Peace.

Because Rémy is not a bad player at all and he would be a valuable player for a lot of mid-table/small teams — that is, it is 'easy' to find potential buyers and thus, he is 'easy' to sell. On the second hand, you have a post-injury has-been on a high salary that has shown to the whole world, while 'playing' for United, that he was no longer fit to play in a serious league — and because of that, nobody outside Jorge Mendes' buddies wants to have him near their team. Although it is easy to understand, I guess it is even esier to blame the board...

I see a lot of people suggesting this is disgraceful of the Board to not renew Terry's contract and yadi yada... But I also see that these very same people have a very short — conveniently ? — memories. Terry Senior was caught dealing cocaine ; Mrs Terry Senior was caught stealing clothes ; Terry Junior was allegedly caught facilitating tours of Cobham in a shady way ; Terry Junior was caught cheating his wife with the ex-wife of his ex-teammate ; Terry Junior was caught saying nasty racist things on the pitch ; etc, etc... Some might be false and some others might be blown out of proportions. Nonetheless, all these scandals — and more particularly the Bridge-gate and the Ferdinand-gate — have been heavily used to indirectly attack our club and to try to derail many of our seasons. What did the club do ? They have backed him, all these years. I can assure you that anybody of you would be fired of your job on the spot if you were to be accused of racism — to be accused of racism today is like to be accused of paganism and witchcraft in Spain during the Inquisition or to be accused of being a Shia in Daesh's caliphate. Yet the club have backed him while it would have been so easy — especially because Benitez relegated him to the bench — to sack him like an old rag — and the whole football world would have congratulated Chelsea for doing so. And on top of that, that is the player that fucked up the penalty that would have won us our first Champions League ; and he let us down in the semi-final of the Champions League in 2012 — and consequently the final — by getting a stupid red card. It is highly likely that most of the club — at the exception of Liverpool, if you know what I mean — would have got rid of this problem of a player... Yet, during all those scandals, all those affairs, all those problematic moments... Chelsea has always backed their Captain while it would have been easier at several occasions to sell him than to back him up. And now, despite all of that, some people have the sheer arrogance to accuse the board of being disrespectful ?? All of you, instead of playing your outraged virgins, you should be grateful toward this 'classless' and 'disrespectful' Board — because had not it been for this 'scum' of a Board, you lot would not have been able to watch your 'Captain, Leader, Legend' — he would not have stayed long enough to be called so anyway — for this past five years or so. Just keep that in mind... Ah, this whole 'who's the more outraged of us' contest is truly cringeworthy and pathetic, and is really becoming unbearable...

I believe that many people will be disappointed at the end of the season... Hiddink will not be the one to bench Ivanovic and the latter will play nearly all games till the end of the season. I am pretty sure that for Guus, Ivanovic is still the guy that scored two goals against Liverpool in the CL. I doubt he saw a lot of games from him. In addition to that, when he came back he found out that Ivanovic was vice-captain... When you are hired mid-season, it is a difficult decision to bench a vice-captain that was already in place before your appointment — this is even more true when you are not aware that the said player is one of the worst players — if not the worst... I saw that people suggested that he should do his homeworks, that there are videos and analysis/analysts... Yeah fine. But what would he saw if he looks at these analysis/analysts ? That Ivanovic has been elected in the 2015 'team of the year'. He will also find out that Gary Neville described Ivanovic, in february 2015, as the best right-back in England. And if I am not mistaken, I believe that toward september, Neville also diminished Ivanovic's responsibility by pointing out that his mistakes were the result of collective mistakes (Matic would not protect the back-four correctly). As for the videos ? Well, the vast majority of Chelsea fans realized only this year that Ivanovic had past his sell-by-date and they were very surprised it happened. If people that watch him week-in and week-out take a lot of time to realize the misery he is in, then what about a grandpa that just came out of retirement ? No, Ivanovic his keeping his place untill the end of the season. Nonetheless, I hope Guus proves me wrong.

