Peace.

Player of the season : Messi Young player of the season : Courtois Best transfer of the season : van Persie (won them the League) Worst transfer of the season : Us keeping the ladyboy. Best managerial appointment of the season : ??? Worst managerial appointment of the season : Di Matteo (what happened was bound to happen, so misjudgment by the board) Goal of the season : Oscar Vs Juventus (the second) Overachieving team of the season : Bayern Munich Underachieving club of the season : Chelsea (competing for eight trophies, winning only one) Best match of the season : Chelsea 2-3 MU ; Tottenham 2-4 Chelsea ; Milan 2-0 Barça ; Southampton 2-1 Chelsea Best moment of the season : Euh... The end of it and the day we released the waiter. Complaint of the season : A complain ? That it has been a pretty poor season into my eyes. Or at least, I've been disapoited. A lot of top teams have struggled, especially in the league (ManCity, Chelsea, Dortmund, Madrid). ManUnited was not a beautiful winner. Despite a near perfect start of the season, Barcelona have been disapoiting in the second part of it. I'm not sold by Munich. No real suspense in the major leagues (Bundesliga, the Premier League and La Liga being won early). We wen through a difficult season, on a sportive level, and emotional level. A lack of stand-out performers (who are consistent). Etc... Overall, it's a "meh" season for me.

Yes, his defensive inefficiency can be explained by the fact he is "too small and weak". However, that's not all. I believe that his problems in this matter are not only down to physical issues. To illustrate what Mata lacks to be good defensivly, I'll take an example : Pedro Rodriguez. He is roughly the same size as Mata, and seems to have more or less the same body (I mean in term of muscles, shoulders, etc... See the picture below). They seem to have the same body bulk. Yet, when it comes to defensive abilities, it's kinda like comparing the night and the day. Indeed, Mata is known to be poor at the defensive job while Pedro, in my honest opinion, is one of, if not the best, forwards in the game when it comes to defensive efficiency. Yeah, it's easy to hate this guy but his work rate is splendid and efficient (and underrated as well). Despite the fact that Pedro is significantly faster (and has more pace) than Mata, I deeply believe that the differences between them are at a psychological/mental level. I believe that Mata lacks mental features that make Pedro so good in this matter : the aggressiveness and the will. Pedro isn't afraid to go and battle for the ball against someone who's 1,90 m and 85 kg (just an example huh), and even if he fails to dispossess his opponent the first time, he will right away try again. On the other hand, Mata is way too soft and kind — and passive as well. When he goes and challenges an opponent, you can see that his heart isn't 100% in it. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that he doesn't give a fuck and is thinking to something else ; no, it's in the sens that he's too shy, he's on his back foot. Though, maybe if he were to have more muscles, he would be more confident and more incisive... And finaly, into my eyes, he isn't made for the defense ; he doesn't understand Defense — just like some people don't understand Mathematics (you certainly had in your class someone who always had poor grades in Math, no matter what they were doing) or like some people cannot draw in 3D, etc... I spend a lot of time being focused on players' defensive contribution, especially forwards/midfielders. That is these observations that makes me think that Mata and Defense cannot get along (just like me and Finances lol). When he does try, his contribution is always 'off' ; he is always a few seconds/inches late. He is not in the flow, not in the rythme — just like Kyle Broflovski when he tries to dance ! That's why I say he doesn't "understand" Defense (not in the sens "he's dumb"). And also, his positionning is off, too. That's imo wherein lies the difference between him, and players like Pedro, Iniesta and Xavi.

What Munich is doing is shocking. Though, I am even more shocked regarding to what Götze and Lewandowski themselves have done. At the end of the day, they weren't forced to accept, were they ? I fail to understand how can they have the wish to go there. Götze is said to have signed for Munich because he wanted to work with Guardiola. Isn't it disrespectful toward Klopp and Dortmund ? BVB and Klopp are those who made him into the player he is nowadays. But as soon as Guardiola shoewed-up, he signs for their rival because he wants to work for this coach (and get more money surely). It's not even as if Dortmund couldn't give him trophies. In the past three years, he's won two Bundesliga, one German Cup and has reached the final of the Champions League. And regarding the Klopp's project, it's pretty safe to say that Dortmund will be competitive club for the upcoming seasons. But now Munich does appear to be a bigger force, he jumps out of the ship... Wouldn't it be better in many ways to help the team which built you, instead of choosing the facility and helping to 'destroy' your ex-club's project ? The same does apply for Lewandowski. They would have been nobodies without Klopp and Dortmund. If I was Klopp, I would be furious and feel pretty much hurt.

