Wisdom Body

Obviously this is the pattern this season: five terrible performances, then one decent one that keeps McClarens job. We've improved our squad, so let's hope it's enough to keep us up. We have all the good intentions, but are just so fragile, feverish and nervous; basically all signs of a barely coached team. The thing that stood out today was how poor the oppositon were - classic Pulis side once they're safe, except they aren't yet...

Any serious team would destroy us on the counter here.

Imagine playing defensively and letting this Sunderland side dictate the game...Is it even possible? Would a football match actually even occur?

Might have something to do with the massive player turnover they had over the summer as well. All those new faces will take some time to gel. We can only hope that Cathro had a big hand to play in the great organisation and discipline they had last year - a sort of poor man's Atlético. It's a bit interesting than many of Valencia's fans aren't 100% sold on Nuno Espírito Santo, despite the success they've had with him.

Another comparison, remaining in Scotland - and more pertinently under Ashley - would be Rangers. A club that's doing well, very frustratingly, under the manager that we should have appointed. A manager probably hired with the recommendation of McClaren himself after he got his arse handed to him by Warburton in the Championship. While we opted for the steady and safe hands of Steve... A bit too fatalistic your point of view; we'll get better, but ultimately it was just a poor appointment.

Real Madrid broke him.

I'm convinced former players are given these punditry jobs as a form of charity, to prevent them from ending up like Kenny Sansom or Gazza. After all, ever since they could walk, all they've known is kicking a ball... Was listening to Clive Allen as a technical commentator recently and it was particularly pitiful. Most casual observers would be able to give more insight than that type of cliché-ridden prattle.

Yeah, classic Van Gaal's Man Utd - bombard any apparent problem with money. However, that "shit French team" would thrash us pretty handily if we were to play them. In previous times this would be great move for Martial, but this iteration of Man Utd just risks hampering a promising young player's career.

Ultras

I'd be pretty surprised if Thauvin made a successful Premier League player. Been awful at Marseille, having caused a massive stink-up to be transferred there in the first place. We'd better hope that he unleashes a massive stock of professionalism and dedication that he's kept very well hidden up to now. Really, I'd rather see such an amount spent on a couple of new defenders.

Well, the cheap, fallback option is actually a better player than the first two options. I'm not actually sure we'd be able to sign him; I wouldn't give that much credence to the "modest fee" put there.

I think a lot of the people saying he's overrated or inconsistent are forgetting he's 20 years old. Inconsistency is standard for a player of that age. I'm more interested in his moments of brilliance and his high points, which, so far, have been higher and more frequent than any other 20-year-old in world football. The only comparable player is José Gayá. Obviously that means that he could be one of the best players in the world. He's already been (by quite some distance) the best player for a major footballing nation in a World Cup, as a teenager. He's also been poorly handled by Liverpool, but more as a symptom of how poorly Liverpool have handled losing Suárez; effectively piling a lot of the responsibility for goal and chance creation on him. I think it's legitimate for him to worry about Liverpool's ability to compete, but I also think Man City would be the wrong choice. To fulfil his potential, he needs a team with a more stable and consistent tradition of competing, a playing identity, a better manager and intelligent, disciplined and talented teammates. Basically one of Europe's actual top teams: Bayern, Barcelona, Real Madrid. It'd be a massive waste otherwise.

I'm a much bigger fan of this than of McLaren's appointment as manager. He has the kind of experience and pedigree that would be useful in the club's administration. Such is the dearth of football expertise within the club... Moncur's presence there explains to any people still wondering why former players always seem to be falling over each other to lick Ashley & Co.'s boots.

Odd signing that. Aleix Vidal's natural position is as a winger. While he's a good player in that position (very pacy and very direct) he's not a Barça-level player there. He wasn't even a certain starter at Sevilla there, which is probably why Emery adapted him as right back. If they're signing him as a defender they're gambling on him actually being able to consistently defend.

