City v Spurs - CL QF 2nd Leg

Incredible game. Fair play to Tottenham and Pochettino, no signings for a couple of transfer windows... and still manage to beat a Man City side who under Pep have spent £600+ million on players in his time there. Unbelievable management.

Nearly as good as the miracle of Istanbul in 2005

That's why its the best competition in the World. I'd rather watch Champions league football than international football all day long.

Must admit I had a massive grin watching Pep getting all excited after Sterling scored the last minute winner.......

They lost. Just saying...

Whilst I agree Poch seemed the safer option on paper. He would have cost a ridiculous amount of money, and there is no guarantee a manager would do as well with another club. It almost feels as though Ole is now being written off, let's not forget where Utd were when he took over. Top 4 seemed impossible, whereas now there is a chance (although still doubtful). The Man Utd job is much bigger than Spurs, there is a lot more pressure.

Money shouldn't be a problem for a club like United. I'm not writing Ole off, but I wouldn't have given him the job in the first place and still wouldn't after seemingly picking up some decent results. You are right, The Man Utd job is much bigger than Spurs and there is a lot more pressure, but I don't think Ole is more likely to do better than Poch after his spell at Molde and failure at Cardiff.

No of course not but 1. United are happy to spend £50m on Fred, why shouldn't they happily pay £43m for a world-class, top five manager? and 2. I get the pressures are different at United but he's proven in the PL from my perspective and there is/was obviously no guarantee even Ole would continue the purple patch. 

Btw I'm not writing Ole off. I think the players performances have just regressed to the mean again. When Ole came in, the shackles were off and players were playing with smiles. Now, we're just seeing how bad that squad really is (which isn't his fault). He just needs help in the transfer market to reshape the imbalances that LVG/Jose left. 

As always Pirate, your knowledge of football is incredible. 

Firstly, on Telles et al - great player(s) but I rate Shaw highly and he's just signed a new long-term deal so LB is arguably the least of our worries. If we were looking into the market, north of the border Kieran Tierney looks like the real deal. 

RB is a decisive position given Young, Darmian and Valencia are the current options - the latter two leaving and, quite frankly, how Young is still donning United colours is beyond me. You mention Williams, who admittedly I don't know enough about, but we have Ethan Laird coming through at RB, as well as Tuanzebe and Fosu-Mensah who are currently out on loans to Villa and Fulham respectively. I'd throw the money at Palace for Wan-Bissaka though - he's proved this year he's an exceptional defensive full-back and his winger-by-trade upbringing gives me hope for his attacking potential long-term. 

Havertz would be a delight (likewise Henrichs). We need our own Eriksen tbh and should be scouring Europe (if we aren't already) for the next great playmaker. Havertz looks excellent, as does Bruno Fernandes and Steven Bergwijn (although more of a winger). 

Tonnes of talent in South America as you say, although that very much appears to be the stomping ground for Real Madrid and the Portguese trio but I do agree with you. 

Bottom line is United need a DOF in ASAP who can start putting together a philosophy and actually start making intelligent signings for the football club, as opposed to signing small, technically-gifted creators (LVG) only to rip up that model in exchange for 6-foot-plus brick sh*thouses (Jose). 

Greenwood and Garner look superb indeed, the latter in particular reminds me of a young Michael Carrick. 

Really hope United pull their fingers out and modernise sooner rather than later as we're massively behind the times in terms of recruitment and philosophies at present.