Welcome José Mourinho

Originally Posted by Jammy Dodger

It's as valid as saying United don't have a plan. No-one knows what gets discussed at the glazer level, not even Fergie.

No, it's not United employing Mourinho is proof they have no plan.

That said, if what you said has any amount of truth to it the club should run a £#%&!ing mile.

Originally Posted by Tumescent Throb

of course they've always done that, but dortmund were advancing ahead of them and this time around bayern have stomped all over what could well have been developing into europe's elite team under klopp.

it remains to be seen whether bayern's footballing identity has been completely changed, or whether it can evolve further under ancelotti. will also be interesting to see whether the new man can bring anyone through or not.

Fair enough, though I think there's a chance they'd have lost those players, especially Lewa, to someone else anyway.

They've done great to keep hold of Reus, though. Would have loved him at United

Originally Posted by dunk

£#%&! me. I know you're a conspiracy Nut but
.

it's far-fetched to the point of fantasy to say mourinho deliberately £#%&!ed up at chelsea - went there, won them the league, and then £#%&!ed them off. he could have been confident he'd be back in the frame at united though, and used that to go about trying to assert his power behind the scenes at chelsea. which would explain why it went so badly wrong so quickly.

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the media taking the plan to wait until the season's over so literally is the shittest thing i've seen them do re united for a while. van gaal will barely have noticed, so to me it's a straightforward and vindictive attack on the fans, especially by our public service broadcaster who are the least obliged to cover such stories but who have done so anyway and with such indecent relish.

Originally Posted by S/Side.Red

Fair enough, though I think there's a chance they'd have lost those players, especially Lewa, to someone else anyway.

They've done great to keep hold of Reus, though. Would have loved him at United

well by my reckoning if they'd gone to somewhere other than bayern then they wouldn't have gone to dortmund's main domestic competitor. nor would they have had their heads turned by said competitor during their last season at dortmund.

Originally Posted by Tumescent Throb

well by my reckoning if they'd gone to somewhere other than bayern then they wouldn't have gone to dortmund's main domestic competitor. nor would they have had their heads turned by said competitor during their last season at dortmund.

True. Goetze has been a bit of a disaster, hasn't he? Lewandowski on a free is the killer. Not even sure Guardiola wanted him.

Originally Posted by S/Side.Red

True. Goetze has been a bit of a disaster, hasn't he? Lewandowski on a free is the killer. Not even sure Guardiola wanted him.

are you impressed with what guardiola has achieved at bayern? he's not brought anyone through, he's completely failed in the CL if s/f is bear minimum, and they've become less convincing in the biggest games the longer he's been there.

he had plenty of joy getting them playing his style and creating many chances from early on in the job and they have maintained that level. but the defence is still not there and he ran out of time. i'm expecting pretty much the same thing with him at city tbh, which bearing in mind that's pretty much the balance of their team already then hopefully, with our league be far tougher, his impact will be mitigated.

Would like Frans Hoek to stick around although he is an LvG loyalist. He's the best coach in his field and certainly helped De Gea to get to the next level.

As for departing players the obvious two that come to mind are the Moyes boys Fellaini and Mata. No doubt in my mind Fellaini's time is up here and the club will hope he has a good Euro 2016 so to up the price. Mata just because he wasn't valued at Chelsea but the key difference is we don't have the quality to displace him currently the way Jose did at Chelsea when he had Oscar, Willian, Schurrle and Hazard (De Bruyne was there too but had £#%&! all game time). So in that respect unless/until we sign an upgrade Mata should have bought himself some time.

For the likes of Schneiderlin, Herrera, Darmian and Januzaj they can't get any worse (or can they?). Mourinho heaped praise on Januzaj in the Moyes season but the lad can't keep on living off his form two years ago. Needs to take his next chance. Then there's Depay who needs to up his game because Mourinho has sold more talented young attackers than him in the past. Whether it's an attitude thing or simply a young lad not sure where he stands he needs to improve a lot. Summer off should be a good thing.

Originally Posted by Tumescent Throb

are you impressed with what guardiola has achieved at bayern? he's not brought anyone through, he's completely failed in the CL if s/f is bear minimum, and they've become less convincing in the biggest games the longer he's been there.

he had plenty of joy getting them playing his style and creating many chances from early on in the job and they have maintained that level. but the defence is still not there and he ran out of time. i'm expecting pretty much the same thing with him at city tbh, which bearing in mind that's pretty much the balance of their team already then hopefully, with our league be far tougher, his impact will be mitigated.

He brought a few through, Gaudino, Kimmich missed a pen last night, Rode.. There's a striker too. Not many admittedly, but he gave a few debuts out last year...

Originally Posted by Tumescent Throb

are you impressed with what guardiola has achieved at bayern? he's not brought anyone through, he's completely failed in the CL if s/f is bear minimum, and they've become less convincing in the biggest games the longer he's been there.

he had plenty of joy getting them playing his style and creating many chances from early on in the job and they have maintained that level. but the defence is still not there and he ran out of time. i'm expecting pretty much the same thing with him at city tbh, which bearing in mind that's pretty much the balance of their team already then hopefully, with our league be far tougher, his impact will be mitigated.

Don't watch Bayern weekly but seems to me he's definitely taken their football and their general standards to a new level. Agree that he's come up short in Europe, although there's been a bit of bad luck there and reaching the CL final is something that's tough to really judge a manager on. Mourinho has been back to the final once in the twelve years since he left Porto. Ferguson went a long time between Barcelona and Moscow. So often it's a fine margin decided by small factors.

