The only place to be

Some people need to relax and not go full scouser (you never go full scouser). Money was going on Moyes before this news started - that's the smart money. Now everyone is putting two and two together and assuming it will be Jose. If it is then we finally get closure and we move on to something else. If he comes then we know he was being sincere about us. Whatever happens, this is going to be the dawn of something new where one of the powerhouses goes through one of the biggest transitions in English football history. And whatever happens, we're going to be pushing hard for the title next season which could herald a new force in English football dominating like United did.

Whatever happens, whoever we get in and whoever they get in this has to increase our chances of winning the title next year. We've been talking about a transition, but this is something else. The fact he's leaving when there are five teams pushing for the top four and even Liverpool are rebuilding means whoever comes in needs to hit the ground running.

I can remember what it was like when Jose left, and we all remember what it felt like when Robbie left (about this time of day too). United fans must feel sick. Yes. The decision to retire is one that I have thought a great deal about and one that I have not taken lightly. It is the right time. It was important to me to leave an organisation in the strongest possible shape and I believe I have done so. The quality of this league winning squad, and the balance of ages within it, bodes well for continued success at the highest level whilst the structure of the youth set-up will ensure that the long-term future of the club remains a bright one. Our training facilities are amongst the finest in global sport and our home Old Trafford is rightfully regarded as one of the leading venues in the world. Going forward, I am delighted to take on the roles of both Director and Ambassador for the club. With these activities, along with my many other interests, I am looking forward to the future. I must pay tribute to my family, their love and support has been essential. My wife Cathy has been the key figure throughout my career. – SIR ALEX FERGUSON

Not many things worth starting a new thread about, but if there is one it'd be this surely. (if not then merge it). Blimey. ManUtd_PressOffice ‏@ManUtd_PO6mSir Alex Ferguson retires. #thankyousiralex Details

I kinda agree. The one thing that probably sets Lewandowski apart (except for his age and comparative 'cheapness') is that he already plays in a similar system to the one we're employing. Stats don't tell the whole story, but if you look at where the goals come from in the team, then Atletico really do build everything around Falcao. Falcao has scored 26 goals in La Liga, but the next highest scorer only has 7 (Costa) whilst Garcia and Turan only have 5 and 4 respectively. Lewandowski has 23 goals, but Reus, Blaszczykowksi and Reus have 12, 11 and 10 goals respectively. To me the Dortmund side more closely resembles what we're trying to do with Mata, Hazard and Oscar (or Moses, De Bruyne and possibly Schurrle) expected to chip in with goals too. We've never really been a team who get all our goals from a striker, even when we had Drogba in the team and I don't expect us to start doing that next season.

The king is here..... This match always bring back memories of one of my all-time favourite games. And for those who don't know, Mal Donaghy was like an early-90s version of Eden Hazard....and yes that is some form of badger on his head. Watching that back I have no fucking idea how Kharine wasn't red-carded for the second pen.

Wow.....very honoured. Thanks guys. And rmpr - I actually will take that on board. Not even the fact that I've won this in the same month that Rafa won Manager of the Month can temper my happiness.... All in all, a good week. I will probably fashion some kind of badge to wear to the Spurs game, or maybe a banner of some kind so that people know to genuflect accordingly. MIght even get MOTM 4/13 printed on the back of my shirt, although I'm already realising that's an awful idea. But right now with the sun out and this remarkable honour I'm smiling like Rafael has just kicked me from behind.

Exactly. Yes there's a sentimentality associated with Jose coming back, but he's also a world-class coach who could walk into most jobs. He left and went on to the greatest of successes. Dalglish did well at Blackburn, but comparing him to Keegan is laughable. Mourinho ain't a cheerleader lacking bottle.

That's not far off what I was thinking. The real danger is from that 20-30 yards out where Bale has got winners against teams like Southampton, West Ham and even United. Maybe we need a Ramires-Luiz double-pivot who will work their bollocks off and track his runs, because I think we can rely on a centre-back pairing of two from JT, Cahill and Ivanovic. Hopefully Hazard is back too because we really missed his direct running against United. If Dembele is out then that's a massive boost for us and should afford Mata and Oscar more space in front of Spurs's defence. Always buzzing for games against Spurs but this is probably our biggest home league match in a few years. Win this and we can finally start enjoying being in a European final.

Seems to be people don't mind if he goes down and pretends to be hurt, but laughing at the fans who are barracking him is wrong? Did he break the suspension of disbelief? Do we need him to commit more to the role of 'injured player' when he playacts? Players milk bad tackles all the time. They feign injury in order to draw attention to things that would otherwise have been missed. His actions in this case didn't actually have any effect in my opinion because Rafael kicked him right in front of the assistant ref. All he's done is make Chelsea fans love him even more and given opposing fans a spurious reason to dislike him. Big fucking deal.

O'Shea and Park weren't picked just because of what they could do with a football - they were picked because they were dependable, hard-working pros who could be relied upon to put in a shift. I don't hate Mikel. I just find him to be the most frustrating player we're ever had because he has EVERYTHING. He's got the physical tools to dominate. He's got a great eye for a pass. He's good in the air. He's actually got a really good shot on him. He isn't Jody Morris in blackface. There's a reason the two best teams in England were fighting over him. It's the intangibles I still have doubts about. The same thing is starting to crop up about Josh too. You can have all the skill in the world but it's the intangibles, the player's personality which determines how much of that talent ends up on the pitch. I'm hoping that he'll show us all tomorrow if he starts. United have played to his strengths in our last couple of games so it's set up for him.

