StevieH

If you are genuinely in for Willian it means Bale is gone right?

Think Michu is excellent myself. Be better in a top team too. Smart player.

Went very quiet though in the backend of the season. Did he get worked out a little.

Incidentally, you might have read our rather large reservations about Willian. Seeing as Liverpool are also supposedly in for him what are your thoughts? Its an aweful lot of money being asked for a player that were not very excited about signing!

I think we need him more than you do mate. But I'll be a bit pissed if we pay as much as 30m for him, he's not *that* good. After the summer we've had we need a statement signing really.

City will batter the barcodes tonight. Jovetic is going to be a revelation.

Think Michu is excellent myself. Be better in a top team too. Smart player.

Also talk of them offering 20m for ex-manc Paul Pogba. This is not strategic stuff.

Arsenal bid 10m for cabaye according to George caulkin of the times. Bid rejected as 'derisory'.

It's irrelevant who the manager of Stoke is. Even Bob Paisley would have it to do to keep this mob in the Premier League. They are what they are. Shawcross,Huth,Wilson,Whelan and N'Zonzi have been and always will be slow and cumbersome and no amount of training will change that. If anybody is to blame,it's Pullis and is idea of total football by gathering together the biggest and slowest players in the League. If anything,the introduction of Adam and Pennant livened them up slightly.

well obviously it isn't irrelevant because pulis got them to unprecedented heights with his admittedly backwards approach. but the fans didn't like it so they brought in someone not exactly renowned for playing champagne passing football and asked him to get them playing passing champagne football with, as you say, a squad full of yard dogs and orcs.

perhaps i'm biased because i simply don't like hughes and don't understand why he's considered a decent manager when his track record is so patchy and his soundbites are pure management consultancy gobshitery. won't lose any sleep if they get relegated at any rate.

Wilian - Liverpool or Spurs?

To be fair BB after your recent transfer debarkles i can't see your owners paying out more than 20m for anyone

and yet we've offered in excess of 20m for two different players this summer already in mkhitaryan and diego costa. so apparently the owners are happy to do so.

arsenal will swoop in with a bid of 30m + 1 euros for willian and get him. he will go there and be the next gervinho.

6-0 at half-time. ridiculously good. 77% possession.

I'm a big Barca fan but I'm not happy with the state of La Liga. Its more and more a two horse race. You would think that the powers that be would see this is not good for the league in the long run, but no indication of any change. Plus, for Barca and Real Madrid, its not good preparation for CL play to be beating up on La Liga clubs week in and week out. No competition makes for a poorly tested club come CL crunch time.

agree, it's a real shame what's happened to la liga - barca and madrid will probably only drop points in three or four matches this season. sid lowe writes extensively about this in the guardian and is always worth a read.

Seems he's said yes to southampton

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11861/8877639/transfer-news-southampton-sign-pablo-osvaldo-from-roma

Ive been having a sneeeky feeling swansea are gonna stutter this season and 4 me Southampton are quietly sneaking up on the outside

Big signing for Southampton. Osvaldo is a born scorer of goals. Now...to keep him under control is another thing. Having an Argentine manager can't hurt.

southampton have made three big signings right up their spine this summer in lovren, wanayama and now osvaldo. showing real intent. and pochettino seems to know his business too.

6-0 at half-time. ridiculously good. 77% possession.

Ian Holloway.....absolute legend. Good luck to him for all matches except against us! COYS

legend? he's a david brentesque knob.

on the subject of coverage, the bbc's flagship and time-honoured match of the day, not content with inflicting alans shearer and hansen on us, never mind robbie bloody savage and sundry other neanderthal morons incapable of completing a coherent sentence, during the arsenal - villa match flashed up on the screen 'was it a penalty? tweet 'yes' or 'no' to @bbcmotd'. bastards, bastards.

Football is a mega world-wide business now if you have not noticed J&D.

