And if/when Real consign Barca to an Arsenal situation where everyone loves their style but they win FA, Mourinho's detractors will be saying it was just inevitable that the wealth of Real made it happen.

No, he hasn't 'got' to do that, he's obviously had great success doing it his way, whilst he uses the critics' views to spur his side on. I'm not saying he has to do it, I just feel if he's to leave the great legacy, then he should do something Fergie-like, Wenger-like, to build some form of side that oozes every ounce of his ability as a coach. I'd be a fool to dismiss his achievements, they speak for themselves, but to put some in perspective, he's done it all in very similar ways: forming an experienced side of winners, taking them to titles and motivating them to use all their experience into proving the doubters wrong; he's exceptional at creating the us versus them mentality, but I'm interested to see what else he has in his nal. He's signed some good players at Madrid, but their lack of winners, particularly at the back (only Carvalho really stands out, although I'm sure many will claim Iker is still the lord, whilst Pepe can be excellent, he too is unreliable), will lead to Mourinho struggling, IMO. If he keeps this core of players together, adds players but maybe doesn't bring in the finished articles; the Sneijders, Lucios, Eto'os and Militos of the world, and instead chooses to develop those in front of him, we may then see the true depth of his coaching ability.

As I say, he's a good coach, but to be remembered as an utter great, he has to show an ability for his sides to 'play' with his style, he's the best around psychologically, but I've yet to see the true variety in his ability as a manager.

Only the uneducated.


When Inter knocked Barça out of the Champions League last year Mourinho was hailed as a tactical genius who contained and nullified the best footballing team in the world. Barça take Madrid apart piece by piece, scoring five goals and keeping a clean sheet against their main rivals, managed by someone who is regarded by many as one of the best managers in the world, and it's because Madrid didn't turn up? The Barcelona papers are obviously going to made up, but when AS and Marca are praising Barcelona and Guardiola then you know it was a special night. I can't wait till the game at the Bernabeu and I think that could be the game that decides the title.

2 Leagues, Spanish Cup, 2 Spanish Supercopas, Champions League, UEFA Super Cup, FIFA Club World Cup. Not a bad haul for his first two seasons. The thing is that Barcelona are more than happy with Guardiola. Guardiola is more than happy with Barcelona. The players love him. The fans love him. He's Catalan. He wins things.

Anybody fancy taking Jonny Evans and O'Shea off our hands please?

We were shocking tonight, and 4-0 gave us some credit. Our defence and midfield were awful. We were run ragged by a left back playing out of position in centre midfield. :$

Exactly. I never thought I'd see Kovacs & spector out muscle, out enthuse a midfield of Anderson & Fletcher. I don't know what has happened to Evans. I don't see anything in Macheda to get excited about either. Full credit to West ham though, their second string were light years better than ours.

Enjoyed watching that when I got in. Always nice seeing you getting beat.

Put that side out against Liverpool please Fergie.

They all had a shocker, some dreadful performances!

Your sock must have been glad to have the dust of 29 games blown off it

Is he really on £80,000 a week?

I've never rated O'Shea, absolute e. One of the funniest things i've seen in football is him scoring a goal against Liverpool to win the game!



He's stealing a living, but he's not on his own.

I'm confused by what you're trying to say, our you saying the three sides you mentioned are physical football sides? Really? I wonder how much football you watch these sides play before you comment on them if that's the case. Stoke I'll give you but us and Fulham, seriously, have a word with yourself. Why have you not mentioned Wolves? or even Bolton? Mark Hughes couldn't put a physical side togther if he tried, he is a draw and boring football expert. You still often mention Everton when you talk about physical football, you've done it on one another occasion in recent months which just clearly shows how little you watch us, in recent weeks we've been incapable of producing anything of note (LGJM and his Chelsea pals must be rubbing their hands at the thought of us rolling into town on Saturday, with them due to a return to form, I'm dreading what they'll do to us). We've had two red cards for petulance from Fellaini and Arteta recently but nothing 'physical' infact Cahill, Felli and maybe Distin apart There's no one in our side capable of physical football. You're really harping back to the days of Joe Royle/Walter Smith's 'dogs of war teams.'

Well England's chances of hosting the world cup in 2018 just went up in the form of Flairs and Chairs in the Villa and Birmingham derby, why were the police keeping the Villa fans in? the Villa fans would have been trying to get out as quick as possible after losing to there rivals, the Police should have been keeping the Birmingham fans in as they would have been the ones wanting to gloat.

the night before the world cup decision, perfect timing,

I reckon it's probably easier to keep hundreds of people in rather than 10's of thousands.

Shocking scenes

Like it's going to influence the vote.

They were disgraceful scenes but that incident won't cost us the chance of hosting the World Cup.

it does'nt exactly help us though does it.

i think that it will have some influence though, violence at a football match the night before the vote,

Spain are a rival bidder, Barcalona and Real Madrid the 2 biggest rivals in Spain met on monday and i have not heard of any violence off the pitch between rival fans

Obviously they can't cause trouble in the ground because of Fenses up around grounds in Spain to stop pitch invasions. outside the ground though from what i heard there didnt seem to be any bother between both sets of fans.

Give it to Russia.

The Racist element may not help Spain.

Fella, give it a rest

, I was using your lot as a joke. But, my point wasn't necessarily about physical sides, but boring, defensive sides go all out for a clean sheet, whilst Stoke were obviously thrown in as an example of a physical side.

The racist element may not help Russia.

FWIW I can't believe Russia are the favourites, having watched the feature on them on Sky News yesterday. There are 'plans' for improvements to their rail network, but half of the host cities won't even be connected via rail links come 2018.

Ah, now I'm with you. As I said I was confused when you mentioned us then physical

As for the boring negative stuff, you're spot on, good point well made

Not sure if you watch much Russian football mate, but did you not read about the Zenit fans before the game against Hajduk? Hooligans attacking a hotel full of Croats, I remember reading the fans reasoned something like “Serbs are our brothers and Croats hate them” as their reasons for doing it.

just watched the game from last night. Iknow Mancini thinks Johnson needs sorting off the pitch but on it theres no doubt hes class give us real width. I dont think he will play Barry this saturday i think he will go with Johnson and Milner on the flanks with just De Jong and Toure in the middle. Balotelli is class theres no doubt about him the way he plays is effortless and the 1st goal was a awesome finish. I dont think its a lack of commitment from him just that he makes it look so easy, the problem is keeping him on the pitch if we can do that hes easily 1 of the 5 best strikers in the prem

Like FIFA give a monkeys about racists. (pun intended)

How much did Spain get fined again for all the racist abuse the England players took over there?