Tomo

All of a sudden this has gone from a free hit to pressure to win.

I'm the wrong person to ask as I've always been of the opinion that the board very much have the right to veto managers as far as transfers are concerned (imagine if Big Phil got his wish re Drogba replaced by Adriano). If Lampard desperately wants Chilwell then I really really hope he isn't 'backed' with that one as, in my opinion, it will be a massive blunder even at a reasonable price let alone whatever the hell Leicester will want.

Not the best stats this season but last had 12 assists and 4 goals. He seems quite tenacious which often makes up for lack of height/physical edge. Not sure why he's not been capped for Spain yet but I do feel once he hits a major league he'll expload into a top fullback (or a noticeable top one).

My preference is Grimaldo as I'm not convinced with Telles defensively however if the former is off the table then I won't argue against a punt on the latter at that price. If it goes wrong he won't be particularly hard to shift with a low price tag. To be honest it's getting to the point now I just hope we aren't signing Chilwell, not wanted a potential signing to not happen so much since Rooney.

That's one thing is looking true unfortunately and i even said as much in pre season. If it's something that can't be somewhat fixed with top quality defenders and top keeper then he should seriously consider bringing in a defensive coach (not JT, a proper specialist).

The Hudson Odoi injury is the most annoying for me, he was starting to really go up a gear in January not only in himself but with his partnership with RJ on the right.

I'm going to open the can of worms, I miss him. He may be a shit excuse of a human being but he's a fucking good goalkeeper.

If Liverpool had Allison in from the start they may have been in with a shot of doing it this season, luckily for us that clown Adrian played for the first couple of months so they couldn't keep a clean sheet for shit. Thankfully though it looks like they are starting to peak out and hit a more standard top team level so they've probably had their chance with that one.

Exactly, we would be challenging despite the fact the manager still has a lot to learn just like how we did challenge with a man who went onto finish bottom at his next two clubs. Flick it the other way round and actually the example you bring with Simeone is a good reference here. For all the good he's done that you rave about, since they won the league they've won one trophy in six years (two if you count super cups) which they were in in the first place due to failure to beat Qarabag twice and advance from the CL group stage. Would the fans accept that sort of return here? I think we both know the answer to that. Basically the point I'm making is, give an average manager our 05/06 squad they may still win the league while not even Fergie would win the title with this one.

I wouldn't, even the very best managers can only take limited teams so far as we know all to well, however the other way round - Avram Grant got dragged to a title race and two finals, Scolari won a world cup, Pellegrini won the league and Valverde won back to back titles.

Just over a week ago we saw positives signs of a decent end product. I rewatched the Spurs game on Saturday morning and some of the one touch combination play (especially between Kova, Jorginho, Mason and Oli) was excellent. While I do agree they're aspects he needs to vastly improve on to ultimately make it here there is a plan and when it comes off it looks excellent. He's shown enough over the course of the season to get an opportunity with better players (plus the young boys a year older and more hardened). But I won't disagree there has to be a vast improvement on the good:bad ratio and strong evolvement in his management else he will be facing the sack and deservedly so.

DDG is finished, and even in his prime you could say he wasn't particularly suitable to the modern game. Was absolutely delighted when United gave him a mega new deal.

Lol, Wolves do not have a tight budget. How do you think they attracted Ruben Neves as a Champo club?

We won't be signing two new LBs next summer so one will remain at back up, I'd rather Marcos than Emerson for that particular role everyday of the week.

I wasn't actually saying it was right or wrong, just saying it maybe was why he's turned more into a Pep breed of manager (in terms of preferred style of play) than a Jose.

Could be that's why he decided to become a different type of manager. Maybe he didn't particularly like playing in that style despite winning a lot doing it and decided early on he's going down a different path as a manager.

I imagine it was a copy and paste from Reddit.

At times in the winter, then he struck a decent balance in the last third of the season. I can't really comment on his Juve side as I haven't watched them even once however I do know he's in a similar situation there in that he is taking over a previously solid shape first everything else second side. Although I think this youth movement will benefit us more in the very long run I have no doubt that Sarri plus a transfer window would have had us comfortably in the top 4 this time round.

Thats exactly why Sarri slowed the play down after the Arsenal game, he knew full well he needed better tools for his football to work. People screaming about how "boring" it was weren't seeing the bigger picture.

That's easy to say in hindsight, I can assure you no one on here was saying that at the time.

*cough*15/16*cough*

Azpilicueta. Still decent but far off the player who was impossible to get past under Conte and before.

I think it a big part was the teams he was in. Despite being involved in some beautiful team goals he's never really suited a possesion based system, so through all his time in England his brief spell under Conte was the only time he fully suited the system being played. He would have actually been a perfect signing in 2012, imagine him playing off Mata, Hazard and a young Oscar?

On his day i would agree but the problem with Giroud is he's streaky and that almost always comes out when he's playing reguarly (for example he went on a random 16 game goal drought for Arsenal in 2016 that cost them the title).

In the last two years we have lost four world class players (two to departure two to decline) while trying to change our football AND rebuild with academy players. If you want the end product then you will have to deal with endless piss and shit on the way because theirs going to be more days like this to come. Yes Frank is making some mistakes that he needs to cut out to ultimately make it here however ANY manager will need time to turn our current batch into a title challenging team.