli, but apparently turned him down, because we had RLC.

That's easy. Because we don't/can't afford to give chances to youngsters.

look at Andreas. A potential world beater, who already has 2 years of experience in Cl at an age of 21. Yet we want to buy the new flavour of month. If we can go to a parallel universe and swap alli/rlc's places, I am quite sure rlc would be as big a success. Difference is, spurs are willing to invest in these young players, rather than treating them as commodities to get around FFP. Hell, include lukaku in that.

If we as a club can find some balance between those big money transfers and providing opportunities to potentially brilliant players, then we can have our own allis and diers.

hence, why I want Andreas to be given that opportunity. Other wise I can see us trying to buy him back for 60/70mil in 2/3 years, aka lukaku

Cheeky 70 million pound bid for Stones. We got this

5 hours ago, the special one said:

With reluctance, but I think van Dijk is that good personally... for me he's up there with the likes of Bonucci/Chiellini.

Are you bloody serious right now? 

15 minutes ago, Barrettinator said:

Are you bloody serious right now? 

Whoever he plays for we'll see who has the last laugh next season shall we? 

Ryan Bertrand believes he's the best CB in the league and I'm inclined to agree.

25 minutes ago, the special one said:

Whoever he plays for we'll see who has the last laugh next season shall we? 

Ryan Bertrand believes he's the best CB in the league and I'm inclined to agree.

You compared him with the top 2 in world football because he's had 1 good season at Southampton. Half a season at that. That is just madness. There's every chance he can get exposed in Pep's system too. We know not just any CB can play in it. But we'll see.

1 minute ago, Barrettinator said:

You compared him with the top 2 in world football because he's had 1 good season at Southampton. Half a season at that. That is just madness. There's every chance he can get exposed in Pep's system too. We know not just any CB can play in it. But we'll see.

Okay fair enough I may have exaggerated by saying he's up there with Bonucci/Chiellini, but I wouldn't have risked ridicule if I didn't believe he has everything to at least reach that level. For me he has no discernible weakness.

16 minutes ago, the special one said:

Okay fair enough I may have exaggerated by saying he's up there with Bonucci/Chiellini, but I wouldn't have risked ridicule if I didn't believe he has everything to at least reach that level. For me he has no discernible weakness.

I believe he has suffered from lapse in concentration sometimes but that's something that can be improved upon. Listen, I'm not against the guy. I actually want him at Chelsea. I think we'll need someone like him AND Christensen in the team. Don't want him for a ridiculous price though. If they ask for a penny more than 50m, we should back out.

Virgil van Dijk tells Liverpool he wants to join them from Southampton
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/jun/05/liverpool-virgil-van-dijk-southampton

About his level. 

 

Great signing for Liverpool if they get him

f**k me, have we actually lost him to Liverpool? That's awful. But if it's for 60m then they can have him. Actually just found out he has a contract at Southampton until 2022. Which would probably explain the price tag. They'd be getting 35m if he had 2 years.

Can't have 'em all. The unfortunate thing about this transfer is that it addresses one of the problems that Liverpool have had for the past few years. Couple that with their attacking play and they could be a force next season.

the guy has no class - Liverpool? (sorry...Southampton North West)

54 minutes ago, Barrettinator said:

f**k me, have we actually lost him to Liverpool? That's awful. 

Not if we wasn't in for him we didn't. 

If there was a place in the team I thought we needed to invest £50/60m on one player it's not the defence. 

Edited June 5, 20179 yr by ForeverCarefree

10 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

Not if we wasn't in for him we didn't. 

If there was a place in the team I thought we needed to invest £50/60m on one players it's not the defence. 

I dont think we were, probably just used Chelsea to drive up the price like usual

Edited June 5, 20179 yr by Xfaxtor

30 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

Not if we wasn't in for him we didn't. 

If there was a place in the team I thought we needed to invest £50/60m on one player it's not the defence. 

There is no one place that's the issue, we need 4 or 5 good players 

Cheeky bid for Kolarov??

3 minutes ago, the special one said:

Cheeky bid for Kolarov??

I hope your tongue is firmly stuck in your cheek with that outrageous suggestion!!!, cos he is shiiiiiiiite...