£25m is a lot for a 29 years-old player ; £25m is a lot for a defender ; £25m is a lot for a player who didn't have a good season ; £25m is a lot for a player who's starting to regress.... In other words, that's a lot of money for Ivanovic. On the one hand, he didn't have a good season at all, and considering his age, we can assume that's the "beginning of the end". On the other hand, as TOP2B said, the serbian is only the third choice ; and we really need a first choice CB to partner Luiz for the forthcoming years. So, if this rumor is true (which I doubt, because the source is the Daily Mail, and because the only French sources reporting that are unreliable (those are website in the mould of goal.com) and are quoting DM), then we should bit their hand off. This is a golden deal for us. We will probably never be proposed something like this for one of players, let alone for Ivanovic. Therefore, considering all the aforementioned facts, we should sell him, and with the money we can reinvest this money on someone of the likes of Varane or Subotic (which would been great additions to our squad).

It's going to be a pain in the ass, isn't it ? It'll be long and boring. And I can already fashion how it will be : the medias will do a u-turn and will "root" for Terry just so they can criticize us while Terry and his agent will play the "victim card" just like Lampard and his agent have done. Unnecessary dramas are lying ahead, I'm afraid.

I mean, seriously. He should stop to wear the kit when the team lifts the trophy, while he isn't in the squad for the final. That's ridiculous and cringeworthy.

I am agree. I don't know, but I find this deal odd. For some reason, I don't believe that's for sportive reasons... In my opinion, it's either for marketing matters or it's a panic buy. But I could be wrong. Anyway, as you say, I too ain't sure that he would fit with their playing style. Neymar doesn't come across as a player who loves to make one-touch passes. At Barça, there's only one player who stays on the ball, Messi — and that's not going to change anytime soon. How is he gonna develop while doing an unflashy job ? Does his play will remain as efficient and as good when being a part of the team, while he was the star player of his team for the last two/three years ? I can fashion this deal ending like Alexis'. In a way, they are similar players — the antithesis of Barça. On another hand, when Messi cannot play or isn't in a good day, Barça are nothing, they don't offer any threat. So, maybe they want him for this kind of situation, i.e. having an alternative to Messi when he's not "there"... Neymar as false nine does, hypothetically, look better than Fabregas as false nine. So who knows ?

As long as that these rashness and recklessness in is defensive interventions don't disappear from his game, and as long as he will have problems with his decision making, he should not feature in our hypothetical futur starting XI — I say. That's not the first time that he flirts with the red card, and today it could have cost us the game and maybe the Champions League qualification as well.

Well, regarding Aston Villa, it's a win against a team which fight to avoid the relgation. Granted it's a huge score line, at the end of the day that's three points against a team from which we merely had to take three points. Nothing special. As for Everton, it's a tricky team and they are the 3rd best home team, so well play — just as United (maybe if they weren't playing for 'nothing', it would have been different ?). But, taking into consideration what I said in my previous post : we took three points out of 21 from this seven games. Out of those six teams, two are going down, and the others are respectively 3, 4, 5, 5 and 8 points away from the relegation. That's 18 points lost out of 21 from games which we should have won. We should have, at the very least, had taken 15 points from those games. We would have 12 points in more, which means that we would have had now 81 points — 4 below United and 6 ahead of City (had we not beat Arsenal/Everton and United, we would be on par with them). Furthemore, gainst top-table opponents — namely United, City, Arsenal, Tottenham, Everton, Loserpool — we took 12 points out of 21 available (seven games) -> we took 'only' half of them. I do not believe that's an over-achievement. Finally, since that skinny dude is the manager, here's the League table : United -> 55 pts (23 games) Tottenham -> 49 (24) Arsenal -> 47 (23) City -> 47 (24) Chelsea -> 45 (24) We're not in the top four.

You're right. Had di Matteo still been our coach, we would have lost against West Ham, QPR, Newcastle, Southampton. We also would have drawn against Fulham, Southampton and Reading.

