Ideally Simeone or Allegri would be the preferred choice. but if we can’t get them, I’m beginning to lean more towards Koeman.
He has PL experience with two clubs, and has done well with both, playing attacking football while being well organised in defence.
He is also clearly ambitious and he has the respect of the players.
But would he leave Everton, who are on the up, with a new owner who is also ambitious, to come to a club with a squad full of players that are in a comfort zone and without a winning mentality, and an owner who’s main interest is making his bank balance bigger?
If we don’t keep Ozil and Sanchez, we are going to look very weak, for any potential manager
So attracting a top manager from another big European club isn’t going to be easy, so maybe Koeman might be a better option.
Of course he would! We may be in a bit of a state at the moment but come on, we’re a bigger appeal than Everton - who are also more than likely going to lose their best players this summer!
Would Koeman leave Everton for Arsenal? You’re kidding me aren’t you? That’s a massive step up and he’d take it in a heartbeat. It’s probably bigger than the a Southampton to Everton step he made.
He’s a very good manager but that would be quite a jump for him right now IMO, then again if Enrique can get the job (who I’m not a fan of) then why not.
He moved from the biggest team in Germany to the richest team in the richest league. It might not have been upwards from a reputation perspective but it was the next logical step in his career.
United may generate the most revenue and presently spend the highest sums (although City aren’t that far behind on both counts), but Sheikh Mansour is worth $38 billion and the investment group behind him manages something in the region of $500-600 billion. He essentially has the backing of the sovereign wealth.
And whilst I’m not suggesting that they’d pump all of that money into City, he’s shown by the continuous and sheer sums of investment on an annual basis (players, wages, world class training facilities, youth academies and so forth) that there is nearly no limit to what City would spend in their race to become the biggest club in the world.
I think City showed with the shady £350m sponsorship deal and moving money between the football group, not to mention the incredible amount of “partnerships” they’ve announced over the last few seasons that getting around FFP isn’t all that difficult.
It limited them a couple of seasons ago, but they’re in the top 5/6 wealthiest clubs in the world now in terms of revenue and they’ll always find ways around the FFP restrictions as they proved with the shady £350m deal.
Difference with City is you can see it has a future. Major investment in the team obviously but also training, scouting, overseas partnerships, i think there was talk of stadium development too? They brought in Txiki who brought in Pep and to me it feels like a huge club in the making.
Chelsea still feels a bit like a Billionaire’s toy, although Chelsea look to have something going right with their youth/scouting.
It might just be Roman’s hands on approach vs the Sheikh’s hands off that makes me feel that way though.
But in the short term, City are the “top” club right now for me. Not the biggest, not the most historic but if you’re a coach looking for a job I’d choose City. The squad is there, plenty of young players in the wings too, cash to spend, what’s not to like?
Barring a miracle that ship has sailed. 2011 and 2014 were perfect moments for a new manager to come in. Even after that debacle in 2016 we still had a chance to make that transition in a good situation. We’ll rue those missed opportunities, again, barring a miracle. We’ll be lucky if it’s only 3-4 years.
Chelsea made some steps too. They’ve signed some pretty big sponsorshipdeals with Nike and Yokohama recently. They are also working at the infrastructure of the club. I think at the beginning of the year they’ve gotten permission to rebuild Stamford Bridge. Chelsea had a new training ground build that was opened in 2007 I believe. Chelsea has made the transformation to a big club too.
But yeah. City are the new kids on the block. So that makes them more exciting.
