I think the better question is if you can count them as a top club in Europe? They're not even a top club here at the moment
Would Manure loan or sell a player to a close competitor like us if it could been seen as strengthening our squad?
Didn't say it was. Of all the players who have left since we returned to the PL, how many have actually won anything?
Yeah that's an interesting comment. Although a few aren't there by poor management & even a bit of bad luck without VW there'd be none.
I never said you did say that Archers! Bit of a daft benchmark though, isn't it? Who went on to win something? That doesn't suggest they played well
Morgan might want to try and hang about for a bit. I wonder how long Jose is going to last as things stand...
Let him come back, if it is what he wants. He can educate the others about the grass being greener. Would be a wonderful addition to the squad with our slightly thin squad.
The only ones to win anything are those we have..Jose & Cedric This is why we need the EFL this year, being in March it will be before they all get a chance of anything else
Draw at home with Burnley, and Watford go above.... surely automatically activates some sort of ballistic fail-safe. Mourinho is not there for; his increasingly toxic public image, dis-entertaining football, his questionable coaching ability, the avoidance of bringing though youth...or his unique ability to put expensively acquired wide player's careers into reverse. It's to win games and get em back in the top 4. Like what Allardyce/Pulis do for teams in the basement, but higher up the food chain. I think it would be thank-you-and-good-bye if he stabilised them for 2 seasons. Mourinho's a bitter pill. He got it right a Anfield, then set up to play more expensively at Chelsea. Something says he dosen't really get the task in hand, or he's made a (perhaps unnecessary) promise he can't keep - that he could change and entertain OT after 3 years of Moyes and Van Gaal. His goose maybe cooked before it's got a chance to get fat.
Tbh, I question several of these, so-called uber-managers abilities, of which I include Guardiola, Klopp, etc... I could go into detail, but I fear it would take a page of A4. Maybe even A3. The managers who have done their time, and started at first principals, with much less talented individuals in a highly competitive situation. They get far more of my respect. Brighton's manager, Chris Hughton get loads, even though he's not the best example. I cite him because he was excellent for Newcastle but was sacked before he had a proper chance, and he's the neglected real deal. Rafa Benitez, now there's one of that uber-manager type. He could have cut and run. He had no miracle to stop Newcastle, but he stayed. Fair enough. How many would have stooped so low? Respect to the bloke, although he's now in a situation where his team is the Real Madrid to almost everyone else. Something he's be entirely familiar with.
Klopp began as the manager of Mainz, a club that had never played in the top tier of the Bundesliga. Not only did he take them up for the first time, he stuck with them for seven seasons despite being a pretty sought-after managerial prospect, even remaining with them after relegation. He then took over Dortmund at a low point in their history...they were coming off a 13th-placed finish and had battled relegation the season prior. He gradually built them into two-time champions with a CL finals appearance, and there too he remained for seven seasons. I don't think that you can rightly accuse him of being a manager who parachutes in to good situations. Few managers have stuck with situations longer than he, and few have built their teams up more than he.
