Klaus wrote:
jones wrote:

He didn't score today either but bar the missed penalty he's been very good too imo.

He's a less impressive version of Giroud basically (and with a longer goal drought this season to boost). It's alright for a squaddie but considering who he is and who he plays for you'd expect a lot more. It's sad to see Atletico trying to build him up based on past merits from nearly a decade ago.

I watched both him and Giroud most of their games this season and I have to disagree here, he's way better for them than Giroud was for us (and I'm not forgetting Giroud's good form earlier this season). He's been in and out of the team for the first half of the season when Simeone was still looking for his best XI but ever since January he's been instrumental for them

He'll never return to the prodigy he was in his early Atlético or Liverpool days but just his pace and work rate alone make his game a lot more refined than Giroud's.

Savz wrote:

I'm lost for words when it comes to Simeone.

Atletico/Leicester, what utter triumphs these two teams are. Just when you think their luck is about to come to and end they keep at it and win.

Atletico are past the underdog stage now. They're a superb team.

Griezmann is going to be the next global football hero.

Ricky1985 wrote:
otfgoon wrote:

So what do we make of Pep's tenure at Bayern then? Pretty unspectacular in my opinion. Most impressive thing is how well he's managed to enforce his brand of football at another club.

He's a great coach and Bayern are a real sight to behold most of the time, but he couldn't beat the very best when it mattered and I suspect the same would have happened at Barcelona had he not has the best player that's ever played the game for 60 gmaes every season that he was there.

He's going to make City a serious team though, levels above what they are now. Whether he can go a step further with them than he has managed with Bayern probably depends on who they can sign relative to the Spanish giants.

Yeah, agree with that. I think we'll see some regular big wins for City next season, or once he stamps his authority. His brand of football is too ambitious/risky for the big games, needs to be more pragmatic. Playing 3 v 3 up against Messi, Suarez and Neymar in last season's CL was beyond bold, it was utter madness. 

Rummenigge has to be the most despicable cunt in world football

Not a single word of praise for the opposition (despite the explicit question by the reporter) and of course Bayern 100% deserved to go through. Classless doesn't come close to describe it

Diego Simeone = 2 Champions League finals in 5 years

Arsene Wenger = 1 Champions League final in 20 years

More ammo for wenger. Money not important.
Fuck pep btw..hop onto the next cashy cushy club.

Three doubles in three years, three losses in the CL to the eventual winners (hopefully) in the semis. He's developed a good dozen or so players for them into class players, hope he crashes at City obv but this revisionist talk about him every time he loses a game is a bit strange

I think any other manager would have been given a pat on the back if they'd done what Guardiola has done at Bayern. He was a bit unlucky that Heynckes had that unreal season right before he took over, but anyone who expected them to repeat that grand slam anytime soon had way too high expectations.

The biggest problem with Guardiola at Bayern has been political... which makes you wonder why they appointed him in the first place. Odds are the current dissidents within the club would have been just as vocal about him even if he had won them the Champions League.

Spot on Klaus, I see you're paying close attention to those Elite Guidelines (TM)

Heynckes is extremely overrated, lucky to have his best two years when he had half a foot in the coffin already but even then one of those seasons he managed the loser triple of finishing 2nd in every competition. Have a personal grudge against him too tbh, he turned my hometown club from a team that was ripping the whole league apart with guys like Okocha and Yeboah into relegation battlers in no time at all.

Their political issues with him have been since the beginning as he rightly didn't want to work with some of the hacks employed by them. There's also a good level of xenophobia involved, especially on the executive and supervisory levels of their company

Half a foot in the coffin? That's brutal

jones wrote:

Their political issues with him have been since the beginning as he rightly didn't want to work with some of the hacks employed by them. There's also a good level of xenophobia involved, especially on the executive and supervisory levels of their company

Yeah, exactly. Which, again, makes it strange that they wanted Guardiola of all people. You don't employ him and expect him to play 4-4-2 with a large clumsy centertank. You buy a manager like Guardiola because you buy into the football ideology he represents. Either someone screwed up badly, or it was the good old Bayern arrogance that got the better of them. "Even the most successful manager in the world wants to come here and be a part of the FC Bayern tradition!"

That's very likely what happened, their delusion and megalomania certainly knows no end. They wanted the best manager in the world but at the same time they were mad that the best manager in the world wasn't one of theirs.

jones wrote:

Three doubles in three years, three losses in the CL to the eventual winners (hopefully) in the semis. He's developed a good dozen or so players for them into class players, hope he crashes at City obv but this revisionist talk about him every time he loses a game is a bit strange

Just don't like this hopping on to top clubs with free resources. that's all. I am a fan of tiki taka and pep's football. And a sidenote mate, that losses to eventual winners is a wenger type excuse. Stay away from it. 
Also it seems more revisionist to say nobody expected them to repeat the successes of heynckes when they were overwhelming favorites in every match coming throughout the next season and with high quality additions to the squad. Football royalty has been "barca real and bayern" past few seasons.
Also think he'll blow away the PL competition at City. 

Is Diego Simone the best manager in the world or does he need to win one of la liga/CL this season before he is labelled that?

P.s; why do I have minus 15 ranking? 🙁

Simeone is hands down the best for me. Losing seminal players each year and still gutting all the top teams with a fraction of their budgets. That's different level.

Sicario wrote:

Is Diego Simone the best manager in the world  or does he need to win one of la liga/CL this season before he is labelled that?

His accomplishments in 13/14 are enough to get him there already, that he could very well go one step further this year is only cementing the fact further. Outstanding coach.