Verbal Kint

If you read between the lines i think you can have a decent guess at what the situation is. I doubt Les Reed is lying and therefore clearly no bids have been made. It’s also clear that United have been in contact with Shaw’s agent, and if they are prepared to pay him 100k a week it’s no surprise Shaw has agreed in principle to join them. But they have to agree a fee with us and neither Shaw nor Lallana are showing signs of demanding a move. In fact, some of the noises coming out have suggested both are very happy here and are in no rush to leave providing MP stays. The only way i see them leaving is if we get an outrageous offer, particuarly considering they both have 4 years left on their contracts. What consitutes ‘outrageous’ is pretty subjective. We’ve had 6 months of constant speculation now and I don’t think it reflects particularly well on United as a club and the way in which they do their business. Leaking stories to the press consistently without taking to the club seems a bit underhand, but i doubt they care. They’re tapping Shaw up and probably Lallana as well

Who can blame him. Cork is a much better player. Wanyama gives you a physical presence which is helpful against the big clubs, particularly away from home, but Cork is a much better all round player

I had previously thought Ings would be staying at Burnley as i couldn't see why they would be willing to sell him, but have just seen his contract is up in 2015. I'm guessing from Burnley's perspective he either signs a new contract or they will have to sell him whilst they can get a decent fee

Turning into a bit of a myth this I think. The key was having a very kind fixture list and a fully fit squad. As soon as we started having tougher games and injuries/suspensions crept in our form suffered as a result. No real shock there

Robinson on Barker: "I know he’s thoroughly excited by the challenge and no disrespect to where he’s been before but this is a massive football club, a growing club." Smaller club than Franchise FC. How embarrassing

I don't see the obsession with putting a set figure of money on it. We could spend 200 million badly this summer and go backwards, we could spend 10 million and improve. To finish in the top 4 we probably need 4 or 5 new players and not to lose anybody. How much those 4 or 5 players would cost will depend on how shrewd we are and how good our scouting system is. Everton are right in the mix for 4th spot now. How much better is their squad than ours in all honesty? We spent 15 million on Osvaldo and he was absolutely hopeless. We spent 12.5 million on Wanyama which looks like it was too much at the moment (he's still young i know). Swansea got Michu for 2 million. We need to start spending money more productively, not just blindly spend more

After conceding an equaliser 1 minute into the second half it's not surprising we came under a bit of pressure for 5 or 10 mins. we weathered that and then Rodriguez went off (was he injured?) and after that we couldn't get out of our half as we didn't have an outlet ball. This is a young team and it isn't realistic to expect us to go away from home to top 6 sides and dominate the game for 90 minutes. There will always be periods in the game where you have to dig in and that wasn't the problem today despite what some are saying. We conceded goals at the times we looked most comfortable. 2 after we went 2 nil up and one in the last minute when for the previous 10 minutes we had looked like we might be able to get a winner

You ungrateful ****. She has pumped more than enough money into this club as it is. We need to become shrewder in the transfer market and we certainly don't need 5 new signings. 2 or 3 signings in the correct areas would massively improve a squad that will improve naturally anyway the more experience these younger players get

This. But you're wasting your time with the ****ing morons on here. Individual errors have cost us unbelievably soft goals (again) to let them back into it. Very frustrating Biggest thing to take from today was that after Jay went off we lacked up front and that allowed Spurs to squeeze higher up the pitch and play in our half more. That needs to be addressed in the summer

Who do you think is going to pay the 25 million+ we will ask for Lallana? Who will pay 20 million for Morgan? Ramirez can't get in the side at the moment and Osvaldo was awful and won't be missed one bit The only one I can see us losing is Shaw, and if we do sell him we will have 30 million or so to go and bring 3 or 4 top class players in. We would be a stronger team overall. That's assuming Shaw wants to leave, something we can't be certain about either way. The academy is our identity. Without it we lose everything good and unique about this club

Who cares if they play long ball football? It's for the West Ham fans to criticise, they are the ones paying 42 quid to watch it every week. It's a very basic way that Sam has always had his teams play, and it normally results in his teams finishing midtable. If that's enough for the West Ham supporters then i don't see why others get so precious about it.

Having a Plan B wouldn't result in players suddenly converting chances, nor would it result in our back 4 being able to properly defend long balls into the box. The usual nonsense we get whenever we lose a game. Plan A worked pretty well yesterday as we controlled the game and created plenty of chances. It's up to individual players to cut out errors and put the ball in the net.