He is avoiding criticism for many reasons : as Oscar, he put a 'brilliant' performance in one of his very first game here and thus he is still living of that game against City ;'he' (it is rather the fans) built his myth during his first four months here where the fact he could not play every games was hiding his limitations and his lack of consistency ;(If my counts are correct) Out of 14 games he played in the league during these four months, he was paired six times with Ramires, thrice with Ramires and once with Mikel. All that within an ultra-defensive team, it is not hard to look like a 'defensive beast' ;He has very long legs so yeah when he puts a challenge that is impressive (i.e. the 'spider') ;Chelsea fans love their 'beast players' — Essien and Costa being good examples. His 'beast' performance against Manchester did allow Chelsea fans to believe, in a time where there were no longer 'beasts' (Luiz could have, though he was already frustrating everybody), that there was finally someone to pursue the 'beast' legacy of Essien, Ballack, etc..In a nutshell, Chelsea fans needed to have their 'beast' ; Matic did a 'beast' performance ; Matic has a 'beast' nick-name, i.e the spider... It was a match made in heaven, and that is how Matic became our very own 'Beast'. And because he is our very own 'Beast', he cannot do wrong.

Ahah, so true, I can picture it : Summer 2016 : Hazard out (the cunt, keeps too much the ball) ; Mosunda is put in Hazard's bags so he can fuck off with his technic and small stature ; Terry and Ivanovic sign a four years extension, just like Ramires and Cahill have just done during the season ; Ivanovic promoted from vice-captain to co-captain ; Oscar getting the n°10 shirt ; David Villa is signed for one year in order to pursue the Eto'o-Drogba-Falcao Fallen Dynasty. Summer 2017 : all attacking and technical practices are forbidden because they are too morally dangerous (they can lead one to be corrupted and to do mistakes !) ; Ibrahimovic is signed in order to pursue the Eto'o-Drogba-Falcao-Villa Fallen Dynasty ; Kheidira is the star signing and replace Willian.. The Brazilian tracks back however he keeps the ball too much and that can lead to more mistakes. Summer 2018 : since the players are not hurt but are divers, the medical team and the medical structure are finaly dismantled ; the dream is finaly reality and Wayne Rooney is signed to pursue the Eto'o-Drogba-Falcao-Villa-Ibrahimovic Fallen Dynasty ; the first team is set in stone : Ivanovic - Cahill - Terry - Azpilicueta / Matic - Kheidira / Ramires - Oscar - Fabregas / Rooooney

Fabregas, Pedro, Oscar, Matic : at the very best, they belong to a big team's bench.Terry, Ivanovic, (Falcao LOL) : not belonging to top-flight football anymore.Mikel, Cahill, Ramires, Remy : players for 'small' teams.Azpilicueta, Zouma, Costa, Willian : 'okay' players for a big team. Though, Azpi is a very good defensive right-back that plays left-back ; Zouma might be 'great' for is age but if you considere him as a first-team player (i.e. regardless of his age) he is good at best ; Costa has clear limitations in term of technic and self-control ; I have no complains in regards to Willian, though he should not be the 'player of the year'.That leaves us with : Hazard. He is the only (out-field) player we have that is world-class. And unfortunately for us, he is not the kind of player to get on the score-sheet (i.e., he is more an 'Iniesta' than a 'Suarez'). Do you remember, a couple of years ago we did have : Luiz ; Bertrand ; Azpilicueta ; Oscar ; Hazard ; de Bruyne ; Hazard ; Mata ; Lukaku (; Aké). It was not a great team by any means — however, that was an exciting project and it was a very good base to build a great team. A few key signings here and there (i.e. a great CB to partner Luiz, a great central-midfielder, a great striker) and some additions of 'good' players to compliment what we already had would have been enough to build a competitive team that would be able to play good football. Yet, two years later, we are left with a squad full of utility players, some dead-woods and some 'okay' players — and only one world-class player. Above all, we are left with only a very few players that are able to do things with the ball at their feet... We are not back to the step 1 — we are back to step -10. Mata, Luiz, Bertrand, de Bruyne, Lukaku, Schurrle, Salah... We have sold all these young and fresh players. We are left with nothing to build upon — and the only hope for people nowadays seems to be the combo 'Kennedy-RLC' which is a clear indication that we are at the bottom of a bottomless pit. Why, oh why did the board let Mourinho shape the team to his non-football philosophy ? He got rid of all the players that could play football and the players that could have been a bright spark for the 'long-term'. Instead, he gave a free-pass to all of our dead-woods and utility players because they are tall and would run behind the ball like donkeys — and more importantly, as they cannot keep the ball at their feet, the chances of them doing a mistake was greatly reduced, because hey, not doing any mistake is the most important thing in football. Unfortunately, we are not Real Madrid and we are not full of 'stars'... So we can forgot to bounce back like them. No, we are going to take the Inter route, and unless other clubs mismanage their team and unless we make some signings that turn out to be brilliant, we are not fighting for the title for the five next years. I am so pissed off.

