Tomo

The perf There was a decline in performance but i never in a million years thought it was a sign of this, if anything i thought it showed the great character of the squad to knuckle down and get the results. Fergie had many of those type of seasons in reverse.

Imo they looked horrible post 2005, I know they won the CL in 07 but they didn't have the same aura about them they had previous, and with us, he kept picking the same underperforming ageing players, and because of their age, they stagnated to the point they completely lost it, I know he didn't get dealt a great hand, but he had no excuse for ignoring a clearly ready Sturridge and to some extent Bertrand while Anelka and Cole were stinking Stamford Bridge out.In hindsight the best thing that could have happened is if Mou left after the 2007 cup final and Carlo took over that summer for 3 years, our squad in 2007 was perfect for him.

I disagree, maybe I'm alone but I didn't really see any signs of trouble in the second half of last season.The way I saw it is a played our footy in the first half and in the second we just knuckled down and got the results, apart from the first half against Saints we never really got outplayed and always looked like we would get the results. Massive contrast to now, the only three games I won't deeply fear defeat are Villa home and away (while Sherwoods there) and Arsenal at home, two of which have been and gone.

I haven't fully shifted, but if/when I do theirs no going back in my head, ask anyone who ever read my constant rants on Torres and Bosingwa

I'd rather we though outside the box, Carlos league record is awful and we need title winning run to even get top 4 from here on, would rather gamble and furthermore Carlos teams have a history of stagnating big time and setting teams under years of rebuilding, this squad is still young enough to recover without the need of transition. @Jason, would have given you the same answer.

I don't really mean most people, that was just a snap sentance with the heat of the game still raw. I do however believe there are some cases of a lack of respect towards Mou, which I have believed to be the case pretty much since he got back, I don't mind critiscm or even wanting him out, but someone told him to go fuck himself just before we were about to play a cup final.

Carlo is the last manager we need right now.

Because for the most part a lot of the stick he gets is well overboard, but the team is going now here right now.

I'm starting to think we need to change, I haven't fully shifted yet but if/when I do, I stay changed. But unlike most people on here, I will still respect him for being the best manager in the club's history and what he has done.

He has played one career game, he's has always been a liability coming through, if this Amelia can be a similar level of Hilario that's fine. It's not like we have blocked the route of a potential top keeper, if so then I'd share the sentiments.

I get the desperation for the youth in some cases but Blackman is awful.

I don't like Guardiola myself but I think you are doing him a bit of a disservice.Yes he took over a treble team, but that doesn't make his job easier, if anything it makes it harder, motivating motivating team off the back of success is the hardest job in football, never mind a treble, he had to go to Bayern and convince and motivate a bunch of treble winners to not only "go again" but to embrace the new ideas, look at Benitez in Inter, it really isn't as easy as it looks on the face of it. He might have underachieved In Europe but he's done very well to keep up the domestic dominance and avoid complacency.

I think the signing of Eto'o was nessesery when it became clear we weren't signing a top class striker, I actually made a point that summer of how worried I was about how young the AMs and strikers were, it was too "spiceboyish" for my liking, Eto'o brought in some maturity and expierence and Eden has came out himself and said how much that helped him, how much Samuel helped him raise his game. Whether at theexpense of Lukaku is a completely different argument, but looking at it in isolation, the Eto'o signing was a complete masterstroke, it was no coincidence our best displays that season was when he was on it. Its easy to say well throw the younguns together because were not winning this season, but at the Same time, young players can grow more with expierence around them than they ever could playing with fellow young players, Eden got more out of playing with Eto'o than he would have Lukaku, that I am sure.With Mata, we all built an emotional connection with him first two season's, his personality and the fact at times in the first year he was the only stand out in a stagnant, stale side helped that, but in brutal reality, he was never going to stay in the team when we started challenging again, I always felt that and wanted to be wrong, because like everyone else I took to him as a person, but it was inevitable, Mata is too big a weakness off the ball (a lot more than even Cesc is) and is ridiculously weak and unathletic for a pro, his size isn't an excuse either, Pedro is a similar build, in fact last season at one point United fans were critical of his end product (which is ironic considering that was the main argument in Juan's favour in the Mata vs Oscar debate) and his assist record last season was very low. And we did in a way upgrade De Bruyne aside, Lukaku was sold the same summer Costa came in and Mata was sacrafised to give Hazard further freedom, but Sanchez could have been a handy squad depth for Barca, same way some argue Lukaku could have been for us.

