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Ed Chamberlin – Hello and welcome to the start of the 2014/2015 Premier League season !! I’m joined by Skysports regulars, Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher and Graeme Souness.

So chaps first of all, who do you see as favourite for the title this season?

GARY NEVILLE – The two favourites will be Man City and Chelsea, I don’t think there any doubt that they have the strongest squads, however I do fancy Man Utd to really challenge this season. The appointment of Louis Van Gaal can only be a positive thing and with the signing of Di Maria they’ve proved their still a huge pull for players.

JAMIE CARRAGHER – I don’t quite see Utd as title challengers yet! Their defence is shockingly poor, they look great going forward but you need to be able to keep clean sheets to become champions.

GRAHAM SOUNESS - I dont see Utd challengin, a great forward line just isnt enough. It will no doubt be beteen City and Chelsea.

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ED CHAMBERLAIN - So, what do you all think Tottenham’s aim will be this season?

GRAHAM SOUNESS -I think the aim will be top 4, but I don’t think they’ll get it.

GARY NEVILLE - For years now the aim for Spurs has been the Champions League, and they’ve qualified once in the last how many years! I too think they’ll fall short, I just think the amount of changes will be too much!

JAMIE CARRAGHER - I agree with the boys, Daniel Levy has really shot himself in the foot. By giving himself a salary cap he’s made it almost impossible for Hoddle to achieve success. I see Liverpool, Everton, Arsenal, Man Utd and Man City all above Tottenham right now.

ED CHAMBERLAIN - Okay, so what do we think of the game today? Can Tottenham cause an upset? Would it even be an upset if Tottenham won today?

GARY NEVILLE - It would be a huge upset! Tottenham have been buying young, cheap and mostly British players which is commendable but I don’t think they’ll got enough to challenge, not straight away anyway.

JAMIE CARRAGHER – I must admit, I cant see an upset here. As much as I’d like one, I cant Tottenham getting anything.

ED CHAMBERLAIN - Well as we’ve already all written Tottenham off, lets have a look at the starting line ups.

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ED CHAMBERLAN - Wow, a few surprises in that Tottenham line up, Gary?

GARY NEVILLE - I certainly didn’t expect Liam Moore or Dele Alli to start! I presumed both players were bought with the future in mind. I fear for them even more now having seen that central midfield pairing of Alli and Shelvey.

JAMIE CARRAGHER - There’s also a few surprises in the Man Utd team there, Valencia playing at right back and Van Persie and falcao starting upfront.

GRAHAM SOUNESS - I cant wait to see the two up top play for Utd today. They both have so much quality, it will be tough for Moore and Vertonghen who seems very unsettled of late.

ED CHAMBERLAIN - Okay, well the players are ready down there, lets see how they get on:

MATCH KICK OFF

KICK OFF

10”
Well its already obvious how Tottenham have set up today. They’re set very deep and look to counter at great speed at any given opportunity. No real chances as yet.

18”
First chance of the game falls to new boy Radamel Falcao who blasts the ball over from the edge of the box.

32”
Another chances falls to Falcao, another poor effort from the Colombian, this time missing the target from just 6 yards. In a game with so few chances he really needs to be scoring these.

42”
A break away from Tottenham opens up space for Andros Townsend to shoot low and hard into the corner, but De Gea is equal to it and pushes it away.

HALF TIME

53”
What a glorious chance yet again for Falcao. Great work down the right from Valencia who cuts back to the Colombian with all the goal to aim at, he puts the ball wide of the post. Nearly all the ground thought it was in.

55”
Lloris punts the ball up long looking for Gameiro, Rojo mistimes his header allowing Gameiro to latch onto this. He then beats Smalling and fires home past the hopeless De Gea.

TOTTENHAM 1 - 0 MAN UTD

What a blow for Man Utd after having such a glorious chances just minutes before.

60”
A corner to Tottenham is drifted in by Townsend, headed away by Smalling but only Kaderabek on the edge of the box. Kaderabek looks to go on the outside and take on Rojo who dangles out a lazy leg . . . . . PENALTY.
Penalty to Spurs. Up steps new boy Kevin Gameiro who goes for pure power and smashes it past De Gea.

