Johnson has been nowhere near an £18 million pound player, that good a kid has been keeping him out.

Work Sunday's mate - with my bird - so I'm always there on Sunday morning to watch it. Always a treat to see apparent journos disgrace themselves with baseless drivel.

If that's what the market price is though then you have to pay it. It's okay saying you shouldn't spend £15m on a player with a year left on their deal but if you want that player you reduce the risk of somebody else coming in and snapping him up. You may not like that and feel it's not financially prudent but if the market says that's the price then that's what it is. If you aren't prepared to splash the cash you can end up living off the dregs like Moyes has to.

Used to play football with one of them, and another journo who doesn't go on there. It can be worth watching to see how bad Oliver Holts shed is. Barclay is okay, the rest are just southern loving dicks.

Irony is that Liverpool were willing to pay the same fee but he chose United.

Or, incidentally, what Hodgson chooses to.

What's Henry Winter like? Knowledgable or what?

Guillem Balagué and Graham Hunter are quite fond of the sound of their own voices. Balagué is a joke in Spain but with Hunter it's a shame as he's usually accurate.

Dregs?

Not sure if we can mount a title challenge this season, we need to get 22+ more at least then last season but we were bottom 3 challengers under good old Roy until Jan.

Fancy Carroll to bag more then his haul of 13 last season with Downing and Adam getting the ball in, Luiz looks World Class was awesome in the Copa.

Only signing I didn't rate was Henderson, rather we bought a CB as Agger will be injured soon enough, happy with Enrique decent defender and can attack too.

£65k a week. No wonder he was smiling.

They're not paying him that are they? Jesus Christ.

Dr Pepper does realise that his heart is on the other side of his chest!

Yeah, didn't you know Catalancs is the Liverpool accountant?

BBC predictions [url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14388154.stmare online for this year[/url.

Overall average is;

Man Utd
Man City
Chelsea
Liverpool

I'm not sure I would back City to finish above Chelsea because this new guy will make them hard to beat right from the start. I know they have an aging squad but I think he can squeeze one more great year out of them, possibly even finishing top.

Brave prediction by Mark Bright. Chelsea will be in the mix, I just think they will need Lampard to enjoy an Indian summer if they are going to edge United.

I actually think Chelsea might struggle. I dunno, just seems AVB's Porto side were a strong attacking side with a youthful feel to it. Chelsea haven't been the same high energy side without Essien in top form. I was thinking they'd ship out a lot of oldies and bring in 4/5 younger players to rejuvenate things, but it hasn't happened. I've said before, I still feel Chelsea should have gone for Hiddink (if he was ever available, big if) purely because he seems to be able to motivate anybody. When he last came in, he got everybody going after a miserable period under Scolari. I like AVB, but I really thought he'd be overseeing a revamp this summer, but it seems not.

Chelsea will finish above one of the Manchester clubs...if not both...meaning they'd be champions, if i were a betting man thats what I'd be going for.

They are according to the Telegraph, Mirror, Givemefootball and Soccernet.

online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... lenews_wsj Decent article. Can't say I totally agree with the statistical approach because there are too many variables in football. Football being a team sport also makes statistical use questionable. Other things like style and technique can't be recorded statistically, nor can mental things like pressure and big game performances. Still, it's a pretty good read, and not just because it's about Liverpool, I just find things like that interesting.

online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... lenews_wsj Decent article. Can't say I totally agree with the statistical approach because there are too many variables in football. Football being a team sport also makes statistical use questionable. Other things like style and technique can't be recorded statistically, nor can mental things like pressure and big game performances. Still, it's a pretty good read, and not just because it's about Liverpool, I just find things like that interesting.

Compared to most players wages it's not a big deal, tell me a first team player United will have signed who'd be on less?

West Brom reject a bid for Odemwingie, from Wigan.

He's just signed a £65,000 a week contract so he's going to be happy. What has it got to do with United?

It was a snipe at Liverpool for paying £65,000 a week was it not?

Trotters (Wanderer?), what's the latest on Cahill? Is he going or what?