Good luck Tikay. My 1% investment is gonna be my biggest for months.

Thanks guys, thought as much with the dead heat rule. Could do with Payet notching in the final

I'm too hungover to check myself!

How are bookies gonna settle e/w top scorer bets? As it stands, 6 players are on 3 goals. These are separated by assists, so the top 4 is Griezmann out in front followed by Giroud, Payet and Ronaldo as the latter 3 have 2 assists each, whereas Nani has 3 goals but 1 assist so is 5th on the list.

Imagine no more goals are scored, will they pay out the top 4 as it stands, or include the other players on 3 goals and slice the e/w odds further?

I know what I'm trying to ask but I'm struggling to articulate it properly so apologies if that doesn't make sense!

Least I have a decent sweat to take to the final; France/Griezmann double at 20/1 and an e/w on Payet at 66/1. Only very small stakes cos I'm poor

Not been to any live music for few years, going to this here in Notts in a couple of weeks 

http://www.splendourfestival.com

Seen The Rifles 4 times, very tight live band, would recommend catching them if you get the chance.

Shed Seven are like Tikay or a fine wine, just get better with age. A great gig for a great cause, with 5 figures raised for homelessness charities in York.

Only just rolled out of bed, sore head need to sort Feeder tickets, I'll be in trouble with my flatmate if they've sold out and we've missed the boat cos I was too hungover to get up

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/14605805.Shed_Seven_charity_gig_raises_thousands_for_York_homelessness_charities/

Also bid £38 mil for Bonucci

Personally think Nolito will start regularly , suits Peps style perfectly

Just can't see it. He's worse than Sterling and Navas - albeit offers more of a goal threat than the later. Be massively shocked if he started 20 games and scored more than 5 goals.

My dad offers more of a goal threat than Navas, and he retires this month.

Agreed with above though, I think he'll start quite a few games as he is in the Pep mould, and the gaffer obviously wants and trusts him. Just waiting on Arb to throw down some odds after a few Stellas tonight.

Do you think City will be willing to pay whatever Everton's new owners want for him? They don't even have to sell at any price now, some ridic fees being banded around for Lukaku as well.

No, I imagine we'll have a figure in mind we're happy to pay, a sizeable figure, but won't be held to ransom over him. They don't like dealing with us, so can deffo see a deal not materialising due to the clubs being poles apart on their valuations. Them not needing to sell only complicates things, and it might need Stones to push for something to force their hand. Apparently we've cooled our interests in both PEA and Pogba because of the sheer sums involved, so whilst we might not be short of a few quid I don't think that automatically means we'll pay whatever any selling club demands (I still think PEA has legs, Pogba just isn't gonna happen though)

I better put 'in before City splash out £200m on Stones and Pogba' next week to make me look a fucking idiot wouldn't be for the first time!

Surely a quality ball playing centre defender is top of Pep's shopping list? Who do we think are the candidates?

I'm doing fuck all tonight so feel like I'm on call to field any questions

Stones.

Think Laporte was first choice but his new contract at Bilbao rules him out, at least for the time being. Everton hate doing business with us (Lescott) and fully expect them to play as much hardball as possible over Stones. I'm quite relaxed about him personally, but the rumours refuse to go away. Barnsley have a decent sell on clause which is only pushing his price further up.

That back five doesn't look like the securest of units, in fact it fills me (and I'm sure many others) with hope.

This is undoubtedly Pep's biggest test to date imo.

Getting and keeping Kompany fit is crucial, he really is the glue that holds the defence together. I'm hoping that under Pep our ball retention is gonna be much better; too many times in recent seasons we'd give it away in bad areas and just invite pressure on the back 4. Inevitably this leads to mistakes and goals going in your net. Stop this issue at source and I suspect we might run a tighter ship this coming season. Gundogan is gonna be an important player in this respect, keeping things ticking over in the middle of the park. Defence has been somewhat of a weak link for a while now, regardless of how much money we chuck at it, but as alluded too some of these problems stem from further up the pitch.

Looking like Kolarov and Zabaleta out by the end of the week, and Peres from Torino in. Interesting times. Think we've cooled our interest in your guy Bellerin for now though.

I don't think anyone would disagree with that last comment; this is far and away his biggest challenge, but I'm sure he's more than up for it

Doubt Nolito starts to be honest. He's pretty average, surprising signing really. He'll be bit part at best like Bony and Jovetic were. Iheanacho is already a better player.

