Tomo

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.

Ranieri did well building a team but he had absolutely nothing to do with the success we had under Jose beyond that. The same way Jose had nothing to do with the double despite most of those players playing under him. You could say Ranieri nurtured Lamps and JT, well he did, he got them in the team but Jose took them up an extra level.

We can't judge him on this game surely? Every player (especially young one's) always have their fair share off stinkers. For a first season in England i think he has done remarkably well.

It's down to them aswell, i guess the loan is the sink or swim phase, Di Santo flopped on his loan and even when we sold him he took just under a year a score. Stoch i think the plan was to bring him back in the squad, he wanted a guarentee'd first team place so we sold him, Danny shined at Bolton and because of that was brought back into the squad the following season and played regularly. The same will probably happen with De Bruyne not only because of how well he is doing, but he can also play in the pivot, which is a problem position for us right now.

That's where utility players who are good but never going to be anything special like O Shea, Evans, Kalou, Geremi, Meireles, Cahill or passed their best but can still offer something players like Malouda, Essien, Ferrera, Scholes come in.. Those are the type of players you have to make your squad strong. Youngsters with potential should be out on loan until their ready.

We will sack him, appoint some one not as good after failing to get Mourinho or Pep. It's obvious already.

He is playing well right now but we still need a new forward or two in January. If he carries on like this then he will win us points against lesser sides, but the two times we needed him to step up under badly Rafa he has failed (against City then CWC final). Im happy he has started scoring and on good form right now but his form has a habit of changing like the wind, good enough for a rotation player but a number one forward at a club looking to win things?

It won't be long before we are back winning titles, with Hazard and Oscar we have too good and too young players not too. I remember back in 05/06 we were running away with titles and threatening to dominate, but i looked at Rooney and Ronaldo at United who were early 20's and improving and i knew with those two round it was only a matter of time before they were back up our asses's again, we have that now with Hazard and Oscar. City and especially United fans must be (long term) looking over their shoulders at us with the fact we have two unbelievable young talents.