Marvin

Any manager who wins a European Cup makes a pretty unanswerable case to go down as a great manager rather than merely a good one. As far as 2008-9 season goes as great as the achievement was in terms of points and the wins home and away against Man U and Chelsea I don't think we ever really looked like we were going to win the League. What we did was to challenge which most people saw as a minimum to going on to win the thing. What was needed at that point was the backing of the clubs owners to do what was necessary to push on from there. That did not happen in fact the reverse was the case and the mentality of the team suffered.

I think your second sentence is at odds with your first though if you think that "so long" is a matter of months. Simply putting a silly price on the club is not going to result in a higher bid its just going to put off potential buyers and I can't see any logic in putting off the inevitable sale if your in a forced sale scenario.

Fair enough but what is the logic of G & H not having sold by now and apparently turning down offers which would see them walk away with a profit ?

No. Hes always been a WUM

There's a hole in the club's finances dear George,dear George....

So now we judge our managers on one season.

sickened yet ...excited

Why would getting rid of Rafa make any sense - they are not going to get anyone better if there is so little money they can't afford to sack him? And why would Broughton agree to waste his time with repeated meetings if this was the strategy?

A strategy which makes no sense

All I know is his name is an anagram of "I Dirk". Insignificant ? I think not.

I wouldn't have said that was where his head was exactly though.

Well it would pan out like this - someone will post something speculating on why this might have happened They will then be accused of absurd post rationalising Gunga Din will chip in with Rafa is too cautious whilst forgetting that his ideal replacement for Rafa is even more cautious. Meanwhile everyone will accuse evryone else of stifling debate becuse they hold a contrary view. So no.

You may be right in that for much of the season we have looked too cautious and at times it is infuriating. Is Rafa fundamentally a cautious manager though? I don't think it is as simple as that. I think that Rafa belives that defensive solidity comes first and you build on that. If he had the money would he fill the team with defensive players and tell them to get behind the ball? I don't think so. I think he would buy quality creative and attacking players and play more attacking football. I think he has fallen back on caution this season because things went horribly wrong in the summer and early on in the season and he moved into damage limitation mode. I'm not trying to defend his tactics or how the whole Aquilani thing has been dealt with for example but just trying to understand his reasons.

Winning a trophy on penalties doesn't count though.

No but it is well documented that he had tried to sell him the previous summer.

Rafa has terrible man management skills with those players he wants rid of. He seems to do better with the ones he wants to keep - funny that

Last night was really positive and we need to take that forward. However I don't believe he can simply play the same team against Lille and again on Sunday. Some rotation will be necessary.

I'm sure theres a rule somewhere that says the manager is not allowed on the field of play during the game

ah... I see!

seemed like a fair point to me

Brilliant post

Uncle Bob I thought you'd never return

In that interview when asked about being a replacement for Alonso he says (in Italian) "Let me stop you right there.." That was enought to convince me he is going to be awesome.

Aren't they effectively owned by Joe Lewis who is a billionaire although I've no idea how much he has actually put in.

He'll fit in well then