Fulham Broadway

Del Piero, legend http://www.metro.co.uk/sport/football/910952-alessandro-del-piero-turned-down-liverpool-move-due-to-heysel

GoOd day. great atmosphere. Still pissed -thats drunk for our US friends) No Drogba, No Terry, No Lampard. No Problem. I can't recall us plAying as well as we did today without those 3 against a very capable side

He better be better than he is on FIFA or I am writing to Mr Abramovich

50/50 for barcodes. Neck injury -he didnt half hit the ground on Wednesday

Van Persie out for rest of season after Ferguson shouted at him 22-08-12 ROBIN Van Persie is expected to be out for at least nine months after some very loud shouting by Sir Alex Ferguson. Van Persie will not travel without his Emotional Support Bunny The new Manchester United star is convalescing in Holland where trained soothers are giving him a temple massage with spa water infused with essence of tulip. Following United’s defeat to Everton, Van Persie was horrified to discover that his new manager used very nasty swear words and spoke in an aggressive tone. Minutes later, psychiatric nurses were called to the dressing room and Van Persie was removed in a wheel chair, sobbing uncontrollably as a wet patch spread rapidly over his groin. The Dutch star said: “Such awful words. And he threw a cup. No one has ever spoken to me like that – not my mother, my teacher, my pastor and certainly not Mr Wenger. “My parents were artists in Rotterdam, When I was 14 and some rough girls teased me about my bow legs I ran weeping to my mother. She said to ignore them, that I had been granted twinkle toes by the angels and I was destined to dance through life, free of all horridness. But now this beastly man…” When he first joined Feyenoord, Van Persie’s mother issued him with a note, passed on in turn to Arsene Wenger, stating that he had ‘delicate bones, delicate ligaments, delicate hamstrings and especially, delicate nerves – he is my delicate little fairy artist boy’. But the note never reached Old Trafford and may have been lost along with Van Persie’s cotton wool padded romper suit. Sir Alex said: “I thought I was pretty mild – I just called him a ‘useless wee bucket of fuck’. “He started crying so I said to him, ‘harden up, it’s not as if you’re living in Glasgow’. Then he said, ‘what’s Glasgow?’ and so I told him and he started crying again.”

Doubtless he'll be doing his ''Inspector Gadget in His Mac has a shit'' impression at the lane

Hope its not true about Citeh bidding -but when a player is in doubt, or has been promised untold riches, the first thing that happens is an excuse for not playing materialises......

Talking of Arse 'Players who have quit Arsenal over the last seven years have amassed 44 winners' medals between them at 11 different clubs' In Arsene We Trust

If true that'll be £40m by Friday He was dropped last night and then fined for his tweet about him not playing because of a bit of pain on his knee. The two to me don't add up, I hope we are not trying to sell him. Look at last night and how high Reading pushed up on our back line and forced the likes of Ivanovich, Terry and Cahill into rushed passes. Luiz would have stepped up and gone past the attackers which would have slowed them down.

The balls do seem very bouncy. Bit of an oddity with helmetman. During the warm up he spends loads of time kicking left, right and straight ahead -but then during the game he hoofs into touch or up to Torres who doesnt have the powerful control of Drogba. Taking this into considerarion, he must have been instructed to do this. I have watched him throwing in practice and he is excellent with this, so why he doesnt do more of that in games is an enigma

They should be fucking honoured that hes warming the bench for them

Tragic RIP http://www.chelseasupportersgroup.net/2012/08/kyle-broadbent-rip/

Yup, that was my original point. Have to remember that Cobham hasn't been there even ten years yet, and clubs like Man U and Arsenal have had a system in place for decades. How many of these players that have gone onto play for them from their academies have really improved their squads ? - just a handful. We have Bertrand looking like the real deal, and other players have shown that they can perform at a good level when given the chance. Rewind to the Eighties and Mceachran would slot in perfectly with Spackman, Speedie et al. It's just at the level we're at now, off the shelf 'Class A eggs from Waitrose; (to quote someone special) is what the board deem suitable.

