The only place to be

Our manager threw on Nathan Ake when we were defending a tight lead away to Norwich. Maybe times are a changing?

Because he was a joke who indulged in petty squabbles with senior playing, coaching and office staff whilst holding back the development of youngsters like Lukaku and McEachran and proceeding to try and take some of the credit for our Champions League win despite us being on the brink of exiting it. Great at tactical analysis but bad at interacting with human beings.

Already he has more than 3 times as much playing time as John Terry had. Gael Kakuta has 3 times as much as Chalobah. There's no general rule for these types of things, but Chalobah has met every challenge he's faced and looked good doing it. Why don't we take a chance for once?

Another season or two? Why? Why not throw the kid in at the deep end next season and challenge a young, talented, mature young man to swim? I know our policy has been to farm young kids out and that's been a massive success so far, but why not just trust our academy?

It looked too comfortable for him at times. We could loan him out again, or we could throw him into the team and see what happens. The argument for McEachran is that he needs to physically develop and that's fair, but Nathanial is already more than a match physically for most opposition players and he's one of those guys who just sees the game better than 95% of players ever will.

This kid has got to be involved sooner rather than later. Leave him at Watford until the end of the season and then let him fight for a spot on summer, and we might have the heart of our team for the next decade. Plus, not that I really care, but we have another talented midfielder for English too.

Do you think you can't win anything with kids?

I agree. He's always been a class above, and he still looks it. He could be the new 'Mr Chelsea' so long as we don't fuck him up and I'd love him to be our captain going forward.

He's one of those guys who just has it. Time, vision, strength - he's got it all. He's the player Mikel could've been.

No-one thinks it will be easy. But no-one thought United would throw away the league last season. They're weak in key areas, especially defensively. Teams seem to be able to score on them quite freely and I don't think the tactic of scoring one more than the opposition is a good way to go about winning leagues. I think they'll be fine.

Because winning the Champions League and FA Cup weren't fun? The guy fucked up at ever possible level. He robbed a year from players like McEachran by keeping them around and then not using them, he insulted the reserves and he left us on the verge of an exit to Napoli after he played Jose Bosingwa at left back. THEN he had the nerve to suggest he was in some way responsible for our CL success. The guy's a cunt. I think it's laughable to say 'Thanks AVB' when anyone with even the slightest knowledge of our club knows how transfers are conducted. We scouted Mata along with a number of other clubs before AVB. If you're going to thank him, thank everyone else who had a role in us signing him.

So are our world class scouts. The role AVB would have played in that transfer was minimal. Thanking that cunt for anything that happened during his time in charge is laughable.

People need to take a step back and relax. You'd expect both Manchester teams to get the results they did, and they've both got toughies coming up with Man City at home to a tough Stoke side and United going to Wigan where they lost last season. We've just got to focus on winning our games and let the other teams drop points, which they will.

Seriously? You think it was AVB who picked Mata or had anything to do with his signing? Fuck AVB.

They're 11 points above QPR and only 4 points off Liverpool and Norwich.

You're apparently a fan since 2007 and you're going to go down that route? I have sweat-stained autographs from Erland Johnson that pre-date your 'support' for this club (such as it is). :tophat:

Fuck I hate AVB's face. What a cunt.

I tend to agree. We're going to be in a tough (but nice) position in the next 6-18 months with him and Cech.

He's definitely the best player I've seen, but I wasn't alive when Pele was playing so I have to go by video footage only which has it's limitations.

Thanks for that link - it's not the original one but it's the earliest reference to one that I've seen. :tophat:

Looks like we'll just have to agree to disagree. But if the WC is so important, I'd suggest Zidane is the greatest player of all time.

There was a period of time where Drogba was booed by the home fans for his constant diving. I love the guy but you're absolutely right about a certain myth of him building up.

No, but that's the point. I can google and find these things out. My original point was that I couldn't find an original source for the Benitez comments. Now if someone posted the original source this conversation wouldn't be going on. But it's interesting to see you two supporting one another - such a shame supporting the club doesn't come so easily. :blue scalf:

Thank God. Can you remember who he made them to and when?

Weird - that Spanish team seems to have pretty great chemistry, although that's mainly down to it largely being the Barcelona team. Regardless, I simply don't regard international football as being that important anymore. It's certainly more competitive nowadays with more emerging nations who have simply gotten better at the game (which is something Pele didn't have to contend with) but the level of competition at club level is still higher. Messi is going to be a three-time Ballon d'Or winner (at least). The fact that he hasn't won a World Cup really isn't a factor in judging how good he was.