TOTTENHAM 2 – 0 MAN UTD

66”
Another attack breaks down and Smalling manages to ship the ball to De Gea, the goalkeeper now with all the time in the world walks with the ball to the edge of the box. De Gea looks to kick this long towards Van Perie . . . . . the ball smacks Rojo on the back and dribbles agonizingly over the line.

TOTTENHAM 3 – 0 MAN UTD

What a 10 minute spell for Spurs who have offered very little up until now.

79”
Tottenham have done very well in the last 10-15 minutes of stifling he life out of the game and restricting Man Utd to long range efforts. The latest coming from Di Maria but doesn’t cause Lloris any problems.

FULL TIME.

A historic win for Tottenham who were huge underdogs today! They, temporarily at least, go top of the Premier League

ED CHAMBERLAIN - Well, that was pretty unexpected . . . .

JAMIE CARRAGHER - It was! And I’m really pleased for Glenn. Man Utd weren’t at their best today but you have to give Tottenham credit, they made it so difficult for them.

GARY NEVILLE - I agree, Utd just couldn’t get in their grove and Tottenham countered very well with great pace.

GRAHAM SOUNESS - I think this just shows how far Man Utd still have to come to even challenge for the league, never mind winning it.

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What a result! These are the kind of games you should be winning if you are serious about a top 4 bid! Also looks like Liam Moore had a good game with a 7.5 rating. Alli is still maybe a little out of his depth. Overall, very well done! :D
 
LMAO Rojo's back gets a goal. I'm impressed you managed to sell Adebayor for a decent price, unlike IRL where Levy blocks his move to West Ham at the last second.
 
What a result! These are the kind of games you should be winning if you are serious about a top 4 bid! Also looks like Liam Moore had a good game with a 7.5 rating. Alli is still maybe a little out of his depth. Overall, very well done! :D

Cheers mate :) I guess you're right, still a tough game though and with the squad i put out i wasnt that confident! Moore's started really well :)

LMAO Rojo's back gets a goal. I'm impressed you managed to sell Adebayor for a decent price, unlike IRL where Levy blocks his move to West Ham at the last second.

Lol, Rojo's own goal was the funniest goal i've ever seen!! If i knew how to upload it then i would! Pure class!!
 
After a great win against Manchester United, our attention turned to the Europa League qualifier against Esbjerg (away).
We fielded a slightly 'weaker' side as i felt this would be a comfortable win . . . .

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Ryan Mason, Nacer Chdali and Harry Kane all starting. If I'm honest, this was much harder than i thought it would be! Esbjerg were properly up for it (like i should have known).

Andros Townsend saving the day with a 32nd minute strike from just outside the box.

Still, we managed to come away with a slender 1-0 win which really puts us in the driving seat for the return fixture next week!




Our next game was our first test to see how we'd cope with Thursday-Sunday football. A potential banana skin trip to newly promoted Burnley fighting for their lives!

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The first teamers were returned to the starting line up and produced a good performance, not great but good enough! We stuck to our counter attacking formation which allowed Burnley more of the ball than they were probably expecting. Christian Erikson putting us 1-0 just after half time.

Burnley then came into the game a little more with about 15-20 mins to go before former favourite Danny Ings struck the second! Ings came off the bench and replaced Kevin Gameiro and was greeted with jeers and boos after engineering his move away from Turf Moor.

Ings actually looked pretty good and took his goal very well.





Next it was the return leg against Esbjerg, this time at home, and this time fully aware of what they can do . .

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But yet again they shocked us, this time taking a surprise early lead after 11 minutes. This was the first goal conceded all season!

We then struggled for the next hour or so before Kevin Gameiro pulled us level. Danny Ings then scored his second goal in a week before Andros Townsend made sure of the win.

However with seconds to go Esbjerg pulled one back after some poor defending at a corner.

This wasnt a great performance but at least we're through the group stage! Its a shame that fringe players, Bentaleb, Fazi, Dier and Chadli failed to impress after earning a rare start !




Onto our last game of the month, away to Aston Villa who had drawn 1 and lost 1 so far this season. I was confident going into this game after winning every game so far this season . . . . .

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This was really disappointing ! We actually played really well again and created more than enough chances to get the win. Kevin Gameiro with yet another goal opened the scoring just before half time.

Callum Robinson then netted an injury time equalizer by getting a free header to a very deep free kick. This really should have been defended better !!





