Jay007

Oh yeah, I'm not particularly down on Lindelof either - I'm just describing him as a squad player in relation to where we'd want to be. He'll be fine for a lot of ours games, but if you're thinking about Varane or Martinez being injured then you'd want someone with more quality stepping in if we're playing a stronger team during that spell. I think generally we're light in terms of quality/strength in depth in other areas if we're thinking about the longer-term as well, but I think you need to build a strong spine first before addressing the other areas.

I've seen people criticise/mock Onana for the goal but I think it's on Dalot. The way football's played now with keepers expected to be sweepers, you regularly see attempted lobs over the keeper, it's just most of them aren't well-enough executed and end up going over the bar or wide. It's a risk that teams take.

Yeah, I was going to mention that as well as we need cover for Casemiro (and a partner for him in the big games), but I think the CB position in particular is one that hasn't been mentioned as much. On paper, Varane-Martinez could be a great partnership. But Martinez is just coming back from injury and Varane is injury prone. Lindelof is a decent squad player imo and I wouldn't object to us signing Evans for emergency cover given our lack of options, but I think we've missed a trick not signing someone with more quality who could be 3rd choice, at worst, but more challenging to be one of

It's good to get a striker in as we were desperate for one, regardless of the fee and questions over how ready he'll be. However, even if we did sign a more experienced striker instead we'd still be short. Rashford is much better from the left and Martial can't be relied on, both fitness-wise and application. Although we've addressed the GK situation, I still think we're short. I've got concerns about our CB and ST options in particular. I can't see us spending much more without departures though, and even then it might be a push to get anyone else in.

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It would be pretty surprising to see him linking up with Rodgers again, considering their history.

I'm not surprised considering he's been captain most of the time anyway. He's not someone I'd have picked ideally, not sure he has the character/temperament we'd want for one thing, but at the same time he's probably been picked by default since we've hardly got a great choice.

Moussa Dembele is available on a free after his contract has expired at Lyon. He only scored 3 goals last season apparently and the fact he's available on a free suggests his stock has fallen since his time at Celtic and early days at Lyon, but considering we'd ideally be looking for more than one striker I'd consider him. Still only 27 as well, so if he can re-find form then it could be a great signing.

Personally I've lost a lot of interest in football over the last decade or so, but I'm not sure this is happening across the piece. Revenues and interest just seems to keep growing, and that's essentially what's going to stop it from dying. I'd be interested to see analysis of how football's popularity is changing across the world, and whether there's a split between the West or Europe at least, compared to elsewhere. It's essentially going to be a competition between mega-rich states or business groups. I know that I've only known the modern game of big cash, but the gap between the 'hav

Stripped of the captaincy, and rumours that West Ham are circling (though potentially only a loan deal. initially at least). Another positive after De Gea's departure.

Terrible news, hopefully he recovers well.

It was looking likely, but good to see it's finally confirmed. I don't have any ill will towards him really, he was a great goalkeeper for us until around 2018 but his decline after that means it's (finally) the right move for all concerned. It's a positive whatever the case, but hopefully it means we've got something in the offing. Onana's name has been more heavily linked in the past week or so, so there may well be something in that.

It'd be absolutely ridiculous to sign De Gea up again, even with a big pay-cut, especially when we have Henderson on the books. I mean I don't think Henderson is good enough either, but considering De Gea's decline I really don't think he'd be any worse than De Gea, so I'd rather go into the season with him as our number 1 if we're not signing anyone. The fact that a GK of De Gea's experience and previous standing is out of contract, yet doesn't have clubs queuing up to sign him, speaks volumes. We need to be looking forward, not backwards.

I really think we should be calling Chelsea's bluff on this. If they're desperate to get players off their books, then stick with the offer that's on the table and leave it up to them. The amount they're requesting is ridiculous for a player who isn't in their plans and only has a year left on his contract. I do think Mount's a better player than he gets credit for and it's just become fashionable to slate him, but I don't think he's an outstanding player that we'd hugely regret missing out on if they end up selling to someone else. We've been held to ransom too often as it is. If th

I don't want to tempt fate, but they do say no news is good news... I do find it odd that he hasn't signed a new contract yet, just over a week to go until his contract is up. You'd have thought if he was staying it would have been sorted by now, so I do think there is a chance that nothing's going to happen. I'm not getting my hopes up, though.

You'd think there would be such a thing as professional pride or personal ambition, but that doesn't seem to happen much nowadays. He's the United captain and one of his countries first choice players, yet he's 3rd choice at his club and may even be relegated to 4th choice if someone else is signed. You'd think he'd want to actually go and get regular gametime somewhere.

Pretty fortunate win in the end I'd say. Inter really should have taken that to extra time at least based on those 3 moments, but City managed to see it out. It doesn't matter how you do it though.. They've got the missing trophy.

...and there's another miss. He HAS to score that!

The way the game was going I was hoping this was going to be a smash-and-grab by Inter, but it looks ominous now. How neither of those two headers went in for the equaliser I don't know - might finally be City's night in Europe...

Ratcliffe's name has been mentioned as a potential for taking over the Daily Telegraph and Spectator magazine as well, but I'm not sure if his name's just been plucked out of thin air since he's trying to buy us, or whether he's branching out more beyond Ineos.

In terms of quality on the ball and being free-flowing then City were obviously better, but I think overall when you look at the pressure applied by both teams and chances that they had in the final 3rd there really wasn't much of a difference. City's two goals were long-range efforts but they didn't really carve us open and create (m)any clear chances. The problem was that, aside from Garnacho being a danger and a little scramble in the box at the end, we didn't create much of note either.

I think given the deficiencies we have the squad we probably need 4 starters as a minimum, We have weaknesses in other areas but the spine of the team is the priority - GK, CB, DM/CM, and ST. Needing a strong spine sounds like an old cliché but it still applies as much now as it always has. Given the uncertainties over how far the transfer budget will stretch I do think we should be seriously looking at some of the out of contract players, even if they're only cheap options to beef up the squad. Tielemens for one is a no-brainer, despite his recent difficulties with Leicester, consi

I was fearing the worst after they scored so early, but thankfully it didn't turn out that way. In general play there probably wasn't much between the teams, but the difference in quality told in the end. We hardly looked like scoring, Garnacho was our only real attacking threat after he came on. We've known what/where the problems are in the squad, so we didn't learn anything new in that regard. However I think we've had a good season overall, but we've got a lot more work to do.

Job done is all you can say. I don't think we were really any better than Chelsea throughout the game, we were just more clinical and for once took enough chances to win the game comfortably. The second half was a much better performance than the first - we were lucky that Chelsea are so dreadful in attack as we let them get into a lot of good positions in the first half, but it didn't really happen as much in the second. We obviously need to play much better than that if we want to win the final, so I'd leave all of the first choice players out of the Fulham game so that they're a b

I would rest the players who are expected to play for the cup final. I think it's more important to keep playing players to keep momentum going when you're talking about weeks, but missing one game shouldn't be an issue. We need to be as fresh as possible for the final to have any chance of winning it.