The only place to be

The Arsenal example is overused. Their problem came from underinvesting in their squad and making bad purchases of overpaid, established players. We're still investing in our squad so we're a long way from doing what they did. Luiz is a great player, but he's not at that point where he's the rock we build upon. He still needs to show he can be relied upon at all times - he's gone some way to doing that but he needs to show me a few more months of consistency before he's a key player. He's not yet at that point where you consider him a cornerstone of the team and that's why most people agree that we need to buy that no-nonsense defender in the transfer window.

For me he's still 3rd choice CB and 2nd choice RB so I'd bite their hands off Suarez-style if that offer was even close to being true (£17 million would probably be good enough in all honesty). Whatever happens we still need to sign a centre-back this summer and it would be tempting to take that £25 million and put in an offer for Varane straight away.

I think it's remarkable that we seem to have the monopoly on strong, powerful, technically sound young English midfielders at the moment. The one thing this country has struggled to produce is a Vieira/Toure type player. Probably the closest we've got is Jack Rodwell, or maybe Pogba (not English but I'm struggling here). Yet it's quit conceivable that in 3 years time we're lining up with RLC and Chalobah in the double pivot. Is he ready now? Nope. I agree he should spend another year here as part of the youth setup and get game time in league cup games (maybe even CL group games) but I don't see him going out on loan. In fact I don't know if a loan is something every player needs so it'll be interesting to see what development path this kid takes.

Positional sense and decision making come with time. He has the physical and technical skills needed and has looked good at centre-back for the youth team. Too early to say at this time but he's got a good chance of making it.

It really isn't. Both the offers for Luiz and Ivanovic (if they're real) should be considered. At the moment, neither one of these players is a key player in my opinion. Luiz is close to being one, but we still need another no-nonsense player alongside him. As for Bane, if the rumours of a £25 million bid from Monaco are true then I don't know how we could say no to that. It's not a case of us being a selling club, but in the modern game every club needs consider any worthwhile offer especially if it gives them freedom to invest to make the club better.

And you're basing that on what exactly? The amount of bashing some people do is unreal.

He'd have a voice, but I like the system we have in place at this point in time. Jose has to fit into this club as it is in 2013.

American sports fans really aren't as stupid as some people here think. They understand the concept of a friendly match - in fact their own sports teams have exhibition matches before the regular season too, so they knew what this was.

Ignoring the England captain....this shows a tremendous amount of ignorance about our academy, and academies in general. The quality of player we are turning out now is virtually unrecognisable from the ones we were turning out ten years ago, as evidenced by our recent Youth Cup successes. Wrong on both accounts in my opinion. Nat has been remarkable in midfield for both Watford and England u21s and has all the skills needed to make it as a top class midfielder. I also like him as a CB and think he coud be exceptional there, but I think you'd be losing a lot of what he offers if he did. Ake has everything needed physically and technically to be a midfielder for this club, but simply needs to continue his growth as a professional footballer. He also needs support. Both of those players are excellent but I think you've missed a lot of the changes that have been made in terms of youth development over the last 18-24 months. We seem to have a more focused view of what to do with youngsters and Nat Chalobah's progress will hopefully become a blueprint for others to follow. To be honest the rancid bait you laid down earlier doesn't smell much fresher although I think it's gone from antagonistic to simply uninformed.

I know exactly how muscle can help key areas that are prone to injury, but I've also seen players who have overtrained and had too much muscle for their body to either cope with, or it simply limits their performance in other areas. Now whilst I applaud your sporting prowess, I think it's got the square root of fuck all to do with Ruben Loftus Cheek who is a fairly large man in person. Specifically pointing that out as an area that needs to be improved upon just struck me as odd. Not sure what your problem is with me that would require that little bit of name-calling, but I just disagree with what you said.

And Falcao has left a team who will be in next season's Champions League to sign for one that isn't.

That's some rancid bait you're fishing with there. Ake is a fantastic talent and at the moment his best asset is probably his versatility, but given time he could make a good run at a midfield spot in the future. He has all the skill and a fantastic reading of the game (as anyone who watched the Everton game will attest to) but he just needs to continue his growth.

Is he very injury prone? He's had a couple along the way but nothing serious and nothing that would make me think he needs to gain any more muscle. He just needs to keep doing what he's doing and I could see him being part of our League Cup squad and maybe even the Premier League squad towards the end of the season.

I can't see any reason for him to 'gain muscle'. He's actually nicely composed at a fairly young age, and probably strong enough to compete with other professionals. Can't see him going on loan next season either which is why it's good that he's got match time on this tour. I suspect he'll get more on the pre-season tour too.

No. We can't play this man in midfield because he's not been on loan to Watford or Swansea. Without that valuable experience, he simply can't be trusted.

If we're actually going after Coentrao then I think it's possible. I like the idea of Ryan more than the reality. He's young, English, local(ish) lad, he looks the part, he's got dreamy eyes .....but I'm still not convinced he's anything more than a back-up. I'm not saying we should sell him, but if Cole and Coentrao are the present and there's a chance that Coentrao and Shaw are the near-future and Shaw is the future then I'm not sure where Bertrand fits into this club. Maybe Jose sees something in him that elevates him to that next level (I think he's a perfectly competent 7/10 in most matches and that's more than good enough for 16 or 17 of the teams in this league) and he's given another year. But it comes back to the same thing - he's played 200 professional games, over 50 for us and a couple of times for England and I don't think I've ever seen 'it' ('it' being that little something special that sets the good apart from the exceptional).

He's a good player, but with Chalobah, Ake, Romeu, Ake and Rami one would have thought creativity in the pivot would've been the most important acquisition. McEachran is still a way off (if ever) and Oscar and De Bruyne have question marks in that position. Modric for me would be the player that makes us favourites for the title.

My Second XI The 'See Ya Later' XI

It was interesting watching the news conference with Perez the other day, because on the ticker there was a story about Anthony Grant being released by some League Two team (I think). This was a kid who Mourinho brought on at Old Trafford, so it gives you an idea of the types of 'eggs' he was being given at that time but also his willingness to use youngsters. In fact if you look at the appearance stats for Mourinho's seasons then there's a surprising number of youngsters who got shots, but I wouldn't say any of them were of the quality we have now and that's not surprising when you look at the investment in the academy that started about a year before Jose turned up. A decade is about how long you'd expect it to take before you saw consistent, high quality graduates.

Same here. The ideal player for our pivot alongside a Romeu or even a Chalobah. Links the defence to the attack, has phenomenal workrate and can also chip in with the odd goal. Plus he knows this league and is proven in it, and it would piss off Spurs fans even more. If we got him then I wouldn't mind bringing back Josh to play understudy to him, plus I think he could be a great influence on Oscar.

The pundits all seemed to favour Mata when it came to player and team of the year honours. Silva was nowhere near those honours this season.

I'm hoping it will be the start of something longer - maybe he can sign the new one at the site of our new stadium.

Amazing to think that we could have this guy, Chalobah, Ake and Romeu driving us on from midfield in a couple of years' time. The day we have these guys in the team and not some of the dead wood we've had there recently will be the day when you know this club is building something truly special.

Came in and did a decent job, so I'll wish him well in Napoli.