I really hope to see De Laet, King, Eikrem, Tosic and of course Obertan in the team on tuesday as I think they played well last night. Nani & Park you better look out, because Obertan is going to get your place very soon!

Nice to see Mutv pundit Sammy McIlroy opting for the uber-cool Alain Delon trench coat look. Inspired, no doubt, by the dashingly handsome Leonardo in Madrid the other night. Bit more hair, Sammy, and you'd have pulled it off nicely.

20legend will one day replace Fergie. Forget all the Mourinhos Keanos Sparkys and Beanos!

Why is it that young Febian Brandy is always overlooked in terms of the first team fringes? Is he not good enough to be talked about in the same way as King, Kiko, Welbeck, Mame Diouf etc? IMO he is and he reminds me of a young Dwight Yorke in his Villa days...

obertan when he gets himself up to speed looks quite a player very very very comfortable on the ball

Obertan continues to impress. He is very fast, is tallish (will probably fill out like CR did over the next few years) and is not afraid of trying things (shooting, dribbling). His major plus point for me, however, is his ability to think about what he wants to do. Nani's movement, for example, is often good but spoilt by a poor final ball. Eric Cantona had the ability to 'freeze time' in the box - he was never hurried and seemed to have a lot of time to pick out the best option - dribble, pass, shoot. I know its early days but Gabriel Obertan seems to possess the same level headedness. Frankly, we are missing people who can avoid panicking when they get near the opposition goals. Don't get me wrong, Obertan is not the finished article and noone should expect him to be featuring regularly for the first team just yet - his tracking back, for example, was woefully inadequate and, when he started on the right wing last night, he left Reece Brown exposed on more than one occasion and this was only solved by pushing Obertan infield - dragging Zoran Tosic wide right and Magnus Eikrem wide left. I'm hoping we have picked up a real bargain!

Who's 20Legend?

Sorry 11.33!! Who's 20Legend?

Now I know!! Good ol' Ole!! Good that you think he's going to replace Fergie one day! What about Brian McClair though?

Ed, hope you're tight, but judging decision making during a reserve game is probably not the best barometer of future success. In the premier league he'll be facing defenders and midfielders that are the best in the trade, who are world class at reducing the time opposition players have to think on the ball to a split second. That said, even if he does not turn out to be a success, one of the most exciting things about being a football fan is the excitement about the potential of a new player - Cristiano, Djemba Djemba, Tosic - feels exactly the same.

Joey
You're right, of course. I have seen guys in the reserves who I would put my shirt on to make it but, when the time comes it doesn't quite happen - they are not up to the standard, they freeze, panic etc but some others, who are probably not so obviously 'world class', come through. A classic example of this was Mark Hughes, who was overshadowed by a Scottish lad called Scott McGarvey and there was never a doubt (!!) which one would make it. McGarvey got his chance with the seniors but struggled, Hughes took to the first team like duck to water. All I'm saying about Obertan is that he seems to possess the armoury - what he does with it, who knows?