Makis

Ha ha. Says the man who would take De Boer over all the other candidates just because. You have offered no reasons at all. This is understandable because there are none.

We finished fifth (Martinez) and sixth, true, but before that twice seventh and eight before that. Bear in mind, Spurs have got their act together and at the moment their squad is much better than ours (with money to spend this summer, too). Liverpool has also been a mess, now Klopp has had a full season and I think most people expect them to improve. Beating Rodgers's Liverpool is a bit different than beating Klopp's Liverpool. Manchester clubs have arguable the two best managers in the world now and both will spend heavily in the transfer market - much more than we will even with Moshiri's money. Arsenal has a much stronger squad and they already spent 40 million to further improve it. Chelsea will also improve and Conte has a reputation of making teams better. But to finish higher than 7th at least one of those teams must fail - let's face it, them finishing 7th or worse would be a much bigger fail for them than for us.

And also how he insist on playing through the wings with no effort to attack through the middle.

It's just a one negative, not necessarily a big one. I'm just unsure who it would effect his man-management if he happened to need a translator every time he talked to someone.

To be honest, I'm glad you disagree because you're serially wrong on pretty much everything that has to do with football.

And as I said, this season was a blip. Last season Sevilla won 10, drew 2 and lost 7 and ended up with a positive GD (+1). Season before that Sevilla's away record was 7-5-7 and a GD of -2. At Valencia in 2010-11 the record was a very respectable 11-3-5 and +7. Can't find the record for his two previous seasons with the club, but I would say his record away is good. And it's irrelevant, because he knew away matches in La Liga were of lesser importance and he could focus on the cups. I would also expect Everton to have a better squad overall come August. Sevilla is not financially well so their squad lacks depth. As for seventh being mediocre: Manchester City with Guardiola, Manchester United with Mourinho, Chelsea with Conte, Arsenal with Wenger, Liverpool with Klopp, Spurs with Pochettino. That's already six. To finish higher than seventh, we'd have to be better than everyone else in the league (Leicester, West Ham, Southampton...) plus at least one of those. This on the back of a summer that will see big changes in the squad. So the new man has practically no time, the team has to get off to a flying start. Considering the plane crash of this season and the changes afoot that would be an amazing job. Look at Klopp: who thinks he's a shite manager? Yet they only managed 8th and zero trophies.

You could say the same about the manager, any players we sign, and so on, so actually we could only talk about the matches.

There is practically no away support in Spain so that point is moot. And lucky? So you think Emery did nothing at halftime? But I get it, you want a British manager, someone dependable like Moyes or Hughes instead of one of these fancy-pansy Johnny Foreigners.

Apparently he rested players in the away matches to concentrate on the cups. And don't know about you but I'd rather Everton the EL finishing seventh.

You must be very demanding if 7th + EL win + CDR final is woeful.

Finishing seventh in the league is woeful, especially considering the top three is pretty much nailed on?

Well, mine would be: 1. Emery: Probably the most promising young manager at the moment. + Young. + Tactically masterful + Good man-manager. + Wins trophies. First manager ever to win three back-to-back ELs. + Bielsa-like obsession about football. - His English is not very good. - His away record this season was poor. This is offset by the fact last season it wasn't too bad (10 wins, 2 draws, seven losses and a positive GD). - His only job outside Spain didn't go well. 2. Pellegrini: + PL experience. + Would attract top players. + Has done an excellent job at two clubs in somewhat similar situations. + Players respect him. + Was able to keep Villareal going for a long time, so seems to be able to keep the team and approach fresh over time. + Very experienced. + Can work with and without a DoF unlike other candidates. - Motivation? If his main motivation for the job is that he doesn't need to move houses == pass. - Couldn't motivate his team after Guardiola was announced. - How much hand did he have with this season's City team building? Bequiristan is the DoF, but was Pellegrini totally powerless? E.g. he had no chance to fix the defence that was overly reliant on Kompany and the signings who were poor? 3. Favre: + Tactically sound. His teams play a good, yet solid style. + Has done a good job at pretty much every club. + Good at developing youth. + Bundesliga is full - Issues with his man-management. I've heard he doesn't really talk to his players and if you end up on the wrong side of him, you don't get a second chance. - Questionmarks over his stress handling after he quit his last job suddenly. - AFAIK, doesn't speak English. - Eventually teams seem to go stale. 4. Koeman: + Experience in the PL. + Has done a good job rebuilding Soton after their stars were sold. + Decent style... - But nothing to get excited about. - A disaster at his previous job. - Would he jump ship next summer if Arsenal came calling? 5. De Boer: + Well-known name. + Youth development. + Got Ajax back on track after several poor seasons. - Has lost a two-horse race twice in a row now. - Tactically inflexible. - Only been to one club so far, and in his native country. Comfort-zone? - Not a good record in Europe. Those are the strongest candidates linked with the club. I would also like to see Rudi Garcia and Eduardo Berizzo considered. Watford's new man, Mazzarri could also been a good candidate.

I can't personally figure out why anyone would think De Boer is a better choice than Emery. Managed to loose the last two two-horse races. Tactically quite inflexible. Only one club so far. Not a good record in Europe. Emery, Pellegrini, Favre and Koeman are all clearly better candidates.

This season was a blip. His away record has been decent in previous years. And this year? This was the third EL win in a row. Plus he did well at Valencia as well.

Bergkamp and Stam are not coming, De Boer or no De Boer.

Impossible to speculate until we have an idea what style the new manager is looking to implement. For instance, Favre's CBs should have some pace or the defence will be horribly exposed. I do think we need to start looking for a Jagielka replacement. Baines is one my all time favourite players but I feel age is catching up to him, too. He seems to have lost some pace. Garbutt was crap at Fulham so I wouldn't necessarily place all my bets on him.

Jags is miles better than the other CBs when fit. Unfortunately it looks like the years have catched up.

Funnily enough, our GA is best when Jags and Stones have played and worst when Stones and Funes Mori have manned the middle. But you didn't watch the West Ham game I take? There's a case all three goals were his fault. The second in particular, he was marking the goalscorer (or,well, "marking") and gave him a free header. He also completely misjudged the cross for the third, missed and was nowhere near where he should have been after that. Easy to spot in slow-mo, ball is in the six yard box while Funes Mori is on the edge of the box.

So you really haven't seen more than one mistake from him the entire season?

That proves you should watch the games instead of just looking at the stats. I have no idea how "defensive errors" are calculated at that site, but it's definitely not calculating things like giving forwards free headers because Funes Mori switched off. Or the ones where he is 10 yards out-of-position, a ball is played behind and he's in no position to defend.

My main gripe is how he switches off several times every match. Seriously, if he played for that other lot, you'd have a thread where you'd be laughing at his mistakes. How many times have we seen a cross played in the penalty area and Ramiro doing absolutely nothing? He also has poor situational awareness and positioning. This is compounded by his lack of pace. Some defenders are so quick that they can salvage the situation. When Funes Mori is not in the right place he doesn't have the pace to recover. So a coach would need to teach him concentration, awareness and positioning since improving his pace enough to cover for lack of the other issues is not possible.

Better than Jagielka? Don't be silly.

Well, according to the poll on the Echo site, 85% of the fans want a waterfront stadium.

If someone offered the money we paid for him we should snap their hands off. Too slow, too error-prone, lacks positional sense and concentration. Yeah, a great coach could fix most issues, but I think there are too many issues to work on.

Funnily enough I was suggesting Trafalgar Docks just yesterday but the tract of land I was thinking about was actually this. Would be a brilliant location.