cuppatea

Real Madrid's squad is obscene. Bale, Asensio, Kovacic and Morata on the bench; James Rodgriguez, Lucas Vazquez and Pepe not even in the 18. I'd take one of their cast-offs (complete with a bag full of medals and big club experience) over paying a fortune for the latest mid-table player to hit a purple patch all day long.

Arsenal and Spurs loanees Szczesny and Fazio also starred for Roma this season and Edin Dzeko was their best player by all accounts.

It was the highest scoring of all the big leagues in Europe this season.

I'd have an easier time dismissing Salah's failure at Chelsea as the fault of the club if it wasn't for all of the other players who look about 10x better in Serie A than they do in the Premier League (Dzeko, Cuadrado, Fazio, Szcezny, Suso, Paletta, Delofeu, Kalinic, Pogba, Darmian, Lamela, Balotelli, Savic, Nastasic, Gervinho, Osvaldo, Ramirez and probably loads more that I'm forgetting).

Wouldn't Coutinho, Sturridge, Can and Matip fall into the category of 'cheap punts'? The profits we would make from selling those 4 would more than cover the losses we made on the other players you mentioned. A cheap punt on Keita 12 months ago could have saved us £40m, as would a cheap punt on a 24 year old van Dijk for £13m rather than the £50m+ being asked for him at 25.

James Pearce did an AMA on Reddit. Says van Dijk and Keita are our top two targets, we're definitely interested in Oxlade-Chamberlain and Salah is under consideration. Reckons we'll have about £120-130m to spend, including sales.

The problem is how easily opposing teams are able to funnel our possession in the attacking third into our full backs. There's barely a team in world football you wouldn't be happy to see roll it into their full backs any time they get near our goal. Slinging the ball on the run into a box that contains 1 or 2 5ft something attackers and 4 or 5 6ft something defenders is such a low percentage play regardless of who's doing it and players with the skill and guile to unlock the packed defences we're struggling against rarely end up playing right or left back. I'd rather sort out the way we attack as a team than spend tens of millions making marginal gains in the attacking output of our full backs.

The fact that Southampton can play a bunch of random no-marks against us and still look rock makes it all the more perplexing that you're so desperate for us to spend £50m on the latest in a very long line of players to shine in their defensive setup. They're going to sell Romeu for about 8 times what they paid for him next summer (probably to us) and it won't be because he's gotten 8 times better as a footballer in that period. We'll probably buy his £5m replacement for £30-50m a year or 2 later as well.

He's not got any taller or faster in the last 2 years. He has all the same attributes as when he was a 24 year old no-mark available for around £10m but rather than identify those attributes and sign him based upon them, we wait until he's in the form of his life (a form far higher than his career average) and try to buy him for five times as much. It's fucking brainless.

It's scary to think that if Lovren was still producing his Southampton form at a mid-table club we'd probably be looking to pay £50m for him now.

I'd struggle to think of a worse transfer policy than signing players who were held in no great regard throughout their teens and early-20's but have hit a rich vein of form at at a mid-table club and seen their transfer value multiple by a value of four over the course of a year.

What an insufferable cunt Ray Hudson is. Anyone got a stream without that twat so I don't have to watch it on mute?

If there's one position on the pitch I wouldn't fancy spunking £50m on the latest flavour of the month it's centre back. Let City buy another ludicrously overpriced player for that position and then wonder again why they look hopeless stood exposed on the halfway line with no protection in front, compared to the solid defensive platform they came from.

It was a good save but that's one of the best passes I've ever seen.

Fuck's sake. Just about to cash out on 2-0 to Man United and they score a third. Cunts.

Dunno what the fuck Origi was doing on that Woodburn break. Seemed to sulk when he didn't get the pass straight away and then made no effort to get near him after that.

No Liverpool sub will ever be worse than Houllier bringing Smicer on for Hamann against Bayer Leverkusen in 2002.

Slightly disappointed there was no "we're no longer interested in Brandt" article from Melissa Reddy before this news broke. She must have had the day off yesterday.

Sadly for us, not many footballers tend to be of the "I'm too shit for this really good team, I'd better go to a much worse one instead" mentality. Christ, there are Sunday League players who truly believe they could make it at Bayern if they were just given a chance, never mind German internationals.

Bayern had been to back to back Champions League finals before Pep took over, then under his leadership they were bummed senseless in consecutive semi finals whilst adopting suicidal tactics against the 2 Spanish giants. This time Pep has sent his team out with 1 midfielder and 5 forwards in a game in which they had a 2 goal cushion to protect. It's one thing for the general public to believe Barca's success was down to his genius rather than them having the most talented squad in the history of football but I get the feeling he believes the same thing himself. City would have been better off with Craig Shakespeare in charge for tonight.

This tier 1/tier 2 bollocks seems to be the complete antithesis of how the top continental clubs came to hire these names in the first place. Guardiola had spent a year managing a B team before he got the Barca job (in part because he was a great player there) and won the treble in his first season. Conte had spent 5 years managing mostly in Serie B before he got the Juve job (in part because he was a great player there) and won the title in his first season. Zidane had spent a year and a half managing a B team before he got the Real Madrid job (in part because he was a great player there) and won the Champions League in his first season. Enrique had spent 6 years winning fuck all before he got the Barca job (in part because he was a great player there) and won the treble in his first season. Simeone was hired largely because of his playing career at Atletico. Allegri and Klopp had won fuck all managing shit teams for 7 years before they got the Milan and Dortmund jobs, whose boards presumably cared more about what they could do than what they had done. Sampaoli had never won a trophy outside of Chile when Sevilla hired him. Low had achieved nothing as a manager when he got the Germany job. None of them would have made a 15 man list of the "best" managers around and none would have been accepted for any top job in England, where the views of the role are outdated and simplistic as fuck, akin to a child in a sweet shop pointing at whichever flavours are most popular that month and shouting "I WANT THAT ONE!"

The last run of games he missed were the wins over West Brom, Crystal Palace and Watford to send us top of the league in November. As long as Henderson, Lallana, Mane, Coutinho and Firmino are on the pitch and in their best positions I really don't think it makes much/any difference whether you play Wijnaldum, Can or Joe Allen in the other midfield spot.

They should be about 5-0 up in this tie. Let's hope they live to regret it.

As shit as he is, I'd have him right wing before I'd put Lallana or Firmino out wide again.

For as long as he's been here he's consistently put in 5 or 6 out of 10 performances when played in any position other than false 9. He was shite as a number 10, whether it was behind Sturridge, Origi or Benteke and he's been shite as a wide forward, regardless of who plays alongside him.