LDN Blue

Leave the Fener fan alone, guy just stated his opinion & offered an explaination of what happened and you lot tell him to 'fuck off'.. bloody hell lol.

Would we? That still leaves us with two options, one of which can't play week in-week out. I think it's the most adequate time to bring Lukaku back and give him an opportunity. He's high on confidence and raring to go, give him enough backing from management and enough time and it could pay dividends for Chelsea. I fear another loan could have an opposite effect and demotivate the boy.

Manchester City could be doing us a tremendous favour by doing this.

And didn't he go out with a bang? Sent off

That wasn't really my point though, I only put those in because you claim his fame has gone unnoticed. YouTube won't show you anything, because it wasn't the one off incidents Scholes was acclaimed for, it was the overall game. He, indeed, dictated the pace of the game, gave control to the midfield. Now what I will say it, Scholes' superiority was more in the 90's and early 00's.. This is probably why you won't be inclined to agree with me. There's nothing wrong with that, in the last decade it has been a case of Lampard > Scholes. But what the way Scholes played in his era, defined him at England's greatest of all time. This argument cannot go any further, because I'm failing to explain what makes Scholes' so unique. But I'm going to stress my final point; I'm not saying Lampard isn't one of the best players of all time, he's certainly up there. Scholes' was simply a different class above the legacies of Lampard & Gerrard.

Mr Magic Lamps, The reason Scholes isn't among the goals and assists is because that's not what his role was. Scholes is a fantastic little football player, he's technically superb, he reads the game like no other. His peripheral vision is simply amazing, the way he played the game was like he saw what would happen 2 steps after he'd touched the ball. He didn't get many "assists" because his role was to start the attack. What I mean by this is, he was the one who played the ball to the guy who would get the last pass into the striker. His game was at the heart of the pitch, in the middle of the park. He wasn't about the long-ball (although believe me, he could play that pass all day long), he was about passing to the right player in the right type of attack. You say Scholes hasn't earned his plaudits? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1355726/Xavi-interview-Paul-Scholes-best-midfielder-20-years.html

I was here too, that's irrelevant. If we were all satisfied by the Europa League we wouldn't be unhappy if we finished outside the top 4, so the self-righteous act doesn't really come into play here. Just because Mikel said the competition isn't the prime time, which it's not, doesn't mean he wasn't out to win the competition. How many times have we laughed at Tottenham for playing Europa? Didn't we laugh at Man United last year for playing in there, and not winning it? Mikel didn't even say he didn't want to win it!

So now we're criticizing him for criticizing it? Because did we not do the same, then celebrate avidly when we won the competition? Smh, the hypocrisy..

Indeed, Mourinho doesn't really need to care about the costs and so he won't. If the Guardian was right in suggesting Lampard dropped his demands and still got £120,000/week it begs the question what the initial demands were.

Yea, just started Inferno myself. Usual standard of Dan Brown so far, hasn't disappointed.

Indeed, I took the bait Hopeless.

Also, lmao at the comparisons to Scholes. In my honest opinion, I believe Scholes in England's greatest midfielder of all time. That's not even disrespecting Lampard, that's just how simply amazing Scholes was.

No. What Luiz does is create a massive gap with his ventures running into midfield. Why do you think he was put in that role in the first place? When he did at CB, the repercussions were disastrous. Now it's less noticeable because against weaker teams, our defense can cope. Lampard's only in that position because we've had to accommodate for him. He shouldn't be sitting in front of our defensive line because he doesn't offer them the same amount of protection as an actual defensive midfield payer, like Mikel. The role of the central midfield is supposed to be one you don't notice, he's not the one that's going to grab the assists or goals. He'll go about his role unnoticeable. This is the mistake people make with that role.

Retired this year: Ferguson Beckham Scholes Van Bommel Roberto Carlos Owen Petrov Carragher.

What the crap? Shall we have a quick recap? Beckham didn't leave the PL out of freewill, that was a choice Ferguson made (we all remember the flying boot & stitches). Out of respect for United he didn't join another Premier League club.. He instead went to Real Madrid. Real Madrid, the guys who aren't too bad you know. Then we went to the MLS and for the first time people took an interest in the sport and now it's quite the league. Then, he joined AC Milan. Again, they're not too shabby.. Won the Champions League couple of times, challenge for Serie A almost every season etc.

He had stepped up, until he was removed from the team, that was Rafa's own tactical decision and fair play to him. But that partnership of Luiz-Lampard has been awful and if Lampard wasn't scoring goals then everyone would see it. This isn't saying Lampard has no place in the team, but he doesn't in central midfield. The reason Choulo is the only one still arguing, is because the rest of us are tired of repeating ourselves. And every time we try to have an actual debate there's always going to be the one clown who says something like "Mikel is shit" and the thread goes into another meltdown. If you have the time & patience, please do go through each of the last 119 pages. And this isn't the only thread we've had on Mikel, we've had so many where there have been good discussions but now they're forgotten/locked/deleted. When I have the time I will give it one more attempt to debate with you why Mikel is still an asset for where he plays.

Not just SeB. A lot of members have, myself included. If I had the time I'd go through every page of this thread and show you each post that was actually discussing Mikel's positives (regarding football). Of course Mikel's made mistakes in his time, so has Romeu.. And when Romeu first played he was treated like the second coming. I'm not going to fall-back on statistics and all this - but if people think Luiz is a better DMF then the world is getting cray. All Luiz does is push forward and leave gaps that a lot of good teams would pounce on.

I hope they give him an appropriate send off, kind of like what Hiddink got. Let's be honest here, our grudges against him are personal, not against his football.

Great, we're back to this again. There's numerous posts in this entire thread with people giving very good examples of Mikel's role. Especially when compared with Romeu, but they're just ignored and buried under the repetition of trolling/spamming/insults etc. Personally? I think everyone will change their mind if Mourinho inserts him back into the squad.

Okay the post is OTT, but the sentiment remains. Rafa deserves our respect, the biggest thing I respect him for is staying through all the protest and booing. Like it or not, he kept the dressing room on his side & like it or not he got us CL Qualification + Europa League.

PotY - Paulo 'Sideman' Ferreira! Player's POTY - Malouda GoS - Mikel YPotY - Hilario

Well done, dickheads!

Guardian, yesterday, suggested he had. I really don't want to hear he's anything near the £80-100k region.

This is only a good thing because: