HalfTimePost

Perhaps but I'm not convinced. He's just secured CL with Marseille. He could have signed for a raft of CL clubs. Maybe a clause that activates from say Year 3 but not sure a straight up clause would have gone in

£140k tops. No way we force Coutinho to come down to that and then immediately pay the next guy more than him just a week later. As much of a coup as it is, especially not a 22yr old DM from the French League

We've had a little breather from the Villa-Fan talisman being built in the media. Time for JJ to step up to the plate. Edit: Updated with a new link, as just like our past 2 homegrown-Villa-talisman's, JJ wasn't quite bright enough to input the video into the tweet first time around

We signed Buendia early last season too.

Wow, signed and sealed Day 1. Coutinho & Kamara. If we can get Bailey to fulfill his potential too we'll already be in such an improved position come August. Just Hickey, NDicka, Bissouma and Jonathan David left to go. 1 a week and we'll be ready for pre-season.

Don't see why we would as they paid the release clause there would be zero need for them to add extra incentives in. There is the rumour we get £15m for it. But just can't see any sensible reason why that would be the case.

He had his tactics spot on. 2-0 for Liverpool to win the league on the final day of the season. Gerrard slipped up with his subs. Our shape was good, we were hitting them on the counter and causing them problems. We probably should have been 3-0 up and City down to 10 men. Why would you then take off both of your out balls and leave on a striker who was clearly struggling? Take off Ramsey for Nakamba. Solidify the midfield if he's leggy. Coutinho had just scored to put us 2-0 and was clearly emotional about what it meant. It was the first time since February he shouldn't have been subbed. Take Emi and Coutinho off and then be forced into throwing Ings on, changing the shape that had restricted City so much. Such a waste. The lads played well. Two very good goals scored against us by the best team in the world. Should've defended the first better. But the changes let us down today. Such a shame considering his initial tactics were so spot on.

OmG

No Jack. Good.

Ollie needs to go off

Ings needs to come on

Has it been announced?

I don't have the best view but that looked like a foul on Digne?

Hmm, Fernandinho might not have been great but he was also the closest man to Ollie a couple of times that had tracked him and closed down the space to Coutinho. Wouldnt see that as much of anything really, could be good for us that he's off even if he wasn't in top form

Yeah he grew into it after he missed the catch and bloodied his nose. Woken him up a bit and he grew into the game. Needs to go long whenever he gets it to feet though. Missed cash a couple times with simple balls.

Ings had just as many very good chances in the last couple weeks and hasn't scored them

Not very good at all. Maybe he's just nervous but he's pretty experienced isn't he? Distribution is awful. I'm not a massive fan of Emi's but Robin making him look like Ederson. On this showing so far, making it a perm feels like a stop gap and maybe something we should reconsider

NGL I'm a touch frustrated at how often this has happened with him. I do understand it and I suppose I would probably do the same thing if it were me. But as a fan it's annoying for one of our top players and leaders to be missing again this season due to prioritising national games

I know it seems like he's rested himself for Italy v Argentina on Wednesday but should we be worried about him resting himself? His contract is brand new, somebody reassure me

No Martinez, otherwise a nice line up but it's too attacking for City and what they're going for today. Fair play to Gerrard for goingfor it, but Dougie at 6 and Watkins &Coutinho is a recipe for disaster today.

I'm more confident in our wage structure since hearing we got Coutinho for £17m and still managed to convince him to drop to £140k a week wages. Ain't no way anybody is signing for more wages than that this summer as we'd instantly piss off our 'biggest ever signing'. £140k will be our top wages for atleast a season or two and I think thats OK. It's big, but it's not insane. We'll need to Get Europe at some point to continue justifying it. But we aren't betting the house on it as it stands

Yes he is. Fabrizio is the definition of a tap in merchant, done well for himself by only really mentioning anything when it's close. This guy is more definitive on it than Fab too, stuck his neck on the line more than Fab has, he was saying Atleti was close last week and has swung 180 and been much more definitive on his expectation now too.

Holy shit

How about Marcus Rashford? Easy to forget that he's still youngish and he wasn't one of those United youth that are generally poor but play well as surrounded by good players. He was genuinely on unreal form for a few seasons, there's a very good, hardworking player in there somewhere. Part of me thinks we need a top striker and we don't need more middling competition. But if we lost say Ings, I think I'd prefer Rashford to Suarez as a rotational forward