The only place to be

Well seeing the poll and the way it seems to be going (anonymous voting this month??) then I'll make my exit speech by giving props to Special Juan, Strike and Skipper in particular. Each of these makes great posts almost daily and are a real credit to this little community. Each has actually provided insight and analysis that has been thought-provoking and actually makes people see players and transfers in a different light, in an entertaining and considered manner. But congrats this month to We Hate Scouse though for his guess in February that Jose would be our new manager.

So you were against us signing Rooney, but think this guy would 'bang them in for fun'? Personally I think this could go either way. Depends on the price and he's a good player, but we're essentially stepping aside and letting City have a run at Cavani and that will please their fans no end.

I'm sure there's people who follow Chelsea who would prefer this guy to Emenalo because he's a 'football man'.....

Timid. Passive. Afraid? Scared? These are the words I think of when I see Josh play nowadays. People comment on his size but whatever his frame might be, he makes himself look half as small. I'm not going to get into the blame game regarding his career, but I'm terrified about his future because of his seeming mental fragility. If you look at players like Wilshere then there's a tenaciousness to their football. It's one thing to have the talent (which Josh has in abundance) but it's another thing to decide to use it and impose yourself on the game. I can't recall ever seeing him really fight, really grab a game by the scruff of the neck and drag his team forward. In terms of loan, I have no idea where we could send him because the team has to really be built around him not just going forward but also in defence. You need players who can cover his deficiencies in workrate and tackling which means a three man midfield is a must (in my opinion). I've said it before but I think that he might be better off staying here and being used off the bench and in league cup games mainly for the influence of Jose. It's tough to expect another team to build around him when he's only there for a year. But it's worrying to think that he's been leapfrogged by Nat who is two years younger than him. Even Ake has caught up with him and if he's not careful then Loftus-Cheek may also be ahead of him in the pecking order for that midfield two before the season is up. Starting to think that this season could be a make-or-break season for him.

As soon as Nat came on we actually looked to move the ball forward with a bit more consideration, rather than lumping it forward. His touch was very assured too and he just looked as classy as he has done for a lot of this season. He's also got a video blog over at the FA's youtube page if anyone's interested, and as young footballers go he seems to have a fair bit up top too. Still think Pearce deserves sacking though. Entrusting young players to a man with such limited coaching skills who shows no ambition to actually play football is disgusting. Beg someone like Hoddle to take over, who at least tries to play decent football and was more than a workhorse for most of his career (and actually had a good coaching record in comparison). No offence to Jason Lowe, but he's really not worth persisting with at this level in my opinion. Honest pro but a dime a dozen in the lower leagues. I like the idea of going with a different type of striker up front, but I think that type of thinking is beyond Pearce. Wickham is his dream idea of a striker, a big and strong throwback. As for Sordell......what the fuck? Any growth that guy has seems to have stalled and some of his touches were abysmal. Nice to see Josh get some time but I'll leave the comments about him in his thread.

Nice, simple, stylish.....well done again Adidas.

Pearce has basically surrendered any notion of using the midfield and is lumping the ball up to Wickham. The fact that he's in charge of the next generation of England talents is criminal, regardless of the results and the lack of ambition on display should see the guy out of a job tomorrow.

Starting on the bench for England u21s tonight, presumably because Stuart Pearce is a no-nothing, buffoonish cunt who is a cancer in the English national setup..... or he's just being rested.

So this is what it felt like when fans of other teams saw us spending £20 million on SWP and £30 million on Shevchenko. Good player but quite a bit over the odds. As for Navas, I'm sure he's much better with the homesickness than he once was but come January I think this guy might be surprised by the shitty Manchester weather. If he makes it to the end of the season without this being an issue then I'll be a tiny bit surprised. Either way, they're building a decent team for next season but I'm still not convinced by Pellegrini.

I think you made a decent point, but I think the bigger issue that could affect Mata is Oscar. When we signed Oscar, I thought he was a potential ballon d'or winner. But this season he's been moved out of position to accomodate Mata who has himself been quite remarkable. The problem is that Mata doesn't contribute enough defensively, whereas Oscar is a tenacious little git with a real bite about him. I'm not sure if we'll sell him, but I think that for Oscar to reach his peak then Mata has to move aside (to the wing or elsewhere) and I think that Oscar has the higher ceiling in terms of what they could become. It's damn near heresy to discuss such a thing and I love everything about Mata both on the pitch and off it, but I think this is an issue that will grow over the next 12 months.

Looks like Karanka won't be coming with Jose. http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11668/8758024/La-Liga-Jose-Mourinho-happy-for-assistant-Aitor-Karanka-to-stay-at-Real-Madrid Wonder who will take that role going forward.

Rio had a great season last year, despite him being a cunt. I don't want to bash JT because he's done so much for this club, but when our backs were to the wall in Barca and you need your leaders to step up what did he do? Some people will say that's unfair and it's one isolated incident and maybe they're right. But that was one of the biggest games in our history and if people want to say that exemplified his leadership qualities then they're more than welcome to, but this isn't the JT of 2010 in my opinion.

A few years ago I'd agree with you in a heartbeat. If you ignore the tabloid stuff then he's a great bloke to have around by all accounts but I honestly don't know if what he brings to the table outweighs the baggage nowadays.

