Cronky

I'm surprised this has happened, but Chelsea are going about their team-building in a peculiarly reckless way. All very impatient and gung-ho which probably reflects the owner. He wouldn't be the first American to come to grief in this business. I mean, why have they bought a 19 year old and a 21 year old at huge expense, to cover the same position?

He's a public figure and this is a very serious public issue. I can't see how any football club can employ him. I don't like to see a young person mess up such a promising career, but he has to pay the price.

I'm a Tierney fan, but I'm warming to this idea now. I thought this rumour was a bit far-fetched, partly because we seemed to be the only club in for him. I also couldn't see why Chelsea should sell him to a rival. However, there is a Newcastle connection - I see from Wiki (Yeah, I know) that his Dad was a Geordie and the lad grew up supporting the Toon. Also Chelsea have previous in selling to rivals. Their strategy still seems to be incredibly random.

All credit to the Lionesses - they looked a real team, and thoroughly deserved it. They dealt with the atmosphere in the stadium with great confidence.

There will never be a better time to play them. Early in the season, De Bruyne out, and they'll be tired after a midweek game in Mediterranean heat. I also wonder whether Pep is quite as on it as previous. Last season, he was hinting at seeking another challenge should they finally land the Champions League, and he's made the error of complaining about having to play us so soon after the Super Cup. Then he gave Haaland a public dressing down at half-time in the Burnley game. The FFP proceedings are coming up, and deep down he must know they're in danger of serious punishment. Does he really want to hang around through all that? In an ordinary season, I'd dismiss our chances of winning the Premiership, as it now usually needs 90 points. But suppose City slip a bit and it only takes 80 and it's then wide open. I was expecting Liverpool to mount a challenge, but now I'm not so sure. Chelsea have a great squad, but they may take time to find and settle their best team. Man U seem to be permanently stuck in a stage of transition. Arsenal haven't bought well I think. Spurs are probably on the way up again, but it looks too soon for them. All in all, there may be a chance for someone to do a Leicester.

Not seen a lot of Lewis Hall, but he does impress. However, I can't see Chelsea letting him go on a permanent transfer, and a season long loan might not work for us. We really need someone to step into the first team now, and it's asking a lot of an 18 year old at a new club and a new city to do that, whatever the talent. It's probably easier to take that sort of risk with an attacker than a defender. So all we might end up doing is giving him some good coaching which Chelsea would then benefit from. Tierney seems the obvious front-runner for me. He's experienced, motivated to come here (I'm pretty sure) and would slot in right away. It wasn't that long ago that people were talking about him and Robertson as the best two left backs in Europe. Whether Arsenal would accept the kind of deferred payments that we're talking about is a big hurdle though.

Isak is the one player I wouldn't sell at any price. What he brings to the team can't be replaced. His skill-set is unique. Tonali may be in the same category, but it's early days.

Well done for facing the mucus. I was glad we didn't have to face Buendia and Ramsey, and obviously Mings going off didn't do us any harm. Got to say though that Emery looked a bit nervy before the game, and I wondered after whether the Buendia injury had got to him a bit. He must have thought he'd got everything in a good place and now it's gone off the rails a bit. I can't remember where I read this, but there was some idea floating around that Emery had focused on tactics in pre-season, rather than fitness. Might be BS, but with the Buendia injury, and then Mings losing a shoulder challenge to a beanpole like Isak, I did wonder.

Ah, showing my age now I take it that means it's been cobbled together from bits and pieces from all over the internet. Please don't tell me it's all fictitious.

I thought this article was interesting. Dodgy English, but it gives a good idea of where Sandro comes from and what makes him tick. https://sportmob.com/en/article/978195-facts-about-sandro-tonali-the-brescia-golden-boy

Bless Fergie, he will always be the Man Utd manager. He was doing best to rattle a rival as usual. Eddie will just file this one away and maybe bring it out at a time when it's useful to him. I do think other managers are getting annoyed and exasperated with us. We're still over-achieving massively and they can't figure out why. I noted that Pep started complaining that he was going to have to play us this Saturday, after playing in the Super Cup on Wednesday. Yes, that does give us an advantage, but why complain? It only communicates to the opposition that you're worried. That's a trap that Eddie never falls into. He always presents a positive front, and that's not just cosmetic. We looked down and out when he took over, but he defied convention by taking us out of trouble with an attacking game. I'm loving it. If someone was to offer me the opportunity for us to be able to ignore FFP and use the Saudi money to buy any players and manager that we wanted, I'd say no thanks. I'd opt for the journey that we're on now.

