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Sir Alex Ferguson has undergone emergency surgery after suffering a brain haemorrhage. Shocking news. Get well soon Sir Alex

It’s being reported that Wayne Rooney will be the latest English Premier League star to continue his career by playing in America. Everton have supposedly accepted a £12m bid for him from DC United. Really talented player,but hasn’t looked after his body correctly,and now consequently he’s struggling to play at the top level. Think of the likes of Scholes,Gerrard,Lampard,Giggs etc who played on until they were in their late 30’s. They all looked after themselves,ate the right foods etc. Rooney is the same age as Cristiano Ronaldo (32-33). Ronaldo is still doing the business for Madrid,while Rooney can’t even get in a poor Everton side. A waste of talent in my opinion.

I saw an incident in a game recently where he’s trying to win the ball back,tries to tackle the player,but just ends up falling on his arse instead. Sad to see,as the guy was a top player. I’ve met him a few times,and he seems a nice bloke. Good luck to him in the US

I can’t see anything other than a United win tbh @trcanberra. Mourinho normally gets a result when it matters, and will probably bore his way to a 1-0 victory. Chelsea’s confidence looks shot (they were lucky to beat Liverpool the other week,nicked a goal from a deflected cross,then just defended for the rest of the game), and then they were smashed by Newcastle. Conte looks like he’s waiting for the sack. I’ll be shocked if he’s at Chelsea next season

@meanmistermustard: ah right. I didn’t realize that re Rooney. I thought it was a done deal. He will probably want to see who the manager is before committing himself to a move. The manager of DC United (the team Rooney has been linked with) gave a few prickly comments when asked about Rooney earlier. I don’t think he appreciated the press intrusion while he was trying to put on a training session. Well,if he signs Rooney, he’d better get used to it. Apparently,DC are building a new stadium,as their current ground is,to quote a journalist from an interview the other day “a shed”, and they’re hoping Rooney will be the ‘poster boy’ for the new stadium.

As for the FA cup final,i watched Mourinho’s press conference earlier,and he was also prickly when quizzed about his style of play:

Mourinho: “What do you think is entertaining? A 6-0 game?”

Journalist: “When your team wins 6-0 yes”

Mourinho: “I don’t think so. I prefer when both teams are fighting hard till the end for the result. That is entertainment to me”

An interesting thing to note about this game: Ray Wilkins’s widow will present the winning team with the trophy at the end. Quite appropriate that Ray played for both clubs really. A nice touch

@meanmistermustard: I know,right? Doesn’t make sense. I can see his point to a degree,in that a hard fought narrow win would make it more of a ‘game’,whereas 6-0 is a bit of a whitewash, and would end up like a training session. Maybe he just plays that way because he doesn’t have the players to play the system that Klopp plays (Lukaku would be redundant in our system,look at how Christian Benteke struggled for goals under Klopp for instance).

Mourinho likes his teams to be disciplined defensively (every member of the 11), and if they can’t do what he asks, they’re out. He stifles the creative players. He did it with Juan Mata at Chelsea, he’s doing it now with the likes of Rashford and Martial. He sold Mkhitaryan because he wasn’t disciplined enough defensively,and signed Sanchez,who has struggled for United so far,because that’s not his natural game,and was why i felt he’d have been better suited at Man City (although if you believe Arsenal fans,his main motivation for joining United was because they offered him higher wages) while Mkhitaryan has performed well for Arsenal from what I’ve seen, playing in a more attacking style,as that’s how Wenger likes his teams to play.

Man United’s player of the year (again) was David De Gea. That says a lot. If United played Real Madrid, Mourinho would squeeze the life out of the game. Klopp won’t do that. He’ll attack Real Madrid, and won’t care about reputations. Madrid are an ageing side, Liverpool play with more aggression,more energy,and that’s why I think we will beat them. Juventus had an ageing team,and nearly knocked them out,Bayern Munich tore them apart at times, again with a much more ageing side than Liverpool (Liverpool played Bayern Munich in a friendly in pre season,and wiped the floor with them. People made the excuse that it was just a friendly,that they weren’t trying etc,but that was crap. They just couldn’t handle the pace and movement of Liverpool’s players).

Mourinho has his way of doing things,and it’s been successful for him,but as we’ve seen, after a while,the wheels come off,and his players stop playing for him.

