CHOULO19

Saudi Arabia is holding our PM hostage (as in literally, not politically)! https://www.rt.com/news/409320-saudi-arabia-lebanon-hariri/

I do love Ray, but he does come off like an idiot! As for Jose, they never got along (I wonder whom of the two is more to blame there ) but as far as we can tell Michael always put the interest of the club ahead of this 'rivalry' as he proved when he formally asked to terminate his contract with the club in 2013 to facilitate the return of Jose. The problem is, a lot of people are worried about Granovskaia taking over his duties because they say that we need someone who's played the sport in that position instead of bureaucrat. And I can see the logic in that argument. But many of those same people were the biggest bashers and critiques when we did have an ex-professional in that role in Michael.

Quite seriously, do the people who hate him and are happy to see him leave know why they are happy? Just to take a step back and take an overview of his role and time at the club: When he was promoted to Technical Director in 2011, we had an aging squad with an alarming player power playing a dying style of football while the club was synonymous with ridiculous over-spending in the transfer market on big names that made it virtually impossible for any youth player to break through. Over the past 6 years, we've moved steadily towards younger squads, with more flamboyant and modern style of football. The player power in the dressing room is all but gone as the Costa saga proved. We've finally reached the stage where our youth academy is actually turning a profit as we've seen this summer with Christensen, Ake and Chalobah. We've also become one of the most astute clubs in the transfer market, especially on selling players that we no longer need (so much so that opposition fans accuse us of bribing other clubs into buying our players! ). Despite the drop in our budget (relatively to the rise of prices) and our inability to compete financially with the Manchester clubs, we've still managed to steadily improve our team with FFP-compliant low net spending (even lower than Arsenal!) which has allowed us to remain the most successful team in England during these years. I know, I'm painting quite a rosy picture here, and of course there has been many mistakes and blunders, but I think it is undeniable that when looking at the overall trends the club has moved in those general directions in the right way in the past 6 years which have arguably been the most successful period in the clubs history with 2 PLs, the holy grail, a EL, the FA cup, and the league cup. Now, I'm in no way attributing all of that or any of the above solely (or even mostly) to Emenalo, but when I look at the progress and achievements of the club since 2011, I can only sincerely thank Michael for any part he played in helping us get to where we are now and wish all the best with his life after CFC.

NOW who are we going to blame for everything wrong at the club??!

Think that not shaking his hand shows that Mourinho did actually get to him. Nothing would have shown that Jose's pettiness hadn't gotten to Conte than had he shaken his hand. It felt unnecessarily petty and Jose-like. Tbf, "less of a cunt than Jose Mourinho" is not exactly a high bar. Conte is better than that, imo.

Don't like one bit that he snubbed Mourinho's handshake. He's better than that.

Also, since when do we win in November??!

We've probably created twice as much chances today as we did in the 4-0 last season, yet somehow it's going to be a nervy last 5 minutes.

Didn't think I'd ever see a player in a Chelsea shirt worse than Mikel, until I saw Bakayoko! Seriously, need to take one of those chances or we're going to drop points here...

Question: If ref sees that Fellaini elbow, how does he only give yellow out?

Conte reading my mind with that sub. Needed to raise our height average a bit..

Morata should have taken the shot with his left there...

UTD changing system. Need to get a second because I can see them scoring from a corner or set piece.

WHat a header, though!

MORATA!

Probably didn't see it and took the cowardly route..

No idea how we are not leading at HT. We've been far superior. Actually, I know exactly why we are not leading: a combination of poor decision making in the final third, lack of luck and an awful performance by the ref...

Alonso should be fined for that error!

Games like these where we miss a skipper like JT who would have been in the refs ear on everyone one of those calls.

Ridiculous refereeing so far! Who the hell thought it was a good idea to assign a ref from Manchester to referee this??

Britain is something else

Ake is so good.

Can't imagine how he could be more involved. He's been almost literally all over the pitch. Need Morata to link up better with him.

Absolutely no idea how we are not leading. We haven't been world class but we have been pretty good. Need an extra gear or a bit of luck.

Need to take chances like these in this game. Very poor from Morata.