CB Fry

I was surprised that it is actually seven changes - I think it's because our squad is almost entirely at the same level of general averageness. It's not like there's a clear first choice between Davis and Hojberg and JWP and Clasie and Romeo and so on. Ditto Jay Rod/Austin/Redmond. So seven changes to me can happen almost unnoticed.

He's fallen out with Peul you know.

I can imagine they'd be quite good at rowing or cycling, but less good at 100m sprint or Dancehall.

Apart from Yoshida that is basically a pretty standard first 11 isn't it. Some distance away from a OMG team. Quite happy with Cuco over Cedric anyway.

I've lost interest.

You've won the award for this month. 2/10.

I've just bought the special combination deal on the mug/pennant/scarf - all three for a cool thirty quid. The woman on the phone kept saying "mug" to me. Yes, one mug please. It's not complicated. I say that's poor service.

We've got no hope of matching the breathtaking achievements of Wigan, Birmingham City and Swansea with our current ownership holding us back so much. 3.1/10.

Being that the words I used were almost entirely from your post I'm not sure what was childish about it. I've talked a lot about my views on how this club is run. There's plenty on this forum from me. Have a search. Tuck in. As far as I'm concerned, we've finished sixth and we're off to the San Siro - if you seriously think now is the time to complain about how we're treading water and not pushing on then you don't really require a huge amount of my time. Whoever the owner is, it's unlikely we are going to step change significantly from three top eight finishes and two European qualifications out of three.

Henry signs for Chelsea.

By any means means necessary. Happy days.

I'm not talking about this season I'm talking about last season. ie for some finishing sixth wasn't good enough, we needed to finish sixth and show a financial deficit because that's somehow better.

Still don't really see why it's a problem. Seems to me some people would be much happier if our league position was identical last season, absolutely identical, but we happened to have spent £50m more to achieve it. Sunderland have generated a positive net spend(spend out stripping sales) season after season after season after season. Living the dream.

This was mentioned on another thread yesterday and I would be more than comfortable with MUFC and Chelsea leaving to go to some elite league. Quite happy for Saints to be in competition with the remaining English clubs of which there will be plenty to make it interesting - West Ham, Leeds, Derby, Forest, Everton, Newcastle. I have little interest in the Champions League now so would just let an elite competition completely pass me by. I can see where there big European clubs are coming from but not sure their solution is the solution. Yep, the bottom placed Prem team gets more than the CL winner but there must be a reason for that. The PL works like Top Gear works. Top Gear wasn't "let's get all the greatest presenters from every country in the world and let's try and appeal to every person in every country". It just worked on a global scale. The Champions League has got a lot of those clubs you listed out but still can't compete with the Prem. There must be a reason for that. The PL for whatever reason has got the television x-factor world wide and it's been achieved relatively effortlessly. Trying to work out how Dortmund are going to play two games in Brazil, then two at home against a Chinese and Argentine team then a game in France etc is not logistically easy and is going to have to go some to be as profitable for all concerned as a simple-to-put-on Premier League match. How many people are clamouring to watch Dortmund now and how many more will once they're regularly playing Santos?

Not sure that discounts the point he was making. It's is an easier job to improve a good but underperforming Everton side than to improve an overperforming Southampton. Plus Everton paying him more to do it. Koeman doesn't even need to get them as high as he got us and he'll be a hero this season.

Yeah, fine. As long as we can stick a team out and play that's fine. We might win a cup or we might even win the league we're in.

What do you think is going to happen to us under this exciting new ambitious owner who won't be treading water and will be pushing us on?

Well we shall see won't we. I haven't said you're making it up, but I will happily maintain that the dogs dinner of a football competition you seem to think is going to happen will not happen. It's a classic horse-designed-by-committee idea which thinks it is going to make everyone happy but won't make anybody happy. Wolfsberg vs River Plate? Not sure most people would open the curtains to watch that in the back garden. Personally I think you are mistaking some football club big business brinkmanship with a viable workable idea. See you in five years. There might be an adapted European comp, and their might be some nods to Global tournaments hand in hand with the Premier League, but there won't be much and there won't be some all encompassing Formula One with shinpads that you think is coming.

That'll do me. The biggest clubs buggering off to some UberLeague to leave the rest of us in a league with Leeds and Derby and Sheffield Wednesday and West Ham and Leicester and Palace and QPR. I could very happily live with that all day long.

12th and the final like Fulham would do me.

You're on the corporate list then.

Thanks Jason.

If Dodd is such a brilliant coach why can't he get a better job than putting cones out at a College?

No doubt this points to a very successful new direction for them.

You have a gigantic misunderstanding of what the likes of Coca-Cola do. They'll sponsor and partner up with successful propositions that drive their brand awareness/equity but they aren't about to start demanding that football clubs or competitions or administrators create leagues for them. There's plenty of opportunities for Coke to get their brand out there and they'll take the opportunities as they arrive. And of course Watford v Swansea isn't particularly interesting but all leagues have ballast and filler and Watford v Swansea is ballast that is logistically easy to deliver and is part of the very successful proposition that is making billions around the world. Shanghai Athletic vs Seoul United is neither of those things. As well as being logistically complicated, there's nothing to suggest that fixture has any appeal in the Premier League's core markets. Plus as I mentioned before I don't understand why Manchester United would sign up to a load of rigmarole of playing Seoul for a league fixture: logistical nightmare, delivers a product of questionable quality and very questionable global appeal and enriches a football club they really don't need to enrich. You're asking Manchester United to schlep around the globe playing league fixtures purely to make other parasite clubs rich. You might live in a fantasy land where Coca Cola will be telling MUFC that they have to do this but sorry they will not get involved. Ditto Barcelona - lord knows why you think they're about to drop their current perfectly workable and profitable arrangement to play league matches in Sydney. Coca Cola will not be forcing this all to happen. They are too busy running a global soft drink multinational to give a monkeys. We shall see indeed.