What could of been

[Fletch]

I have finally accepted, and I didn't sleep last night because of this going round in my head, that the night when we failed to beat Villareal in the CL qualifiers was the turning point for us in terms of becoming a top 4 club.

Fair play to Spurs for a superb performance in the San Siro and despite being gutted by Pienaars departure, you cant really blame the lad, he wanted to play football on nights like that, and so would I.

So, in my opinion we had a second chance and we built a squad, the culmination being the FA Cup Final, once more we were again on the edge of creating something but down to poor players and shockingly bad tactics we failed to perform on the day.

I truly believe if you gave Moyes £100m now then we would still be all over the place, Ive watched some decent games but frustrated even more by negative play and the wrong players in the wrong positons etc.

Ive accepted what could have been, we failed miserably in europe and thats us done.

Sorry

 

[Great Dane]

I have finally accepted, and I didn't sleep last night because of this going round in my head, that the night when we failed to beat Villareal in the CL qualifiers was the turning point for us in terms of becoming a top 4 club.

Fair play to Spurs for a superb performance in the San Siro and despite being gutted by Pienaars departure, you cant really blame the lad, he wanted to play football on nights like that, and so would I.

So, in my opinion we had a second chance and we built a squad, the culmination being the FA Cup Final, once more we were again on the edge of creating something but down to poor players and shockingly bad tactics we failed to perform on the day.

I truly believe if you gave Moyes £100m now then we would still be all over the place, Ive watched some decent games but frustrated even more by negative play and the wrong players in the wrong positons etc.

Ive accepted what could have been, we failed miserably in europe and thats us done.

Sorry

I think you're right. I just want to see some major changes - I have come to a point where I just don't care anymore whether Moyes stays or goes, if forced to choose then please go David you're time is up.

Somehow people think that in order to survive we need to be able to spend spend sped, however a team like Spurs have not really spent that much, the money for the sale of Berbatov, Keane and Carrick have more or less gotten them the squad they have now. Yes some of them were bought for big money, but only Modric can really be counted as a big fee.

I have suggested getting rid of most of the squad for a suitable price. Build the team around players like Baines, Rodwell, Coleman, Barkley and Duffy. Finance new players by selling some of our "high-stock" players - Arteta, Heitinga, Fellaini, Bilayletdinov, even Jagielka and Cahill(while he still has a good price) - and go for players like Dorrans (WBA), McCarthy, Moses, McArthur (Wigan), and Lewis Holtby (Mainz) - all young playes that would jump at a chance to play for us. Almost all of our best purchases have been from so-called lesser teams.

 

[Tubey]

To be more specific, Collina disallowing a perfectly legal Ferguson goal was the turning point.

Definitely something dodgy going on from FIFA in regards to that.

 

[keverton]

I have finally accepted, and I didn't sleep last night because of this going round in my head, that the night when we failed to beat Villareal in the CL qualifiers was the turning point for us in terms of becoming a top 4 club.

Fair play to Spurs for a superb performance in the San Siro and despite being gutted by Pienaars departure, you cant really blame the lad, he wanted to play football on nights like that, and so would I.

So, in my opinion we had a second chance and we built a squad, the culmination being the FA Cup Final, once more we were again on the edge of creating something but down to poor players and shockingly bad tactics we failed to perform on the day.

I truly believe if you gave Moyes £100m now then we would still be all over the place, Ive watched some decent games but frustrated even more by negative play and the wrong players in the wrong positons etc.

Ive accepted what could have been, we failed miserably in europe and thats us done.

Sorry

I truly believe you give Moyes that money and he did not have to sell to buy we would be title contenders FACT. We truly are a fickle set of fans sometimes.

 

[Basil Fawlty]

To be more specific, Collina disallowing a perfectly legal Ferguson goal was the turning point.

Definitely something dodgy going on from FIFA in regards to that.

This. The way he was brought out of retirement for this one game and hardly gave us a decision. He's up there with Clive Thomas for me.

 

[Sid James]

I truly believe you give Moyes that money and he did not have to sell to buy we would be title contenders FACT. We truly are a fickle set of fans sometimes.

Couldn't agree with you more fella, give him the money and he could work wonders. Ok he gets it wrong sometimes but most managers do. When you get it wrong with a squad of our quality and experience it has a far more detrimental effect than if you get it wrong with a team over paid superstars

 

[RFUS]

This. The way he was brought out of retirement for this one game and hardly gave us a decision. He's up there with Clive Thomas for me.

Nothing went our way that day. I remember one of their players tripping Marcus Bent over, and he judged Bent to have fouled him.

Definitely something suspicious going on there, because even he didn't seem to know what he'd blown for for Fergie's goal. Maybe they just didn't want 5 English clubs in the competition and/or the English league strengthening further?

 

[Sid James]

Nothing went our way that day. I remember one of their players tripping Marcus Bent over, and he judged Bent to have fouled him.

Definitely something suspicious going on there, because even he didn't seem to know what he'd blown for for Fergie's goal. Maybe they just didn't want 5 English clubs in the competition and/or the English league strengthening further?

Ahh I see what you're saying .. so if there had only been 4 clubs and EUFA hadn't weakly given in and let the previous years winners back into the competition despite them not finishing 4th, we would have been ok.
Let me think who was the team allowed back in Hmmmmmmmmmm

 

[Robert Jarvis]

No prizes for the correct answer. Not sure about that Spanish game, for me it was more like that thrashing we got from Bucharest.

 

[kenada_blue]

I dont think it was just season...the seasons following we had changes to take the bull by the horns and push for a champions league spot up until last season.

The board never capitalised or pushed us to where we could be.

If we didnt choke in the 07..08 season when we pushed the rs for 4th untill we ran out of steam, we couldve got into the champs league and probably wouldve got more investment

 

[toffeebhoy]

yeah that night seems so so long ago now..................the "kick on" should have been in place prior to that game we didnt hav a good enough squad to compete at that level and honestly over the 2 legs i thought they were the better team ( didnt they get to the semis that yr)

i know there was horrible decisions durin the game includin the goal but even if that gal stood it wouldnt hav got us thru as we wer still behind on agg​

 

[keverton]

yeah that night seems so so long ago now..................the "kick on" should have been in place prior to that game we didnt hav a good enough squad to compete at that level and honestly over the 2 legs i thought they were the better team ( didnt they get to the semis that yr)

i know there was horrible decisions durin the game includin the goal but even if that gal stood it wouldnt hav got us thru as we wer still behind on agg​

you sure about that mate thought that goal made it 2-1 on the night to us making it 3-3 on agg would have taken us to extra time / pen and we had the momentum. sure arteta scored a free kick to make it 1-1 in that game then with the goal that never was we would have been 2-1 up.

 

[Brownie]

It's the wages. If you can't afford the wages, you can't afford the top players. And when the players you've signed from below become top players, you can't afford to keep them.

I agree with your main point tho, we have missed out on a few huge opportunities over the last decade.

 

[TippEverton]

As shockingly bad as Collina was the goal would only have got us extra time, it was the result and performance in the first leg that cost us badly, and just thinkin back to back to that game in Bucharest makes me feel ill.

 

[parkendmaster]

As shockingly bad as Collina was the goal would only have got us extra time, it was the result and performance in the first leg that cost us badly, and just thinkin back to back to that game in Bucharest makes me feel ill.

I agree with this. There are a lot of ifs and buts in football (if Dunc's goal had stood would Villareal have scored their second in injury time) but there's no pointing dwelling on them, as we effectively screwed up ourselves with one bad and one embarrasing performance that season.