Tomo

Not that im saying he was never tempted by United, but he was always coming back to us back then, Fergie himself has confirmed that.

Apparently Mourinho and Hiddink had breakfast together on Sunday morning. I would have loved to have been a fly on the table while that was happening

That's a line that should be used any time someone suggest a manager should have full control off team affairs

Great in attack but rubbish in defense, imagine if Jose, Simeone or even Rafa had Kompany, Mangala, Otamendi, Demichelles as CB options, Zabaleta as full back with Fernandinho protecting them, our defensive record of 2005 would be under serious threat. I want a decent balance of the both, which is what old Jose gave us and what Simeone will, Pellegrini, Emery type teams are too defensively weak for me.

It's worth noting that despite us being dogshit all season we are only six points behind Liverpool now (thanks Ake). Leicester are doing amazing but its also worth mentioning Saints (although not as good as Leicester) were almost 20 points ahead of Liverpool at some point last season and finished below them, as great a story as it would be I can't see Leicester keeping it up even now. Liverpool are easily catable, and if Spurs have an anual collapse and/or United keep LVG, if Hiddink can get the feel good factor going and the results coming we might, just might, be able to sneek 4th out of this, long shot but won't hurt to try.

Pellegrini and his type of manager is the last type we should look at. Tactically inflexible football purists are what's ruining the game.

Absolutely agree, and relegate some of those nine to squad players/competition which this squad seriously lacks. That line up was basically a nucleas of players that could work under Simeone. Jury is still out on Matic and Costa for me, I remember Drogba struggling all through 2008 then recovered under Hiddink, here's hoping these two can benefit from the Dutchman aswell.

I was just using the base of what we already have, that was up for change with the signings and players getting pushed down the pecking order. With good scouting and transfer brain we could always find not great but very good players who fit the system perfectly, look at how Alderwierld has transformed Tottenhams defence almost by himself. Plus its too early to write off Costa, if he's still shitting it in May ot latest this time next year then he's done, but I ain't writing him off right now.

Assuming we keep all these ------------Courtois----------- Cesar----?????---Zouma----Baba --------Matic---??????------ Willian-----Oscar--------Hazard -----------Costa-------------- That's a line up to fit Simeone before we get players in. Pedro could easily replace one of them 3 AMs also. He will also probably keep Terry, Cahill, Ramires, Begovic and maybe even Mikel and Amelia as squad players aswell as likely give Kennedy, RLC and maybe another couple of young players a squad place. Ivanovic, Cesc, Remy and Falcao will likely be the casulties if Diego comesin. Only Remy because at 29 the club might want to get a decent fee while they still can. So that already accounts for 18-19 squad places, he will probably want 4-5 quality additions to improve the first Xl and squad depth but all things considered, that isn't an unreasonable demand.

United fans have made exception for players because of LVG but Mata is amoung the biggest critic of the fans, and unlike with us he wasn't the shining light in a testing season so they didn't build up the same emotional connection with him, therfore look at things more objectively. Furthermore he got 6 in 15 in his first half season at OT, which is marginally Better than his goal record this season. Also last season he only bagged four assists and wasn't his end product the main argument for his case over Oscar when that debate drilled on in Jose first six months here? You mention Cesc, well his first half of last season is better than anything Juan has produced in his career, also you (rightly) critise Cesc but Mata also had bad spells and bad games (even in his first 18 months here) and when he did he was every bit as average and anonymous as Cesc is now, but one's a nice guy and the other is an ex Gooner..... Also the common perception is he lost form because Mourinho didnt trust him, which isn't true, he lost his form in 12/13 post January, I rememver because I went away from January to April and returned and watched all the games in February/March back in one go and I couldn't believe how much he went off the boil, the FA Cup semi vs City (the first game after i was back Iwas able to see in the moment) I was almost begging Rafa to sub him. He gave us a good service all in all I'm not taking that away but I do feel he is somewhat overrated by Chelsea fans, if we want to get back to where we should be, we should be aiming a lot higher than Mata, in my opinion. Id take KDB back (unfortunelty not realistic), but I wouldn't want Mata back.

He's not even half the player he use to be for us and even then he had his ups and downs. Furthermore say for argument sake he signs in January then Simeone is appointed, he will be back out of the door quicker than he was under Jose, if you think Jose was demanding with his pressing/off ball work, then you've seen nothing compared to what Diego will demand.

Wise was sold in 2001, Roman took over in 2003.

Courtois would have saved both shots De Gea let ln.

How the hell can Roman have ordered Ranieri to get rid of Wise?

It's a myth that Mata just lost form when Mourinho came here, in fact it was second half of the season the year before his formed bombed south, and right now he is the one up for the most critisicm with United fans.

But wasn't similar stuff levelled at Lampardafter AVB was sacked? Certainly a fair number of Chelsea fans were angry at him, he was called a disgrace on here and even scum by a Chelsea fan on another forum. In fact the main crtisism of the squad in 10/11-11/12 is that they are well fed double winners with no motivation, until Barca and Munich made us eat our words.

Sometimes the environment doesn't give you the chance to shine, im the biggest Jose fan their is but he lost the dressing room and aliented the players, they can't perform to their maximum while loads of crap is going on. Like for example if you were a striker who would you feel more comfortable with next to you up top? A player you didn't get on with and moans at you a lot? Or a player that encourages you and helps you through? People will feel a lot more "free' to take risks and express themself with the latter whereas with the former a bit more caution will set in their game and they will be less effective, not because they don't care or not trying, but because psychologically playing with a character like the first example is mentally hard.

Their not completely faultless, but I've played footy at decent enough levels and had spells of good form and bad for various reasons to know they weren't throwing games and hyjacking the club.

He (like Pulis) keep getting jobs because they practically guarantee PL survival, something any team other than last season's top seven and Everton are in some danger off every season.

Unfortunately mud sticks, he got given the good ball tag early ln his career and hasn't been able to shake it off. At Bolton his teams played good football as his WHU side with Valencia and Sakho leading the attack.

Allardyce is a fantastic manager, if he was skinny and more of a looker everyone would rave about him. The work he's done at the clubs he's managed, Bolton especially, was out of this world.

This place would crash if Ivan and Cesc become even more untouchable

Holland was never going to Change much, he's up against one of the most tactically astute and experienced managers in the league, he was always going to go with ge regulars and hope they can muster something. Hiddink will be the one that makes changes if he sees fit.

That was said about Lampard after AVB left, that he should have gone to.A year later it appeared the club werent offering a new deal and I have no doubt some of the same people who wanted Lampard sacked had a meltdown over the board disrespecting a club legend.

Probably because his Atletico sides are similar to Chelsea 04-07, strong defensively, brutally ruthless and hearts of lions.Plus I read Simeone thinks this squad needs an huge shift in playing staff, that alone makes him very tempting. Also unless these flair managers have some substance (like Pep) I don't want us going anywhere near them, we might get some fancy scores against relegation fodder but when I see Pellegrino, Wenger, Brendan attempt to take moral victories after losing to tactically superior managers it makes me cringe, if any manager does that with the Chelsea badge on their chest I think I'll lose the will too live.