I thought we were ok. Created enough to have won the game but we lost it because we missed chances and also because we simply couldn't cope with Carlton Cole in the air. He won everything and it was only a matter of time before Nolan picked up a second ball. The third goal is the most classic Sam Allardyce goal you will ever see. Cross from deep, big man wins first header and Nolan arrives well to pick up the scraps We clearly don't match up particularly well against long ball sides and we need to find a way to cope with it better

The thing is i genuinely believe he could have felt that way. And Shaw's interview afterwards as well sounded genuine. I think there is a very good chance the players were up for winning this, but that team selection told you what MP thought of it and that must have rubbed off on the players yesterday. Some of the players have spent this week building this game up and i doubt they did that knowing we would rest 5 senior first team players

Why is that so important to our supporters? Because they're one of the biggest clubs in the world. Why? Partly because they win trophies....

Absolutely disgusted with the attitude of MP. We have just thrown away one of the best chances we will have of winning a major trophy. Tiredness etc etc is all ********. If today had been a premier league game Morgan, Boruc, Jay and Fonte would have been out there from the start. Fans travel all that way and MP can't be arsed. Pathetic

http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/sport/football/sunderland-afc/poyet-will-still-shuffle-sunderland-pack-for-fa-cup-clash-with-southampton-1-6435911 What an opportunity this is...

I don't immediately see how? As it stands, Chelsea are hoovering up young talent and shipping them out on loan, getting lower league clubs to develop them as players and then when they come back they decide if they're good enough. Invariably they aren't and they just repeat the process. How does that help young players rather than joining those lower league clubs permanently? Best example is Josh McEachran. He's been on loan to 4 different clubs now in the last 2 seasons. Is that really helping him? Is he ever going to break into the Chelsea team? I would have thought he'd be better off getting a permanent move somewhere so that he can get himself a bit more settled and then maybe you might see some of his talent on display more consistently. If, after that, he proves himself as ready for the premier league, he gets sold for a decent fee and the said club get properly compensated for developing the player. Courtois - Bought for 7 million, sent on loan within a couple of weeks and receiving a 1 million fee from Atletico for it and is now being linked with a 20 million move to Real Madrid. He hasn't played a single minute of football for Chelsea's first team and yet they stand to potentially make a massive profit on him. I don't see how that is good for the game

Why not just ban loans completely? We're proving that young players don't HAVE to go on loan lower down the leagues before they get a chance in the top flight. If Chelsea's young players are good enough, play them. If not, sell them. The Lukaku situation is farcical and the Courtois one isn't much different. 25 players out on loan is just ridiculous

He will cost big money and not sure he would be jumping at the chance of joining us, he probably is looking for one of the big boys before he moves. Boruc has been great for us on a free transfer and it would cost decent money to replace him and without knowing how much we have to spend this summer it's difficult to name possible replacements. But if we want to improve as a team then it's one of the positions we have to look at this summer

Begovic v Stoke Crouch yesterday (if kelvin or gazza had flapped like that without making contact with the ball this forum would have been crucifying them) Giroud v Arsenal Johnson v Sunderland Also think it's interesting that at work today speaking with fans of other clubs they have all commented that they thought it was poor keeping for the first Sunderland goal (Borini) 2 weeks ago and the first goal yesterday, but those 4 at least were down to him. And there's still 11 games of the league season left... He's obviously miles ahead of Kelvin and Gazzaniga but bringing in some serious competition for him this summer is a must for me if we want to push for top 6 next season

I think the criticism is justified. Even the very best goalkeepers make the odd mistake in a season (as Begovic did yesterday) but good goalkeepers limit it to 2 or 3 a season. Boruc has made 4 or 5 already in the 18 games he's played in. By the end of the season that will probably be 7 or 8. Not good enough for a top half premier league keeper and unfortunately i think his likeable character is clouding the judgement of him as a keeper

Yoshida cost 2.5 million. He's been ok, particularly last season, but i imagine it will be much easier to move him on then Jos if we're planning on bringing in another centre back. Yoshida is still relatively young and an international and won't be happy to remain as 4th choice

Tiring Fulham legs definitely played a major part but Cork definitely made a difference when he came on. He passed the ball with a bit more purpose and didn't dwell on the ball which Wanyama has a tendency to do. He was awful in that first half. Putting Jay up front also played a big part as it stretched the Fulham back 4 which provided a bit more space for our JC/MS//RL/AL to play in

Truth is as a nation we have made **** all progress over the last 15 or so years, so i feel it would be perfectly appropriate and symbolic if we started with the following team, which i wouldn't bet against Roy picking: Hart Johnson Cahill Jagielka Cole Milner Lampard Gerrard Townsend Rooney Sturridge