I didn't see the first half, so I will only give some of my thoughts about the second half. Take note that I haven't the thread yet, so pardon me if I am being redundant. * We did not win one point tonight — we lost two points. I am quite frustrated and annoyed in regards of the outcome. We had the game in our hands ; had some clear opportunities to put this match to the bed ; but in the end, we let them get a goal quite easily. And, even if we played (very) well throughout the majority of the game, I still find it hard to see positive things ! Our aim in this end of seaon, it's to qualify for the Champions League, not necessarily to play well or stuff. We needed to take these three points (from our direct opponents) in order to put ourselves in security. We failed — to mine, that's that. * That is not the first time, unfortunatly, that we failed to take a win from an important game. This games were either against weak oppositions that should have definitely been beated ; or where we were in lead but found ourselves giving away cheap goals ; or both ! From the corner of my mind, I can tell : QPR (0-1) ; Southampton (2-2) ; Newcastle (3-2) ; Southampton (2-1) ; Loserpool (2-2 — which was the copy/past game of today, i.e. we scored first, then let them score, for then take anew the lead to finally grant them another cheap goal) ; and tonight against Spurs (2-2). In my honest opinion, that fact stress a problem regarding the mental of our players. Is that we lack cojones ? Is that our players think they have the game won and thus have concentration slip ? Probably a bit of both. We need to learn that the game is won when the final whistle is blown. * As I said, I find myself in frustration toward the outcome of the game. Indeed, the way we let those two points get away... We had our chances to kill the game ! For instance, When Hazard sky-rocked a more or less golden opportunity to make it 3-1. That was a bad shot, he should have at least hit the target. Or he could (or should) have passed the ball to Mata who was — although being marked by a Spurs' defender — in a pretty good position to put the ball into the net. Another example is the occasion where Ramires lost his balance. Mata should have done a lot better, here. At the start of the action, it was clear that he would struggle to out-run that Tottenham defender, whoever he was. In the meantime, on his left side, Ramires was starting to make his run through the goal ; Mata should have passed him the ball at this moment ! Ramires would have been free to run alone, and would have had all the space to control the ball. Maybe that the spanish didn't see that possibility, in the "heat of the action". Nonetheless, he should have done better at the end of the action. The pass he made to Ramires was quite poor. I am also frustrated with Ramires falling donw ! Though, he was not the only one to lose his balance, so it could be more bad luck than anything — but still frustrating ! Finally, if my memory serves me right, there was a moment when Mata was alone on the left side while the ladyboy was in the box with only one Tottenham player... Mata's cross when out. He really should have done better here, that was a good opportunity ! We do need to take our chances — it has cost us a lot in the last three seasons. * We also can be angry toward the interim. Imo, he made poor decisions, and just as our players' failures, it has cost us the three points. First off all, the ladyboy... how the hell did he stay on the pitch ? He was a passenger ; he was invisible. Because of him, our players had no one to look for in the front and pass the ball to. Thus, when in possession, we lacked sharpness. We couldn't set the control of the ball because of it, in my opinion. And the only time he got the ball, he made nothing good from it. He really should have been sub earlier. I get that Ba a fitness problem, but 20 minutes would not have done him too much damage, would it ? If he couldn't, then put Moses on, play with a false n°9 and restructure the midfield. I won't comment Moses for Hazard ; it could have been because he was injured, I don't really know... Another bug mistake was to not change the midfield. Before the goal, that was clear that we were losing the midfield battle and that Rmires and Luiz were tired. Lampard could have been used to help the two Brazilians. If not, then Terry could have been used, thus pushing Ivanovic on the righ, and Azpilicueta on the right wing, with Oscar in the middle and Mata on the front. Or I don't know, but there were different kinds of solution to strengthen the midfield. In this regard, it was really a bdad coaching. * This game really reminds me the one against Loserpool. An important game — we lead, then let them to get back, then take anew the lead to let them come back once again. There were also the same "what the fuck" sibstitution in the same circumstances : the ladyboy, bena-fucking-you, ... * Aside from "why...?" passes, Oscar was immense. He was pretty sharp in attack and when in possession. And in defense, he was wonderful. A great work-rate, a great defensive game, a great work-rate. Plus, he scored. Very good game from him, I love him !

