Shogun

How are you Kojo?

Don't think it didn't work out, we just couldn't afford him. It was only a youth academy loan as well, Sa there was no intention of playing him in the first team squad.

United lost 5 times last year and managed to win the league by 11 points so you can't really take too much satisfaction from other teams losing until the table starts shaping up.

1) Manchester City 2) Chelsea 3) Manchester United 4) Tottenham 5) Arsenal 6) Everton 7) Liverpool 8) Sunderland 9) Swansea 10) West Brom 11) Norwich 12) West Brom 13) Fulham 14) Cardiff 15) Aston Villa 16) Crystal Palace 17) Southampton 18) Newcastle 19) Stoke 20) Hull Not going to go and explain every individual. I think Manchester City will win the league, fire power of Negredo and Aguero will see them through, an area where I think Chelsea will fall short. Manchester United I don't think have that good a team regardless of their runaway league title last season, Moyes obviously an unknown quantity as well. Don't see why people think Arsenal are title contenders at all, Not even if they get Suarez (he didn't do much for Liverpool's league positions) and I see Tottenham nudging them with their strength in depth. Bale obviously another big factor in this however. Don't really expect Liverpool to be below us, they can outspend us by millions and have a settled way of playing. We're in for a transition season, 7th minimum for me. I think Sunderland will be the surprise team, I rate Pauli Di Canio as a manager, it's just a case of how long it'll be before he throws a hissy fit and walks out. Giaccherini, Johnson, Sessegnon and Fletcher are more than good enough for a top half side's attack. Newcastle is mainly down to my hatred of them, but Pardew is a dickhead and they'll be in for a similar season to the last in my opinion. Stoke haven't made a lot of signings, Hughes isn't the biggest name in the world either. Hull and Steve Bruce are made for the drop.

That's a great story Shane, anyway enough about Everton!

Also, how come you guys got the easy draw! We have to play Juve and (probably) Madrid and you guys play Inter Milan and AC Milan if you're to get to the final!

Awesome as always, Coleman really is one of the all time premier league bargains. A proper bargain too, not like Liverpool fans saying £8m for Coutinho is a bargain. I sometimes feel bad we only paid £60k (initially anyway) for him. Seems a bit of a random move looking back from Notts county to Sligo Rovers, even though he was coming to an end of his career I think Dixie still did pretty well for Sligo. Ankit, Alcaraz is Injured for now and I've no idea when he's back. Anichebe played pretty well today, Kone is on Ramahdan so we haven't seen much of him and Jelavic scored a couple in his last match. None of them will be 20 goal a season strikers, I know that but I think there'll be good competition on there. Mirallas is incredible, reminds me of Kanchelskis (remember him?).

-----------------------------Howard------------------------------ ---------------Stones-----Jagielka-----Distin---------------- -------Coleman----------------------------------Baines------- ----------------------Gibson------Fellaini---------------------- ----------------Mirallas-----------------Pienaar---------------- -----------------------------Anichebe---------------------------- I don't know if Stones and Anichebe will be starters for next season but Stones made an big impression today. Started off controlling possession and passing it around in the opposition half. We got deeper as the first half went on but neither side made a lot of chances, Second half we played a little more on the break using Mirallas' pace and ended up scoring with a quick break. Juventus put a lot of pressure on after that which we dealt well with until Osman made an individual error which led to the goal. Tevez and Llorente were very quiet throughout the game because we defended. I'm not sure Fellaini really fits into this system but it's still early days, he was probably the worst player for us in the match.

Juventus played 5 first team players, sorry, I forgot about Asamoah being a starter for them. Doubt we will beat Real Madrid to be honest (assuming they beat Galaxy).

That was fun. On the substitution's front, Everton made 3 subs and I think Juventus made 5. Our first subs came in the 60th minute (2 subs) and they made their first subs in the 70th minute (3 subs) so there wasn't too much disruption in the match. The pitch was crap but we still passed it about well and probably should have won in normal time but they scored in the last 10 minutes to make it 1-1. John Stones (probably most haven't heard of yet) was man of the match and scored a Pirlo-esque penalty, Pirlo who funnily enough missed the target with his penalty. Everton won 6-5 on Penalties. Juventus started with 4 first teamers (Llorente, Tevez, Vidal, Lichsteiner) so aren't taking the competition that seriously.

