The Skipper

The irony? Not catching your drift. Re: a decent argument - read my long post above. The thing is, yes people who don't always discuss football get nominated, but the actual winners usually are those that do talk about football, hence why I think you're really over exaggerating. Edit: The nature of the forum is that it is predominately a football forum but it also has it's off topic discussion so people will naturally get nominated but that isn't a problem given that the winners are the ones that actually discuss football more oft than not so it really isn't as big as a problem you're making it out to be.

This isn't true at all. How many of the nominees in the final poll last month were ones 'who just post memes'? You're really over exaggerating.

Off-topic: The argument that the amount of 'likes' correlate with meme posts is not true. You only have to look at the like-to-post ratio the likes of TorontoChelsea or TOPTB have. I don't think either have ever posted a meme: both get their likes via their excellent football analysis'. Furthermore regarding the idea that seems to be floating about of scrapping The Pub: nonsense really. It's in the off topic section of the forum and doesn't interfere with any football discussion. I'm not a regular at all there but to scrap it because memes and GIFs get posted in there is way too extreme. On topic: I don't think there is actually a problem regarding the actual winners of the MOTM award - what seems to bug some people are those that are nominated for it - and some seem to believe that "Pubsters" are the ones that are getting over nominated which in fact is not true at all. Pub regulars e.g. (I think) Stingray, Rmpr etc. were not even nominated last month so I don't see why people think they're the problem when that just isn't true. Yeah, both like to joke around but they can both discuss football intelligently with anyone, as noted by their previous MOTM awards which was largely based on that and not on memes or GIFs posted. Again, the latter notion is simply very untrue. I think that the real problem some seem to be having has got nothing to do with the actual MOTM award. It seems to be the problem of 'the lack of quality posts compared to a few years ago' (which I don't think is particularly true since I've been hovering about the forums for around 3 years now but only started posting around last year but everyone has their own opinion) - which has again nothing to do with the MOTM award because in my modest opinion the winners over the last few months have all intelligently debated and discussed football and consequently won it based on that. There are also some excellent members that come aboard every month or so ala hjperdeath this month who has been outstanding and got the recognition for that in the MOTM poll where I personally voted for him - so there honestly isn't that much wrong with the process - I do agree that some members do get overlooked though e.g. Stats, ja1 or Bir_CFC (just three examples there are many more out there) but the problem with that is with who is getting nominated - not the actual final poll - and that responsibility comes down to us as forum members. If you really want to see someone winning it, start a little campaign for them basically. In addition to that last part, I think however that to avoid people complaining about the same people being nominated again that the best option would be to not have people who have won it over the last 2/3 months in the final nomination poll. It'll probably stop people complaining about the repetitive nominations. Probably the best way to go IMO. PS: Thanks to everyone who voted for me in the last MOTM poll, really appreciate it as this is a quality forum with lots of quality on and off topic. I enjoy reading and debating all things Chelsea and the website really allows that to happen and there are genuinely a lot of great people on here - thanks a bunch.

That's the main message I got from that post yeah. I think you're being disrespectful to all the members that have won it over the last few months or so, as if they aren't "worthy" enough to be winning it when that's far away from the truth, and I think you're being disrespectful about the opinions of other people. It really isn't as deep as you're making it out to be. I see that you're clearly having a problem with me being nominated for it but I really don't care either way because it isn't that serious to me. It's great for anyone to be recognised by the community on here, and just because you don't agree with those people doesn't mean that it isn't as credible as it was before. As said before, it really is basically making a mountain out of a molehill.

So... You're complaining because a controversial guy isn't winning the MOTM?

Axel 'one man double pivot' Witsel.

I'm definitely sure regarding Hazard's wages that they are incorrect - almost all of the French + Belgian media had him down at around £120k. I seriously doubt Hazard is the highest earner in the squad.

In the article he says the wages are from reported fees from news articles.

All these fees are based off of reports from the press, they aren't the actual official wages.

^Agreed. It isn't as serious as people are trying to make it seem tbh... But that's just my personal opinion.

*Assuming he gets his work permit* But yeah, you're right, it won't be easy.

Wonder if he'll have any first team opportunities this year.

Solid.

Giroud is better than Torres and Ba, definitely. Still a very underrated striker, will have a good season at Arsenal.

What are you smoking? Yeah, he has the potential to be a great player for us but he hasn't been one of the best strikers to ever play for this club.

Likewise. PM if you still need another person.

I love how this signing has practically gone under the radar now. Eto'o will shock a lot of opposition fans (and our own) this season. He's still a very, very good player.

Osman has definitely done pretty well but Barry is a specialist in that role, so I wouldn't be surprised to see him starting over Osman. Regarding Willian/Schurrle, I wouldn't mind either. Schurrle probably has the edge defensively but offensively Willian is better, more creative, however Willian is also pretty good defensively, he works very hard and has the right positional sense, but Schurrle is slowly catching form so I wouldn't mind either playing. That's the beauty of having great options in your squad.

Replace Osman with Barry, and replace Fellaini with McCarthy and the system already works a lot better for them (genuinely think McCarthy is better for Martinez's system than Fellaini is). Add in the fact that Lukaku will most likely replace Jelavic and they're really a threatening side. We must bring our A game here and challenge Everton for possession. Mata and Luiz can provide us with the edge to control possession. Hazard and Willian must play to exploit the spaces Coleman and Baines will leave when they transition into attack, where we will be able to counter attack effectively. It'll be a very tough game because Everton have signed well. Bring it on though!

I would love to see an Oscar - Ramires partnership, don't know if Mourinho is thinking the same though.

Bumper Graham on Sky Revista says Ozil's camp were hanging on for Utd, Ozil's camp offered him to Utd weeks ago but Utd turned him down.

The latter. We've already got great players in Özil's position, so it'd make no sense to sign him. I'd rather have a stronger squad.

Personally that has to do with Anelka not being one of my favourite players whilst Sturridge is, so naturally I'd keep more tabs on Sturridge than I would for Nico.

Confirms exactly what I thought. FFP is not a hinderance on us at all, and this brilliant article explains why that is exactly. Thank you for posting this.

Lukaku about his move to #Everton: "I decided that #EFC was the best choice. A more prominent club than West Brom where I had a good time."