BaneIvanovic

£21m for Marchisio is daylight robbery. He can't be going that cheap in this current climate, surely? Don't think the move is feasible but would be the perfect fit for the midfielder that we crave.

Sir Ashley leading the England side out tonight. Fully deserved. :bow: :bow:

Well, that's just downright incorrect.

Go. It's really been painful to watch him as he is the shadow of the beast that he once was. Could do a job in slower paced leagues (like Italy or Spain) but his time is up, unfortunately.

He can score 70 a season for all I care, we just need to get him off our books and look forwards

We're looking at around £15m for Torres, tbh, Perfect time for him to jog on as he's garnered some interest with his Europa League tally.

I've yet to hear a logical argument as to why. I think I'd rather have seen the £6m we paid be burned right in front of my eyes than to have the displeasure of watching Benayoun attempt to play football.

Essien is just on too high wages to justify him being a squad member, especially given that he'd probably be 4th/5th choice CM as things stand (and would most certainly drop down the pecking order if we end up buying someone. Bruma's getting sold, I think, Chalobah will probably be off on loan to a Prem side, Josh will be shipped out on loan, Delac has regressed as a GK and won't count as HG so it's pointless to bring him into the squad so that really only leaves KDB and Lukaku (I'm optimistic that one of Kalas or Omeruo will be involved but I can't see that happening either, another season out on loan for the pair it would seem)

I doubt that's true because it would mean that the spell at Monaco is merely a bona-fide loan move.

De Rossi's is a world class player but he's had a woeful campaign this season.

Class player, but I doubt we'd get him.

Llorente's been nowhere near looking like he's callup worthy this year.

A world class striker, a CM (or two) and possibly another CB and we're sorted. Wallace is coming in June/July so he'll be Paulo's replacement, though I'm unsure if he qualifies for a work permit.

And as I said, players have been getting away with it for a while now so it's pointless to start 'making an example' of players now.

Yeah, so why not bring him back into the side when RDM was gone? There were so many occasions during the season that we could've used him from the bench instead of sicknote Marin or Benayoun. Who cares about what message it brings out, especially after we've been through sagas where managers have been handed their P45s because of player power and disruptive atmospheres in the dressing room being created by certain players. Forcing him to play with kids and treating him like a prisoner when he'd be of use to the team is just wrong, and people bringing up how much he earns is irrelevant. I'm sure if PSG had come crawling or Anji came round, he'd have left. It's not as if Alex and Anelka left for 'footballing reasons'. AVB forced both of them out, btw.

Forcing him to train with the kids because he didn't want to go to Santos (or wherever he was linked with) because he had to take a massive paycut? A contract works two ways and if the board - or whoever decided to do this - felt this way, they've only got themselves to blame for doing the contract in the first place, it's not something you can go back on. Once he was intent on staying to see it out, we could've used him as part of the squad (would've been an upgrade on Benayoun or Marin, that's for sure) or at the very least, offer him out on loan to any interested party.

Yeah, haven't Dortmund been adamant that they'd rather keep him another season and let him go for free than to being forced to sell to Bayern.

The treatment of Malouda has been nothing short of disgraceful, tbf.

He is potentially world class and amongst the best players in Serie A, so whoever gets him, their respective fans will have good grounds on being giddy.

Saying he's easily bullied off the ball is frankly nonsense given one his stronger attributes is his strength.

Of course they won't, but taking away any side's best player will have a drastic effect on productivity and in this case it happens to be the best two players on the planet that we're talking about.

It is if you buy the right players. United have played with two strikers for years, and usually at least one of the two is a world class striker and is a prolific goalscorer. What do you mean Barca and Real can't manage it? They have prolific scorers in Messi and Ronaldo and then have significant goal contributors in players like Fabregas, Villa, Alexis, Pedro and then Ozil, Di Maria, Higuain and Benzema in Real's case. We've got a great spread but need that player up top who can score 20 in the league with ease.

Or why can't we be like Utd and have a spread of goalscorers AND a 20+ goalscorer a season

Not really, only managed 20+ goals in two of his 8 seasons at the club (20 in 06/07 and then of course the mightily impressive 29 in our double winning year under Carlo)

Jimmy Floyd was pretty prolifc, tbf.