The Skipper

BENZEMA. Plus I'm pretty certain Rooney wants to stay in England.

Lol. Lukaku's got banter.

Shouldn't this be moved to current players now?

Didn't see the game unfortunately. If anyone could hook me up with a link to extended highlights or the full game I'd be grateful.

Apart from United and Madrid, whom he scored 1 goal (against a weakened United side) in 4 games against, the opponents Galatasaray faced in the CL weren't spectacular. No disrespect against Cluj, Braga or Schalke. I don't think he's any better than Torres or Ba sorry.

He needs to hand in a transfer request.

By the Malaysian XI?

Can't find any Telegraph article that states that. £40m is a bit too steep though. Furthest I'd go is £30m + potential add-ons.

I agree with all your points - however we do have one very strong area on the pitch - our attacking midfielders. One could easily say that they are akin to the great strikeforce United had under SAF. What United had in strikers, we have in attacking midfielders. I agree that we're not exactly comfortable in midfield or up front but I believe we've made great progress this season even if we don't sign a De Rossi or a Rooney. Obviously I'd love if we signed both because we'd have the complete squad - but I'm okay if the circumstances don't allow us. Like I said, we've made massive progress - there's no way we could've said that we were only 2 players away from a perfect squad last season. Like I said, if we don't sign Wayne and Daniele, I don't expect us to win/compete heavily for everything (especially in stronger competitions like the CL) but with our current squad and our current manager I can actually see us putting a very good challenge for the PL, FA Cup & Carling Cup even if we don't sign anyone because our squad is so much better and our manager is world class, one of the best.

I was thinking more long term tbh. Luiz is our best CB (Jose pretty much agrees with me) so he has to play there more often then not. I think going into this season though our starting CBs will be Terry - Luiz, especially if JT starts off right.

I think he played a couple times there at Watford. Also for England U19/18/17/16 etc. Yeah, fully agreed. It'd be interesting to see a Chalobah - Luiz partnership IMO.

Will be interesting to see that if he doesn't go out on loan, will he play at CB or in the middle of the pitch for us?

The difference is I won't be expecting us to challenge on all fronts if we don't get Rooney and De Rossi but I'm fine with that. People are dismissing what a great in depth squad with a great manager can bring you. All you have to do is look at SAF's United. How many of their team could actually get into our first team XI? We've always usually had a better first XI than them. Their first team XI isn't that phenomenal but what they do have is a great squad. Do not underestimate the power of having a great squad.

I do. Hence why I posted it.

Fair enough. Can't really argue with that. All I can say is that if we don't sign anyone for midfield (do remember that the transfer window is still opens for at least another month) then we should just trust Jose if he believes the midfield will be good enough.

Van Ginkel will surprise a lot of you if we don't sign another midfielder. If Jose trusts him enough for us to not buy a new midfielder then I'm okay with that. He'll make an impact. So will Schurrle. Our main problem last season in my books was the lack of squad quality. It was ridiculously hard for us to rest Mata or Hazard because we didn't have squad depth. We've gone a long way into addressing that now, we've added real quality to the team. The transfer window isn't over yet so anything could still happen but personally if we don't get anyone else this season I'm okay with it - sure, I'd love to sign Rooney and De Rossi - we'd actually have the best squad in the league if we pulled that off but having the best squad in the league doesn't always guarantee a league win. Cue City last season. Tbh, I'm okay because we've at least made significant progress squad wise. Like I said before - the squad is a million times better than it was last season. No more Benayoun, Ferreira, Marin etc. coming off the bench when we need to change something up. We now actually will have real quality on the bench.

Personally I don't think Josh has the drive or work ethic Lampard has in order for that to happen.

I think Hilario's gone. Hasn't been part of any training or the tour so I'm expecting Blackman to be third choice.

Josh McEachran doesn't play anything like Lampard and never has.

What? So signing Schurrle, Van Ginkel and Schwarzer whilst getting Lukaku and De Bruyne back (practically new signings) constitutes in us having the same side? Our squad is a million times better than what it was last season.

I'd take JMs judgement over yours tbh. We wouldn't bid for him if he wasn't attainable.

I'm sure she can at least research it though being a presenter and all. It's not that hard to pronounce.

There we have it. Luiz is Jose's number 1 CB.

THANK YOU MOURINHO!

"Kevin De Brune" instead of "Kevin De Bruyne". You'd at least expect Gigi to know how to pronounce our players' names properly.