Tomo

The one big thing we have over Liverpool and Spurs at the time Klopp and Poch took over is the quality of squad. Out of the players both inherited who was top class or even the level below? Coutinho, Eriksen at a push but that was it for both squad's. Vertonghen, Firminho, Walker, Rose for example developed further but they were bang average at the point their respective manager took over. As for Pep, City were actually outstanding for most of last season, it was only Bravo and the fullbacks that prevented them taking us to the very end or close. We have a world class core of Courtois, Azpi, Kante, Hazard and despite poor form of late id personally add Andreas to that, our support players servicable aswell, take for example Liverpool blowing City away with a Henderson, Milner and Ox midfield, is (if it came down to it) a Drinkwater, Kante and Barkley midfield worse? I don't think so. We have players that while flawed can be very effective with good coaching and systems in place, something Antonio himself proved last season before changing his modus operandi to blank cheque or bust. I also don't think it will require THAT big a transition, maybe if we went down that route after Jose it would have but Conte is almost like a middle ground manager between Jose and the purists and in a lot of ways has made steps to us transitioning to this type of football. We have a much better attacking system and often play a high line with everyone bar the middle CB regularly going forward so it won't be too extreme a transition compared to if we went straight for a Sarri esque manager after Jose.

The logical thing to do once they are starting to show decline is replace them before the rot sets, especially if you have a ready made replacement on the books already. We ignored the warning signs with old guard (that were visible as early as 2008) and they all turned shit all together at once and it took years to fully recover, you could argue we still haven't.

If Willy goes into next season as number 1 were be up shit creek anyway.

Comfortable with both feet, has unreal awareness of what to do and when like when to pass, shoot, retain possession etc. He's not too bad defensively and physically either (he'll never be Essien or Kante but he's a lot better than you usually associate with his type of player) and he's versatile, he can play CAM and LM but undoubtedly his best position is CM.

Selling Zouma and getting Alderwierld would be great business.

Even though they were winning in the youth ranks i always felt Boga, Ruben, Musonda, Ugbo etc would flatter to decieve with the step up because of the flaws they had (i felt that with Christensen too but glad to be proved wrong there). The one player in that batch i was hopeful for was Ake, who would have been a servable squad player but he wanted more. Mount, Ampadu, CHO (admitedly limited evidence with the latter) look like they belong playing top flight football, which is the key difference between some of these bunch and the last i mentioned above.

Im risking looking like an prize idiot in a few years time but i'll go as far as saying with the right guidance and Mount himself showing the right commitment we (for all intents and purposes) have another chance at KDB. I am everybit as excited about him as i am CHO, if not more so..

Im far from a Cahill fanboy but the criticism of him is slowly creeping into the criticism for the sake of it territory. As already been noted he has been quite good since he's come back in.

Given the transfer ban at Leti, it's not beyond the realms of possibility we could have had him for one final season.

Not too fussed with Tomori as i don't think he's good enough. CHO and Amps are still baby's in football terms so there's no real rush with them. Mount however is turning 20 next season, getting his next move right is crucial, be it another loan or as you said, back here for EL exposure.

No chance, we should be looking at Bundesliga with this one, if not a first team place.

Tbf, it took a while for the fans to take to the last bunch JT aside. If say Courtois ends up staying for the next 10 years his "flirting" with with Real would be forgotten, just like Drogba saying it's broken at Chelsea is.

Sarri would probably prioritize developing Rudi into KK esque, Sarri hates the transfer market and even declined the chance to spend big on a Higuain replacement.

It does seem like managers can't seem to win these days. If they overachieve with clubs on small budgets like Poch and Sarri have it's "show us your medals", yet if they win at City, Paris, Bayern, Real, Barca apparently it doesn't count because even Shannon from Scunthorpe and her dog could do the same. It seems all managers we get linked with right now are being put in one category or the other.

Sarri or Jardim.

He had won the league twice and did quite well with Italy. None of the options mentioned have the same CV, so I don't see it being the same. He's pretty much going to keep kicking off unless he gets a blank cheque. He did an incredible job last season, but last seasons gone.

Given the way Conte has been behaving this season, keeping him is also a risk. Appointing him in the first place was aswell.

There's always alternatives, especially for a short term shot in the arm type remit, even bang average managers like Avram Grant, Tim Sherwood and (i say this with a heavy heart) Di Matteo are living proof of that!!!!

Was he actually that good last night? Or is the desperation to see Alonso dropped leading to exaggerations? (like the Ivan-Baba situation). I thought he was pretty quiet all be it made a vital contribution at the end to seal the points. That said im by no means saying he isn't promosing and i do want to see more of him, but by the comments you'd think he unleashed his inner prime Ash last night.

Some of the rumoured targets are far from crap.

Bit different situation now. Back in 2011 we had a squad alien to any other style but their own, this squad is a lot more flexible.

He didn't play when we were 10th because he was dropped when we were 16th.

Post 14/15 which big games was he MOTM in? He was often a big reason we were so easy to press and suffocate the life out off, infact we did just that to United with him in the side 3 halfs out of four this season.

Yeah but when we had Torres half of League two would have been an improvement. Two wrongs don't make a right.

He was very good in his prime, but he seemed to nosedive around about early 2013 and hasn't gone back to his best to this day. Watching him for United these days i can't believe he's actually the same player.