Ne Moe Imya

Which would be a shame, she's ... reasonably attractive.

Yeah 30m is a ridiculous fee. For a 31-year old on 250k/week and agitating for more? You'd have to sign him to a Rooney-level contract if you bought him, and there's definitely no value there. PSG wouldn't want him, neither would Chelsea. I reckon City are stuck with him and he knows it, and is just agitating for a new contract. Milner's doing exactly the same, by the way. I wouldn't even be surprised if his agent hadn't called up Ayre or some other agent with connections to LFC and told him to leak that we were looking at him, as a way of making City pay more to keep one of their only homegrown players left on the roster. I suspect that things like that happen all the time in the murkier side of the transfer window.

He's like if Kuyt had a first touch. Would be great for us. Never happen, though. If we get anyone from Barca it will be Tello, who Rodgers seems to have a man-crush on for some reason.

How many teams are going to enter next season with an absolute expectation (not a hope, an expectation) of top 4? At least 5, no? Chelsea and City will be in the top 4, and then we will be expecting that as a bare minimum after the season we've just had. United will expect to be back in it if they spend 150 million and have a new manager that they're confident in, and Arsenal are supposedly going to spend a lot of money as well. Add to that the fact that Spurs will be trying their best, and well, I suppose you can't really take Everton too seriously for top 4 next season but they will make noises about that being their goal. My point is that at least one of those top 5 I mentioned is going to be massively disappointed at the end of the season, and my guess would be Arsenal. Once they miss it once it will be a massive long-term blow for them, as well. The other most likely option is United, and I hate to think (well, OK, I would love it, but anyway) of the extremities to which their fan base would be driven to if they missed out on CL football again. I'm talking weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. And more airplanes. Always more airplanes.

Are we sure that Chelsea didn't see us as rivals going into the season and that's why they loaned us Moses?

Antonio Di Natale, ladies and gentlemen: Age 30 - 18 goals Age 31 - 16 goals Age 32 - 29 goals Age 33 - 28 goals Age 34 - 29 goals Age 35 - 26 goals Age 36 - 17 goals Worraplayer.

I really don't see it with Lovren at all. I'm not a huge Caulker fan but for the right price I could see the sense in that one, but Lovren? Not for me. Wasn't anything special at Lyon and though he's been alright for Southampton I think having solid defenders all around him, Boruc behind him and Schneiderlin and Wanyama shielding him makes him look a lot better than he really is. It's a "must swerve" for me, fortunately I think it's probably misinformation the club is intentionally leaking.

I literally can't tell whether Cafu realises that the 'Scouse Cafu' thing was people taking the piss. That picture is just one more jewel on the crown that was this brilliant season, even if we did fall short in the end.

I think I'll echo the OP - I'll be watching Atletico - Barca because the footie is better, but I'll keep an eye on twitter and if it looks like Hull might pull off the victory I might switch over just to watch the Arsenal fans' faces as they capitulate once again. Don't think that's likely, though - Hull are just too bad for even Arsenal to lose to in an important game.

This table shows once again how much of MoM awards is down to perception. I should note that I'm totally fine with that, as long as it's recognised that it's not necessarily about who the best player is, it's who performed the best relative to what we expected of them (and not insignificantly, which players are favourites of the fans by virtue of effort or personality). If Sterling or Henderson puts in a 8 out of 10 performance, we're all ecstatic and going on about it, because it exceeds our expectations. When Suarez does it (or Gerrard in 2007 or Torres in 2008) we just say "well done" and that's it and rate Sterling or Kuyt or whomever higher because they were on their game that day. It makes for a very interesting table. One thing is for sure - Sterling is going to be a massive player for us. Absolutely brilliant already; you could make the case that during that 11-game run he was our best player, full stop.

The Telegraph has an article today summing up the total loss by employing David Moyes, and the final bill comes to £50.4 million, they say. Roughly £35m from missing out on the CL, £8.4m from finishing 7th instead of 1st, and add in £7m for his wages/payoff. I reckon it's actually more than that, because they seem to have swallowed the line that he only got a £5m payoff which is what United have fed the press but is surely bollocks, and they haven't included the paying off of the staff he brought with him in order to clear out all the talented and proven assistants they already had under contract. Plus under the new TV deal there's more to the payouts than the finishing places - they may only lose £8.4m for finishing 7th, but there's also a difference in the TV payout as well that probably tacks on a few more million to that figure. Add to all of that the reduced attraction to sponsors in the future (the idea that United are always going to be head and shoulders ahead of the likes of Arsenal is now irrevocably gone) and I reckon that one bad decision could waterfall into £100m in costs and reduced future income. Staggering. What makes it even funnier is that anyone with half a brain could have seen that hiring Moyes was a ridiculous decision.

