Leif

The moment I saw Christensen was starting at full-back I thought to myself: "Well this competition was nice while it lasted!". He is not Ivanovic. He cannot just magically adapt to RB with such ease after being such a solid CB for most of this campaign. He has zero pace and no attack prowess. Shambles of a line-up. Boga has also been started in a slightly too advanced position while a change should have already been made seeing Kiwomya either go out left or be replaced altogether (although him not seeing the ball is more down to the rest of the team.)

Oh god, oh no. Allegri looks set to leave AC Milan at the end of the season with Rijkaard replacing him. Please please please do not hire him you Russian bartsard.

@CHOULO19, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2300748/George-Weahs-son-Timmy-trial-Chelsea.html

Since people will (hopefully) flood to this thread during the game, have most of you read that news about us taking Timmy Weah (son of George) on trial yes?

Gnabry could cause us problems, definitely. However, despite Arsene's track record for bringing youth into his first team, Arsenal's academy is a bit overrated in my eyes. For every gem they bring through, a pile of horse poo follows.

I wouldn't mind him here for anything under £15m, but I can't see that happening. I say that first bit because, well, he does have potential - but it just looks like his ceiling isn't all that high. He reminds me a little of Adebayor. So he'd be a fine back-up or rotation option I'm sure.

I mention him because he has a better track record compared to Gourlay and is actually a semi-realistic option. Although they perform slightly different roles, I felt as if he actually understood football unlike the hacks on the board at the moment. He's also apparently the man responsible for tapping up our greatest ever left-back which deserves a huge amount of credit on it's own. He also (again, 'apparently') was the man who persuaded Sir. Alex Ferguson to not retire back in '02. This was a man of negotiations, stability & fine man and money management; while Gourlay (on the surface) seems to show the exact opposite of that. I'm also somehow positive that the fan of ours which has just been banned for 10 years for calling Rio a 'cunt' would have this issue ironed out with the ban reduce/completely removed if Kenyon was on board. He didn't focus all his time to the football side of things, but he sure did have sense when it came to situations like these. Gourlay however seems like a thug who doesn't give a shit about any fans.

In an ideal world Mourinho would come back as would Peter Kenyon with the dismissal of Gourlay and/or Buck with a suitable replacement being brought in to replace the latter. I also want Hiddink back on board in some form, perhaps as DoF if we must have one, but that won't be happening, will it? Back to Football Manager to fulfil my fantasies I go..

Just to get anyone excited who's not feeling the buzz for this game He's in great goalscoring form at the moment, proven by the fact he's continued his prolificness even with the National Team despite looking as if he doesn't put more than 75% effort into his National Team games. Love him. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5qekJTAe-A

I hate going up against teams who've just been promoted and are fighting like dogs for the win on the pitch. They're always very difficult. Somehow, despite this (which would usually have me expecting a cagey 1-1 affair), I'm feeling as if we'll (eventually) win the game after 65 minutes or so of mediocrity. 2-5 or 1-4 to us.

I keep saying we're going to get Higuain It's looking ever more likely as time passes. Hopefully he adds a bit more to his all-round game if he joins us. If we're looking for 'just a goalscorer', he's probably on par with Falcao (c'mon, he averages a goal every 2 games for Madrid *while constantly starting from the bench*!) in my opinion, and obviously younger and probably cheaper. He's one of these players who could and should have been an all-time great for a club. A team like Juventus, Inter, or maybe, just maybe us could be the perfect team for him. However, adding him to the starting XI instantly adds a disadvantage in one area for us - set pieces. Especially defending. Drogba was like an extra defender at set-pieces. Demba Ba and Torres could be held in a similar regard concerning that - but Higuain is a ghost in these situations, meaning all of Hig, Mata, Hazard, Oscar and anyone else short that we may sign will be useless at those!

His hair looks really soft and I bet it feels like a sheep if you stroke it.

Just a general question - Does anyone have any thoughts as to how Llorente will perform in Serie A for Juventus once he's finally in Turin? 2nd question:- Juventus are, yet again, being linked to Alexis Sanchez. Assuming he recaptured his Udinese form, does anyone think this would be a good move? Perhaps he'd displace Giovinco and partner Llorente; almost like a Del Piero - Trez. partnership.

Hasn't almost every (already an exaggeration) prolific/top scorer in the Eredivisie failed once moving to a bigger league?

Hm. Don't see it happening given the fact he seems incredibly ambitious and while clearly believing in his own talent probably wouldn't want to compete for his spot like he would here - which is what our team currently lacks. Then also, yeah, the whole thing about his dad not liking us. I feel he'd fit in best at one of the top Italian clubs as a rotation player or perhaps Liverpool. A note: I've never felt that the hype surrounding him has been completely justified. I understand he's a good young player in his position, but I could quite easily come up with another 10 players who'd cost under £15m (around half of what Ajax are truly seeking from a potential transfer I believe), likely who're around the same age & talent as him. I believe that, like with Barcelona youth products, the fact he's simply from the Ajax system and gets games instantly adds to his reputation without it being earned and bumps up his price a hefty amount. I don't see that special 'it' in him like so many, including myself, see in players such as Oscar, Gotze, Hazard, Belhanda, De Bruyne, Draxler, Isco etc. His playmaking abilities cannot really be questioned - but everything else can be. Here is a player who, if taken out of his environment and tested at the highest level, would fail the test and regress into a squad player in my opinion.

