Arena "The Beautiful Game" - The Official JCC Football (Soccer) Thread.

On Rooney, unlike a few years ago, where ManU held on to him because they felt they needed him, I think now it may be more a question of who wants him. I have a hard time believing the club would sell him to City or Chelsea. Probably the most likely candidate, imo, would be PSG, they certainly have the money. Certainly not Bayern.

 

would Bayern be interested if they miss out (somehow) on Lewa?

 

Hard to judge Pep, but I don't think so. If they need anything up front it's a #9 like Lewandowski. Honestly, i'm not even all that sure why they want to replace Mandzukic, he may not be the best goal scorer, but he fits into the side perfectly. Rooney has never really excelled as a lone striker. And they already have a bevy of 10s with Kroos, Müller and Götze. If Bayern went after Rooney, I think it would have to be Pep who wants him, and I've never seen Rooney fitting in to a Barca type system.

EDIT: I should also take back what I said about ManU being nervous about Gill and Ferguson departing, with the Chevrolet deal lined up, plus a new Nike deal on the horizon, they're in fine shape financially.

EDIT2: One more thing about Rooney: like I said, I think at this point it's largely a question of who would want him. Ideally a side with a 2 striker system, allowing him to play in the hole. If Ibra leaves Paris to go back to Italy, Rooney would be a logical replacement. One other possibilitywould be Juve, Rooney would be a very interesting partner for Llorente. But I doubt Juve have the money to afford Rooney.

 

Rooney can play as a lone striker if required - he did so successfully a few years ago at United, and topped the scoring - but it's just that his main skills are wasted in that position. certainly there are other, better forwards who fill the lone striker role better, so yeah, Bayern doesn't really make much sense all round.

agreed that PSG seems the logical move. he's also a worldwide "brand" so may be seen also as a good marketing move, playing alongside Beckham (if re-signed).

 

Even more absurd than Bayern going for Rooney is that they might be interested in Wilshire. Schweinsteiger-Martinez were hands-down the best holding midfield pair in football this season. Unless you want to start developing a potential replacement for Schweini (he's 29) what the heck do you want Wilshire for?

 

yeah, plus according to Pep a couple of years ago, the Barca B team was full of players as good as Wilshire. he can just raid them and save a bundle eh

 

Would not want.

 

I can't see Rooney being very happy at a foreign club, he would likely be an outsider if he can't adapt to the language easily and he does tend to think of himself as The Man so going somewhere and not being top guy would be a waste of time to him.

I don't really see why he would go to other English clubs either, is he really likely to win more at Chelsea or City who just finished way behind the team he is already playing for?

 

OMG Williams

 

ZAHA

great cross from Bolasie, too.

and again, cracking 2nd goal from Zaha. Palace into the final. BOO YA.

 

And Mancini is gone. Not sorry in the slightest. He showed how poor he was with the Balotelli and Tevez situations. Add to that his dropping of Parmilion for the FA Cup Final, and you have a poor excuse for a manager. In the words of Lieutenant Harris from Police Academy. "Too bad, so sad, bye bye"

 

He didn't make very good signings after winning the league, he seemed to expect rivals wouldn't improve themselves which was naïve.

May his successor fail more

 

One player doesn't make that much difference, City also didn't play as well as last season. They have enough money to buy plenty of players to rival RVP, Mancini just didn't do it and seemed unable to get the same performance out of his champions that he got before.

 

I fault him completely when he (rightly) says that Tevez won't play again after he walked out, and then took him back after a few bad results. He lost a LOT of respect after that

 

at the end of the day finishing 2nd in the league and making the FA Cup final is still a good season. City have set a precedent now which can only lead to Chelsea like managerial ridiculousness.

City have ceased the over the top spending, hence their signings last season. Mancini was vocal about needing to add to the squad and he wasn't given the funds to do so. it's the owners fault for not strengthening the team adequately enough, not Mancini's.

will Pellegrini last any longer? first place in the league isn't guarenteed by any means - 33% at BEST - and the CL even less so.

 

Finals mean nothing if you lose, elite teams want trophies.

Look at Arsenal, top 4 finishes all the time but they have won nothing for years so every season is considered continued failure. And given what they had before, it is.

City have to curb spending given their huge losses and the FFP rules, but they need more players so they will have to sell first.

 

It's important to remember that Mancini isn't a particularly good manager. He's not got the faith of the board and the players aren't overly keen on him either. City have underperformed massively this season. Not just in Europe where they've been abject, but in a league that hasn't got that much quality. Hell they've actually gone backwards from last season.

If they do get Pellegrini in then it should be an improvement on Mancini and should see them a much stronger prospect than they were this season.

 

Chelsea seem likely to be a stronger threat than City next season, they already have arguably the best midfield going and with Lukaku coming back a decent set of strikers (plus Torres )

City have a good squad, just not a good team.