hypochondriac

Yep. They were all set to absolutely gut the saints foundation last season when it looked like we were getting relegated. Incredibly sad for all the people who do such a good job there if we go down this season.

Happy to be corrected but I don't believe I made any jokes about rape.

Yep. If they are willing to leave their national leagues for cash then why would they not move the fixtures to wherever will pay them the most money? They will probably play a certain percentage of games at "home" so they can use that as a marketing tool. Maybe they will have a number of neutral games played around the globe in addition to home and away. I still don't know if it will actually happen but make no mistake, if all the clubs want it to then uefa are pretty powerless to stop them and the big clubs have wanted a competition on their terms for years. Why would they be interested in generating a revenue for Uefa with the champions league when they can keep that cash for themselves? Expect to see Arsenal vs Barcelona playing to a packed crowd in the UAE by 2025...

I don't think you understand why football generates interest abroad. I understand perfectly why football interests me and the majority of Brits just like me but I'm not typical of most of the global audience and neither judging by your replies thus far are you. It's why juventus made so much on shirt sales when they signed Ronaldo. Why you get so so many day trippers from Asia going to watch United without having a clue about the opposition. It's why all Moroccans were arsenal fans when they had Chamakh playing for them etc etc. I think you underestimate how fickle many of those types of fans are. Look at the cult of personality around the likes of Ronaldo and Messi. There are legions of fans who will support whatever team they play for simply because they play for them. Chinese fans aren't going to suddenly lose interest in Barcelona because they are playing against Liverpool, Ac Milan and Juventus every week instead of Santander or some other no mark Spanish team. If this happens then this football will probably be moving towards being more of a franchise type model where the actual location of the teams are much less relevant than the brand itself. Many of the games will not be at Old Trafford, they would most likely be played in the likes of the birds nest or some giant hell hole like Saudi Arabia and they won't have any troubles selling out. Now personally it's not something I ever want to happen and will most likely end my interest in football but if they do go ahead with it, they will pour hundreds of millions if not billions into it, the hype and marketing will be insane and they will have a massive worldwide audience undoubtedly. Do you really think knowing how much finance they all have collectively and who will be backing it that they will allow it to fail? It's obscene but with hindsight I'm sure people will look back and think it's kind of the inevitable next step when all they have really cared about is cash and influence for years. I think we will have to agree to disagree on this one but we will see if it ever manages to come out I know where my money is going. Hopefully it never happens.

Which bit do you disagree with? You think that united vs Barcelona or Liverpool vs Real Madrid won't generate ridiculous levels of interest in Asia and the Middle East? Particularly if they do it like formula one and play the games around the globe. The USP will be the world league itself and all the greatest stars playing in it. The allure will be literally all the world's best footballers playing against each other on a weekly basis. It's a similar thing for franchises like the nfl and playing at Wembley hasn't harmed them at all. They will get loads of interest and make loads of money and they won't give much of a f*ck about the traditional fans.

Fail to see how the fans are to blame for probably the worst owner in the entire league and that includes Vincent Tan.

And the one in the squad with "passion." We will know we are down for definite once he's given his marching orders for nutting a linesman.

Maybe take that up with them then.

I'd say we have a very marginally better defence and a worse attack. I'd probably take that team over this one.

Sounds like it will be like pellegrino from last year

What a bizarre non sequitur.

No he's just as likely to die of starvation.

This 100%. He's a tiresome WUM.

That's hilarious. And sad.

Because we used to actually compete even a little bit. 3-1 for example with some decent performances and you can take the positives and move on. 4-1 at half time is pathetic no matter who you are up against.

Soggy and the like will implode with jokes of that nature.

Reed should have left at the end of last season.

OK just seen the score. Hughes out now for me, happy to lose but this is just embarrassing

Lol. Mugs anyone watching the game.

Sadly it won't though will it. It will be a raging success in the likes of China where they just want to see the world's biggest and best players every single week against each other. The traditional fans are really of no consequence in that scenario because they will be replaced by thousands of far east supporters who couldn't point out Manchester on a map but who all have shelled out for a replica shirt.

I was there on Saturday. It was horrendous compared to a couple of seasons ago. I watched almost the entirety of last season and whilst that performance was marginally better, it was still incredibly poor.

The reality is that jwp, Targett and yoshi would likely be off.

We'd do OK with that team. We'd obviously keep a couple of others as well and maybe buy a new rb and striker. I'd genuinely be interested in watching us again with something like that. I won't be watching the game tomorrow as I have better things to do with my time.

That's not really a policy though is it. Its called the only option open to you if you're either unwilling or unable to spend any money.

Imagine if we did get relegated and we had the likes of Hesketh, gunn, Stephens, Reed, sims, Gallagher, jwp in our squad. I'd rather watch all of them in the team than the current lot.