verlaine1979

Didn't he win the league with a pretty unfancied Bordeaux team before he took over the french national job?

I presume it's taking a while as Everton didn't immediately agree to our opening demand for compensation and we're now well into the tedious haggling phase (faxes are probably involved). I wouldn't read anything more conspiratorial into it than that.

True, though having won three European competitions in three years, Emery is probably a little closer to proving himself worthy of a shot at a big job than RK. Perhaps RK would have been in with a shout of the Barcelona job if he'd stayed at Saints and just kept on putting in highly creditable performances, but I'd argue that's more because Barca seem to be the only major club who appoint managers based on sentiment/affinity for the club rather than a prior history of achievement. If you take Barcelona out of the equation, you wouldn't say RK's record as a manager with us put him within a million miles of managing Madrid, Bayern or any other top tier club.

Maybe the money will tempt him, but I can't see us or any other mid-table PL team being a wise move for Emery. He's already at a club of similar size/stature to any of the ones he's been linked with (us, Everton, West Ham) and it's hard to see how starting over and achieving a similar level of success with a club in England would put him any closer to a job with one of the big names of Europe. If he wants a big club and none are available this summer, he'd be crazy not to stick with Sevilla for another year, where he already knows the set up and maintaining his already impressive level of achievement will be much easier. He might miss out on an extra £1m this year, but in terms of maximising his odds of getting a massive job with an even bigger salary in future, it would be the more sensible wager.

Their record signing cost them £28m, so it would be hard to argue that they aren't already operating (occasionally) at a much higher level in the transfer market than us. How many years before we spend close to £30m on a transfer?

Didn't they change the FFP rules last year to 'encourage investment'? Think owners (particularly new ones) are allowed to pump money in for first 3-5 years now as long as they can show plans to eventually become self-sustaining through revenue growth.

Of course, like I said, I'm not disputing that he's loaded. I'm just saying that you have to be substantially richer than RK or pretty much any other footballer before doubling your income makes no meaningful difference to your quality of life.

In an ideal world perhaps, but not a chance. After winning three successive Europa Leagues you don't come to a mid-table premier league club for the pay cheque. You go to a big-but-not-Barca/Real/Man U/Bayern CL club for the pay cheque!

Where are people getting the idea that he's already rich enough that money doesn't mean anything to him? I'm sure he's got a couple of million in the bank, which makes him approximately as wealthy has half the right-to-buy lottery winners who acquired houses in zones 1&2 during the late 80s... There's a long way to go between there and genuine f*** you money.

If he does go, it'll be because he's been told that the (seemingly reasonable) £50-60m before reinvestment you propose is more like the £10-20m of previous summers. And while £100m doesn't guarantee anything if you waste it, if you spend it well like Sevilla, Dortmund etc, there's no reason why that outlay (assuming the figure isn't inflated to include salary outlay etc) couldn't make you at least competitive for the last CL place.

Surely it's more likely the case that we've just given him a massive pay raise in return for increasing his release clause to something that would make all but the very top clubs think twice?

Agree, Forster absolutely hesitated because Kane was moving towards the ball. If you have to stop/change direction in order during a passage of play, you're surely already 'active'?

Maybe the fact that his passing was largely woeful, and that with pretty much freedom of the Villa half, he didn't really make a penetrating run into the box until about the 80th minute? Still, he always looks like he's taking the game seriously and he's got a nice salt-of-the-earth nickname, so he must be good, right?

Not sure a couple of Tadic back-heels after 80+ minutes when we (were) 1-3 up really counts as a decent passing game. For most of the match our passing in the final third has been very sloppy.

Yup, as an attacking team, we don't have a problem with style we have a problem with personnel, which means we more or less have to default to crosses from wide as our main source of chance creation. This game has been almost laughably open in the middle, but Davis has been completely anonymous as an attacking force - if he was ever capable of running a game from #10, surely it would be this one?

Would like to see Romeu come on. Seems to be the only one of our CMs who shows up in the box during open play.

Our attacking play in the final third is woeful. So much possession, so little movement, so few penetrating passes.

Besic looked excellent during the last world cup, and I was annoyed we weren't in for him as a replacement for MS. Haven't seen much of him since, so interested to see how he does today.

God forbid anyone's talent should see them descend into cliché.

Nice finish, but the attacking play was almost as comical as the defending.

And one of the main reasons why the machine can be so very dull to watch for large stretches of the season...

I think you're mixing it up with 'pillage'.

JWP seems to be first choice penalty-taker when he's on the field, but that's probably the case less than 50% of the time. Based on ability to strike the ball cleanly and likelihood to be on the pitch, I'd have thought VVD should be asked to put in extra practice as our regular penalty taker. On the subject of Davis, his passing was rubbish today apart from a nice ball that won Pelle's penalty, but as you say, he wasn't alone in contributing to an abject first half performance in midfield.

Good grief, you do love a drama, don't you?

Leaving aside the fact that he's a hugely over-rated propaganda footballer for a moment, I was referring specifically to the run of games since he came back into the team against Swansea. Look back through the match threads - quite a lot of criticism of his wayward passing and general sloppiness in possession.