The only place to be

There's a thousand miles between saying positive stuff about Chelsea and calling United the biggest club in the world. But fine, they put the money in front of him and he'll say what they want. To be frank he's not the sharpest tool in the box so I doubt he even read it.

Ashley was having ankle problems at 29. He certainly didn't let it affect his performances for a while, but physically you'd have to think Luis is in better shape than Cole was at the same age.

Because it does matter. When the guy comes out and says his favourite team is Chelsea, to then talk up United.....he's a cunt. I have no problem with him going to United but football isn't just a business.

What a turncoat fucking prick. I don't care about PR bollocks, this little twerp was tweeting about this club on a regular basis. Just one more gloryhunter from Surrey. How very 90s of you Luke. Don't tweet about this club again.

Henrique's posts do get more bites than a defender marking Suarez don't they. It was his third time doing this, he's already had two bans so of course it was going to be heavy especially doing it in the biggest international tournament going. As for his credentials being removed, what choice did FIFA have? What reason did he have for still being there? HE HAS NO BUSINESS HAVING CREDENTIALS. That's why they were removed and why he was told to fuck off. That doesn't mean he's being treated like a criminal. He's being treated like a person without appropriate credentials.

The weird thing is, you clearly recognise that it's a gamble. There is no guarantee that he'll actually live up to the potential he has and even if he does, the £100k p/w that he's reportedly earning is massively unjustified and hugely problematic when you look at the established internationals in our squad who earn less than that. Your post is a confusing mixture of certainties and hypotheticals. Obviously you can't say that until a bit further down the line. A terrific signing would be going back to the rumours on page one of this thread and signing Shaw for less than £5 million. Buying him at the price that will probably be the highest of his career is not good business, but then neither was the signing of Fellaini and Mata. Yet we just signed a homegrown player who has 89 caps for Spain, has played in a Champions League Final, captained a top four Premier League side and has won La Liga, the World Cup and the European Championship....all for less than United have paid in transfer fees for Shaw. IF Shaw achieves every measure of his potential than United have probably got value for their purchase. But that's a big IF. £10 million for Franny Jeffers and £15 million for David Bentley could've been bargains if they'd maxed out their potential too, but there's a reason it's called potential.

It's amazing that there are even some Scousers on RAWK who have held their hands up and said that for a THIRD offence of such a disgusting nature that there's no defending the ban....yet once again you choose (because it's very much a choice) to swim against the tide for no reason other than to be different. That's the thing about modern discourse - it's easier to be a contrarian than it is to be articulate or reasoned. When 100 people agree on something, it's harder to stand out from the crowd by constructing an argument full of wit or insight. But be the 1 person to disagree and you're certain to get that much more attention. Go on Twitter and you'll see people get attention not through their intellect or reasoning, but by being more extreme than the rest. Or maybe you genuinely believe the stuff you post...but I doubt it. Once again it's his third ban for the same disgusting act. Personally I think he could've got five or six months and it would have been fair.

For those keeping count the guy has missed 26 games (domestic) for Biting opponents now. Throw in his 8 match ban for racism and he's missed almost an entire season just through being a disgusting cunt.

http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=314821.0 Meltdown in process. Personally I can't believe FIFA actually did it, but like I said it makes them look tough without it being one of the top tier stars. They're still a bunch of cunts but fucking over a bigger cunt and a group of even bigger cunts (Scousers) makes them less cunty than they were before. Oh, and LOL Don't worry, Rickie Lambert is still there.

Fantastic effort there. Some absolute belters on there too. Delusional wankers.

United have handled this appallingly. They dragged it out, let their fans get excited about signing him (because they can't really sign any other marquee name), watched teams like us get our business done quickly and quietly and that allowed Southampton to ratchet up the price at the last minute. If those figures are correct then they're well and truly fleeced. The pressure on him would be incredible.

FIFA are in a good position. He's a big star, but he's not Messi, Neymar or Ronaldo. They can look tough on 'stars' without losing a real biggie. They have to go hard on him too, because it's absolutely insane that he's done this again. Biting someone on a football pitch for a third time, after a much-publicised rehabilitation is just crazy. There's something seriously wrong with him and exactly why so many people didn't want a scumbag like him at the club. Once again though it's hilarious to see some Scousers (not all) defending him and looking for the silver lining in this. I hope the cunt is gone for some time and I hope it fucks those northern scumbags up too because they deserve it for defending him last time.

So a guy's brother is on his deathbed, but the Abu Dhabi owners thought that the opening of a stadium was more important. OR Toure is slandering the club to get a move. Hmm...don't see how he stays.

Fantastic article and agree with most of it.

