Tomo

Also to expand further, if there's one area Jose has always been up for rotating a lot it's the strike position. He did it with Drogba and Gudjohnsen then Drogba and Crespo aswell as Benzema and Higuain very very effectively.

The manager's are an under rated aspect of the game, I would have strongly fancied Mous chances of outsmarting Carlo. Also he came to The Bridge with Inter and went for it and vs Liverpool last season as two recent examples.

I think Mou sqw how important the title was this time and prioritised flat track bullying our way there and safe to say job done.

Your right in terms of the results but maybe Roman felt that he had a lot of help with our squad being full off experienced serial winners at a good age and he saw that Avram might struggle when he has to build his own team, like we saw at WHU. Sometimes manager's don't get sacked because they are doing bad, they get sacked because they don't believe he can evolve the team or there's a better option avaliable, both were the case when Saints replaced Adkins with Poch for example.

Maybe he will come back to do it in his late 30s when he is in decline and ready to be a #2 (like Toldo after Inter signed Cesar).

The talisman and special player always gets the main plaudits doesn't mean they don't appreciate the other's. Look at United circa 2008, Ronaldo was the special player who sweeped up in awards not Vidic, Ferdinand, Rooney etc etc

Did he ever have too? I can't remember anyone making the constant snide digs at his title wins that Greenie has for us this time, or one of the managers trying to claim a moral victory over a recent game like LVG did at his post season awards? Not to mention with the possible exception of 2011 I don't think anyone try and claim his team were poor champions, I guess Mou just feels defensive towards his player's who have worked bloody hard to win this title and get little respect for it.

I can see where your pov even if I disagree but on the flip side while Rafa was here his reluctance to defend us from outside party's was driving us insane, isn't it good to have a manager that would passionately defend us even if he sometimes goes the wrong way about it?

Roman quite clearly wanted managerial stability just like the fans, were we (in general) and him were different is we were prepared to give any Tom, Dick or Harry time for the sake of stability whereas Roman wanted it with the right man, which wasn't any of the manager's he sacked.

He will never be another Torres nightmare even if he flops as bad.Torres was on a 180k a week long term deal, there was simply no way of getting rid of him and we were insistent on building the team around Torres because of the price tag. If Falcao comes on one year loan with reduced wages and flops he will spend most weeks in the stands while we play Costa and Remy so no big deal in the grand scheme of thing's and even if he could say give us a similar level of performance to what Eto'o gave us that wouldn't be too disastrous either.

Luiz aswell, after that City game I thought he was going to revolutionise the CB position Speaking off Malouda I wouldn't mind an 09-10 Malouda in this squad, could have played if Hazard needes rest and give Eden a chance to play on the right, also he can play in CM in a 4-3-3 which would have come in handy. With Carlo my heart was saying give him another season but my head was saying we need a change (and back then I was more a heart poster which meant I made some long defences for Carlo myself).

Reduced wages and a loan why not. Yes I know it would be nice and romantic for Bamford to come in and be Harry Kane mark 2, but he will probably need a PL loan before a full assessment is done on his long term chances here. Even if he is as bad as he was at United or worse flops as bad as Torres it won't be that big a deal on a loan with low wages aswell as Costa and Remy around.

Replacing Mikel for Romeu would be borderline insanity. Mikel may not be everyone's cup of tea but he is a proven player in this country who has played at a decent enough level for a decade. He got a bit frustrating when he was a first choice player granted, but it's harder to find good squad player's than superstar starters, so for as long as Mikel is happy with a bit part role, we should keep him.

It's win win and with the new FFP we need to try thing's to close the financial advantage United have over us and this is a very clever way for me.In Tibo we practically signed a £20-30m keeper for free last summer and some that don't quite work out here but we get quite a bit of money for help us to fund player's we do need (main example De Bruyne effectively paying for Matic). If Jose say doesn't see a future for Kalas, Omerou and Bamford here we will probably get around £15-20m for the three of them, that would go a long way to funding the next big signing.

Which ever one's reach the level required on loan will get a chance. Whichever then perform and give what is expected of them in a Blue shirt will remain for the long haul.

Ok fair enough but this is how I see the sackings. Grant was gone either way, he has been shown to be clueless at West Ham. Scolari was sacked because he had one plan and as soon as Rafa set the blueprint on how to stop us he had no plan b and the performances got worse and our top 4 place was at stake, the only mistake Roman made was not doing it at Christmas because with more time aswell games vs United and Liverpool Hiddink might have recovered the title. Ancelotti it was how we performed in the second season as much as anything for me, we were dreadful, static, turgid, no inspiration, no flair and Carlo sat there and done nothing to turn those displays around. AVB, Roman didn't want to sack him but the dressing room was so far against him he had little choice. RDM in his interim spell was amazing but the full time job was a different kettle of fish and in my opinion too much for him. Trophies won/lost may have some bearing, but I think performances and how the manager is evolving the team is massively the consideration too, in fact wasn't it rumoured Carlo was gone even if we somehow managed to get the title in 2011?

Actually I don't think it's "like us" at all. All our sackings have ran a lot deeper than failing to win trophies. And im sure Real would love to reclaim dominance of the domestic league and Rafa and Carlo are not the type of manager's for that, Ancelottis team's have a habit of getting complacent at very inappropriate times and Rafas habit of too much rotation tends to kill off his team's title chances.

It's clear the thinking behind Rafas appointment. They see the success Barca have had with Catalans in charge and want similar success with a Madristian.

That's why I always say it's dangerous to judge success/failure in general on the cup competitions.

He flopped in the league first season, the difference between sucess and failure was Leti not having player's on the post.

I haven't followed Schalke atall but at West Brom and his full time stint at Chelsea he seemed to start ok but as soon as the team hit the skids he had no idea how to arrest the slide and was consequently sacked both times. That is something that he needs to fix if he wants to be a regular gaffer in one of the top 5 league's.

Diego is one of the best player's I've ever seen at off the ball movement and from someone who has played in defence at alot in my life playing against a striker with great movement is 100 times harder/more annoying than playing against a skillful player with average movement. Costa may not be the most pleasing on the eye footballer to have ever been, but he's one of the best striker's around in football today make no mistake about it.

Or we will sell off his competition, build the team around him and make excuse after excuse for him in the hope he comes good

You have a fair point there. Infact if he was going to leave the best circumstance in hindsight would have been to leave in the summer of 2007 and Carlo to take over for a few years then given his last two season's for Milan after that summer where underwhelming. Although the fact he stayed through all the power struggles, Sheva getting signed against what he wanted and the general lack of funds post 2006 speaks volumes for how much he loves this club.

Yeah we made some fuked up appointments Scolari being the worst, thank god we had a bunch of world class serial winner's in their prime else I'd dread to think the damage he would have done.