VG

doh (clear)

I assume this is wishful thinking? Diego's physicality and makes him well suited to England so a little less convinced of griezmann... Plus his apparent ability to play in a two. But he is a few years younger. And perhaps a little less likely to pick up suspensions.

with rumors that Matic wanted by Juventus if Pogba goes, that's could be either warning off or bidding up price. unless Juve pay up I'm inclined to keep and ship off one of the others (not Nate though - want him given a chance). Or ask for Bonucci in return.

Letting myself get excited about Conte but to manage expectations, two things: 1 we still haven't overhauled the squad and as JoseBlues says, we need some midfield signings to finally take control of the middle of the pitch again 2 Van Gaal did pretty well with Holland last World Cup, but was unable to translate that to club football and a new league That said, can't wait to see how it goes. Can't wait to forget last season.

I don't mind the comment about RLC from Mourinho, although I hope it hasn't dented his confidence. Major question for me which is also the one that applies to our youth policy in general (insert that beating dead horse emoji) - where and when does the tactical learning come in?

Philip Lahm. Also not your typical 'shouty' captain perhaps, although I don't watch enough bayern to know that for sure.

The media and others will be unbearable. Got what they deserved etc. Thing is... It probably is.

Keep your heads straight boys. Turn the screw.

Well, law of averages says at some point they'd do us. We're going to have to learn from from this to get the season back on track. But ouch this is painful. Hope players feel the same and go on a run.

Well, on plus side I think a lot of us saw that coming. Let's try to keep things in perspective though? Taken a chance earlier, matic not suspended, mikel heading in, getting any of these marginal calls by ref and we could avoid an Internet meltdown.

Have to keep our heads - supporters and players. If so can get one back with a little luck.

He's injured. Throat injury in the u21s, that why he wasn't called up for the internationals either.

We've always seemed to play the kids a bit less in the league cup, which is understandable as we have a stronger bench that needs minutes. I wish we had won it last year as I think that would lessen the pressure (however slightly) on mourinho to deliver this year and allow him to at least to play one or two kids this year when facing lower league opposition in the cups. As it is I see more strong sides put out. (We were also lucky / kalas was unlucky with injuries last year). I agree with getting more subs minutes when games are won, but that rests on being up more than two goals for mourinho and realistically we rarely even put them on the bench.

I'm a bit surprised he isn't training with the first team pre-season. Also wasn't mentioned at all by Mourinho in the press conference, yet we extended his contract in the summer and he looked good with the first team in the post season tour. Any updates?

Can't expect too much too soon, especially with this unbalanced squad. He had a much more fully formed squad last time. Ranieri had put all the pieces in place. The squad (and youth) has suffered from years of short-term thinking and the only constant has been Emenalo. Jose should share a bit of the blame for not being more forceful in the summer about another midfielder besides the unfortunate Van Ginkel, but I place a lot more blame with Emenalo. Perhaps Jose could and or would have blooded more youth / the squad but given the erratic results we haven't built up the team ethos yet. So instead we're back to thinking about results first, long term second.

Exactly, I like that we've given Spurs a complex but KDB and Lukaku were not AVB's signings - and even if he did sign Lukaku, Romelu really disliked him. Still seems like Emenalo, for better and for worse, is the main person driving signings.

Agree with a lot of the comments - the problems we've had are well known and lack of stability doesn't help the youngsters (neither did Arnesen). What worries me also is that if I were a young player choosing clubs (and lord knows I was never close) I'd hesitate joining Chelsea because of our track record. It's tough to blend youth and success and we've erred on the latter. Bertie's a start though.

Essien has two years left on his contract. I suppose selling him off now (post injuries) really would be giving him away, whereas with the loan we a) get his wages paid for and b) let him play a bit, perhaps inflating any transfer price (in addition to just giving him a run out). At this point he needs to play himself into fitness and contention again and whatever we've seen in training makes us doubt that he'd get that this year. It's just odd that he'd have more of a chance at this at Real Madrid. I wish him all the best, he's still one of my favorites.

Not much to add, except I enjoyed seeing Jimmy Floyd's name up top. Although even if, say, a 26 year old Hasselbaink was available right now I wouldn't want to sign him with the team we've got now...

I saw the second half. PVA looked good going forward, getting into dangerous positions (if not either hitting the target or picking out a final pass). Generally solid at the back, and Wigan was mostly well organized - it certainly wasn't inevitable that Everton would score and the last goal came as Wigan piled forward.

Is Carlo saying Alex will start at CB? May make sense for Ivan to be at right back for the away game...

Could management be so dumb as to sell a 20 year old winger who is about to go to the World Cup? Even if, say, we've decided to sell him (say because Stoch is pessimistic about his playing time--he has said in the past he wants to be assured regular football next season, or they think he's too short, or he doesn't count as the home grown quota or something), why not wait to see if he has a good few games and his value rises above a paltry 2.5 million? I hope it isn't true.

Not terribly pleased if this turns out to be true, but a quick comment on the 5-6 million pound figures--that's only half the story. If the sticking point with Joe Cole is over his wages (and I'm assuming Benayoun comes in instead of re-signing Cole) then I'm wondering what Benayoun's wages are. Over a four year contract that would mean Benayoun makes sense only if his wages are 30K less than Cole. That's also assuming they're equal players, which they are clearly not... I hope this one is a red herring. Or some smart negotiating tactic for our true target. But top management isn't that smart now, is it?

I'm still not comfortable with playing Yuri against a top team. Maybe in his second season he'll really get going, but I'm not sure if he can handle the defensive duties well enough yet. It's a pity as if Real came in with good money for Ashley we could sell up and thereby give some assurances to both Bertrand and Van Aanholt that they'll have chances to play next season. But Ashley is quite possibly the best left back in the world at the moment, and we'd feel his loss. Agree it would be worse if Essien left though.

I think his run out may have been a little encouragement from Carlo after all his injury problems. I actually expected him to slot into the center with Ivanovic going to right back (in anticipation of where I hope he'll be playing on Sunday). Either way, it was great to see him back in the side, his versatility is a very good thing and we have a promising back-up backline next season. Carvalho to move on in the summer? It would be nice to have a mobile centre back but I'm happy with Ivan, JT and Alex fighting it out at the back and Hutch/Bruma providing support.