Can't we chuck in as many under-21s as we like? I suppose this is a decent reason to keep him around. I won't lie - a few years ago this would've been a no-brainer because he's a legend at this club, but recent events have soured that somewhat. I honestly don't know if he's still a good enough player anymore either, so this one is all on Jose.

I'm a big advocate of the youth, but if you can get an experienced head to rotate into the team at a fair price then there's really no reason not to go for him. De Bruyne is a great option but his situation is a little up in the air at the moment. He's still about a year or so younger than Mata was when we signed him so another year abroad isn't the worst thing in the world, especially with a World Cup coming up. That's one thing that may convince Sneijder to drop his demands so he can play on a bigger stage and get back into the national squad (apparently he was dropped, can't be bothered to Google).

I thought homegrown status was simply any player association trained for 3 years prior to their 21st birthday?

The rumours put the figure at around that amount if I'm not mistaken, which is pretty much the only reason people here are considering it. They're also said that the wages have to be good value too (but let's get some context - Malouda was on around £100k, Benayoun about £85K and Essien is on around £100k). Hazard, Oscar and Mata are the future of this club (although there's an issue with positions for two of them) but they aren't going to play every minute of every match. Let's not forget that one of them broke at the end of the season after being involved in 62 matches and he missed a European final, simply because we didn't have anyone capable of replacing him. In 2006, Eidur, Robben, Duff, Cole and SWP were all involved in more than 35 matches - that's the type of thing I think we'll get back to so why not get an experienced man like this in IF the circumstances are good?

Exactly. Cavani has re-sale value, is five years younger and if we could ship Torres the other way then that's a massive saving that probably offsets the extra cost in the initial purchase.

I can't see why PSG would let him go on the cheap so it's a lot of money for a player who will be 32 halfway through the season. Plus this would be his last big contract in all likelihood and there are clubs out there willing to pay him the big money - his current club being one of them. Sounds like bad business.

£7 million for a 32 year old in the last year of his contract who is also one of (if not the) biggest earners at the club. Is anyone not tempted by this? Let's be honest.....he's not Frank Lampard.

Despise him? Tell you what....get down the Bridge and try and 'despise' someone like Essien in front of Chelsea supporters and see how that works out. He's a great servant to this club who has suffered two terrible knee injuries and you want to despise him? Fuck me....oh and this isn't you being victimised for holding a contrary opinion (god knows you'd probably love to play that victim card again), but you've got to admit you're being a bit of a .

I've watched Watford a lot and I disagree. Fuck knows what you're on about with the Phil Jones comparison considering he's made that midfield position his own for both club and country. Jones has been used in about 4 different positions over his professional career at United - Chalobah has really only played one or two at most. I'm sure he could play at CB, but he's the complete opposite of the 'traditional English type centre back'. He's the type of ball-playing CB that we tend to say is a continental-style CB which is why Rio Ferdinand was so celebrated in his younger days, and still is to a certain extent. He isn't a ball-lumping Terry Butcher-type by any means, which is pretty much the archetypal English CB because we have tended to value strength and physicality over skill and technique. The one thing that defines Chalobah's game is time - he always has more time on the ball than other players and that is a very unique trait to have. Coaches at this club, Watford and now England place great emphasis on that type of thing especially in the more congested areas of the pitch which is why he has been moved forward. The simple fact is that as a midfielder he has a skill set and physicality that we just don't have in great abundance in this country. Look at Bayern and Javi Martinez (a converted defender) who combined physicality, technique and workrate - that is the future of holding midfielders and the closest we have is Jack fucking Rodwell.

So we're going to ask Oscar, Mata and Hazard to play 60 games again? Fuck it, let's loan them out on days when we've not got a game and see if we can get them into triple figures. And Styles mentioned that this is the type of deal we've stopped making.....no it ain't. People think we just buy young, and on the surface that's true but what we've been targeting is value. Sneijder at £5 million on decent wages offers value a bit like Demba Ba did. At the end of last season we had Yossi Benayoun on the bench - Sneijder would be a nice replacement for him if we look to loan De Bruyne for another season but it depends on the make-up of the squad. If we're going with two players for each position then someone like Sneijder could be ideal as another option in that trio.

He was a centre-back in the academy for much of his time before being moved forward, but he's been used almost exclusively in that role for both Watford and England u-21. Sometimes I'm just unable to comprehend some people's understanding of sport. He's not just 'capable' of playing in midfield, he's fucking good at it and been a revelation there this season. By Luiz him I presume you mean wait until he's 26 and lacks the physical conditioning to play a midfield role - I don't think we're doing that with him.

Capoue is a different type of player. De Rossi is a different type of player and we're linked with him too. Thiago is relatively unproven, 4 times as expensive and would look to be starting so that's a different case. Van Ginkle is seen as a deeper player and again one for the future, also twice as expensive. If we signed him then we may well loan him for a season. Strootman is a different type of player and again, unproven. Nice option but probably more of a pivot player and again more expensive. Benat is a deeper player and I think we've all moved on from him haven't we? Again, I don't know if he's lost his spark. I haven't spoken to him and I don't know his situation, but if Mourinho speaks to him (you could give him his number?) and feels he has a few seasons left in the tank then why not go for him?