Castiel

Man of the match was Keeper Rob Green in my eyes. And anyone who remembers Chelsea v Spurs when we mostly agreed Cech was MotM can see why I think so. Even though it was a friendly I feel like we robbed Mexico of that win, spare some flashes of hope in the second half it was a shambles. Mexico were pretty toothless in attack, but if we're going to concede that much possession and completely flounder in defence/mid field against Spain, Argentina or Brazil we'll be cut to pieces. I guess we'll just have to see if the addition of the Chelsea boys on Sunday helps our case. Still looked like the age old England problem though, didn't look like a team effort at all - just 11 individual efforts.

Cracking goal from Glen Johnson, 3-1. First goal we really deserved.

Absolutely dire. We only got 2-0 up to begin with thanks to Crouch's ridiculous height. We've got nothing on the favourites.

Anyone watching? No Chelsea contingent but we might get to see Carragher lose us the game. :D

I just realised today that we could potentially draw them as second seed in the Champions League groups. That'd be a fun set of circumstances...

The Aguero carousel has crept back up on us again this summer, after we all swore "never again" last summer. We going to do this every year until he becomes an honorary member of the blue man group? Personally love the player, I think he's like Tevez with more versatility and would be a great signing; but we need to get over it and just see if it happens.

Got to agree with the doubters, let City and the Mancs duel it out over him. I have a feeling he'll flop with the big boys. Might look good with Villa but that doesn't guarantee he'll steal the show in the same way in a Champions League side. Besides there are better options out there, the only advantage he'd give us is being English (with the home grown rule). He certainly isn't worth £30 mil to us. Make a bid to inflate his price and pull out at the 11th hour :D

We can't win really can we. Back under Jose they called us boring, now they say we're not as unbeatable. I don't really give a fat rats ass what Fergie has to say. He should concentrate on his own teams failures rather than our success - but nothing is ever Man Uniteds fault is it?

Liverpool?! :D

Congrats to Inter, and to Jose - you can't deny they're a class act and can deliver results. That trophy must be ours soon

Can't see Bayern breaking the Inter dobule layered wall. If it could keep Barca out it'll keep Bayern out, especially with Ribery injured. I expect they'll play the second half safe and wait for the opportunity to add the winner on the break.

It'll be a feat if Jose can apply his tactical defending to a team that'd buy an attacking goalkeeper if such a thing existed.

I think someone said already, but if Inter win it's starting to look like a requiremnt to beat Chelsea to win the CL - no wonder we can't win it, we can't play ourselves. 2004/05 - Out to Liverpool in Semi's - Liverpool Won it 2005/06 - Out to Barca in First Knockout - Barca Won it 2006/07 - Out to Liverpool again in Semi's - Milan won it (Trust them to screw up the trend) 2007/08 - We all remember this year. 2008/09 - Out to Barca in the Semi's - Barca won it 2009/10 - Out to Inter in first knockout - Inter win it?

I'm just gonna enjoy watching such a high stake game as a neutral. We don't get many opportunites to do that anymore.

Any news of our involvement in this?

I felt a bit sorry for him after we won the FA cup, don't get me wrong I loved winning the double. But the manner we took it, the penalty miss, on the cusp of victory, 2 years in a row must have been hard. I think he'd have rathered a 0-3+ convincing Chelsea victory than to have amazing luck all through the game only for it to fail when it counted the most. Good luck to him whever he goes next, hopefully not West Ham though.

"A Manchester United fan in Nigeria killed four people when he drove his minibus into a crowd of Barcelona supporters after his team lost the Champions League final, according to police." http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/foo...icle6379465.ece Remember this last year? Talk about bitter.... The terrible Barca riots going on last night after they won La Liga reminded me of it. Congrats to Barca, Inter, Bayern and whoever else joining us at Champion status btw. And yet we're evil in the eyes of the press?

You know every day I see new tabloid links connecting us to him and I'm starting to imagine how deadly we'd be with Torres and Drogba up front. Could any defence in the world withstand that? I wouldn't worry about his love of Liverpool either. He's a professional, and Atletico was his boyhood club - any scoucer love is just propaganda. He joined them to win trophies ironically. In fact a great pro to signing him would be how much it'd piss them off. Can you imagine if he scored a winning goal against them in blue?

Agree with the original post and yeah in a fair world the home United game was really a stalemate and luck produced the points for us there (though my sympathy for the questionable free kick is completely voided by Evan's drop kick on Drogba's chest). I love how we've beaten United in every encounter this season in all competitions.

I don't like the idea of Cole going to the mancs on a free and stealing the show over there. That'd be a tough pill. But its silly season as Fergie likes to say, thank God we have the world cup to detract from the tabloid transfer rampage that is likely to ensue. Personally I think Ballack, Deco, Belletti and Carvalho are on the way out. If that's the case then we certainly need reinforcements to cover - and we need to address the front line age issue. Also, as far as Kalou has come lately, does anyone else think he might be a bit out of his depth here? If he played for a mid table team he'd be their star but it just occurred to me that maybe he's being forced to play at a level he just isn't capable of and there are much better options out there for his position. He's almost like our Berbatov except his shortcomings are masked by our squads depth. Not to slate him or anything, I still think he's one of the most improved players of the season. I want to see Aguero and Dzagoev come in most of all.

Owen Hargreaves is still alive?

I just can't see it happening. City are going to make a ridiculous bid, and even if Torres himself refuses to go there (he's wasted 3 years on a project already) and would RATHER join us or even United - that City bid will be the standard price Hicks and Gillett will expect for him. Figures in the realms of £70m are simply not going to happen.

Exactly. Personally I'd have given it to Rooney since he single handedly dragged United through this season with his leadership and personal ability. Well we all saw what happened to them when he gets injured. I think if given the responsibility he'd take it to heart and make sure England pushed to the end. I certainly feel Rio and Gerrard are awful choices. If you must disbar Terry, give it to Rooney + Lampard!

The talk of us buying success is most hilarious to me. How do they think the mancs got successful, and Liverpool before them? This holier than thou attitude the reds have is what irritates me, not their jealousy that just makes winning sweeter. Same applies to Barcelona which is why I was so happy to see Jose expose their darker side in the CPL. Man City on the rise, Chelsea in dominant position. Liverpool burning, United a financial timebomb and Arsenal without two pennies to rub together - the 21st century is going to be a blue era. Get used to it.

As much as this whole Terry disbarred from the captaincy thing annoys me, its happened and we're moving on. But why Rio? I don't think I've seen him play at all this season and I watched a fair few Utd games when we depended on their results. Surely Rooney or Lampard would have been much better choices considering the seasons they've both had - not to mention being present for most of it.