Why do people have to complain again ? Yes, that is the same line-up and yes, this is frustrating to see again and again these poor players. But you have to keep in mind two things : Guus arrived here only one week ago and that is his first game ; you will have to bear those piss poor players until the end of the season, and most certainly the next season too. As I have said, this is is first game and he is the manager for one week — what were you expecting, a revolution ? Probably half of the players are unknown to him, especially RLC and Kennedy... Of course he will select the players he knows and the players that have the better C.V. To change the line-up he will need time to get to know the players. That is even more true for the 'youngsters'. It is always complicated to play them when you get to manage the team mid-season. And to be frank, Guus inherited a team that is too much in a dire position to make some fantasy in the first months. The first priority is to get out of the relegation battle ; the second is to secure enough points so we will not fight to not get relegated again. Once these important prorities are done, you can think to the youngsters. Though, to be honest, I am sure that 'try to get the fourth spot' will also be ahead of 'play the youngsters'. And as some others have mentioned, we need fresh players to play against Manchester... Maybe Guus feels Zouma's speed is more needed against Manchester than Watford. And to be honest — I will create a general commotion with this —, Zouma is not necessarily that better than Cahill — if he is indeed better... They have both their qualities and flaws, but let's be real, the difference between their level is marginal.. It 'might' be concerning in regards to his status within the team in a long-term perspective, yet, in regards to 'one game', Zouma or Cahill, it is 'Tweedledum and Tweedledee'. The bottom line is that, before getting your guns out as soon as the first game, let's see how Guus does in his first month here to draw conclusions. Also, a change in tactics does not necessarily implies a change in personal. And anyway, prepare yourselves to see the same team for a long time — we are too deep in the season and we are in a position too bad to be able to make drastic and fantasist changes.

Yep, that is the sad reality. Fabregas has always been a rather 'slow' kind of player. Yet, when he was playing for Arsenal and even Barcelona, there was more dynamism and 'pace' in his play. Nowadays, his physical engine has worn out ; there is no longer the little 'extra' of mobility (to not confound with speed) — and even agility — to get past his opponent or/and to offer himself more opportunities to pass the ball. Hence the dramatic drop of level he has endured while playing for us. Well, it is understandable for a player that has played professional football since he is 16 years-old (?). It was kinda the same problem with Torres : started at a high level at a really young age (and both of them captained their team at a young age, too) and started to decline in his mid-twenties. Though, I do not agree that much with the 'unable to perform to a decent level' part. One have to admit that his role in the team was putting emphasis only upon his deficiencies : the defensive work and the speed. People conveniently chose to exempt Matic of criticisms because his partner was Fabregas — though it works in both ways. At the end of the day, the Serbian is neither fast nor has an exceptional positioning sense... Hence, for an attacking midfielder as slow as Cesc, it is really hard to accomplish a proper defensive work when your partner is also someone that has an erratic positioning and who is as slow as Matic... Anyway, Cesc is no longer what he was and neither will be, though he has still a role to play. Firstly because for the few next years, unfortunately, we will not able to buy players much better than him so he has to play a role. And secondly, with a system that works and a good environment (i.e. not parking the bus), I am pretty sure we can get more than decent performances from him — in other words, he can still be useful.