For those wondering about subs, we've only named 7 subs for our match (officially), will report back afterwards.

Seriously, Goal.com is useless.

We've played 3 pre-season matches, only 45 minutes has been 3 at the back though and as Blackburn only played one striker, the third centre back (Heitinga) pretty much came into centre midfield.I don't think it would work too badly for us. We have quick centre backs anyway and two very attacking full backs.

I suppose I shouldn't moan, Those in the Asia/Americas do this all the time at stilly hours!

Youre right and wrong. They are a day apart (I misread) but we're playing in PDT time zone whereas you're playing in an EDT time zone therefore our match is 4am.

Alright lads, it's been a while. The general feeling amongst the blue half of Merseyside is optimism and excitement at the moment. We appreciated all David Moyes done but things went stale at least two years ago and a change was well and truly needed. After all, it's not like he didn't have any faults. Martinez is impressing everyone at the moment, whether he can walk the walk will be decided in the not to distant future but he is certainly making the right noises. We 'lost' Neville, Hitzlsperger and Jan Mucha in the summer so the new signings have been an much improvement on last season's squad already. Alcaraz on a free transfer for back up is a good bit of business, Kone scored 11 league goals last season for a relegated team whilst Joel Robles will provide good young back up competition to Howard. Deulofeu seems like a bit of a boy wonder. We're not really sure if Baines or Fellaini will be leaving. Baines won't leave unless the club wants him to but both seem happy and neither are making much noise about a move, it's just the Daily Mail who seem intent on that. We need one more CM and I'll be happy going into the season, not sure it's coming though. Martinez has made it clear he wants to give youth a good go this year (a refreshing change from Moyes) so Barkley could have a big part to play this season. Will be on here a bit more now the season is coming to an opening, obviously we might meet each other Pre-season in America but I'm hoping we don't, not a fan of playing premier league teams in pre-season. A Chelsea-Everton final after we beat Juventus and then Real Madrid could be interesting though

Apparently Valencia and AC Milan only made one substitution each last night Anyway, I'll be watching this as I wait for Juventus v Everton to kick off 3 hours later at 4am

We have the same problem at Everton. Mirallas is usually better on the left wing however Pienaar is better in the left wing as well. Towards the end of the season they just swapped wings numerous times throughout matches.

Certainly came out of nowhere, I don't know too much about him tbh. ABM (AnyoneButMartinez)

Reports from America at the moment are: Match 1: 27th July _ Valencia-Milan in Valencia Match 2: 30th July _ Chelsea-Inter in Indy Match 3: 31st July _ Juventus-Everton in San Francisco Match 4: 1st August _ Real Madrid-LA in Phoenix. winners semi finals: Winner of match 1 (Valencia/Milan) v Winner of match 2 (Chelsea/Inter) Winner of match 3 (Juventus/Everton) v Winner of match 4 (Real Madrid/LA) and then the winners of those play each other in the final. The losers play in a match for 3rd/4th place. Losers semi finals: Loser of match 1 (Valencia/Milan) v Loser of match 2 (Chelsea/Inter) Loser of match 3 (Juventus/Everton) v Loser of match 4 (Real Madrid/LA) And then the winners play each other in the 'losers' final and the losers play in a match for 7th/8th place

We meet again. No idea how we got ourselves in this tbh, we have great support in the states but it is still a surprise. I think we will play Valencia, Chelsea and one of the Italians.

I don't know how you guys cope with talk of a new manager every season, it's emotional trauma!

Didn't really see it but it just seems like Baines stood his ground tbh. I'd love to know how Torres ended up with blood under his eye when distin went into his stomach haha

You think? Thought Torres threw himself ten yards towards our goal when Fellaini touched him in our box. I think that was outside the box from Distin on him then too.