It's bad, but not quite as bad As if United were to buy pogba for 40m

I wouldn't want him or his toerag agent anywhere near Old Trafford tbh.

Selling a player then buying them back again at a much higher price is nothing new for us. Did it with Le Saux back in the nineties of course.

Just relieved that we seem to have addressed one of our long-standing problem positions. Now for a striker….

Not really.

We had a player that was surplus to requiements and was not at the level needed. He was never ever going to get to the level needed for Chelsea due to him being surplus to requiements. So we could have carried on paying him wages to go on loan or sit around doing nothing, Either way he would be unhappy. The value we sold him for was about right for a player like him at the time, Same as now. Football is not about accountancy etc. He ticks every box for the type of player we need now. He ticked very few of the boxes for the type of player we needed when we sold him. This is not the same player we sold, He is more experenced now and a better player, We have signed a player who has played something like 30 games in Europern football and has won player of the season in his league, None of which he would have been if he stayed at Chelsea

Nothing is new about this, As someone said we did the same with Graham Le Saux.

I've no problem with buying him back, proving he's as good as people appear to rate him. Matic is certainly the "type" of player we've needed for some time, but I haven't seen him often enough to judge his quality.
Kevin de Bruyne never really showed his true potential in a Chelsea shirt, so it makes sense to let him go and bring in a specialist defensive midfielder.
Takiing the two deals together, we have come out of it looking stronger and with a better balance to the team, without making a major outlay..good business.

Looks like Kurt Zouma could be our next signing. Any thoughts? I know he's highly rated, but I can't remember seeing him play.

Only what I've seen on YouTube.
Big and strong, fantastic in the air, but not a lot of finesse..judging by a few videos. But that's probably very unfair, he is highly rated and only 19 years old.

Chalobah has joined Omeruo on loan at Middlesboro' for the rest of the season.

Shame a relegation threatened club didn't go for Chalobah this season. Really should have made the step-up after last year.


With regards to us re-signing Matic....I'm glad we've started including buy-back clauses in most of our deals. Will certainly work out cheaper in the future for the rare occasion this happens.

Mourinho has confirmed Bertrand is going to Villa on loan.

My 1st thought, and also my 2nd.

Cech Ivanovic Cahill Terry Azpilicueta Ramires Luiz Willian Oscar Hazard Eto’o

Schwarzer Cole Mikel Matic Lampard Mata Torres


Torres scores in successive games....and gets benched?

I would of kept the same team.

Luiz before matic

I'm hoping Luis and ram will boss theiir weak and ageing midfield

Im pretty confident today... usually thats a bad thing though... No RVP and Rooney is really good for us and i dont view Man Utd as a top quality team without them.

I praying we will get an easy win today, although its never easy against Man Utd.

Also surprised Etoo is starting over Torres, surely this was a good time to keep Torres in the team since hes been scoring recently, bit of a strange call. I do like Luiz in midfield too, starting Matic would have been a bit of a kick in the face to a Luiz/others imo.

Wake up the games started.

Waking up now....

Oscar should have done better there

Well Etoo starting was justified, Torres wouldn't have scored them two goals.

Decent first half performance, not amazing but can't complain when we are 2 nil up, perhaps a bit lucky.

Lucky to be two up, but united really are an average team. If we were even in second gear the game would be out of sight.

The pundits have not mentioned a major change for us today. William in midfield and oscar wide right. It is just not working. Time after time they do not know their position, and run into each other. We have had two of our players challenging for the ball so many times this half. Jose needs to sort this out.

Luiz is not having a good game so far. All over the pitch and wasteful in passing, dodgy in the tackle. I San see why we have spent 18 million on matic.

Perhaps matic could get a run in the second half if we keep our lead or build on it?

Bit lucky really on the run of play, but we do look the more dangerous side on the break.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Matic fairly soon with Luiz on a yellow card. Ivanovic is having problems, that's where United are having most success. Will be interesting to see if Mourinho has a game plan to correct that.

Luiz has been terrible today.

edit: Game over.

Oh well, forget my last post..game over now.

I don't think he's been that bad. He's made some important clearances in the box. It was a stupid yellow card to pick up though.

Smalling for Evra is the kind of sub Rafa would have made


Hoping for Matic soon.