The only place to be

When people say they want Mourinho, what exactly do they expect him to do? For the last few years this club has realised the importance of building something for the future, be it an academy that churns out talented youngsters or a new stadium or simply a profitable enterprise. Where has Jose ever shown he has done that? What Jose is the best in the world at is winning right now. He'll come in for 3 years and get you a trophy. And then what? Are the pieces in place for the next guy? Does he even think about the next guy, or is simply about that moment of glory when HIS job is complete? I'm not criticising him for that - when clubs hire him, they want him to win now. But is that what's best for this club? Plus there are the other issues of the baggage. Yes they've kissed and made up, but what happens when we hit that first blip? Anyone whose had a job or a relationship knows how easy it is to dredge up old shit and I doubt Roman and Jose are much different. Plus where is the upside for Jose? He's already a legend here and they say you should never go back. He's always been the guy looking for the next challenge, not the past glories. And do we even have the pieces that he needs for his team? We need rebuilding in the next 2-3 years in key areas. Do we have the money (and the willingness to spend it) to enable him to do what he does best? Do people really want Jose Mourinho the manager, or do they want the Chelsea of 7 years ago, because there's no guarantee that in getting one you will get the other.

The team was in 3rd - should have probably been higher but we drew away at Swansea, drew at home to Liverpool and lost away to West Brom. League Cup - We played our most important players against United (who rested their's) and then looked lethargic away to Swansea. CWC - EVERY European team goes into it as favourites. Champions League - you didn't mention this, but we're almost certainly out of that. It's a massive blow to the club, especially financially. Super Cup - a 4-1 mauling against the third best team in Spain??? It wasn't a kneejerk decision. Roman probably had in mind a series of criteria that would necessitate Robbie being sacked and I have to guess that Robbie probably exceeded even Roman's worst case scenario.

He actually said recently that he sees himself as being 'better' in the DM position and I agree. He also has the experience of playing in the Premier League which is essential for any player looking to move in January in my opinion. You say he isn't an improvement over Mikel, but you don't say why. I like Mikel, and he's been good this year except for when he hasn't. Technically I think he is good enough, but I have serious reservations about his character especially under pressure. Look at the Juventus game where he gave away the ball for the second pass and just stood there sulking rather than fighting to win it back. You may say it's only one instance, but I say it's indicative of a larger issue which his personality. Under pressure people tend to revert to their basic character type. Look at John Terry - he's a fighter. Back's against the wall, he fights. With Mikel, he hides. DM is the one position on the pitch where you can't do that because it's integral to everything else going on in the team. He has to cover for the defenders, he has to start every move off, he has to always be available and he has to be alert enough to get the ball away quickly. Mikel is too ponderous. He takes 3 or 4 touches sometimes when 2 is enough and he can be caught in possession. Sometimes he gets lucky and uses his strength to get away (Spurs, away), sometimes he gets it nicked off him (Liverpool, last season). Fellaini on the other hand has put his hand up this year and told his teammates that he will carry them on his back. He DESTROYED Man United in the first game of the season almost single-handedly and you can see in Everton matches that they often look to him in tight spots. He's not the finished article, but to me he has a lot of the intangibles to be a great player for us.

Yep. Him and Ivanovic should be first choice when fit, Cahill on the bench and Luiz can go to a Spanish team that will put up with his brainfarts because he scores the odd free-kick.

I do find it quite telling that we're in agreement that we could have done with some heft in midfield - one is left wondering what the fuck Mikel's job actually is.

Yes he is. He's only been pushed on because Moyes needed his presence further forward. Again, I think he would be a massive upgrade over Mikel. Part of the reason we have Ramires alongside Mikel is to cover up for a lot of his failings. With someone like Fellaini in there, we could conceivably drop someone like Oscar back into that playmaker role and not be exposed quite so much.

Honestly I don't think any of the defenders get enough protection from the midfield. But my view of Luiz is that he simply doesn't enjoy defending like Terry or Ivanovic. I always get the impression that the highlight of Terry's matches are those near-post clearances - for Luiz it's when he gets a chance to run out of defence or gets a free-kick opportunity. He also lacks the concentration I think top-class defenders need. At Barcelona, in La Liga he would be brilliant but in the Premier League I think he just gets caught out too often.

I love how when people criticise Benitez, zonal marking comes up. Quick everyone - check under your bed for zonal marking!!! I'm not a fan of Benitez, but he's well-respected throughout the game and in 2009 his Liverpool team won came second in the league with 86 points. The season after we won the league with the same amount. Pretty much exactly this.

Luiz is a better passer and faster. Ivanovic is better at all that messy 'defending' stuff. In my opinion, Luiz isn't a natural defender. He doesn't have those defender's instincts that someone like Terry does.

Our best CB currently is Branislav Ivanovic.

In my opinion, that's not why we'd sign Fellaini. He'd be a replacement for Mikel, to be that defensive stopper who then starts moves off and also drops into the back two. He'd essentially be our Busquets. I think Chalobah could probably play in either position. He's probably a bit young to play that Mikel role at the moment, but he could probably spend next season on the bench getting game time in either position.

