Tomo

The best thing about Costa is that thanks to him Sturridges thread won't get bumped every time he scores for Liverpool.

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Tbf I would rather spend £50m on a back up than have Patrick 'Bosingwas little brother' Van Aanholt anywhere near the set up.

The 5 senior defenders will be playing most of our games with Zouma playing a supporting role, hopefully we can get to a point in the season were the 5 get to know each other's game so well it doesn't matter which 4 get selected on the day.

Correct, maybe our next manager will do things like smash the goal record in Spain and get a team to score 6 against Arsenal and Everton. Also Pep lacks long term so far, infact he admitted he wasn't going to stay at Barca for long because players would get bored of his methods and only signs rolling contracts, he's hardly a walking stability model is he?

Could she afford to sponsor us?

The Mou wants the United job myth is hilarious, he has never actually done anything to suggest he wants it if you read between the lines.

That's what I have been saying for months however he has explained it better than I have.Some people think we are brainlessly stockpiling young players when it couldn't be further from the truth. Every now and again we will find a Coutois case, meaning we will effectively sign a £20m plus player for free, and others like KDB and Lukaku who aren't quite good enough for us (or didn't fit the system) get sold and fund for players that are.

Looks like he's taking his role as Cole's successor very seriously indeed

Partly, I took his tenure with us into account aswell, he's definitely a really good manager but not in the Jose category, he can take teams to a good competitive level but he isnt the type of manager that will have a team dominanting. Also he can be quite predictable tactically and with his subs, there were times with us were I could tell what he was about to do before he did.

I ask this because I was having an interesting debate about this yesterday. For me the top bracket of managers are Jose, Pep, Fergie. All 3 just have that special something that separates them from the next tier down which bring us to the likes of Wenger, Rafa and Ancelotti, all good managers who have won trophies but have a few weaknesses (for example all 3 tend to take too long to react and change when things aren't going there way) and simply aren't on the level if the first 3. Hiddink and LVG are probably somewhere in between the two groups. Which brings me to Simeone, his work at Leti is in human, he's created a brilliant side with a group if players playing in a system that works and furthermore he did it in two and a half years as he took them over when they were in mid table. He is spot on tactically (when was the last time someone outsmarted Mou quite like he did, Mou basically took what he's been dishing out for over a decade), great man management, would defend his team and players to the death. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Leti challenge again and there is only one answer I can think why and that's Diego, the guy is a genius. So is it to early to put him in the top bracket of managers in the world? or no? I think one thing we all can agree on, if he gets Atletico challenging with two teams who have single players costmore than his squad again, then this won't even be debatable. Simeone achievement goes to show that you can compete with more expensive rivals with the right structure and management and proves that Wenger using us and United money as an excuse for not competiting all these years is just that, a poor excuse.

There is good potential in this team. Problem is Roy still had 4 years left on his contract.

Could be worse, you could have Roy Hodgson.

Put me on the waiting list

Another international break in 4 weeks, sigh!!!

I remember our game vs Shaktar when Moses got the winner and I remember going out if my way to praise the ref, he was outstanding got everything spot on. I can't remember the last time I thought that about a ref after watching a PL game, they are shocking, we should seriously consider poaching some refs from abroad if we can.

We win this and Arsenal get a result we go 5-6 points ahead of City with a trip to the Ethiad next up. Huge, huge, huge chance to gain a gap over our biggest title rivals already.

Torres is an anonomly, no one will ever decline that rapidly ever again, not in their twentys anyway.

I swear international breaks get worse every time, it's the thing I hate the most in football bar NOTHING. They actually frustrate me.

You might be right the price tag might mean Martinez gets told by Kenwright not to do it. However the difference between the two against us was astronomical and a few more like that and Martinez would think about it. Either way, he may only be 21 but realistically how good can he get? how many players go from having awful technique and back to goal play to what's required at the top level? How many top strikers had such bad technique at 21 yet turned it round by the time they hit their prime? He has his strengths but unfortunately he has too many flaws to his game to ever make it to the very very top. A good PL goalscorer like Darren Bent will be his ceiling in my opinion.

That opinion has hardly been created by the match against us. Either way im done with arguing about Lukaku, he will be benched for Eto'o before long anyway.

Not so much now but more when he was at Southampton. Yes I agree we need to develop aswell, but if there are good players around who will fit the system, we should atleast explore the possibility.

I wouldn't bother, Jose could win the quadruple with a squad solely of HG academy products and people will still paint him as a youth hating maniac.

completely forgot

We have the best medical team around, ever since we appointed Eva we haven't really had a long term injury, Romeu aside.