Gomez

No way is he walking out on 5 years of his deal Not sure what the point in sacking him now would be, rather than in the summer.

Atmosphere looks awesome Bricking it now.

I thought I was on to him, then he spawned his way to the quarter final

It's basically a 3 round cup competition now, anything can happen in that. The fact that they've got this far (and City and Arsenal haven't) should tell us that cup competitions don't always go as predicted. FFS, RFH spawned his way to a Europa League final beating Juve in the process.

Worth it just for the Flannagan / Barragan song

No, it just based on 10 years of seeing Moyes' Everton team and thinking DiMatteo hasn't really done much to warrant thinking the trophies he won at chelsea where to do with his acumen as opposed to the extravagantly expensive squad full of winners assembled by his predecessors. He was just parachuted in for the last 2.5 months of the season, and the subsequent season's performance pretty much confirms that. Don't get me wrong, I don't rate either of them as top level managers, and Di Matteo is young enough that he might go on to become a good manager, which Moyes never will. But what Moyes did at everton / Preston is better than what Di Matteo did at WBA / Milton Keynes. I'm not going to laud Di Matteo on the basis of 2.5 months at chelsea any more than I will dismiss Moyes' ability at mid-table teams because of 8 months out of his depth at man u. Di Matteo's league performances at chelsea suggests he was equally out of his depth and I am sure would have had the comedy with them we are having with man u now had they not reacted in November to sack him. But this is besides the point. Their fluke in 2012 was nothing to do with managerial acumen, therefore if it can happen to chelsea it can happen to man u. And it's not fear, it's just the preemptive gloating about how many Bayern are going to score. Lets just wait until it happens and then laugh shall we.

I heard an arsenal fan calling for Rafa last week. Think he's probably happy at Napoli

I disagree, for all of Moyes' failing this season, he is a better manager than Di Matteo. Moyes is not a sh*t manager, he is just not suited to the top end. And whilst chelsea probably did have a better team, there is the argument that chelsea weren't 8 months and £60m+ on from a team that won the league. The team and manager gap between chelsea and Barca back then, and man u and Bayern now, is comparable. I wish this was true. RFH crippled the club with his decisions and their impact. We lost Masch and Torres as a direct result. We lumbered the club with a wage bill that impacted on subsequent years. He moved us from a club that was 9 months and 1-2 players from a 2nd place finish, to a team that was nowhere near the CL, to the extent that we are still not quite back yet. If Moyes goes in the summer, and they get in a proper manager, they will be back in the top four no problem (we have to make sure it's not at our expense) they've lost not players and signed Mata (who is an exceptional talent - if used correctly) and Fellani (who's alright but not great, but he'll hardly cripple their finances) yes, they'll have to replace Vidic and maybe one or two other aging players, but the comparison would have been losing Rooney and Van Persie. I also don't see what Moyes is changing too quickly, in comparison to Souness. Souness had a huge squad churn, Moyes is just changing the style of play (and not by that much, they've always been a bit reliant on wingers and crosses) that's irrelevant if a new manager comes in. In order to do real damage, Moyes needs to be there 2-3 years, to kick out the players he doesn't want/like (RVP, Kagawa etc) and replace them with his Koncheskys and his Poulsens. At the moment, if they replace him in the summer, they take a hit on Fellani and Moyes' contract, a year out of the CL and that's it really. They are not going to be out long enough that they can't attract decent players (presuming they can afford to pay them a bit more) I just hope they do something mental like give it to Giggs or something. I'm worried Klopp or Koeman might fancy it.

Which is exactly what was said when Chelsea drew Barca

If Roberto Di Matteo can spawn a CL win, including a semi final against the then best team in the competition, then Moyes certainly can. He's done OK in Europe this season, I'm not saying he's going to win it, but I don't like this pre-emptive gloating either. I'll just be happy when he's actually out.

It would be totally justified, but it would be the first time in god knows how long that it would have gone to the actual manager of the season, which makes it a bit worthless. You'd know his achievement are only being recognised because he is British. Lost all respect for it when Ged was overlooked in favour of Burley - "because it was only there for recognising League achievement" (not that it stopped them from giving it to RFH for getting to the wafer cup final)

Why does that affect the credibility of the award?

When he gets Manager of the Year, are we going to have to pretend it means something?

It would have been funny if he hadn't have flounced immediately afterwards. A "Couldn't care less - next questions" as opposed to "couldn't care less - Hmmmmmphhh!" Looked like a hissy fit, had the broadcast continued, you just know you'd have heard a door slam and some music being played loudly. Managers get asked about the opposition in the post match interview every week.

Lovren was desperate to join us in the summer. Spent a few days cultivating a rumour that he was about to join us with cryptic #ynwa tweets and RT'ing loads of Liverpool fans. Think Barrett dismissed it fairly early on and some journo who had seen him play quite a bit described him as someone that is impressive when on form, but also capable of very long periods of poor form. Think he'll stay at Everton for another season, then they'll sell him. By which time you'd think we'd be in a good position, being the only club in the city that he's lived in for the last 2 years that could match his ambitions.

Seems perfectly obvious to me. If man u weren't so sh*te we wouldn't have had to to 2-0 up, something which led directly to his mate breaking his ankle. If it ends up in court, you lead with the Taff's Tavern picture. Open and shut case.

But we are talking about next season. Suarez and Sturridge aren't playing 180 mins a week. We need someone to come off the bench or start against the lesser teams. At the moment we have some combo of Sterling and Coutinho. We seem to have sacked off Moses and have given up on Aspas for anything other than a cameo. We will need more than that. Other places as well, as it stands, we have no cover for GJ next season and we could do with someone another CB, preferably right footed so that Toure doesn't play as many games next season as he has this. And a 2nd keeper is a given, even though we've needed one for 3 years.

No we haven't, we've not been in Europe and gone out of both cups relatively early, so barely had midweek games, and when we've had to dip into our squad, it's been found wanting. We had a bunch of games over xmas and dropped points against the likes of City and Chelsea, who were rotating 4-5 first team players against us. When Traore, Cissokho and Moses have had to come in, it's generally been the games we under performed in or dropped points. We've got 3 games in 8 days coming up, hope we can use the adrenaline to get us through them. We don't need an expensive squad full of dross, we do need a bigger squad than we have without such a stark drop off outside of the first 13-14 (with no decent cover in some areas). We need to be able to switch out 4-5 players for the CL / PL and have cover for key areas

Which they were never going to get, wonder if we misled them? Or if we didn't, wonder if we should have misled them?

They were loving him at one point. Is this because they've realised that they won't get him on a permanent deal, so f*cked him off?

Bayern Munich in the next round, not sure if they are home or away first. Hopefully home.

Nah, even RFH isn't mental enough to be so short term that he picks the 11 players who happen to be on the best temporary streaks of form for their respective clubs, against differing opposition, over the last 8 matches. He's not astute enough to build a team using the tactics that will suit the majority of his most talented players in their most effective positions and populating the gaps with players best suited for the job regardless of who they play for or how fashionable they are either. But there you go.

Yep, would expect Ilori to go out on loan at least next season. We could do with a right sided CB to challenge / replace Skrtel. We seemed to spend all summer chasing one (Alderweireld / Papadopolous) only to go for a left-footer in the last week.

James Pearce ‏@JamesPearceEcho 56s Rodgers: "It was United's ground, mostly their fans but it was our ball."

Can only imagine how many decades Gerrard would have captained England for had he been white.