We're greater than the sum of our parts.

Interesting. We certainly weren't played off the park, but it was a much more even game than the scoreline would suggest, and Eddie has acknowledged that. Having said that, I've seen similar games where it's been even for long stretches or we've been under the cosh, and then we've run away with it. It's no fluke. Eddie is always very sound and pro-active when it comes to tactics, and gets the players to a high level of fitness, but there's something else at work. He instils his players with belief and spirit, which doesn't falter through the ups and downs of a game. We grew as the game went on. Villa crumbled.

Aww….leave the poor lad alone. He’s a small town Italian boy. He may feel more comfortable in a Wetherspoons than a posh restaurant.

I agree with you. I think Eddie and the supportive environment at Newcastle would restore him to his best form. And at his best, he's very, very good. This is the signing that I most want now. Somehow it completes the picture. But Arsenal would far rather flog him to someone else.

Great to see him back at his early-Everton form. Not the most elegant of players maybe, but he does make things happen.

Interesting question. Fees seem to be stabilising a bit around 100m at the top end, and some players (eg Rice) have an inflated fee IMO, and others (eg Bellingham) seem under-priced. Coupled with that, you have players going much cheaper (MacAllister, Haaland, Gvardiol) either because they have a buy-out clause or because the player has made it known that there's only one club they'd consider and no real auction takes place. But yes, at the top end, there are going to be some spectacular mistakes. Darwin Nunez is one, I think. Rice will be another.

And playing for Brighton brings far less pressure than playing for a much bigger club. Something that Chelsea and Liverpool may likely to consider during this auction for Caicedo.

Thank you. I have a very funny memory of the aftermath of that Man U game. In those days, match programmes used to include a supplement called the Football League Review, and on this occasion, a photo of Tony Green was included on the back. Walking out of Old Trafford, the concourse and pavements were littered with those photos, where Man U fans had ripped them out in disgust. He had pissed them off so much.

Tierney would feel like the last piece of a jigsaw fitting into place. It would free Burn up to cover the CB positions, and boost us both in both attack and defence. I imagine the player (partly on the basis of his being Scots) would be very keen to join us. Having said that, I suspect Arsenal would be very reluctant to help us out. Likewise Chelsea.

Yeah, he was the best player I ever saw playing for us, and his appearance at Old Trafford was the best performance. He totally dominated the game. Even by the standards of the time, the treatment for his knee injury was spectacularly bad. A while back, I interviewed him at his home, at a time when I was trying to make my way as a writer. Lovely guy. I gave him my programme for the Man U game, which he was glad to receive. He rated it as his finest performance.

I watched a bit of Chelsea-LIverpool, and I couldn't understand why Klopp wasn't playing Gakpo up front. I thought his arrival transformed Liverpool last season. He seemed a much better fit for them than Nunez. He didn't look like a midfield player at all. I think Klopp has no choice but to rely on at least one of his younger players - Jones or Elliott. Both look ready to me, and there's not much point in developing these players if you're going to buy in the likes of Lavia or Caicedo for a huge price instead.

Our awesome manager backing his instincts and coming up trumps yet again. I wonder from that whether Eddie saw something of himself in Sandro - intensity behind that reserved exterior. Inevitably, something of a manager's persona gets transmitted to his side, and whether or not Sandro is one of the best in the world, he looks just right for this team.

He's very quick and decisive in his passing. Doesn't piss about in possession. What a start.

Actually I thought Emery made a complete Horlicks of it today. Reminding his players of their team-mates' serious injury with those t-shirts before kick-off was a particular stroke of genius. He has some very good players, but they looked hesitant and unsure of what they were supposed to be doing half the time.