Hasn't Mata been rested for almost 2 weeks straight due to the international break? He's barely played 20 minutes for Spain, if even that. He's gonna be so good...

Another point as to why he'd come back - If he wins the CL with Real Madrid this season, we'll be the only major club he's managed (Benfica doesn't count) that he's not won the Champions League with. It'll probably have him feeling incomplete if he never wins the CL with us, and he knows that, so he's gotta come back and make us 2X Champions League winners. His longest time spent at one club as manager is with US. He chose to leave Porto after the CL win. Chose to leave Inter after the CL win. And would likely choose to leave Madrid after a potential CL win this season. Him leaving us when he did wasn't as simple as him just 'choosing' to leave due to thinking his work here was done - because it certainly wasn't. It looks like if the board & Roman had just been perfect and not interfered as much as they did that Jose could've been with us for 5 seasons or however long it would have taken before winning the CL IMO. It's not a case of "He just jumps from club to club" at all. It's just that he's so successful that there comes a point where the challenge is all gone. It was no longer a challenge managing Inter. He'd proven himself as a top Serie A manager. He'd proven himself as a top Portuguese league manager. He's even proven himself as a top La Liga manager, which'll be even more firmly set in stone if he guides Real Madrid to their long-awaited Champions League triumph this season. (And if he does so, he'll likely want to abandon ship at that point. He seems miserable in Spain.) But with us? Yeah, he's won the league with us - but he hasn't proven he can keep doing it. He hasn't proven that he can be a Sir Alex Ferguson who keeps winning the title, or an Arsene Wenger who through thick and thin stays around for over a decade and is also heavily involved with the academy. He hasn't proven that he can guide an English team to even a Champions League final, nevermind win it! Then a whole new challenge is the 'youth' set up, which, although we're monsters in the football world when that 'youth' word is used - is yet another challenge (nurturing them and creating first team players from the academy) which he's openly said to be enticed by in the past. Now, I want questions answered by those who believe Mourinho won't return. 1: If he wins the Champions League with Madrid, why wouldn't he leave like he did Inter? 2: If he were to leave Madrid at the end of this season, which other club would he join ahead of us? He's certainly not going back to Serie A with Inter confirming they'll be keeping their coach; his loyalty to Inter preventing him from managing AC Milan & Juventus looking set how they are for the future. Manchester United don't want/need him next season; PSG will likely still have Ancelotti filling their post; Bayern's seat is already taken, and although a semi-logical idea would be "He'll now want to prove himself in the Bundesliga", do you really see that happening with Klopp still in charge at Dortmund? Mourinho isn't their type of manager anyway! Where else would he manage in Germany? I can't think of a team personally! So that leaves Chelsea, who actually need a new manager next season - And then Manchester City who could entice him with their great youth set up and bags of money, plus that's also a new challenge - but who's to say Mancini won't still be there? And as mentioned above, their board contains the very guy who rejected Mourinho's approach to work at Barcelona! Now that is applying logic. We are his only option (IF he leaves Madrid and still wants to manage in the top 4/5 leagues) barring some sort of miracle at another club.

Hm. Still making my mind up about whether I want to comment on this or not. I guess I will. Being foreign, something might have been lost in translation or perhaps he misspoke due to not fully grasping the English language yet, but surely it wasn't proper depression? As anyone who's had or does have depression will attest to, depression is very complex and it's rare that you only have it for such a short time like Cabaye claims. I know plenty of people just throw the word around in such contexts as: "Argh, so much homework to do, I'm literally depressed :(" (these are usually 15 year old girls on Twitter) and the likes, so perhaps & even hopefully that's the sort of thing he meant.

We're all twats, but divided. Half of us are excited twats with slight delusion in certain areas due to our almost blind love for Jose; half of us are depressing pessimistic twats who want to dampen down the mood yet keep entering this thread knowing fully well what to expect. I know which I'd rather be. heh.

Let's just hope Ancelotti does the job with PSG and wins the title to really limit the chances of him getting sacked at the end of the season. I personally feel as if Mourinho will never test French waters unless PSG - Monaco (once promoted) becomes some huge money-fuelled rivalry in the future, but still, we really do need to hope there's no other possibilities which could entice him. Following this logic, hopefully Mancini finishes 2nd and has a good run for the rest of the season with Man City, we finish 4th or 3rd and everyone else remains as they are.

He says he'd love it if SaF were to be Manchester United manager for many more years. Jose doesn't sound interested in Man City whatsoever.

If there wasn't a purpose to these interviews why would Mourinho comply and give them? If he's "on holiday" or whatever in London, why would he just 'be a nice guy' and start giving out interviews?

He talks about the fact he has a house here and the fact his daughter is moving here and how this obviously causes rumours. He says he fuels speculation and he's aware of that. He knows Real Madrid's ambitions for the rest of the season. He says he's "Professional" and is only thinking about his current job. He never handles himself like that - does he? This is the calmest I think I've ever seen him, quite literally. Also the "professional" comments are the typical comments players/managers usually make before they move He didn't deny/confirm anything, and now Sky Sports say they've just got some more news come in which they'll get up within the next hour More than likely not relevant to what we want to hear.

Jose is smiling LOTS.

It's probably Jose talking about the Portugal National Team since both Ronaldo/Nani are out