And if that's the case, ours is being run quite badly at the moment. They are turning a silk purse into a sow's ear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gSFEaI4HdA&feature

brutal stuff that. but entirely fair comment.

Al Jazeera have decided to show all the goals "as they go in", which in other words is more airtime for the witless Keys and Gray.

Could not be more irritating, they are both so far up their own <deleted>.

does this mean that they interrupt the live match you are watching to show you a goal from a game you probably don't care about?

They squeeze two pictures onto the screen, cut the sound from the feature match and give us the benefit of their wisdom as if that's anything worth watching.

that's outrageous. you're watching the match you're watching for a reason.

First game of the season. Fans start leaving the stadium with 10 minutes to go

Fans singing "You Dont Know What You're Doing"

Its the Arsenal fans who are the joke here. I didnt realise until yesterday what fairweather supporters they really are.

Wenger has sold or loaned out 28 players. And now he can barely put an XI out. I think people are entitled to question his (and the boards) judgement.

I can't say I'm jumping up and down with glee.

I just think that the more people that tell him to buy players then the more he wants to do the opposite !

well they have spent years telling us all "arsene knows".

Al Jazeera have decided to show all the goals "as they go in", which in other words is more airtime for the witless Keys and Gray.

Could not be more irritating, they are both so far up their own <deleted>.

does this mean that they interrupt the live match you are watching to show you a goal from a game you probably don't care about?

A win and no mention of top 4, very strange

one game at a time alfie.

What struck me about the game was how poor Stoke were.A backline that is painfully slow and a midfield of snails. Crouch looked like he'd been out on the piss all night. Forget the scoreline and the late rally by Stoke,Liverpool should have been away and gone. Bergovic kept the score down with a man of the match performance. It's going to be a long hard season for Hughes to keep this lot up.

they're a leslie 'mark' hughes team. he's an awful manager. we should have been out of sight given the chances we made but their keeper had a fine match as you say. hughes' attempt to change the game consisted of putting on two ex-liverpool players in the belief that they'd score against their former team.

As bad as Stoke was, Liverpool played with great fire and a deserved victory. Rodgers may stick his foot in his mouth at times but he clearly has drilled his players well. Very impressive, and with his no nonsense stand with Suarez he has earned some respect from me. If Pellegrini can get City playing with that kind of fire and team camaraderie I'll be thrilled.

we did well. coutinho can be unstoppable if he wants to be, toure had a good match and showed real leadership qualities, sturridge looked on song and took his goal really well, thought henderson had a good game too myself. i know begovic played well but it would be nice to take a couple more chances and get more comfortable so that we're not at risk of a late equaliser. brilliant save from mignolet on the peno though.

same here. i still think bale will end up at madrid this summer.

He's issuing an apology apparently. And is back training with the first team. But he's still a <deleted>.

Moyes is correct in his statement...........so what?

Every game United play is a big game,everyone wants to beat the best don't they.....we are used to it.

I think United and Moyes will be a much stronger team this year also...... in a league that will be harder to compete in/win because of the usually lesser teams having better squads and resources nowadays.

Moyes is sounding like a right knob, whinging already and the season hasn't even started. And dare i say it, he looks frightened to death.

Man up and grow some balls ginge

he sounded bloody ridiculous. and unlike when ferguson spouted that crap to intimidate referees, with moyes it just sounds like he's getting his excuses in early and is terrified.

however i really, really hope the nickname 'mr giant eyes' catches on.

dont know what this is like but thought you guys might b interested

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b038405b

it's apparently very good. i'm waiting to read the book myself first before i listen to that though.

Bloody good signing Capoue. another I'm surprised arsenal weren't in for.

1. Chelsea

2. Liverpool

3. Man U

4. Arsenal

18. Hull

19. Sunderland

20. Crystal Palace

But, I'm a Yank, so what do I know.

if you're putting liverpool second, about as much as your compatriot john w henry mate.