Let's be honest, there's a huge difference between the quality of Roy Hodgson, when compared to Carlo Ancelotti and one of Europe's most exciting young manager, AVB. Liverpool fans were annoyed at a couple of things (a little similar to how you didn't like Grant): 1) Roy was never wanted by any Liverpool fan, Benitez was clearly a superior manager, why we would let him go for Roy was baffling. 2) Before Roy was appointed, Kenny apparently said he'd do a better job than Roy and he wasn't up to the job, why the board (Purslow) appointed a different man over Kenny, when it was clear as day that he wasn't up to it, was baffling. 3) Roy alienated himself by having a woeful attitude in the media, the man was embarrassing. 4) Roy's appointment felt like something that was media driven, as he clearly wasn't as good a coach as Benitez, but they still went ahead with a media darling to 'settle the ship', and then supported his signings like 'premier league proven Konchesky and Cole'.

I don't think there was ever a problem with our players disrespecting Roy, I just felt they couldn't adjust to his lunatic tactics. Furthermore, if you read into some of the ways Roy apparently managed at Liverpool, it wouldn't surprise me if they did dislike him, as he was apparently an absolute cretin with no class whatsoever, neither he nor his assistant.

But anyway, the point I was trying to make was; how many managers can your players not support before they take a bit of the responsibility themselves? I know the manager takes collective responsibility, but your players have so much to answer for.

We're still in the FA Cup because we haven't faced anyone with the might of West Brom. If we had, we'd have been out.

We're in a terrible position against Napoli. We're virtually out, without a massive change we will be out. Hopefully RDM being in charge will be enough of a shot for us to turn things around next week. But in terms of this seasons CL, we've lost nothing in getting rid of AVB now.

Did you watch the West Brom game? We have probably got better players in every single position than West Brom have. Yet we were clearly second best and deserved to lose. And not only did we lose but we were utterly clueless about getting anything from the game. Mourinho used to kill games by playing keep ball with the defence and midfielders where the opposition just got frustrated because we were keeping the ball for long periods and they were chasing it. That's what we did under AVB when we were a goal down.

My main hope is that Mourinho's visit to London last week included a meeting with CFC and a deal for him to come back in the summer. If that happened, who cares about AVB? If Mourinho's not coming back then we are in trouble and we could be pretty much screwed. But we looked to be screwed under AVB because the only thing he could do was talk about a project that showed no signs of existing.

I suggest you read the top of my post again and the second bit clearly went straight over your head.

Oliver Kay ‏ @OliverKayTimes Close
Surprising Chelsea team news. Torres and Bertrand start, Essien, Lampard, Drogba and ... Terry on bench

will de matteo make it to the weekend?

Arsenal 1 up after 6 minutes. Surely not?

On a seperate note, I love that AC Milan top.

2-0

Very good Nicosia

Had to flick over to APOEL v Lyon after Tyldesley's blind assertion that Mascherano has been Barca's best centre-half this season, with nary a cursory glance at the Bielsan tactics that see Guardiola deploy him there. More Cypriot sides in the last of the Champions League than there are English - well, providing Napoli finish the job next week which they surely must.

Speaking of Bielsan tactics, Aupa Athletic

I see Glen Johnson has thrown another spanner into the Suarez/Evra works, this time accusing Evra of setting up his team mate in a massively contrived, fake-offered-handshake....



You really have to wonder who is advising these players sometimes, as surely Liverpool will have to drag the guy into the office pretty sharpish for a carpeting, considering all the grief the club took during this whole circus??

Is there anyone in football more mentally lacking than Johnson? What an absolute baffoon. He is claiming Evra stayed up all night then faked his handshake offer and that poor Luis had no chance to shake his hand. Is he for real, does he actually believe what he's saying or has he been brainwashed by that pathetic club? His little rant at Paul McGrath shows he thinks like a 9 year old, trying in as childish a way as possible to twist it round onto someone else.

His revelation that the 'free the racist' t-shirts were the clubs idea and not the players. That is very poor form from the club, but then again that is to be expected from them.

Fair play to Glen, at least he has an opinion and doesn't just repeat the bile printed in the media.

