The only place to be

How do you know that? I've seen teenage lads singing such songs. I've also seen blokes who have supported the club for decades rolling their eyes at these songs.

He's got a point about people having an agenda too. You can see that in this thread where people were preparing the chants before his first game, and I criticised that at the time. I didn't want him before he got the job (like most fans) and I didn't want him to stay one second longer than he has too (like most fans), but in between those two times it served our own long-term needs to support him or at least not give him stick. But people were already bowling out of Fulham Broadway with their little chants and their print-outs of 'Rafa Out'. Now they'll say they just care about the club, but booing the manager wasn't in the best interests of the club in my opinion. The atmosphere has been toxic, not because of Rafa but because of the reaction to Rafa. 1% of life is what happens to you - 99% is how you react to it and when you expect someone to fail then it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. The thing is, I'm not sure if these fans are happy or sad that we're in the state we're in now. There are people in life who enjoy having something to moan about and they certainly have that now. Yes you have a right to voice an opinion once you've forked over that money that you worked hard for (or didn't - no judging) but to me that isn't fun. Going to a football match with the intention of criticising the manager of the team before he's taken charge of his first game (because there is surely no doubt that's what some fans did) isn't fun to me. It isn't entertaining. It isn't what I wanted to do when my dad first took me to see Chelsea. It isn't what he had in mind has a fun day out when he went to the box office on his lunch breaks to get tickets and I simply can't fathom the logic of the fans who tried to make the atmosphere at the Bridge as toxic as they could. Yes they did it for the manager's benefit, but there are players on the pitch who DO hear it, there are fans in the stadium who DO hear it and don't like it and there are fans around the world who DO watch it and must think what the fuck are we actually trying to achieve. Any fan with half a brain knew that Rafa wasn't going before summer unless results got so bad there'd be no other choice. They've very nearly got that now. Where's the champagne?

At least he's finally being honest and addressing this whole thing. No more fucking about, no more avoiding the question about what he said and actually seeming..... human? I've got a bit more respect for him doing this, but it's way too late. The good thing is he's definitely gone by the end of the season at the latest.

Going....... Going...... 5Live now. Described it as resignation presser. Gob......smacked.

I'd say he's already beyond going to Vitesse and there's no permit issues. If he isn't part of the squad then he's probably good enough to go to a Premier League team, or at worst a top Championship team. Physically he seemed to cope extremely well and he's always been technically sound and beautifully composed, but it's the mental side he has to work on.

Fantastic debut and looked at ease amongst decentish opposition. Would love to see him get some time against Steaua. MIght be time to move his profile to the current squad as well. :blue scalf:

I think we might need to keep him around to mentor Mikel.

Good solid performance against pretty toothless opponents, but there were still bright spots. Oscar and Moses were fabulously direct, as was Hazard when he came on. Rami put in a decent shift and got the opening goal, but the standout for me was Ake. Composed but determined, he was excellent distributing the ball and worked hard in defence, cutting out a ball when the defence missed it. It's what games like this should be used for - getting a glimpse of our exciting future and ignoring some of the more depressing aspects of the present (btw, Torres was shit).

Stemmed from good play by......Ake. Beautiful move though.

Ake pretty much just saved a goal. The kid has been fantastic tonight.

Pretty much how he's always looked. Tidy, not afraid to get stuck in, nice touch albeit with the occasional mistake. Good for a first start but Boro really aren't throwing much at him.

He's been playing more and more in midfield in recent times, and he's looked good doing it in my opinion. Wasn't Gullit playing as a sweeper at Ake's age?

I can see both sides. Yes we've put up a different photo, but the new one is actually better isn't it? From what I can tell he was never in the original so he's been neither airbrushed or cropped out has he? Silly PR cock-up though because the media were always going to make something of it.

You couldn't want anything more from a modern footballer. He sounds absolutely brilliant in that interview and is exactly the type of player (along with people like Mata) that we need, not just on the pitch but off it too. I think we have a genuine star here.

Yeah, because Makelele sounds all French and stuff.

I want Lukaku back, but I want this Lukaku not the one we had 6 months ago. The problem is I don't know if he's the same guy without his loan to West Brom. Look at the thread before his loan - people were moaning about his touch, his technique and whether he would be a bust. Now look at what people are saying about him. This was a good move by the club after the disastrous handling of him by AVB. As for Ba, he's been good for us but suffers from the same problem the rest of the team does - the midfield. They don't effectively move the ball forward so he's either isolated or chasing long or high balls. That's the one area where the board can certainly take some criticism because we simply don't have a playmaker in the double pivot (sorry Frank).

