Allegri? Simeone? Arsenal will get Moyes or Howe

Allegri? Simeone? Arsenal will get Moyes or Howe

We march on. Do us a favour and watch Leicester before mailing theeditor@football365.com

But can Allegri dig in?
Stewie, but can Allegri do it on a cold, wet and windy night in Stoke?

After thinking about that for a min, I think the answer is, yah, he probably could.
Niraj CT USA

Why would Allegri go anywhere near Arsenal?
I enjoyed Stewie’s mail, but as ever, I didn’t necessarily agree with much of it.

Surely only the most self-absorbed of the Arsenal fans would have thought Max Allegri was treating last night’s game as his “audition” to replace Wenger. He is manager of the biggest club in Italy by some distance and is on course to win his third consecutive league title. I did a Google search for ‘Allegri Arsenal’ and there were not many reputable sources offering anything more than mere speculation or odds on this story.

Stewie’s interpretations of Juve’s finances are also interesting. The Old Lady’s wage bill is 20% lower than the Arsenal’s, but it’s not fair to compare different economies, TV deals and so on. However, Juve’s salary spending (€145m according to la Gazzetta Dello Sport) is nearly 20% higher than their nearest rival (Internazionale, €120m). The Arsenal, on the other hand, are something like 11% lower than Premier League top-spenders Manchester City.

As for ‘Allegri spent far less over the summer’, he spent a total of £163m, £76m on Gonzalo Higuain (according to Transfermarkt), admittedly something that was made possible by selling Paul Pogba for a world record fee. The Gunners, on the other hand, spent £96m. What’s more, Allegri’s team was able to financially bully their rivals out of their best players with offers they couldn’t refuse. There are lots of sticks with which to beat Arsene Wenger, but’“not signing the best players from his team’s biggest rivals’ isn’t one.

I’d like to see Allegri come to the Premier League, because he is a good manager. However, this would require the Arsenal’s board to show an ability to make tough decisions hitherto unseen. Surely the obvious answer is to tell Wenger his contract as manager won’t be renewed at its conclusion, but that some sort of directorship or figurehead role would be better suited to him. Ultimately, much like when Sir Alex Ferguson retired, I don’t think an elite manager will want to come in straight away. It’s a bit like following the Beatles, or Kacey Musgraves – no matter how good you are, you’ll always pale in comparison to what came before. In football terms, a top manager will either be dragged down by the malaise, or will be described as winning with Wenger’s team.

Far better to appoint someone under-qualified in the short term to be unpopular, to be the fall guy, and then recruit someone far better to come riding to the rescue. The Arsenal might even be able to tempt David Moyes to repeat his trick, it seems likely he’ll be available next season.
Ed Quoththeraven

…I have recently been seeing a lot of people calling for Wenger to be replaced by either Allegri or Simeone. A lot of them are Arsenal fans who clearly think no end of their club. Why would either of these two managers want to come and manage Arsenal who next season probably won’t have Champions League football, will lose some of their best players and not have 100s of millions to spend. The assumption that Arsenal is a step up for the managers of Juventus and Atletico is a bit daft.
Niki, London

…It’s lovely to read names like Diego Simeone and Max Allegri thrown about for the Arsenal job. I’d take either one tomorrow if I could.

My question is why would they want to? Why the hell would Allegri want to swap players with the mentality of Buffon and Chiellini or the class of Dybala for the likes of Walcott, Coquelin and Ramsey? Juventus are in the last eight and 3-0 up against Barcelona. Why would anyone want to swap a team with that capability for the Arsenal job?

There’s such uncertainty around a whole host of key players and even squad ones right now, that the rebuild big is going to be massive and Allegri and Simeone probably don’t need the hassle.

They’re winners. And winners go to winners.

Who are we all kidding anyway? Wenger will sign and in the unlikely event he doesn’t, Eddie Howe will probably be our David Moyes.
Joe, AFC, East Sussex

…I don’t know if the headline to your morning mailbox (‘If that was Allegri’s Arsenal audition, then wow’) was a direct quote from an email or something you added, but either way it’s a bit cheeky.

