The on topic thread

[chef]

Annoying little twats, I think they got off lightly with a 'rumoured" push.

A lot of people would have reacted a lot heavier than that. I'm sure the teenagers(not kids) parents would be proud of them harassing someoene in the street.

Sad that some morons will spin this around as Mou being the bad guy and even stupider morons will gobble it up.

 

[FAITH]

tough one mou has a history of assault dont know what to believe

 

[chef]

tough one mou has a history of assault dont know what to believe

I would have thought its pretty easy to work out by watching the clips, but hey who am i to get in the way of an obsession.

 

[FAITH]

“Don’t get me wrong: I love Guardiola — he’s an excellent manager — but if you give him the Sunderland or Watford job, he isn’t suddenly going to make them finish in the top six.

“The players are only good enough to finish in the bottom six or the bottom half at best and it doesn’t matter who the manager is.

“If Guardiola comes to England and manages Norwich, he isn’t going to get them into the Champions League.”

Redknapp adds that City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United should be looking at someone like Alan Pardew when they’re next appointing a manager, although he admits it is unlikely to happen.

 

[FAITH]

I would have thought its pretty easy to work out by watching the clips, but hey who am i to get in the way of an obsession.

"You are not going to get any funny headlines out of me. I treat you the same way your bosses treat me: no respect. No respect," Mourinho told a news conference.

“I am not speaking about football. Football I will expect every type of critic, even the stupid ones. [But] private life and stupid things that you bring to the light...

“I don’t like it, so we go to a different level of professional relations.”

 

[BlueBen]

“Don’t get me wrong: I love Guardiola — he’s an excellent manager — but if you give him the Sunderland or Watford job, he isn’t suddenly going to make them finish in the top six.

“The players are only good enough to finish in the bottom six or the bottom half at best and it doesn’t matter who the manager is.

“If Guardiola comes to England and manages Norwich, he isn’t going to get them into the Champions League.”

Redknapp adds that City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United should be looking at someone like Alan Pardew when they’re next appointing a manager, although he admits it is unlikely to happen.

I've said for a while that it is impossible to properly assess just how good a manager Guardiola is, because he has only ever managed teams that are/were among the top three in the world at the time.

Any poster on this board could win the title with Bayern Munich, and give us Messi, Iniesta, Xavi etc. and we would have had at worst a 50% chance of winning La Liga as well.

 

[UnitedWarrior93]

Doubt it, those players wouldn't want to play for "any poster on this board".

FWIW I'd like Guardiola as our next manager.

 

[BlueBen]

We're talking about having most of the very best players in their position at the world at your disposal, against rivals with vastly inferior resources. They would have to actively not try or rebel not to bring success to their manager.

Just to be clear, I'm not saying that Guardiola is a bad manager, just that it's not really possible to judge how good he is.

 

[Magma]

sure it is. his trophy haul. his ability to mould barca's youth players into stars. his ability to have players want to play for him.

arry talking absolute nonsense. why would a top class manager go to sunderland? hell, why would anyone?

 

[BlueBen]

All trophies won by having the best players at the world at his disposal. He had Messi in his prime, Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol etc. You or I could coach Bayern to the Bundesliga title, especially when you can just buy your main opposition's best players.

Mourinho is far less likeable, but his achievements are, in my opinion, far more meritorious. Klopp and Simeone are two others who have proven they can get teams to punch above their weight and achieve success. Guardiola hasn't really had a genuine football challenge as manager.

 

[Latro]

All trophies won by having the best players at the world at his disposal. He had Messi in his prime, Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol etc. You or I could coach Bayern to the Bundesliga title, especially when you can just buy your main opposition's best players.

Mourinho is far less likeable, but his achievements are, in my opinion, far more meritorious. Klopp and Simeone are two others who have proven they can get teams to punch above their weight and achieve success. Guardiola hasn't really had a genuine football challenge as manager.

Besides maybe Porto and Chelsea last year Mourinho has been at the highest spending team in each league.

 

[Magma]

All trophies won by having the best players at the world at his disposal. He had Messi in his prime, Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol etc. You or I could coach Bayern to the Bundesliga title, especially when you can just buy your main opposition's best players.

