"If Rice had a seasoned international in the CDM position in front of him he wouldn’t have got anywhere near the minutes he got and he wouldn’t be a great player by now. And he’d have ended up at some yo yo club or in the championship" You're genuinely saying that the £100mil, soon to be ...

Bilic was the one who introduced Rice to the team and played him at DM a handful of times. Moyes played him as a CB, but only when he used a back 3. Pellegrini used him as a DM but only made him a starter a few games in to the season when Wheelchair Wilshere got injured. The idea that he would have...

Sorry. There is no way Rice only got game time because of lack of more senior players. That’s a wild claim. He had already stood out playing in a back three under Moyes, who notoriously never gives youth a chance unless they are right at the top tier, i.e, Rooney. Pellegrini, to his credit, spotted...

Sorry. There is no way Rice only got game time because of lack of more senior players. That’s a wild claim. He had already stood out playing in a back three under Moyes, who notoriously never gives youth a chance unless they are right at the top tier, i.e, Rooney. Pellegrini, to his credit, spotted ...

Messi, without any hesitation. 

Went to Barca v Madrid in 2007, mainly to watch Ronaldinho. A 19 year old Messi scored a hat trick in a 3-3 draw.

I cannot quite believe the FA pushed this as far as they did, based on what they confirm themselves as “entirely circumstantial evidence”.  And for two years! That has to be one of the weakest cases I’ve seen. Fair play to Moyes for ridiculing the evidence against the four alleged dubious yellow car...

If nothing else, one thing I think we can guarantee is Igor will be an upgrade on Aguerd. That flakey fucker was absolutely useless all told. A proper weak streak of piss. 

Can’t believe we’ve nicked nearly 20 million quid for the charlatan. 

As always, someone has to be negative. We weren’t shit for 80 minutes. It wasn’t hugely entertaining, but it wasn’t shit, and against a side most accept are quite decent and with a lump up front that has caused us problems for years. They never really looked like scoring. You might not like watching...

I wouldn’t want to rely on him but JWP wasn’t that bad today. It’s a pre-set view. Nobody was bad really. 

So nice to see Paqueta with a massive fuck you to Sullivan... Do those on here that think he was pushing for a move still think so..  Yep. The celebration, plus he hardly played like a bloke trying to avoid injury.  Fernandes and Paqueta with Summerville returning is something to look forward to. 

5 at the back was being used to “protect” the weaker three defensively, when ironically Kilman looked far more comfortable in a 4 alongside a more commanding, old fashioned style defender. 
 

I won’t get too carried away but hopefully people can stop worrying about how much Fernandes cost. He’s come in and is instantly our best midfielder alongside Paqueta. That’s all that matters really. 

21 and looks to be able to do a bit of everything. 

He gets a lot of stick, and has plenty of time to make a ricket, but Mavro looking far more dependable than £45m Kilman (who has also been ok, incidentally) and the fella who looks like he’s playing with a joint on the go and cost £35m for the privilege. At least he’s commanding.

Weird that a player apparently hell bent on leaving and refusing to play is in the starting line up.  Aguerd clearly is though, so that’s an even bigger bonus. No back bone in that wanker. Go and sign an old fashioned centre half which might (might) just complement the less sound defensively but rea...

Never know who to believe these days, one minute Paqueta is appreciative of the club standing by him throughout the betting saga next you are receiving rumours that he is off.     I know that the one party you can never trust/believe are those that own and run the club. I have my opinion on who is ...

Paqueta is a showboating liability, gives up way too much possession putting us on the back foot way too often. Saying that we can’t sell now it’s too late. I’d prefer we sell in January preferably to a Saudi club,and sell him for a fair price and bring in  the right replacement straight away. Stri...

Away from Paqueta, how on earth are we only receiving €700k plus maybe another €300k on add on’s for Emerson? How can we do such bad business all the time. He has been a good signing for us, is 31, you must still be able to get a few million quid! There is surely league two players going for more at...

I just don’t know with Paqueta. He just doesn’t seem the character to force a move to Villa of all clubs. He has left all previous clubs on good terms, and seems genuinely passionate when good things happen at the club.  I probably don’t mind selling him at the right price if he is replaced, but whi...

Some really good players in this Bournemouth team, but wonder how much of it is the manager making them better. Semenyo, Brooks, Evanilson, Adams stand outs.  They’ve shown us the blueprint to playing Spurs. We’ll be passive as ever in a couple of weeks no doubt.  Given this could be be 5 or 6 nil, ...

What chances the Fulham goal gets disallowed if it was Chelsea that scored it? As for the penalty, no complaints IF a Chelsea player hadn’t handled it in the same way in the build up. But he did. So another home decision.  As for this announcing the decision, they think it’s going to appease the fan...

Given Potter’s system doesn’t allow for Bowen to play in his best position, which is also Elliot’s best position, I can’t see much value in spending the £40m there instead. 

Spurs managed to agree a deal and sign Xavi Simons in about 15 hours. This bloke has been having a medical for three days!

Haha. So exactly what we are doing with Margassa, which you are moaning about on the other thread, saying you’d rather pay Man Utd £5m to develop their player.  You’ve had a shocker here. Just proving you’re going to be negative no matter what.  Ok so would i rather two £20m CM's if they scouted th...

Because young promising CM's are scattered all over Europe. You just have to go and find them like the Brighton's., Chelsea's, Wolves and Bournemouths do.  To suggest he is the ONLY one providing any value right now at £42M is pretty mental.  I really hope you are right because we desperately need ...

  Premier league proven is a big claim. He has had one season in arguably the worst team ever.    Well we identified him for £12m, is it a risk to trust the same staff to identify the next one and go for it?     Is it not riskier to spend £42m on this bloke after one season?    How do you know ther...