Tomo

Agreed, although as far as the title goes this season is a write off so hopefully he gets all his mistakes in terms of team selections out of the way in season 1 like Pep did, if we go into season 2 without them fixed then i will start to worry.

The thought of Moses back as a winger destroys my soul.

Does that mean PL clubs can still do loans?

It does, if you are struggling to score but are still moving well, that still gives space for the others to operate, as poor as Morata's been he is still doing that, thats why he has so many chances at goal and we can create a fair bit even with his current form. Bats is really poor at movement (well pretty much everything bar finishing) and it affects the way the team play, if he isn't scoring at a rate of minimum 3 in 4 then there's is no way possible his place in the team can even be remotely justified and even then it's debatable.

Kante is a good guy but he will try and make a move if he feels he has too, he is ruthless when it comes to his career it's how we got him in the first place.

Most players would give it up as a one off under the right circumstances (i even think we still stood half a chance of signing Hazard even with a loss in Munich), but if we fail to make it again and they stay they would be missing CL footy minimum 3 of the 5 seasons between the prime ages of 25-29, thats a huge thing to ask from players so good at what they do, especially for Kante who's already will be hitting his 28th birthday with only 1 CL shot ever.

We can balance the two. As much as it's a building season it's also crucial we get back in top four, we are pushing it asking Hazard and Kante to give up CL football for the second time in prime years, a third will be taking the piss.

The thing is, United and Mou actually "married" with a long term view. Mourinho always said he wanted long term after Real and both us and United fell for it. You can excuse us the error because of the emotional connection and the fact he wasn't proven either way in that regard, but for United to appoint him with long term aspirations after his non existent long term ability was so spectacularly exposed for the world to see has to be the most amateur decision ever made at top level football.

You think? Kante's the type of player Mou would have built even his Chelsea (first time) and Inter sides around, he would suck off Wenger if it meant he could get N Golo in this United side.

Did you feel it was bad all season? I felt it was okay upto January, okay we weren't hitting the heights of last season but the structure was still there infact i thought we were doing quite well under the circumstances. It was after new year i felt it went to pot and it almost felt like we replaced Conte with Pulis.

I remember having this exact same type of conversation re every single member of the old guard at one point, not saying for definite that the result with Eden will be the same but still.

Only if you fell for it.

We ain't bringing Kovacic in to train him for Madrid, we are bringing him in to help our team right now.

The ironic thing is, if we ditched him in favour of a declining Cech, how many of the "we let a legend go for this cunt" crew would be screaming "OMG we let Courtois go just like we did KDB and Salah we never give youth a chance". Regardless of how this has ended, the decision to draft Tibo in back in 2014 has been more than justified.

Think this is the first time since 1997 when we signed De Goey that we have brought in a keeper to be #1 immediately. Cudicini was initially backup, Cech was signed in advance and no one really knew the plan regarding him right up to the teamsheet vs United coming out and Courtois went on loan for 3 years.

Bournemouth, Leicester, Qarabag, Huddersfield off the top of my head, i think we won the first 6/7 averaging 3 goals a game and the movement and interchange was really good and fluid. It was after Conte decided toplay shit footy it looked rancid and even then it had it's moments (Barca and even Arsenal before Willy was forced off).

False 9 worked when we actually had plans to attack.

Control of the midfield + attacking football = more goals. Even Torres hit respectable figures under Di Matteo's ultra attacking system.

With the new attacking system and more dominant footy we should be roughly looking around these numbers for goals in the league. Hazard 15, striker the same (i think even Morata would get close to that number in this system) whoever starts out of Pedro and Willian 10, the front 3 back ups 10-15 between them, i would fancy Barkley to chip in with about 5. So that's 60 ish goals already, the big question mark is can the rest get the 10-15 more we will likely need between them?

From what ive seen and heard he's the level below world class and knocking on the door off actual world class, outside of Alisson he's the best that was/is (realistically) available this summer.

Well lets hope one tiny detail is different, we don't want him to dream of playing for Arsenal.

Even United are cockroaches to Real Madrid.

Looking like Kepa, Butlands links have gone quiet today while Kepa's are doing the opposite.

Worth noting most of Spain want him as the national team number 1 ahead of De Gea, not saying he is actually better but he must be good for his home country to have such view.

Cross that Bridge when we come to it.