Its not just about him being patient - Romans/the boards addiction to buying ready made players rather than the academy's failings is the real issue. Now that we are attracting higher quality youth players, globally, and with FFP kicking in, then I suspect we'll see a few more breaking through. From what I have seen he isn't at the same level as an Oscar or Hazard. He has a couple of years on them but I'm not sure he is as quick, strong or as skilful.. Would be happily proved wrong!

Well spotted Vincent !

On R 5 last night - ''I want to return to Chelsea one day, thats for sure'' Here are the highlights of that interview: SPOONY: I'm used to calling the top man at a football club 'the manager', but you're head coach at Real Madrid. Do you like being a manager or do you prefer to be called coach? MOURINHO: In my relationship with my players I had everything. I had the traditional Portuguese 'Mr', I had 'the guv', I had 'the boss', 'coach' and 'Jose'. SPOONY: Which is your favourite? MOURINHO: You know, 'the guv' was the one I took. I think it was Damien Duff, the first one to call me that, and I took a few weeks to understand the dimension. What matters for me is that it remains forever. Even today Frank Lampard and John Terry call me 'boss' and I'm not the boss anymore. SPOONY: When we see you on the touchline or in a press conference, it would very much appear that those things don't matter to you. But sitting here speaking to you now, you hold these things very dear and close to you. MOURINHO: These are the things that matter for me. I read a book from one of the most important coaches in the history of university sports, John Wooden, a basketball coach at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles), and one of the things he says is that the most important thing in all of this is 'the man'. The human relation. The best coach is the one who puts in everything. SPOONY: Is winning everything? MOURINHO: No, winning is not everything. But winning is more important than any one of us. Sometimes you have the feeling during the match that a player cannot improve, and you can read the situation - he didn't start well, but he has the conditions to finish well - but sometimes you feel immediately the team started bad, the players are bad, and you have to make some changes. If the result goes completely against you, you have to take some decisions and some risks and everyone's afraid of that. SPOONY: You hold Sir Alex Ferguson in very high regard? Sir Alex on Mourinho in 2009 "I got on very well with him at Chelsea and I think it was a loss to the game when he went. I actually enjoyed watching him on the television. I thought he was good. He was cocky and confident but it was good for the game. Right away he came in and said, 'I'm the Special One', and we all thought, 'Who is this?' and his team thought, 'We'd better win here'. He came to Chelsea and made that declaration himself. Don't forget he was self-anointed. People then sat up but his achievements are there to be recognised." MOURINHO: Of course. My first contact with him was not one to forget because Porto beat Manchester United in the Champions League. After the match he was knocking on our dressing room door with Gary Neville, and they wanted to congratulate our dressing room. So that was a moment when I understood that when the win is deserved, you have to respect the winners and you have to know to enjoy a little bit the happiness of the others. It happened with Bayern Munich last season when we (Real Madrid) lost the semi-final on penalties, and at the end of the match it was not a drama for me. I was also in their dressing room. I remember that day of Porto-Man United, and it was the start of my relationship with the greatest manager of British football. SPOONY: Would you go back to Chelsea? MOURINHO: I will go where people really want me. But I have to repeat always this: I'm with Real Madrid, I very much want to be, I have a new contract, I'm not thinking about leaving. The day I leave is when I want to go. But yes, I want to go back one day, that's for sure. SPOONY: People always say Barcelona are the greatest club side that we've ever seen in this generation, yet Real Madrid won La Liga. You must be proud? MOURINHO: We won, and we won with nine points difference. They didn't win, and they didn't win because they had a bad season, because sometimes big teams have a bad season where they lose points. They had 91 points, and with 91 points you are the champion of every Liga. The point is, Real Madrid had 100 points. We beat every record in the league in Spain and so we won because we were tremendous, because we've had an incredible season. SPOONY: What drives you? What keeps you so motivated? MOURINHO: The club above everything. When I go to a club, I wear the shirt, I feel the shirt like my first one or my last one, I feel the fans as part of myself, I create internal links with fans. I become immediately one of them, and I feel that I am one of them with a privileged position to fight for the club and to try to bring to all of them happiness. SPOONY: Is this what happens when there's a potential problem between yourself and an owner, in that they don't always see it from the fans' point of view? MOURINHO: You go through my career since day one until now and I've never had problems with clubs and owners. At Chelsea, I didn't want to stay and let things go into a direction where we were all feeling it was not the best direction. We felt that was the best decision, because in this moment we are friends. There are no problems between me and Roman (Abramovich, Chelsea owner). Mourinho's trophy haul Porto (2002-04): Primera Liga (2003, 2004), Champions League (2004), Uefa Cup (2003), Portuguese Cup (2003), Portuguese Super Cup (2003). Chelsea (2004-07): Premier League (2005, 2006), FA Cup (2007), League Cup (2005, 2007), Community Shield (2005). Inter (2008-10): Serie A (2009, 2010), Champions League (2010), Coppa Italia (2010), Italian Super Cup (2008). Real Madrid (2010 to date): La Liga (2012), Copa del Rey (2011). When people know me they understand that if sometimes I'm not an easy person to work with it's because I fight for my people, for the best conditions for the players and I fight for the club and I fight for the fans, and I become a fan. SPOONY: Sir Bobby Robson is a national treasure in the UK and you were his right-hand man. How much did you learn from him? MOURINHO: I was lucky. I was lucky because he took me in when I was really young. I spent something like five years with Sir Bobby, and of course he was very important for me. But again, if you ask me to say the most important things with Sir Bobby and why did I learn a lot, I keep the person. I forget everything about football and I keep the person. SPOONY: You've signed a new contract until 2016 at Real Madrid, but the accusation in the past is that you're just about winning trophies, and not bothered about young players coming through. So what is your master plan for Real Madrid? MOURINHO: You know, first of all the challenge was to come here and to win, and to stop that domination of Barcelona in the Spanish league. We did it, and I could say 'job done', but we want not to win in an isolated way - we want to keep winning. Real Madrid was the biggest club of the last century because of results, and we want Real Madrid to go in the same direction in the 21st century. SPOONY: And just before I let you go, do you see yourself one day managing an international side? Would you manage an international side that wasn't Portugal? MOURINHO: In this moment I don't see it because it's a completely different kind of job. In the club we play 60 matches a season, in an international team we play maybe 10, so it's a job I don't want to have in this moment. But it's a job that makes people full of pride, especially if you do it with your own country, and I will do it with Portugal because I think Portuguese people wouldn't understand if I do it with another country. I don't imagine myself in the World Cup playing against Portugal. SPOONY: Managing England against Portugal in the semi-finals MOURINHO: It would be dramatic

