Ronnie Whelan

So you're the mythical man my wife's friends talk about (my wife is very satisfied with her lot) Jimmy!

Arsenal can win the league this year, but so can we. I wouldn't rule them out. The next two games are crucial. Has to be 6 points. Build momentum going into the Mancs and Arsenal. Think Palace are missing quite a few for the weekend, so what might have been an awkward one simply has to be a routine three points. Sheffield are shite but tonight shows that if you're not on it, you can fuck up. Think we have had the hardest start to the season so that should stand to us in the second half of the season.

Actually spat my tea out reading that! We laugh at Ole but the fucker was a genius. He knew how to keep the media onside through turbulent times. I mean being mates with Ferdinand nd Neville worked for him, but regardless he knew how to keep them on board, give the fans their Manc soundbites and keep the players' egos massaged.

Kelleher is potentially very good, but I thought he was really poor on Sunday. I think part of it is a lack of game time and some part of it is a lack of belief in himself - big differnce being seen as the boss number two and then having to deal with the pressure of stepping into Ali's shoes in a title race season. I actually have sympathy for him in that sense because every little thing he does wrong is exaggerated "Ali would never do that" etc. A few months ago, it was "Queef is boss" but now the knives are sharpened because every game could decide a title. My mate was a brilliant goalie. He reckons he has the tools to be really good, but he needs game time to develop. Part of that is having a shit game and dealing with that. We will learn a lot about him in the next two games - he has the tools and the raw talent but has he got he cajones? Sheffield United are shite but they will have seen that he was bullied in the box against Fulham. Let's see how he deals with their grocks before it's an issue and Carra and his great mate Manc Nev turn it into an even bigger issue before Palace and then even the non-religious are lighting candles for Ali's return shitting it about us playing lower mid table standard dross like United, let alone Arsenal. If he comes through it, we can really say he is potentially more than a boss number two.

Hughes might be fourth to be fair. Hyypia was brilliant. I don't know would he look even more brilliant beside better players and to be fair to Matip, he has played with exceptional players and in an exceptional team which Sami didn't. Hard one to call that. Still Matip needs to get a bit of love. Phenomenal player for us.

Hopefully Newcastle don't come third. If we got to the final in Dublin and played them (obviously it will be fucking Seville), they would bring huge numbers and despite their reputation, they can be very twattish.

Love Big Bird. An absolutely brilliant player for us. If he stays fit and Virgil continues to look his old self, we have a real chance of winning the league. Hansen, Lawro and Virgil are the three best I've seen for us, but Joel is possibly fourth.

Michelle vs Anubis with his whip. Fuck Fury vs Usyk, that's the pay per view I want.

They hate the Irish every bit as much. Maybe the Irish and West Indians have got taken off top spot by the "Pakis" (anyone brown is a Paki or anyone who is muslim, to these fucking knobheads) recently, but middle England's hatred of the Irish comes out in how they treat people from Liverpool. You can have a pop at a Scouser because we're fair game. Anyhow, the Dublin scals are fucking nuts. Love Dublin but it's a proper mad place in parts. Step away from the tourist core and it's seriously tough. Obviously mad wealth there too. Ended up drinking around the Liberties with the wife last time we were there. The Kinahans are from around that area. The people were great and definitely 60-65% were Reds and I personally had a great time, but got the vibe that if you acted the gobshite, you would be dealt with pretty fast. A bit like a rough bar in Liverpool to be fair. Still much preferred it to Temple Bar which was packed with Cockney 'ard men and Yank lads acting like they had done five tours in Benghazi. Hope those poor people stabbed are okay and thinking of the poor migrants who are in for a very rough night. Also, the police, firemen and nurses who have enough to be dealing with.

It was a golden age. With Moyes, you wanted to enjoy it, but you felt that once the experiment failed and they got an a list manager like Van Gaal or Mourinho, they would be back pretty fast - that's what I thought back then anyway. I used to just love how when they went on a little run, Ole would get super cocky. Imagine not wanting to park in Ferguson's parking spot. If I was a world class player and I heard that, I'd piss myself. It only impressed the likes of Martin Tyler and a sad part of their fanbase. Well maybe media types who love a good soundbite. You know what maybe Ole was on to something because that shite brought him a bit of goodwill! Ole seemed like he wanted to be loved by his players. It works if you're a brilliant manager like Jurgen. Hell even a decent enough manager like Dyche was liked at Burnley and will get a similar spirit at the Blueshite. Having said that, at least Ole seemed like a team guy and probably defended the spineless gang of knobheads a little too much. Ten Haag is the opposite. He's spineless and never at fault. Jurgen takes responsibility. Pep does too at times and he's an egotistocal knobhead, as does other greats like Ancelloti. This guy thinks he's above that. McKenna looks like a real prospect, but in fairness, would you want him to replace Jurgen? Us and them are the two mega clubs in the league and it's a huge step up from Ipswich to suddenly dealing with what is required to manage them. I mean Stevie at one point was mooted as a possible Jurgen replacement and I was scared shitless at him coming here with just Rangers on his cv. I wanted to see him do it at a very big club in England like a Villa and he failed the audition. By the way, Rangers and Celtic are huge clubs, it's more the difference in the leagues than a slight on them.

You know what Joey, I knew he was backed heavily, but didn't realise it was that much. Having said that, he was a legendary manager and even if he was on the way down, imagine replacing someone like him with Ole. It's actually laughable that Ole got the gig off the back of an amazing two or three months and then for the few years he was there, just when they were getting ready to pull the trigger, he would somehow survive off the back of ramdom results like beating City away. Like a little mouse in an open field somehow surviving the bombs dropping from the sky. Ten Haag is actually more destructive to them than Ole. I mean Ole was a complete clown, but at least he seemed like he tried to foster team spirit. This gobshite is a complete twat who takes no responsibility for his own failings. I wager the spirit there is as toxic as it's ever been.

