Tomo

So he is in line to get the job full time? Good, if we can't get Jose or Pep he is the best option out there whether we like it or not.

I bet you weren't saying that when Hazard was convinced to come here instead of United or City. The situation with Torres is different to Lampard, Lampard is out of contract this summer, Torres is not. Im all for getting Torres off the wagebill but we need to find a buyer.

The football he brings is dire. I watched a few Villa games last season, i don't even like Villa but they were painful to watch, god only knows how Villa fans felt. They only had one good game last season and we all know which one that was. But he does know how to build a solid defense however (even if that is at the expense off a non existent attack) so hopefully Hutch can benefit from that.

Im worried about the defence, unless Rafa selects Bertrand all off our backline would have played at Carrow Road.

the same game's we picked a whopping 1 point out of 6 last season?

He started his career as a midfielder but nearly got realized due to poor performances in that position. I actually think Rafa has been clever putting him in against teams who won't attack us that much, but there was a reason he wasn't put there against Corinthians. CB is still is best position for me.

Rafa slagged us off in the past, but atleast he did it when he was not on our payroll like some have done. Mourinho and Ronaldo kept bitching about each other when they were at Chelsea and United, it's what you do when your rivals for trophy's, do whatever it takes to get the upper hand. Do you really think Ronaldo and Mourinho held what they said against each other when they were both at the same club? no they forgot about it and got on with delivering success for Real Madrid. Rafa has bitched about us in the past, we gave it back to him and then some, but right now he is our manager, he wants success for this club like we do, we want the same thing so how about we pull in the same direction? He said what he said in 2007 to get under our skin and get the upper hand and it worked. If our clash at Old Trafford is a title decider he will do exactly the same back. Jose has bitched about us since he has left, "he wants to kill us", "i have carried on winning big trophies, Chelsea have carried on winning something", then bleated afterwards (Inter's 1-0 win at Stamford Bridge) about how the Bridge is his fortress not Chelsea's. Rafa will do exactly the same with Liverpool if we ever end up in a title fight with them while Rafa is our manager.

On the first point if you watch if first few matches upto the Blackpool match players were looking for him, they gave up when they realized their was no point, eventually Carlo gave up and went back to selecting Didier. Mata and AVB went through the same respective cycles. If he was playing well he would have been straight on the team sheet in Munich, but he wasn't. Ronaldo and Ibra have never played crap enough to be dropped at their current respective clubs, if they were they would be. Regardless of cost, you can't seriously expect us to give a player a penalty in the biggest game in our history, two months after refusing one when we were 2-0 up at Birmingham? No matter what he cost's that was never going to happen and the funny thing is he wasn't even 6th, Cahill was the next to step up had Didier missed.

Imagine if this happened

I agree he is one of the best forwards i have seen and if we signed him in 2008 i don't know what i would have done. My issue is that he has only just recovered from a serious injury, as we found out with Essien and Torres it's hard infact near impossible to just turn "it" back on. Having said that a 6 month loan deal isn't all that bad, a permanent deal imo is far too big a risk.

So if we look at it that way does any title winning manager deserve credit? Does Fergie deserve any credit for his 90's dominance because he spent most of that decade leaching off his rivals best players and signing them, he got up to those old tricks this summer aswell. Is it an achievement Fergie beating Arsenal when he plays Van Persie or is it minimum requirement? As i said money does help a lot but you need to do so much more. Need to get the team playing for you, actually spend the money on the right players (which is where the 2 men i pictured in the last page fell short in), have some form of talent (could Iain Dowie win the league with unlimited cash?). If we are going to value manager's purely on a money to result's ratio then the best manager in the world is probably Paul Tidsdale for Exeter, he assembled a squad up to league 1 where all the squad bar one player was assembled for nothing.