Re: "Summer Spending" There's a very basic perception that spending money equates to ambition, and it makes everything okay. Yeah, money spent on players bought at the chief scout's whims (and I have enough goodwill towards Carr), with little input from the manager, with no formation or style of play in mind for them to fit into and with no regard to the acquisitions' relation to the attributes of their new teammates. It's not the money, it's the improvisation, expediency, make-it-up-as-you-go mentality and incompetence of the administration. Nobody with any professional dignity would appoint Carver, effectively rendering the club managerless for the final 4 months of the season. Really, his predecessor, chancer-in-chief Alan Pardew, was the perfect face for this club in this state. One of the few hints of a bright idea to emanate from the club recently was the intimation that we might need a Director of Football; somebody to give even a pretence of planning, seriousness and professionalism to the outfit. Naturally faced with the prospect of consistent sporting demands even vaguely threatening to detract from the institution's purpose - Ashley's personal gain - this deteriorated into the farce of the job being given to one of the (decrepit, quasi-senile and barely literate) boys. I'd accept us spending less money than we already do, provided we made sure we knew what we were doing beforehand.

Liverpool are eye-wateringly atrocious defensively. All the resistance and solidity of Cheshire cheese. Can't see them being seriously competitive under Rodgers.

Highlighted by how much better Brentford look - much more organised and fitter. Warburton's leaving the club at the end of the season too...he'll do well wherever he ends up.

Classic case of "mediocre winger, would probably make a good fullback"

The degree of unadulterated nonsense he spouts with a straight face is astonishing - although it probably helps to have gaggles of journos gagging to lap it up, like he's anything other than a dusty relic. Mourinho is a paragon of sincerity in comparison. By now he must think everyone involved with English football is braindead.

I've always that final season deserved to be made into a series in it's own right. Journalism today, the business of selling 'news', is crying out for a proper exposure and roasting. Lee Ryder being a prime example of the state of affairs.

I've always that final season deserved to be made into a series in it's own right. Journalism today, the business of selling 'news', is crying out for a proper exposure and roasting. Lee Ryder being a prime example of the state of affairs.

-Don't mind vuvuzelas. -Love any goal celebration that involves dancing.

Your 'real level' is where you are at the moment. It's determined by how much competence, dedication and investment is put into the club by the people running it. Every fan of every club has the right to ask for these basic factors from the club's administrators. Chelsea, Man City, Southampton, Bournemouth, Man Utd and Liverpool are currently at their real level. There are no God-given rights to success or failure. You'd think that this simple fact of life would be understood by someone old enough to have been "going in the McKeag era." That last quoted gem comes from believing that how things were at some random point in the past is how they are meant to be or that greater age equates to a higher moral ground and greater possession of truth. In reality all most people do as they get older is search for ways to reinforce whatever distorted truths they learned in their youth. Thus, that time when "...I was fifteen and we were battling against relegation to the third division..." is how things should be. That later time when there were people with talent, passion and resources who brought success to the club was simply an accident.

He was desperate for this stint in charge because he wants to get into the managerial merry-go-round of English football. If he does a half-decent job in this time he'll be guaranteed job opportunities at least in the Championship, League One, League Two for the foreseeable future; basically like Chris Hughton. The problem with his plan is that he's beyond rubbish, I'm not sure he's even qualifiable as a coach.

Cuadrado like to get stuck-in doesn't he? He's not the most tactically defensively aware the few times i've seen him but he'll not shirk a challenge. Schurrle/Salah aren't about that life. Cuadrado is a slightly better version of Willian. Don't see the point of selling Schurrle though, basically their goal threat off the bench. I wouldn't say he's better than Willian in possession, which is the reason why I think Mourinho preferred Willian to Schuerrle (better passing, vision, ball control). I can only think Chelsea have done this to get another bonafide winger to go with Hazard. Someone who can dribble and go past defenders easily, rather than a striker-adapted-to-winger which is what Schuerrle is - really hope that he now goes back to playing as a striker like he did in Mainz.