manpe

This is sick tbh. This is state slavery right here. Why 4,5 btw? Will you get home from time to time? At least you have women there. Or are they separately?

Aah shit man, isn't army service like a thousand years in Israel?

I believe that is the psychological reason why most of us want Mourinho back - he was the only one during the Roman era who created his own identity. You could argue that Carlo did it too, but I don't think so, at least not to such an extent, his next season was a disaster, which shows he didn't have much control. Anyway, I think people want him back because we expect him to bring balance and a playing style to us. There is nothing wrong with many other managers, but we as fans have come not to trust anybody else, simply because everybody else has basically failed to bring what he brought. Also, in my opinion there are only two managers in the world, who can feel somewhat safe from getting sacked in the first 3 months - Guardiola and Mourinho.

100% agree with the article, everything was spot on.

One more point I would like to add. The squad Jose had in the first season was really average on paper. Arsenal had just finished their invicible season and they had retained that squad, which in truth, was much better than ours (on paper). Everybody thought that they were going to dominate English football for years to come, but it was put to an abrupt end, guess by who? Their squad was already full of stars and established players, we had only up and coming players. Add to that that many of them were new players, there was still a very real problem of making them play together like they had been playing together for ages. So, instead of struggling with a new squad, he squeezed out the absolute best out of everyone. Lampard had his first truly world class season, as did Terry. Squad players did their bits as expected. He installed completely new tactics and way of playing. For example, look how many managers have trouble doing the exact same thing. What Jose did so seamlessly was really unprecedented. Man City have even more money, even bigger transfer budget, they've signed even more superstars, but they're still struggling to come out of the shadow of an average Man United side and they're absolutely pathetic in Europe, while we knocked Arsenal off their throne instantly and held Europe by its neck. In conclusion, what I'm trying to say, is that yes, having money to buy players he wanted definitely helped, but it wasn't the main reason and he certainly didn't rely on any superstars. He made them superstars eventually. Can you imagine the Sven Goran Erikssons and Mancinis of the world doing the same? No, Mourinho did in fact overachieve and I don't know how it's even debatable.

Who exactly were those 'superstars' he signed? 2004/05: Drogba, Kezman, Ferreira, Carvalho, Tiago, Robben, Nuno Morais (Can't see any superstar names there, a few of them became later in their careers) 2005/06: Essien, SWP, Lassana Diarra, Del Horno, Jarosik (Again, no superstars, Essien arguably became one later in his career) 2006/07: Ballack, Shevchenko, Obi Mikel, Kalou, Boulahrouz, Ashley Cole (Now this is where some serious superstars joined, namely Ballack and Sheva and maybe even Cole could have been somewhat considered one at the time, but reportedly Jose didn't even want them and coincidentally this was the season when everything started going downhill, with superstar additions) 2007/08: Malouda, Tal Ben Haim, Claudio Pizarro (Again, who was a renowned name here? Perhaps only Malouda, but he was far from being a superstar or even world class) The misconception that Mourinho only signed the biggest names with the reformation transfer budget is just that, a misconception. During the third season the board started capitalizing on newly found success and instantly dug their claws into available big name signings, namely Ballack and Sheva. They were the only genuine superstar names added to squad list during Jose's time and there is general agreement that they weren't even his signings. Some of the players (namely Drogba, Robben, Cole, Essien, Carvalho) became world class and famous under him, but when he signed them, they were basically nobodies.

He's played right back and he wasn't anywhere near good enough there. There was a wide consensus that instead of a makeshift right back, we need a permanent and natural player there (we got Azpi). There was also wide agreement that his skillset was wasted over there, because he is a natural box to box midfielder and he couldn't utilize his strengths in that restricted position. Rought around the edges, but still a midfielder.

Yeah, bit surprised by the silence. Usually when crucial decisions go against us there is a big rantfest. But tbf it was a tight call and moments later an offside was called on Adebayor which this time wasn't and he had only Cech to beat, so that pretty much cancelled it out. Sent from my GT-S5660 using Tapatalk 2

Yes, an assist where Ramires still had a mountain to climb, but what do you exactly mean under "played well"?

Not particularly. We smashed them 8-0 last time, remember? Although this time stakes are higher, players are fatigued and we're playing on an away ground. Their current form is also very inconsistent. This is their current overall form (LWDLWW), this is their current home form (WLWLDW). Our overall form looks like this (WWDWWD) and away form (LLLWDW). I'm not sure if they've even won 3 in a row this season, but they did smash Sunderland 6-1 at home recently. Anyway, taking into consideration both clubs' forms, it's very difficult to predict anything. What I'm most afraid is that they will decide to show up, but it's literally a lottery with them. Think we will edge it, not 8-0 mind.

A question for you all In terms of what happened in the match and table standings, would you call it a point won or 2 points lost?

Yes, if he keeps us in top 4, then we can call his spell somewhat a success, because he's fulfilled the minimum requirement. But it begs the question in me - was it really necessary to humiliate and sack Robbie for someone else to stick teeth and nails in a top 4 position? Was an inspirational Champions League and FA Cup winning manager really so crap that he couldn't have done it himself instead of a two year unemployed Chelsea unfaithful? In hindsight this shenanigan seems so pointless. Actually can it be called "hindsight" if there never looked like being a point to it at all?

If Hazard really was injured, then Moses on for him was fine, nothing wrong with it. Benayoun on for Oscar, didn't see any point in it. But what pisses me off the most is that he moans about fixture congestion, rotates the team like crazy every match, yet rarely uses all 3 subs. Yesterday the team was visibly knackered in 2nd half. The intensity with which we played the 1st half started to show badly. A tired Torres is even more useless than a regular Torres, so that automatically was -1 player. Why not bring on Ba? Hasn't Benitez witnessed what he's capable of (scoring half-chances, holding the ball up, winning aerial battles... the only header I remember Trolles 'winning' was a ball that had gone out of bounds and nobody was contesting him)? Lampard, who has old and slow legs is still capable of coming on fresh and help us control the middle of the park (a place where we desperately needed reinforcement), maybe even snatch a goal. Why were Ramires and Luiz ran around to near death, especially when the latter has rarely got a rest recently? Idiotic, moronic, clueless decisions all round. There is one thing he deserves credit for - the way we played in the 1st half, this is what won us a point. He was probably surprised himself that he got things right for once and then lost his head because he hasn't been in this situation before.

I don't know what saddens me more - how shit Torres was or that Benitez kept him on for the full game. I have two eyes, I guess I can share the tears.

Good riddance.

Thanks, I will try. I have a habit of panicking in my mind, though on the outside I look cool. I'm gonna try and think of the worst possible scenarios that could happen to me, and when they don't, I can think "everything has been going better than expected".

The kind of empathy you show to total strangers on the internet is unprecedented.

So I got the job and am starting on friday... nervous as FUCK!!

Pronounced jüpe?

Quite a sausage fest here. Andy Gray would be proud. Bombay sounds like "bomb bay", kinda morbid.

Come on now Alex, you're being a bit unfair here. Some absolute sweethearts have joined in the meantime, think Juko, Rupert, Santiago, #Backstreet... sweethearts.

I order you to like every single post I make for a month to make up for it. If you don't, I will organize an uprising and expose your darkest secrets (yes, I know about them).

I'm hurt, you have the subtlety of a sledgehammer

Exactly. This is a point Gary Neville first made and I couldn't agree more.

Somebody should seriously say that, I would die of laughter. I can totally imagine Jose saying something like that with a serious face.