Mourinho is far less likeable, but his achievements are, in my opinion, far more meritorious. Klopp and Simeone are two others who have proven they can get teams to punch above their weight and achieve success. Guardiola hasn't really had a genuine football challenge as manager.

no we couldn't. really dont understand why that ever gets said.

pep coached a side many have argued as one of the greatest sides of all time. that's more than enough before you consider all the trophies and success he has had. he took a side that was disjointed and had finished 18 points behind madrid and even 10 behind villarreal and turned them into treble winners as a rookie top flight manager. he managed to get world class players to buy into his style, which would've been especially difficult after selling the popular ronaldinho and deco.

he won a champions league title with yaya toure at centre back. consider that.

no idea why mourinho's achievement are valued higher either. as latro said, he's continually been at if not the biggest resourced, then the 2nd biggest wherever he has gone. should he move to sunderland to prove himself?

 

[BlueBen]

Again, he had the best player in the world, as well as Xavi, Iniesta, David Villa, Alexis Sanchez, Pique, Puyol etc. Spain won the Euros and World Cup with many of the same players. He had the best team in the world at his disposal. He was obviously going to win trophies with the players and resources he had. Then, as soon as things got hard, he left, citing "exhaustion", instead of trying to win back the title. At Bayern it is just a procession, especially when you can just buy your rivals' best players.

Mourinho has at least worked his way up. He turned a struggling Porto side around and won two Portuguese titles and the Champions League while there. Apart from when he won the title with Real Madrid, his sides have had far fewer "stars' than Guardiola's have had. He won two Serie A titles and the Champions League (beating Guardiola's Barca along the way) with a good but nothing special Inter Milan side with players like Stankovic, Muntari, Pandev, an ageing defence etc. He has had money at his disposal but has also played a large part in constructing his sides, such as at Chelsea the first time around (Cech, Drogba, Carvalho etc.). He might be an ordinary individual but his record at multiple clubs in multiple situations speaks for itself.

 

[BlueBen]

Besides maybe Porto and Chelsea last year Mourinho has been at the highest spending team in each league.

True, but he has also largely constructed his own sides, instead of just inheriting superstar sides like Guardiola.

Plus, he won a Champions League with Porto, that is an incredible achievement. And two titles and the Champions League with an Inter Milan side that was hardly one of the greats.

 

[Latro]

True, but he has also largely constructed his own sides, instead of just inheriting superstar sides like Guardiola.

Plus, he won a Champions League with Porto, that is an incredible achievement. And two titles and the Champions League with an Inter Milan side that was hardly one of the greats.

The Serie A was not that great at the time after the corruption scandal involving Juve and AC.

 

[SM]

I always wonder what would happen if a top manager went to a bottom half club.

Will finally get my wish when mourinho gets replaced.

 

[Magma]

Again, he had the best player in the world, as well as Xavi, Iniesta, David Villa, Alexis Sanchez, Pique, Puyol etc. Spain won the Euros and World Cup with many of the same players. He had the best team in the world at his disposal. He was obviously going to win trophies with the players and resources he had. Then, as soon as things got hard, he left, citing "exhaustion", instead of trying to win back the title. At Bayern it is just a procession, especially when you can just buy your rivals' best players.

Mourinho has at least worked his way up. He turned a struggling Porto side around and won two Portuguese titles and the Champions League while there. Apart from when he won the title with Real Madrid, his sides have had far fewer "stars' than Guardiola's have had. He won two Serie A titles and the Champions League (beating Guardiola's Barca along the way) with a good but nothing special Inter Milan side with players like Stankovic, Muntari, Pandev, an ageing defence etc. He has had money at his disposal but has also played a large part in constructing his sides, such as at Chelsea the first time around (Cech, Drogba, Carvalho etc.). He might be an ordinary individual but his record at multiple clubs in multiple situations speaks for itself.

i dont understand why having world class players should be a knock on him. he still needed to earn their respect and to get these world class players to buy into a certain style. who the hell was pep as a manager at that stage? a guy who did really well as the barca b coach, but besides that and the previous barca connection, he's now telling these guys how they should be playing. that's a fair accomplishment. at bayern, yeah it's easier, but that's just the way it is. he didn't want to be around at a barcelona that was (and still is) falling apart behind the scenes, so he left.

im not saying anything bad about mourinho. there's no point, he's won everything. his champions league accomplishment with porto is probably the biggest moment of his career. but that inter milan team also had some bonafide stars. julio cesar, zanetti, lucio, maicon, sneijder, cambiasso, eto'o, milito. i dont disagree about his record at all, but i totally disagree with guardiola not being able to be considered top brass because he's only had 2 jobs (at the age of 44, 8 years mourinho's junior) and because he had a massive link to the barca job, whereas mourinho has never had that link with any club he has managed. didnt everyone basically think that pep would never leave barca anyways?

