OneMoSalah

Why we didn't go for him from the start, I have no fucking idea.

I say we start betting on how many days Curly will take off this forum? Also start putting off bets on how many nipples Liquidator has... I reckon at least 5.

Tbf can we just ban people who want to take a sabbatical so they actually take the sabbatical? But na why all of a sudden are people turning into Jurgen Klopp with their fucking sabbaticals. You can have this thread, but you can't have Liquidator as your wife. Mainly because he must be shared with 'the lads'

Sabbatical away from a forum because of the Jose Mourinho thread spiralling out of control.... actually very pathetic to be fair... or should I have posted 'LOOK WHAT YOUVE DONE JOSE FUCK SAKE YOU GREY HAIRED SEXY CUNT RUINING THE INTERNET FOR PEOPLE'

Sign him up, ridiculous how bad this window has been. United have out and bought top class players in Schweinsteiger and Schneiderlin and are looking at signing Pedro? Cmon 30M euros is a great price, snap him up before they do.

Put it this way remember when Guardiola made the fuss with his medical team? The knives were out on here for him from a few members and now Jose has made an issue with two of our medics and people are backing him???? Sorry I get why some people are saying people will blindly follow Jose and back him whatever. If it was Wenger/Pellegrini/Rodgers, it would be a huge fucking problem and people would find it funny they'd hit out at a medic for such a pathetic reason.

What is this football? Drawing 2-2... looking for a scapegoat so hitting out at a medic who was trying to do her job because Eden was off the pitch for 30 seconds? Yes this is football isn't it..... I love what Jose has done for the club but that is a joke. Now people are saying she has done something wrong or that she shouldn't have such a big social media following or this or that or whatever.. load of shite

It's only an issue because he went public and absolutely fucking slated Eva in a post match interview/press conference or whatever. Yet people think it's her fault for a facebook post? Fuck off, stupid cunts.

Usually I don't mind when Mourinho deflects the blame or whatever but we got lucky for it to even be 2-2 and he's being ridiculous blaming Eva when she tried to do her job. He should shut his mouth, do his job, which is improve the squad, win games and titles and get on with it. He has no need to get get angry with the medics. What if Hazard was seriously injured and she didn't do her job? By the way, the lack of urgency in the transfer market is ridiculous, I don't know if that's down to him or not but he should be pushing more and more. We looked pretty shite in pre-season other than the Barca/PSG games. John Stones is not an urgent need, getting Baba signed as well as a CM and a RW/number 10 is more pressing..

Laporte is very promising. Typical French CB: tall, strong, athletic, good technically, confident coming out with the ball. I've not seen Umtiti since that year he scored the screamer against Spurs in the Europa League but like you've said a lot of other CBs out there. I don't know if it is just me but I'd really like to see us have a left footed CB play LCB when JT eventually comes out of the team on a regular basis.

Sterling. PL proven, stepped up after Suarez left and improved, was their most influential player despite having off the field issues. I think hes a better player and is a better investment than De Bruyne tbf. Sterlings always improved, I think if De Bruyne does another year and gets similar performances and stats then he should move but fuck knows. I personally see him going to City and not replicating that sort of year and then it makes people question him and his price. Fair enough he'd be a City player.. I generally don't see why we are so worried about him to be fair. Arjen Robben is the only player we should be gutted that we let leave because he is a genuine world class wide player who would walk into any side. I've seen the Sturridge thread have similar sort of posts to what has been put in here after he went to Liverpool and was banging them in with Suarez but still not fussed we let him go.

Please Juventus, anything over 17M and I'm sure we'd accept that.

Everton will regret not selling him for 20M never mind 34M. His price will never be higher I bet. Everton can say all they want but they've always been a selling club and always will.

If we are basing it on where he has family, his brother plays for Partick Thistle so I'm assuming he will be living in Scotland already/ or very soon, so should we also make Partick Thistle a potential destination?

Have to be honest, for over £45M, City can have him. A vastly inflated price and overrated player, especially after seeing some of the posts in this thread, a very good player yes, had a great season last year yes and he has rebuilt his career after a difficult 6 months at Chelsea yes but cmon he is hardly world class like you'd believe reading some posts. I avoid this thread sometimes, its like a wankfest because he had a good season after he left here, in a team where he is obviously the best player. Its almost like half the forum is more content in bashing Jose for selling him, when it was obvious he wasn't cut out to play here at the time. Is that Jose's fault? He wasn't demoted to the U21s for no reason, he was shite against a Championship/League 1 team, he refused to follow tactical orders or whatever.. make whatever excuses up about his time here you want, it doesn't change the fact we won the title without him last year and did alright after he was sold too. Nobody was really bothered then but after one good season in a team (which is a pretty good team but not at the same level as ours), where he is the best player, everyone comes out and says oh we made a mistake. If Oscar plays as well as he did in pre-season and has a consistent year, I don't think people will really care about him. Even if Willian adds more goals and more assists to go on top of his general all round play he will be forgotten. I'm glad he's found his feet and found a higher level than what he had here but don't think we should regret selling him, I think going from Chelsea to Wolfsburg, it's easier to succeed, less pressure and not as much of a demand to win than going from Werder to Chelsea, coming from finishing mid table, comfortable where they are to a club where it is win win win or come under scrutiny. Not trying to undermine what he's done, like I've said he's done very well, was very much the driving force for Wolfsburg but as good as he and they were, I think the Bundesliga was refreshing but also disappointing at the same time because Dortmund and Schalke were quite shite and finished lower than they normally do so other teams had the chance to take their places. I think if he goes to City he could have the same as what he had here, I think the best thing for him is another year to improve and replicate that stats there, one season wonders have happened before. He wasn't even the best player Mourinho sold since coming back, Mata clearly was but do people regret it as much now? Not really. For me the same applies with Kev sadly. I think if our own number 10 (Oscar) was consistent and played to his potential and actually played at the same level as he did for a period of time last year before playing terribly then we wouldn't really care.