I know people who get involved in debates about how big football clubs are (hello Newcastle) are weapons, but come on – this is Juventus we’re talking about. Since Arsenal last won the league, Juve have won seven titles (give or take a couple of dodgy ones…). Arsenal have only won the league seven times since Wenger was born, never mind appointed.

I’m sure Arsenal would love Allegri to take over, or Simeone, or Emery (Unai, not Dick), or Jon Snow King of the North. But they’ve all got silverware and honours to fight for where they are; if they do leave they’ll be given more tempting offers than Arsenal.

Seeing as most of the big guns have all synced their three-year managerial cycles now, why not give Sarri a crack for a couple of years and then mop up an Ancelotti, Blanc, Emery in 2020? Maybe even Allegri, after Italy have sacked him?
Neil Raines

Barca will still go through…
For the those crowing about Barca’s imminent elimination from CL, this is what is going to happen on the return leg at Nou Camp

– Chiellini is sent off on the 26th minute for a clean tackle on Neymar
– Messi scores the resultant penalty (1-0 Barca)
– Dybala equalizes in the 30th minute only to see the assistant referee flagging offside
– In the 35th minute, Saurez goes down as if he got a left hook from Mike Tyson. Replays show that he was actually trying to bite himself
– Of course, Saurez scores the resultant penalty (2-0)
– Juventus continue to defend resolutely for the next 40 minutes even though the referee awards an avalanche of free kicks and blows for a foul every time Juve get the ball
– In the 82nd minute, Neymar dribbles past three Juve players and scores a 25 yard screamer (3-0) Barca
– In the last minute of extra time, the referee awards one more free kick at the edge of the box to punish Juventus for having the temerity to tackle Messi
– Sublime free kick from Messi (4-0) Barca
-Cue pandemonium at Camp Nou
– Sergio Busquets removes his referee mask and dives in to join the celebrations

You heard it first here
Swaminathan (exiled at Kuantan, Malaysia)

…So…how many penalties will Barca get at the Nou Camp? Prizes for the winner.

I’ll go for the standard two. Both at key times in the game, of course.
RQT (MUFC)

Why do F365 love Jack so much?
I’m never very sure on articles which are based on finger in the air transfer values and then used to bash the player a little, but hey, it’s a page to click. I’ve always tried to see the value of a player being what it would cost the selling club to replace that player. I can see that Watford would be able to replace what Deeney brings for less than £20million, same for Sturridge.

But one name of an over-priced Englishman I expected to see on the list, and could take the place from any of the five mentioned, was good ol’ Jack Wilshere. I read last week that West Ham were willing to splash out £30 million for him. I know you must have seen it too, you’ve got that Mediawatch thingymabob scouring every football news article. This would be £30 million for a player whose simple seven-year stats read, 169 games – 11 goals – 18 assists.

I then realised what site I was on. I know why he wasn’t included on the list, you know why he wasn’t included on the list, but I’ve never been able to understand F365’s (especially Sarah Winterburn) support/love affair with Jacky boy. Is it some ’50 – Phil Neville-esque’ joke I missed? I hope so, otherwise this is right up there with the “Duncan & Jose sitting in a tree” type love-in*.
Martyn (Rose is worth £50 million) THFC

What happened to Fortress Old Trafford?
I’ve been meaning to write in about this for a while now. There’s been plenty of United fans trying to explain and/or provide excuses for our current woes, so I’d like to offer an alternative theory as to why United are somewhat floundering in the League at the moment. It’s really quite simple, you see. It’s developed gradually over the last few seasons since Sir Alex retired and it now feels like a rot that’s taken hold of Old Trafford.

Old Trafford is no longer a fortress. The belief and expectation that surrounded Old Trafford, within both our players and our fans, that a United win is a foregone conclusion, has gone. As has the resounding sense of inevitability that many opposition teams (players and fans alike) faced upon visiting Old Trafford. Playing at Old Trafford stoked a psychological battle in opposition players and had beaten many a team before a single ball had been kicked. The majority of visiting teams had lost the game before they’d even walked onto the pitch. 95% of the time, a United win was simply just expected.

