David Kelly

Man Utd are a completely mental club these days. There seems to be absolutely no strategy at all to there appointment of managers or going for players. None of the players they are being linked with fulfill the same role. Been after De Jong all summer and when that seems to be gone they go for Rabiot until his mummy tells them to fuck off and now they turn their attentio to Pulisic. Completely different types of player. It seems they are now very firmly in the asking agents to just tell them possibilities mode. And no one seems particularly interested in signing for them. The least said about signing a five foot nine centre half the better.

This would be my concern also. Of course it's all if's and buts at this stage but the supporters, players and manager will all be expecting improvements in our attackers and if that doesn't happen then it will be a bad look to everyone.

I think there will be a lot of people trying to convince themselves that it's for the best and they don't want us to have the piss taken out of us by other clubs and agents if we don't sign the two attacking players that we need this summer. Whatever they come up with wouldn't be able to hide the fact that this transfer window will have been a pretty big disapointment if we were to finish it with the same squad we have at this moment. Yes we've signed one of the top up and comming centrebacks in Europe but our defence was excellent in the second half of last season against all but the very best attacking outfits. It clearly wasn't the area in most need of improvement. That said I can't believe that those looking after these things aren't acutely aware of that fact and I'm confident that they will be working on addressing this before the window ends and that whatever funds needed will be available. I would have hoped we would have the players in by now, but January proved that we are prepared to wait until the very end of the window to bring in the players we need.

Isn't the loan we've taken out just a refinancing of the overdraft from Barclays, who Mandy doesn't get on with these days, to HSBC who PCP use?

I watched the England Spain match last week and I was impressed at how much improvement there has been in the few years since I last watched a womans match. The keepers had even improved and from what I've seen of her the England keeper looks very competent. The lack of height is always going to be an issue and probably even more so with the standard of outfield players improving. I wonder whether there may come a time when smaller goals may be necessary to stop games becoming too high scoring. I agree the crowd puts me off a bit too. It's like a league cup game when you're surrounded by qpr's who are mainly kids who don't have a clue what they are shouting in singing about. In the womens case though I don't think they will grow up to being the regular match goers as happens with mens games. And I can actually see that being preferable to a lot of the people attending as Tom says. I went to watch a Newcastle Eagles game a few months back that was similar. It's a much more of family experience but it just doesn't fit with football for me.

I'd work my arse off but I'm not a premier league standard footballer either.

If he's not up to the standard they want then there's no way Almiron, Frazer and Murphy are.

Replacing ASM would be fine but not when Murphy is one of our most likely starters on the other side of the pitch. Maxi is miles better than any of the three other wide options so you don't get rid of him for someone who only likely a stop gap option and leave yourself with bottom six players on the other side of the pitch. If Harrison and Maxi are both left sided players, signing Harrison makes no sense at all. I'm surprised I've not seen anyone else question this. The only argument I've seen is that people just don't like Harrison. Unless I'm completely wrong about where Harrison plays. I fully admit I've not seen loads of him but I always got the impression he plays on the left and his wiki page seems to back that up.

I don't get the link to Harrison at all. I'm not saying he's a bad player but as far as I can see he's a left winger/forward. ASM certainly has his critics but the reality is he's about the last of our attackers who needs replacing. So why would we be looking to sign someone who plays in the same position?

TBF that trailer probably does look better than anything he's made since Zack and Miri.

I liked the look of Gordon (as a player obviously because he's a right ugly cunt) whenever I saw him last season. Yes he's a pathetic diver and seems a bit of a cunt, he certainly seemed to have the stomach for a fight when very few others in that team did and he looked like he has a lot of promise. I don't see him being worth anywhere near £35-£40m though and I can't believe we'd be willing to risk that much on him rather than paying a bit more for someone who has proven themselves much more. Paying that much for him on what he's done in the premier league so far could be similar to what Man Utd would have done if they'd bought Longstaff for the kind of fees being talked about.

Isn't he the one who scored a hattrick of almost identical goals against us last season?

Potts has clearly went away and improved his fitness/strength in the off season. Last season he looked like possibly getting involved with the England set up in white ball cricket and useful with the red ball but well behind the likes of Rushworth and Raine, and possibly Carse, as the main bowler for Durham. His improvement has been phenomenal really.

That was ridiculously easy.

Tactics seem to have been all over the place this morning.

The Athletic are saying that Pope is agreed in principle and he should have a medical this week. I do kind of think he's a bit overrated and helped by how Burnley play, but if it's the £10m or so fee that's been mentioned earlier, I'd be more than happy that he'd be an excellent addition to the squad.

498 Anticlimax

500 has to be on here.

I think it's fair to say that The Netherlands are not quite up to Englands quality.

I've seen this put about on twitter and whilst I admit I know next to nothing about the lad, I'd be very surprised if a young up and coming international player had that attitude. If he was about 30 I could see this being a possibility but not at 22. If he picks Milan ahead of us, I have no doubt it will be for a combination of champions league football, playing for the champions who are one of the world biggest most historic clubs and the chance to live in Milan. And all of them would be perfectly valid reasons.

He's already said befoe he's really interested in our project so I certainly don't think he'd just be coming because we're his only option. Whether he'd prefer Milan is a different matter but then again it seems to be mostly coming from the Italian press that they are his preference. Whether that's what Milan are briefing them or just their own Italian bias, it may not be reality. I have to admit that taking my love for Newcastle out of it, if I had the choice of Milan or Newcastle I can't say I'd be ending up on Tyneside. Milan is a great club and champions of Italy. We have a decent English history, a small history in Europe but play in the premier league and have lots of money (that we aren't spunking all over the place yet). I still think we should be second choice at this stage to most player of his ilk.

The photos were taken just before we played our last midweek home game (Palace was it?). My mates lass plays for the womens team and he was telling us then that it happened a day or so before.

I mean after arguing for years that our midfield is absolutely dogshit, I'm not about to say that I now think it's quality just because of one signing. Like you say, it's hoping for a lot to expect Bruno to be fit all season, and it's maybe also a bit much to expect Joelinton to keep playing the way he has. I'm not personally convinced that any of our other midfielders are good enough to be first choice even where we immediately want to be, let alone looking further ahead. I guess I'm just saying that I can understand why they might look at and think forwards are the players who can help us make the biggest forward move (I mean this is nearly always the case with any club and is why attacking players come at a premium). I'd certainly like to see both though.

Bruno playing more regularly with a mobile striker ahead of him will, I think, improve the creativity in midfield. But we definitely need someone else better than Frazer/Miggy to really take advantage of that. So I can see where they would be coming from saying that we don't necessarily need someone like Paquetta desperately at the moment. Have we ever really been linked with Paquetta btw? Or is it just because he's Bruno's mate?