Thendo

I don't get why United would need mata? I doubt he would be played in the nr 10 role with Rooney/Kagawa there, they have far more issues with their wingers. but they will probably end up playing him on the wing which is one of the reason he has been struggling for us this season...Why spend £37m on a player you are going to play out of position?

Wow things just got interesting!

These are actually quite funny!

I like this XI, but I would play Ba versus a side like stoke tho.

Feels so strange that we're apparently close to a big signing when there have been so little talk in the media lately about such... I reckon it might be Zouma aswell . Exciting stuff nonetheless!

Wasn't he staying with the u-21/first team this season to get homegrown status, or am I wrong?

Not a red in my book

Mikel on, this is gonna end in double digits!

Gotta sub Eto soon, scoring a bit to much to be a Chelsea striker...

ManU's defence must be one of the worst in the league...seriously

Haha eto hat trick! Whats happening?

Great efficiency so far. Would feel so good if we could bash them with 3-4 goals!

Lol at Ivan starting, wasn't he out for this game. Gotta love Mourinho!

Saw some quotes from Mourinho that Ake will be part of the first team as reserve defender now that Bertrand is on loan. Anyone know if he can play LB or is he mainly CB/CDM?

Shame he joined us at a time when we had abundance of attacking midfielders, hard to break through and get a solid spot in the team with players like Hazard,Oscar, Willian, Mata above you. Goodluck to him and hopefully he will be a success in bundesliga!

@Melanicus Well, it wasn't that likely that we would get him in january anyway, but with all the turmoil that has been at southampton the last days made it look like it would be easier to aquire players from them but now with their chairman is publicly stating that they don't plan to sell anyone and therefore denying all that, sure we could go all-in and bid a massive £30m to get him in this window, but I don't think we are that desperate and/or naive ( atleast I hope we aren't).

Southampton chairman Katharina Liebherr has issued a clear, albeit brief, statement. She said: 'The club has no plans to sell any of the squad during the January transfer window. The manager and the team have my full support.' - (Daily mail) So, no Shaw this window...

So in that case shouldn't Kalas and MvG count as U-21 aswell then? If so we should be fine.

We managed just fine the first half of the season, how many games did he really play tbh ? He's only 24 years old and he needs gametime,we could just damage his career if we let him warm the bench forever. And we also got Kalas so it's 7 defenders for 4 positions, And who knows we might have a recall option if (god help us) both of Cole/Azpi for some reason gets injured...

Why? He isn't going to get many minutes here as it is now anyway, better to let him get some gametime than be on the bench as Jose's 3rd choice LB. On topic: Matic won't start, Lampard fit and Ivanovic is out.

Going on loan to Aston Villa...

I agree, he could possibly compete with Cole for LB and even take the spot as it is now. I just think it could be a sweeter and more attractive deal for them, they know he won't stay at southampton forever and it's a big chance he could be leaving in the summer anyways. At the same time we are not in a great urgency to get a LB since Cole/Azpi is doing fine for now, tho I think it could be a good idea to tie him up for now so we avoid any of the manchester teams or spurs stealing him come summer.

How about buying him in january and loan him back to saints til the summer then let them have Bertrand. Think it could be a fair deal (depending on the price ofc).

So no CFC-players as part of the deal? Amazing if we got him for just 25m Euros...

We're getting closer and closer to the team of 04/05 to dominate the EPL once again! :blue scalf: