Leif

This is like when a guy pretends to break up with his girlfriend to see how much she really cares, to then find out she doesn't actually give a shit, and the breakup turns real. You'll be downgrading Gary.

I keep reading that he's proven himself. No he hasn't. That's like saying Mikel has proven himself because he's been here and won everything. What??? He hasn't proven he's an above average footballer yet. You're supposed to prove that you at least want to be great if you get into this profession. You can't do that in Asia.

I didn't consider that. But what a lot of people don't consider, is that while these footballers are making millions on millions on millions, they aren't actually spunking millions then on cars and houses - they're leasing both of those things, for around a 10th of the price. They've got money, and accountants. Some of these players are modern day kings.

Jose will sort him

If a great musician suddenly agreed to only have their music released in 1 country because they're going to profit even more from it financially, you'd say they obviously don't love music, and you'd be annoyed at them for even being in the music industry when somebody else would kill to be there, for the right reasons, and not for the money. I instantly feel all of that towards Rami. If he wanted football any Serie A team would have bought him. Any Ligue 1. Any Bundesliga team bar Bayern. Silly Rami. -edit He has enough cash to keep his future generations of sperm fed for donkeys years. So it shouldn't be money...Does he just like China? Why not just go on holiday there during the off-period and have a kick about? It makes no sense from any perspective unless he's married to someone who always wanted to live in China.

When a player's happy to end their time in the limelight this (relatively) young, I always feel uneasy. Obviously it shows the main motivation. Money. And that doesn't motivate you for long. Who else in the squad would happily leave for China just now? The under-performers I bet - who've lost their motivation, because you can't keep giving them what they already have. This is probably just how things are now.

The board failed us the first time round. They failed us all again this time, though so did our current crop of players. But buy Jose the players he actually wants like every other manager on earth gets from their club, and we're probably top of the league. We really should have Pogba or Griezmann in our team by now. Stability here will be a myth until we rip out our organs and replace them. Changing just the clothes each season isn't working. It's like someone who needs to deal with mental problems who never goes 'inside' to deal with them, and just keeps buying more clothes, cars and luxuries. You're still broken inside. That's us. We have to go deep inside and extract the disease.

None of our managers or coaches get to say "no" to a signing. This should be common knowledge by now. A whole 'team' does all of our dealings. In fact i doubt any club in the world would let 1 manager say 'yes' or 'no' to such large investments of cash. Managers aren't accountants after all. Considering we'll perhaps miss out on CL money, that team probably presented a list of 5-10 players to Guus within our new price range, a few of which he'll have said he's 'ok' with - at which point his opinion would be considered. Then the board would do more work regarding finances and such, and choose themselves which option would be best - especially considering Guus is only the interim coach. Regardless of track records, failures like Emenalo who have been here for many years will have a lot more say over someone like Guus. That's how any corporation or business works I believe. You've been around longer, you get more say. If the boss likes you, what do you think...you get even more influence. Guus is a substitute teacher. There's no way he gets to choose who enrolls in our class. He won't be at the school next year, so the school will continue to make their own decisions.

Who'd have thought we'd sell Ramires for 20 Bugatti's worth.

all i remember is his Barcelona goal. 10/10 player

somebody better key his jaguar

All the talk about Barcelona and their star players as usual but Atletico remain the best team this season. If they actually win the league again it'd be one of the greatest Spanish football feats ever. Koke's never looked more at home. Griezmann i now see is like Suarez

if he unfollows us now we should block him

It'd be criminal not to, and genius to, direct swap Matic for Krychowiak

He better be arriving with the "Thank fuck, a chance to kickstart my career again" attitude and not that "Yay, Chelsea, big moneeeeeyyys, time to relax" one.

i thought this was a recent post then realised it's a gem from the first page. good post

Instead of having a striker of every type I wish we'd just get 3 strikers of the same ilk. It's better for the system. If Diego's having a shit period of form, just replace him with another aggressive striker with similar build/traits and pray. It's *completely random* to see Pato as an alternative option. I don't see how our current players will be able to play his type of game. They already know Costa's though, so get another bloody Costa type player. We need consistency, and you don't get consistency by forcing entirely unique skillsets into holes that resemble Chelsea players. (I won't accept any rubbish about us needing 'options' considering our XI barely changes; those options never get time to find their feet. What we need is MORE OF THE SAME. More of what we already know works. No more unfamiliar styles unless we're going to commit to them, like we should have when we had both Hazard and Mata.)

Funny? Or sad?

That would be nice, but players from the youth system don't make it here, don't cha know.

me and the board do the same drugs

I was just watching a news excerpt and the guy on air was speaking of his job as a nutritionist expert, and how every athlete you can think of is on a cocktail of drugs to perform well. The athletes would go to this guy when they want to come off the drugs, but maintain their physical edge. It got me thinking. Maybe we were good last season, and are dogshit this season. because of...doping ? Perhaps we've gone without it this season. Perhaps Eva was a doping specialist. It would make sense considering how teams can drastically change form in such short periods of time. None of that psychology or laws of the universe spiel; it's the drugs.

He and Mikel are here because of their strength and 'stability' during their good periods. Utility players. Every club needs them; we're just over-depending on ours. Ivanovic should be here, but on the bench.

to be fair we're the greatest club in history so we shouldn't be doing what the others are doing. a genius is an outcast doing their own thing. that's us.

evidently our managers do not pick the teams. why hate on Hiddink when he's got the same puppet-masters above?