Kostas

I certainly don't agree with that idea, league-adaptation may be very important for outfield players (IMHO that concept is simplistic and over-rated) but the differences for goalies are absolutely negligible. This is all very "academic" but I wouldn't waste one year of his contract and his career on loans that are below his level.

It's mainly due to the binary way of thinking that degrades most arguments in all fields to a simple battle of which side will last longer and shall prevail in the public opinion. Obviously it's easier to believe that all "problems" have just 2 causes and build your thoughts on those than to even consider a 3rd option especially when that option is much harder to analyze, as is(/was?) Chelsea's board and its collective decisions. You'll be surprised at how many people begin their argument with assuming that 1st squad transfers can be done only by either the manager (citing the global phenomenon of Alex Ferguson as the rule) or Abramovich (crediting him only with disaster transfers due to Sheva).

The English footballing world deserves someone like Redknapp.

I like Samuel quite a lot for a journo but that was probably a chief-editor request.

Socks+Flip-flops+Snow

Excuse any spelling/grammatical/syntax mistakes in that post of mine, it was written around 5 or 6 in the morning Alex, your point on having three threads to organize and reminisce sounds great and I've seen it work perfectly on one of the most organized forums I've been on. Ultimately I think since that option involves more hassle for the mods it boils down to whether the staff are willing to go through that.

I didn't really pay much attention to him but the first half was one of the scrappiest big games I've seen in years, not sure whether that's a credit to Essien or the opposite.

Congrats Peace absolutely deserved. The list of candidates looks to me like one of the best we've had.

Not so much feedback as a proposal: I noticed matchday threads are becoming increasingly long and even smaller games get around twice as many posts as back when I joined. I can't afford to spend nearly as many hours weekly as I used to on the forums and as a result nowadays I do not read or contribute to the matchday topics and I am sure I miss out on some interesting match-specific and more importantly general insight.. This may sound too much like what happens at CFCnet (which I used to lurk a few years ago) but I think having a separate post-match thread where actual analysis is separated from pre-game formations/wishes and in-game reactions would be great way to boost discussions. Locking one thread after full-time and opening another is quite possible now that we're on a new server and don't have to worry about downtime and there usually is a member of the staff online during/after matches.

Dowd is unbelievably poor, quite worse than Webb even considering what happened today. Mike Dean is annoying but when compared to other big-game refs I think he's marginally better than most of them. Marriner is mostly ok.

Keep putting the word FACT in every other post if you think it does anything for your argument and you'll soon be this board's very own RAFA.

Why should a thread about this genius of a man turn into a cesspool?

Get a room thread.

That was actually one of my first thoughts after he scored that goal. Two of my most celebrated Chelsea goals in years were wasted..

He does more defensive work than all our attacking players. I'm not sure if people are even watching him nowadays or just want to have their prejudice confirmed.

If there is one positive to take from that pathetic excuse of a game is that this man is definitely a potential match winner in huge games. I couldn't possibly overstate the importance of such players in competitions like the Champions League. The Napoli games and our whole CL campaign looks much better with him.

He is of absolutely no use to us as a striker at the moment. In all my life I doubt I've seen a footballer so devoid of confidence. Unless AVB figures that he does more offensively and defensively than Malouda/Sturridge/Mata/Kalou*/Ramires/Drogba/Lukaku on the wing he should be nowhere near the starting XI. *Yes.

Oh and to every single bloody idiot that's going to analyze that match from a tactical/managerial/whateveryoucomeupwith and conclude that either a player or the manager deserve the most slack. Fuck off. Feel free to ban me if you like mods.

I'm done with the Premierleague this season. Not wasting another minute of my life on this shit.

Seeing an article claim "close friends" of Abramovich would speak to the press just after what looks like one of the most desperate attempts to get a photograph of the man gives a great image of just how real all stories about anything Roman thinks are.

Killamanjaro Peace.

I doubt we pay in installments for Torres, afaik that's not as usual at the top English teams as it is in Barcelona and Liverpool couldn't have bought Carroll with money they did not yet get.

Gotta admit you have a knack for picking the perfect words.

Apparently exceptional payments went up to 30m (Ancelotti's pay-off + compensation to Porto for AVB). As long as we keep qualifying for the CL your post hits the nail on the head. And no, Torres didn't hit us nearly as bad.

You gotta give them credit for the title, they'll never run out of imagination. I'll be looking at the figures later but the increase in turnover could probably be due to the Adidas and Samsung deals. Nevermind, first two paragraphs.