Sideshow Luiz

Daily Mail is "reporting" that Lyon accepted a £22M bid from Newcastle, but the player turned down the move. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3387305/France-striker-Alexandre-Lacazette-snubs-Newcastle-Lyon-accept-22million-bid.html I highly doubt the validity of this since Martial went for twice the price (after add-ons) and we're talking 40-50 for Sterling, Stones, etc. Always hopeful though.

ESPN says it's done: http://www.espnfc.com/real-madrid/story/2779882/real-madrid-sack-rafa-benitez-reports Nothing from the BBC or Guardian though. At the moment, of course

Yeah, saw that after I posted. Cheers.

2015 saw us win the Premier League. Unfortunately we have also seen the worst title defence in PL history. Here's hoping we can banish the last 4 months and have a happy 2016 as a club. As far as the individuals on this forum go, I wish you all a happy new year. KTBFFH.

Fair enough point.

Pick one? Matches others? I think you've lost me. I do think you're right, that is the current philosophy of the club, Real Madrid lite. Chop and change managers, buy players with no idea of how they fit in to a system, which doesn't matter anyway because the players last longer than the manager so if they fit for this one, they may or may not fit for the next.

I think that's the issue.

I agree with you that the board did FA in the summer when they actually needed to do quite a bit. We could all see how thin the squad was and how bad we were compared to Europe. I was actually okay with PSG knocking us out last year because I thought it would be a sign to the club that things weren't as rosy as the league table suggested. I think we will be in this state of chopping and changing managers and fitting square players in to round holes until we get some direction as a club, an identity. Then, managers are appointed, and players bought to fit the club's philosophy. Instead of asking a manager to come in a create an identity within a season or couple of years at most. This is also why I'm not that keen on Pep, sure he's good, c'mon, but I don't think he'll have the impact that everyone is expecting. I have to disagree with you about the Cech situation though. He's a legend of the club and I'm happy for him. He didn't want to up-root his family and the club showed some loyalty towards him. I'm on Roman's side on this one.

Thanks

What is his actual position? It can't be LB, so I'm assuming LW. FIFA 16 has him listed as a striker. Did he play as a striker in Brazil? If so, why was he not playing up front against Man Utd? I know he's young and unproven, but we had no strikers.

It seems that Mikel is on everyone's list of players that should be shipped out ASAP. I just can't agree with this. He doesn't play that much, he has a job to do and last year he did it well (shut up shop). He doesn't moan about his playing time or that he isn't used in certain ways. He's a great player to have in the squad and on the bench. He's been a very loyal player to the club, I don't see the point in shipping him out.

I'd love to see us go on a bit of a run. Europe is gone next season unless we win the FA Cup. I'm still hopeful of a top 10 finish. What I'd love, is a run of matches to build on for next season.

Spoke to my Utd friend who is going to this match (he's actually from Manchester). I told him that it was too bad the gates weren't time machines to take him back 8 years where it would be a good match. This year's fixture feels a bit sad.

I think he was really feeling that knock and may have been still injured.

Got to be in the top 10 worst penalties I've ever seen

Maybe Jose was right. He got these guys playing above their level. Have no idea how these players won the league last season. Just not dynamic, at all.

No problem. I don't actually know too much about his past coaching career, so I had to look it up. Just about all of his time was spent at Mainz (5 years). He got them to 7th in the league for a Europa League spot, but hsi record was pretty patchy (good for Mainz though, I suppose). Schalke and Leverkusen both tried to get him. He asked to be released from his contract, spent a year away from coaching before going to Dortmund. I find him interesting because he was hired by Dortmund without having managed a "big name" club. They took a chance on him, and it's worked out so far. For all of Bayern's dominance, Dortmund are 8 points behind them, and 6 points ahead of 3rd place. I do think it's probably a bit pre-mature for him to be considered for the Chelsea job, I'm just wishing for something exciting and new.

He may well have retired, but the Pep announcement came half way through the season when they were cruising as usual. I don't recall him saying he was going to retire before Pep was announced. I may be wrong, but I don't remember it that way.

Didn't stop Bayern from going for Pep. They had just won the Treble

It may also be down to the owner making an appearance at the training ground. He already got rid of the manager, the players know they are next if this keeps up.

Holland in!

When did everyone get so sharp on the ball? It's so quick.

What, last week?

Well then...

Look at who are making decisions at those clubs, then look at us. No football people on the board. If we don't get Pep, we may as well get De Boer but his name doesn't seem to show up.