Perhaps Em lad you could be right. The time for Mourinho to go there was 2013. Having said that, even if Mourinho was in decline, he was still an incredible manager who had won it all. Imagine going from him to Ole. The equivalent of us going from Jurgen to Jamie Carragher.

I think the Blueshite could do a number on them. Dyche knows how to set up a side and that's something Ten Haag seems mediocre at doing. Like the Blueshite set up well at Anfield. We were poor, but credit to them, they played the right game goven the hihe gap in quality.

The thing about them is that a big portion of their fanbase are deluded and genuinely believe they are one or two signings away from being contenders. They contstantly make Hollywood signings like Schweinsteiger or Casemiro (two great players in their day) rather than trying to build something like what Jurgen does. They would probably look their noses up at signing Dom from Leipzig and yet he is now arguably the player of the year so far and destined imo to reach De Bruyne levels. I remember the 70s and 80s, but I was never naive enough to think we would win a title outside of maybe three seasons over the thirty year drought. I always felt we had some brilliant players, but for one reason or another, we lacked what Ferguson, Wenger or Mourinho teams had in abundance. From the late 90s on it was penny pinching rather than the early 90s approach of breaking transfer records on shite that fucked us up. With them, they just spend spend spend on utter crap or very good players that become crap because the set up is all wrong. I am convinced Jose could have got them to challenging us and City over the past few years if they were a bit more humble. He's a giant sized cunt but he's a winner and certainly back then he had the balls to manage a mega club. They despised him as a fan base, bought into the "he's toxic" shite coming from the players and he was sent on his merry way. Funny how alpha male footballers he managed at Porto, Chelsea, Inter and Real when he was elite seemed to love him and these rent for a night knobheads couldn't work under him. Ten Haag seems an arsehole. A guy like him lacks the charisma that the great managers have. He'll never turn the tide. Hopefully they don't get someone like emery but again they would never give him time or have the patience to see what he could do. The likes of Neville is a big problem and he doesn't seem to have the insight to realise it.

RIP Bill. Bill was one of those great blues. There are still a lot of them, but less and less by the day. Remember him telling the story about how Everton joy of making the Cup Final turned to heartache when word filtered out about what was unfolding in Sheffield as Evertonians were worried about family members and friends. Heard him saying the toughest of Bluenoses were breaking down. Captured what the rivalry was back then and showed the kind of man that Bill was. He dreamt of Everton returning to competing for titles and cups. The football landscape changed and he and others made bad footballing decisions. However, he loved that club and those knobheads that gave him abuse should be ashamed of themselves. Rest in peace to a great human being.

I reckon Maguire would do well there. He's a decent enough defender if you set him up in a system that suits him. The problem for him at the Mancs is that Ten Haag's syle is the one that highlights his weaknesses the most and the expectations of playing for one of the biggest clubs in the world regularly turns him into a laughing stock because there isn't any hiding place from mistakes like at most clubs. He goes to West Ham and he'll be used to his strengths I reckon.

Nauseating commentary here. Having said that note for middle England how Johhny Foreigner uses VAR. I never really liked the Barcodes but can see them getting into the holy trinity of cunts in the coming years currently being taken up by City, United and Chelsea. Horrible set up. Sad to see Tonali and Donnaruma not playing for one of the great Italian clubs.

This 100 percent and only thought of it last night. We're probably the most supported club in Dublin with them a close second. The problem won't be the Irish Mancs but the Manc Mancs or the Cockney Mancs. Moscow in 2008 would have been a red light game if we got to the final but the Russian police etc wouldn't have let it kick off imo. Dublin would be different. Getting the same ferries etc - it would kick off big style and we have a few knobheads truth being told who will probably pick on innocent Mancs. Dublin will be crazy anyway but the Irish are great people and we have that link with them. Hopefully if we make the final, we get a sound German team that we can party with.

For me, Nev and Pat Jennings are two of the greatest keepers of all time and Elisha Scott was a pre-war giant of the game. Incredibly hard to pick between Nev and Pat Jennings, but I'm giving it to Jennings, who may be the greatest keeper of all time (both in top 5 imo).

Great post. You have me regretting not having Rushy in my top 5. Again, like Mo, he was a genuinely world class player and an incredible ambassador for the club. Think I still have Suarez in ahead of them both and Keegan.

Great post. My dad is nearly 93 and loves Stig's threads on greatest teams. He's a real old school football man (old school Bluenose) and he always talks about Billy Liddell as one of the greatest players he saw. With any of the teams, a lot of the players he wanted in were from the 40s, 50s and 60s but I guess that makes sense. The great players become greater as the years go by. For my money and only because I really remember from the 70s on, Kenny Souness Barnes Stevie Suarez Mo has made a bigger impression on the club than Suarez and would be in at 6, but Suarez was the more talented player imo and for a period was on the level of Messi and Ronaldo.

Feel like an Everton wife right now! Mudface and Carvalho ready for a riot

I'll probably get a tlw barring order against me, but I don't get the Harry Kane hate. Brilliant player. Brilliant pro. Never seems to do any knobhead shit off the pitch and is all about being the best he can be. I couldn't give a fuck about Ingerlund but I never disliked him. Now, I feel I can enjoy him like you might any top player that doesn't directly impact you.

This Fletch guy is a real Manc cheerleader isn't he.

The blonde one on the right is a bit tasty