Stottie

Moyes' Everton teams were never as suspect defensively as Man U are now. They were also miles behind any of Ferguson's in the attacking department. Man U won the league last year by outscoring the opposition, esp late in the game, not so much by dominating games from start to finish. They should either have appointed a more gung-ho manager, or will have to put up with all the disruption as they change to a Moyes team. The longer they spend transfer windows chasing after unobtainables like Fabregas, the longer such change will take.

RVP out and Mata cup-tied. That'll be Kagawa on the wing then!

D'oh!

Even putting the Moyes thing aside, when was the last time they broke their transfer record? Was it Berbatov? Was he more than Rio? Anyway, it will be a long time ago for a club that is capable of getting a billion off their kit deal and one more sponsor. A team that not so long ago got 80 million for Ronaldo. A team that pre-Glazers would have been properly in for Bale. All the speculation says that Moyes or whoever will have a massive warchest to play fantasy football with in the summer, but it mightn't be quite as easy as that. Never mind getting whoever comes in to gel and start producing straight away.

Martinez may have got lucky with Barkley, Lukaku, and the big Felliani cash in. The problem with him at Wigan was always at the back. At Everton, he's inherited an established and very solid back four. They conceded fewer than ManU last season. Martinez has done well, but it is very early to be claiming genius and decrying what Moyes did there.

Our owner is Britain's fifth richest and we can't even spend the tv money.

There have been lots of comments about Man U's home form, but this is them against the top half http://stats.football365.com/dom/ENG/PR/vtophalf.html P13 W2 D4 L7 For 10 Against 18 GD -8 AvFor 0.76 AvAg 1.38 PPG 0.76 Points 10 Against the bottom half, they are P16 W12 D2 L2 for a better points per game than Chelsea. Five of their remaining games are vs. the top half, so they are looking at finishing with 62-63 points.

The comedy continues! They should have bought Cabaye last summer. The money would have been peanuts to them.

Looking forward to this. Hope LDJ can get something out of Cisse, though maybe that's because I just watched the Benfica highlights again where he scored twice and hit the post twice. Anyroad, we were great at Hull so same again lads!

Welbeck has previous so he passes the striker test of "can I play him on the wing?". He's easily good enough for us, but there's no way we'd pay what is required.

Man U will need at least two new defensive starters next year, with no obvious leader left to marshal the defence as a whole. I think it really limits their chances of making a strong comeback next year. Vidic-level scouting coups may be required.

So what did JFK call him? Granny? Grenade? Granville?

Fellaini leaving in the summer might help them out in that respect. Indeed, but there is a stronger case of Felliani being a must sell at that price. To their credit, Everton are only +12M on transfer activity this year, and most of that may have gone on financing all those loans.

Third biggest gate in the country and we still have to make money off transfer activity. What a disgrace.

However inevitable this transfer may be in some people's eyes, it's still depressing. Especially with the perennially penniless Everton sitting there above us and not taking what must be their best chance to cash in big on Baines, who's older than Cabaye into the bargain.

Please no Shola!

How many ex-Man U players would get in that team tonight? Howard (arguable), Pique, Pogba, Morrison, Rossi, Tevez, Ronaldo makes seven.

This is a spectacular turnaround, a real collapse. My sympathies to anyone who lives next to or works with mackems, however.

Dem penalties

If Chelsea could beat BM and Avram Grant be a John Terry penalty away from winning it, Man U can still fluke the CL.

Rooney's going in the summer. They can't afford to keep him for a year and let him walk on a Bosman. Vidic and Evra are out too, so it sounds like they're going to need maybe seven new Top 4 quality players. It's a perfect storm!

Top 4 looks beyond them, but I wouldn't put it past them being another English team to fluke a CL win and ultimately deny Liverpool or Everton a CL place next season. Moyes effing up in the league but winning what Fergie struggled to and getting one over Liverpool or his old club is an almost perfect script.

Maybe a slight exaggeration but Rooney is a much better footballer than lots of people make out. It's trendy to knock him for his physique and maybe his temperament (cf. Zidane was sent off about 15 times). Come summer, he's a year off a Bosman and will probably force a cut-price sale. Unless his wages are super crazy, there will be no shortage of suitors from top clubs. Personally, I wish he'd gone to Barca etc. a couple of years ago, maybe instead of Fabregas. We don't produce that many English footballers capable of playing for top sides on the continent, and it would be nice to see the ones that do doing it if it makes them into more complete footballers.

Eriksen looked very good when we beat them. I don't know why he didn't get more game time off AVB.

I'd have brought him on as first sub for Cabaye in the Man City game because it looked like he was going to get sent off and Marv has the same pick a pass vision. Second sub would have been HBA for Gouff or Sissoko.