Anyone remember how downtrodden we felt leading up to frank's sacking? Football was dire from top to bottom, our defensive high line and pressing looked hilariously disorganised as any average team could dissect us with two, three forward passes on the counter.

Personally I'd given up on top four and after being drawn vs atletico, it was just a matter of 'ahh let's just see how well we can do, we're never gonna win it this year anyway. Could be a good foundation for next season.'

Who knew tuchel had the tactical brilliance to utilise a back 3, (a formation which frank completely abandoned, mind you) and get the best out of every player within such a short time. The fact that it's not even his favoured formation when he was at PSG is what impressed me most, he's an amazing coach. I knew he was good, but not this good.

Fast forward a few months and we're winners of the biggest competition in football, lead by someone who had zero input on our transfer window. After being a losing finalist with PSG and only having consistent success in ligue 1,you get this notion that tuchel was always a good coach, but never spoken in the same breadth as the likes of pep, jose (previously), klopp, zidane, etc. Well they're sure gonna speak about him from now on.

What excites me is we're only going to get better with a few big signings, and a proper pre-season to look forward to. Up the chels!

Can't deny that he fast tracked mount and reece into the first team and that paid huge dividends. Perhaps they were already knocking on the door of the starting 11, but without frank handing them their big chance anything could've happened. If we reverted back to some coach who preferred experience more than anything else (like jose or hiddink ?), they'd probably be out on loan somewhere. Who knows what horrors lie in wait if we failed to secure top 4 as well? Lol.

Crazy to think if PSG just chose to be a bit more patient with tuchel, they might've been the ones lifting ol' big ears! In the end managing those mega stars helped him to a certain extent, as getting a handle on our dressing room would've been much2 easier in comparison. Backed by his right-hand man silva, you know it wasn't long before he got everyone on side.

The board definitely needs to try their best to secure his targets, but I think if they don't, then they need to agree on the contingency signings as well. That will be key for this to be a long term (wishful thinking yes, ) thing imo. It's ok missing out on mega signings, but make sure there's an agreement on who comes next. Nothing worse than a winning manager who requests for haaland, but when things collapse, finds that benteke is on the way

It's a tough one for him, I'm pretty sure its all very bitter sweet but in the end he'll always be a fan. Probably sent tons of congratulatory messages to mount, ben, reece, mendy, cech, kante, etc. He's not the type to share a lot on social media, iinm. But like zoidx said, he just lacked that experience to turn things around and perhaps there was a bit of stubbornness in refusing to try something different. Won't totally write him off coming back to the bridge, though JT is probably next in line depending on how well he does elsewhere

This post has been edited by Kerplunk: Jun 2 2021, 04:43 PM

Lukaku making a clear statement that he's spoken to the incoming manager (inzaghi) and feels happy staying at inter is big news, but it's also good for us because we now have ample time to thrash out a deal for haaland.

Dortmund know they won't be getting as much money for him next season as he only has 2 years left then on his contract. Might get complicated if utd manage to agree a deal for sancho earlier, as they can just hold on to haaland regardless of the transfer hit.

I say we get them to the negotiation table a.s.a.p, no bs, just make it clear we want him, so whatever happens to sancho has no bearing on any deal. Loan them CHO, throw in batshuayi, whatever. We have enough money and players to make it worthwhile for them, so we have a chance. With madrid busy trying for mbappe, city with kane, barca / bayern out of the picture,it really is now or never imo.

If we choose to wait it out, I don't think we'll ever see him in blue. By the end of next season we might have concluded a less than stellar campaign, then PSG may decide to go for him, bayern may finally look for a lewandowski replacement, utd might think they need another striker, etc. Just an all out bidding war which we've been known to turn our noses at.

The club is at the strongest position to make a move now, so we either get his signature soon or we forget about him altogether. But the possibility of having the CF position covered for the next 10,12 years is too good of an opportunity to pass up, so hopefully roman looks at it the same way.