I have already answered to these 'extreme accusations' in my last paragraph. Germans did what they did and we did what we did. I was not comparing us to what they did. I was merely comparing two process that led two groups of people to hate two other groups of people in extreme proportions. In that, the comparisons stand to be relevant and are not extreme. In the first case (Germany), the collision between reality and myth led a group of people to extreme absurdity. That's what is important to extract from what I wrote. In other words, when one refuses to confront to reality his own beliefs, he might be led to absurdity. That's the case here ; the refusal to acknowledge that the love story was not working anymore gives birth to theories—more cringeworthy than harmful—based upon nothing concrete but only upon ready-made arguments (such as 'he is not a chels', 'he does not care', 'he is a mercenary', etc..). At the end, the comparison was not upon the 'extreme' but the 'absurd'

Thanks. And at the end of the day, we don't need to elaborate theories that we would label in French 'à dormir debout'. Had Mourinho built a dinasty over 10 years while winning trophies and playing good football adn creating the so sought-after 'stability', everyone would have been happy. But that's no the case and it was not going to happen. We have players that have their qualities and their limitations just as Mourinho has his own qualities and limitations. It happens that Mourinho has not 'long-term' within his range of qualities, and that his qualities did not work any longer with our squad and project, leaving only his limitations to be expressed. So yeah, that's life—it was not working any longer regardless of people interest or good-will or passion.

During World War One, a lof of German officers were jews. Germany's defeat was a big problem for the German people because the were bred to the notion that Germans were the strongest people etc..., that is, they were the superior race. Since they were the strongest, how could they lose against those frog-eaters and tea-drinkers ? Two options : either because the 'German myth' was not true ; or they were non-German 'traitors' within the ranks. Since it was rather problematic for people that had presumed for many year that their country and race was the best, it was more convenient to opt for the second option, that is the non-German traitors. For this purpose, jews were designated as these non-German traitors as they suited the role pretty finely. They were deemed as not 'fully Germans'. And because of that, they neither were strong enough (they were piano players, no conquerors—that is, they were 'pussies') and nor did they care enough to not let down Germany. So that's it, they were the culprits. It had to be them because it was impossible for the German race to lose against French or British (and these filfy slaves). We are today in the same situation. You have people that label some of our players as 'rats', 'snakes' and 'traitors'. They do so because it is too difficult for them to accept the fact that the myth—i.e. the myth that Mourinho can do no wrong, that he is the best, that he is Chelsea and that he was here to create a dynastie—they believed in for the past three years is naught but a myth. Because it is too difficult to accept that what they dreamed to be true is no longer there, they come up with easy-made excuses : if it did no work, it has to be because of external elements, that is, non-Chels' traitors. And that's how people elaborate stupid theories such as 'Fabregas the snake'—a theory that is proven wrong a few hours after by Mourinho himself. By the way, before anyone uses the 'offended' posture (i.e. 'you compare us with Nazi ?!!'), I am not implying that these people will end-up killing jews like Nazis. I am just comparing two tribal and primal reactions that make no sens at the exception of hiding one's desilusion. To be honest, this whole affair is pretty stupid and appealing..

The problem with Simeone is not the fact that he too is a coach that puts emphasis upon the defence and the hard work. The problem is that just as Mourinho he is the negative and aggressive kind of coach. That's not what we need. From the board to the fans, and most specifically the players, Chelsea needs positivity—Chelsea needs to enjoy football again, and not to grind results against the World.

