City and Man U starting to look serious contenders.

So do I mate...

 

I thought at first it was because we are Champions, but then I remember back in 2006 I was super confident we would retain the title and had no qualms whatsoever.

This time I just ain't feeling it at all. Still want Stones plus one midfielder though, that would ease my worries,

I really hope I am proven wrong.
The power of Jose alone should be enough to keep us top two.
If Costa stays fit, Fabregas turns up for the WHOLE season, and Hazard keeps progressing as he has been doing, then we should be golden.

Just hope the defence is up for it.

 

They are good points though I think Spurs got lucky with Kane. He didn't exactly pull up trees on loan, returned and then found himself in the team at the expense of Soldado and Adebayor (who had been woeful). He took his chance and fair play to him but he'd have been unlikely to get that chance at say a Chelsea or City due to the wealth of attacking talent at those clubs.

I don't remember many Spurs fans requesting Kane play a year ago rather than buy a striker.

 

I think it's partly because we coasted home in the league as well. Last really top performance when we blew an opponent away was probably Swansea in Jan (?) which seems a hell of a long time ago. 2 average performances in pre season, no signings to get excited by perhaps adds to it as well.

A little frustrating as well that it looks like United will get Pedro who I though would have been good for us and at decent money. Could have funded him just by selling Cuadrado back to Italy.

Have a feeling our Columbian duo are going to be like dead weight around our necks this season.

 

We started him off in the league cup and Ropey league. He didn't actually start in the Prem league until October/November, so it's not a case of we had no choice. We have also brought through Bentaleb, Townsend and Mason - now all full internationals. Not sure how all that is lucky? It helped having our former U21 manager (Sherwood) in charge for a while. I hope we play Pritchard next year - watch out for him.

 

Fair enough. Just think it's easier for some clubs (not specifically Spurs) to blood and take a chance on youth in the current era

And Kane particularly has surely done better than anyone could have reasonably expected?

 

Indeed.
I can't recall a kid ever breaking the 20 goal barrier in his first full season before Kane.
Even Owen only got 18 in his first full season at Liverpool if I recall

 

Agreed It's not like he was displacing Lineker or Klinnsmann

I think I'm right in saying he never scored 20 league goals in a season

 

Yeah I just checked, he scored 19 goals twice, 18 goals twice and 16 goals twice.
But never breached the 20 mark.

 

We are coming for you, ball boys and all......................

 

As it stands UTD will not win the league, they will be better but not quite good enough

 

As it stands - none of the Manchester teams will be nowhere near to winning the league.
It us vs Goons. That is why I am so confident!!

 

Well I guess Jose will be assessed on who he brings in from here on out.

With Costa so injury prone we need a top quality replacement for him when he is not available. Remy can finish on his day, but he's too inconsistent to be a reliable understudy. As for Falcao, he's a big gamble and needs to get game time under his belt to be properly assessed.

Why have a 26M winger on the bench and not use him. If Moses is getting on before him that says alot about what Mourinho thinks of Cuadrado. Lie above PEdro would have been brillian, a true goalscoring winger, whether the expected rumours of Callejon are true remain to be seen, but I don't think he anywhere near as good as Pedro or Griezmann, who would both be better choices.

Stones is a must, even if he is not a consistent starter for us he needs to be brought in to be bred in to our squad and eventually take over along with Zouma as our future CB pairing.

The arrival of Rahman leaves a bad taste in my mouth, why sell Bertrand for 10m and pay 18m for another left-back. If Luis wanted to leave it would have been nice to have had the chance to keep Ryan for the next season.

I think we are 4 players short for the upcoming season, a CB(Stones), LB(Rahman), CM(Would love Pogba but looks unlikely) and a goalgetting AM(Griezmann, Pedro)

You never know we might just click when it matters but it would be nice to have a little more activity.

 

That has to be a joke Stan? I have seen very little between Chelsea, Arsenal and United so far. City will strengthen further before 1st Sept so I think it could be a very close 4 way fight.

 

Diego, however you rebuild - I see little promise from LvG.

 

I have to agree with you here, the players are good it may just be how he uses them that lets us down.

 

You have bought very well I believe
Experience and promise
I have more faith in Van Gaal than others and certainly won't be writing off Utd
Can't see we are any better than last year. We have no reliable striker with fitness or form, no midfield back up for Fab or Matic and too many similar small wide men
We need some grunt in mid a la Essien or Ballack, some drive and power. Otherwise it's all on Hazard
We will be struggling to win again but could do it with an injury free run

 

Are you guys worried that without Costa you look rather toothless?

i look at that Chelsea first team and its quality, best defence and keeper in league, best DM in matic and two awesome wide players in hazard and Willian with brilliant lone striker. But look under neath that and it looks rather bare.

Remy and and falcao might be able to step in now and then but neither seem like they'll score the goals needed and hazard looks like the only other goal threat in your team.

For or all the quality it does seem that mourinho's problem of sticking to 13/14 players could come back to hurt him.

Grtting rid of good squad players like salah, schurlle, de Bruyne, lukaku who would have made a good impact if rotated could be significant if you get 1 or 2 key injuries. I think last year you were lucky that bad a few injuries to costa you went unscathed but to rely on that again this year could put you in trouble.

No doubt your first team is probably the best in the league but when you compare squads I'd probably put you 4th out of last years top 4!

Really surprised that that you haven't gone and bought a top class CF to compete/replace Costa who is looking more injury prone than Sturridge.

 

When a CF is compared to Sturridge's injury record that in itself is fecking disgrace.

http://www.espnfc.co.uk/barclays-pr...and-diego-costa-among-most-clinical-finishers

Crazy record from Diego last season. Scored a goal for every 3 shots or something.

Can't miss Diego this season. Need a near perfect injury record for our 11.

 

Agree completely on the points re Costa and our lack of back up generally. We have no back up for Fabregas or Matic, no left back and not a lot of CD back up. All the youth that could be cover is on loan, so one hopes we will buy before the end of term. That said, barring injury, we are well in the race.