Don't disagree with the sentiment at all, but it is true that had the linesman not waved Sterling offside mistakenly against City (or Mignolet held onto Negredo's strike right at his head), we would have won the title. It's easy, and even accurate, to say that the title is won or lost over the course of the season, but sometimes such small margins are hugely significant as well.

Can't see this anywhere on here, and it's not specifically Mourinho but it's still so ... Chelsea. Anyway, it deserves to be posted. From Chelsea's official facebook page:

I will be happy with a trophy. Anything less is a disappointment, surprised at the number of posters who would be satisfied with third or fourth and that's it. I'm OK with third or fourth if we win the FA Cup, for example, but unless we've won either the FA or League Cup or gotten to the semi-finals in the CL, I wouldn't think that third or fourth would be a successful season for us next year. It's not "sack the manager" disaster, obviously, but it's not really a success either. So I'd say: Minimum acceptable outcome (below this is possibly sackable): 6th Minimum satisfactory outcome: 4th Successful outcome: top 4, plus either CL quarterfinals or a cup Dream outcome: win the league or CL

You, my friend, are what's known as an "optimist."

Lucas has just ended his instagram post thanking the supporters for 7 years of support with the hashtag #goodbye. So I think it's probably safe to assume he's off, I wonder where. Napoli? And for how much?

Anyone else watching La Liga? Atletico with a chance to win the title at home, against Malaga who were down to 10 men for the last 8 minutes, and in the last minute of extra time the Malaga keeper pulls off the save of the season to keep out a ball that was headed for the top corner from Adrian. Drama.

So, just thinking about next season and "going again," where do you think the bookies will have us in August? I'd be surprised if we're third favourites, even, once the memories of how brilliant we were this season fade. Obviously Chelsea and City will be favoured to come ahead of us, but I suspect by the end of their spending spree United might be as well. Maybe even Arsenal if they pull off a shock purchase or two. Which, for me, is a good thing. Let them think this was a one-off. Let them imagine that the last 18 months (because it wasn't just this season, let us remember, we've been at the top of the league pretty much ever since Coutinho/Sturridge came in if you take out the first half of that season) was just a fluke, a flash in the pan. I saw posts on the BBC today that we went from 2nd to 7th once, and "it will happen again next season." Good, I hope the pundits and the fans of other clubs all think the same. Then we come into next season having replaced our fullbacks (our main weakness this season) and added quality and depth up front and in the middle and shock them all over again.

Yeah, world history is replete with stories of how the rich and powerful got fucked by enforcement groups. *sad but knowing smile*

Still think we'll win. Not sure why. Glen Johnson is ... well, he was a good player for us once so I won't say too much, but I honestly hope for everyone's sake he's off this summer.

What has happened to Glen Johnson? Shocking that half. Looks a shell of the player he was 3-4 years ago.

I like my cheese blue, and on a delicious filet.

Not really enthused about most of the players we're being linked to this summer. Last summer we were at least pursuing the likes of Willian, Costa, and Mkhitaryan. This summer, when we have CL football and might be able to actually get those players, we've seemingly decided to go after Lallana, Caulker, Song, and Cole. That list reads like what you'd expect Spurs or Everton to pursue. I'm still holding out hope that these are all smokescreens for the real players who will turn out to be from the next bracket. Rodgers has shown that he can take above average players and get very good results, now is the time to supply him with very good players and watch him deliver trophies. He's said publicly that he's after starters, not squad players, so my hopes are still that we're really after the likes of Rodriguez, Muller, Reus, and Martinez. Or, if we want to try to get a bit better value, I certainly wouldn't be opposed to going after the top bracket of 19-22 year olds like Kovacic, Moreno, Fischer, and Firmino. Either way, we need to be out there challenging the top clubs (well, except perhaps for PSG/City/Chelsea) for the top players in Europe this summer, not conceding them to United, Arsenal, and Dortmund and settling for second-rate. Rodriguez, Kovacic and Reus, for example, and we could be absolutely sensational next season, and that kind of window should be entirely possible for us.

I really hope that City don't draw. If they have to win it I hope it's with 86 points so that game against Palace doesn't mean anything. If we have to look back this summer and realise that we were 0-3 up against Crystal Palace with 15 minutes to hold on to win the league, that will be rough. Obviously first preference would be that City lose so we can win the title, but if that doesn't happen I hope they just win their game and spare us the what ifs.

Worth signing for that alone. Imagine the Kop breaking out into "Il Ciro Immobile."