g3.7

that's as good as I have ever seen us away from home against quality opposition in europe.

It's a sh*t club supported exclusively by c**ts

And which is more, you'll be a man my son.

the first half of that season was good though. it was dramatic, tense; interesting and important things happened. it fizzled out and became meaningless after a couple of months of hiddink, but for a while there, it was experiential. it's only football. we're lucky that ours is usually full of texture, portent, and colour. and joy sometimes too.

its a great move for him. he had the choice of realistically getting the odd appearance here and there or potentially playing his way into the world cup by playing regular football. he's also going to be playing for a good manager and has the security of a five year deal. you have to be delighted for him, he completely deserves it. and, as you say, if he grows to the point where- without sentimentality- he's good enough to play every week for a top club, then we could bring him back. this isn't another de bruyne- honestly he is at a point a lot of players from our academy will find themselves: a very decent footballer but not ready to play serious minutes for a top side and also too good and a little too old to hang around watching from the stands. there is a reason big clubs 'allow' promising young talents (be they from their own academy or even other smaller clubs) to be signed by mid table sides, and it isn't down to short-sightedness or poor scouting.

It's worth remembering that football basically doesn't matter at all in the scheme of things.

I think it would be great for the big clubs, and for the national team too. but I think it would severely diminish English football as a 92 team league structure where all parts of the country are represented, and it would further consolidate the hegemony at the top. I think that is far more important than making it easier for the likes man city and chelsea to develop players.

I think this is a great move for ake. I'm not so sure it is a great move for chelsea though. I do think putting buy back clauses in to these type of players is absolutely essential. the way the market has gone, player valuation skyrockets from the age of 17 to 25 if they do well. never has there been a better time for us to have the best youth system in the country, but we have to use it cleverly. with fewer people taking up sky subscriptions it is hard to know if the market will continue to increase, but if it does we ought to be well placed to sidestep the madness of half decent players costing £50m plus. I think this is a new imperative for us to develop our own players, and I truly hope we start to become the beneficiaries of our academy one day.

conte wants him? yes please with zero reservations in that case.

if conte wants him, he's worth whatever we would have to pay.

he's been rubbish and was lucky to be bailed out by cahill and azpilucueta

For me there's no doubt he's slow and isn't an amazing one on one defender. But that's where my reversations end. He's got a great engine, a good left foot and adds a lot when we defend in the air. He's also a total natural at wingback. He's been an excellent buy. I do think we could improve on both him and moses in the summer, but it would be far from a disaster if we didn't.

I feel like we haven't talked about how good this guy has been enough. Yes, his final ball is erratic, but he is absolutely relentless- he gets up and down the pitch so quickly and so comfortably. Plus I can scarcely remember him being beaten all season. This season he has put in performances Ashley Cole would have been proud of on a consistent basis.

spurs had a lot of the ball but created one clear chance in 90 minutes of football, which was alli's goal. and even that is charitable given the difficulty of the finish. kane scored a magnificent header that he had no right to do anything with. so how can anyone say they deserved anything when they conceded four goals, lloris got away with a big handball and costa missed a sitter? they are a fine side and it might 'feel' uncomfortable when most of the game is played in our half, but ultimately we had the better chances as well as more goals. we attacked better and we defended better. spurs got the beating their performance deserves.

whatever his merits and flaws, it would be good to see a player up front who truly wants to play for us. I think he would have loads to do to adapt to conte's style (as a lone striker). he's a great goalscorer and I've always been a fan, but there are a number of more natural fits on the market. if he is capable of adapting then he is probably the best option realistically available, but I wouldn't oversell his knowing the league as a big plus point over morata.

this is what I want to hear. I hope the players feel this resilient. they'll need to be.

Probably good timing in terms of giving the fans something extra to concentrate the mind in the run in.

Feels like our season hinges on that game now. Incredible really. At the start of the season 4 points clear of 5th would have been good, but now we can't shy away from the truth : losing the title would be a massive, massive blow and would probably affect us badly well into the future.

herrera was very very good today- total sacrifice and focus from him. I felt before the game this was all set up for us to have a difficult day, many similarities to our win at anfield a couple of seasons ago. the conditions were right for the classic mourinho big game job. he's still the best when it comes to coming up with a specific plan to neutralise a team. after the game jose basically said this match confirmed his approach in the fa cup was correct. I'm unsure- they started well but even before the red card we were creating the chances and hazard was in the game. costa is a real issue, but I don't see a solution until the end of the season. I don't know what he can do given he obviously wants a no.9 on the pitch and he doesn't trust batshuayi. and it is possible that dropping costa at this point would destroy him as an option. it is hard for me to draw new conclusions from this match. we already know we need more options at wingback, we need a good alternative to the striker next season (whoever the main one is) and we need a central defender who is natural playing out from the back.

agree to a point, but it helps when your opponents make two absolute last minute chances to their defence, especially when they try to play out from defence. I think that massively contributed to our inability to play out. the margins were very fine in determining the result- you have to give jose credit for the win, the pattern of the game clearly showed one side was better (despite the nature of the goals). don't think conte could've done a huge amount differently as his coaching relies on players learning the way they move by rote- we were in big trouble before a ball was kicked.

ugh. and that's why you should be happy to take a point away at old trafford before the game. both of their goals were a bit of a nonsense but that first 50-60 minutes were very poor, we were unable to find balance or composure in defence with the back three and wing backs and that is a big worry. the title is still ours to win but psychologically the players will need to move on from this game very quickly. I'm not ready to start absolutely laying into the players after the season they've had anyway.

that is exactly why a draw would be a decent result. and as brit says, this is a game that will mean a lot to jose and his players, some of whom are easily capable of damaging any side in the world.

well yes, that is true. but it is also true that if we win tomorrow and then lose all of our remaining games we'd be in trouble.

I would gladly take a point here all day long.

didn't have much chance to settle into the side / country / league. which is fair enough I suppose- we had a league to win. he's obviously a much better player than we saw. probably would have been good competition for moses. at least we got our money back I guess.