DuncanRG

I sincerely hope Fonte didn't have sideways/downward moves like this in mind from the outset - really sad if he's that desperate to leave. But if he fancied Mourinho to come calling, burnt his bridges here and had to take the next best thing, then it's rather satisfying. He'd be a brilliant signing for West Ham or Palace. He and Reid would be a pretty tough partnership.

You can blame the club for that one, if you think it's an issue. Not got a problem myself.

This was the advantage of having a partnership at the base of midfield. Wanyama didn't need to spray balls around because he could just win it, then play it five yards to Schneiderlin or knock it forward to an attacker on the break. It's impressive to watch Romeu do both jobs but may not help the team.

The Wanyama-Schneiderlin partnership was stronger than the sum of its (considerable) parts.

More bits from The Times: - West Brom and Southampton have been offered Napoli forward Manolo Gabbiadini. - Mamadou Sakho would consider an offer from Southampton in the next 48 hours as he looks to leave Liverpool. The French defender has also attracted interest from Swansea City, Seville and Galatasaray. Liverpool are seeking £20 million for the player, who was sent home from Liverpool’s pre-season tour to America. Liverpool are pondering a summer move for Bayer Leverkusen winger Julian Brandt. The wording's thrown me off a bit. Is it that he's open to offers, but only if they're made in the next 48 hours?

Hmm, I've not got that in the version I'm reading.

As per interview in Wednesday's Times. Pochettino called him after the Bournemouth game and they still seem very close. “He knows how much I appreciate what he has done and what he still does for me. He constantly speaks to me. He is still supporting me and his staff are the same. He is an unbelievable manager and a person.” Other tidbits: - Shrugs off Fonte business. "Things change in football" - "If we focus on what we can do and work hard we won’t go wrong because we have got enough talent in the squad.” - Lallana is “a very humble guy to have this amazing talent”

What on earth are you basing this on? People get weird about football executives.

C'mon, a little optimism wouldn't hurt!

I'd agree with you if it weren't for all those players we'd bought. But no, we wouldn't even consider paying that sort of money. He was available for a third of the price when Spurs offloaded him and we didn't hear anything about it then - although he may have had his heart set on returning to Swansea.

Unless rulemaking bodies take a stance I can't see this coming round to us any time soon. Touting is gonna be a much bigger problem for Man Utd and the like, with bigger fanbases and tourists milling about.

Lack of competition is hopefully going to become less of a problem as Reed develops. He's been good when he's played.

There's absolutely no question it'll be Van Dijk. It's who comes next that worries me a bit.

She goes to a different school, you wouldn't know her

C'mon it was a throwaway joke from Grandad, one of the more thoughtful posters on here. Your categories are a bit daft as well - don't think anyone intends to stop going to games, and those who do go are just as likely to be postive/negative as others.

About 30 seconds after posting this, it's occurred to me that it would have been more useful to look at smaller clubs playing in the Europa League in the past. Oh well.

Like most of you, I'm getting a bit tired of the rotation debate going, ironically, in circles. The key question is whether it's necessary to change players over to cope with three games in a week. Some have raised the top clubs' lack of rotation as evidence that it's not. I wasn't sure if that was actually the case so, anorak I am, I thought I'd check it out in detail. I had intended to do all the clubs in Europe this year but couldn't be bothered when I got to the last two, so if anyone feels like doing City or Spurs, please be my guest. Hope some of you will find it useful. Average changes in European weeks Man Utd - 6.6 Saints - 6 Arsenal - 4 Leicester - 2.3 (edited to avoid long read/looking like too much of a geek...)

Who hurt you?

I'd like to hear some of the details behind this. Otherwise, don't bother please.

Barring a minor miracle from Hull, who have about 1.5 fit defenders, Man Utd will be in the final. If we manage to win this trophy we'll bloody deserve it

I'm sure the gals will keep them up, but what about Swansea's relegation battle?

Again? He's been here two and a half years! Anyway, a journalist wanting to write a serious piece about Koeman's decision and the ambition of the two clubs wouldn't spend half of it laying into fans. A pretty obvious hatchet job.

Do you have some examples of Reed lying through his teeth? I can't think of any.

I'd rather he was back in 3-4 weeks off the back of a good run of wins with his national team.

Agree with every word of this. The target at the beginning of the season was Europe through the league, Europa League knockouts and a decent run in one or both of the domestic cups but, crucially, no great shame to miss them. Europa was the biggest disappointment and would be compounded by a bottom half finish, but there's all to play for. We can be pleased with the League Cup even if we go out at this stage, the FA Cup is an open question and seventh is not beyond our grasp, which could mean Europe if fortune favours us. Longer term it's about adapting to Puel, getting the youth in and winning a trophy.