3 games spare and CL secured. Well done Mourinho

Yay we achieved the bare minimum and qualified for the CL after the amount we spend every summer but still barely looking like a team...

Let's not start celebrating getting top 4 these days, we aren't Arsenal, and any manager who fails to qualify for the CL deserves to be sacked on the spot. Last season the only thing that saved Mourinho was winning the Europa League.
 
Jesus, do some of you think a flavour of the month manager would create some sort of goal-fest-attacking-dynasty with our players?

How can people not see that Jose is doing well and we are progressing. We've got glaring issues with the squad that will be addressed in the summer that will create balance. Like having full backs.
 
yeh but i guess i dont feel it as an accomplishment. Its the bare minimum

I'll correct you, it was and should be the bare minimum. But we've had a lot of years of that not being the case. Mourinho has taken us forward in a big way from the massive decline under Moyes and LVG
 
Damn straight. I'm ecstatic.

Some people forgetting that we don't have SAF the genius any more and hitting the top spots is no guarantee especially against a couple of cash rich billionaires! We've comfortably beaten last years Champions who looked unbeatable! And we have a chance to stick a nail in the coffin at the FA Cup final.

You serious?
 
Yep, well done.
Those progressive, modern managers in charge of better sides below us seem to be in a sudden dog fight for top 4 so we should appreciate this.
We can't move the goalposts that much
 
Are we arsenal? its something we should be doing every year. I hope Jose doesnt have this mentality thta he's accomplished anything today other than 3 more points
And it's something we haven't been doing every year.
 
I'm happy ok the football hasn't been great at times but he's brought us from 6th place and the Europa League last season to probably 2nd place and possibly an FA Cup. A proper title challenge and a good run in the CL next season is an absolute must though.
 
Yay we achieved the bare minimum and qualified for the CL after the amount we spend every summer but still barely looking like a team...

Let's not start celebrating getting top 4 these days, we aren't Arsenal, and any manager who fails to qualify for the CL deserves to be sacked on the spot. Last season the only thing that saved Mourinho was winning the Europa League.

And the fact Mourinho is one of the greatest managers of all time. You literally wouldn't be fit to be a toilet for him to drop a massive turd on you.

Some people have no understanding of the challenges in football and managing mentality.

There has been a lot of change, a lot of instability and Mourinho is bringing that stability and building foundations.
 
Since Fergie left, our league positions have been 7th, 4th, 5th and 6th. Only this year we have comfortably come top 4 and most probably 2nd. City had an exceptional season and even our best teams would have struggled to catch up with them. So yeah I'm happy with 2nd.
 
Hmm... 16 points behind the leader, knocked out by Sevilla, playing terrible most of the season. No?
 
Jesus, do some of you think a flavour of the month manager would create some sort of goal-fest-attacking-dynasty with our players?

How can people not see that Jose is doing well and we are progressing. We've got glaring issues with the squad that will be addressed in the summer that will create balance. Like having full backs.

No but we also don' think we should be saying "wow incredible achievement" for this. Yes he is doing well and we are progressing if you look at the big picture but at a very, very slow rate. Also, progress does not guarantee anything. LVG second season was worst than his first and we thought we progressed in the first from Moyes.
 
I'll correct you, it was and should be the bare minimum. But we've had a lot of years of that not being the case. Mourinho has taken us forward in a big way from the massive decline under Moyes and LVG
I agree im a massive JM fan. But to say well done JM for finishing in the top 4 in your second season.... nah sorry i havent reached that pittyful level yet.
 
No but we also don' think we should be saying "wow incredible achievement" for this. Yes he is doing well and we are progressing if you look at the big picture but at a very, very slow rate. Also, progress does not guarantee anything. LVG second season was worst than his first and we thought we progressed in the first from Moyes.
Its a good thing nobody is saying that then.
 
No but we also don' think we should be saying "wow incredible achievement" for this. Yes he is doing well and we are progressing if you look at the big picture but at a very, very slow rate. Also, progress does not guarantee anything. LVG second season was worst than his first and we thought we progressed in the first from Moyes.

