rogerbarton

Chris Wilder, at Sheffield United, could have been a good bet - at least til the end of the season. He's got them 2nd in the Championship after just winning League 1 in his first season. Won League 2 with Northampton the season before too. Surely more inspiring than Moyes?

It hasn't been beyond Rafa to change his mind during his time here. Sels being dropped, Darlow being dropped, Mbemba coming back in (personally still think he's better than Manquillo).

Forgot about him and Nolan. They could easily replace Wijnaldum and Ba. Joey Barton did a decet job on the right for a while too.

#TakingTheBait Given Debuchy -- Colo -- Lascelles -- Enrique Ritchie -- Cabaye -- Tiote -- Ben Arfa Wijnaldum Ba Not sure if Given really counts, and I'm including these players from their peak. I know the likes of Debuchy and Enrique's stock fell quite considerably after leaving. Gone with Wijnaldum as number 10 because 14 goals in that sh*t show was a pretty good return even despite his terrible away record. Honourable mentions for Cisse, Remy, Jonas, Shelvey and Merino.

To be fair to West 'Ammmm, they've already been through all the other usual suspects. Allardyce, Pardew, even Curbishley. The only other option I suppose is Steve McClaren, though I've heard Rangers have made an approach for him so we'll have to make do with laughing at Moyes there instead.

Another thing in defence of Mitro - I don't think he's had a run in the team as long as Joselu's at the minute. Would be interesting to see if he'd find his feet given time.

Gomez has been a part of one of the worst defences of modern times and Loftus-Cheeke has shown the odd flicker of promise in the worst team in the league. Don't want to be one of those guys, but did Lascelles deserve a call up? He hasn't put a foot wrong this season, and when you consider the quality of England's other centre backs...

Would absolutely love to see them bring in Ally McCoist like Think SoopaKev might actually be as good as it could get for them. Meanwhile this lays bare the rotten nature of the club: https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2017/nov/01/are-sunderland-unmanageable-club

I don't think he offers a great deal more than Mitro - whose main features last season seemed to be holding the ball up and bullying defenders. So would be keen to see him get a run in the team. TBH, Joselu looks like chipping in less than Peter Lovenkrands, Antoine Sibierski or Leon Best did up top for us in the Prem.

Grayson gone. I guess they had to do something, but who the hell are they going to replace him with? And how much compensation is he due?

That game followed the exact disappointing course I thought it would. Just think it exposed quite how limited most of our players are. Good news is we won’t come up against sides as well organised as Burnley very often (as naff as they are quality-wise too).

I'd love to see him back in the PL and his previous relationship with Puel suggests it could be a success. Though he'd probably improve them quite a bit if he hit form.

I’d like to think a £500m ‘warchest’ would do a bit better than that...

Reports from the Middle East saying PCP ready to bid. Would operate similar structure as Man City apparently... Seems way too good to be true.

Well, that makes him a poofter innit? </irony>

What he's talking about this passage in the Souness/Samuel interview: 'Everything is statistics-based these days,' he says. 'I was doing a Brighton game recently and we had figures on Pascal Gross, the German guy who plays in midfield. 'The statistic was he had created 95 chances for Ingolstadt last season, the most in the Bundesliga. And four assists. How the f*** is that possible? 'I hear fans talking. How did we not win today, we had 64 per cent possession? Yes, but 44 per cent of it was in your own half. They're all kidding. 'Expected goals. High press and a low press. What the f***'s a low press? A couple of years back we had figures on who had completed the highest rate of passes of any Premier League player. 'It turned out to be Per Mertesacker. Five yards this way, five yards that way. So what?

Carragher's beaten you to it

Would love them to give it to Rooney and duly get relegated

All this talk of Brett Emerton made me look up Charles Insomnia. Apparently without a club since leaving Villa in 2016. There's a career that went down the pan.

I also think you've got to factor in the fact he's a Liverpool legend which would be properly sullied by going to Everton. He probably sees them as a bit small-town anyway given he managed the bigger Scouse club already. Not surprised Koeman went. I think he's a decent manager but their spending this summer was an absolute disgrace.

There's no way in hell Atsu is a better player than Townsend. I think it demonstrates how well Rafa has got this team playing as a unit when you think about the absolute dearth of attacking flair we have in our team.

He had the best ball control of any player I think I’ve ever seen in the flesh. Would love to see him come back. Can’t see it happening though. Would add that I don’t think he ever played number 10 successfully for us.

If Steve McClaren or Alan Patdew were our manager this would be a guaranteed loss. Still think it’s going to be tricky, but I think Rafa will set us up well and hopefully we can nick it. Think Palace are a different proposition when Zaha’s in the team.

To be fair, I thought Sissoko was going to be a world-beater after that initial Chelsea game.

Spurs remain - for now - the least loathesome of the 'big' clubs. I like the manager and how they play too. Eriksen, Alli, Son and Kane are superb.