BlueLion.

Did someone say EDL march?

Mourinho is getting exactly what he wants... he says batshit mental things so the papers focus on him rather than how shit his players are performing for him. He might be behind the times from a tactical point-of-view, but he's still the maestro of mind-games.

Nah, never really been a fan of people trying to offer counter-arguments... especially when there isn't one, it pains me to say. I love Diego, but he is utter garbage at the moment. He's been pants the last couple of months and sadly his slump in form is alarmingly getting gradually worse. His performance last weekend was laughable... he looked drunk at the best of times. His turn for the first goal was excellent, but everything else he tried to do suggested he was under the influence of some pretty heavy narcotics. Useless.

I hope you're right.

I'd argue we should focus on getting a few more English/British players in the squad first. Cahill's only still there because he's the token Englishman in the side, the truth is he's horrendously limited as a centre-back when compared to Luiz and even Azpilicueta, who is really a full-back. The odd wonder-block doesn't paper over the cracks of his weaknesses as a player, but that's a debate for another time. The point stands: more British players in the squad please.

Late to the party, but I personally think it'll look brilliant and slick on the shirt, as the above mock-ups demonstrate.

Hello everyone. How the devil are you all?

Let's be absolutely honest here - and we don't need to refer to statistics - he's been a liability since the will-he-or-won't-he-go-to-China rumours in January. I think his performance against Bournemouth was one of the most hapless I've ever seen.

Who would have thought at the start of the season we'd be saying "My god, we missed Victor Moses today". He has been a sensation this season and should be on the club's player of the year shortlist, without a doubt.

This is going to go one of two ways... 1) Conte (out of character) decides for us to play a more defensive game as we did at Anfield, and we'll get sucker-punched into a 1-1 draw or possibly even a narrow loss. 2) Conte decides to put Mourinho in his place, we go out on the full-on offensive and we absolutely batter them. Can't see it going any other way, tbh. The bad feeling I have suggests it will be option 1.

The fact is he's horrifically under-achieved with what is the 2nd/3rd-best squad in the Premier League. United should be quite comfortably in the top three. Winning the EL would paper over some of the cracks, but this is one of his worst-ever seasons as a manager without a doubt. He's just bitter and twisted to take the heat off his players, who have equally been shite.

Meh.

Whoever wrote that is absolutely spot on.

I see your point about Cahill, but, on form, Matic is the best CDM in England without doubt, and one of the best in Europe. Similarly, Azpi is the best defensive full-back in European football IMO, he'd walk into most teams.

It's amazing the criticism that the staff here get. Calls for consistency and professionalism... you do realise they don't get paid, right? This is exactly why I stepped down as administrator, because of the fucking hassle. You can't do anything right. Everything is a catch twenty-fucking-two. You can't keep everyone happy, so you have to act in the best interests of the forum. I don't agree with every decision the staff make on here, and, looking back, I certainly don't agree with some of the decisions I made, either. Nevertheless, @Madmax has it right when he says the mods have acted in what they view to be the best route forward for the site. My advice: suck it up. It's a forum. Get on with your lives.

Brand awareness is massively important, it is ignorant to dismiss that. If Macron offered £65 million, would you go with them? No, I wouldn't either.

But you said you don't care what the kits look like so you're not allowed an opinion Jakey xxx

Meh, look what he's achieved - fuck all. Arsenal should have blitzed the league. Only they could finish above both Manchester clubs, Liverpool, Tottenham, and the Chels, and still not win the fucking league. TEN points behind Leicester is an embarrassment for them. Wenger needs to stay.

This had to happen. If we'd have gone with anyone other than Nike, we lose creditability as a brand, in my opinion. Stepping down from Samsung to Yokohama (ignore the monetary aspect - Samsung IS a far bigger brand than Yokohama, at least in the west) was already one big step which could potentially affect our imagine as a titan of world football - to go from adidas to a brand such as Umbro, Under Armor or even Puma would have been another nail in the coffin. The "big" teams in world football - the Madrid clubs, Barcelona, Juventus, the Manchester clubs, the Milan clubs, Bayern Munich, etc. - all maintain reputations as being big clubs, and they have the sponsorship to match it. Yes, there are teams like Arsenal and Dortmund who have Puma, and Liverpool who have New Balance, but adidas and Nike are the big two, and to move from one and not to the other would be a step down on the marketability ladder. As of this month, we are the third most marketable team in world football based on shirt sales. Therefore, we are the perfect match for Nike. Especially when you look at our star players - Hazard and Courtois have had glove/boot endorsements with Nike for years - this is the perfect match and re-affirms our brand value. People on here are talking about wanting to flirt with the unknown, and going with up-and-coming brands like Under Armor. No, not a chance. This is about the club generating revenue and it would be a huge gamble to go with a lesser preferred option. I'm all for this, even though I've preferred adidas to Nike my entire life! We have to match the size of the club with a giant of kit manufacturing, and Nike was the only option. This is a chance for Nike to re-establish themselves as a sponsor of European superpowers after losing the likes of Arsenal and United and Juventus in the past couple of seasons. With those teams shifting over to adidas, it leaves Barcelona and Chelsea as THE definitive Nike teams. You'll see our players everywhere (Nike have always advertised more efficiently than adidas have done in the past), and that's a great thing for the Chelsea brand. In short: fuck adidas, well done Nike. On the subject of this year's shirt - love it. Different to what we've had before. Plus it's blue - and has a Chelsea badge. That'll do for me. But Chelsea are a big brand and now we have another big brand making our kits, I'm excited. Just looking forward to the official confirmation, though it'll probably be announced later in 2016.

Nope, this is @Spike's idea of a laugh. Small things for small minds, eh?

If we pick up another point between now and the end of the season I'll be amazed... I'm not bothered that we lost to City, I'm bothered that none of the players even seemed arsed. They're all on the beach, and they'll rock up on the south coast against a very decent Bournemouth side who will want it more and deservedly edge a tight game 2-1.

Definite loss, and we'll end up finishing around 13th.

He wasn't rubbish but he made a number of high profile errors, most notably vs City at home with the Aguero goal, vs PSG with the Pastore goal, for instance. He struggled with his near post positioning, which is exactly the same boat Tbo is currently in,

I agree with this, one poor season doesn't make Thibaut a bad goalkeeper - look at Cech, in 08/09 he was frankly horrendous at times (ironically he was outstanding under Scolari but dropped off under Hiddink first time around), but then in 09/10 he had what was actually, IMO, his best season for us from a technical, not statistical, point of view* and won the Golden Gloves, too. *As a goalkeeper from a technical view, he was almost perfect for much of that season. It was the best I've seen him distribute and command his box, his shot-stopping was always excellent, but it was that year he was by far and away the best in the world without comparison.

I think those people are very premature. This season has been a blip but he certainly has the potential to be considered amongst those names. I'd say that last season he was actually performing better than Buffon, but this season, Gigi has been the best by some distance. Looks totally unperturbed with everything he does.