Odear

A shaky start but he's got loads of potential, don't forget how bad De Gea looked for Manchester the first year he was there. And it's the same type of problems, crosses coming into the box and decisions that are made in that moment.. like to punch or to catch etc.. he'll learn. It's not like he's cost us a cup final... anyone being a nasty cunt on twitter or here needs to grow up and give the lad a chance

What goes up must come down at some point, there was far too much of a feel good factor this week, it had us feeling cocky and predicting cricket scores. It's bitten us in the ass, but a blip.. the point is we are going in the right direction, the reality is that we are yet to arrive at our destination, it's going to take a long time. Nothing to get hysterical over though.

I love the man. He's the new testament. He's somehow managed to turn around years of neglect & abuse and turn us into a football club again. I would dare say just an impressive feat as anything he's done in his career before he came to us. We were that bad. He's still at the top of his game and he's our leader. What a time to be alive.

Never thought i'd say this, but well played Lee Charnley. He's done a Daniel Levy on Daniel Levy here. Great piece of business this. The fee was quite relevant because this time we know Rafa will have it to spend when he wants to.

Chelsea could sign him just so that Spurs don't, the money wouldn't be an issue.. could be worth 6 points in the season as he does seem to do well against the blues. I'm hopefully he'll be gone by around 9pm

It's hypothetical but I'd say we've got enough about us to go up with or without Sissoko. As things stand he wouldn't get in the team ahead of Diame, Shelvey or Hayden anyway. It would do more damage to put him back in the side.

Fuck spurs, they can't have it both ways.. expect top dollar for their players and then lowball us at the first chance for one of ours. I'm really glad Madrid pulled their interest in the player (if they ever had any), it might teach this fucker some home truths about what his level actually is. He hasn't done anything wrong technically so I would welcome him back to the squad.. but.. if he was being in any way disruptive.. let the fucker rot in the reserves

A thought occurred to me just now, I wonder if these ill fated moves are by design? What if Henri had been a naughty boy using ped's or just something straight forward like class a's.. his agent as a favour gets us to make a bid, let the fucker hide in the reserves for a few months.. then send him back to France with a clean bill of health.. it's not out of this world to imagine something like that happening. I refuse to believe the man could have been any worse than the likes of Colback in the week to week training.

Is that Charnley in front of him? Elton John with his throbbing member out more likely

Honestly, good riddance to the piece of shit. Piss poor attitude. Can only ever remember him playing well a handful of times.. if even.

We need a central midfielder, a left back and a target man striker. Charlie Austin would have been ideal but perhaps not last season as he was injured so much. I think Southampton would sell at the right price perhaps, or if he's not going to be starting games they might loan him out. I'd happily send Ayoze there on loan with Austin coming this way. I just can't see how a year in this league is going to benefit the young lad, where as Austin made his name here and just needs the run of games to get his fitness back.

Sels is just getting used to a new league, what keepers don't look dodgy at first. David DeGea is a prime example. Krul can be awesome but then equally shite at times, but he does feel like more of a home grown player so if he stays, I hope he's still first choice.

It's none of our business what problems the guy was having, it seems like the police were a little trigger happy.. I read he was shot twice with the taser. After the first he was stunned and was staggering forward slightly, so they nailed him again with it. You wouldn't know if there was an underlying heart condition, one of the reasons they shouldn't use something like that in the first place. Any person or animal for that matter who is cornered when they've lost control isn't going to suddenly start following instructions no matter how much force is used. They really need to rethink things.

We've had a long time to make our minds up about some players, it'll take him a little longer for the penny to drop. I'm not overreacting. I had total faith in the man before the season started and I still do.

Its a long season.. No need for hysterics yet. Mitrovic will make the difference just like Nolan and Carroll did. In the meantime Rafa is learning a few home truths as to why we were relegated as there's still quite a few who just won't step up to be counted and probably never will. A guy like Alan Smith for example.. Wouldn't have half the talent as a player like Shelvey yet he'd break his bollocks for his team and get in peoples faces. There's no fear factor in the side.. Apart from when Mitrovic comes back. Central midfield continues to be a huge problem.

I won't write off Dummett as being rubbish, he's not but he doesn't offer enough going forward. I always think it's a sum of all parts situation though. You have a left forward.. the full back and then Jack Colback anchoring that forward area of the pitch... Dummett supports the forward.. Ritchie etc.. all they need is a clever pass but then Colback gets on the ball.. almost loses it and then hoofs it back. This makes Dummett look like he's having a shit game... it's happened so often. Now some players don't need that extra support of the clever ball.. they can force the issue themselves.. Dummett will never be that type of player. But it doesn't make him a bad one.

Nothing will start happening until the Pogba thing is done.. then Juve will spend a bit and the other big clubs will start making moves. We all know this guy is overpriced and overrated, but we also know for pace and power that if he's up for it there are few players who can match him. So maybe 35m is about right in this market.. I like to think of transfer values closer to what they used to be. Back around the time from Keegan to Robson, someone like Sissoko would be worth no more than 2m. If David Ginola in his prime was 3.5 million, it really puts things in perspective. Sissoko isn't fit to lace his boots. How much would Alan Shearer be worth now?

Maybe it's a good thing. Lukaku back at Chelsea.. the same thing would happen as last time. They'll sign someone better and he'll be on the bench again. But maybe when all these 75 million players turn into flops.. maybe the market will become more realistic.

Be surprised if either plays. Wonder if there's more deals going on that we don't know about yet

Helping out Real develop their players is no good for us in the long term. Now if they wanted to give us Diaz with an option to buy at a set price next season then fair enough.

Every decent side has a few grafters that can come I'm and do a job. The guy has experience, but potentially he could be playing in a better side than he's used to so we don't really know how he'll do. He's done well for Ireland at times.. who highly over achieved given how limited they are. Rafa will have seen something worth signing.. probably to challenge Dummett at LB.. definitely the right sort of character

He needs the right development. He's still learning just like a lot of our players. I refuse to write off any of our players who haven't been given a fair chance. You can't expect to drop a player into a shit heap and suddenly expect the team to be Barcelona.. judge the players when they've had a run at it while the team is doing better.

I'd take Blackett and McNair. But I suspect both will go on to nail down places at clubs like Charlton and Wolves

Cabayes intellect was light years ahead. Tiotes is not. But they do very different things. Tiote doesn't need to be highly smart... just highly motivated. Rafa could get 2 or 3 good seasons out of him.. but.. he wants away. Wants that one last big payday so fuck him. Let him go and fade into oblivion. I bet he ends up hanging about in retirement like Olivier Bernard

Stones is a decent prospect. But.. he's not even a 1/4 as good a player as Woodgate was when we got him. 50m? If City want to pay that.. more money than sense though.