Thing about Guardiola at Bayern is I'm not sure he wanted Lewandowski at all, while perhaps the dropping of Mueller suggests he'd like different types of players in the frontline. At City I expect him to completely re-shape the squad exactly how he likes.

I fear he may learn from a few of Van Gaal's mistakes and be the one to implement the type of football the Big Man wanted

Originally Posted by dunk

He brought a few through, Gaudino, Kimmich missed a pen last night, Rode.. There's a striker too. Not many admittedly, but he gave a few debuts out last year...

Mostly due to injuries.

https://www.theguardian.com/football...P=share_btn_tw

Originally Posted by Sparky***

https://www.theguardian.com/football...P=share_btn_tw

Reading how he'll use the current shit@#%&!s has whet my whistle.

Mourinho in. TONIGHT

Originally Posted by dunk

He brought a few through, Gaudino, Kimmich missed a pen last night, Rode.. There's a striker too. Not many admittedly, but he gave a few debuts out last year...

yeah i didn't mean literally no-one, it just seems that there's not much top quality coming through there, so wonder exactly how strong van gaal's legacy there can really be said to be (or guardiola's for that matter). they've both changed bayern's style and brought new ideas, but isn't that what bringing in a top manager is meant to do? the people at the top at bayern made a deliberate plan to bring fresh influences into the way training and preparation is structured. i expect they think ancelotti can bring the defensive nous they lack. will be interesting to see how that affects the current blueprint.

Originally Posted by S/Side.Red

Don't watch Bayern weekly but seems to me he's definitely taken their football and their general standards to a new level. Agree that he's come up short in Europe, although there's been a bit of bad luck there and reaching the CL final is something that's tough to really judge a manager on. Mourinho has been back to the final once in the twelve years since he left Porto. Ferguson went a long time between Barcelona and Moscow. So often it's a fine margin decided by small factors.

Thing about Guardiola at Bayern is I'm not sure he wanted Lewandowski at all, while perhaps the dropping of Mueller suggests he'd like different types of players in the frontline. At City I expect him to completely re-shape the squad exactly how he likes.

I fear he may learn from a few of Van Gaal's mistakes and be the one to implement the type of football the Big Man wanted

his teams were completely torn apart and totally outclassed in s/f's in his first two seasons. this season they were brilliant in turin for an hour and then fell apart in the tie, just about scrambling it back. they made a huge meal of benfica in the next round and were fairly comfortably seen off by atletico in the semis, despite a late rally. guardiola's record in the competition is very mixed. he's managed a brilliant team to arguably underachieve by failing to retain the trophy, and then taken treble winners and turned them overnight into a team making up the numbers at the top table. again, look forward to seeing how ancelotti gets on with largely the same players.

Remember Moyes' first game at OT v Chelsea, when United's £#%&!witted fans spent the entire game goading Mourinho cos he didn't get the job, singing "£#%&! off/sit down Mourinho" and "Come on David Moyes"?

Bit embarrassing now isn't it.

Originally Posted by TheFatGoth

Remember Moyes' first game at OT v Chelsea, when United's £#%&!witted fans spent the entire game goading Mourinho cos he didn't get the job, singing "£#%&! off/sit down Mourinho" and "Come on David Moyes"?

Bit embarrassing now isn't it.

That banner.... £#%&! me

Originally Posted by Sparky***

https://www.theguardian.com/football...P=share_btn_tw

As I've said in another thread, his decision on who to play as the attacking midfielder/number 10 is the crucial one.

Mata will most likely be £#%&!ed off, and Rooney isn't good enough. If he goes with Rooney he's making the same mistake as Moyes and Van Gaal.

I reckon Schweinsteiger in an advanced role could be an option, with Blind and Schneiderlin as the deeper midfielders. Herrera isn't good enough IMO.

Watch between 5:00 and 6:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYdzpWQBL3Q

Put that @#%&! right in his place!

You know something lads...

After a season that has been as frustrating as i can remember - i just want to enjoy yesterday before the inevitable madness of the summer beings...

Originally Posted by Tumescent Throb

his teams were completely torn apart and totally outclassed in s/f's in his first two seasons. this season they were brilliant in turin for an hour and then fell apart in the tie, just about scrambling it back. they made a huge meal of benfica in the next round and were fairly comfortably seen off by atletico in the semis, despite a late rally. guardiola's record in the competition is very mixed. he's managed a brilliant team to arguably underachieve by failing to retain the trophy, and then taken treble winners and turned them overnight into a team making up the numbers at the top table. again, look forward to seeing how ancelotti gets on with largely the same players.

Bayern were very good in the first half at the Bernabeu in the SF of his first season. I've never seen Madrid dominated like that at home. Somehow let it slip away and lose 1-0, then set-pieces did for them in the return leg. Last season they played well at Camp Nou for 70 odd minutes, but then Messi intervened and ended the tie in 15 minutes. In both cases he had bad luck with injuries, too. Overall, I agree he underachieved slightly, but again I just think it's tough to judge a manager's whole season on getting to a CL final.

What I think could be interesting is whether they maintain their domestic dominance without him. A lot of people have slipped into the idea that the Bundesliga is a formality for Bayern, but it really wasn't until Guardiola arrived. At least not to this extent. Perhaps if Ancelotti and others struggle to replicate such imperious league form, it will alter the perception of Guardiola's spell also.

Originally Posted by Sparky***

You know something lads...

After a season that has been as frustrating as i can remember - i just want to enjoy yesterday before the inevitable madness of the summer beings...

Don't log on then you loon