It is not a poor narrative, it is a stupid and deluded narrative. This is even more a stupid narrative than it could be because the same people seems to associate this narrative (i.e. 'player power') with the narrative of 'players being no leaders, being spineless, being pussies'. This association of narratives is extremely incoherent and stinks 'desilusion' and 'bad faith'. How can a pussy on the pitch suddenly turns out to be a grade-A lobbyist as soon as they enter the dressing room ? They simply don't. Drogba, Lampard, Essien, Cole, Terry — they were the definition of 'player power' (ask Scolari and AVB). Though they were also 'leaders' and had 'passion'. That's just like with Ramos and Casillas : they were the 'player power' at Madrid, but they were also 'leaders' and were 'Madrid'. So once again I ask the question, how can our spineless bunch of players can have any sort of power ? And we are not talking about having a 'little' power, we are talking about having a 'lot' of power. Because it concerns Mourinho for Christ's sake. Even an icon such as Casillas has had his career ruined in the process of getting Mourinho out. And if we analyze our previous 'player power', we can realize that it took Lampard, Cole and Essien to fire a mere nobody such as André Villas-Boas. The problem here is that, none of our player have the status that Lampard/Essien/Cole had (and I am not sure that any of them, except maybe Hazard will reach this status) ; and in term of status, Villas-Boas is a nobody compared to Mourinho. I really find it difficult to believe that our squad has enough power to get Mourinho sacked. Not only that, I also believe that a lot of them are simply not clever enough to do that... I mean, could you picture Ramires scheming a plan to get Mourinho axed ? Really ? And he's not the only one in this case. Moreover, a lot of players own too much to Mourinho to act against him. With Benitez, Terry was out of the picture and that's Mourinho who reinstated him as the undroppable leader. Ivanovic has been made vice-captain and has a free-pass — with most managers he would have been associated with Terry on the bench. Mikel, he collects checks because of Mourinho. Ramires can still miss passes in a Chelsea shirt because of Mourinho. Zouma, that is Mourinho who introduced him in the team. Oscar, he can go on to hide himself on football pitches because Mourinho saw him as his n°10. I could go on and on. As you and many others have already described, when you see our players play, you can see no difference in 'passion' between last year when we were Champions and this year when we are 'zero'. They run just as much, they tackle just as much, they give effort just as much. No, on the contrary, what one could witness, it is a good-willed bunch of players that are lost. They want to success, but nobody tells them how to do and unfortunately 'pass the ball to Hazard' is not working any longer. They are also lost because that is a situation extremely difficult to handle for newly crowned champions — and throwing them under the bus is definitely not the solution. And finally, when we talk about 'Mourinho having lost the dressing-room', this is not about a bunch of rebels that strike 'Mourinho out'. It only means that the dressing-room not longer responded to him because his methods and 'pedagogy' no longer worked on them. Simply enough. So yeah, if you want to create a football version of 'Game of thrones', the 'player power' is the narrative you should use — but unfortunately for us, most often than not, reality is really un-exciting.

Do some people realize how low and trivial the level of the debates is ? It is only about : 'Mourinho is 'chels' more than the players' ; 'the players betrayed him' ; 'they are not leaders' ; 'They are not at their best' ; 'they are underperforming' ; 'they should re-think the way they live' 'they are mercenaries and they do not care for the club' ; 'player power' ; and so on...It could be summed-up like this : we are poor because players are poor ; players are poor because they are not good ; players are not good because they betray Mourinho ; they betray Mourinho because they do not care ; they do not care because they are not 'one of us' ; they are not 'one of us' because they are mercenaries.That's it, the cipher is complete. But what about football ??? It is a romantic and sentimental way to see the situation, yet we are a football club not 'The Young and the Restless'. Our problem is foremost a problem of football, not of passion. I do not think that anyone on here believes that, for example, Manchester City players are firm fans of the club since childhood and that they only live by and for Manchester City. That's not true. They are a bunch of mercenaries, that is, professional footballers. They are better than us because on the one hand their players are better on the ball than us, and on the other hand, because their manager create tacticts to capitalize upon their better skill with the ball. We are bad because of football problems. We cannot string two passes together to save our lives, we don't have offensive tactic ('pass the ball to Hazard and see what happens' is not a tactic) , we do not have pattern, we do not have any sharpness, we cannot control the midfield with 6 midfielders and our players are not Messis and create instants of magic. Eventually, we play a very bad football. I do think that a lot of our players are bad (I most likely rate our squad less than a lot of you), bad there are many teams out there that have worse players than us and yet they play a better football than us. If we (especially the board and Mourinho) are unable to think the problem beyond the basic instinct of 'passion', then we are not out of it. If we do not start thinking with football facts and analysis, we will stay in this dire situation.

