Pizy

Ross Barkley is my guess.

The reputable journalists are all reporting done deal now and may be announced today. Really hope we immedietly throw every penny of his fee at another CM. Forget a loan, just try to buy Renato Sanches. Young, super talented and can be eased into things here without massive expectations.

I read that it's Matic's face photoshopped on Schweinsteiger's body.

Okay, you're right. He's utterly shit and you know better than serial title winner José Mourinho. 🙄

He's a solid 7/10 player most games. He'll have the odd shite game and the odd great game but was mostly solid last season. Solid enough to start almost every game for us en route to the title. That to me means that it's stupid to sell him to a rival. It's not as though we're selling them a transformative player who will elevate them to a whole new level, but any improvement at all we provide for a rival is too much in my eyes.

Couldn't have said it bette myself. I see Chelsea fans here and all over Twitter delighted that were selling Matic and calling him useless. I think José Mourinho knows a bit more than they do. If he's so insistent on buying him and for a huge sum, clearly he thinks Matic will improve them. We'll be weakening ourselves and at the same time improving a direct rival unless we bring in a player we feel is better.

Exactly. It would be suicidal.

So stupid unless we announce another midfielder ourselves within the next few days. If Jose switches them to 4-3-3 which he most certainly will if he's spending 40-50m on Matic, then a midfield 3 of Pogba, Herrera, Matic is very, very good. Maybe the best in the league unless we switch to 3 in the middle ourselves when Bakayoko is fit. Improving a direct rival will leave such a bitter taste in my mouth unless we get a quality player to bolster our team.

Conte surely would've expected that his most pressing needs would be met early in the window so he can bed them in well before the season started. We're now done with preseason and haven't signed anyone in arguably the most important position in a Conte team - the fullbacks. Would it be the end of the world if players joined up late in the window? No, but it certainly would've helped to get them in early. This season will be a whole different animal. To start the season with no cover in 2-3 extremely important positions for a club as big as we are and with the money we have is crazy in my eyes. We've had a decent window thus far but we'll need an excellent one to challenge for the title again.

Watching City v Spuds here. City look MILES ahead of us in terms of sharpness and fluidity. And this is without several of their star players not even playing.

Obsessed? No. But he's surely looking at the backing Pep is getting from his club and wondering why the friggin Champions with all this new money aren't going all out as well and bringing in all of the players he wants. It's not like he's asking for impossible targets either if the rumors are to be believed. We aren't targeting Neymar here. We need wing backs and haven't signed a single one yet.

Hope so. But after that I wonder what happens. For me, he's too good to be on the bench and surely wouldn't have signed for us with a World Cup place on the line if he knew he'd be a squad player.

He probably sees Pep being given just about every player he wants for any price necessary and gets frustrated that he isn't getting what he needs. Man City already had a better squad than us and are adding hundreds of millions of pounds worth of talent to it. We've very obviously needed upgrades to our wing backs since the window opened and haven't signed any. We've now known for ages that Matic is off and that Bakayoko may not be fit any time soon yet still haven't signed another CM. It almost feels like summer of 15/16 where the manager knows and hints repeatedly that we need more signings but the people in charge of transfers think we're good enough as is or that we can leave it late. I seriously can't even imagine us entering the season after the window closes without signing a pair of new wing backs so I won't panic yet. We surely will be bringing them in. Just annoying that it's taking so long.

In the few minutes he played today he immedietly looked better than Cahill.

We may actually enter the new season with a weaker XI than we ended last season with. Morata will take time to settle so it's probably a downgrade initially going from Costa to him. Matic is going so we're weaker in midfield. Alonso and Moses were already decent but not great players who clubs will now know how to better exploit. And on top of that our best player won't be playing any time soon. A rotten start to the season doomed us in 15/16 so I hope and pray the club don't allow that to happen again and gets Conte some more players. LWB, RWB, and CM are desperately needed. Everton and Spuds in back to back matches with a midfield 2 of Cesc and Kante I'm already not looking forward to.

I can honestly see us struggling pretty badly until Hazard and Bakayoko get fully fit unless we sign 2-3 more players. No cutting edge in the final third, a midfield 2 with Cesc in it is disastrous, and Cahill/Moses/Alonso are nowhere near good enough for the elite level or even against the newly improved sides in the PL. Morata clearly doesn't belong out wide. I hope to never see him there in a competitive game. He did well recieveing the ball and laying it off here and there but didn't get a sniff in a dangerous area. Must say I'm nervous heading into the season. The closer it gets the the start of the season throughout Europe and the transfer deadline approaches the harder it'll be to sign a club's important players.

This is a midtable Inter side loaded with average players, too. Carving through us effortlessly and not allowing us a sniff around their box. Who cares if it's just preseason, we look fucking terrible.

We are absolutely calamitous in midfield and defense. We've been awful for 2 games now.

Individual players showing a bit of quality here and there (Willian, Bats, Morata) but as a team we look slow and really disjointed.

Hilarious refereeing. As a whole, though, we look painfully average and lacking in several positions.

Both wing backs have been pretty awful throughout this short preseason. Neither can beat their marker going forward and get caught out repeatedly defensively.

We can't keep the ball for even a couple of passes...

This away kit is nice. Would look better if the numbers were blue and the socks matched the shirt and shorts.

It sort of does since he's played there before at Real Madrid and Juve. Again, this probably (hopefully) won't happen when Hazard and Pedro are fit.

Yeah, I agree with Wes. Looks like Morata will play on the left like he did when he came on last game. I don't like it, but I doubt we'll see this much, if ever at all when Hazard and Pedro are fit. This is like an emergency formation.