Pizy

So we have a chance at signing two of the most coveted world class players in Europe but "absolutely no chance" at signing a player no one had heard of before this season who plays for a tiny club that most people outside of England had never heard of before this season? Come on, mate.

Maybe this summer will be more like the Costa/Cesc/Luis window than last summer. I hope. I pray...

If we can't manage to get any of the loftier targets then he's a great fallback option.

To be fair, he had plenty of excuses for that result yesterday. He's without his bets defender and his best midfielder in Cheilinni and Verratti. Their midfield couldn't live with Germany's movement and fluidity in midfield and Bonnucci had two super unlucky mistakes that led to two goals. He also had Giacharini on one flank who is shit (I lol'd when we were linked with him recently) and didn't start with Candreva who was their best player in the previous match. Zaza was totally isolated and received very poor service. Any Chelsea fans reading into a friendly result are overreacting. Saw plenty of it on Twitter.

Nah, it's nailed on. No way their fans will put up with Van Gaal for another season. The success of Rashford has meant that he's saved himself the embarrassment of being sacked midseason but he's definitely gone in May. Mourinho may very well want a young, PL proven striker with great pace and power so Lukaku would be ideal. Mou will say "I never wanted to sell him at Chelsea but he needed to develop and now has" Lukaku will say "I've always wanted to play for the world's best manager and blah, blah, blah." Think José will raid Everton for both Lukaku & Stones.

Think it's either Zlatan or Lukaku as United's new #9 next season. I'd honestly rather it be Zlatan as much as I love him because he'd only be there in the short term. Lukaku would be there for 10 years. He's scored goals wherever he's been and with much better players around him and Mouinrho in charge he'd be scary. There aren't really many clubs he can move to. There are only a couple of huge clubs looking for a main striker. United, Arsenal, PSG when Zlatan leaves, and I guess Juventus when Real Madrid inevitably buy Morata back. PSG would be best case scenario for us I suppose.

Has United galactico signing all over it. He's just the type of megastar Ed Woodward loves. He'll reunite with Mourinho and that's all we'll hear about this summer. Thankfully Zlatan is older so we won't have to see him destroying the PL for more than a season or two. Not sure he fits in that Arsenal side. He's not mobile or quick enough. He's a bit lazy. They need a striker who is going to run in behind and sprint constantly like we have in Costa. Cavani would be perfect for them. No CL kills any sliver of a chance he'd consider us.

If Diego didn't have extreme anger and self control issues like a normal human being he's easily better than Kane. If he's totally focused only on playing like he was against PSG before getting injured there aren't many better #9's. Kane is superior with the ball at his feet dribbling but that's about it in terms of ability.

Exactly. That's his best position. There are actually people here that want us to sell Cesc but I think Conte will use him as our Pirlo. Just have to hope the club allows him to purchase his two beasts to work with him.

I'm telling you guys, there's something in the water over in Belgium! Every. Single. Day there's seemingly another quote from a Belgian player saying something mind-numbingly dense in the press. It's like they all have the "mercenary" gene. Lukaku and his father have also spouted more shit today about wanting to leave this summer. They simply can't help themselves.

That's a good question and one I've asked here recently too. As strange as it may sound, I think we're still a far more attractive destination than most of those clubs even after this terrible season. I don't think any of the latter 3 you listed are attracting any world class players. Can't see any of Liverpool, Everton, or Spuds going over £30m on a single player. Plus I think we'd still be able to pip them to top players even if we were all after the same ones. It's true that we probably won't be able to go head to head with the Manc clubs with those managers in charge, but they'll be so obsessed with going after bigger "names" than Vidal & Nainggolan I hope. The Vidal love-in with Conte would surely be a trump card and I would think Nainggolan would jump at the chance to move to a bigger, better club. City and United will probably be after the likes of Pogba, Bale, Lewandowski, etc.

I'd like to think that Roman is just as disgusted by this season as the supporters are and is also just as worried about us becoming another Liverpool and fading away into obscurity. For that reason I'm somewhat confident he'll back Conte substantially and has learned his lesson that when a manager asks for certain players you don't give him dollar store imitations instead. I think we can easily sell to players on the "project." We're still in a prestigious city, the best league, have a great foundation of players, pay high wages, and will have a world class manager. We won't get the elite of the elite like Pogba, but to be honest that's not what we need. If we can manage to get Nainggolan, Vidal (those are both huge asks, of course) Bonucci, and keep hold of Hazard we'll have had a spectacular summer. Maybe our best ever. If we also manage to bin off some of the deadwood as well...my goodness. Seriously, who in the PL could stop or even really compete with a midfield 3 of Fabregas, Vidal, and Nainggolan? It has everything. Pace, power, creativity, and huge flexibility. Unless Pep somehow convinces Busquets to leave Barca and join him we'd have by far the best midfield in England.

Imagine getting both he and Nainggolan. What a midfield 3 we'd have.

Indeed. I just wish so badly that Verratti didn't play for PSG. Otherwise he'd be the best signing we could possibly make for our midfield and he'd be working for a manager he's familiar with. We have no chance, though, since he plays at a super rich club already.

Yeah, I watched the whole game and Italy looked very solid. They were also missing several of their best players so they'll look even better with those back. If Conte manages to bring in a couple of midfield beasts and a CB of his choice I think we're in for a nice season. There's no way we can play either of his preferred styles with the personnel we currently have. We need highly skilled and mobile midfielders and CB's.

Let's see how our next manager fares here against a few of our current players.

If he doesn't like players "strolling" around the pitch then you can already see the first clash with the club over Loftus-Cheek. That's his exact play style.

Something must be mentally wrong with all of these Belgian footballers. None of them appear to have a filter when they speak to the media and have absolutely no PR training. Courtois, Lukaku, Hazard, De Bruyne, Mirallas...they constantly seem to be making headlines for saying stupid things, mostly shitting on their own clubs. The only one who seems to be a mature, smart guy is Kompany. Just shut up, ffs.

I think finishing in a Europa League place would force the club to make more signings to cope with the added fixtures so I want us to finish as high as possible. Would also be hilarious if we finish above Liverpool and Everton which is possible.

The bad: our club seemingly hasn't learned its less with these preseason tours. Traveling thousands of miles in a summer with the Euro's also happening for manynofmour players. Just fucking stupid. A good start in the league is imperative and we risk a repeat of this season. The good: Chelsea will be playing Real Madrid 45 minutes from my house! At the stadium of my University! In front of over 100,000 fans!

If the next manager is the one who decides whether or not JT will be back like the club has said then you'd have to assume that the announcement will come during this season. Otherwise the club risk yet another disastrous PR move if our final match of the season also turns out to be JT's last and we don't get to "thank" him and all that like Lamps. If Conte isn't announced until after the Euro's and then decides months from now that he doesn't want Terry the supporters would explode.

Yep. Cahill and Ivanovic will get spun around or caught terribly out of position and they'll score. We'll be lazy and going through the motions.

Fucking City cunts...

Can't decide which I hate more these days, Spuds or United. Fuck off the both of them. City are so useless these days and have clearly just given up on the PL. Aguero is the only one trying. My one last wish for this season is for United to miss the top 4 and have José start his Man U career with no CL football. City are going to make sure that doesn't happen by the looks of it.

Sadio Mané is a beast. Will surely be off to a big club this summer. He's the perfect Mourinho player, really, and they've already been linked with him since last summer. Let's hope that doesn't happen.