I laughed this off a couple months back. But this isnt completely out of the realm of possibility now. only 8 points from 4th, with 30 points left to play for! City are having a meltdown, then there is inconsistent United, Stoke, West Ham and Liverpool also in contention above us. It would take some doing, and would be an awesome come back to claim a CL spot, when we spent much of the first half of the season floating just above the relegation zone......but its not impossible, we look to be starting a decent run of wins here and the rest of the top 4 look to be wobbling at the moment.
Come on, this is us!! We will probably lose to Stoke at the weekend..... It's not just the gap but the sheer number of teams above and around us. Ain't gonna happen. Whilst I enjoyed City and the Spuds losing last night, didn't;t help us TBH.
I would agree its extremely unlikely at this stage, but not impossible. Do I feel we can claw 8 points back against City and earn more points than United, Stoke, Liverpool and West Ham before the end of the season? Heck yes. City are having a deltmown, and the other teams are extremely inconsistent. Plus we can claw 3 points back from Stoke this very weekend, plus West Ham have still got to come to the Bridge as well. If we can win 8 of our remaining games, we are in with a shout imo.
We are the Champions and the best team in the country in 2016 (statistically), but we'll probably end up with Europa
One advantage with Europa, is we may actually use some of our fringe and youth players and give them some good game time and experience.
yes, but also knacker out the first team travelling back from Ukraine on Friday morning, and fewer Saturday 3pm KOs
Looking at our fixture list, our difficult games are at home. Leicester, City, West Ham and Spurs still to play who are all top 6. Stoke too. But our away games look good, on papaer at least. I know people will say the sides fighting relegation have something to play for but they're also down at the bottom for a reason. Villa, Bournemouth, Swansea and Sunderland away. On paper that's about as good as we could get. I think we should be getting top 6 now but top 4 will be out of our reach. Was it Conte who put Pogba in the first team at Juve?
I believe Conte convinced him to join from United and then made him a first teamer. Pogba loves Conte. He will be too expensive for us though, and Barca by all accounts. He'll probably cost City or Madrid 80 odd million. I think we should try and take advantage of the problems at Madrid and their historic bad decision making when they want to refresh things (Sneijder and Robben for instance) and try and get Kroos or James. They'll be expensive but maybe a deal to be had.
If anyone pays more than £60m for Pogba they are fools. He isn't a forward, like Bale and Ronaldo, and they are the positions that usually cost the big bucks. If Conte can get him, and Roman gives the greenlight, would suit me fine. I agree about Bayern though, they are losing Pep, so maybe some of their players may want a change of scenery.
Agreed re Pogba, looks a hell of a player but I don't think he's enough of a match winner to be worth more than 50-60 even in today's market. But Juve are a big club and won't want to sell so it'll costs someone a lot to get him. Certainly going to be an interesting summer with the manager merry go arounds and a fair few clubs looking to bridge gaps or refresh. Just in this country you 'd have to say City, United and us are bound to spend a bit, Klopp will want to put his stamp on an average Liverpool squad plus Everton coming into money and Arsenal bound to spend if they miss out on the title having only bought a keeper last year. I predict biggest ever spend in a transfer window.
Wonder if Juve would entertain a straight swap Mikel for Pogba? Or should we ask for cash on top as well given the season he is now having....?
In all seriousness though, that isn't a bad idea. Mikel would get on very well in Italian football, it would suit his style down to the ground. Maybe Mikel and £35m might convince them to part with Pogba. I honestly think his methodical, slow thinking and lack of pace would be MUCH better suited to Serie A, where the games are played at a much slower tempo that the PL.
I call it as Rambo's footballing brain & 36 old Lamps pace - perfect disaster for any team in PL, let alone top team like us.