Cronky

To be honest, I see right back as the weakest area of the side, so even if he's only half-decent, it's still good news.

Looked okay on a highlights video. I think he'll be better than Yedlin or Manquillo.

Longstaff (S). Got to be.

Regardless of Yedlin's fitness, right back is an area we need to strengthen, so I'm pleased we seem to be getting this Swedish lad. Sterry shows promise, but I'm not sure he's ready.

I like Jordan Ibe. It may have been a question of too much too soon in his career, and he's underachieved. But we seem to be prepared to take one or two gambles and if he reaches his potential we'll have a very good player.

Genuinely never seen this lad, any good? Only seen him for the 10 or so minutes that he was on against West Ham, but he looked good. A few months ago, someone within the club told me that they have high hopes of him.

No no, you should listen to your elders more. Tony Green is my all-time favourite, with Gazza running him close. Len White was before my time. I've such high hopes of Longstaff. He doesn't seem to have a weakness in his all round game. Whatever the situation, however the ball comes to him, he can be trusted to do something with it. That's a priceless asset in a midfielder. I've seen good players go - Waddle, Beardsley, Gazza - but letting this lad go at this stage would be the biggest heartache.

They were still a good side despite that, the team is pretty defensive. Balotelli and Plea left last summer with essentially no replacement, and Saint-Maximin had to play upfront for long stretches of the season. ASM is definitely not a striker, imo, he should play on the left. I like the boy as a player, very entertaining dribbler and physically gifted, but I'm not sure if he will translate to the Premier League and specifically a Steve Bruce side at all, tbh. A big risk for a club that never spends. Everything about his profile makes me think he'll be someone the manager won't fully trust. Based only a highlights video, but he looks like a player who has to try and do something spectacular every time he gets the ball, rather than release it early. Not a team player, basically.

I think we meant it when we said at least £50m. We got £30m for Ayoze, and Longstaff is twice the player.

He actually played quite well on Saturday.

It's not clear precisely what Rafa wanted, but how easy is it to get 'two or three proven high quality players' for £36m? You have to beat off a fair bit of competition. The modern Spurs side was built on a number of very lucrative excursions into the transfer market - Berbatov, Bale, Modric - where they got some good seasons from them and then sold them on at a big profit. To get to another level, we have to take a bit of a gamble, and I think Joelinton represents that.

Yeah, with young players I look for that sign that they really believe they belong out there. He had this calm but eager expression on his face as he came on, and got involved right away. Promising.

I was interested to see that little cameo from young Matty Longstaff. I've heard that there's some round the club who think he's just as good if not better than his brother. He looked very energetic and produced a couple of good touches. I think we'll see more of him. I'm not convinced that Shelvey in that quarterback role is going to work in the Premiership. I fear he's destined to remain a nearly man at that level.

Based on purely watching YouTube videos, both look better than Joelinton. I thought Mateta looked good. Not so sure about Samatta. For a tall, rangy guy, Mateta close control was decent.

Looks like a good player. I'm not in the camp that wants us to do badly so I'd be quite happy with this.

I'd always thought that the most likely obstacle was the issue of the family connections between this group and the Man City ownership. But this statement seems to dismiss that. I wonder if the issue is the structure of the deal. Ashley likes cash up front, and BZG may have difficulty raising that in one or two chunks. They may have assets of several billion, but that's not the same as cash in the bank. And yes, I think it's far more likely that this statement is issued with the approval of BZG, rather than invented by someone to fool people.

I think Leicester have bought him on the strength of him hitting a good streak at the end of last season. I don't think he'll be a first team regular though.

How on earth is it heartening to know that? Well, it looks like there's no way they're going to sell him for £25m. It looks like there's a big gap between the value we place on him, and the price Man U are prepared to pay, and therefore there's some reasonable hope that we'll keep him.

All that's happened here is that someone supposedly in the know has said that he would cost Man U more than they paid for Wan-Bassika. It's impossible to say what figure would clinch the deal, but at least it's heartening to know that the club have some idea of the player's value. Having said that, I wouldn't sell him. For us, at this point, he's too important.

In the end, we were beaten by a better side. I only tune into women's football when a major tournament comes round, but I must say that there's been a marked improvement in quality this time round, not just with England but other teams too. Whether all this is going to lead to major developments in the standing of the club game is another matter though.

Rumour that Arteta is going to be interviewed for the job tomorrow. Now the bookies' favourite. Just a rumour now.

Someone give the commentators a thesaurus, so they can find an alternative to 'sloppy'.

I was never comfortable with Rafa's strategy of trying to use his popularity with the supporters to squeeze concessions out of Ashley. If you don't trust the people you're working with, then go. He's been here three years so he must know who he's working with. The takeover has complicated things because we really need a caretaker, but there's no-one at the club to fulfil that role. So presumably we're looking at someone who is prepared to come in for what may only be a matter of weeks.

If you accept that there's a genuine chance of a takeover before the start of the season, then it's no wonder that there's uncertainty over Rafa's contract. New owners will want to make their own decision. It sounds like Rafa has been offered a one year rolling contract as a stopgap in the situation, but Rafa is holding out for something more. We do have a habit of elevating figures into a bigger-than-the-club position. I'd like Rafa to stay, but any takeover is more important.

On another note, I was a bit disappointed to see the behaviour of one or two of the Scottish players. When I've seen women's football previously, it seemed to be relatively free of some of the worst aspects of the men's game eg arguing with officials, giving opposition players the verbals. For the Argentine penalty, there were a couple of players deliberately trying to put the kicker off and interfere with their concentration.