Jase

It has begun...

The one strange thing about this whole Mourinho returning drama is that none of the tabloids have published stories on the players texting messages with Mourinho and vice versa, especially such stories were constantly published in the past when Mourinho is not returning.

Emenalo as 'nono' has pointed out, we have been linked with Schurrle for awhile and even read somewhere saying Emenalo has admired the player for a long time now. On the other hand, it could be a signing of both Mourinho and Emenalo providing the former has been consulted over the signing and he's agree to it. Doubt Mourinho will just blindly accept a signing thrown to him like that if he's going to return and build his team.

Well, if it's not going to be announced today, then there's at least 1 more day to wait with Madrid playing their last league game of the season tomorrow. It's an early kick off too, against Osasuna at the Bernabeu at 4pm UK time. The match kicks off early because nothing is on the line in that game compared to others by the way.

Well 8-9 years ago, he was only 26-27 y/o!

Just fulfilling those who are impatient, if anything... (and was feeling bored!)

Translation... Seems like that guy works for Radio Marca and is being followed by reputable/reliable journalists such as Sid Lowe and Tancredi Palmeri and even one of the Opta accounts is following him. Info can be trusted by the looks of it.

Everton's new manager search takes a twist as Ralf Rangnick jets in for talks That will be a somewhat risky appointment. Left Schalke in 2011 due to health problems. Otherwise, decent manager. Wonder what @Shogun makes of it..

Merged with this thread. No point in creating another when it serves the same purpose as this.

Looks like Lampard has been helping out the younger lads.

A Naruto reference. Maybe the media has casted the genjutsu on us thinking it will be Mourinho returning when in actual fact, it will be someone else..

http://plainsofalmeria.co.uk/2013/05/30/oscar-the-conductor/ An article about Oscar possibly playing the deep lying playmaker role for us in the future.

Did I make it sound unique? Wasn't me that brought that subject up in the first place. And was just saying the facts.. You make it sound as if every player grew up on the streets on Argentina or Brazil and have to adapt their life based on tough circumstances like coming from a poor family, having to take care of their brothers and sisters etc... Anyway, them working hard and knowing what it takes to succeed is one thing but it's another issue altogether being able to do that and given a proper opportunity to fulfill them. 50-50. We would actually be able to give these young players a proper chance in the team if we do not stock up so many young and similar players in the team. And it's also part of the reason why we have to send them out on loan, because we have no space for them in the team due to others being present in their playing position.

And Torres leaving... Think we should declare a worldwide public holiday for that..

My point here was regardless of whether these players will turn out to be good or not, it's absolutely nonsensical to keep on stocking the squad with similar players and similar players around the same age. Said this many times before, the club is like just buying young and upcoming players for the sake of it without actually seem to have any proper thought behind it. Even seen many endorsing or liking such approach, wanting us to buy this player, buy that player and then later complain that we don't give the youth players from the academy a chance! You say if they are good, we'll integrate them into the squad, if not we'll sell them. But here lies the issue. If we are gonna have young and similar players in the squad, how exactly then we'll find out how good they are when all of them would want to play week in week out to develop themselves? They play good or bad for 2-3 games and then suddenly being rotated for others. Such approach is not going to help them develop and see how good the players can be in the long run. We'll probably then think they are average and sell them for profit when they can actually turn out to be if given a proper chance and run in the team without having to compete with like 4-5 players for the same position! And arguably, the worse thing that comes off this is that we don't address the key areas of the team when it needs fixing desperately but continue to buy players in position that don't matter too much for now. So, just because others are doing it as well and we have to follow? Doesn't mean it's the right approach. Look at the point explained above. Can understand where you are coming from with that but going by that, I guess then we all shouldn't express our opinion on potential transfer targets, shut our mouth and just watch the club spend ridiculous money (not targeting specifically on Schurrle) on players and only judge them after buying, even if they are not worth the money being paid. And later, we'll hear people saying we overpaid for this player, he's a flop etc..

Err, no. Not necessarily. We have quite a number of talented players, be it from the academy or those bought ones, and yet we continue looking to buy and are somewhat overstock with similar players.

A photo set from the club on Flickr of every Lampard's goals here.

Out of respect for Madrid? Even before we confirmed that Benitez has left the club, we all pretty much knew he was going to leave but yet Napoli's president Aurelio De Laurentiis didn't want to announce Benitez's appointment till he was given the signal/green light by us to do so after the friendlies. If Mourinho really is coming back, then he will return and the club will announce it. Just be patient for goodness sake...

It's only going to be TRULY official when the club announces it...

Indeed. So many people are overrating Pellegrini and thinking he's just gonna come in and turn City into some unbeatable force YET the same people would well probably not rate him so high and say he's rubbish for hardly winning any trophies etc if he were to actually take over us instead.

Not denying that Mata's defensive work isn't exactly the best but think it's been made to look even worse than it is. Under Benitez, the first thought or approach whenever we lose the ball is to immediately retreat to a 4-4-1-1 shape or with two banks of four leaving Mata and Torres/Ba further forward and we have hardly ever pressed and defended high up the pitch and more importantly doing it as a team throughout the season. When that happens, we'll only have Mata and Torres/Ba trying to close down or press the oppositions' defenders/midfielders further up the field and considering they are usually outnumber in those situations, it will make them uninterested in doing so (and instead place themselves to be in a position to setup counter attacks) and made as if Mata (and Torres/Ba) is lazy or ineffective to do so.

http://as.com/diarioas/2013/05/29/english/1369857117_590393.html Sounds like he wants to leave England for good as he's blaming the English media for the (justified!) criticisms.