So that brings a close to August and all in all, I'm pretty happy! 4 wins out of 5 and to stay unbeaten for all 5 would always be a good record! That late equaliser by Villa still annoys me though !!

Anyway, after just 3 games we find ourselves 5th in the league on 7 points . . . .

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SPURS PLAYER OF THE MONTH =
This award has to go to Kevin Gameiro! The new signing from Seville scoring 4 in 5 games. I did have a few doubts about him when he joined but he's really proving me wrong! Christian Erikson and Andros Townsend also had very good months.
I also want to mention Jan Vertonghen, who only had a rating of 7.02 for this period (not bad i know) but seemed to play much better! I was worried he wouldn't perform after missing training and wanting to leave, but he's been a great !!


SPURS YOUNG PLAYER OF MONTH
This award has to go to new-boy Liam Moore. Moore's come into the side with very little experience and absolutely no Premier League experience but has fitted in great ! If he carried this form up, he'll be club captain before you know it.

Moores performances also reached a wider audience . . . . .

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Manchester united have completed the signing of young center back Dede from Brazilian side Cruzeiro for a fee believed to be in the region of £12 million. The 26 year old will act as competition following the departure of both Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic in the summer.


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It is believed that Tottenham have agreed a fee with Borussia Monchengladbach for midfielder Andre Hahn. The fee is thought to be little over £2 million which has triggered a release clause in the Germans contract. It is thought the transfer will be finalsed later this afternoon.

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In the biggest transfer of the day Monaco confirm the signing of Ac Milan midfielder S
tephan El Shaarawy for a reported fee of £19 million. It was thought that Monaco were scalling down their investment with Falcao and James rodriguez leaving the club, but this transfer would suggest otherwise.

With little under 1 hour left, there isn't much time for clubs to finalise further transfers.







END OF TRANSFER WINDOW !

11pm has struck meaning the end of the 2014 transfer window, this means clubs will now have to wait until January to bring in any other players.




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The end of the window means we miss out on our one and only deadline day target . . . . Andre Hahn!
We just didnt have enough time to finalise the deal because Hahn stalled on accepting the contract offer.

I'll still be looking to make this transfer happen and bring the lad in in January.





So this obviously brought to an end our summer transfers . . . .

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As you can see, we've made a nice tidy profit this pre-season, bringing in nearly £50 million worth of transfers and spending just under £30 million. In total £19.5 million profit was made and we still had an available budget of £23 milllion still to spend (if it weren't for my financial restrictions).
 

Does it really matter??

I do apologies ... I will endeavour to publish each post with more accurate information in the future.



It may not matter but I thought I would contribute to the thread in an effort to help it and @paperclip. For example paperclip might manage to sell someone for 65M and break the british transfer record but if he thinks its currently 75M then he wouldn't know of his achievement.

Apologies for causing offence, If I did.
 
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It may not matter but I thought I would contribute to the thread in an effort to help it and @paperclip. For example paperclip might manage to sell someone for 65M and break the british transfer record but if he thinks its currently 75M then he wouldn't know of his achievement.
Apologies for causing offence, If I did.

No worries mate! No offence caused :) Thanks for the input anyway :)

Great start so far, and even greater profit.

Cheers mate! Yeah, although looking at my squad i may have ti dip into the profit to strengthen some more!
 
If you don't already know about him Andre Hahn from Monchengladbach is an awesome right winger to replace Lennon, £2.1Mil Buy out clause and easily worth £12-£15 Mil as soon as he signs, and he only wants 15-30K a week contract.

Shame about Walker as well, I would hang on to him until you can sell in Jan.

Thanks for this! I took your advice on Andre Hahn mate. Although i couldnt get the deal done before the transfer window shut! I'll bring him in in January though :)

Thanks mate!
 
great story so far mate. You have inspired my to do a similar challenge except building the club up from the lower leagues
 
After the disappointment of deadline day, our attentions went straight back to our league form. We started the month with a home game against Sunderland . . . .

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A good win, although it ended up being tighter than it should have been! disappointed to conceed 2 but the second was a needless penalty given away by Moore.
Townsend had his best game of the season and was a constant threat, also opened the scoring after just 10
minutes.



Back to our Europa League commitments now with an away tie against Turkish side Trabzonspor . . .

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Not a bad result, Lamela and Gameiro with the goals. We at least showed great character going down twice. A poor defensive display almost saw this end in defeat with a late chance by Trabzonspor but Lloris saved well.