Who said it was an incredible achievement?

It's just a good thing to happen so nothing wrong with showing a little bit of respect to it which is what the OP actually says.

Doesn't always have to be moaning and gloomy you know
 
Our most comfortable season in top 4 post SAF. We were in no danger for dropping outside it at all. Now secure second and Fa Cup.
 
No but we also don' think we should be saying "wow incredible achievement" for this. Yes he is doing well and we are progressing if you look at the big picture but at a very, very slow rate. Also, progress does not guarantee anything. LVG second season was worst than his first and we thought we progressed in the first from Moyes.

Yeah, I'm not condoning the celebrative fest, as such. But I don't see a reason to criticise him when we are making progress. With regards to the point you make on progress, I disagree. In my view it's obvious that he's making this team more resilient, fixing the appalling mentality the team had overall. Mind, that work is ongoing.
 
And the fact Mourinho is one of the greatest managers of all time. You literally wouldn't be fit to be a toilet for him to drop a massive turd on you.

Some people have no understanding of the challenges in football and managing mentality.

There has been a lot of change, a lot of instability and Mourinho is bringing that stability and building foundations.
No need for personal insults.

I agree that there’s been progress, but I’d say top 4 is the minimum expectation. We shouldn’t be celebrating that.

I agree im a massive JM fan. But to say well done JM for finishing in the top 4 in your second season.... nah sorry i havent reached that pittyful level yet.
:lol:
 
And the fact Mourinho is one of the greatest managers of all time. You literally wouldn't be fit to be a toilet for him to drop a massive turd on you.

Some people have no understanding of the challenges in football and managing mentality.

There has been a lot of change, a lot of instability and Mourinho is bringing that stability and building foundations.
:lol: Sorry did I insult you personally or something?

This season, like last season, we're basically doing the bare minimum of what is to be expected. It isn't "great management" or a tremendous achievement or anything like that. We're Manchester United, we have the spending power that only City can match, and we have outspent everyone but City consistently over the last 5 years. We flopped massively under Moyes and Van Gaal, so if you want to use them as the barometer for every other manager's achievements, then go ahead.

Mourinho's been here for 2 full seasons. He's achieved the minimum and no more after those 2 seasons, considering the players he has at his disposal. Flopped massively in the league last season and flopped massively in the Champions League this season. I don't even blame the lack of winning the CL or really competing for the title. Not everyone can win everything all the time. It's the constant shit performances, and until those change, then I won't be fully happy with having Mourinho as the manager. City set records in the league by playing great attacking football. Liverpool are set to be in a Champions League final, playing attacking football and scoring boatloads of goals. We're in an FA Cup final, sure, but we play like trash every single week and grind out results. That doesn't deserve that much credit, especially, when you ultimately don't succeed in your main goals anyway.
 
Surely finishing second is an improvement over what we've had these past five years. A bit early for the season review but we've played well in flashes, won some big games, hugely improved on the consistency, signed some fantastic players in:

Lukaku (Morata who? Remember this place shitting itself about signing the wrong striker in December?),
Sanchez (We signed Alexis sanchez after being terrified about losing him to City).

We kept De Gea for another year who's probably the world's best GK. Other than City having a ridiculously good year, we're on course for a pretty good points total and could've won the title in another season. Just some finishing touches on the side via possibly a new CM and a pair of fullbacks, we should be able to take anyone on next season.
 
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That's good but at the start of the season the expectation was to fight for the league title.
Except nobody was expecting City to be like this, if they had been anywhere near human we would be fighting for the title. We would have won it in some years.
 
No need for personal insults.

I agree that there’s been progress, but I’d say top 4 is the minimum expectation. We shouldn’t be celebrating that.


:lol:
Absolutely.
 
