Kostas

He's one of the very few footballers that should write a book on their careers. The fact that he managed to last 6 years at a top 5 / top 10 club is an incredible achievement and one of the wonders of modern football.

Can we get a Salomon Kalou departs thread in the MHS? I think we had similar topics in the past.

Isn't that how these things also worked in the past? I think instead of one huge pay off we kept paying Ancelotti his agreed wages until he got hired by PSG.

I'm sure someone will think of something better but there's beauty in the simplicity of the reaction

There should have never been a first

So you would agree that if we assume that the coach is not pivotal in transfer decisions having managerial stability becomes less of an issue?

If the unsustainable argument is about the managerial pay-offs our accounts are encumbered with each year that can be dealt with smarter contracts and less impulse moves. You believe maintaining the backroom staff (apart from the manager) to be more important than maintaining the people that are in the Football Board? I don't think that's even arguable. While the argument about a long-term manager being beneficial to young players is true you have to keep in mind the hypocrisy of the whole young players issue at Chelsea. The last player who managed to genuinely break his way into the team had more negative posts in his thread this season than Torres and the one before him is considered by some to be the midfield equivalent of Kalou and even more think he should be treated as one. Besides while it is widely considered to be the case, the career-wise well-being of the players who are trying to be a real part of the team does not equal the well being of the club and thus should not represent an end in itself. RDM was initially appointed as a stop-gap. After the contract announcement that ceased to be true on an official level but as I said in the past it will take a tremendous step up in quality for my skepticism to be gone. On many levels Hazard's transfer was and will represent a more important sign for the club's future than RDM's contract. Edit: The starting over factor (which is your main/strongest point) was but shackles that the club (the owner?) has been forcing onto the "permanent" manager. Once those shackles were removed we saw tremendous improvement that brought us to previous levels of quality (see Hiddink's and RDM's few months).

If our managerial merry-go-round keeps damaging the club while it wins leagues and cups in contrast to Arsenal's philosophy then so be it. We had a man who enjoyed stability at a probably more important position than the managers and was brought to implement a specific philosophy. He had control over the 2 things that shape a clubs visible future: the Academy and the scouting network. I don't remember much of a revolt when we lost that stability yet we constantly go nuts over the risk of losing stop gap managers like Scolari, Ancelotti, AVB and Di Matteo.

Uhm yeah and that was even looking past image-posts (which you didn't abuse during your first stay here).

Hardly a grudge. You're just the regular whose contributions I rate the least.

You're not doing that member any favours with such comparisons..

Oh and LDN, my reasoning was simple

Yeah I thought that may have been an obstacle. Oh well... pointlessly discussing procedures to no end is what keeps Democracies running

It's not an actual argument but more of an idea for when/if the next elections for the mod team are held. For the record, while I'm 100% certain about my choice I doubt I'd bother to make it public for the sake of it.

How so? Wouldn't discussing the candidates rather than the voting progress be better? LDN leading by a landslide may have been largely expected but actually seeing it while the voting is ongoing may have discouraged some "alternative" votes from undecided members.

Shouldn't the results have been hidden until the poll closed?

Were you too cheap to offer cookies?

As always your faith in general intelligence is warming but I'm not as hopeful.

Beast wasn't smart enough to go under the radar for so long.

Newcastle.

That's too good a post to remain in a topic that will not be taken seriously by the majority of the forum until at least half-way through the season. I mostly echo your concerns but am content since as you said he deserves the job and the alternatives were uninspiring.

Has to me Ronaldinho for me too. He had twice the natural talent of anyone I've seen bar Zidane (although he was more gifted than him too) and should have been football's poster boy for a decade. 3 years of being the best is nowhere near what he could have achieved.

I hate FIFA terminology. (Let it go on record that.)

It's most likely messed up group restrictions. You being the MotM and having that shiny badge is like when we had Legends and they had some different settings.

Funny that, knowing the regulars of the forum I'd wager you'll be among (if not the) first to discuss this 100% seriously.