fox_up_north

I should not get that reference because I am far, far too young for it. Gizza job.

If we don't get Europe, we need to brace ourselves. Hopefully he's really enjoying being here because, genuinely, top 5 right backs in the world. I cannot believe we have him.

This will be tougher than we expect. Yes Newcastle are 19th but they're no Watford. Bruce will have them drilled for defence and they'll try to swamp midfield.

Top 4. I think our chance is there to do an Everton from a few years ago - europa league and pushing for Champs league. At the start of the season I wasn't really paying all that much attention to the "breaking the top 6" talk and felt we'd probably settle around 8th with a league cup win - aka the MON era. But this is something different now....wouldn't have pictured Spurs, Arsenal AND United all faltering as they have. Gonna be a fun season.

Pretty shit all around. Gray needs to go. Championship player and we're losing money off him. Nice to see the Manchester Drama School get some people on the pitch too

Slabhead doing his best to give United buyer's remorse

Hopefully Sancho will inspire other young English players - get into a team, even if you have to go abroad.

At the end of the day, that's the danger when you get younger players working towards their peak. Hopefully it means that the profits made can become purchases for peak players

Lincoln's been chosen because there's a good chance of an upset. They're a team I've followed for a while and they've had a fantastic run these last few years - plus they pushed Everton at Goodison in the FA cup last season.

Player in "not always brilliant" shocker We've played two good teams, both of whom have already played more competitive games, and he's still a young guy. We know he can play, he proved that last season. Cut the guy some slack. There's no way he's going to be a Slim or Silva

Pretty pleased with that. Chelsea are going to get slaughtered in the press.

Chelsea will get at least 1. They have played well recently and just a bit naive. They'll need to win this. 2-1 to Chelsea

Honestly that man is easily one of my favourites for interviews. Just a great line out of nowhere. That and telling everyone he wanted his players to be horny.

Well if that's the case I'll not bother with a game this season

Of the football fights I've ever (and this includes working Saturday nights in a city centre pub for 3 years) it's pretty much always bunch of pissed up white blokes, over 30 and in smart-casual gear, who can't name half the players on their team. Not real fans. They're the sorts of people who just want to fight to show off and get some aggression out. They'll find any reason for fighting, really. Football, women, politics, Blur vs Oasis. There's a whole bunch of sociology that goes with it but that's me simplifying it.

Welcome to social media

That tells me Rogers is looking to senior players, who have been around since the promotion, to create something long-term. I've no doubt he'll leave the club as/ when a "big job" comes along but not before he does something recognisable here.

I imagine it's been mooted for a while and he'll have known. Yes, he's played a pre-season but I do wonder if part of that was to keep up appearances and strengthen our bargaining position. Evans and Morgan partnership for the first few games to get people up to speed - if nobody comes in as replacement. I am not entirely convinced we'll sign any more players this window.

I thought he'd go for 65-70 based on English premium, length of contract and the inflation of wages but that is absolutely mental. For those worrying about breaking top 6 with Maguire - this money pays for the long term infrastructure of the club.

I really feel Villa could go either way. I think it'll take some doing to replicate Fulham's utter shambles of a season. My gut instinct says if they gel and let Heaton guide the players, they'll do alright. If I were Palace and Burnley I'd be really looking over my shoulder. Something tells me an "established" EPL team is going down this year.

No chance Zaha comes to us. He's had his agent and the press in his ear telling him Champions League. Plus, Palace want stupid money for him because he is invaluable to their team. I think Palace shouldn't let him go for anything less than £60 million, possibly even £65 million because he is the difference between staying up and relegation. If we sell Maguire then go after players without prior contact, everyone puts their prices up because we'll have just got a phenomenal amount of money. At best we'll get one good defender in the time left of the window.

Ake or Lascaales if we're tight on time. Just go in with a good offer (unlike a certain club pissing us about). Though I wouldn't be offended if we went for Kurt Zouma, seeing as how he still doesn't seem to get a look in at Chelsea.

I think, generally, it was pretty good for everyone for us to win as it meant the league could play up the "unpredictable" nature of it and bang up subscriptions. The media liked the fairy tale of it all and every game became a "must watch" for people around the league as everyone other than Spurs, by the end, wanted us to win it. However, what the top teams and league don't want is for it to happen again - or too often - and want a Top 6 to be relatively stable with competition within it. If both Arsenal and Man United to drop out of top 6 this year to be replaced by Wolves, us, Everton or someone else then they really won't like it.

I'd love to see a first 11 made up of those.

Oh he has but he's not had the love he deserves. Any other player scores a winning champs league goal and they'd get made for life at the club, yet he's getting shat on by all and sundry. If he's happy then fine but, if it was me, I'd perhaps feel like my medals are a bit hollow given the treatment.