Tomo

What's wrong is that apart from KDB, none get mentioned when the team is doing well then a couple of bad results and everyone from Lukaku right down to Bamford was a massive screw up not having here. Not to mention some of the players we supposedly should never have sold have been poor since we sold them (Mata, Schurrle) yet the likes of Courtois, Eden and Costa have been mullered on here for hitting bad patches.

Dortmund shows that we can recover from this season, they were bottom of the table in February last season now look at them, youcan say what you like about our cock up off a season but we were never in that much peril. The basis in our squad is here, we have a world class keeper, Willian, Pedro and Hazard are a good AM trio and tbh Oscar may be a let down in terms of the potential he had but their are worse squad player's, we have a world class striker and a very promising emerging one and fullback I don't even think is too bad, which brings me into the two positions that do need surgery...... Centre back and centre midfield, Zouma could take a while to fully recover from his ACL, Terry could be gone and Cahill is a squad player no more, quite frankly we probably need two quality signings in this area, oh how I wish we snapped Alderwierld up. Centre midfield, Matic looks like he's burnt out and Mikel (like Cahill)is a squad player at best, for me we should be signing two new dynamic midfielder and playing in a 4-3-3 with Cesc, my ideals would be Naingolan and Pogba, but if they are unrealistic then the scouts/management are paid to think outside the box.

Part of the reason Pato hasn't got a look in so far is that Traore has beeb taking his chances in the team really well. If we let Pato come straight in over Bertrand, the same of you slating the board over a supposedly pointless signing would be the same ones moaning about how Pato is blocking our youth.

Courtois couple of months bad form. "Average", "drop him for Begovic", "never should have sold Cech". Hazard has an average season " wanker", "sell him", " he doesn't give a shit" Costa is poor for five months "rubbish", " sell the useless cage fighter ", " Lukaku is so much better". Schurrle and Mata who have both been bang average since we sold them (and for their last stages here), on the other hand are apparently greats who we royally fucked up selling.

Not even the English media overhype homegrown youngsters as much as this forum overhype the sold players after every defeat.

Im not targeting you with this but the generalll consensus seems to be it was stupid t sell 2 times POTY Mata who has been off form for three years, yet our current two times player of the year most people will happily drive to Madrid judging by his thread.

In the 4-2 win over Barca, him and Ronaldinho swapped shirts at half time.

Serious question, what is your opinion on Paulo Ferreira?

Don't you have to give the pecking order to the ref? I only say that because Deco was about to take the 4th pen in the 2009 charity shield but the ref pulled him back because Kalous name was on the list.

If you are referring to me, 1. I have always thought all this " long term" and "stability" thing was overrated, fair enough if you have a 65 year old manager and a 43 yeae old at a similar level choose 43, but I'd never advocate choosing an inferior manager because they will likely stick around "longer term". 2. If the return ever happened, their would be no illusions this time,the second coming was an attempt at Mourinho settling down for the long term, it didn't work clearly, but I'd he came back again their would be no bullshhit or long term illusions, we would know two years and that will be that. Obviously if we have a settled manager with a squad that play football the opposite of what he does, then it's simply not going to happen, but if we rock up hypothetically in say 2022 managerless with a squad that looks similar to Inters in 2008 in terms of player profile, and Mou is also looking for a new job, I can easily see the temptations for both parties.

If the circumstances allow I can easily see him coming back for a third spell. His long term managment has been exposed for all to see, but he is still the best in the business for instant success, appointing Jose almost guarantees a league title and gives you about a 40% chance if CL success, that will guarantee him top level jobs for the rest of his career and that could include a third spell here but that won't be for a good six years atleast.

Honestly, if Conte sorts of he CB and CM positions out ID happily see everything else stay the same including Ivan at right back for another season.

I think we were a bit spoiled with the player's we had 04-12 in terms of leadership, and its also worth mentioning we went out tamely to Inter and United with those leaders. Apart from Iniesta, do Barca really have any natural leaders? There is still a lot of quality in this team, central defense and centre midfield need work, but beyond that I think we got a good base there. Also asonemosalah said yesterday, selling Lukaku and getting Costa for 4m more has been very much justified?