What will happen tomorrow :

I believe that your opinion and Styles' opinion on the matter, doesn't nulify eachother. Let me explain. I am agree with your previous post — one of our biggest problem is the fact that our starting XI lacks quality (no striker and no players suited to play in the pivot). Even tough, Styles is also right. It's not necessarily because of Marin, that's rather because we have players such as Marin on the bench. Just as our starting XI, our bench cruelly lacks quality ; sometimes it looks so poor that you want to cry. And it appears that Marin embodies this problem. As you say, Marin is the eighth option for the attacking midfielder spot ; behin Benayoun and Ramires, but also to a lesser extend behind Bertrand. Even though, on the paper, Marin should be (with Moses) the "squad player" for this spot. However, he is so poor that a RB, a B2B and a unwanted player are getting picked-up ahead of him. This is a genuine problem - it just shows how much our bench is weak. You are saying that it's our managers' fault if the likes of Hazard and Mata are not rested because they have pressure to win trophies. Though, is this fact the origin, or the outcome ? This season, with that poor squad, we reached the FA Cup semi, the Cup League semi, the Europa League and we will likely finish in the top four. In my honest opinion, it does mean that with a proper squad depth, we should not have such a problem regarding players playing time. In my view, it worked this way : the manager had pressure to win trophies ; but our squad is not good enough ; so the manager was forced to overuse our key players. Had Marin been as good as Moses, then Mata probably wouldn't have had to play 10 domestical cups games and to play against poor team. Had we had a Moses2.0 instead of Marin, then Mata and Hazard would have probably played 10 less games each one. Finally, I do not think that your example regarding ManU, Buttner and Wooten is a good one. You can play with one or two poor players in your team — as long as it's not at a key spot, then you won't suffer too much. For instance, Barcelona has an average defense, but against 90% of their opponents they don't don't suffer of it. Why ? Because they put the emphasis on their midfield and on the attacking side of the game. Therefore, because of the big possession, their defenders don't have to do that much, and even if they fail, the attacking players (I mean Messi) make up for it. That's why they can play Adriano as a CB and still win ! That's the same with United. For instance, against us they were able to play with Wooten, because they still had Giggs, Nani, Welbeck and Hernades as their forwards (= they had performing players at their key area, the attack). However, we cannot play Marin because the AMs is our key area — and playing Marin there would mean weakening this area too much. And that's also why we have been able to win with the ladyboy in the side : because the striker in our systeme is marginalized. The bottom line is that Marin is not at fault because for what he has done, but because of what he has not done. And yes, our bench (and thus the likes of Marin) is one of our biggest problem. It's just simply not good enough. United have Cuntarito and Welbeck to replace Rooney and RvP ; we have Moses, Marin and Bena-fucking-youn to replace Mata and Hazard — that's partly where lies the 17 points gap, in my honest opinion.

I co-sign. "And the RZA Styles, he is the sharpest motherfucker in the whole Clan forum, he always on point."

Yeah, from my understanding, at first stories were saying that we paid him £12m, but some months later it appeared that he only paid him his wage. I know it's the Sun, so not the most reliable source out there (I am too lazy to make more search right now).

March 2, 2013 : April 29, 2013 :

