Flanders

A defence of Hutton, Woodgate, King and Bale looks good on paper IF it gets games together. I think Jenas and Huddlestone are capable of more than they have shown so far as well. As stated, they have a lot of players to bed in, but they could be a threat. A lot will depend on the forward they sign, I've not seen much of Pavlychenko but he may be a more of a target man than Berbatov which would suit the signings they are making. I can see them breaking the top four this year if they start well, big if though!

We could lose the title in that couple of weeks.

Transfers we make will be similarly structured, won't they? We will receive income from these transfers over a period of time and trade this off against players we sign but pay for over a period of time too.

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He's sh!te. A lazy flash in the pan. If he was seriously good, why is he 27 already? Hopefully someone will pay serious money for him and regret it, just not us.

New Anfield. Sometime the obvious answer is the correct one. If someone wants to pay a gazillion to name it after their brand then let them, for obvious reasons. It's just a new stadium, it will never be another anfield.

Torres will get extra days off. Isn't the Alonso/Barry debate done to death? Silva looks a very good player, not sure he is what we need though, we want someone who will stay wide imo. Arshavin doesn't look so good after that match, he is very over rated on the back of a couple of good games. Thankfully our manager has a bit more planning in his transfers, signing him would be a disaster.

We'd play 433 Torres Villa Babel Barry Masch Gerrard Seems a bit of a waste of Fernando on reflection.

I think stats on passing need to be taken in context with the teams they play for. Possibly Villa play a more direct game than us?Compare there International stats on passing for a more level playing field.

Indeed. Selling Alonso and potentially ending up with Milner and Barry is no improvement. It only gets worse when Downings name is mentioned! If Rafa buys Barry for 18M and lets Alonso go, he will be under considerable pressure if we don't start the season extremely well. Pehaps Rafa thinks the key to title success is overblown English players, there is a lot more to ManU and Chelsea than their expensive English players.

Isn't he 28? Not interested maybe, but not over the hill yet. He could make a huge impact.

f***ing Sky

It's good to see a Manager using a bit of foresight and selling a player while his stock is high. Rafa knows how much he was planning to use Alonso next year, regardless of whether you agree with that or not, it would have seen his value decrease if we kept him on the bench until January like we ndid with Sissoko. I'm sure we lost a few million in holding on to Sissoko instead of letting him go last Summer, we kept him but he didn't get the chance this season to add to his value, just the opposite in fact.

Given the role Kuyt has in Rafas current team, which he performs at best adequately, I would hope a signing will be made for that position. When I think of hard working right sided players, Owen is certainly not in my thoughts. And you can't dismiss wages, we have just got rid of one player who was permanently injured and earning a fortune, why replace him with another?

So you would rather start this season with Owen on the right than Kuyt? I wouldn't. As for a 'keeping things ticking' option, the wages MO would be on should pay for the finished article.

I didn't watch the game tonight and I do think Barry could be a good signing for us, I just worry how much he will cost. That said, I have no idea how much we have to spend this summer so my concerns are pretty baseless. It's not PC but I would like to see another quality English player (thats isn't a c***) in the side.

Barry is not going to get 10 goals or so if he is playing deep next to Mascherano. At least Alonso can pick it up deep and dispatch it to someone in an attacking position, Barry doesn't have that same ability. I'd like to see us sign Barry and sell Alonso if it earns us money to towards our other transfers. Barry provides more 'possibilities' than Xabi and thus might mean he equates to two signings in one AND we profit overall on the Alonso/Barry transactions. However, I think we will overpay for Barry (12M) and receive only 10M for Xabi.

It really isn't that difficult. It means we have been the best team in European competition over the last few years. It's better than being second best, tenth best or sixty-ninth best but no, they won't be engraving our name on a trophy. Is there a yawn smilie?

.....because they are a)stupid b)idiots c) stupid idiots?

How many of our greats have won The "Ballon d'Or" whilst playing for us? I'd sooner have Henry next year than Owen, and he is past his best as well.

Apart from whether or not he would be a good signing. As you were everyone.

Pennant is piss poor, Kuyt marginally better with better work ethic. Until a significant improvement is available and affordable, Kuyt is going to play. It's surely that simple, isn't it?

LOL. You are good. Don't let them get you down.