What makes it even better is i actually thought Arsenal were better that season then they were in their unbeaten season, atleast in an attacking sense. Strange as it sound's during their unbeaten season they were drawing a lot and winning by 1-2 goals, infact apart from when they beat Leeds 5-0 and Inter 5-1, did they thrash any one out of sight that term? I remember the start of the 04/05 season they beat Everton 4-1 , Norwich by the same score Charlton 4-0. They devoured teams like Birmingham and Fulham at Highbury who in the unbeaten campaign drew at the same ground. It looked like they got even better and after 9 games were 5 points and 20 goals ahead of us.

4 years too late, next.

It helps ofcourse, but as i just said in my last post anyone who thinks any half decent manager could have done what Jose said with similar or even more money are sadly mistaken. Money is a small part of it, infact having money could work against manager's if they don't apply them self's properly. EDIT: just saw your latest post, i know you didn't say it i was just referring to the general concensus.

@GodZola, is right. Ranieri made some astute signing's and i have nothing but appreciation for some of the contributions he made during his time here, but to even remotely credit him for Jose's success is a joke. The same as Rijkaard somehow gets credit for Pep's Barca success. Jose got some of Ranieri's signing's playing to a level the tinkerman could never do. Jose got us playing with such confidence and assurance i have never seen before and haven't since, with Ranieri we were always on the receiving end of a few upset's every season even in his year under Abramovic, how many shock defeats did we fall victim to under Jose? probably one which was the 3-0 loss at Boro. Money helps, but any one who thinks any half decent manger could have walzed in Kings Road in June 2004 and had similar success are off their rocker.

This i doubt has anything to do with AVB. This has Levy signing written all over it, just like with all their other summer activity, it annoy's me when the media have a pop at Roman for having a big say in signing players but he gives his manager's a much bigger say in things than Levy, that i am sure off.

These average to bad teams still need to be beaten. Villa may not be much but do they lose 8-0 every week? Do Sunderland (despite their terrible form) go 3-0 down at the SOL very often? Did anyone in the group stage hit Nord for 6 other than us?. Barring the CWC final i don't actually think he has done much wrong, i don't even blame him for West Ham because this team are not equipped do deal with Allardyce's football, i have already wrote off Stoke away as a defeat for the same reason.

Gets Liverpool 3rd place at our expense (we get 4th) and Arsenal win the Champions League

Mourinho team's know how to defend, their is a difference between that and being defensive. Like with us when we needed to we were out of the blocks smashing teams (like against Norwich) but when we went to Bolton and faced Big Sam's in your face football we could cope with that too. All the teams who get credited for playing good football get battered against sides like that, coincidence?

The timing was a bit shit, if we did this when Kenny was around we could have doubled our money.

I agree about the rest of your post but i won't say this is our worst squad in terms of depth, 2010/2011 we were practically down to youth players, have a look at our bench in the 3-0 loss to Sunderland.

Ancelotti isn't the best tactically although he can have his moment's, he had this one tactic (this was before Torres arrived and changed the dynamic) where every now and again he use to swerve the opposition by sticking Drogba on the bench and it worked every time. When thing's go well under Carlo they go ridiculously good, like our run in for the double when we scored for fun, although i do agree that tactically he can be found wanting at times case in point our two CL exit's under his management but he did produce some great tactical displays too. Hiddink tactically i would say is right up there with Rafa and Jose, when he came up against Rafa he beat him fairly comfortably and i would think he would give Jose a good run for his money too (shame we are never likely to see the Dutchman and Portuguese go head to head). I do like what i see of Rafa with us so far if im honest (bar the Corinthains fuck up) although my worry is his man management, i remember when Benayoun joined us he said he had to leave because of the way Rafa treated him, even tho it was likely he would get sacked he couldn't risk it not happening. Im not sure how our players will react if he tries similar here.

@rafafan, He has made some great signing's i would not worry about expensive flops but if we plan on bringing in some cheap players i still worry we might end up with a Degan. Back to some of the things you said previously i do agree with you and i am starting to think he might be the right man for the next 2-3 years, although im not sure he is better than Ancelotti and Hiddink.

Hopefully he and the board can work together with signing's. Together i reckon they can find some good players. Giving Rafa full control im not too sure about, especially if it comes to eyeing a bargain, the last thing we need is the next N Gog.