Where it all went wrong

[A11M11]

Quote :- DD made the decision about the 5 large for Cole and DD also got Kroenke on board. So he shares some blame


The way I heard it was that DD made the offer to Cole and it was Fiszman and the board that moved the goalposts. As for Kroenke as we all know Dein introduced him but the board originally turned him away but then went back when the lure of personal gain got the better of them.

[Bunting14]

In itself it probably wasn't major but I always thought the botched penalty against City was the date we lost effective leadership on the pitch.

[Nos89]

Paris 2006 is where it all went wrong.

While I agree that he became a "made man" with the club in 2004 after the invincibles season, he still toyed with the Real Madrid idea and I think had we have won the CL in '06 he would have left and we would have got a new manager and built on from there.

Yep agree with this...add to the fact he knew he could secure champions league football no matter how poor the squad was. Once he had achieved the ultimate goal of an undefeated season then the only goal left was European success...however, we are good enough to get through the group stage but not good enough to win the champions league without a major investment in the playing squad, which will never happen under the current regime. I'd prefer to play in the Europa league and give us a chance of winning a European trophy, something he's never achieved. I wouldn't be surprised if that was his own personal goal this year but the players wanted to qualify from the group and pulled out a performance to get us through. Now can they pull out a performance in the 2nd leg against barca?

[trustno10]

Clichy failing to punt the ball up the field in the last minute at Birmingham in 2008.