Is Juan Mata worth £37m?

On Monday evening, news broke that Manchester United were lining up a record-breaking bid for essentially the team who beat them on the weekend's reserve attacking midfielder, Juan Mata.

It was, by miles, the biggest piece of gossip of the January transfer window so far. United fans were sent to sleep dreaming of a player who holds the potential to resurrect their season.

The Guardian asked readers: Is Juan Mata worth £37m? 

It was a straight-forward question. But a complicated one that can be considered three ways: is he worth £37m to Chelsea, is he worth £37m to United, and is he worth £37m in today's hyper inflated transfer market?

The answer to the first part is a resounding no way José. This is a player who has started only half of the club's Premier League campaign and has been left out in crunch games. £37m is a considerable amount to reject for a sub.

Then there is the selling to a rivals argument: Chelsea shouldn't show the same reluctance as United displayed in the summer when they refused to sell them Wayne Rooney for any price. With United lingering in seventh place, Chelsea could hand over a vital weapon to be used to take points off their title rivals Arsenal and Manchester City, which could swing the championship race in their favour.

The answer to the second part is quite the opposite. Mata would be doubly as important to United than he is to Mourinho's Chelsea. If Mata can steer the defending league champions into fourth place, the only outcome that would constitute success of 2013-14, then he is undoubtedly worth the fee.

Finally, the third part assesses the player's individual quality, and there is no doubting Mata's credentials. This is a player who has been Chelsea's star performer across the past two campaigns, who has won nearly every trophy in football.

It is a deal that works for all parties. In a climate where Andy Carroll is worth £35m, Fernando Torres £50m, Edison Cavani £55m and - wait for it - Marouane Fellaini £27m, Juan Mata is surely worth £37m.

Trigger happy Premier League chairmen

With less than half of the unpredictable and fantastic 2013-14 Premier League season passed, one quarter of clubs have changed their managers. Four have been sacked while another departed by mutual consent.

As BT Sport battles with BSkyB for rights to televise matches, more and more money becomes invested in football, and thus the importance for clubs of guaranteeing success becomes ever more pronounced.

This season has seen chairmen crack down on their clubs' managers with unprecedented severity. They are no longer allowed a series of losses while the team adjusts to a new style of play. If a new swathe of players is brought in, they are expected to deliver instant results.

Failure to pass this latter test has resulted in, or at least contributed to, Sunderland and Tottenham departing with their bosses.

The media, this season, have too been faster than ever to shine their spotlight on an underachieving manager. Arsene Wenger was 'in crisis' after the opening day loss to Aston Villa. Andre Villas-Boas went from delivering modest success to leading the sack race in one heavy defeat by Manchester City.

In the weeks that followed it was David Moyes, after consecutive home defeats, whose credentials were being examined. Then Villas-Boas's Spurs lost 0-5 to Liverpool and was out of the job the following morning.

In a cooler, less trigger happy climate, any of the departed managers could still be in their jobs. Here's why the five who have gone should have remained:

Paolo Di Canio (Sunderland), sacked after five games
• Took the reins from Martin O'Neill, who left after winning only two points from a possible 24. Di Canio was an immediate hit, recording back-to-back wins against Newcastle and Everton, and eased Sunderland to safety over Wigan Athletic.

• The team was radically overhauled in the summer. Over a full team's worth of new recruits were brought it, and while the fiery Italian's widely maligned political views may have communicated the wrong message about Sunderland's brand, ultimately it was Di Canio's inability to embed them into a winning outfit which cost him.

Ian Holloway (Crystal Palace), resigned after eight games

• Won promotion from an especially competitive year in the Championship.

• Squad appeared to lack Premier League quality, and Holloway felt he wasn't the person to ensure top-flight survival.

Martin Jol (Fulham), sacked after 13 games
• Built a healthy squad of young and old players

Steve Clarke (West Brom), sacked after 16 games
• Led West Brom to their record points tally and an eight-place finish.
• Beat Manchester United away.

Andre Villas-Boas (Tottenham), sacked after 16 games
• Led Spurs to their record points tally (73).
• Sold a player for a world-record fee
• Left Spurs with the highest win percentage of all Spurs managers since 1899.

The Premier League's knee-jerk culture is growing out of hand

Andre Villas-Boas became this season's fifth Premier League manager to lose his job on Monday morning. Steve Clarke was the fourth, just two days earlier. The league is not yet at the halfway stage.

There are similarities between the two in the circumstances leading to their dismissals. Neither were abject failures; if anything, the opposite is true. Both led their sides to their clubs' highest ever points tallies in 2012-13. Villas-Boas was a point away from usurping Arsenal for fourth spot, while Clarke masterminded West Brom to a remarkable eighth-placed finish.

Spurs' total of 72 points was the most ever recorded by a team that finished outside the top four. They were edged by their north London rivals and Chelsea, who recorded 75 points. The manager had succeeded yet failed: Spurs chairman Daniel Levy's ambition of turning Spurs into a Champions League side would have to wait another year. Villas-Boas wasn't given the chance to better his total.

Daniel Levy fired AVB after only 16 games of the new season; photo by Doha Stadium Plus

West Brom finished one place below the 'super seven' last term. The points gap of 12 between them and Liverpool, who finished seventh, is so great that it could be said that West Brom under Clarke won a 'league of the rest'. To break the monopoly of those seven would be an achievement of staggering proportions.

The following campaign was destined to be tougher for both clubs as each lost their star player. Gareth Bale and Romelu Lukaku contributed 38 goals last term combined.