Indeed. Mourinho is a manager that needs non-football challenges to thrive, that is the challenge to 'finally beat this or that'. At Chelsea the first time, he had the challenge to make the 'new-rich' club to win the league and to make it one of the best club in Europe. Once it was made, the 'motivation' game no longer worked. At Inter, he had the challenge to finally make Inter win in CL (after Mancini disappointing runs) and to be the team to beat Pep' Barcelona in CL. Once it was done, he flew in search of a new challenge. At Madrid, he had the challenge to be the one to put an end to Pep's Barça. Once Pep was no longer there, there was no thing to be motivated for/against. At Chelsea, he had the challenge to make the 'little horse' win against Manchester City*. Once Chelsea is no longer the little horse, it collapses. So yeah, the defy left for Chelsea is to win with style—but 'style' is not in his vocab. When you are the Champion, it is rather hard to act as the under-dog and to be motivated to beat the mighty Stoke. At one point, motivation is not enough to win, you need to add tactic and technic (and enjoyment). But yeah, he certainly would be a great fit for the United job. As you said, they are the perfect match. He would even be able to sell Mata a second time. *this point is worth to open a new discussion. One might argue that he actually made Chelsea wear the 'little horse' dress on purpose (consciously or unconsciously) in order to create a challenge for which he could get the best individually of his players—and in the process, hindering us to develop further (that season) either by trying to win directly or by developing our play (because had we been better with the ball, we would not have been the 'little horse').

A £40m contract without any insurance to break it at a lesser cost, I do not believe in it. We are talking about Abramovitch for Christ's sake. A Russian billionaire oligarch that has to deal with people of Poutine's standard. And the rest seems to be a bunch of top-flight businessmen that have to create every day new astuces to not pay any taxes. There is no way that a football coach can fool them in such a department. But if it is truly the case, he Madoff-ed 'em.

And can the fee we would pay to sack him be the reason for which we do not sack him ? And should it even be a reason ? Going by that — graphic —, if we stay at our current position (16th), we would receive £10m for 'merit' (i.e. our final position). Had we were in a position to secure the 4th position, we would have received £34m — that's a £24m loss. If we manage to get the 10th spot — we are 8 points away, that is half of our point tally —, we would get £22m, that is a £12m loss. I doubt we will get significantly less 'live' diffusion because of our slump (I'm sure they lick their lips at the idea of diffusing even more of our slump), but it might result in one or two live game in less, which would equal to approximately £2m not a lot but still). Being in the CL group stage next year would have automaticcaly granted us €12m (£8m). For a win in the group stage, the money would be €1,5m — the draw €0,5m. There is always a bully team so even if it's a bad season, we can at least think of a one win and one draw : €2m (£1,5m). It could mean a €14m (£9,5m) loss. Say, we keep our current position in the league and miss out the CL next year. That would equate to more or less a £30m loss. Had the board acted quickly, we would have potentially been able to almost compensate his sacking by salvaging what is to salvage. Well, even if we do compensate the fee, £40m will still be lost. Though, it is better to compensate it (-£10m) than to add it (-£70m). Even if the numbers I found are flawed, staying in the current situation is to potentially lose a lot of money anyway. It might save us a few millions in the short term. But it is candle-end economy and might be proved very costly in the medium term. The question is eventually whether would we like : a few millions today or tomorrow... In any cases, we will lose a lot of money, so it cannot, and should not, be invoked as the ultimate reason.

Yes, they don't know what to do. They've already tried : Ranieri ; Mourinho ; Grant ; Scolari ; Hiddink ; Ancelotti ; Villas-Boas ; di Matteo the interim ; di Matteo the manager ; Benitez ; Mourinho mark II. That's 11 managers, and none appears to work, or at least to satisfy their taste (Hiddink and di Matteo the interim are special cases). They have also tried a lot of profiles : the 'young star' (Mourinho, Villas-Boas) ; the 'established' (Scolari, Hiddink, Ancelotti, Benitez, Mourinho mark II) ; the 'promoted from the rank' (Grant, di Matteo the manager) ; the 'old-one' (Mourinho mark II). What is left to turn to, for non-footballer persons like them ? There are not many 'established' managers left... Guardiola, Enrique, Simeone ? Probably unreachable—and not possible until the end of the season. Klopp is already taken. Ancelotti is free but already tired out. The rest are an average bunch. You have maybe guys like the Dortmund's manager who are rather a 'lower' profile and not hyped like Villas-Boas was. As for the 'rest of the world', that is too underground for the board. Their inaction might to be attributed to the fact they have already someone for next year. But even then, it does not explain why they do not act ? After all, sacking the manager mid-season when things were bad proved to be an option that actually worked. After sacking Mourinho, we were one-penalty series away of winning the Champions League. After sacking Scolari, we won the FA Cup and if it was our day we would have reached for the second time (in a row) the Champions League Final. After sacking Villas-Boas, we won the Champions League and the FA Cup (and managed to take back the CL spot that slipped away in the League). After sacking di Matteo, we also secured a CL spot that was not certain and won the Europa League. So yeah, even if we already have a manager, why be passive right now ? Why not try to stop the free-fall that we are enduring and try to secure some 'sane' bases for the next manager to come ? It's not even about winning the FA Cup or the Champions League. It's about de-zombifying our players, to start to push away the wood-legs and to introduce the youngsters that have potential, and more basically, to give them optimism and positivism...some bright light. They are definitely not enjoying their football—you cannot produce when you are not enjoying your stuff—and this miserable situation makes it only worse.

