That depends on which of Pelegrini, Mourhino and Moyes can settle into his new job quickest. One would imagine that Mourhino has the advantage, having worked at Chelsea before, but I don't buy that, as most of the squad is different now. Everyone seems to assume that the title is going to be fought out between Chelsea and the Gunners, but I think that the top 6 clubs will feel they have a good chance next season. Sure, the likes of Spurs won't be anyone's favourites, and I don't think Levy will spend the kind of money needed to make us truly competitive over the course of the entire season. My honest opinion is that City will finish top, and that 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th will be contested by the rest, with Chelsea likely to finish no lower than 3rd.
Utter bollocks! How can we have been lucky to have a player that we own? That doesn't make sense. We've been unlucky in that we've been saddled with two of the lamest so-called "strikers" in the entire footballing world. If we had Michu or RVP, we'd have been challenging for the title. The idea that Bale was the only reason we got 5th is utter stupidity. Yeah, that's right - Bale scores the goals, does all the defending, and also makes all the great saves to keep us in games! Most Spurs fans have been utterly sickened by Levy's apparent inability to recognise that he needs to spend serious money in order to get an assurance of goals from his strikers, and I'm sure that there will be a vocal outcry against him from many fans if he doesn't rectify this error in the Summer window. Our only chance of keep Bale is to strengthen our squad and prove to him that he has a CL future at the Lane. If Levy does spend the money, we've got as good a platform as any to challenge for the top spots. There's no "luck" about it, merely business.
You really wouldn't have. The defence has been a problem for you this season, especially with injuries.
Highly unlikely, I'd argue there's even less of a chance of it happening this coming season than there was last. Chelsea look to have finished their transition and Arsenal look to be getting their act together (at last), United still have too strong a squad to finish outside the top 4.
We sorely missed Sandro in the centre of the park, but overall, I thought our defence did reasonably well. Would I want to improve it? Of course, that goes without saying. The point I was making, though, is that if, for every one of the 22 goals that Bale scored for us, our defence leaked an extra goal, Bale's effect would have been neutralised. The idea that Bale "carried" the team is utterly ridiculous. Bale is a Spurs player, and he is expected to do his job just as every other of our players is.
I've no doubt you are correct, DL. But where would the fun be if we all agreed on every single issue?
You're right, but it's not an arrangement I'm happy with. I've said on your board many times that the PL is becoming more and more predictable and competition is weaker but been rebuked many times. Sooner or later people are going to see for themselves. The pool of talent is getting smaller, gap between top and bottom is getting larger and the results are getting more predictable, performance in CL getting worse etc, how can people say the PL as a league is getting stronger? Beggars belief really
You certainly know all about spouting utter bollocks I'll use the same premise of 'lucky' that you were applying to Arsenal being 'lucky' to finish above you, we own our players, they are expected to do their job, so were we still lucky ? or were you talking bollocks ? As for Bale carrying your team, and you positing that if your defence had leaked an extra goal for every one he scored, it would have been neutralised, again that's meaningless nonsense. The only tangible difference that would have been made if there were no Bale goals would have been that you would have finished 1 point above West Brom.
No you didn't you're just a wum twat who gets off with posting bile on the cream of London's board, Wum dickhead that you are.
AVB was charged with overseeing an overhaul of the squad but wasn't able to buy players in that he wanted to or afforded any kind of transition period or backed when things weren't going so well. That's clear. Why you think media handling had anything to so with it, I don't know.
Predictable, as I said. But then I suppose you have admitted that you take pleasure in making a tool out of yourself.
Mourinho was under far more pressure to deliver, he pretty much had to win the league, all that was expected of AVB was top 4 (which I feel was an acceptable target), when things weren't going well Mourinho was able to handle the media well and take the pressure off his players and also off himself, AVB wasn't able to do that so there was intense scrutiny over every single draw/loss.