CM1961

Woodward did you no favours when he said ... “Playing performance doesn’t really have a meaningful impact on what we can do on the commercial side of the business”. In some ways, you've got the same problem as we did with Ashley. The Glazier's may pretend that they want to sell (as Ashley did), but as they are making themselves rich taking so much money out of the club, why would they ? Man utd are simply seen as a business in their eyes where success on the pitch is a secondary concern. You could be stuck with them for a long time with no obvious way of forcing them out ... as we were with Ashley. Mind you, you've still had the biggest transfer spend in Europe over the last 10 years (£1.3 billion). And you have the 3rd most expensive squad. And you have 5 of the 10 most expensive transfers in Premier League history. There's no doubt money had played a huge part in your club.

Chelsea and Man City. PSG are 4th.

Some perspective for us in terms of squad values .... Man United have spent £1.3 Billion on transfers over the last 10 years, more than any other team in Europe. There current squad cost £863 Million, the 3rd highest across Europe. In the top 10 most expensive transfers in Premier League history, they've had 5 ( 4th Pogba, 6th Antony, 7th Maguire, 8th Lukaku and 10th Sancho ). They sure have spent a lot of money !

The forum needs a BLOCK USER facility like Twitter. Only way to deal with twat wind-up merchants. Don't give them any air.

This is where we've missed Bruno's final third passing. Perhaps Gordon will add something here to. Maddison would be great for these situations.

After this weeks results … Only taking into account like-for-like fixtures (including head-to-heads fixtures) this is where our top 4 rivals are against NUFC … Man Utd +12 pts (14 fixtures) Liverpool +3 pts (15 fixtures) Tottenham +1 pt (15 fixtures) Chelsea -4 pts (11 fixtures) I haven't been tracking Brighton, but think I should looking at their recent form ..... Brighton -1 pt (15 fixtures)

In terms of NUFC scoring record we've got a healthy mid-table 35 goals for, but it's clearly our defensive record (15 goals against) that has lifted us up into the top 4.

Agreed ... was only looking at todays Spurs result and comparing the same *home* fixture across our rivals.

Spurs 2 - West Ham 0 (3pts) Arsenal 3 - West Ham 1 (3pts) Chelsea 2 - West Ham 1 (3pts) Liverpool 1 - West Ham 0 (3pts) Man U 1 - West Ham 0 (3pts) NUFC 1 - West Ham 1 (1pt)

Yep ... it already includes head to head matches. Man U +12 points on us Liverpool +3 Spurs -1 Chelsea -4 Liverpool (our nearest rivals for 4th ?) are away at Palace next. We drew 0-0 there.

This season has far exceeded my expectation. Just brillant. But I like to monitor our top 4 opposition in like-for-like fixtures to see where we are. If we only look at the points from those games we get : Man U +12 points on us Liverpool +3 Spurs -1 Chelsea -4

Top 4 rivals ... Liverpool beat Bournemouth 9-0 at home Man United beat Bournemouth 3-0 at home Chelsea beat Bournemouth 2-0 at home Spurs beat Bournemouth 3-2 away Newcastle drew with Bournemouth 1-1 at home This weekend really is a must win for us !

If we ignore our current points total and only look at results of like-for-like fixtures … ManU are +9 pts on us, Spurs -2 pts, Liverpool 0 pts, Chelsea -4 pts. For example ManU beat West Ham at home 1-0 (3 pts), we draw with West Ham at home 1-1 (1 pts). I think this gives a better picture of how we are doing against our 3rd/4th place rivals.