@Hippymama: Hope you and your kids enjoy the game. Let’s hope it’s a high scoring cup final 

@meanmistermustard: Agree with your post above. Mourinho buys ‘names’, ‘the proven article’ instead of players who will actually fit the system he likes to play. He’s done it at previous clubs, and he’s done it at United with the likes of Sanchez.

United only started playing today when they went behind, before that,Chelsea were the better team. It was a definite penalty,so if he wants someone to blame,he should look at Phil Jones. Goes into a tackle that he’s never going to win,and costs his team the game in the end.

Paul Pogba £90 million footballer,gets a header in front of goal,unchallenged,and misses it. Sums him up really. At the end,Mourinho said “I congratulated them because they won,and i am a sportsman, but I don’t think they deserved to win”. Of course they did. They were better in possession,and put the ball in the net (might have had a 2nd penalty too,after the incident with Young). Commiserations @trcanberra 

I hope you’re right about Liverpool too. Most of the pundits I’ve listened to have said we’ll be seriously challenging City next season. The problem with Mourinho is,he’s still playing the same way as he did in 2004, and football has moved on a lot since then. Managers like Klopp,Pochettino and especially Guardiola have shown that, and Jose is in danger of being left behind. Wenger had the same problem. No doubt he’ll do what he normally does,and spend £200m,instead of focusing on the real issue.

Have to mention Celtic here. Another trophy won earlier on. The first Celtic side to do the ‘double treble’ in the club’s history I believe. I watched the game. Motherwell tried hard,but Celtic had too much quality for them. Well done to Rodgers,pleased for him.

The ex Man City manager Manuel Pellegrini,looks like he’s going to be the next West Ham manager. Thoughts on that potential appointment? Am I right in thinking you’re a Hammer @Ron Nasty?

@meanmistermustard: Yep,Celtic are just too far in front of everyone else.  Agree with you on the Champions League too. It’s like a cycle: win the league,qualify for Champions League,face a decent team,get knocked out. Next season,scenario repeated. I remember watching a few of their CL games this year (against Paris St Germain and Bayern Munich), and the gulf in class was embarrassing really.

As for Rangers, it’ll be really interesting to see how Gerrard copes with the pressure. Having an experienced head like Gary Mac alongside him can only be a good thing. Gerrard’s already made a couple of signings too. Arfield from Burnley is a decent player,and he also wants Solanke from Liverpool on a loan deal. Letting the young lads at Liverpool get some game time in a competitive league with big crowds,instead of playing in front of a man and his dog in the youth leagues,can only be a good thing for all concerned surely?

Mourinho,yep, again I agree. When he wins,he’s the Special One,and when he doesn’t win,he blames everybody else,even throwing his own players under the bus the other day,when they lost 1-0 to Brighton and Lukaku didn’t play “You always ask why i play Lukaku. Now you know”. The English media for some reason still continue to stroke his ego though, and I don’t think that will change any time soon.

Arteta to Arsenal? Yeah,a strange one. Wenger,a hugely experienced manager,who basically built the modern day Arsenal,and it looks like they’re going to replace him with a complete rookie. If I was them, I’d wait and see what happens with Conte before they appoint anyone. 

@Ron Nasty: Pellegrini is a good manager,but from what I know of him,he hasn’t really coached teams down the lower end of the table,so it’ll be interesting to see how he does. I thought Rafa was the man,as Newcastle are basically messing him around,don’t give him money to spend,but it looks like he’ll stay loyal to the Toon.

Agree with you on your comments re the board. That’s exactly the way I see it too. Seems like a ‘quick fix’ to me. Reminds me of the time Hicks and Gillette tried to get him at Liverpool when they sacked Benitez,but he wasn’t interested because they were basically using the club as a cash cow,and the whole thing ultimately ended up in court. When asked about it, Pellegrini diplomatically said “Liverpool approached me,but it wasn’t the right time”. Damn right it wasn’t. We went after a big name manager, and ended up with Roy Hodgson. It would have been funny if it wasn’t so catastrophic. Clearly,the LFC board didn’t have a clue what they really wanted either. The worrying thing for WH is,Gold and Sullivan are reported to be West Ham fans.

I wish you luck with MP anyway. I’ve always liked West Ham. Had some good players down the years,and always tried to play football the right way. Whatever happens, he’ll be an improvement on Moyes,no doubt about that. How that guy still finds work is beyond me