2011-2012 English Football Season and STEWART DOWNING WHAT ON EARTH Thread

[champagne supernova]

Young is a good signing for United because he generally plays on the left. It'll allow Nani to shift to the right wing more often, where I think he is a better player. Phil Jones will be a good player in the future, but am also bleak that O'Shea is on his way. Such a legend.

United definitely need another midfielder with energy and creativity. Anderson/Fletcher/Park fall in the energy category (although Anderson is Brazilian and young, so there is still hope) and Carrick can be creative (sometimes, when he's not being useless or playing a million square balls), but we need a combination of the two. Modric would be perfect but kudos to Spurs for saying, "Lad, you're not going anywhere." Besides, Chelsea would probably have signed him, so works out best for United.

That leaves Nasri and Sneidjer. I'd prefer Nasri because I think he is more of a team player than Sneidjer, who is probably best in a free-roaming position.

Tevez is a joke. Tell his daughters and ex-partner/wife/stripper/whatever-she-is that if they like the 250k he makes a week and would like to continue liking it, they need to move to Manchester. Or even London. It's not like London is the worst place in the world. He just wants to engineer a move and I like City's attitude towards his declaration.

It'll be interested who Chelsea go for. It looks like they'll get Falcao from Porto, meaning Drogba might be on his way, and another defender in the shape of Dann or Cahill. Maybe AVB is over Terry.

Charlie Adams isn't a bad signing for Liverpool, but I don't think he is quite Champions League level (which is where I'd hope Liverpool want to be). And they also have a glut of above-average central midfielders. But maybe a Gerrard Adams central midfield could work (I just feel that Adams isn't mobile enough, but hey).

And Arsenal are just useless. Clichy leaving isn't that much of a problem; Gibbs is a better player in my opinion and Clichy isn't world class. But they've lost out on their Argentinean replacement for Fabregas and seem to be twiddling thumbs. Yes, Gervinho is decent, but strikers aren't your problem. And the defence - seriously Arsene, get on your horse and do something. And maybe swap Arshavin for Mata, although I still rate Andriy as a class act.

City on the other hand are being very quiet. Maybe they've got a surprise coming.

EDIT: Regarding FM's realism, I signed Giles Barnes and he was a central midfield genius for United. In real life, he is now out of contract.