He is yet to show that he can consistently deliver 20+ goals per season ; though, whenever he has been given a fair chance in a team, he has scored a lot (and was very good as well). At Bolton, where he was loaned six months, he has scored 8 gaols in 12 games in the League. I have watched four or five of their games in full (and also catched some minutes here and there) and I can tell you he was pretty good. Not only goal-scoring-wise ; his all-over game was good. In the season 2011-12, he missed the three first games because of the red card he picked up in his last game with Bolton (he scored a goal for his first game). After that and until di Mateo was appointed has care-tacker, Danni played 21 games and scored 9 times in the League. If my memory serves me right, he has scored about 8 goals in 13 games, before we severely fell apart. Moreover, he was pretty important for us in the first part of our season (one of our three best players), and it was in a position which was not his (the right wing). For the debat sake, in a full "season" (one half with Bolton, a sedonc one with Chelsea), he has scored 17 goals in 33 games. Which is not really bad, isn't it ? Furthermore he was quite important for both team. Now he is at Loserpool, he has scored 7 goals and made 3 assists in 11 League games. So you see, whenever he was given a real chance, he has turned out to be good. Scored 24 goals in 44 games (0,55 goals per game) — which is not bad — and was important for the three teams he played for. As for his defending game that you appear to criticize, as the Skipper said, you have got remember that he is a striker ; strikers are not exactly famous for their defending game, are they ? Adding to that the fact that for Chelsea, he played as a right winger, and, wingers have to do significantly more work than strikers. Therefore, his lack of defending was hightlighted. His lack of defensive game is one of the reasons for which di Matteo didn't play him — though that's not the only one. Indeed, di Matteo didn't seem to like Danni that much, which is nothing extraordinary, since pretty much all managers have their chouchou and one guy they don't like. And, during Roberto's spell as a care-tacker, was not suited to play (unless if it was at striker, but that was not possible) since we adopted a defensive tactic. He also seemed to be off-form, though, which 21 years-old player does not show inconsistency ? The bottom line is that I believe that you're holding a judgment too much harsh regarding his quality, and into my eyes he is way better than what you seem to credit him for.

Like some people have already stated, your size does not define your strength. There are many more factors ! For instance, how your body his built, and how muscular you are. But there is also your balance, and how do you use that balance ; even a tall and big man can be throw to the ground by a smallish man if he is off balance, for instance. Alexis might be small (1,69 m), but as you can see on the picture posted by Spike, he has a lot of muscles, is robust/tough and is stocky as Spike said. To compare with our own players, Oscar is 1,80 m and McEachran is 1,78 ; Alexis is significantly much more stronger than them — hell, Josh could be throw into the sky by a gust of wind ! The Chilean is stronger than Hazard, Mata and Oscar, believe me, and he would not be jealous of Moses' strength. So writing him off because he is 1,69 is not a valid reason. And I do not understand people who say that our team would be weak because our three AMs would be small... As Rmpr stated, you can have physical strength elsewhere ! If we buy Falcao, we won't have a physical weak striker ! And sooner or later Lukaku will come back, and in the meantime we will have Ba ! We will most likely have strength and physicality within our defense and defensive midfield, too. So that's not exactly as if our team will be full of 1,69m-players, huh ?! And people like to throw in the recent decline of Barça as argument against having small players in the team. Barça problems are much more complex than this question of size. I can guarantee you that even if Iniesta, Xavi, Pedro and Alexis were all 1,85 m, they still would have lost to Bayern... Probably not in such a fashion, but they would have lost. I won't develop much further because it isn't a discussion about Barça, though I can tell you that Barça problems have wayyyyy more to do with their Messi-addiction (and other flaws as well) than with their small size. Finally, as I have already stated, I believe it is a good option for our squad. First off, we do not have any right winger. Even though Alexis is not exactly a right winger (he is more of a second striker), he would be perfectly fine on our right wing — significantly better than any of our options at the moment. And he will add to our squad abilities we do lack at the moment. He likes to provoke and to take on defenders (something we do cruelly lack) and he is much more direct than Mata and Oscar, and I believe a tad more than Hazard. That addition would add variety to our squad which is something nice. Moreover, he is also a player with a good ethic when it comes to work-rate and to accomplish his defensive duties ; we all know that Mata and Hazard aren't the best in this aspect.... As a matter of fact, we won't have anymore to play Oscar out of position in order to have defensive abilities within our three Ams. The only downside is his finish product, which tends to be a bit off. Regarding his not so good form at Barça, I am not too bothered. I have already explain why on the last page, so I will be brief. I do believe that he can re-catch the spark which made him so special at Udinese if he plays in a team which suits him. For something around £20m, I do believe he is worth the gamble and I would gladly welcome him here ! By the way, he was bought for 26 millions euros, which makes today £21m ; if Barça wants him out (or if he wants to leave), they will likely not be looking to make profit (for the reasons I explained in my last comment on the previous page), thus his price tag might be less than £20m...

