The only place to be

I may not have made much sense to you, but if you found anything i said confusing I can try and help you work it out if you want? If United do win the title this year, I think there's a chance Fergie goes out on top. Plus Mancini gets sacked in all likelihood. Even you must be able to recognise that there aren't many top-level coaches in the world, and that we want as little competition for the ones who will be available in the summer.

Decent price for a player with an uncertain contract situation, although City get 15%.

I don't agree with this in the slightest. Given the choice of United or City winning the league, I'd go for City.

I feel like I'm becoming very one-note but has anyone raised the point that Guardiola is a big fan of Falcao? Considering he's the number one target to become our manager, surely that point is important.

A. Read beyond the headline. B. Rafa does have a point and Lamps would agree with it. Personally, I think he would have to take a significant wage cut and accept the fact that he's not a first-teamer anymore. Then you have to look at the younger players that he would be taking a spot ahead of, and you have to ask where he would actually play in the team.

His best position at Everton may well be just off the striker, but when we were first looking at him he was a DM. That's where he sees himself and that's where I think we see him too.

Who else is out there who might be available in January and would suit the style of football we're trying to play?

Exactly. Don't see anything wrong with what he said, and neither would Lamps.

Unless he moves Rooney into midfield. It's been on the cards for a while seemingly and if Scholes retires it would be a tempting proposition.

Do you mean Cavani would suit us perfectly 6 months ago as a replacement for Drogba, or suit us perfectly for where we're heading now? Because those are two different things. We're not going to be a 'target man' driven, power team in the future. I know that isn't all Cavani offers, but it's the main difference between him and Falcao. In fact Cavani has a tendency to drop off from the front position more than Cavani (when I've seen him) which would actually congest the spaces Hazard and Mata work in. What we need is a guy who knows how to play on the last man and run the channels. Falcao is the best around right now, and he's available at a price we're willing to pay. We'll have Lukaku as a 'Plan B' next season, and it will also be great for Feruz to train alongside a fairly similar player.

Our weakest spot is up-front. Having a striker who doesn't contribute to the team in meaningful ways greatly weakens us. Having a striker that defenders don't have to worry about puts more pressure on the midfield. Having a striker who doesn't run the channels properly doesn't create space for midfielders. Having a striker who can't hold the ball up or lay it off properly slows down attacks. Having a striker who doesn't score the 1 or 2 chances in tight games causes us to drop points. Right now we're not just playing with 10 men, but actually have a guy who negatively impacts on other people's performances.

Guardiola: "Falcao es el mejor jugador de área del mundo"

I think we could get four years out of Pep, but I think we have a better chance of establishing something sustainable with him. The club is geared towards taking that step now and whilst we'll always buy some expensive players, it's a strategy we'll use less and less and mainly for 'marquee signings'. Mourinho is a great manager but his speciality is taking teams close to the top and pushing them over, which is why i think he'd be ideal for Man City. What we're looking for is a coach to build something new and essentially take us away from the Mourinho team.

Sorry, but when you talk about players it's obvious that's an opinion. Largely it's a subjective view and there isn't always a definitive answer. But when you say 'we can't afford it', that appears to be based on actual knowledge. In future though, I'll make sure to note that you're simply pulling stuff out of your arse.

You don't know that. :banghead:

But Mikel and Ramires are? There's a distinct lack of soul in your writing. Maybe it's the language but it reads like a collection of statistics with very little interpretation except to support you pre-existing biases. There's no talk about heart, effort and personality in the article, presumably because there's not a statistical measurement for that. Statistics have their place, but there's also something called the 'eye test'. It's what football fans develop over time, seeing players and learning about the intangibles, the X-Factor.....IT. I know the statistics for Mikel are good. I know he has a wanktastic pass completion percentage but the guy has played over 200 games and there's still question marks. What's the statistical measurement for body language? What's the statistical measurement for giving a fuck and getting stuck in? When I see Fellaini play, I see a guy prepared to put his heart into the game and work for the team, carrying it on his back if he needs to. That's something I don't think you can measure, but it's something every team needs. Statistics and numbers have their place, but footballers are people at the end of the day. The first thing you need to do is watch them, otherwise you just become a weird guy analysing passes completed like AVB. Is that really how you want to turn out?

