AyeDubbleYoo

It's going to be really weird to watch live league games on the BBC... brilliant in a lot of ways.

Don't think Valencia is average, there are very few wide players in the Premiership as good... and he's fairly young as well.

I dunno, he might turn out to be just what they need, a cog in the machine rather than a superstar. Fergie is a master of making a team more than a sum of its parts... he's made Darren Fletcher, Ji Sung Park and Wes Brown into part of the best team in the world (or maybe 2nd best!). He just needs to make sure he gets other players in who will provide the goals that Ronaldo leaving will take away. I like Valencia though, sure he'll do well. My thinking too. People will say he is Ronaldos replacement due to the position he plays although Man Utd will be looking elsewhere to replace the goals, assists and flair they have lost. I guess he'll play strictly out wide, in a way he might simplify Fergie's team selection since he has a clear position and won't be played through the middle like Ronaldo sometimes was. Rooney might come in and play central every week, along with another new signing. Maybe there'll be an increased role for Nani next season as well.

I dunno, he might turn out to be just what they need, a cog in the machine rather than a superstar. Fergie is a master of making a team more than a sum of its parts... he's made Darren Fletcher, Ji Sung Park and Wes Brown into part of the best team in the world (or maybe 2nd best!). He just needs to make sure he gets other players in who will provide the goals that Ronaldo leaving will take away. I like Valencia though, sure he'll do well.

The next disaster would be to end up going into the new season with a 60m pound wage bill, a squad full of uninterested want away wasters and no manager. Shepherd coming back is like a trip to Amsterdam with 5 grand spending money in comparison, sad but true IMO. Well that's a different disaster. For what it's worth if it is a straight choice between the status quo and FS then obviously we have to hope this deal goes through. I just hope it isn't as clear cut as that, and someone else emerges. Or failing that, that Shepherd is just a front man for this consortium and they have a lot more intelligence and wealth behind them.

Don't think the fact we've just been through one disaster should make us welcome the next one!

Well, a bit of all of those I suppose! Mainly taking money from the club, appointing the wrong managers and allowing them to waste the club's money and generally getting us into too much debt chasing his dreams. Got to admit though, his personality doesn't exactly help! In the short term you're right, the manager issue is taken care of. But we'd better hope the Shearer experiment works out because we know what Freddy does if not.

That personalities dont matter to me, whether its fat Freddy, Rod Jane & Freddy, Bungle, the CEO of Greggs, Johnny Decker or Ant and Dec that end up in charge, all that matters right now is that they hand AS the job and let him get on with it. You're right there, personalities don't matter to me either, my dislike of both Ashley and Shepherd are because of their actions.

I'm honestly missing your point there Chez. I agree if we get competent owners who will appoint and back Shearer then we'll be happy. But is that not what the whole discussion is about?

That's a good post that. I always thought FS had good ambitions for the club, he was just incapable of pulling them off. And he overspent to get us there, paying the price when we fell short. I don't see any reason to want him back though, except that Ashley is worse of course.

The staff won't know what the fucks going on... costs are being slashed to the bone then suddenly it's back to caviar in the canteen again.

Aye, you're right actually, maybe lazy wasn't the right word. Flakey, inconsistent, temperamental, egotistic - those are better.

He's quite lazy and a bit of a luxury player really. That applies to most of the players City are signing though!

It's all relative anyway though. When I was on 18k a year I was desperate to break 20k, so on and so on. Everyone wants to better themselves in their profession and increase their rewards... seems irrelevant that Michael Owen earns more than people in 'normal jobs', that's not the market he's operating in. (Obviously morally the whole market is questionable, but it's not up to one player to change that)

Fourthed.

Too late, someone already said they would! I'm just disappointed because it would almost have been worth going through the Ashley nightmare, and relegation, if we could have come out of it with a decent owner and a bit of potential stability. If we end up back where we started I don't see any reason to be optimistic.

That's true, he never really did it in the Premiership either, it's a risky signing.

Surely if karma existed we would be due a takeover by a squillionaire backer with a pathological hatred for Shola Ameobi and Alan Smith?

I just wish it wasn't going to be Shepherd.

Well not entirely, we could always wait for another bidder in the future.

Potentially a good signing but high risk I reckon. Dave Kitson looked good playing for Reading but immediately flopped when he left.

The price does seem low, hopefully one of the other parties will seize the chance to outbid.

Similar to how an abuser has an intimate knowledge of their victim?

Well yeah, but what's the point in paying for it now? Dunno, probably none, only that you have to pay for it sometime! I guess a new owner might cut the prices, but not if it's FS.