Baphomet wrote:Alli is a beast!
This is how I would answer any questions asking about the future of English football if I worked for the FA.

The kid's looking like a real stud and the NT must be praying that he and Kane stay together with Tottenham for the next few years at least.
Foye wrote:cgf wrote:You guys remember that the infallible Jupp didn't win **** in his first 2 seasons with that Bayern superteam...right?
He won the treble in his second season at Bayern?
Those are two completely different scenarios btw. Guardiola took a team that was already winning it all and was given buttloads of money to develop the team according to his wishes. But they never reached the UCL final again and they won't this season either.
Heynckes meanwhile transformed a 3rd place van Gaal team to a team that won everything within two seasons and appeared in the UCL final twice.
I thought it was the third, but they still didn't win **** in his first season; despite not having to face Barca in the CL, adding Neuer/Boateng to that 3rd place LvG side, getting alaba back from loan, and having Kroos (whom he had coached at Leverkusen) return in the previous window. Most coaches need time to settle in with a squad before they can get the most out of them; and this was as true of Pep as it was St. Jupp. Guardiola took a team coming off a peak season in which Robben and Ribery were healthy all year and the players were driven by the not-treble of the previous campaign...and made them more dominant in the league; before losing in the CL to a Real side that was stronger than any team Jupp faced and Ribery's career falling into an injury-riddled-morass.
In the next year, despite being outgunned by a Barca side that was even stronger than La Decima winning Real, he faced them with the kind of courage we rarely see from managers of top clubs and had Barca off kilter enough in the second leg where another Bayern goal earlier in the second half would've cause them to panic for the final stretch of the tie. That tie is what made me re-consider my position on Pep and cast his experimentation/ingenuity in a new light. Trying to use it as a negative requires the kind of gross neglect for context that No_20 and Massi specialize in.
Pep oversaw a team come off of a career season, in which their primarily rival was hobbled by injury (messi), watched his rivals bolster their squads significantly in the coming seasons, and, just like Jupp, only lost to the CL-winners. But at this point I have to doubt it would change some of your minds even if he wins this CL and had pulled off the upset against Barca last year.