What a different story it is nowadays. In the last few years it been all too easy for visiting teams. A well-executed game plan and sense of belief will often now gain you something from the game, and as such the majority of teams that now come to Old Trafford believe that a result of some form can be gained. If a team sits back deep and invites us on, we currently have no idea how to break them down. Many times I’ve sat there this season thinking that we couldn’t score if we played all night. It’s becoming all too common and is a feeling shared by a lot of those sat around me.

Look at some of the games we’ve drawn at Old Trafford this season that we wouldn’t have in yesteryear. Stoke, Burnley, West Ham, Hull, Bournemouth, and West Brom. Even Everton. Seven points from a potential 21. Under Sir Alex’s reign I would’ve expected United to gather a MINIMUM of 18-19 points from these games at Old Trafford. This doesn’t even account for only having gained two points against City, Arsenal and Liverpool at home – although tougher, another set of games you’d like to think that we’d raise our game for and hopefully pull at least six points from at home.

Now yes, I admit there is an ‘arrogance’ to my comments and assumptions that will anger some opposing fans (whilst at the same time probably pleasing them at how far we seem to have fallen), but that arrogance along with the belief that we had was a huge factor to our home form. That same form was the building blocks of our success. In the good old SAF years we knew that if we were losing at 70-80 mins (and generally regardless of the score line) United still had it in them to win the game. And more often than not you’d be a fool to bet against it. But that belief and arrogance just seems to have gone, now replaced by panic and a form of attacking football that reeks of desperation at times.

Maybe if we could finish our dinner in front of goal and put our chances away it would be a slightly different story, but it isn’t, and we are the only ones to blame for our current woes in the league. So let’s not try blaming decisions, injuries, officials, the post, Luke Shaw, conspiracies, the alignment of the sun and the moon, or any other bullsh!t. I do think that eventually Jose will get it right, but the Old Trafford fortress will need to be rebuilt in order for him to do so.
Al (arrogantly expecting us to be turned by Chelsea on Sunday) Williams

Woaaaah Jimmy, Jimmy
After reading Rob Conlon’s article I was trying to write a long email about my undying love for Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and what he meant as a player and a character, but I’ll just say this:

Forget your Messis, Bergkamps, Ronaldos and Rivaldos, Jimmy scored the best hat-trick of the modern era, with the third goal being all the sweeter because Chelsea fans used to groan pretty much every time he went to shoot with his left. The celebration is the icing on the cake.

Ollie, London, (between Jimmy, Didier, Anelka and Costa, give me a sulky striker any day)

Heeeeeer’s Fat Man Scouse; he hates us
‘I like F365 because of its sense of decency and willingness to take a stand for good causes’ – MN Aditya

Strange comment that, considering that this is a football website, why do F365 take a stand on ‘good’ causes?

Simply for reputation points MN Aditya.

F365 seem to think that it is their place to take the moral high ground on all issues pertaining to society. Like they have a role to play in the decency of our national interest and heritage.

Well, they’re wrong.

All this does is score them reputation points amongst all the bleeding heart liberal snowflakes.

I sent in an article last week (that wasn’t published of course) saying that taking the moral high ground on issues that don’t concern you is ultimately self-serving. All the faux-outrage and vicarious offence taken on behalf of whatever minority that is in fashion is simply self-serving, egotistical nonsense.

F365 like to make you think that they care, but they don’t. How does writing an article help? It doesn’t, it’s just to show how thoughtful and caring F365 are in order to boost their moral standing and that somehow, they are right regardless.

Storey and Nicholson are the main perpetrators of this. I can’t think of any article they’ve written recently that didn’t have some aura of smug self-satisfaction about it. It’s really vomit-inducing and I would just love to see them fall on their sword.

Think about this for a second, F365 standing up for the minority is no different to my ripostes. There is absolutely no need for it, so whenever F365 disappear up their own arse, I will always counter with the opposing viewpoint.

Fright out the zeitgeist.
Fat Man Scouse, EFC