Pizy

1) Chelsea 2) City 3) United 4) Arsenal 5) Liverpool 6) Everton 7) Spurs 8) Newcastle

Our board would've bled Sunderland for £20m.

I thought he was unhappy there because he can barely get a game? He'd be in a similar situation here with Costa the undeniable first choice striker.He'd get more minutes here than at United I'd think, but will he really trade one bench for another? Not to mention there's that little task of convincing United to sell a player to a direct rival. Unlike us selling Mata to them last season when they weren't a threat, they'd be selling Hernandez to a team they're hoping to compete with this coming season.

Not sure I could stomach seeing Chicharito in our shirt.

José said from the very day he sold him there that he KNEW he'd be great in a United shirt. It's expected.It's not like he was sold because he was a shit, overrated player who would be found out at United. José has said time and time again that Mata is a great player. He just didn't fit the way we played. Still fucking hate seeing him in that shirt smiling and celebrating with those players. Sickening.

Head says no, heart says yes. And by heart I mean that little muppet in me that will squeal when we buy a world class player.

Thin on quality he probably means. Which isn't wrong.Any significant injury to Matic and our CM drops a huge level in quality and I don't think we'd get near the title.

Disagree about Luis. Thought he and Matic were our two best players in the first half and was surprised to see him subbed so early. Looked good defensively. His crossing needs sharpening, though.

I seriously don't think Ivanovic would do any worse than this waste of space up there. He's that terrible.

Window is still open. Juventus themselves have said that if Vidal asks to leave they'd let him. Should be easy for José to convince him with the squad we have already and the potential we have to compete for everything. We can play a 4-3-3 with Vidal/Matic/Fabregas. Unstoppable. We probably already had plenty of cash left to spend before we sold Lukaku and now we just received a further £28m. Throw a pile of cash at Juventus. We wouldn't have to worry about Cesc getting caught defensively with his lack of pace and it would lessen his responsibility getting back. It frees Cesc up to do what he does best. Then Vidal himself chips in with plenty of goals and is a pitbull defensively just like Matic and wins plenty of tackles. He'd take our side to the next level.

Prediction: This season will play out much like last season in terms of the football we play. When we look good we'll look very good and probably win most of the big matches. But when we're poor we'll look atrocious like we did today and resort to the same mindless tactics where we throw in a hundred aimless crosses and struggle to string together 2-3 accurate passes. Hopefully when we do play poorly we're able to rectify the situation DURING the match. Unlike last season and today where if we play poorly it lasts for the entire bloody game.

Also, that was one of the worst refereeing performances I've ever witnessed. The ref looked as if he was a boyhood Werder Bremen supporter. Shockingly poor.

Absolutely diabolical performance. Like we did at times last season. We looked like a collection of top class individuals rather than a team in attack and have no clue what to do. And now we even look highly suspect at the back. Preseason or not, we just got spanked 3-0 by a side who have 1 player I've even ever heard of. Pretty embarrassing. Like someone mentioned in the other thread, you watch United who have played under Van Gaal for a few weeks and already have a set system and style of play. Arsenal, Liverpool, and City look brilliant in attack and play one touch football, form triangles, and have great chemistry. We just stand around the box and hope something happens. Like we don't even train in the final third.

We have yet to look convincing at the back in preseason which is worrying and very surprising. - Matic and Luis have looked our best two players. - We look short of ideas in the final third. - Fabregas need to play deeper and control the game more. He hasn't been influential enough further up. - Torres is unbelievably terrible as usual. I literally HATE watching him play for us these days. Garbage.

Not sure how I feel about seeing Cesc as the #10 again if this is a 4-2-3-1. I want to see him get as many minutes deeper in midfield as he can in preparation for the season.

Again, José says three strikers is essential and sounds absolutely adamant that Torres is staying. No way will this happen.

This is a sarcastic post, right?Hard to tell over the internet.

Spot fucking on.Work out with a world class fitness coach over here in the States or at home in London. Not Man fucking City.

Any possible situation that involves the potential of a former legend taking points off of us is one I don't want to happen.

Who cares if he goes to a team bankrolled by one of our rivals? We don't want him to actually go TO one of our rivals.Why is that so hard for you to understand?

The hell would Frank agree to that?

So is Courtois' "number-gate" over yet? Has he got a squad number?

Exactly what I thought. He sounds like he's going to regretfully and reluctantly have to sell Cech.

True. If we do make any other signings I highly doubt it'll be up top.

Yeah, I think we can safely say that it's not gonna happen. I know José usually lies when he's talking about transfer business but after just watching his interview on Sky he seems pretty genuine and assertive that Torres won't be sold and that having 3 strikers is essential for us. Torres is just unsellable.