John1611

30 December, Ali Al-Habsi. Useful tip: when you get to the wikipedia page, just type in ''footballer'' into your browser search and it will take you through all the names.

Mata will hopefully boss it again next season. Wouldn't swap him for any other league player. IMHO he's the best creative midfielder in the Premier League.

You could perhaps make that case for his second goal. He still put it in the back of the net though. My point remains. He has shown he can score against the big teams. United have also had already won the league trophy when we played them at OT, yet it took us 86 minutes to find the back of the net, and it came from midfield through a deflection. Scoring a hat-trick against United is exceptional, regardless of whether they play offensively or not. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rKOdVAKTv8

Lukaku scored a hat trick against United. And he didn't even play in the first half of that match.

Can't wait for some concrete breakthrough. Keep looking up news in hope, yet nothing significant is likely to happen before the end of next week, and more likely before the last few days of the transfer window. Rooney would be a bull's eye in terms of what we need to claim the highest honours this season. Not saying it's not possible without him, yet still...

Also reported by the independent and the telegraph, I think yesterday. The rumour's been hanging in the air for some time now.

Man of the match v Inter Milan. By a good distance. Shame he was subbed off for the second half, but that's just part of pre season.

Would be great to finally see De Bruyne back in action. A great presence in midfield, excellent work-rate and of course sheer quality.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/tottenham-transfers-gareth-bale-agreement-2115446 This borderlines with insanity. £105 million + a player?!?

He also did score some important goals for us. He technically got us the third spot with the goal against Everton, and then without that goal in the Europa League final we probably would not have won the trophy.

Also reported by the telegraph: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/chelsea/chelsea-to-offer-40m-for-wayne-rooney-29462670.html Not sure how much truth is in this.

My bad. Yup, Either Azpi or Ivanovic. Wouldn't really mind which one.

On a second thought though, Jose might prefer to start with the 4-3-3 again. It worked very well against Indonesia. I know that Inter are far better than them but still...

Possible first team line up: At least that's the team I would prefer to see. Of course there will be changes around the hour mark.

Now it's official. Madrid have submitted an 85 million bid: http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11675/8848350/transfer-news-real-madrid-bid-85m-for-tottenhams-gareth-bale Levy is mad if he refuses to take that.

Personally, I lean more towards not taking all the stuff about United and us having a secret agreement about Rooney seriously. Why would Moyes be coming out and saying that he's not for sale, if they already agreed terms with us?

Quality players replaced with lesser quality players around that mark.

Him signing for us is just a formality. Unofficially he's ours already though. Can't see him signing for another club. Source of the quote: wikipedia

Technically he's already our player. Just needs to turn 18 and get a work permit.

Great game. Yes, lesser opposition, but let's not forget that the the team we put out was not anywhere near full strength. Not even close. A very very positive result. Very impressed with Traore, Van Ginkel and Lukaku. They really stood out for me.

And the referee ends indonesia's mysery with the final whistle at 90 mins

I find it pretty annoying, since it breaks the play up.

the game's gone a bit quiet. Lesser quality substitutions, but at least they get a chance

INCREDIBLE header from Lukaku. The hatrick must be within reach

LUKAKU!