We need an Eidur now -yernited ended trophyless if i remember rightly

Last time United lost on the first day of the season was 2004..........

Joint top scorer in our last 9 games :blue scalf:

All about opinions. I have made it clear over the years on this forum that the 'youth' is primarily window dressing, and ready made articles off the shelf are what the board primarily buy, in order to satisfy the diet of silverware that is requisite for a club of the present stature. Be good if he did though....

Always said he would never make it at SW6. Too lightweight and cant be compared to the likes of Hazard, Oscar. Best of luck to him

OK he didnt score as I predicted -but will guaranteed will hit the onion bag a few times this season - generally yesterday he was superb, but thought the midfield on the whole was average, a few clumsy challengers still and still a little slow moving the ball around, but there were signs of improvement on pre-season and last week.

Torres was very bright I thought, constantly running off his marker, but the midfielders rarely spotting the run - That changed a bit when Oscar came on, so that will all improve.

Where do I start ? Almost every away game in the 80s started with banter and ended with arrests, punch ups or full scale riot. Maybe I should do an article Nowadays its at work- amazing how many Man Utd 'fans' there are giving it large who have never been to Manchester and have no affiliation with the club. The Yid fans at work(2) have been strangely quiet of late

Dragging their feet over this. Probably one thats decided on the 12 o clock deadline He wants to come, Wigan want to sell, Why haggle over £2m when the board often spunk out 30-40m on someone ? Shit or get off the pot