I think the jury is out on him. Certainly not a player I'm overly familiar with, but did read he was La Liga's most creative player last season. I think what is key is that he's worked with Guardiola before, and Pep knows exactly what he's getting and Nolito knows exactly what is gonna be expected of him. Pep loves versatile players and I understand he can play pretty much any position in the final 3rd. At 29 he isn't one for the future but one for now and not waiting 2 years to see if he can develop.

The signing has raised a few eyebrows over on Blue Moon, but I trust Pep's judgement over any of them lot I won't be putting him in my fantasy football team though

Toure fit into a guardiola side? Especially shit toure that he is now
No full backs being signed?

I had Silva in there originally but it just looked too unbalanced. I think Fernando could still get some decent game time, he's our only (fully) defensive minded midfielder.

You ask 100 City fans what position needs the most attention, and 99 will say the full backs, but we've yet to really address that looks like Kolarov and Zaba are moving on to pastures new, so we need something. Denayer can cover right back and this new Ukraine lad can apparently fill in at left back, but its too soon for both of them. I quite like Sagna and Clichy, but both are the wrong side of 30 and although reasonably solid, they are hardly spectacular. The problem is, who's available and feasible?

One way to solve this is a Pep favourite, 3-5-2....

How on earth are we gonna line up this season? Assuming everyone is fit and no more signings...

....................................................................Hart

.....................................Sagna.........Kompany........Otamendi..........Clichy

...............................................Fernandinho....Toure.....Gundogan

.....................................KDB.........................................................Nolito

...................................................................Aguero


Take Yaya out for Silva and let him pull the strings from a deeper position? Nasri for Nolito? Mangala for Otamendi? Butland for Hart?!

Fuck knows what Pep does if we get Sane as well.

To get back from the derail - just seen on FB that apparently Mata is going to Everton for £25m. This true?

I think one media outlet was quoting £15m, which is simply absurd for a player of his quality. Not sure why Jose doesn't like him but someone is gonna get a very talented player.

I am in seat 9, and in seat 6, directly opposite me, a young lady, maybe 25 years old, has arrived.

Fair to say she is well designed, constructed and maintained.

Accentuating this, she is wearing a top emblazoned with "HOOTERS". It is also quite evident that she must have dressed in a hurry this morning, as she clearly omitted to put her brassiere on, or "bra" as the kids call them these days.

This is all well and good of course, but becomes something of a severe distraction every time she plays a hand, as she leans forward excessively to see her cards and the board.

One tries to avert one's gaze, naturally, but it's really not easy, where is one supposed to look in these spots?

Meanwhile, back to the poker, and we can't find a hand.

Rip her a new arsehole.

How else was SAF supposed to leave the squad? Bring in a whole new defense, half a midfield and a big name striker and then leave? So you've got to bring in a new manager who doesn't get to pick a new squad, which is supposed to be the start of a new era. It's pretty ideal to leave a team with a new manager who gets to build his squad from the ground up the way he wants it and build his own dynasty. Hiring Moyes and more to the point Ed Woodward then fannying around for an entire transfer window hasn't got a lot to do with SAF. SAF retires, you hire Mourinho (or any world class manager), give him the £300m we've spent since and David Gill in still in charge then none of this happens and SAF leaving an ageing squad is a moot point.

Of course SAF letting Pogba go has to rest on his shoulders. It is (probably) his fault he left, but because Fergie didn't trust him to start games or that he wasn't good enough. Same as 100's maybe even 1000's of young lads over the last 30 years. No one complains that he let Danny Drinkwater go. Or Chester, Diouf, Simpson, James, Brady, Shawcross, Cathcart, Campbell, Fryers, De Laet etc. Surely of the revolving door of average Prem players United seem to churn out of their academy one if going to turn out decent.

It looks like Fergie (and Charlton) had quite a lot to do with the hiring of Moyes was he not the ''chosen one''?

I don't mean Fergie buying half a new team in his final transfer window. It was no secret he was towards the end of his managerial career, the general consensus from some united fans I know was that he didn't make enough progress with the squad in his final couple of years, so when he came to retire and X takes over, they are left with a title winning squad, albeit one that hadn't seen much improvement in recent seasons and containing many players past their best.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/man-uniteds-generation-game-fergies-6355307