Next up is a difficult Premier League game against Liverpool. Liverpool have had a mixed start to the season and are currently 6th in the league . . . .

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What a win! We went back to our counter attacking tactic, and it worked a treat !!
Gameiro with his 5th league goal in 5 games, and Lamela with a late goal to seal the points. Liverpool had plenty of chances but we defended brilliantly. I would say this is even more impressive than the Man Utd win as we're away from home here!



The games just come in thick and fast! This time ANOTHER different competition, Leicester in the League Cup 3rd round . . . . .

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A comfortable win here against Leicester. Erikson, Ings and Kane with the goals. Ings and Kane both getting rare starts and bagging in a goal apiece. I wasnt taking this competition that seriously but its now probably our best chance of silverware.

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Drawing West Ham at home in the 4th round gives us a great chance to progress into the Quarter final.



Next up, the big one . . . . .
TOTTENHAM V CHELSEA

Chelsea flying high, winning 6 out of 6 games this season and look incredibly strong! I'm aready starting to think a point would be good for us . . . . .

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Another fantastic win!

Andros Townsend scored a good goal to put us 1-0 up before a silly mistake from Shelvey allowed Hazard to equalize just before half time.
Christian Erikson then scored the best goal I've ever seen on FM to put us 2-1 up. The ball set up perfectly at least 25 yards out and he smashes it into the top corner!

This means we overtake Chelsea and go top of the league after 6 games.



Our counter attacking tactic seems to be working a treat against the bigger sides, winning all 3 against Man Utd, Liverpool and Chelsea.

Having had these 3 great results already, i thought id show you the tactic we're using . . .

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This tactic is used either in the tougher away games or against the top 4 sides.

As you can see, we go slightly more direct and counter attacking with speed. This should explain our poor possession stats in certain games.





So, the end of September brought us top of the league, however before the end of the month Chelsea played an extra game . . . and won, meaning they overtake us into top spot!

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Early i know, but still looks really encouraging that we're still able to mix it with the big boys!





Just going back to our transfers for a minute, as I posted earlier, we missed out on Andre Hahn who couldnt move in time. However we have agreed the deal once more and the German will join in January. A transfer fee of £2.1 million met his buy out clause.

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We also had an offer accepted and terms agreed for Barcelona youngster, Munir. Just as I thought he was going to join, he signed a new extension with Barcelona. Unfortunately, this meant his buy out clause was also updated!

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great story so far mate. You have inspired my to do a similar challenge except building the club up from the lower leagues

Good! Glad to know you like it :) Will you be making a story of yours? If so i'll keep an eye out :)
 
Great start to the season pal,
Pitty about munir, alot of people seem to have that problem with him signing a new deal, you have to throw as much cash at him as poss to even hope he'll join.
 
Great start to the season pal,
Pitty about munir, alot of people seem to have that problem with him signing a new deal, you have to throw as much cash at him as poss to even hope he'll join.

Yeah i was gutted to be honest! He looks quality!! I thought i'd offered him a decent contract until i saw Barcelona have paid him about £60k a week lol.
 
The end of September unfortunately brought some unwanted injury news . . . .

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The first injury comes to winger Andros Townsend! Townsend was just starting to come good before his injury! Lets hope Chadli cam replace him.

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The worse news was that Christian Erikson would be out for 7 weeks! Erikson had probably been our player of the season so far! I really worry how we'll cope without him.




After a cracking September we were full of confidence going into a busy October.

We certainly started well enough . . . . .

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Not a great performance but we showed our class against much weaker opposition. Lamela getting the opener before Ben Davies capped off a rare start with the second.



The things took a turn for the worse . . . . .

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What a shocker!!
A really poor first half set in for the full 90 mins! Zarate put West Ham 1-0 up. Alex Song then got sent off on the 41st minute for a second booking. West Ham then really sat back and settled for the 1-0 lead, without Erikson and Townsend (both injured) we were unable to break them down.
We really should be able to break down this West Ham side, although they've had a good start to the season we really need to win games like this.



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Another poor game! Neither team deserved the win with only 6 shots on target between us! Dele Alli looks to be struggling still and maybe needs a break from the first team.



Back to the Europa League . . . .

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And back to winning ways!
Very professional performance, we totally dominated the game from start to finish. Kane looked to play very well in the CAM position but was overshadowed by Lamela who bagged a brace.



