Celery1989

I'm absolutely loving how things are at the moment: we're playing great football, consistently winning and yes we should naturally take a lot of pride in that. If things carry on as they are then we have a fantastic chance of winning the league. But I'm getting sick of the sensationalist articles constantly being written in the media, proclaiming us as Champions already and speculating as to how many points we're supposedly guaranteed to get. There are 26 matches left to play in the league, any number of things could happen in that time. We've not won anything at all yet and it would be nice if the media could remember that. City will come on strong as they normally do, we may pick up injuries, lose a few games that we shouldn't and suffer from a fixture pileup; the one thing that is guaranteed is that the league will not be plain sailing, although yes of course we look like very strong favourites at the moment.

Definitely. The fanbase is more polarised than it's ever been with at least 60% of them who want him gone.

Just got back from Germany. Awesome trip, fantastic performance. Düsseldorf is a lovely city as is Cologne. Thanks to everyone who went out there, sorry if you had to put up with my drunken ramblings at any point!

Not a lot makes sense with United these days.

Hate him but Suarez for me. Aguero and Robben are very close.

Agreed with this word for word. The one I wanted was Kroos as well, but Fabregas has been excellent. I would like to see him improve defensively though I must say. Here's a thought I had regarding Reus: Many have expressed doubt as to how Hazard and Reus would be able to co-exist; both players like to cut in from the left and then wreak havoc on their right. We had a similar dilemma in 2004 with Duff and Robben. They were two wingers who were naturally left sided. Ultimately the alternated between the left and right side to devastating effect. I wonder whether Mourinho has a similar strategy in mind here.

A few players that I'd like to stand up for who've been mentioned here. 1) Florent Malouda - Granted he was disappointing in his first couple of seasons and also his game disintegrated pretty quickly under AVB. BUT, he was very good under Hiddink, memorably setting up Drogba's equaliser against Everton in the FA Cup Final. In the Double-winning season, his massive upturn in form during the second half of the season was arguably what drove us to the title; Lampard and Drogba had been scoring plenty up til that point, and continued to do so, but the goals and assists that Malouda added were vital. Malouda also carried that form into the start of our title defence where we swept West Brom and Wigan aside 6-0 in the opening weeks. I can't see how some have included them in their worst XI's. Sure, his attitude may not have been the best at times but his contributions were still vital. 2) Yury Zhirkov - Over his whole Chelsea career he didn't justify the money that we paid for him; he was injured too often and when fit didn't perform enough of the time. However, many forget that Ashley Cole was injured for several months during the Double-winning season and Zhirkov did a perfectly capable job filling in. I remember he got a few important assists during this time, away at Wolves and also at home to Villa during the 7-1 win. Again, he wasn't exactly a 'hit' as far as transfers are concerned, but he made important contributions when needed.

I wouldn't want a situation like Man City where the entire Upper Tier is empty for Cup games. That would just be embarrassing.

Shearer all day long for me. He actually performed at major tournaments.

Not gonna lie I think we'd struggle to sell out 60k. For Premier League games I think we might just about fill out the ground but for CL group games and other cup games there'd be so many empty seats. I think 50-55k would be ideal for us.

Yep, it was in fact the very first Premier League goal of the Abramovich era, at the Kop End no less. He was absolute crap though the rest of that season, went on loan back to Argentina and never came back. Part of the reason I put him in the team was because he was one of the very best CM's in Europe at Lazio but then at United and subsequently Chelsea was useless.

Exactly. And why would Bale want to leave? I'm sure he wants to win La Liga at least once over there.

I think I'd crash the server on my own .

Dumping Torres to Milan, for me, capped off what had already been a remarkably successful summer transfer window. So glad to be shot of him, he really doesn't offer anything at all any more.

Been in great form of late and would walk into all but 2/3 teams in the world. I just think that Real are at their most clinical, powerful best when Bale is in the side. James hasn't been particularly stellar at RM so far, why not drop him, but Isco in as no.10 and then have Bale on the right?

I guess I'm more sympathetic than most in that I wouldn't want us to give up on Salah yet. He's probably our fastest player, his link up play is decent at times. I won't defend his shooting though, that's been abysmal. What's clear to me is that he needs a lot of development, his overall game is very raw. I'd send him on loan either to the Bundesliga or a midtable PL club and see how he does. I'd rather we had someone homegrown like Baker or Boga as the 5th AM seeing as whoever it is will only play in the cups unless we suffer a raft of injuries in those positions. Seems like a bit of a waste to not have a homegrown player there.

Here's my team, combining personal dislike, lack of ability and overall disappointment in each case. Not necessarily in that order! Given my age, my most vivid initial memories of individual players are from the '97 Cup-winning team so looking at players since then: -------------------------Bosnich----------------------- Bosingwa---Ben Haim---Bogarde---Del Horno --------Sidwell------Jokanovic------Veron--------- --------------De Lucas--------Benayoun------------ --------------------------Torres------------------------- Bench: Boulahrouz, Lambourde, Maniche, Mutu, Sutton - A fairly flexible set of subs!

Bear in mind as well that there is a massive Hispanic contingent that follow the MLS. Whichever franchise landed Torres would sell sh*tloads of shirts.

I take it he knows someone?

Just as well you've got the Shed End then .

Just as well that Sturridge is on the mend. Or failing that they've got the mercurial talents of Rickie Lambert and Fabio Borini to call upon .

To be honest I don't think Rooney has ever been a world-class player, not for United and certainly not for England. He had the potential but for one reason or another he never quite realised it to the full. He had his peak during the season where we won the Double, he pretty much carried that United side playing up front on his own and scored 34 goals in total. I though he'd kick on from there, but his game stagnated and has now been on the decline for a few years. 100 caps is still an achievement, however you look at it. But he'd be pretty low on my list of top, consistent performers in the England team over the last 10 or so years.

Bale would be an absolutely awesome signing and would make our attack truly terrifying. Hazard Oscar Bale in behind Costa…wow. I can't see how we could afford it/justify it though from an FFP perspective. RM would surely look to sell at about £100m, even over a huge 6 year contract Bale would cost us £16+ million a season in FFP terms. I can't see Bale wanting to leave though. Real Madrid are the club he's always wanted to play for. And I don't see RM wanting to sell him either. Sure, Isco is playing well in Bale's absence but there's no doubt they are a better side with Bale in the team rather than Isco (who, in fairness, is a very fine player in his own right).

Sounds like Dusseldorf is the place to be. Can also get a train direct to the stadium, takes an hour.

Hi mate, Welcome! Are you David Chidgey by any chance?