Tomo

Worth mentioning we have a chance to finish above Liverpool, win this weekend and Watford get something at Anfield, then win at that very stadium, they go to Tony Puliss West Bromwich on the last day while we will host a Leicester side who will probably be a bit worse for wear after all their celebrations (the track record of results after a team wins the league is average to say the least). Although 8th place will be nothing to shout about, it would be hilarious if we finish above them this season off all seasons and they finish in their worst spot for decades after the neauseating wankfest (even on here) about Klopp.

He shouldn't be a starter let alone captain. Obviously my primary thoughts when Zouma did his ACL was with him but in the back of my mind i couldn't help but think it was sods law that we finally get a manager who benched Cahill he got back in by default.

Not really, they are signed to play for the team if good enough, and it has its advantages, in Courtois we basically (for all intents and purposes) signed a world class goalkeeper for nothing in 2014. If one Courtois level player can creep out of the woodwork every three years then that alone vindicates the loan system we use, Christensen looks set to be the next one, if a midfielder follows suit in say 2018/19 that's a world class spine assembled by the loan system.

City looked like a relegation side last night, too harsh to judge on one game. La Liga has a good balance of sides that help the country be successful in Europe, there's the great sides in Barca and Madrid, the very good Atletico (yes they aren't close to the quality of Real and Barca, they compete with them because of their genius of a manager) and a few decent sides, the rest average or below, that was the exact same balance the PL had when English sides were ruling Europe. This new found competitive nature in the PL may be good for entertainment, but the affects in Europe have been hugely detrimental and are only going to get worse.

We couldn't have got him, he quite clearly always wanted Liverpool. Furthermore although he's got the EL final, domestically he's left a lot to be desired, Liverpool under him make our 01/02 side look like the model of consistency.

Eto'o was light years ahead of Torres, absolute light years.

Because they also had back to back triumphs in 2006 and 2007? So this year would make it 5 wins in 11 years should they do it.

We struggle vs Newcastle away, however Newcastle at home and Sunderland (both home and away) have been banker fixtures for us for years. You are not the only one that's posted we struggle against Sunderland and I don't understand it, where is this myth coming from? They done a double against us in 00/01 but since then we have picked up 59 out of a possible 69 points against them in league football, including not one single league defeat at the SOL (although we lost there once in the COC). We might lose on Saturday, but to suggest we traditionally struggle vs Sunderland is absurd, in fact SOL has been one off, if not the, biggest source of away points for us since the turn of millennium. To suggest we struggle against Sunderland would be like saying we struggled against Spurs in the 90s.

The general consensus is that we need two new centre half's, one is widely agreed to be bringing back Christensen and the other being an experienced player. Also lack of height can be worked around, look at Carvalho.

So story goes I stumbled across him on ultimate team and he came up trumps for me every time, now ofcourse you can't judge a player on FIFA (although despite contary opinion you can get a bettet idea than people think) so I downloaded a couple of Villarreal games to get an idea on him and I was impressed. But for anyone who watches Villarreal regularly (especially @DYC. as I recall you mentioned in the Euro thread you are a fab of the yellow Submarine) what's he like on a weekly basis? And would he be a good fit to come in our defense?

I shouldn't have lashed out like that and for that I apologise. Yes Guus hasmade some not great decisions to say the least and tactically he looks a shadow of his 2009 self, but ultimately he has took over his club twice in very shady situation's and leaves us in a m uch better state than what he inherited so for that he deserves the respect.

Nothing makes you happy, you only give one off our own credit if it offers an opening to slagg the club off.

Courtois saved us two points vs United, in fact won us the game vs Arsenal (the Flamini back heel was a lot harder than it looked it was his world class positioning that made the save look easy), it would have also been an e en bigger massacre vs City if it wasn't for him, let's also not forget the Liverpool semi final last season, he and only he was the reason we got to the final. De Gea is the most over rated keeper around, yes he makes great saves (which a lot like Jason said are easy shots he makes looks hard), but he isn't as good as the media make him out to be, also making numerous saves per game isn't nesseserely the sign of a great/top level keeper, Shay Given and Carlo Cudicini for example. The true top keeper is one who can play behind a good/great defence and do what needs to be done (this where Cudicini lost his place to Cech, he quite frankly didn't look half as good only having to deal with a few actions per game as opposed to when he was regularly called upon), that will be a true test for De Gea when he is in that position. He is very good yes, but the hard on the media and the population have for him is strange to say the least.

Funny that you slag Courtois off for his recent form yet champagne De Gea who has conceded from a corner and single handedly handed Norwich a win at Old Trafford amoungst other things this season.

Then doesn't the same theory apply to Cech for his first six years the club? In fact the first time he had an awful defense infront of him (under AVB) it coincided with the worst form of his career. Of course the defenders played a big part, but behind any top defense is a top keeper, look at Ferdinand, Vidic and Evra for example at United, with Van Der Sar behind them, they could play their natural game knowing that they have a top keeper behind them, any time Kusack played however they were less assured and panicked more, knowing the keeper wasn't as great. If we lose Courtois and replace him with Forster, Butland or give Begovic the gig, we will quickly realse just how good we have had it with Cech and Courtois, the only keeper we could get near their level would be Keylor Navas so let's hope he goes Madrid if he does leave.

Thats l confuses me the hell aswell, Wilkins kept saying in the youth cup "throw them on see what they do" made me thankful he never got more than two games as manager for us. Coaches can get an idea on who deserves a chance at a higher level and who doesn't like you said, but imagine if we gave Bamford, Mancienne to name two extended runs in the team because "well we won't know unless we test them"? I mean my god we would have wasted so much time.