His point on McGrath was right, why did McGrath have to single Glen out for wearing the t-shirt and have a go at him over it? Race shouldn't matter in today's sport, it shouldn't matter that Glen is black, but McGrath had to single Glen out. Hardly fair. McGrath's response is pathetic to it to be honest, he's come out and said 'it saddens me that Glen Johnson has called me a racist', then proceeded to retweet somebody calling Glen Johnson a muppet. The man can't defend himself because Glen makes a valid point, all he can do is make points about 'bringing it up again'.

Glen doesn't say Luis didn't have a chance to shake his hand, Glen said Evra clearly didn't want to shake his hand, so why would Luis shake it? I'm tending to agree, to be honest, it wasn't as one-sided as the media made out, but then it never is.

Having met him yesterday, Phil Dowd is a quality bloke on and off the pitch. Took banter with good humour, gave us some back and even gave us a dodgy penalty in the varisty match. (We missed it, but it still annoyed Keele

)

Fair enough having an opinion, but is it that wise to come out with it, just weeks after your employer has had to carry out a huge PR exercise, trying to distance themselves from those very views?

As for the handshake and whether Evra was that keen to 'make up' with Suarez??....Well, considering it was Suarez who was the guilty party in this whole episode and Evra the offended upon, I'd be very surprised if Evra didn't harbourd a little resentment to the Uraguayan, and wouldn't expect a beaming smile and a lustily offered hand on his behalf.

Also, considering Suarez came out and admitted his refusal to shake, I'd say that Johnson's story is just a little far-fetched??

What happened to 'moving on'?

You cannot move on when such an outrageous injustice has been carried out.

How good were Athletic Bilbao to watch?

Ace. Will be following their results from now on, superb footballing team.

Mun-I-Ian was fantastic, Llorenty and Martinez also classy. Utd's attitude in europe has stunk this year, gone into every game far too complacent.

They have a very proud philosophy of only selecting Basque players, from their youth set up and surrounding Basque area.

Also they left Athletic, (as opposed to Athletico) in their name as a nod to the english ship builders from Sunderland who helped form the club.

They quite like the brits because of this too i believe.

He probably shouldn't have said anything, but if you read the way the quotes are, it seems he's been answering questions more than in the sense of 'coming out and declaring whatever'. If I was him, I'd have just said 'I think everything on our side's been said, just get over it', but he obviously wanted to share his view on it, which I feel is completely up to him, considering he's come in for huge flack for siding with Suarez, he probably feels like he should air his views on it

I don't know how you can say Johnson's story is a little far-fetched, just watch the video, Evra's hand clearly isn't out to be shaken, he feels he put it down because he didn't want to shake his hand, if you think that's far-fetched, whatever, but I don't think it's too ludicrous to think that Evra's hand being lowered is because he didn't want to shake his hand, which is what Johnson says. Furthermore, Glen doesn't deny Suarez refusing to shake, Glen says he wouldn't have shook Evra's hand either if it was down by his side, which again is a fair point. He was wrong to say "Evra was up all night...etc".

what an exciting game, tremendous tempo, and illustrates that technique runs deeper in the spanish game than Real & Barca, I am sure if United had a half witted scouting system there could be some value™ to be had that would solve the central midfield issues

just hope bilbao absolutely destroy manure next week. the arrogant fooookers.

First time I haven't been happy after an Athleti win. De Gea was United's best player and he had to be, I mean what were Anderson and Rafael doing for Munain's goal? Most people with an interest in Spanish football know about Llorente but I've been banging the drum for Munain for a while now. Last night wasn't his best game but he showed just how good he can be.
Fair play to the thousands of Athletic Club fans who made the trip over. They made it sound like a home game for the Basques.
If I'm going to try and salvage something positive, it would be that despite a woefully spiritless performance United only lost by one goal.

No idea, schoolboy

De Gea kept us in it, plain and simple, starting to earn his money and prove his doubters wrong. Rafael just standing there and watching Munain score would be lambasted in sunday league football, utterly woeful that. Those Athletic fans were LOUD.