MFletcher

A very good article indeed.

I do think our long term strike partnership will be Babel and Torres. I think he has the potential to be a superstar, but he isn't a left winger.

When G&T reached 90%, that forced an automatic buyout of the remaining shares - meaning they are in complete control of the club. That is my understanding anyway.

Babel wouldn't be playing as a winger though. He'd be playing as a left sided forward - much more advanced. That's where he's played for Ajax and the Netherlands for the past couple of years. He knows the position.

I find it hard to believe that the Don would admit our transfer budget. However, I don't find the gist of the article hard to believe. I reckon Crouch and Riise will both be available in January. Riise only has 18 months left on his contract as well - unless I'm mistaken.

Given Diouf's contribution to the club, I'm quite sure that Anelka would have been a much better player for us. Much, much better.

It's a ridiculous format and I'm glad we don't subscribe to such a b******s way of doing things.

.....................................Torres Babel ..........................Nasri...........................Menez Interesting, no?

In fairness, Tribal just lift their rumours from other websites. They don't have three geeks sitting in a room, looking at FM and deciding to link this player with that team today.

When I saw the teamsheet, I was concerned about the Sissoko/Gerrard partnership and Leto starting. I also thought that Voronin should have been up front with Torres.

He thrives on through balls. I think he needs a number 10 behind him, someone astute enough to know when to play him in and when to play it elsewhere. Someone like Samir Nasri. I think we'd see the best out of him then. He's still done exceptionally well this season.

We do miss Alonso, but I'd be devastated if we didn't sign Masch permanently. I'd sell Sissoko before I'd let Masch leave.

Who does Masch have to aim at? Pennant and Riise were on the wings yesterday. The two of them are incapable of incisive runs forward when they don't have the ball. Mascherano is a brilliant player. I need only look at the CL semi, Arsenal at home, Milan to know that he has the potential to be, if he is not already, the best player in the world in his position. He has some games were he misplaces his passes, but he has no-one to aim for. At the Copa America, he had Riquleme and Veron in the same midfield to receive the ball. For us, we have the static Riise and Pennant on the wing and only really Gerrard for the simple pass. Either that or he can look backwards, but Masch always looks forwards when he gets the ball and that's the way I want him to play. He's always closing down the opposition, he has one of the best tackles in the game and he has fantastic positional awareness. I'm struggling to understand how anyone could really believe Masch to be anything other than a fantastic player. No offence Elisha, but you are badly, badly mistaken on this one.

Every time Masch plays, he always seems to be the best, most effective player on the park. I'd have him in the "spine" of my team, but I appreciate that other people don't think the same.

I would break the bank to sign Messi. The kid is already one of the best players in the world.

You realise that Ronaldinho hasn't played the last two games for Barca because of "injury"? He was substituted in the Lyon CL game and a section of the crowd jeered him. He has "refused to play" in the last couple of games and has been doing "personal work" in the gym. He also broke a curfew imposed by the club by going out to a club. I'm not sure Rafa would buy him. His raw talent alone would justify taking a chance at that price, but I really doubt he'd come here given the weather etc. Two of the reasons he cited for moving to Barca were the weather and the culture.

I consider Mascherano the best defensive midfielder in the world. I think he would allow Gerrard to bomb forward from the centre with much more certainty. I think Alonso is better beside Masch as well, because he's able to get forward and shoot much more. However, any combination of Gerrard/Alonso/Mascherano is the best in the league. Never mind Sissoko/Lucas. I do think Gerrard should be on the right with the other two in centre midfield, but that's not going to happen. I'm sure I read when Masch signed that when Rafa went to speak to him, his "long-term" plan for Masch in our midfield was him behind Alonso with Gerrard on the right. I remember there being a lot of confusion as to why Momo wasn't in there as well.

United's squad depth is very, very poor. Their first team has some real talent - Ronaldo etc. - but their "reserves" are really youth and utility players. They're a good side, but their squad is much weaker than people seem to think.

Exactly. His list of injuries since December 2005 goes: - Broken Foot (Four and a half months) - Cruciate ligament damage (knee) (Ten months) - Concussion (Couple of weeks) - Groin (A month) - Hernia (Possibly two months) They're all different injuries and there isn't a hamstring there. A great player for us, but he will never be the player he was around 2001-2002. I didn't particularly like the way he handled himself in the summer of 2005, but he was very important to us during some rather lean years. I loved him when he was here, but he's not the 18 year old kid screaming past the Argentine defence any more. He's a 28 year old injury-ravaged striker who can't seem to get a run of games behind him and hasn't for a good 18 months now. He wouldn't improve our team and if we signed players based on their past exploits with us, we'd be calling Gary Mac out of retirement. To be honest, his current predicament at Newcastle (who won't be winning anything any time soon - already their first team have been knocked out of the Carling Cup to Arsenal's reserves and kids) serves him right. He mucked about with his contract, was sold at a ridiculously low fee to a club where he could "win trophies". They didn't. We wouldn't meet Madrid's asking price and he moved to Newcastle to secure his England place instead of holding out for a move back to us.

I speak as a fan of Trezeguet, but he's not the sort of partner Torres needs to thrive.

I got 10 myself. I had Hobbs in place of Finnan.

Torres Benayoun Arbeloa

We have to respect his religious beliefs. As oran says, it's an extremely important day for Jews and we should respect that.

Mascherano Torres Arbeloa

Benayoun was never going to play well when he's out on the left and Croch is up front. He needs to the front players to be making runs, so thathe can look for the wee through balls eg. Torres first goal in pre season, Kuyt's second against Toulouse. With Crouch in the team, he'll be looking for crosses. Out on the left, he'll have to cut back on to his right. It's not his natural game. Benayoun is a great little player, but he wasn't used correctly or in a team that suited his qualities yesterday and he looked poor as a result.