Jase

As the above piece said, it's just a cultural difference of reporting in different countries. The same thing happens anyway if it's the other way round.

I don't think the 400k was invented by the British press. It's just a difference of how they present information compared to others: http://www.espn.com/soccer/blog/marcottis-musings/62/post/3773459/why-ramseys-a-big-risk-or-even-reckless-for-juventus-at-250,000-or-400,000-a-week

It's 2019. If people think the Vitesse joke is still funny, then they need to see the doctor for a brain check...

So was the entire Dortmund side...

Earlier today...

Okay TBH, I don't remember much of 2015/16 apart from that 2-2 draw against Spurs. But I don't recall Azpi being bad in the 'Mourinho Season' compared to this season, where he has had more shaky performances than solid ones. Overall though and I've said this a few times, people take Azpi's consistency and strong performances in the past years for granted. He rarely made mistakes, was dependable, always with 9/10 performances (something even Terry pointed out). Guess this likely down to the fact that he doesn't do anything fancy or isn't like a vocal/standout character like Terry or Ivanovic.

Azpi isn't a leader like Terry but one can only do so much as a captain if the others operate on their own. Terry was a successful captain but it wasn't just because of his leadership qualities but he also had other leaders within the team that stepped up and took responsibility when needed. Can't really say the same about this squad, can we?

I think saying Azpi is "a decent player" is rather harsh, TBH. This season and his offensive limitation aside, he has been arguably our best and most consistent defender for the last 6-7 years. When in recent seasons can you genuinely remember he had a bad game? He played well at RB under Di Matteo, Benitez. Went to LB and did a solid job there. Went to CB and again, did an outstanding job. He was constantly shifted around the back 4 and yet his performances and consistency never wavered - he was such a rock defensively that Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher - two of the higher quality defenders in PL history - named him the best defender some years ago.

Deary me, one poor season and people suddenly want Azpi to be sold, despite having been excellent in all the previous seasons. He is definitely the victim of his own success and the high standards he set for himself. Remember when Benitez tried to push Terry out in the 2012/13 season? Yeah, it turned out Terry still had a lot of himself to give and went on to win more trophies, including 2 Premier League titles. At worst, Azpi should be kept and be second choice because he still more than good enough to serve as a backup option.

I don't think Alonso was even good to begin with anyway. His weaknesses were covered by Conte's back 3 system and him scoring goals in the 2016/17 season, a number of which were from set pieces. There's a reason why we were after Sandro.

Was watching the Wolves v Newcastle highlights earlier today and suddenly thought Nuno Espirito Santo could be a good replacement for Sarri.

I swear we've had like thousands of crisis meetings since that Spurs defeat in November!

Azpi is POOR at organizing our defence? Okay, let's not exaggerate things because of what's going on this season. Go back to previous seasons and you will definitely see Azpi organizing defences etc. And do you really think Terry was THE reason we had solid defences in the past because he was shouting and screaming at others? No. Sure, he did organize our defence and all that but he also had capable and reliable defenders, with everyone in back four working as a unit. Is that really the case now? Expecting Azpi to look out for himself and babysit others for 90 minutes every game is a bit much, don't you think? You have Alonso who is just super slow and bad, Luiz who god knows what you're going to get in each game and Rudiger who can be a little suspect at times. Questions should be asked of the others as well, especially when some see the likes of Luiz as a leader!

Which if it comes to that point? Sarri hasn't shown anything THIS season to suggest we should give him THAT long! He admitted that he doesn't know how to motivate the players and then said how he doesn't know what's the problem with us right now! Seriously, is there a convincing argument out there as to why Sarri deserves to stay based on what he's doing THIS season? So many want him to stay just for the sake of backing the manager, especially after what's happened!

Banking our season in a clueless manager over the next five games. Oh, those are gonna be so fun to watch...

It's ironic you mentioned laying the foundation when Sarri continues to play the old guys and not the younger players who should be the future of the team. I think more than anything, we need a Director of Football.

Sarri has already shown he's a stubborn man and only knows one way of doing things, despite not having the players that suit his style. If he's not willing to adapt now, he's not going to do so in the future. Assuming he stays and gets his players, I'm almost certain we'll still criticize him for being stubborn, inflexible, predictable etc. The likes of Mourinho, Conte etc all had players their suit them in the past and we still criticized them for the some of the things we do with Sarri now.

Revamping the squad is one thing but are we seriously gonna be happy with a stubborn manager and basically a one trick pony?

Sure but that's assuming we stick with this tiki-taka football and a manager who doesn't quite know how to sort out the defence!