 

[Latro]

Pep is playing Costa and Robben as wing backs. A big fan of Rodgers obviously.

 

[jod23]

Im with BlueBen on this one. Pep is obviously very good, but how good we wont really know until he leaves Bayern.

I'd have loved for him to say take on Liverpool before Klopp arrived of course. I wonder how he would go at say Arsenal. They havent won the title in a looong time and have never won a European trophy. Be interesting to see how he goes then.

Instead he just managed the best team in Spain and as predicted, won everything, then managed the best team in Germany and as predicted, won everything.

 

[ADL9798]

Pep is playing Costa and Robben as wing backs. A big fan of Rodgers obviously.

Big difference between wing backs in a 3-4-3 system and fullbacks in a back 4.

 

[BlueBen]

i dont understand why having world class players should be a knock on him. he still needed to earn their respect and to get these world class players to buy into a certain style. who the hell was pep as a manager at that stage? a guy who did really well as the barca b coach, but besides that and the previous barca connection, he's now telling these guys how they should be playing. that's a fair accomplishment. at bayern, yeah it's easier, but that's just the way it is. he didn't want to be around at a barcelona that was (and still is) falling apart behind the scenes, so he left.

im not saying anything bad about mourinho. there's no point, he's won everything. his champions league accomplishment with porto is probably the biggest moment of his career. but that inter milan team also had some bonafide stars. julio cesar, zanetti, lucio, maicon, sneijder, cambiasso, eto'o, milito. i dont disagree about his record at all, but i totally disagree with guardiola not being able to be considered top brass because he's only had 2 jobs (at the age of 44, 8 years mourinho's junior) and because he had a massive link to the barca job, whereas mourinho has never had that link with any club he has managed. didnt everyone basically think that pep would never leave barca anyways?

It's not necessarily a knock on him, but it's hard not to be cynical when you see someone walk into a job when the ultimate get out of jail free card in Messi is already there, along with Xavi, Iniesta, Pique, Puyol, Villa etc. And then when the same thing happens in Germany, where he takes over at clearly the strongest team in the country, which also has the ability to buy its only real rivals' best players. In other words, everything was already there for him each time. He deserves some credit for "tiki taka" and finding a way for the team to play that produced results, but again, with that much talent at his disposal and the respect he was afforded from his time as a player, he really would have had to mess up for things to have gone wrong.

He was a great player at Barcelona, so he already had that connection and credibility with players, fans etc. He was a favourite son at the club from his time as a player, so he had some natural advantages from the start. He left Barca as soon as things became a bit difficult, citing "exhaustion". Tito Vilanova, a relative nobody, went on to win the title the next season, with much the same players.

 

[Magma]

so nothing for assembling the greatest team of the modern era?

he's being sold woefully short for what he accomplished. he wasn't even first choice as manager, he was close to being sacked at the beginning of his reign. if you haven't already, get a copy of graham hunter's exceptional barca book. it's a fantastic documentation of all the effort that went into building and delivering with that core group of players, while adding different pieces to make it better. that's what the best managers do.

pep was exhausted. he was exhausted with all the fighting behind the scenes after laporta left. while barca's success onfield has continued to deliver, behind the scenes it's a steady collapse. la masia is dying, they have a whole bunch of talented youngsters not allowed to play due to fifa rulings, plus numerous other problems regarding everything after laporta was removed. it can be argued that enrique winning the treble was the worst thing to happen to barca

 

[ADL9798]

John Henry's wife just posted this picture of the Main Stand redevelopment at Anfield. Coming along nicely, the scale of it when compared to the existing stand is staggering. Going to be fantastic when it's completed.



For reference, in this photo the Kop is at the front, the Main Stand on the left, the Centenary Stand on the right and the Anfield Road End (the next stage of the redevelopment - will be built up to a similar height as the redeveloped Main Stand) is on the far side.

 

[Jatz]

John Henry's wife just posted this picture of the Main Stand redevelopment at Anfield. Coming along nicely, the scale of it when compared to the existing stand is staggering. Going to be fantastic when it's completed.
View attachment 188321
View attachment 188322

For reference, in this photo the Kop is at the front, the Main Stand on the left, the Centenary Stand on the right and the Anfield Road End (the next stage of the redevelopment - will be built up to a similar height as the redeveloped Main Stand) is on the far side.

Is that new stand being bought in at all? The top of that stand will be in a different post code if not.

 

[jod23]

Is that new stand being bought in at all? The top of that stand will be in a different post code if not.

Absolutely no idea. I assume so as from that photo, it looks like they will be a long way from the pitch.