Goalkeepers have off days. That near post goal is a shocker to give away to be honest but like the guy above me said, he's let a few in that near post where he really should save them. Courtois would never have been beaten to the ball for the first West Ham goal, he might not have even come for it to be honest but no doubt Big Pete is a top class player and above all is a top class guy.

Just waiting for him to have an absolute stormer of a game against City against Sterling, particularly just for this thread, to see all the comments about how good he played lol. Like him or not he is vital to the team really, he was given a torrid time yesterday but these things sometimes happen no matter who it is. He is obviously quite limited but in games where we are gonna play compact and rely on set plays and goal kicks to get high up the park he is needed considering we don't have a Drogba or a Ballack in the team anymore who were very very strong in the air and got knock ons to get further up and be direct. I would like to see Azpi in the team on the right and us sign a top LB (or we could have kept Luis who is a top LB) but again sometimes these things don't happen for some reason.

Embarrassingly bad defense, incompetent manager... sounds similar to City. City can have all the attacking riches in the world but again they have an incompetent manager (in my eyes, Pellegrini is like Rodgers and Wenger, believes you should only be able to play one way and should always try to play this tippy tappy football) and lack balance in midfield and have 2 major holes in their defense (partner for Kompany and Clichy). Signing Sterling and trying to get De Bruyne just papers over the cracks, they've lost 2 strikers, signed an average midfielder to boost their HG quota, still need a partner for Kompany and have a really noticeable weakness in Clichy at LB. They didn't win the league because they didn't score enough goals last year, they lost the league because they kept conceding goals and kept playing this same way despite it not working. On paper it looks good for City with Aguero, Silva, De Bruyne, Sterling and Toure.. but a clever man once said in an interview.. I still have us as favorites. De Bruyne will cost them a bomb as well, which FFP surely has to do something with it considering they just paid 49M for Sterling.

Dimitri Payet was outstanding for Marseille last year, so I was excited to see him in the PL, pity he's 28 and not younger but was quite impressed with him against Arsenal.

Yes but did they win the league? Or any trophies? No and they didn't because they eventually came up against teams (ourselves and Palace) who knew they were good offensively but lacked balance and picked them off. City won't win the league unless they strengthen in the middle of the park at least and possibly another center back.

I remember the days when he was the best DM in Europe according to some of yous.... and now he's not apparently. Fickle. Hes a top player but he was never the best DM in Europe and he's been quite shite the last while. Needs to up it, gets dragged out of position too easily, he is vital to Cahill and JT more than anything.

Yeah its a pity because he is a typical Mourinho defender. Tall, strong, fast, aggressive and rounded player. Has a mean free kick on him too and is very good going forward.

Wouldn't say they need attacking players though like you highlighted, they are doing what we did when we kept buying attacking players: Mata, Marin, De Bruyne, Oscar, Schurrle, Willian in so many windows when we really lacked a top midfielder to solidify the team. They still lack a another center back and another central midfielder. They can score as many goals as they want but they will concede especially when you consider Sterling and Silva will definitely play and they are very lazy off the ball. Toure is clearly one of those guys who can make the difference but doesn't always do the work he should. Even then they have Nasri as well who has never been the sort of guy to do that either. In contrast, Barcelona have some front three but they are so good and balanced in midfield and defence too. Rakitic-Busquets-Iniesta very solid and dependable midfield in front of a back four that has improved after a few dismal campaigns where they looked weak. Football is about balance as much as anything these days. If you can't defend your going to concede silly goals and lose points. City are like Arsenal in the way they will play this one style stubbornly because they believe it's the right way but you can't play like that 38 games a season, they don't have the right balance in their team in my opinion so I think we are still favorites because we can play like we did in the second half of the season last year and grind games out.

Knee jerk signings? Sorry but Koke is near enough on the verge of developing into a world class player in my eyes. I couldn't give a shit if it blocks Pasalic and MvG's path into the team because quite frankly you don't turn down the chance to sign such a good player for two guys (although MvG should be in the 25 man squad ahead of RLC in my eyes) who perhaps aren't first team ready... although Marco could be a squad player. We need more than a left back, Koke would be able to play as a CM in a 4-3-3 or on the right wing in a 4-2-3-1. Would prefer Pedro for the right wing but Koke is also very good and is a very rounded player who can easily replicate his Atletico form there.

Apparently he is on a £18,000 a week contract.... what the fuck. Also Josh McEachran was earning £38,000 a week contract according to a Neil Ashton article I found on twitter on my phone earlier. Maybe the reason none of these guys break through our academy is we give them too much too soon?