'All last season I did a phenomenal work and I brought them to a level that is not their level, more than they really are' or 'this season we are doing so bad that the players for some reasons (...), clearly for some of them it's so difficult' When it's good, it's 'I, Jose Mourinho' — when it's bad, it's 'we... i.e. the players'. This quotation sums him perfectly. It should bring discredit upon his reputation (but it won't). 'One of us' my ass.

I have kind of taken you to the word and have checked his social media pages. And I have come across this picture. 'Oscar, a man floating around like a boy'. That's exactly what he is : a 25 years-old grown man floating around the pitch like an innocent boy floats in the park on a sunday afternoon while kicking the ball with his school friends. He is a young rich man who's living the 'dream'; living the cool life. He has no ambition, no will, no fire—a passenger that is. Oscar Passenger dos Santos Emboaba Jùnior. P.S. on a side note that explains why he disappears in the second half of the season (and now in the first..). He is not enough passionate—he is just a naive rich kid that wants to kick the ball around. The professional football's constraints quickly wear him mentally which leads him to lose interest and eventually to disppear.

In the five last years, it seems we have set some embarrassing 'precedents'. With di Matteo, we have been the first Champions League winner to not qualify for the second round of the competition. Ancelotti also has his word to say : after winning an excellent Premier League title (103 goals..), he miserably failed the very next season. Even though he still managed to get the second spot, we played what was until now our worst football. This two events, I am sure, were the roots of a lot of embarrassments and pain for Chelsea fans. After all, in these two situations, we became the laughing stock across Europe after having achieved something great. In this respect, Mourinho is putting them into misery. After winning the League, we are into the relegation battle (don't fool yourselves, that's where we are : three points above the 18th) while playing the most boring, the most uncreative and unimaginative, the most hideous and the most ineffective football a top team has produced this last ten years. I though that Ancelotti and di Matteo have donne something great on a 'collapse' scale, but Mourinho takes the collapse to a whole new level...

Barbara, you are not getting it right in my opinion. As you suggested in your first post, the reaction is 'predictable' — but a big team led by Mourinho that gets an 'ok' one-nil victory against a shitty team too is so predictable. And I do not believe it has anything to do with people's ego being hurt. Once you have said 'youpi we won I'm happy', what is left to be said ? Unless you win against a big team, or that something special or new happens during the game, there is nothing more to say. And most people could not be bothered to write down 'youpi we win' and celebrate the victory by there side. Moreover, you mention celebrating improvement. But when the improvement consists of winning one nil against Norwich after having lost to Stoke, there is not a lot to be celebrated when the club concerned is of our calibre. And to be frank, I have the feeling that a lot of people have gotten bored out of hell with the shit and negative football we play since January and with the constant soap opera we get since the first game of the season (take a look at the forum's activity). In that regard, I do believe that even had we lost, the so-called 'moaners' would not have been bothered to 'moan'.

And your mate Hassan's point is ?

And 40-ish in other places. Apparently there was 7 attacks in different places. Paris' police préfecture says we should stay at home tommorow and they are shuting down all the important pulic places and museums... What's happening is so terrible...

What's going on ? I just arrived at home and I just don't know... you guys seem to be more informed than me... The only thing I can tell you is that the atmosphere over here is certainly 'weird'. I was at a restaurant and all of a sudden all the people took out their phones. My mom called me to see if I was good—at first I did not understand why would she do that, but then she told me there were 40 people dead (60 now it seems?)... In the metro I saw people coming back from Le Stade de France: their were zombies; it was like they've seen hell... I am in shock right now..