A trip to Arsenal in the next round of the league cup for us.

Another away trip.
United at home yet again

It's only a few miles plus you'll get about 9,000 tickets too at a £10 each.

Actually Tel I think its a good draw for both. Should be a decent game, full house and it's not the end of the world if you lose.

Van Ginkel out for 6 months, Such a shame for a young player.

Seeing the form Rooney is in makes me even more convinced we should have gone in with a OTT offer for him, and by OTT i mean 20-30 million.
Crazy money for sure! But, imho, not only would he have made a very significant difference to our team, but it would also have made better economic sense as well.
We've thrown 45 million at Willian and Schurrle, who are nothing more than mediocre squad players who bring nothing that we didn't already have. When you take into account their wages, plus those of Eto, we'd have got better value for our money if we'd spent 50-60 million on Rooney. Then there's the shirt sales to take into account as well.

i now read some goss that we're interested in buying Gianelli Imbula from Marseille. Yep, he's another midfielder.

Agree we should have bought Rooney (and still might) but it was going to be a almost impossible deal to do (more possible if Mata was part of the deal IMO) it would not have done Utd any good selling a senior player so soon in a new managers time, Rooney was more then likely up for the move but he was never going to sulk if he did not get it, From what I have seen of him he not the type to bitch in the press or suddenly have injuries etc. Come next season and we go in for him again and his contract is that much closer to ending it might be a more easy sell to fans etc "good amount of cash for a player who could leave for free etc). Rooney for me as been one of the must watch players since he started playing for Everton, He one of the very few players I would gladly pay money to watch, Its not just his skills on the ball its his run and what he does without the ball, Some fantastic play off the ball and thats something we are really lacking

To another premier league side, no wonder we've not won any cups for a while.

Rooney is a player who would have greatly helped us. He is the type of player we are missing right now - someone who is going to create something out of nothing. Hazard is the closest we have to him but he hasnt been doing it recently.

Oscar and Mata are more playmakers but less likely to score a wonder goal than someone like Bale/Ronaldo/Messi/Rooney/RVP etc, someone who can break defenses apart and score which we have been severely lacking for some time now. In a way the traditional number 10 has fallen out of favour in modern football, and replaced by the false 9s/secondary strikers of Rooney Bale Ronaldo Messi etc. The play makers are sitting further back in midfield - i.e. Xavi, Pirlo the ones who have had success in the last few years.

He could yet still come, next season is a possabillity if he is still unhappy at Utd, im not 100% convinced that he is happy there yet and probably still has an aftertaste from the summer

I think Hazzard is more of a ball player then anything, Trouble is at the moment when he has the ball he will be marked the hell out of off, They shut him down faster then anything, HeWith someone like Rooney in the team his will pull other players to him and give Hazzard the space to do is work. We are closed down way to quickly at the moment it just stops us playing the way we are attempting to, With the right players (Rooney being the best example of the type we need) it would not be a problem.

To be fair, I don't think many on here would have been in favour of us paying £50m or more for Rooney. He didn't look very good last season, and there were fears that he was past his best. In fact, it may still be a bit early to say he's back to the player he used to be.
But I agree, if we were going to spend £50m, it would have been better spent on a world class striker. We wouldn't have got Falcao, but we could have made more effort to sign Cavani or Lewandowski. I also think we should have made a more realistic opening offer for Rooney, it doesn't pay to make insulting offers in my opinion, it just makes the club more determined not to sell.

There's been no talk of a new Rooney contract, unlike Ronaldo, and I don't think he will in the short term. I thought he'd look at how United were for 6 months under Moyes and then decide. But I think after Summer fiasco and the way they're playing he sees the writing on the wall.

I think he'll go, he can buy himself out of his contract for £12 million next Summer, so I think it depends on whether United want to maximise the fee in January or are desperate for him to stay until the Summer to finish as high as possible.

I don't think it's a given he'll end up at Chelsea though.

TEAM: Cech; Ivanovic, Luiz, Terry (c), Cole; Mikel, Lampard; Ramires, Oscar, Hazard; Torres

SUBS: Schwarzer, Cahill, Azpilicueta, Essien, Mata, Schurrle, Eto'o

I would have liked to see Essien given another chance in DM alongside Ramires, and played Mata with Oscar and Hazard in the AM positions.

I'd have preferred that too.

It is strange to see him so ostracized, he must have done something to get on Jose's nerves surley? As he played a few games with him at Madrid last season (if my memory proves correct).

Whilst Jose's decision to drop Mata has got all the headlines, his doings with Essien are just as strange I would say.

Usual dross so far.

1 is a world class player at the top of his game....the other is a former world class player whose injuries have taken a serious toll on him. Nowhere near the same level of strangeness.
He played most of his matches at RB/LB last season...we don't need him there.

Too much to hope Mata comes on at H/T i'm guessing?

He's on for Mikel.

edit: Michael Owen is a such a tw*t.

Jt.............

Terry!

Schurrle on for the anonymous Hazard. Playing well now.

Starting to wish we had Vertonghen at CB.

What a stupid decision. Nothing in that at all

Take a draw now