Jase

Champions of Europe. Double Champions of Europe. We Know What We Are. :cfc:

Here. http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/sport/football/Premiership/article1261620.ece?CMP=OTH-gnws-standard-2013_05_18

:lol: Noob!

Since it concerns us somewhat... Newcastle owner offers staff £1m bonus if they beat Arsenal in final game

Yeah...as if the club is gonna break the wage structure suddenly. Sounds like the typical Sunday BS rumours.

OH MY GAWD! :D :wub:

That is just somewhat disturbing...

Mata picking up the Players' Player of the Year award. And Ramires... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBLEbJ1ejE8

Don't blame him. He earned the right to play in there after helping Atletico to finish in the Top 3 this season. Moreover, there's no way he (and Lukaku and KDB too IMO) would want to come back here and play 2nd fiddle to Cech and only play the odd game here and there. He and the rest of our Belgian lot will want to play week in week out to cement and book their place in the Belgium squad for the World Cup 2014. And in their cases, neither of them want to lose the spots to their other counterparts playing in the same position as them to the likes of Mignolet, Mirallas, Benteke etc who are all playing every game in every weekend for their respective clubs right now.

Courtois said after the Copa Del Rey win last night: http://www.as.com/english/articulo/courtois-i-d-prefer-to/20130518dasdenspo_15/Ten

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/soccer/news/20130518/grant-wahl-rafa-benitez/ A very good interview of Benitez that. He spoke about managing the squad, the fans, tactical and training changes he made, players like Torres, Mata, Luiz, Hazard, Oscar etc and more.

It was sarcasm... And anyway, yet to see any legit news about the manager situation at Porto.

Vitor Pereira is leaving Porto apparently. The door is open there...

Yes, sir! I will apply whatever you have taught me into practice here. Enjoy your vacation mate and is this the army thingy you mentioned previously?

That's because many people on Twitter like to fabricate quotes and which many end up believing them. And that quote you posted came from this Twitter account. www.twitter.com/tekkabooson Look through his tweets, scroll down a bit and you will realize he's just trolling.

Oh dear. That is fake quote FGS! Saw it on Twitter. It's just somebody trolling!

Basically what I said originally. Because of this bias and hatred towards, people are not judging things objectively. Agree but my main point earlier on was basically about the double standards - When we win games, it's because of the players. When we lose games, all the blame is on Benitez.

That will be a different story if it was Mourinho.... Yes, I know it was because RDM won the Champions League but if you look beyond that, his work was hardly anything special is it going back to your point earlier, no?

That is somewhat contradicting. When someone you know says make a mistake and then late correct it, don't you give at least credit them for recognizing the mistake and change it? Yes, Benitez may have been tactically dodgy during his time here but in that United game, he recognized his mistake early and then rectify it but yet hardly a credit given, regardless of whether he got it right one time or not. Credit where it's due. Benitez's work might not have been special but he did what was necessary. He managed and rotated squad decently and ensure every player is fresh as possible especially with the limited squad depth we have. And though as said, tactically he is a bit dodgy, some of those approaches in certain games worked and helped us to get a result. And if you want to talk about the manager's work being special or not, then you would only have to look back at RDM last season. We might have won the FA Cup and Champions League under him but his work was hardly anything special as he only got us back to doing the basics after the AVB mess and yet he received so much credit for what he done then. Most people has claimed that it wasn't Benitez that got us what we have now but rather the players' will and determination and yet last season, many praised both RDM and the players, not just 1 side! Disagree. The sympathizers are basically those from outside the club, mainly the media. None of us fans want Benitez here at all because we all hate him and it's a marriage made in hell with him coming here. However, from us fans itself, it is basically divided into two categories - haters that will just hate for the sake it and blame everything on Benitez even when it's not his fault and those still hate him but more willing to look at things objectively.

Bitter dressing room battles that sealed the fate of preening Mancini Interesting read.

There were stories that we are gonna hand Courtois a new contract and extend it soon.

Can't believe we let Cole go for this fella!

I'm sure the club would have taken that into account when they agreed to a new contract with Lampard as opposed to just blindly agree whatever he wants... The likes of Mata, Hazard, Luiz etc are all still relatively new to the club and their wages will likely to increase as it goes along. And yes, while the performances of those said players may have been more important than Lampard this season, let's not totally discount the goals and impact he had on (and off) the pitch as well on these young players. Moreover, somebody like Hazard, a player that we have bought just this season and is only 22 y/o, is already earning 110k p/w wages, only 20k less than Lampard. Isn't that a bit too much as well for someone that just came in especially when some of the more senior players at the club are earning a lot less than him? And if you really want to compare the wages, Benayoun is earning 90k p/w wages at the club here while the more important players like Mata, Ivanovic, Ramires etc are all earning less than him! Also, I'm not sure if the players, in the future, can really demand high wages in the case you pointed out there with the FFP coming in.

Mourinho will probably be pissed that Benitez guided us to a European final, even if its just the Europa League, and won the trophy...