manpe

When you say "average" I automatically imagine your average, truly average player that mid- and low-table clubs are filled with, meaning there are hundreds or thousands of players above them. There was only one Essien though. In his role Essien was undoubtedly one of the best, if not the best in the world. I can't remember anyone who could measure up to him at his peak, can you? Put Toni Kroos to perform Essien's role and you will be in for a shock at how below average the guy is, the same if you put Essien in Toni's role. So yes, I consider Essien to have been world class in his position - world class meaning you are among a few of the most highly regarded players in the best leagues of the world. Hell, Real Madrid even loaned him after he was far from his best and still played regularly for them, so a top top club like Real and a top coach like Mourinho rated him even when his main physical assets were greatly reduced. So when you include him in a list with the likes of truly average players like SWP and Alex, then that is taking the piss on what the man brought to the team when he was here. We had plenty of Sidwells and Kalous who would fit that list much better, Essien looks just so out of place there.

EDIT: moved my reply there http://forum.talkchelsea.net/topic/20369-michael-essien/?page=57#comment-1268279

Did you just call Essien average?

Okay fair enough, I don't concur. Bayern and Barcelona were head and shoulders above everybody else in their respective leagues besides the usual suspect(s) that tried to challenge them, they didn't have to defend much against the lower oppositions. In England defence is just as important as attack, you can lose against anyone even if you hold 70% possession if you don't focus for the full 90. Every manager who has managed elsewhere says that England is different in that regard. In my eyes Guardiola is clearly finding it tough to adapt to a league that sometimes demands approaches different from what he is used to and inability to make his team defend as a unit is on him.

How does he need us?

I agree, I can see only one plus that would come with it - higher price tag because of a more marketable brand.

Giving 50k a week to an adolescent who can't even make the bench? Yeah right. Lofty cheeks is earning 60k, which is still obscene considering his role in the team, but at least he is fairly regularly included in match-day squads (not for long). Greedy fuckers who are barely out of diapers and have proved absolutely nothing in their short careers can fuck right off. Good luck getting that kind of money from a championship club.

Do you mean become a vain show-off like Pogba? Nah thanks.

What do you disagree with? I didn't state the opposite anywhere.

I understand that very well, but rationality has very little to do with emotions. In fact women are often considered irrational because of their over-emotional behaviour. So what I stated was not false, what you stated was not false either. We as human beings need to take emotions into consideration of course, but to go as far as hating somebody because of this, sending death threats and whatnot (what I assume Spanish and Italian fans could do in such instances) is beyond irrational. It's time to take some pride in not being too emotional, a pinch of "don't give a fuck" attitude goes a long way in achieving internal peace, Leif sounded quite strained in that post

First paragraph is nonsense. Splashed the cash? We bought Courtois for a reported fee of whopping 9 million euros. They are guaranteed starts regardless of merit? Lukaku, De Bruyne, Baba, Batshuayi and the list goes on. You're talking bullshit once again. There were reasons why Mourinho chose Courtois - because he's a lot younger and quality wise who was better was debatable. Mou clearly let it be known that Tibo was the future. At that time Cech didn't know Mourinho was gonna get canned, but Petr probably knows Jose well enough to know that once the boss makes a choice, he sticks to it. So he got out of the way. Second paragraph is easy: your Crystal Palaces and Fulhams cannot afford his salary. Nor can they compete for grand prizes, you can argue Arsenal cannot either, but they have a lot better chance. This whole argument is stupid and based on the assumption that his only criterion was staying in London, but you cannot expect a person to give up some of his well-being and ambitions in career for locality and made-up loyalty. Regarding the last paragraph about Totti and Messi, then you are comparing completely different footballing and club cultures. I for one applaud our fans for being rational in this case, hating someone because of their career choices when it doesn't impact you is irrational. Being respectful towards a player who brought success and gave so much to a club you love is better and by definition that makes us better.

I thought it was against some FIFA law or smth to discuss terms with a player before the player's owner club gives permission, usually after an accepted bid from the buying club. Aren't the Chinese breaking those rules here?

Club president Andrea Agnelli says logo took a year to create Lmao, a year You go through years of designer school and the result is that it takes A YEAR to create a white on black single word and two crooked sticks. Should have become a digital designer, you get paid for almost nothing.

Yeah, now it makes sense.

And you think they would pay 100M for him?

Which is bad. Twitter can't die quickly enough.

How does that make sense? If they wanted to deter Serie A clubs specifically, then that clause would be for them and not for non-Seria A clubs. This way they are showing preference to sell him in Italy rather than abroad, no?

Can such tweets be ignored please? They're ruining the content of the forum.

I'm between you two, I'm 25 and absolutely hating it. They say you experience your first so-called mid-middle age crisis at that age, which is completely true for me.

This is what I also thought, that some people on here are so spoiled. Even when the first bits and pieces of this story started coming out last week, some people were ALREADY demanding him to leave and casually throwing around the imaginary money earned from the sale of Costa for players who scored 40 goals on their FM saves. So cringeworthy and embarrassing. I for one don't want him to go for any sum, because he is a rare breed of striker who actually works for us, and the wounds of having Torres missing sitters every week are still too fresh. But some people are incapable of appreciating, truly appreciating what they have, so you get posts like "sell him to China for 120M and throw all the money at Griezmann!!!".

Curious that they seem to target mainly South Americans. Anybody got theories why that is?

"Wanted to keep" could mean that the club wasn't actively looking to sell him this January which I believe to be true, but when such an offer comes for your benchie you take it and run.

First time Guardiola came to a league where he has to actually defend, not only score, and he crumbles. City is far from the same as Bayern in Germany or Barcelona in Spain, reality check time for Pep here.

This is what I found on Sky: "It is understood Costa's representatives are now asking Chelsea to double his wages to £300,000 despite the two-and-a-half years remaining on his current contract, although one source insists he is happy at Stamford Bridge." I was more interested in what source(s) convinced you of this as fact? This above paragraph suggests that Sky themselves are not certain of this.