Tomo

Hardly wrong though, am I?

Yeah but we all know Mourinho has an ulterior motive for saying such, he's probably still fuming Lampard got offered this job when he was available and Lampard's record against Mou since has probably made him even more bitter. Compare the way Mou talks about Lampard and Chelsea now compare it to how Ancelotti or heck even Conte does and the difference is night and day.

Can't wait for the Gallagher is shit recall Anjorin posts next season.

Actually dreading this one, hate playing in form Moyes teams even when we're great.

I think there is a couple of issues that goes against us and will/would have seen to a title challenge no matter who is incharge (unless this was a ridiculous season where 75 points would do it). I even said a few weeks back when things were looking rosy that a title would blindside me, I actually expected us to challenge under Conte (when 90% of this place thought we were finished as a top club after 15/16) but I just can't imagine it this time. Firstly the lack of pre season and tight fixture list (allowing for next to no training time) suits settled squad's, which we are far from. That's why Liverpool and Spurs are front runners, there's been minimul change in both teams. And secondly we have signed too many players, Wenger said once that any more than 3 (straight in the first team) is massively counter productive in the short term, we had the same issue in 03/04 and Spurs had troubles integrating the players they signed on the back of Bale's Real Madrid move. I've said from day one this season that next year is the year where a sustained challenge is needed with no excuses afforded and I stand by that. Lampard has to show progression over the season to get the third season but the title is a season too soon in my opinion.

Nice try, but my reasons for not wanting Pochettino are nothing to do with his trophy record, it's because i don't think his style is as great as made out (struggles badly vs low blocks even more than us of last season), his recruitment record is sketchy at best and a lot of young players stalled under his watch due to his bizarre policy of not sending them on loan. He did a good job at Spurs but the above puts me of him in terms of coming here. As @Jason pointed out yesterday, Leti have despite their high position also underwhelmed in their big games, including failing to beat a Bayern B side or win both their top of the table 6 pointers. Also i never said Lampard would take him to the cleaners, you implied it in reverse hence me bringing up his record vs top manager's.

No, success or failure has to be scaled for resources, to take over a team trained in basic football with players like Nugent, Carson, Keogh, Huddleston in it (then 38 y/o Ash coming in) and to maintain their level (and then go one better in the play off) totally overhauling the style of play is a good achievement no matter what way it's spun. I never said i was "just looking at the good" i was bringing it up because you effectively stated Simeone will school Lampard despite the fact the latter has proven he can compete with top manager's in head to heads (who all bar Ancelotti have/had better squad's). Also it's not just a one off, Lampard's record vs Mou (the most similar manager to Simeone) reads W3 D1 L1 or W2 D3 depending on where you stand on whether PK shoot-out's count as a draw or a win for the winner, and apart from the second half of this season's cup game, Lampard's sides havd looked superior tactically in all of them.

Unless we spenf in January, we spent more in Conte's second season than we did this.

People pining for Conte or saying he'll do better with this squad need to first realize we got this squad due to high quality squad building, something Conte has proved totally inadequate at.

What is this obsession with Pochettino (and calling an ex Spurs manager by his nickname but i disgress)? His style of football doesn't suit our squad. If the time comes for Lampard we should be going all out for Ten Hag.

I still have to be convinced he can take us to the next level but to say he failed at Derby is total horseshit. That inexperienced manager also became the first ever manager to do a league double on Mourinho, handed Ancelotti his heaviest ever league defeat and has more than held his own against Pep, lets not pretend Lampard 100% won't be able to come up with something on the night because as i said, he may have it all to do to prove he can turn us into a title challenging side but he's more than proved he can challenge the top manager's in one off situations.

18th = 1st in the Champ 19th = 2nd 20th = play off winner Seems the fairest way.

Yep, it's rarely as good as people make out when we win and rarely as bad as the same people make out when we lose.

And just like I said back then, it was never on, a decent run led to unrealistic expectations.

Football doesn't work like that, do I need to remind you we won the CL the same season we lost at home to a McLeish infected Aston Villa?

Why are we leaving ourselves open for the counter against a team who's main strength is the counter at 1-0 up?

Please please put Pulisic on the left and Timo on the right. Would have played Tammy over Oli on this one but otherwise good team.

I don't think i'll ever be able to look past Torres purely because of how long we persisted with him despite the clear detriment of the club, it was the only time of Roman's tenure i worried our expectations were in the gutter. Because of him we were out of play when Aguero and Falcao were on the market, we lost Sturridge due to the insistence on trying to make it work with Nando, the club gave him every possible condition to succeed and most of all his attitude stank. As poor as Danny was the mistake (atleast in terms of first team involvement) was rectified pretty quickly with minimal damage done.

Does this "teams play shit then Chelsea give them a win" narrative really happen anymore to us than it does to any other team? Today alone i've seen Southampton, Arsenal, Spurs and United fans all claim the exact same thing about their team. Under proper scrutiny and cross comparison's i reckon it will stand up about as well at the "(insert team who we have no rivalry with here) roll over for our rivals and save the game of their lives for us".

Damm, second leg inbetween Leeds and Liverpool is rough, are the latter on the same week as us? United after the first leg however is fine as it will get moved to Sunday anyway due to them in Europa.

What are we getting our excuses in early for? We're not Arsenal. Not to mention when they went down into the Europa they were getting carved apart by Wenger's Arsenal but got let off the hook due to Arsenal's wastefulness and Koscielny giving Greizmann a present.

Khan's a perculiar one, most mayor's try to get their area in the lowest tier possible but Khan constantly begs for more restrictions. Am a little concerned about the negative impact it may have on the team however, must have been great boost for them to have fans back in and for that to now go again...

If Ziyech and Pulisic are fit for this (big if I know) I think we'll beat them pretty comfortably. Despite the fact they're top of La Liga they aren't as tough to play in big games as they use to be, people will point to them getting past Liverpool last year but that second leg was blind luck not a defensive masterclass.

Honestly baffles me how anyone can be so bitter about one of our own. It's not even like he's a bellend like Dele Alli either, he's one of the most genuine guys in football.

I thought it was isolated to the specific tournaments these days cause didn't Jorgi play in the cup last season(vs Liverpool) while in the middle of a suspension?