I meant in terms of their playing styles, not who has been a centre back for longer in their careers.

Ah, right. So despite the fact that De Boer has said that he's 'a fantastic player', and that 'we'll see in the future', you 'don't believe' that they'd be interested?

Please yourself.

Understood

It is just a common answer from a manager who likes a player, that however doesn't automatically mean that they are interested in signing them.
I am sure José quite likes Messi, and thinks that he is a "fan player", yet I don't think we will be signing him any time soon.

Your Messi comparison is redundant. I haven't implied that Inter are likely to sign Blind.

And what's a 'fan player'?

Sorry that is my auto correct, it should have said, "fantastic player" there.

Fair enough.

im no fan of fellaini but he did a decent enough job yesterday, he was in the team to shield the defence and we were very solid at the back so he obviously did his job well. it is a bonus to have fellaini's aerial prowess at set pieces especially away from home, he made a lot of aerial clearances yesterday, i can understand why mourinho may use him in certain games. he is far from being the biggest issue in this united side, rooney hurts our play a lot more then fellaini does. also, i definitely think smalling should go straight back into the side to partner bailly, smalling is still our best centre back and i think it would be madness to play blind ahead of him, but then i have never rated blind at all right from day one so maybe i am biased about that.

Why don't you rate Blind?

I'm a big fan. I think he has a tremendous footballing brain. He doesn't get the credit he deserves because he so rarely actually needs to make tackles as he reads the game so well. A little bit of the Maldini about him in terms of that - one of the best defenders ever who over his entire career only averaged one tackle every two games!

maldini was a majestic athlete, fast, athletic and agile, the complete opposite of blind. blind lacks height, physical presence and he's incredibly slow. fellaini played a lot under van gaal simply to compensate for blind's lack of height at set pieces, it seems that is continuing with mourinho.

I agree and even as a Smalling fan he needs to earn his place back.

Blind is such an underrated player.

I do agree with Bananarama though on Fellaini ' s performance yesterday. Another earning his right to stay imo.

I didn't see the game yesterday and the highlights I've seen didn't do anyone any justice in that way, and I was flicking between that and the Olympics, thinking I was recording MOTD2, so I didn't even see any summaries.

However, what I see here and in other places are very similar to how Fellaini played, which is how I saw his performance last weekend at Wembley, and yet people moaned about him. I think Pogba will step into his role, but as we have seen he can play further forward and unless we get a rather generous offer for him, he's another good squad player to have.

With regards Blind, I've said before I think he's one of the reasons why we saw Smalling improve last year. He reads the game well, and very rarely get's caught out of position. He seems the type of player that will also talk a lot and direct those around him to get into better positions The other advantage for Blind is that he's a good distributor of the ball, and it's so easy for any of the others in the back four, plus in midfield to play the ball to him, and see a decent pass come from him. I think he's earned his position in the squad. I do worry that Bailly/Smalling could be a dangerous partnership right now. I don't think Smalling is the complete article yet, and neither is Bailly, and I think pairing them together isn't the best idea as I don't think right now they compliment each other.

One out of nowhere but the Sun claim we've agreed a fee with Santos for that Barbosa that was mentioned on here the other day.

Bit of a shock if true, and would perhaps potentially outshine City's purchase of his Olympic teammate Jesus.

In what way?

In so much as according to people far more knowledgeable then myself, Gabigol is the more high profile player, and some say the better out of him and Jesus.

Speaking of young attacking players, for those that missed the Premier League 2 match we had against Leicester, Dimi Mitchell scored a wonderful lobbed winner right at the end, to win the game for us 1-0.

Ive seen the two Gabriels playing at the Olympics and for me they dont look that good which is probably why they are ending up at Man City/Utd as lets be honest if they were the real deal they'd be going to Barcelona and Real Madrid most likely.

Tim Vickery the "south american expert" also said that they were both raw and immature and had a lot of improving to do.

I think he also said that Barbosa would be suited to Leicester or Italian football as he was a player who was better on the counter attack.

I saw that, was a fantastic attack and a great goal, and hit first time as well which makes it even more impressive.

I just read that out of 76 passes Fellaini only missed 1, giving him a 98.7% completion rate.

Apologies if I have let anyone down here but I watched the whole game on Sunday and Fellaini (in my opinion) was once again, sh*t. He has no right being a start of the game pick for me - I acknowledge that he can 'do a job ' coming on as a sub but squad player is all he is.
I have a feeling that Mourihno likes him though, for his aerial presence in defensive situations, so he may get a lot more games than I would hope for.

It would be two big clubs signing young, unproven, raw players from a completely different environment.

I wouldn't see much 'outshining' going on.

Good to get off to a good start as well in that league, just like the first team our next match is against Southampton at that level, hopefully the winning run can continue.

That's because there isn't.

Apparently Napoli and Roma are interested in Darmian. I'll be a bit disappointed if we sell him, think he could be a good player for us, he started well last season before his form dropped off a cliff.

I think it might be best if Darmian, as even though I quite rate him, he might not be getting too many games this season, and if he still has ambitions of playing for the national team on a more regular basis, then he will need to leave in order to do so.

I wouldn't be too bothered about selling Darmian, if we had more cover for Valencia.

I suppose that Fosu-Mensah could fill in, if need be. I'm not convinced that we'd have let Varela go, if we're open to flogging Darmian.