feltmonkey

Imagine if he sees off the Glazers as well.

Lovely to see Steve Cooper giving Sancho a big hug. He's a class act. He was Sancho's manager at England U17 level, that team that won the World Cup. Sancho didn't play in the final (I think he was recalled due to his transfer to Dortmund) but was arguably the star of that squad, even ahead of Foden, in the early rounds.

I think he's looked the part so far! Hasn't @5R7 been calling for him to play there for years?

We've looked really good since the changes. That goal was just brilliant. Fred plays it inside, ball forward from Case, nice layoff from Martial, lovely pass wide by Sancho, cross from Fernandes, cut back by Rashford, tap-in by Fred who's made an intelligent run into the box. All the front players involved. I love it.

Fred is finding all sorts of body parts to score with.

Great finish Martial! That bounce pass by Casemiro was a thing of beauty.

Blatant penalty.

That half time was almost entirely adverts. We got about 30 seconds of Keane being unhappy, then adverts adverts adverts, and when they came back to the studio it was over footage of the two teams coming back on for the second half!

Dennis should have had a yellow for diving, too. Twice he's thrown himself to the ground for no reason.

After some of the fouls on Garnacho as well! This is unbelievable.

Bruno has been fantastic so far.

The problem is, 3-0 up or not, it's still a semi-final, and you don't want to fuck it up by being complacent. There's not a huge amount more rotation we could do. Shaw has had a rest recently, there's nobody else available at right back, centre backs generally don't need rotating. Rashford is rested, I think Antony needs games more than a rest to continue his improving form. McTominay, Eriksen, and VDB are all injured, so that is the available midfield. The only option might have been Mainoo for Bruno, but I get the impression that Bruno is weirdly indefatigable, despite always looking knackered. I'm hoping we go through in style, and that Sancho and Martial come on at some point, and get through unscathed. An absolute dream scenario would be Sancho scoring, but I don't want to expect too much of him too soon.

Yeah, I agree. I don't blame him for his career choices particularly, or even for being annoyed that his loan move last season was blocked, but he seems to have a habit of being melodramatic and blowing things out of proportion. There's no way back from that interview he did, really. He said stuff then that was arguably worse than what Ronaldo said. Much of his disgruntlement last season came from him apparently being promised the first-choice keeper position by Ole last season. As things transpired, Henderson got injured, and De Gea put in a string of excellent performances, including one miraculous match-winning save against Wolves. By the time Henderson came back, De Gea was undroppable. This happens in football - nobody is guaranteed a starting position, nobody has a god-given right to be picked. He had his arse in his hands from then on. Rumours persisted that he was one of the sources of leaks coming out of the dressing room as things turned generally toxic. It's weird, but I think if he'd have stayed this season he would have played. Dave has been good, but we are all well aware that Ten Hag wants someone with better distribution. He's a good keeper, and I hope he has a decent career, but I can't see him playing for us again.

I think they got Navas in because Henderson is out injured for six weeks or something. What's interesting is that apparently Ten Hag contacted Henderson about cutting his loan at Forest short after Dubravka went back to Newcastle, and Henderson refused. I can see why he would do, as he would have been reluctant to swap a starting role for being a back-up, but they way things have worked out he might well end up as a back-up for the rest of the season anyway and all he's achieved is a load of burnt bridges.

Oh man, this is a bit embarrassing. I was out for a walk earlier, a car pulled up alongside me and an American guy called me over from the passenger seat. We had a brief conversation, and to cut a long story short, I'm due to be unveiled as a new signing for Chelsea at five past nine tonight. It was tricky to fit me in, because they're unveiling Lewis Dunk at nine, and a woman who was walking her dog further down the street from me at ten past.

Is it a loan or a permanent deal?

Incidentally, we might be making an approach, but looking into it a bit closer, there's no way it will happen. If Bayern sell, they'll only have three central midfielders in their squad. Kimmich, Gravenberch, and Goretzka - that's a hell of a good three, but no team is going to sell their only rotation or cover option on deadline day. I just can't see it happening.

I couldn't tell you a single thing about Sabitzer beyond that he's Austrian. Good that there's some action and we're not sleepwalking back to McFred though. I think it's worth recalling Hannibal, personally. Edit - Hang on, isn't Sabitzer one of the players Rangnick wanted to sign?

Loan move for Pogba?

I wonder if we could put in an offer for Tielemans. He's out of contract in the summer so might be affordable. Leicester would not want to lose him in the middle of the season of course, but perhaps they would see it as better than losing him for free in a few months.

That cunt Andy Carroll has fucked the rest of our season. We have no replacement for Eriksen.

Genuine question - do you think Jorginho is being signed as a replacement for Partey, who might soon be unavailable due to... Reasons?

I love the patterning on the skirt, @JoeK You're so good at those little touches. I have to remind myself not to paint every section of a mini as a flat colour.

Eriksen is injured, isn't he? He left the last match on crutches as a result of that challenge by Andy Carroll that went inexplicably unpunished. I'd quite like to see Mainoo or Iqbal get a chance there against Forest. We know what Fred brings to the position, and it's obvious that's not anything like Eriksen, so I'd like to see if one of our young ballplaying midfielders could step up. By the way, did you guys know that on top of all his other qualities, Casemiro is also really good at Counter Strike?

Buttler is betting pretty destructively. If he stays in, England could get 360+ but if he gets out, England don't have as long a batting line-up as usual, with Woakes in at 7, so they could be out for 300 or less.