If we do finish runners up and win the fa cup it can only be seen as really good progress. However if Liverpool win the CL and obviously ‘our city’ have won the PL it doesn’t feel like a season worth celebrating but it’s, imho the first serious steps forward that we have made since saf retired. Great job Jose.
 
Yeah, I'm not condoning the celebrative fest, as such. But I don't see a reason to criticise him when we are making progress. With regards to the point you make on progress, I disagree. In my view it's obvious that he's making this team more resilient, fixing the appalling mentality the team had overall. Mind, that work is ongoing.

Yeah that's good and I'm not saying it isn't happening but you need to realize a lot of managers are doing that. It's a bit of a race as to who does it faster.
 
Surely finishing second is an improvement over what we've had these past five years. A bit early for the season review but we've played well in flashes, won some big games, hugely improved on the consistency, signed some fantastic players in:

Lukaku (Morata who? Remember this place shitting itself about signing the wrong striker in December?),
Sanchez (We signed Alexis sanchez after being terrified about losing him to City).

We kept De Gea for another year who's probably the world's best GK. Other than City having a ridiculously good year, we're on course for a pretty good points total and could've won the title in another season. Just some finishing touches on the side via possibly a new CM and a pair of fullbacks, we should be able to take anyone on next season.
It's a good season on paper. Unfortunately, football isn't played on paper. Mourinho has made good signings and improved the squad massively, but it's still a case of grinding out results with absolutely no cohesive play whatsoever. We've looked like a group of individuals since day 1 under Mourinho, and there hasn't been any discernible improvement in play style from the day he became manager. We still look disjointed most of the time, slow, and only turn up in spurts when we suddenly need urgency because we're about to have some sort of embarrassing result. And they've done well at saving themselves for the most part this season tbf. But can't do it all the time, as we saw against Sevilla.
 
first and second page has that written all over
First and second page are filled with posts like yours!
CL isn't a given for us anymore, many fans on here constantly ran us down behind Liverpool and Spurs all season so its a bit hypocritical not to see second as some sort of achievement.
Hopefully this does become the norm but its been far from negligible achievement by us for a long time.
 
:lol: Sorry did I insult you personally or something?

This season, like last season, we're basically doing the bare minimum of what is to be expected. It isn't "great management" or a tremendous achievement or anything like that. We're Manchester United, we have the spending power that only City can match, and we have outspent everyone but City consistently over the last 5 years. We flopped massively under Moyes and Van Gaal, so if you want to use them as the barometer for every other manager's achievements, then go ahead.

Mourinho's been here for 2 full seasons. He's achieved the minimum and no more after those 2 seasons, considering the players he has at his disposal. Flopped massively in the league last season and flopped massively in the Champions League this season. I don't even blame the lack of winning the CL or really competing for the title. Not everyone can win everything all the time. It's the constant shit performances, and until those change, then I won't be fully happy with having Mourinho as the manager. City set records in the league by playing great attacking football. Liverpool are set to be in a Champions League final, playing attacking football and scoring boatloads of goals. We're in an FA Cup final, sure, but we play like trash every single week and grind out results. That doesn't deserve that much credit, especially, when you ultimately don't succeed in your main goals anyway.

Spot on. 100% agree.
 
Given City's ridiculous season, and that we actually matched them head-to-head second really was all we could have hoped for this year unfortunately, negative and defeatist though it sounds.

I'm by no means turning cartwheels over it but a solid CL finish, hopefully second and the FA Cup to boot, at least gives us a solid platform on which to build better football and a genuine title challenge next time.
 
Won’t be possible if City are as good next season as they have been this season.
Yeah, expecting to win the title is always unrealistic and if City repeat their season, then there will be a fair distance between the two. What has to come first is an improvement in play style and to just overall improve as a team all around. Not just by buying better players, but actually improve the players, look like a team that knows what it's doing and knows how to play together. Not just a starting 11 thrown on the pitch and asked to deal with the opponent. Improve as a team and then a by-product of that will be a better season. Might not win us the PL in the end, but definitely gives us a better shot at it.