And back to the Premier League . . . . .

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And back to losing ways !!

Our poor league form continues with a 2-0 defeat against Leicester! We struggled all game to create anything without the injured Townsend and Erikson. David Nugent then put the home side 1 up with 20 mins to go before Gutierrez doubled the lead 4 minutes later.

We're struggling without the injured Christian Erikson, we just cant seem to create anything! Our league form really needs to improve if we want top 4!!

There's no point in us beating Liverpool, Man Utd and Chelsea if we cant beat Leicester, West Ham and Hull !!



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Another good cup performance and result. We actually played our strongest side here because I'm desperate to recapture some of our early season form. Nacer Chadli playing in the Christan Erikson role played really well as did the two center half's (vertonghen and Moore).

Yet again Kevin Gameiro scoring the goals! That 9 in 11 now for the Frenchman.

The League Cup really looks to be a great chance for silverware for us . . . .

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A very winnable Quarter final draw against West Brom ! There's till some big boys left though, we did well to avoid them here! They'll be unavoidable if we progress though!



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We drop right down to 5th after this terrible month! We really need to find some form to improve this!

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We also received some more injury news at the end of October . . . . .

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Jonjo Shelvey the latest on the injury list, this time out for up to 6 weeks! We'll possibly miss him just as much as Erikson simply because of our lack of numbers in central midfield.




October did at least end with some good news . . . .

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This is probably the best news of the season! Club vice captain Jan Vertonghen confirms he's happy to stay at Spurs! How long this will last i dont know! Barcelona and Man utd are both said to be keen.
 
November

After a disappointing October we started November with a bang . . . .

Tottenham 3 - 1 Stoke

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Finally back to winning ways in the league! This takes us back into the 4th spot as well. This was one of our better performances of the season. Kevin Gameiro scoring 2 goals for the second time this week! Andros Townsend then added further gloss with a later headed goal.



Krasnador 0 - 1 Tottenham

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An early goal from Nacer Chadli after just 2 minutes eventually won the game. A decent performance from the team. Again a full strength squad was put out to try and build some momentum. Most pleasing was Ings starting his first game following his injury.

This now secures qualification from the group stage!



And back to the Premier League and back to the tough games . . . . .

Man City 2 - 0 Tottenham
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Man City were far better than us today! Yarmolenko ran us ragged, he could have had a couple just for himself. I guess this result was expected but its still really disappointing, especially with our good record against the top teams this season!




And now, the big one !!

TOTTENHAM 2 - 2 ARSENAL

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What a comeback!!

We actually put in a great second half performance and even had a chance late on for Chadli to complete his hattrick and bag all 3 points. A point isn't a bad result and i really thought Arsenal could have won by 4 or 5 after they went 2-0 up.



And back the Europa League . . . .

Tottenham 2 - 0 Trabzonspor

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A very professional performance from the lads.
The game never looked in doubt if we're honest. Chadli with the opener before Danny Rose scored his first of the season to secure the 3 points. This now ensures we top the group, currently 5 points infront of Trabzonspor with only 1 game to go.



After one playing 3 league games this month we didn't really get chance to improve our league position . . . .

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We remain 5th, now 4 points behind Man U in 4th with a game in hand.



October also brought us the first managerial casualties of the season . . . .

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Fist of all Newcastle sack manager Alan Pardew.

Newcastle find themselves in 16th in the league and already knocked out of the Capital One cup. Pardew was dismissed following a 5-1 away defeat to Everton which was followed by home defeats to West Brom and Southampton.

And the second dissmissal . . . . .

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Liverpool Sack Brendon Rodgers !


More surprisingly than Pardew losing his job was Liverpool parting ways with Brendon Rodgers. Rodgers was dismissed with Liverpool lying in 9th position in the league but do find themselves in the semi final of the league cup.

A 6-1 defeat against Chelsea was the last straw for the Liverpool board. Villas-Boas, Marcelo Bielsa and Frank De Boar are the 3 favorites to take over.



Probably the most pleasing news of the month was Kyle Walker signing a new deal which brings him in line with our wage cap . . . .

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Walker is still a few weeks away from full fitness but this is a huge boost for us! Although he'll have a job on to reclaim his starting place in front of Pavel Kaderabek !!
 
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