Well, for a long time now I was against this signing, and this for several reasons. Now I am not as sure about my stance (regarding this deal) as before. So I'll try and look at the bright side of this deal : * To my mind, we need to make a marquee signing this summer, whatever the position (CB, CM, ST...). I think it is very important, because it will send a strong message to our opponents in the Premier League. It will show our intents : put an end to our run of three pathetic seasons in the league. Kinda like what United did last summer ; they lost the league to City, so they bought van Persie even if they seemingly had enough strikers (and it turned out to be the right decision). Buying the player regarded as one of the best striker in the world, if not the best, will clearly be a statement to both Manchester clubs that they will have to count upon us. * The game against Basel yesterday night stressed one of our flaws which has been damaging us all the season long. It's our finishing (or lack of). I'll mention again the example of United and van Persie. This United team is not by any means an exceptional team. They have many flaws : their defense and midfield are fairly average. Though, their striking force, especially the Dutchman, have papered over those flaws. Barcelona and Messi is another example : the little agrentinian has carried his team on his shoulders for the past two years. This season we have been very wasteful ; had we had a proper finisher, we would have most certainly been ahead of City and have won the World Cup. So Falcao could resolve our finishing problems, and thus make our other problems looking less troublesome. * He will give us another dimension in our game. At the moment, we lack penetration, because our midfielders have no one in front of them to pass the ball to. As a matter of fact, our game is pretty flat, and all we do is to pass the ball sideway around the box. Furthermore, many members say we lack width and our crossing-game is not good enough. But why would we have width and a good crossing-game when there's no one in the box to cross to ? With Falcao, we are bound to have more penatration, because our AMs will look to give him the ball. Also, with him as the focal point in the box, having width will make sense, because we will have someone to cross to. * He will give us a mental edge. At the moment, we are pretty easy to defend. Indeed, we do not really have a striker ; all happens through our AMs. Therefore, in order to nullify our attacks, all the opponents have to do is to leave our striker alone and to close down space for our AMs — which makes us toothless. Moreover, we lack the fear factor. Our players don't really cause fear and havoc. With Falcao, our opponents will be on their back feet. Because of his reputation, defenders will loosen their marking upon Mata, Hazard, etc... Because they will have to handle him. As a matter of fact we will be harder to defend. Voilà voilà.

Three things : * Do you really believe that booing the ladyboy will affect negatively his game ? Against Loserpool this week-end, he was a lost soul wandering on the pitch for about 98 minutes. Though, there wasn't anyone around booing him, right ? Tonight, he fucked-up three clear opportunities to score. Then again, nobody was booing him. And it's just the two most recent examples out of more than 100 games. Over the past two and a half years, Chelsea fans have showed a great support to him, nonetheless, he still has proved to be the biggest flop of football history. So I ask you, what will happen if he sees banners telling him to fuck off ? Will he miss a siter on purpose ? Too bad, he is already doing this, even when fans are singing "T*rres T*rres T*rres". Then maybe he will suck and show no passion ? Then again, that's mainly what he has achieved in his time here. * What do you think that his firends will do, if we do jeer him ? Will they start an hunger-strike ? Footballers are not renowned to have the most performant brains, though they are not that dumb. He might be their friend, but they most certainly know that he is awful and frustrating, so they will understand our stance. Plus, they know that they are bound to be applauded and cheered when they have a good game/season, just as they are bound to be booed when they are poor. * And lol, sending out a wrong message. During Rijkaard's last year at Barça, fans were booing him/the team. Though, that didn't prevent Barcelona to buy great players and to be admired all over the world. This is not the sole example ; Madrid fans have booed Ronaldo and Mourinho, yet it won't prevent Madrid to attract great players and have a good image — I could mention many other examples. That's how it works in football : when fans are happy, they applause, sing, cheer, etc... when they are not, they boo. Furthermore, put aside his fangirls, everybody knows that this poor excuse of a player is a supreme flop, I am pretty sure that other teams' players and fans would understand our feelings.

