AyeDubbleYoo

Sounds like a transfer policy to me! Seriously though, I think one thing the club has done fairly well is identify positions we need to strengthen. They've failed a bit on midfield (except Gosling) but that's equally because we have a number of big-name players on the books who just happen to be bad. The other problem is that we have so many weaknesses it's impossible to address them all, unless we were willing to spend money, which we obviously aren't.

Now you're talking.

FFS, we're not suddenly certain to get relegated because we missed out on a player who was always unlikely to end up here.

'By the end of the week'? Heard that one before!

That's not irrelevant at all, it amaze me how 1900 Newcastle fans can sound louder then 72.000+ of the Manu ones. Of course not all of them Manu fans are shouting at the same time but it was awesome to listen to it on the telly. It was class in the pub in London. A load of people in Man Utd gear sitting around, only me and my mate in black and white, but the noise coming out of the TV was brilliant.

So if it goes through it's nothing to do with Ashley, and if it doesn't then Ashley's cocked it up?

I thought that Nolan was at fault for the first goal, he absolutely bottled it and passed the ball to somebody in a worse position than his own. That's bollocks mate, sorry. Gutierrez got mugged. Think they've got to share the blame about 70/30, most of it going to Jonas for dwelling on the ball too long.

Don't think Perch was really that bad. Yes Routledge was tracking back a lot, but Man Utd are very dangerous down the left, and we were set up defensively in general.

I'm more confident of our chances this season after seeing the game tonight, if anything.

He's versatile as he can play on either wing, CM or as a second striker. His best position imo is as a playmaking second striker, he's accomplished on the wing too though. Wouldn't be able to do a job in CM though, he just won't do the defensive side. Same as Nolan then, except he can't do the attacking side either.

Left wing or in the hole. It's been strongly implied that Hughton has promised him the latter.

Suppose, but if you have a player in the middle capable of getting, retaining and then passing the ball, you have more chance to get players forward.

I honestly thought Man U were shit, they missed a hat full of chances from our mistakes and against better op like Chelsea we would be looking at a minimum of 6-0 Equally, we should definitely have prevented the second goal and we could have scored at least one.

If he wants first team football, he's come to the right place.

Athleticism and energy are basically half the game now, probably more than half. We don't have a load of brilliant youngsters seemingly, would like to see Vuckic get some minutes this season at least.

He didn't have any world-class right backs on the bench, to be fair to him.

Yorkie, I would be tempted to give Xisco a go as well. We really need to get some support up with A-Train, and if we could get him to perform it would be a major plus for us.

Don't understand why that post is so great, obviously we all want something for our money and for the club to move forward. But football doesn't work like that and football clubs have to manage their money. The only ones that don't are the ones that are bankrolled by their owners, and they're getting more and more rare.

The game just passed him by I thought - him, Barton and Nolan combined couldn't get anywhere near Scholes. I know Scholes is class, but they're supposed to be protecting the defence.

Totally, seems to me that playing Nolan in the hole was a just a way of saying "we have this player who's a big name and we don't want to drop, but doesn't have the stamina or mobility to actually play in midfield". Just seems like an excuse to get him in the team because he's supposedly good at "arriving in the box". In the Premiership he's guaranteed to offer next to nothing.

On 5 Live Robbie Savage seemed to be saying he knew where Bellamy was headed already. He wasn't giving much away though.

I just hope Hughton realises how fat and immobile he is. If we do end up signing Ben Arfa to go with Gosling, it a least shows he knows we need to address midfield in some way. Hopefully Nolan will be dropped.

If O'Shea and Valencia are one of the best RW combinations in Europe, there's hope that Nolan will one day be World Footballer of the Year Sorry, obviously I meant LW.

I was thinking this as well, as in the relegation season the main problem is that we have the worst central midfield ever created.

Just a word for Perch and Routledge... they were pretty poor but they were facing one of the best RW combinations in Europe.