Oh the old 'you don't understand what Mikel does' bullshit. Was Makelele flashy? And since when does Cech not get praised? He's considered by most to be one of the best goalkeepers in the world - what more could you want? It's massively insulting for you to imply that Chelsea supporters who turn up week-in and week-out aren't capable of understanding the role Mikel plays and his effectiveness in it. He's been a constant presence under all these managers who were fired for under-performing? Well woop-de-fucking-do. John O'Shea had about 300 appearances for Man United. Park Ji Sung had 200. Bosingwa started (and won) a Champions League Final. Just being present isn't a sure sign of one's ability or level of performance.

You're literally the only person I've ever heard suggest that. You say some interesting things elsewhere but when it comes to Mikel, you're so far out on your own that it's amazing. You would like this guy captaining this club....following in the footsteps of so many greats, so many legends, so many men. Wow. Every manager who picked him consistently has been sacked haven't they? It'd be great if he did go down a legend, but for that to happen he's really going to have to up his performances and become a leader in that position because players like Chalobah are coming up and they have all his talent, plus heart. I know plenty of him. I've watched him since he came to this club and I've heard plenty of things about him. I grew up watching players in his position act like men and lift this team - he's a fucking passenger at best.

Would you want Mikel to be captain of Chelsea Football Club when JT leaves? If not, how is it possible that a person who has played 300 games in a position that requires more responsibility than almost any other on the pitch isn't one of the first names that pops up?

Amazing to see how involved he was when he was pushed forward too. He looked almost Toure-esque at times. Such a special player.

2-1 Leeds.

Full time. The ref was already running off the pitch when he blew the whistle at the end.

Holy fuck. Penalty to Cardiff..... And they've scored. 2-2 so Watford can still go up automatically.

The trick is to not actually watch games involving Mikel. That's just madness. What you want to do is wait for the match to be over and then look at his stats for the game. Marvel at his pass completion stats and ignore things like heart, performance and effort. I could maybe forgive his poor performances if he didn't show such disdain and lack of effort whilst wearing our shirt. People pay hard-earned money every week to see the team play and to have cunts like him put in the bare minimum really does irritate supporters.

But is that us? Drogba was our main striker for 8 seasons and in only 2 of those did he get more than 20 goals.

Rafael didn't have PL games. Fabio didn't have PL games. Darron Gibson didn't have PL games. Darren Fletcher didn't have PL games. Zeki Fryers didn't have PL games. Macheda didn't have PL games. There's a lot of players who got starts for United in the league without going on loan in the PL first. The reason I used United as an example was mainly because I think Chalobah would get a shot at the first-team next season if he was there. I've watched this kid for years and he's impressive on every single level. He's a proper professional and he'd add something to our first-team that we're lacking whilst also setting an example to some of the younger players.

I was being somewhat sarcastic but okay.... The last player he threw in without PL experience would probably be Nick Powell. Then there's Rafael....maybe Buttner? Then you look around their squad and they've got Smalling (13 PL games before going to United), Jones (a season at Blackburn), De Gea and Fletcher. Next season you'll probably see Wilfred Zaha part of the first-team squad too. But you have a point that he's living off the reputation of the '92 squad.....although bringing through one of the greatest generation of youngsters ever and letting them form the backbone of your squad for 15 years of fairly constant success does tend to stick in the mind. Yes Nani and Anderson have failed to live up to expectations - but who will replace them in the squad next season? Cleverley, Zaha and Powell. It's interesting that you bring up Pogba considering he and Chalobah were the two standout performers in the Youth Cup a few years back. We're just lucky Chalobah is under contract.

There's 2 possible reasons. One is that he's out of contract in 12 months and hasn't signed the extension that has reportedly been offered to him. The other is that Florentino Perez is still the same idiot who let Makelele walk out the door a decade ago. That's a fair point, but I'm not sure who this mystery 'long-term solution' is right now. I think we need to figure out what's going to happen to Oscar. He could be our Modric and he's looked handy whenever he's played there. The same goes for McEachran - I really can't think of many clubs where he could go on loan and get the role he needs. Then there's a few dark horses like Swift and Baker, and further down the line I know everyone's got high hopes for Loftus-Cheek. In the market, I don't know if there's one player that everyone thinks is the one we need. This is why a stop-gap like Alonso has such appeal. Of course we shouldn't go back to our policy of buying predominantly 30+ year old players on big wages, but if there isn't a younger option then why not wait until there is and in the meantime give some of our homegrown players a chance?

This is the point though - is there a 22-25 year old midfielder out there that we could get who does what we need? I'd have loved us to have gotten Martinez, but lets not forget the guy cost €40 million and we're talking about a 'cut-price deal' for Alonso. He's a short-term option but sometimes you need to go for that when there aren't obvious long-term options readily available (there's a cluster of players like Witsel, Moutinho, Benat etc. that are all likely to be more expensive and are relatively unproven). He's definitely an option and when we've got players like McEachran and Oscar (who I still don't think is a wide player) at the club, maybe the long-term option comes from within.

Bayern set up with Schweinsteiger and Martinez who are strong players, but definitely not in the Ramires mould. The guy they have closest to that would be Gustavo who I think came off the bench in the second leg, but not the first (could be totally wrong on that). I think we could cope with Alonso and Chalo.....Romeu. What we need is guys who can provide a stable platform and good ball for Mata and Hazard to work their magic. I actually think Alonso is a pretty robust player to be fair, especially now De Jong is on an Italian treatment table, and he never looked outmatched in his time at Liverpool. If you want to really get stuck in physically then I doubt Moutinho or Modric would offer much more so you'd be looking to go for a Ramires/Romeu/Mikel/Luiz midfield anyway. Ultimately it comes down to how much he costs and if the price is right then he provides more options.