RawBBQSauce

Michu is at Napoli now I believe

Completely different player than Suarez...Bony reminds me a lot of Edin Dzeko and would have a natural back-up at LFC in Lambert.

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/12040/9396762/sky-sources-liverpool-pull-plug-on-loic-remy-deal

That girl all the way on the left tho...

Ah, but, do you remember...THIS!? By the way...looks like your boy Lovren's got one foot in the door...

How bout dem apples?

The problem is, competition is fierce during the window. If you want a particular player, you're going to have to pay a premium. A lot of clubs set their sights on 3 or 4 players for the specific positions they're looking to fill and will pay whatever premium necessary, it seems.

Time on the ball is certainly a big key. I don't see him racking up a ton of multi-assist games throughout the year, but you can see quite easily that he does all of the little things exceptionally well. Those little things go a long way towards elevating the level of your midfield play. As far as "to the tune of 30 mil"...it's just the state of affairs nowadays it seems. Young, high-quality, entering his prime. See: Lallana, Adam.

Finally got a chance to catch the Man Utd match. Wow. Ander Herrera absolutely oozes class. Every touch of the ball just has that little bit of quality that makes him stand out.

Well, he also suffered a fairly debilitating back injury after his slow start, which didn't help. He reminds me of a left-footed Thomas Müller. Although, I am crossing my fingers, hoping he doesn't pan out

I watched that Tottenham friendly last night. Boy, Lamela looked mighty sharp. He and Eriksen will prove to be deadly so long as they can both stay healthy.

I don't see how the big-revenue clubs like RM could consider FFP to be a hindrance in the first place. Isn't the basic premise of the rule that the club is not allowed to spend more than they earn? So...how in the hell could RM be worried about that? Their operating income is around $200M and revenue is around $700M. Am I missing something here?

I don't see them selling all three. They're definitely not selling Benzema. They're working on extending his contract and Ronaldo has lobbied with RM ownership for him to stay.

Tend to agree

I wouldn't say Hummels a mirror image of Mertesacker. Mertesacker is indeed a penalty box defender (and a world-class one I might add). Hummels definitely has more pace and agility than Mertesacker and displays some play-making ability for Dortmund fairly often. Per does not because Arsenal almost always play short passes when they build from the back. He will also make those driving runs into the the middle third from time to time (a la Vincent Kompany).

All I know is, if they don't update James Rodriguez' face in FIFA 15, I will personally fly out to EA sports studios and slap the first employee I see.

The sample size of the Bulls with Rose was not large enough to say that he did not significantly impact their performance in a positive way.

Slightly better record than last year if-and-only-if D-Rose remains healthy and that's a big if-and-only-if. Still don't see them making a terrible amount of noise in the post-season.

From Sky Sports: German tabloid BILD has given short shrift to the reports emanating from Spain that Manchester United might beat Barcelona to the signature of Borussia Dortmund centre-back Mats Hummels. The newspaper comments:

Thank you for saying that. Don't understand the Chicago hype. I mean after D-Rose...you have Pau...Joakim Noah...Jimmy Butler...Kirk Hinrich? That's a top-tier team? Sure, they made the playoffs last year without Rose because they play tough-nose D and are well-coached but come on. The talent just isn't there.

I think this could end up happening, dependent upon where Wenger decides to place him on the pitch. I think he could have a Hazard-like impact at Arsenal.

Well, Wilshere certainly has some maturing to do on and off the pitch. Don't see Arsene giving up on him any time soon though. I could honestly see them kicking the tires on Jenko and them signing another fullback as Debuchy's back-up. I would feel bad for Jenko, though because he is a true gooner.

He fits the bill physically and has some technical skill but his problem is the mental errors. Can't be havin' that.

Points taken. Still think Debuchy will be more than serviceable as a replacement for Sagna. I think it's difficult to argue against Zabaleta and Azpi being the best fullbacks in the league last year. Their stats don't lie. Debuchy's stats are right up there with them. That's saying something...as much as you may like to ignore the stats. Just figured it would be worth comparing the fullbacks of the top 4 teams. Sure, he can get caught out of position and commit silly fouls as we have seen last year in the Prem and in the World Cup but he's still a quality player who started at RB for the French national team. Edit: On the topic of playing hard for NUFC...was there a player who played hard for them all year last year??