The Chels

Going to Valencia.

I don't understand why Mourinho's pretending that if we went in with a 1-0 lead at HT, everything would have been okay. We would almost certainly still have conceded in the second half because frankly we are incapable of defending.

He even does it in the opposition half. Matic and Zouma also seemed to have picked the habit up, after Jose no doubt told them to study Ivanovic's amazing defensive abilities

Agreed but athletico? You're Spanish, no?

I don't think he should be sacked either. Who's better and available? Klopp and Ancelotti are both overrated. Personally I only consider Simeone and arguably Guardiola as better than Mourinho but neither is available so what's the point.

Mourinho said prior to the game that they worked on defending this week... That went well.

It was mentioned on pages 12-13.

'Azpi is more of a Jose untouchable than Ivanovic.' Okay then.

There's a surprise...

Bring on Baba.

That's nothing new tbh. What I don't understand is why the fans don't jeer when the Palace fans do stupid shit like cheer every pass or chant abuse at Mourinho/the crowd. Should drown them out.

Palace fans with their stupid cheering of every pass. Why don't the home fans drown it out ffs?

Erm maybe because there's a correlation there.

Robbie Savage on John Stones and Saido Berahino — and what HE would do in their shoes

Spanish and Tunisian press seem pretty certain he's going to Valencia. We'll have to wait and see.

Ivanovic is going to get destroyed. Pedro is going to have to defend for him, essentially playing RB, and he will then hand in a transfer request after the game.

Why? Grande Iker (topor)?

A good article on the issue of buyout clauses when dealing with Athletic: http://talksport.com/football/explained-herrera-should-still-sign-man-united-athletic-simply-dont-negotiate-14062698500

That is what generally happens. When we signed Diego Costa, for example, we agreed a deal with Atletico instead of actually activating the clause but Athletic is different because they don't need the money. Herrera had to buy out his own contract and therefore pay tax on the buyout clause (for which United would have paid him). Whatever the price of Laporte's buyout clause we will have to pay that + tax (20-47%), for sure.

There's no chance Athletic agree to any deal so we'd have to activate his buyout clause which the Guardian say is £30m. If that's right then I believe the final price would be approximately £36-44m, depending on rate of tax (dealing with Athletic is a nightmare). His agent is apparently now Jorge Mendes, by the way.

See https://twitter.com/SOS1878

Not particularly.

Bayer Leverkusen would be a difficult opponent. They almost knocked Atleti out last season and their pressing would cause us lots of problems. From pot 2 the easiest team would be Porto IMO but chances are we will get one of the Spanish teams.

I agree that they should win the league after spending all that money and they probably will but the CL is a completely different matter altogether. Personally I'd still expect them to be knocked out if (when) they come up against any one of Real Madrid, Barca, Bayern, Atletico or PSG. I wouldn't be surprised if Sevilla, Valencia or Leverkusen beat them either.