So you don't know what our Gazprom deal is worth then? Can we assume that you don't know what our other commercial deals are worth, besides the Samsung and Adidas ones? I'm starting to think that you might not have seen the books in quite some time. But it's good that despite the complete lack of knowledge of our income you're prepared to say that there is 'no way we can afford this'. Most people would've simply said they don't know, but you've really put your cock on the block and come out with a definitive answer. Congratulations on having the confidence levels of a far more knowledgeable person. Oh, and we've gone from making heavy losses to actually being in profit whilst amassing a rather impressive pool of young talent, improving our training facilities and also winning the biggest trophy in our club's history. So yeah, I do think they've done a good job.

To be honest, I could've offered the same criticism after watching him against West Brom or Liverpool or a few other games this season.

First goal against Arsenal, equaliser against Norwich, first two goals against Sunderland, third goal against Reading, second goal against Newcastle. Let's be fair to Torres.

FFP is pretty simple and it's all published online. The problem is that no-one on here is privy to the club's accounts and plans going forward. I've mentioned it twice now but no-one seems to know exactly how much the Gazprom deal is worth (apologies if someone has posted it and I missed it). No-one knows what will happen with the contracts of certain players in the next year. So people saying 'we don't have the money' simply don't know. What we do know is that the board have done a pretty good job in taking us from a loss-making enterprise to a company that more than breaks-even.

Watching the highlights of the Leeds game and one thing that is becoming apparent about Torres is that he doesn't help the players around him. When you talk about great players, you say how they make other players better (look at Mata for Moses goal, drawing defenders away and creating space for a shot). With Torres it's the opposite. The passes to teammates aren't clean, which means they have to break their stride. He doesn't make sympathetic runs to create space for them. He doesn't make the right runs into the box (Hazard put in a perfect cross and Torres was 3 yards from where he should have been). It really is like playing with 10 men sometimes. It shows how good we are that we're still competing with him in the team, but I can't wait until we have another striker doing the RIGHT things up front.

I do agree with you - you pays your money and you can sing pretty much whatever you want. I just make the personal choice to support the team positively rather than chant negative stuff about people associated with the club. We aren't Blackburn, we're Chelsea and we're fucking lucky. To me some of the chants can come across a little spoilt and entitled, but people can sing what they want once they've paid their money and travelled a fair way on a shitty night. But I will say that the support was fantastic and in my view the anti-Benitez stuff is on the decline. It helps when you're at Elland Road because there's many more loathsome things to sing about.

Whilst I don't agree with everything with Rupert says, I do think people who want Jose to return need to ask themselves why. Do they think he'll stick around for more than 3 years? Do they think he'll start this conveyor belt of youth talent that everyone else at the club is aiming for? Are we looking for a short-term fixed based on massive expenditure that puts us in a hole or do we want something sustainable? Ultimately do some people like the idea of going back to 2005 rather than the reality of having Mourinho as manager in 2013, where FFP and soft wage caps might be the norm?

How do you know we don't have it? This club has been run rather well on the financial side in the last few years. How much was the Gazprom deal worth? Don't forget that in all likelihood Cole, Lamps and Malouda will drop off the payroll in the next 6 months. Plus you've got to bear in mind that Falcao's goals might be what pushes us into the top four and secures Champions League money next year. At the moment we're playing matches with 10 (and a half if I'm being super nice) men.

Just having a flick through the match thread. @YouNameIt - I hope Leeds trash us really hard. This is simply not good enough. It's pathetic and embarassing. @Changingman_2000 - fingers crossed (that Rafa gets sacked). @didierforever - come on leeds... 3-0 and benitez out... please... come on... What. The. Fuck. The support last night was fantastic yet you get plastics literally hoping the team we despise more than any get a result just because Rafa's in charge (yes he got some stick last night but he did his job). What. The. Fuck.