SAINT VIRGIL

Never seen him play, but Koeman should be able to pick a decent defender and he likes him. Good backup for Gardos anyway ;)

He seems to have some good ball skills, from the little I've seen - but maybe decision-making not yet brilliant.

From a lady's point of view, he's - gosh!

Celtic fans rated him highly as a skilful player. May take a little time to settle to the pace of premiership but definitely similar to Toby in style of play. Will be interesting to see how Koeman plays him but puts the pressure on Caulker to deliver if he wants to play, 4 decent fit CBs plus Turnbull and Stephens plus Gardos when fit, hope some can play RB as cover rather than Martina

Bearing in mind that we enquired about Van Dijk last year, I think Saints management actually rate him higher than Toby the Spud. If that's the case, our back 4 will be back to full strength with Bertrands return. We just need to fix our best Central midfield partnerships out now and it will give us a platform to get our attacking together

Agree the return of Bertrand will make a difference and expect the back 4 to be Bertrand, Fonte, VVD Cedric, with Caulker possibly seen as Fonte's long term replacement. Wanyama then needs to recognise his role now to protect the back 4 like Schneiderlin used to.

It's nice to see extra folks on here. Welcome back guys from me here in sunny Australia.

Pete

Know off topic but that game with the funny shape ball is due to have its World Cup shortly over here, how do you fancy the chances of the Aussies, will the RU team redeem the cricketers?

Matty, I'm not a huge RU adherent but the Wallabies will probably do ok, given they have a fairly new coach who seems to know what he is doing. My guess is that the final will probably be between the All Blacks and whoever manages to string some form together.

The French are usually dangerous in the World Cup. England, Wales and (of course) the Saffers will also be in the mix.