StevieH

What City fan doing here in this Thread ?? Thought it is United fans only thread ? I would not go into City or other football thread or make a post there. Just my two baht worth.

if this thread were just a united fans only posting thread i'd be marketing the reading of it as a cure for insomnia.

zola and ince also linked with the vacancy today.

massive game tomorrow night now. we need to come back from that shambles against saints on saturday, moyes desperately needs a win to bounce back and silence the whispering campaign that seems to be gathering a bit of momentum against him. if we can beat them there then we do ourselves a solid and push mr giant eyes further out over the thin ice.

so expect two strong teams, even though it is the league cup. i don't expect us to win at old trafford, particularly if van persie is back fit, but then that little shit suarez is back so who knows what might happen? he's bound to do something mad one way or the other.

I'm disappointed for him, but I guess when you are that mad and your employees a bunch of premier league egos, it's going to end badly.

I understand West Ham fans having a fondness for him but the guys is a prize pillock. That business of him standing on the pitch gesturing with the Sunderland fans was embarrassing. Cringeworthy intact. I think he thought he was being clever.

Just a very good retired footballer thats a total imbecile

i never realised until yesterday that he was never capped by italy. so not actually that good a footballer really.

What I saw of Lukaku yesterday, I can only say again......why?

Fernando is Abro's love child. It's the only plausible explanation.

i thought that was shevchenko?

You guys are getting way too worked up about this. Calm down and grow up a bit.

indeed, don't get the big deal about this. you buy a pair of shoes in a shop and they try to hawk you the overpriced polish, scotchgard and whatnot - you just say 'no thanks'. same goes here, a few clicks of the mouse and you've opted out of the stuff you don't want. can't blame a company trying to make money for being a wee bit pushy, and it isn't like they are 'hidden' extras - you know that they exist. all you have to do is say 'no thanks'.

I think his antics at the weekend sealed his fate. What did he think he was doing?

being 'wacky' and 'a character' and 'a breath of fresh air' and all those other terms the sycophantic british media likes to throw at nasty, self-obsessed <deleted> who give them easy copy. he's a poundstretcher mourinho with added right-wingedness.

It can't be easy dealing with a bunch of lazy overpaid prima donnas who want to keep their easy lifestyle going. Modern football has become a joke, the sooner it implodes the better,.

but plenty of other managers do it? it's part of the job.

i just get the feeling di canio, much like mourinho, manages for his own personal glorification. he was a self-centred egotistical prick as a player and just seems to have carried that on into his management style.

My tedius prattle your the ones who keep prattling on about 4th and i'm just bringing it too peoples attention

you do sound daft with this though alfie. liverpool fans have forgotten more about european cup competition and qualification than spurs fans will ever know. so us wanting to get back into a competition we've won five times and associate with some of the best nights in the club's history is hardly surprising is it?

kompany makes a massive difference to city.

united without ferguson, giggs and scholes just don't look like the scary prospect they always did. and their manager has absolutely no idea how to change a match other than lobbing fellaini further forward.

thought webb had one of his better games to be honest, didn't make the game so 'look at me' as he often does.

sacked. good riddance to a horrible self-obsessed nurk.

Paolo Di Canio was sacked by Sunderland on Sunday night after festering resentments among his players came to a head at an ill-tempered training-ground meeting on Sunday morning.

Di Canio, whose team had taken only one point from the season's opening five league fixtures, called the meeting to analyse the previous day's 3-0 defeat at West Bromwich Albion. When the manager criticised his players, he was answered back forcefully, with Lee Cattermole, the midfielder he stripped of the captaincy, believed to have told him the squad had lost faith in his controversial methods.

When details of the row were relayed to Ellis Short, Sunderland's owner, Di Canio's time was up. The Italian, noted for scathing public deconstructions of players, has gone less than six months after succeeding Martin O'Neill and after only 13 matches.

It is not thought that Short has a replacement lined up but considerable speculation surrounds the availability of Roberto Di Matteo and Gus Poyet.

"Sunderland AFC confirms that it has parted company with head coach Paolo Di Canio this evening," read a club statement. "Kevin Ball will take charge of the squad ahead of Tuesday night's Capital One Cup game against Peterborough and an announcement will be made in due course regarding a permanent successor. The club would like to place on record its thanks to Paolo and his staff and wishes them well for the future."

Ball, the youth team coach, and an abrasive former Sunderland midfielder of the type Di Canio urgently required, is not likely to be in post for long. Short is expected to move swiftly, with Di Matteo, the former West Bromwich Albion and Chelsea manager, and Poyet, until recently in charge of Brighton, among the favourites. Roberto Mancini, out of work after leaving Manchester City, has previously expressed interest in the job but would probably be beyond Sunderland's budget. Meanwhile Steve McClaren, currently helping Harry Redknapp coach Queens Park Rangers, ranks as an outsider.

Di Canio can count himself unlucky after being asked to incorporate 14 summer signings made by Roberto De Fanti, the club's director of football. Of those recruits 13 were foreign and only five had previous Premier League experience.

Their failure to communicate properly forfeited a series of goals – and points – at set pieces, with the former Swindon manager's willingness to highlight players' errors in public drawing widespread criticism.

Di Canio was adamant that, given time, his bold attacking game plans – 4-2-4 was the favoured formation – would pay dividends and his strict new disciplinary regime would transform Sunderland's fortunes.

Short disagreed but how the Italian must rue his board's failure to bow to repeated requests to sign Tom Huddlestone from Tottenham last month. Instead the powerful midfielder is shining at Hull.