I'm not saying Hazard is hated but he has his critics, the only person that consistently criticises KDB here is Pacquio and its like he's up against Kevin's legal defence team. And with Tibo, many times last season he was underestimated, some people were waiting for any little mistake to shout loudly for Cechs return, whereas if we let him go like KDB, even the most minor save will cause a 20 page spread on how we "fuked up".

Understatement of the decade .

Schurrle has completely lost it already, he nosedived badly in his last six months here and if anything has got worse since leaving, coming to the end it was painfull him on the pitch, unfortunately his illness looks to have affected him as a player more than anyone could have imagined.Mata has recently hit form for the first time since early 2013, he's been bang average for the best past of three years and I'm suppose to believe not keeping him was catastrophic (it still annoys me that his departure overshadowed a true legend who left us at the Same time, Essien got barely any attention because people were too preoccupied moaning about Mata going, it got to the point I thought Drogba or even Terry could have gone that week and have been overshadowed). De Bruyne was a horrible mistake but the constant meltdown over the other two (who no one was giving a second thought in May, on the pitch atleast) is hilarious.

Eto'o was such an underrated signing, as demonstrated by the fact he went to Everton a year later and outperformed Lukaku while he was there. Are we going to have all this every time an ex player hits form coinciding with us not? I concede now that KDB was a mistake but this is the first time Mata has been on anywhere near top form for nearly three years, you (rightly) criticise Cesc a lot but Mata this time last yeAr and his last six months here makes current Cesc look like prime Xavi. An off form Mata (which occurred more often than general opinion suggested) was absolutely woeful, his bad games are worse than a bad day Cesc, who you rip into. I felt his nice guy personality saved him a lot of critics. In May there was none of these pining for past players, only really KDB to an extent because of how well he did, but there wasn't the constant missing Lukaku, Mata (at least not on the pitch). Way I see It is we made an error with De Bruyne like Barca did with Thiago and United did with Pogba, its life, it happens, all the others like Lukaku, Mata etc I see as players that have gone onto do well but didn't fit in here for whatever reason, ultimately similar to Barca selling Yaya, Sanchez and Ibra, and those three are better than Lukaku and Mata ever will be.

Schurrle who has epically flopped at Wolfsburg? Mata who is on his top form for the first time in nearly 3 years?

If the Belgium players on our books got half the appreciation the two that have left have, this site would be such a happier place.

KDB is the only one that's looking like seriously biting us. Lukaku was never going to start ahead of Costa, Mata is currently playing on top of his game for the first time since early 2013 so the meltdown over him is laughable, who else? Sturridge wasn't sold by Mourinho. KDB is looking a horrible decision now I'll give that but the rest of them is no different to Barca letting Toure, Cesc, Sanchez and Ibra go, good players who have done well elsewhere, but either didn't fit in (Ibra, Cesc for Barca, Mata for us) or were never going to dislodge the players infront of them (Sanchez, Pedro, Toure for Barca, Lukaku for us).

One player can hardly shift the balance either way no matter how good he is. The only other really high profile players that were sold were Lukaku and Mata, and forgive me if I'm wrong but if memory serves me right you were never a big fan of the either of those two.

Rafa will at the very least get a second season unless he does a Moyes, Real have been jealous of Barca's success with homegrown Catalans and want to do it with a Madristian, and let's be honest Rafa is their only hope in that regard.

He gets more freedom here under Mou than he ever would under Benitez, Schurrle pointed out that the other AM were sacrafised to give Eden a freeish role. Rafa choose Mata over Eden for the main man, he will hardly get the nod ahead of Ronaldo.

Well if its Madrid he's going, hes hardly going to be playing for a more offensive manager is he

As shown by the superb team Fergie left his successor with