Do they really believe that ? Somebody needs to tell 'em that we won't sell them Mata and Hazard this summer, if you know what I mean

I don't know how he was at Udinese, but I watch him at Barça. Actually, I can understand where they come from. Indeed, his finishing this season has been quite frustrating ; he has bottled a lot of chances (I believe that the match au Parc des Princes embodies this fact). Also, his season has been mixed between hot and cold. He has made his way into the team just as quickly has he got benched, and thus it has provoqued a lack of consistency (alternating between the good and the poor). So yeah, it's not a very good season for his standard — and for Barça's standard as well. Though, we can find some kinds of explanations for this. As I aforementioned, he has been continuously in and out of the starting team, thus altering his consistency. Also, it's not like he is the first choice, for the two spots remaining in attack. They are shared between Villa, Pedro, Tello and him (and sometimes Fabregas) ; they have respectively played 35, 39, 30 and 39 games. And finally, one could say that the graft didn't take ; Alexis doesn't fit Barça, and vice versa (kinda like with Ibramovich). At the end of the day, it still has been an average season and frustrating as well, though I do not believe who should right him off. The question now is, would Alexis be a good addition to our squad ? Hum, into my eyes, it might. I believe he would add something different that what Oscar, Mata, Hazard and Moses can offer. Indeed, he is a lot more direct than these players. At the contrary of the players we already have, he is not really the type of guy wainting for the ball to come into his fit, he will lurk around defenders to try and make runs behind the opponent's back-line. In that sense, he would add another dimension to our squad. Furthermore, being a part of the Barça team, his ethic regarding the work-rate is pretty good. Not the best work-rate out there (less good than Pedro or Oscar, for instance), but he puts in a lot of work and is mobile — that's what we tend to lack from Hazard and Mata. Then again, one could argue that it would be another "midget" in the team... Though, he is pretty robust for size. The cons would be his finishing — which tends to be dubious (he will miss the easiest goals, though score the hardest) — and his tendancy to make things way more difficult than they actually are (he tries too many dribbles and has his eyes on the ball — which is part of the frustrating taste he gives to the Barça fans). It might be wort a try, considering we could have him at an interesting price. Barça is not renowed (in recent years at least) to try to make profits when a player want to leave, or when they want to get rid of a player. Chygrinsky, bought for £20m, sold for £10m one year later ; Hleb, bought for 15m euros, cancelled his contract by mutual consent with Barça after numerous loans ; Ibraimovich bough £40m + Eto'o, sold for £20m one year later. I could go on. My point being that we can assume that he will not be too expensive. All in all, to my belief, some of his abilities (like his directness, work-rate and will to take on opponents) would be welcomed into our squad's abilities range. And for a sensible price, I would be happy with him. As for his goal record this season, it's always a bit tricky when it implies Barcelona... It's kinda like when you say that Iniesta and Xavi have poor goal records. Indeed, when it comes to goals, there's Messi, and then there's the rest. Villa's scored 14 goals out of 35 games, Pedro 8 goals in 39 games, Tello 8 goals in 30 games, Fabregas 13 goals in 42 games, Iniesta 5 in 35 games, etc... so yeah, that's pretty homogeneous behind Messi, in term of goals. By the way, he has scored 7 goals this season, not 5 (he scored twice in El Copa Rey ; your stats didn't ake into account this later competition), in 39 games (and had 11 assists). It's true that doesn't change the world, though..

That's why I hate Bayern. They buy every single good German players and every good players in the Bundesliga. Yeah, those snobs can go out and brag shit to death because they have no debts, but that's pretty easy when you kill your League like they do. That's quite boring. "Mia san mia", yeah right, you're just a bunch of arrogant twats. And Jesus, I am sooo glad we won "their" Champions League

I am serious. Fans who go to the Bridge, to away games and who can go to Cobham, you should do something. Because this parasite won't leave the club — why would he ? He has a king life over here : he earns 180 000 fucking pounds each and every week, and even if he sulks and doesn't give a fuck, he is still played. There is a fair amount of fans who give him a hard life, but compared to Bosingwa and Kalou, that's nothing, I feel. We should let him know that we don't want him here, that we want him to fuck off wherever he wants to. That's why I think that we should give him a hell of a life till the end of the season, and the better way is to have banners at stadiums which read "we don't want you here ladyboy", or this kinda slogan. I don't know whether it will help a lot, but if he doesn't feel a hostile crowd toward him (which is currently the case), he will keep sucking our blood. At the contrary, if he sees numerous banners reading "fuck off ladyboy", if he is booed whenever he sub-on/sub-off, if there are also fans at Cobham telling him to fuck off, then he might think twice before feeling at home here. It might look like I am leaving the dirty work to english fans, but I really do believe that we have to mobilise ourselves to show him the exit door

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_4jioyxn6k