gjohnson

It's quite cyclic though....442 was the norm before Mourinho came with the 433/451 blend and everyone adapted around. Now it seems to be between 532/541. Just takes a slightly different or new idea that works to spark a change

Not sure...gut maybe. He just has an air of someone who would trust an Allardyce/Pardew/Bruce/Hodgson/Warnock over a ten Haag Remember Liverpool weren't what they are now when Rafa took over. Their scouting was little to no better than ours, and their academy had turned out fewer players (regardless of quality) than even we had at the time

Agree. Out and out wingers are virtually extinct. When 442 comes back in to fashion (and it will) they might re-appear

Pires was still just a kid when we were after him...it was the Metz UEFA cup game that got the attention, but for some reason it didn't come off and we missed out on a brilliant footballer, despite him being far too French for his own good. Giggs was absolutely sublime, but was hugely overrated...eg 'that' goal against Arsenal. Yes it looks good, but ignores the fact that every Arsenal defender stood off and basically let him pass them. Robben did go to Chelsea for the money. He was that good at the time that he had basically the pick of anywhere he wanted...remember Chelsea had just been bought when he moved and were basically just above mid table at the time. We'd beaten them to Europe a few times in a row before Roman came in.

No he just had some telepathic understanding with Bergkamp kind of like Shearer and Bellamy here. Sometime a pair of players just click and become massively influential He'd be useless in todays game as there is little to no place for an out and out attacking winger. As someone said before he was totally reliant on speed, but had enough skill to make it count when there was only one fullback to beat. Simply wouldn't work now as he'd be marked by 2/3 and wouldn't have the time or space to do what he was able

He played in a time where being a speed merchant was good enough, and effective enough to cause serious damage. Pires was great though. Was massively disappointed as an 11 yr old that he didn't come to us after Metz even though we were linked for what seemed like an eternity. Ljungberg was obviously decent, but never saw enough of him to make any kind of lasting impression. Giggs is fairly obvious and rightly judged as one of if not the the best wingers of his generation Robben was great too, but i always had the impression he only went to Chelsea for the money (guess we need to get used to that for a while), but to be fair he's been consistently excellent since leaving them too.

He might have been if he knew how to work it. These modern fancy gizmos just don't suit a man with a football club to run.

Always thought Overmars was the best winger/playmaker I ever saw. Could be just from watching him make our fullbacks look like children every time we played Arsenal. As an aside....smallest feet in PL record. Might have been why he could do absurd things with crosses.

I just hope that PCP/PIF etc dont coward out and go for some PFM as they've been told by football men like McParland that they are a 'safe pair of hands'

Whoever comes to us next will be purely down to money one way or another. Once we've established a bit higher up the league then the elite managers will start paying attention and see us as a good option. Now we need someone brave, willing to take a chance and not afraid of a challenge. None of the names mentioned so far fit that, barring the obvious lunatic that is Gattusso

Anyone else noticed that we've gone almost silent on Sky since Ole's weekend debacle? An amusing and slightly irritating lack of Bruce suggestions for Man U as he did such a 'brilliant job' with us

Considering how rubbish we've been, we were still on a disproportionately large amount of the time.

Must not laugh ??

Allow me to rephrase...they will want to see growth quickly even if planning long term, and just don't think Rafa would be quick enough

This. Benitez would be great to have back, but it wouldn't be the same. We could all see the plan last time around, and with a bit of investment we could easily have been in and around the Europa places, with the current squad and maybe more with time. Difference is that this time around there isn't the owner disinterest to allow things to tick along and accept relatively slow progress. Clue is in the name PIF....this is an investment to them, and they will want to see (on paper at least) a return on it pretty quickly or I could see them offloading their share fairly sharpish

Trying too hard to get an opinion across now. A good cartoonist needs only a sentence from his characters to get across the point (and to be fair he used to be really good at it), with maybe one short caption to explain the detail. Is he a Man U fan?

I bet they don't

It was widely reported after the meeting banning sponsorship for a month. It'll happen right up until we offer double what they want for a player

So Beckham is the face of Qatar 2022....where's the objection

Time to let the idea of Rafa go.... It would be good but the ship has sailed

Errm...as much as i dislike the very concept of Lampard as a manager, i'm pretty sure Chelsea were on a transfer ban for most of his time

And can you identify any of that from Lampard or Rooney? Long and the short is that without their names and playing reputations, they would not be managers of football teams. There's a reason Lampard is not currently working, there's a reason why Rooney is running Derby and not Everton/Man Utd

It's an opinion...that doesn't make it incorrect or biased just because you don't agree with it

Probably because he was such a fundamentally unlikable player. Redknapp connection certainly doesn't help

Don't know what it is....sometimes you just get a vibe from a manager. Lampard, all i can see is Harry Redknapp Mk II Rooney, all i see is Mini-Souness Howe...Klopp wannabe, without the balls to try another country ( Hell even Burnley was too far North for him)