Jype

Sunderland have already pretty much won, so not them. Real Madrid also leading at HT so you should watch City, they've been shit so far.

Seriously hope City draw today, would give us a small glimpse of hope for the final game. Didn't Stuttgart win the Bundesliga title some years back despite being third before the final round?

Would he be a viable option next to Matic? If so, I'm all for signing him because he undoubtedly has a lot of qualities and will only improve with age but as an attacking midfielder I think we're already set unless we sell Oscar.

Fixed it.

No pre-season in Asia or North America but spending the summer in various countries around Europe like four years ago can still be considered a tour.

If reports are to be believed, Cech won't be able to have a pre-season because of his surgery. All the more reason to get Thibaut back.

I think the window officially opens on the 1st of July but deals are always agreed before that date, they just only become official when the necessary paperwork can be filed. For example, two years ago we signed Marin sometime in April and Hazard in May. Now especially with the World Cup around the corner I think there will be some deals announced before the players leave to join their national teams. From our targets one of those players could be Costa if the deal is as close as is currently being reported but I think any others will be signed only after the WC.

Saw this on Twitter: "Since Arsenal last won a trophy, Ryan Giggs had an 8-year affair with his brother's wife, won 15 trophies and became the Man United manager."

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/may/07/helena-costa-clermont-foot-manager?CMP=twt_gu Some club in Ligue2 has just hired a woman as their manager. Will be interesting to see how she does.

Ah, the good old shirt sale argument in favour of keeping Torres. How exactly does selling a few more shirts than a player like Demba Ba justify him earning at least double the wages while also undoubtedly being a much, much worse player? Torres is a parasite and needs to be gotten rid of ASAP. Him earning close to 10 million pounds a year is just wrong and having the club's best paid player being the third choice striker who rarely plays would be a huge embarrassment to the whole club.

I think it might do wonders for English football, and by that I do mean actually having more good English players. It's clear that the top clubs who have most money also have the best academies so by having a B team for example in the Championship, the development of their youth players would be served much better than by playing non-competitive U21 games or being shipped out on loan to a lower league club where they don't really care if the players develop or not. In a B team the footballing identity would ideally be close to that of the parent club (think Barca B ) so youngsters could more easily be given chances in the top flight too because they'd already be more familiar with the tactics of the first team and by playing week-in week-out at League One / Championship level they would also have much better fitness levels than a player who only plays with the other kids. If we had a B team at a decent level right now players like Bamford, Chalobah, McEachran, Piazon, Atsu, Traore, PvA etc.could easily have been given a bunch of games in the first team while normally playing with the B squad but keeping them with the U21s just to have them available for a few games would have made absolutely no sense and playing them while they're on loan at other clubs just isn't possible and as a result we are finding it difficult to give chances to any of our most promising youngsters. The system works excellently in other countries and no one is questioning the integrity of the lower leagues in for example Germany or Spain. I think it's partly because of the whole B team system that those countries are much better at developing youth players than England are. However if that were to happen it would raise the issue of which level the B teams would begin playing at. If they were given a place in let's say League Two straight away, what would happen to the teams already in there? Relegated to non-league football because a newly-formed feeder team of a big club needs their place? Safe to say that would not go down too well. Also, like you said, at least in the beginning it could feel like a bit of a slap in the face of the fans of smaller clubs but looking about the big picture I think it would eventually be very beneficial for the future of English football.

No, it would still count as a loss in their finances but regarding FFP it would be an "exceptional cost" which UEFA allow to exclude. Counting a 50m fine towards FFP would make it virtually impossible for a punished club to break even in the future too so the punishment would definitely be too harsh. Sure, for a club with a filthy rich owner it's only a drop in the ocean and the money will essentially come from the owner's own pockets and then forgotten about but if a 'normal' club would face such penalty they'd have to sell players or get a bank loan to pay the fine with and paying back the loan would significantly reduce the amount of money they would have available to spend for years to come so the sanction would definitely hit them.

Just like us with the Courtois case and the eventually non-existent clause, it's UEFA's game and they have every right to make the rules each team just has to find a way to live with. If both City and PSG have agreed to their rules and still try to do some shady business to get an advantage over their competitors who have decided to obey UEFA it's only fair they get called out for it and face sanctions. Whilst I agree the FFP is not an ideal scenario to begin and it definitely kills the chance of any smaller club to ever make the step up to the major leagues, it's still the reality these days and both of the clubs now getting punished over it have for years known about the possibility of facing action for failure to comply but they still decided to try their luck and do fuck all so they've really just brought it on themselves.

Maybe because they're both trying to scam their way out of these problems with fake sponsorships etc.? If they were to just do what's right and explain to UEFA how they're going to turn things around I'm pretty sure they'd be cut some slack but now it's all about making an example out of them.

Coming from a guy who started it all by insulting Liquidator, a valued member of the forum, and saying you've had him on the ignore list since day one. Make up your mind and stick with it.

No one reads it because everyone has already blocked you.

Could not have happened to two nicer guys.

Palace fans signing the Gerrard song, will be great if from now on that one is heard every time someone plays against Liverpool.

I was under the impression he's German?

Some of the legends saying goodbye to Stamford Bridge?

Was hoping for Kalas to start after his impressive performance last week. Benching Hazard sure won't make the rumours go away... Might be benched because he's not fully fit but the media won't care.

Am I the only one who suspects Neymar is not the real father of that child?

United fans seem glad they're not even getting Europa League. Thick cunts, don't they know that from next year onwards the Europa League winner gets an automatic place in the CL group stages for the following season? In the current state of their club I wouldn't be too sure they're getting top4 even next year so they really should have been hoping for EL qualification IMO. Of course with Liverpool this season we've all seen the benefits of not playing in either of the UEFA competitions but European football is still European football and with a squad deep enough it's really no problem playing in the Europe while also remaining competitive in the Premier League as well..