I really look forward to the day it becomes clear the injury won't severely hampen him. The more players rely on Athleticism and Physical power the more nervous I get when they get bad injury's, allthough he was never at the level Zouma is at I just cannot shake off how bad Van Ginkel was for Stoke.

Funny you mention that because Traores recent appearances got me thinking back to when Lukaku got handed a few chances in 11/12. Every time he played he was average at best and horrendous at worst, Traore with similar minutes has made them count and has (it appears) leapedfroged Remy to the spot of immediate back up to Diego.

Of course Costa deserved the stick he was getting, but what didn't sit right with me was all these comments writing Costa off and declaring Lukaku the much better player and we should never have sold him (months after Diego fired us to the title), I mean it wouldn't annoy me so much if those people maintained that even when Costa is playing well, but they don't, the same thing is happening with Courtois now, a bit of bad form and suddenly ever choosing him in the first place was a massive catastrophic error this type of kneejerking on form is what Arsenal fans are widely mocked for. Even a couple of people said during the Leicester game that Torres was better than Costa overall (will be in the match thread for that game somewhere) I mean fucking hell comparing The Spaniard favorably against Eto'o and Ba was cringeworthy enough.

You've made me a lot more confident now,any time I have seen the words we are going to get spanked/thrashed/hammered in the pre match thread to a big match we have always pulled a result out, Arsenal away the latest of many examples.

I really hope Leicester do it before then, if they win it on the last day at Stamford Bridge that means they will likely be the last team to lift it at the old Stamford Bridge unless we got it back next season. Furthermore even if we don't put that into account, seeing a team other than us lift the league at SW6 would be depressing, so hopefully they can secure it week before and lift it at The Kingpower.

I'm not convinced Poch would be the right man, he's doing great this season but so did Brendan two years ago. His youth integration would make him appealing but tactically I'm not sold on him tbh, he seems another manager with a great plan A but no plan B, even this season Spurs have looked clueless vs teams that sit deep. He's certainly not worth getting into war with Levy when Conte (who has form recovering teams in a bit of shit) is openly available, put it that way.

Their has been sent baffling draws under Guus but ultimately if we take the table from when he took over we will be second, four points behind Spurs with them still to come here. Hiddink has delivered a points tally that this season would be enough for a title shot (if season started when he took over) whether it would on a usual season is irrelevant, as far as this season goes Hiddink is delivering a title challenging number of points so far in his tenure and given the mess he inherited that's very impressive.

Me and Izzy share a mutual friend, so if he can prove his quality would be nice if he made it here.

And if he got sold his thread would end up in a 300 page meltdown about how Jose is a short-sighted egotist, how the boards clueless and how the club will never gamble in youth amoung many other things every time he kept a clean sheet

Every keeper relies on their defense to a point, even say Oliver Kahn was helpless at The Bridge that night in 2005 with his defence all over the shop. Also Tibo is a reliable keeper, I can understand the argument for Cech to have been chosen but you don't achieve what he has at a young age if you're unreliable.

Centre back and central midfield needs massive surgery this summer, I'd happily see every other area stay the same (yes including Ivan at right back) if Conte can fix those two areas once and for all.

Im concerned he has let in a few soft goals yes, but like with Costa this season, I'm not worried in the medium to long term, he is a world class keeper and its only a matter of time before he returns to that status, after all Cech had his wobbles too. I'm also not sure dropping him for Begovic even temporarily is the answer, despite him being far from his best he has still made impossible saves Asmir wouldn't have got near, Martial, Lingaard, Ibra for example, their is an argument he wouldn't have let in the same soft goals but even that isn't 100% certain, Davis vs Saints, Naismith's 3rd, Benteke and the goal Kiev scored in London he should have done a lot better with on every occasion. Tibo needs to wake up a bit, but heis the least if our problems in the grande scheme of things.