The Anfield atmosphere is a media driven myth.

Club's fault, he would be world class by now if the club treated him better, its never their own fault when an young un underperforms.

Well a lot of people had him down as next captain.

Ok you're right, it's all the clubs fault, poor Conor Clifford , if only we treated him right he would be as good as prime Gerrard right now instead of at Boreham Woods bench Do you know what the funny thing is? I actually agree in terms of natural talent, but natural talent is only 1% of the equation of making it as a footballer, I know two lads who on talent alone are good enough for League one football atleast (both got trials for Plymouth and one of them even played for.them a few times), do you know what happened to them? One is currently stacking shelfs at Tesco and last I saw of the other he was delivering Dominos.

Lukaku would have got a chance but he wanted first choice forward asap, he wasn't and still isn't better than Costa. Also Bertrand got 38 games in 12/13, and go back on his thread, it was when he got the run in the first team at left back the majority came to the conclusion he will never be better than a squad player, Bertrand is a clear example of a player who was rated more the less he played. De Bruyne however can't argue with. But the main point is, is that the academy was always going to be a slow berner (I can't be bothered to quote everyone so I will try and cover as many responses as I can in this post), when Roman took over in 2003 the academy was in a horrendous state, it took years to fix it to a competitive state and the start of the fruits to the investment beginning to show was getting to the YC final in 2008 then going one better in 2010, but there was still a bit of work to do, as shown by the 4-0 humbling in the semis the following year. One thing the lad said that strikes me is that we have all the big talent in London and surrounding areas, I'm guessing that was something that started when Roman got here, which makes sense, Loftus Cheek signed for Chelsea as a 8 year old, which would have been 2004, Mason Mount (one of the stars of the latest triumph tonight against City) was signed up at 6, in 2005. We are slowly seeing the start of players coming into the first team, hopefully Ruben builds on the minutes he has got this season and Andreas is a shoe in to return and be a full time member of the squad. One thing that is a significant difference between our academy teams now and five six years back is its less reliant on the players brought in from abroad, now I'm not saying that it's a bad thing to sign players from over Europe of course it ain't, but the team that won the Uefa youth league every single player is eligible for England, whereas our 2010 youth cup side wouldn't have been half as good without Lalkovic, Mitrovic, Bruma, Conor Clifford, and a HG core is vital to any club, the fact that out local recruitment is building the foundation for dominant youth sides is a very positive sign. Yes in many ways I can understand the caution, but given the academy has been on an upwards curve for years, the first stage of the academy rebuild was to get it competing, done that, then dominating, done that, the next stage will be to see it start benefiting the first team squad, and with Ruben almost always in the 18 and hopefully Andreas to follow, that's a positive start.

Ok I'll bite. As alreeady said Iheanacho came on and didn't start, and furthermore Hiddink started Kenedy and brought on Traore (ahead of the experienced Remy) vs PSG and you're constantly slating his youth selection. But why I initially brought up Greenie and Ihea s that he hasn't given him that many more mins if more atall than Kenedy especially has got this season. And re Jose, along with the previous examples already given by @pHaRaOn didn't he bring on Scott Sinclair in the CL semi at Anfield? I might be getting that mixed up with title decider vs Arsenal days later bit either way, both were extremely high pressured games for a 17 year old to make his debut.

So we ruined their careers because we sent them out on loan? Most young players go out on loan first these days at most top clubs, most of the players Fergie promoted in his late years went through the loan system first, Welbeck, Cleverly main examples. To blame the club for Bruma, Kakuta and Josh is ridiculous, is it also the clubs fault that Conor Clifford is a Boreham Wood squad player instead of our captain right now? (I thought he had that potential, which has to go down as my worst error of judgement in history). Bruma had two chances on loan, and to put it nicely he was rubbish both times, first to Leicester (and the nicest thing I heard said about him by a Leicester fan is that he made Ben Mee look like John Terry) then to Hamburg on a two year loan, yes a similar two year loan that Christensen has used to play his way into Contes plans (by all accounts). Gael just didn't have enough substance to his game, yes he was flashy and skillful but that was about it, compare him to the likes of De Bruyne (the one time we did geuinenly screw up) and Musonda and its night and day. Josh well, the best game I can use to describe Josh is the FA Cup semi final he played for Wigan vs Arsenal, on the ball he looked ok, but off it he was horrendous, had no positional sense or tactical awareness and left James McArthur to do the job off two men, you often moan about how weak off the ball Cesc is, you would have gone blue if Josh became a regular, and before you say it I'm not just basing my judgement on a display vs Arsenal, I saw many of his various games out on loan and met the same conclusion every time. Do I think the club could have done better? Yes, but ultimately if those three were top players they would have found a way, could you imagine a young Courtois or De Bruyne failing on loan at Bolton, Fulham, Leicester and Swansea? No I can't, because it simply wouldn't have happened. Also with Bertrand, he joined the club at 15 which makes him an academy product in my book, it's a shame Mou never rotated defence because I like him as a squad player.

Two years ago Norwich fans trolled the POTY voting by giving it to third choice keeper Carlo Nash. If it wasn't for Willian I would be tempted to vote for Marco Amelia.

Of course that would be ideal but I'd rather they just beat United if I had the choice right now. Spurs beat us and Saints and Leicester fail to beat Everton (which is possible) all off a sudden the race goes to the last day, and given Eden and Cesc comments we don't need the frenzy that will cause, any of our players that make a mistake that leads to a Leicester goal (especially them two or JT) then it's going to be carnage and their integrity will be widely questioned or worse be marked down as cheats, we know all too well how ruthless the media are with us and we can do without the controversy.