The one thing that sets Shaw apart from Bertrand is the same thing that has always set Chalobah away from his contemporaries - composure. Top class players always look like they have at least a second's more time on the ball than every one else around them and unfortunately that seems to be something people either have or don't have, especially when they're still teenagers. The other thing about Ryan (and I hate to pick on him because he's a good lad) is that he's always seemed a little too happy just waiting for Cole to hang up the boots and take over. Now I'm not going to say young pros should bitch and moan but look at Lukaku - he was genuinely pissed not to be playing and he went on loan and showed everyone what they were missing out on. Yes it's hard for a left-back to set the world on fire by the very nature of their position and he is a very capable player, but I've never really seen in him what I've seen in Shaw. But then again, I thought Jon Harley was the next Le Saux so I could be very wrong and Ryan could be the guy for the next decade, and I'd be delighted at that.

And if it doesn't happen then I would have to re-assess my views on the job that's being done. But you've gone from talking about what has happened to what might happen - I agree that right now it's probably to soon to properly assess the job Emenalo is doing but based on what he's working towards I don't think it's right to call for him to be sacked.

You realise that Chelsea fans will be travelling to the game. Boro is quite some distance and this is still the FA Cup, so 'rooting' for the opposition to win......what the fuck?

M view on the loans is that it was us playing catch-up after years of mismanaging young players. We simply haven't brought through the young players we need to supplement or replace the first-teamers. Now we're trying to get this group of 18-22 year olds up to speed and experienced enough to play a part at this club. You say Lukaku was needed, but if you actually look at his thread on this forum then you'll see people saying he wasn't ready, that the loan was needed and even some members saying he was already a busted flush. That's what I mean by misremembering history, because it really doesn't service this discussion. He was wasted last year because AVB said he had a role for him in the squad (same goes for Josh). This year he's become the heir to Drogba. Does he become that without this loan? I don't know. Again, the 23 loans issue was something Bushman brought up and I think you're both being unfair. Besides Essien (who has had a bad injury record and poor form for about FOUR YEARS) there aren't many people who you would have said could have contributed before the start of the season. Now we're realistically talking about at least half-a-dozen contributing to the first-team squad next season. Is that not successful? I can't believe you're criticising the Courtois loan though. We bought a young Belgian keeper with potential. We now have a Europa League and Super Cup winning keeper who is arguably the best young keeper in Europe. Next year he might even have Champions League experience if he stays there and even if we sold him we'd make at least THREE TIMES what we paid for him. You're right about us missing him against Brentford though. I think this sums up the debate though. You're criticising him for something short-term when I'm praising him for what might be major long-term benefits. I'd really advise you look at the Lukaku thread from around July to August of last year because I don't think you realise just what the feeling was around him then. Compare it to now and see if that loan was good.

He would be partly responsible for those things I'm sure. Of course if you're giving him the 'blame' for sending Lukaku out on loan, do you give him no credit for the succes of that loan? If you blame him for letting Kalou leave (is that a bad thing?) do you not give him credit for signing Moses? What about the signing of Ba? Yes we were light up front but clearly the club wanted to take every chance they could to make the £100 million man Torres work out. In any business, that's not an asset you can simply write-off. What about Azpilicueta though? Or the youth team's success? Or the amazingly successful loans of Courtois, De Bruyne, Chalobah and a few others one could mention? In fact before he took over in July 2011, we signed players like Benayoun, Torres and Zhirkov. After that we've really prioritised young players, which again seeks to remedy one of the biggest problems that faced us a club. We didn't do the right things in the first 5 years of Roman's reign which is why we're playing catch-up now. I actually agree that there is blame to be attributed to people - I just don't know if we still pay their wages.

There seems to be this myth that one can only watch players if they're playing us. I've actually seen him in a few games and he's been nothing short of impressive in each. Shaw could be shit, but isn't that the chance you take with young players? There aren't any guarantees so you judge them on what they show you and he's shown more at age 17 than either of the other two did by age 20. By that logic, don't you think he is a more promising youngster and don't you think we should be in the business of buying promising youngsters?

We also finished 6th in the league. Solomon Kalou and Jose Bosingwa by the way.

Luke Shaw at age 17 has shown far more potential than either PVA or Bertrand in my opinion. He looks like he could be genuinely world-class whereas I'm not sure Bertrand could and PVA is still untested in the Premier League. Since when is young English talent not needed?

And that's the exact point. It's not his fault - he just isn't the player we need in the first team going forward. We need a holding midfielder and a playmaker in the double pivot - he isn't either. He also isn't a right-winger but that doesn't mean he can't play a role in the squad.