Di Canio's successor faces a considerable challenge as he endeavours to repair shattered morale and steer Sunderland clear of relegation waters.

rooney wasn't leaving that pitch without scoring today. impressive determination from the joe pesci-alike. but united were so, so poor - the only lad who looked like he wanted to win was the lad who wanted to leave this summer. city looked different gravy in every position and in terms of depth too.

moyes isn't going to make the six years of his contract.

Moyes is out of his depth. Had no response at all.

City playing really well here. Kompany owning Rooney. Second goal was huge, Moyes doesn't know how to change this.

glad you enjoyed it carmine, i bloody didn't. worst we've played since hodgson that, absolutely diabolical. southampton played well and credit to them but we didn't half play into their hands.

four centrebacks thing didn't work. we were way too deep. gerrard was a passenger. mignolet is a great shotstopper but his distribution, particularly under pressure, needs a lot of work. there was no width right from the off - not surprising with two career centrebacks at fullback - and so we just had no options when trying to attack saints.

very few positives out of that. none, in fact. and as you say, good time for us to have suarez back available. brendan needs to answer a few questions after that mess.

A stoke-like back four from us today. What a strange lineup. Hope it works!

I know I made my point a few weeks back in a manner not well received, but seriously cannot understand bringing in Eto and loaning lukaku. He might be 20 singlepot but he is physically prime and proved in an average team he is a great striker. I would have thought he'd have been the drogba understudy ready to take the leading role. As an opposition fan I'm glad he did get loaned again, but I guess we will see it is early days.

yep. I have reservations about the Lukaku loan like everybody else seems to.

Jose obviously thinks Eto'o can still do the business for this season.

As regards Willian. From what I saw last night, a player with ability above the ordinary. Same with Hazard. And he has clearly not given up on Torres.

If Mourhino can get this lot motoring it will be fantastic stuff.

The 'ease' in which Lukaku allowed himself to be loaned out for a season, suggests to me that he didn't mind leaving Chelsea one bit and I wonder why? I hope he does well, I think he will and I wouldn't then be surprised to hear him ask for a permanent move. Being fourth choice for Mourinho, behind the three centre forwards that Chelsea have, can't make him feel very good.

world cup next year and he needs to make sure of his place in the belgium squad, which means playing.

don't think ba has become a bad striker overnight. if chelsea made chances he'd still stick a fair percentage of them away. but then they'd make more chances with mata in the side.

mourinho basically wants his drogba back doesn't he. which makes the loaning out of lukaku all the weirder.

Probably making these bizarre decisions so that if they somehow pay off he can bestow the title of "true footballing genius" on himself.

Put bluntly, its absolutely absurd not having those two playing.

Exactly Carmine. You took the words out of my mouth. He has to do it his "special" way or it won't be good enough. God forbid he would win with the same players (or fail) that Rafa had. The extent of his ego is harming his ability as a manager. Same thing in evidence at Real Madrid despite some of the successes he had there.

i can't think of any other manager who would drop iker casillas to make a point about who is the boss. that's not really what you call great man-management skills is it?

don't think ba has become a bad striker overnight. if chelsea made chances he'd still stick a fair percentage of them away. but then they'd make more chances with mata in the side.

mourinho basically wants his drogba back doesn't he. which makes the loaning out of lukaku all the weirder.

Probably making these bizarre decisions so that if they somehow pay off he can bestow the title of "true footballing genius" on himself.

Put bluntly, its absolutely absurd not having those two playing.

yeah i think there's a big element of that. i do not need chelsea's player of the year and chief assist-maker, for i am mourinho.

they should still have too much for most teams in the division but it could be that his arrogance will prevent them from challenging for the title. which would be funny. though i doubt comrade abramovich would see it that way.

don't think ba has become a bad striker overnight. if chelsea made chances he'd still stick a fair percentage of them away. but then they'd make more chances with mata in the side.

mourinho basically wants his drogba back doesn't he. which makes the loaning out of lukaku all the weirder.

Not saying he didn't do well and it re- established him as a top manager, but it was all too ugly...for the first time I felt that this isn't the club I love..not all his fault..but we all know the history..after the Middlesbrough game..things changed..but he wanted the job full time, never acceptable.

don't think any of it was his fault to be honest mate, he was just a bloke doing a job. that a certain percentage of chelsea fans behaved like total morons wasn't his doing. the club was to blame too for that ridiculous 'interim manager' title.

Any news on the extent of coutinho's injury? Think we would have won if stayed on the park this morning.

out until the end of <deleted> october. our luck with injuries so far this season has already been shocking.

at least suarez is back available next week. so that's something. question is who to play against saints at the weekend? perhaps young alberto in as a straight swap for coutinho.

Comment from my mate who went to the basle match last night..

Eto not the man up front and mourinho needs to change things quickly!!

Were it Wenger, Moyes, Rafa or any number of other managers, they would be getting a boatload of grief at the state of Chelsea's strike force and the decisions involving Mata and Lukaku. Mourinho gets a pass from the withering criticism the others would receive...at least for the moment. But if things continue to look shaky the press will turn on him with a vengeance.

I agree,been a Chelsea fan for 40 years, use to be a Stamford bridge regular in my teens..not much joy back then, so appreciate where the club is now,but I wasn't pleased with Mou coming back..he needed to come back so that we can all get over him..

Dislike Rafa but appreciate that he was treated badly, but he shouldn't have taken the job...

shouldn't have taken the job? he got another european trophy on his CV and got the napoli job on the back of it. i'd say he came out of it alright really.