In what way?

I can, and I have admitted mistakes he has made. I think you and I just view him differently. You think we 'sold our soul for Russia roubles' and I don't.

1. He's won a couple of titles (with Valencia in a league that either Barcelona and Real Madrid have won in 23 of the last 27 seasons!) and been named the best manager in Europe twice. Is that really 'disappointing'? 2. In Roman's mind he did have someone better lined up. Roman doesn't just buy on a whim though. Again, that's more media bollocks. He may do now and then, but if you look at the club's buys in recent years they've been geared towards buying young talented players who we can either develop internally or send out on loan. Players like Torres and Shevchenko are the exception rather than the rule now. It's almost as if you have some kind of agenda against our owner.

He'd be okay in La Liga, but if I'm being honest I'd be happier playing against him than having him in our team.

1. It's easy to say that his Champions League win involved a bit of luck, but so did Robbie's if we're being fair. Let's not just brush over his achievements and pretend like he isn't a well-regarded manager. Yes his time at Inter was disappointing, but that tends to happen when Mourinho leaves clubs. It will probably happen at Real too. 2. Clearly Roman never fancied Robbie but felt compelled to hire him after Munich. But it wasn't going to take much for him to sack Robbie and I'm sorry, but Champions League exits (probably), batterings in the Super Cup and losses away to West Brom and Swansea were always going to be more than enough reason for him to sack Robbie. That meant he had to go to Plan B and that was Rafa. I hate being in a position where it looks like I'm trying to defend Benitez, but I'm actually trying to explain Roman's thinking. I actually think whoever was in charge, we were going to suffer because we need a top manager and there really aren't many around.

I'm including his whole resumé so that includes his time at Inter as well as his time at Liverpool and Valencia plus his two UEFA Manager of the Year titles. When comparing him to Robbie, should we include his time at MK Dons and West Brom?

1. I know Benitez is hated, but is he really not any better than Robbie as a manager? His resumé is pretty impressive. 2. Robbie's tenure in charge wasn't perfect by any means. The Champions League win glossed over a lot of things if we're being honest (the 2-0 defeat to Newcastle, the Super Cup, Juventus Home, Shaktar Away, West Brom Away, Swansea Away, Liverpool Home). I'm not defending Rafa (in fact some of the things I've read about him today worry me greatly) but we have to be fair about this and look at why Roman might've done what he did. Once he decided that Robbie wasn't the right man for the job, he had to look at who was best from what was available. It was probably easy to remove sentiment from the appointment of Rafa because it was sentiment that led him to appoint Robbie.

And when will they go there? If City win the league, can you imagine Mancini getting the sack or Ferguson wanting to quit after coming second in the league twice in a row? I think there's a few variables that mean it's nowhere near as certain as you're suggesting.

Even if it's just until summer, it doesn't seem that bad a deal. I imagine we could probably flog him for at least £5 million in the summer and the one thing he does is score goals. There's a myth we don't create chances - I think we simply need a short-term poacher like him or Bent just to get us to the end of the season.

I wonder if there are still any teams out there willing to offer £20 million for David Luiz.

Honestly I think a lot of that is media bs. He isn't perfect, but he's one of the better owners in world football. Let's not forget that he has only owned a club for 10 years. He's still learning the best way to go about it and that will obviously involve a few missteps but he has been rather successful too. Now he's trying to do it properly by becoming somewhat self-sufficient but he needs the right manager for that. He tried with AVB and that didn't work, so he sacked him (and we won the Champions League). The next person he identified was Guadiola but he wasn't available so he had to go with Robbie. But Robbie didn't work out (Champions League exit, Community Shield, Super Cup) so he decided he needed an interim manager. That doesn't make him a megalomaniac in my opinion - it makes him human. He's made mistakes, but he's also done a shit load of good for this club and the right manager will get his support.

Because it would be a totally clean slate. Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom before you can make big changes and in a lot of ways it would ease the pressure on the manager coming in. If he goes to United, he's following the greatest British manager of all time. If he goes to City, he could be following the guy who won two league titles in a row. If he comes to Chelsea, the only way is up yet he has lots of young talent who play football the right way and a decent amount of money to spend.

It's not that bad. Players need to face adversity to grow and this will be good long-term. Plus the less players on twitter the better.

Well the constant factor in the last 26 years has been Fergie. It's weird, but sometimes it's easy to forget that he's probably the greatest British manager of all time, and it's not just him who will leave. Scholes and Giggs will go too, as may a couple of the older coaches. Plus there's Rio, Evra, Vidic and Carrick all over 30. It's going to be a massive period of upheaval and let's be honest, that team they've got right now is nowhere near perfect especially compared to the one of previous years. In fact they've been pretty lucky this season in a couple of big games whilst they're conceding goals to poor teams like Reading, QPR and Southampton. I don't think Moyes is the gamble - I think Mourinho is. Moyes's appointment would be one that indicates a period of rebuilding over 3-5 years. Mourinho's would be a statement that we're going to win and win now. That puts a lot of pressure on the board to release funds and I don't think the Glazers want to do that.