West Brom replaced Lukaku, a battering ram of a centre-forward who could finish too, with Victor Anichebe. It was a like-for-like swap in positional terms, yet a severe reduction in quality.

Spurs sold Bale, the league's most devastating attacking force since Cristiano Ronaldo, for a world-record £86m. They spent a large chunk of this on Erik Lamela, but expecting an immediate impact from a 21-year-old who just altered cultures is unrealistic. Meanwhile, Andros Townsend has been less productive than his eye-catching performances would suggest.

Spurs spent the remainder of this money, and £21m more, on six others. They were expected by Levy to go straight into the first team and deliver instant success. But settling so many players into a team takes time. Levy is not a former footballer and clearly does not appreciate this.

A manager should be allowed to finish the season. When the team has been totally overhauled, and is one point better off than at the same stage last season where they went on to record their highest ever points tally, the manager should be afforded until the season's end at least to achieve his goals.

Villas-Boas might have avoided the sack if he applied some damage limitation in matches against Manchester City and Liverpool. Steve Clarke might still be at West Brom if they had beaten Chelsea. These are such small margins. The knee-jerk reactions of Premier League chairmen, giving managers no room for failure, is getting out of hand.

Never say die United - the embodiment of Ferguson's psyche

On a final day when only one position was left to fight for, Sir Alex Ferguson bowed out from football management with a hand in another record of sorts. For once, it was one of entertainment not achievement: the Premier League's first ever 5-5 draw. The manager who brought 38 trophies in 26 years to a single club could set new landmarks without meaning to.

It was fitting for Ferguson's final season that one of Manchester United's greatest traits under his stewardship – their never-say-die spirit – was evident on so many occasions. The number of late winning goals they scored was startling.

In their third match of the campaign, two Robin van Persie goals at 87 and 90 minutes transformed a loss into a win against Southampton. Two games later, a van Persie penalty at 81 minutes against Liverpool secured another victory. Having struck a lateish winner against Chelsea, Javier Hernandez did it again versus Villa, 87 minutes in. Van Persie's free-kick in stoppage time away to Manchester City opened up a six-point lead over their rivals and Hernandez came off the bench to score in the very last minute against Newcastle on Boxing Day.

And all these came in the first half of the season.

The amount of points United gained from losing positions would have been shattering for their opponents. Leading teams often faced in the latter stages of a match a hungry United gunning for them, hunting them down and displaying a deeply ingrained will to win. Inevitably it would end only one way: with United wrestling the points from their possession at the last gasp. United recovered to win 29 points from losing positions this season, the second highest total in the league's history.

Last year's title winners Manchester City threatened, but failed to find their highest gear. They moved to top of the table on November 17 when they thrashed Aston Villa 5-0, and were unbeaten until their 16^th match.

But their loss to United in the dying seconds of the game, inflicted by the player Roberto Mancini craved, was an almighty blow from which City could not recover.

United proved that last season's collapse of form, where they surrendered an eight point lead in April, was an anomaly. Indeed, finishing a campaign strongly has been another characteristic of United under Ferguson. The ability to front-run, combined with a hatred of being behind, made United the ultimate psychologically tough side.

In 2013, Ferguson ensured there would be no repeat of last year's failure, and United marched unflappably to an elusive 20^th league title.   

Manchester United chase down leads, Arsenal throw them away

Premier League '12/13, week 11

Arsenal were leading Fulham 2-0. Manchester United were trailing Aston Villa, away, 2-0. Yet the two most successful teams in Premier League history conformed to what is typical of their character. They did what they do best. United swam, and Arsenal sank.

These were two fantastic games, both first-on-Match of the Day worthy. One had to play second fiddle, and Villa-United was considered by the programme editor to be the most special. Fulham will be asking themselves what must they do to be on first, but this was a truly staggering game.

Villa held a comfortable lead, owing to Andrea Weimann's first two goals for the club. The timing of the goals meant their impact was even heavier. One moments before half-time with another tucked in just five minutes into the second-half would have felt like hammer blows to a lesser side.

But Manchester United are not a lesser side. When you have won the European Cup with the other team's colours already decorating the trophy, it gives you the mental strength to believe any situation is rescuable. United typify the never-say-die spirit like no other team.

Their saviour today was Javier Hernandez, who Martin Keown described as a 'modern-day Solskjaer'. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was United's go-to player whenever they needed a goal during the 1990s. Time and time again he would deliver from off the bench. He is a rare type of player whom few teams have in their squads and, despite building a career on starting most matches on the bench, he was never underrated.

It certainly appears that Solskjaer has been reborn in Hernandez.

While Manchester United chased down a lead, Arsenal threw one away. Arsenal are very good at keeping the ball, and enjoy the most possession of the league's 20 teams. But they can't keep an advantage.

For the second game in a row, Arsenal struck first, only to see their lead had evaporated at the final whistle. The nature of the goals they conceded is alarming, too. Fulham's first was a messy goal from a corner that should have been cleared. The second should have been saved. There appears to be a problem with the marking system at Arsenal, and they need a reliable goalkeeper. These are simple issues that can be addressed easily.

The positives for Arsenal lie in that they played their part in a highly entertaining game. Also, they missed a penalty in the last minute, which could easily have gone in on another day.

The negative, perhaps realistic, perspective is that this has been Arsenal's worst start to a league campaign under Wenger. The gap between them and United, City and Chelsea is widening. 

That Alan Shearer stated Everton are favourites to finish fourth speaks greatly about Arsenal's blatantly obvious flaws of character. In comparison to United, they could not be more apparent.