Actually I think that's a massively simplistic, patronising piece of writing. Basically we like Cahill because he looks English and we don't like Luiz because he's a proper footballing centre-half. It completely ignores that this is the country that celebrates the likes of Bobby Moore and Duncan Edwards, players who pretty much invented the footballing centre-half. Hell, even Rio could strike a ball pretty well. The reason Luiz isn't rated by many supporters is that his own lack of awareness/concentration issues/immaturity/idiocy lead to mistakes. All players make mistakes but there's honest mistakes and there's mistakes through lack of effort. Switching off at key moments is something most football supporters won't forget, but there is still a huge market for whom 'personality' (a catch all term that means fuck all in the 'reality' era) trumps that. David Luiz is a footballer for the Miley Cyrus generation. He's instantly recognisable, 'fun' and capable of moments of brilliance. That's worth £50 million easily in marketing revenue for a club like PSG.

It's amazing that the people who talk about supporting youth and giving them a chance are the first to put the boot into them and unfairly criticise them. It's simply moaning for the sake of it. Lionsden's assessment of Courtois is massively flawed. Of course he has areas of his game to work on but every player does...but he's 21 for fuck's sake and already better than Cech. Cech has become dodgy at crosses. He's cost us goals, he's cost us points and those points could've cost us the title. Yes we lacked a striker. Yes we are a work in progress, but he fucked up against West Brom and Stoke (amongst others) yet the sainted Cech gets a free pass. I love Cech. He's a Chelsea legend and he rivals Bonetti and Kharine (what?? he was awesome) as our best ever, but he was dropped last season because he made mistakes. Let's assess him fairly if we're going to criticise Courtois harshly - Cech looked poorer last season than he has done in a long time. Courtois just seems to be getting better. Take emotion out of the equation and look at the trends.

And if you can find a single football fan who thinks he's actually worth £50 million then you've done well. I'm not sure if you can be the world's most expensive defender if you've played the majority of your club football in midfield for the last 6 months. Fact is he's hugely marketable which a club like PSG placed a premium on, whereas Jose Mourinho places a premium on winning. It was something of a coup for PSG to sign him. But if you ignore the Instagramming, the marketing, the bobble-head dolls and focus simply on the 90 minutes of football then Luiz just wasn't up to snuff for Chelsea Football Club.

And you prefer one who has 'concentration issues'? The argument about these big clubs wanting to buy him is great....except another big club sold him. In fact a big manager (Jose Mourinho) rated him so lowly that he barely played him in defence when he had the choice. That's a lie. No-one thinks he's the worst defender ever. In fact most people think he has the ability to be the best defender in the world. The problem is his mentality, or as The Skipper quite rightly criticised him - his concentration issues. What good is a defender who has 'concentration issues'?

Really? Both defences are arguably the best in their leagues and you probably won't find a closer analogue for our defensive structure than Atletico's almost anywhere in Europe. Of course there will be changes, but I don't think you could ask for a better team for a goalkeeper to come from than Atletico's. Having watched both keepers a lot, Courtois is better right now in my opinion. Cech has not looked like the Cech of 2012 for a while which is worrying. Put it like this. I don't think we lose anything by putting Courtois in goal for us next season and I think there's a chance we actually become a better team with him. Pre-season is about fitness, not competition so I don't know how useful a yardstick that is. Pragmatically there's no reason not to go with Courtois, but emotionally there's always going to be a pull for keeping Cech and football is about emotion. Either way we've got one of the top six (?) keepers in the world in goal for us.

Ivanovic is too much of a hot-head for me and I'm not sure he's guaranteed a start anymore. Plus we're talking about replacing JT as captain when he's only 33. Ivanovic is 30. It's hardly a long-term appointment. Cahill is a good shout but like Barbara said, he's a bit quiet. Able, loyal lieutenant but captain...I'm not sure. Wouldn't let you down though. Matic is a decent shout but it's too soon to know. He's only been here 6 months and was still bedding himself in but I could certainly see him grow in importance if he continues his progress. I think it's too soon to know though. JT is captain right now and there's no reason to think he won't be that come May and possibly beyond. It's basically about waiting to see who emerges from the current lot and takes the opportunity that is going to be there. Ideally though my choice is one of the young English lads on the fringes of the squad, preferably Chalobah. I like the way he conducts himself, he plays the positions I prefer skippers to come from (defence or midfield, defensive midfield probably the perfect choice), he's Chelsea through and through and he's a quality player. A similar argument could be made for Lotfus-Cheek too, but these are both some ways down the road.

Will Cech even be fit for pre-season? But let's just get this straight....Courtois's last two club games were winning La Liga at the Camp Nou and the Champions League Final, but you want to judge his ability to keep goal for us against Olimpija Ljubljana and Vitesse Arnhem. That's like the owner of The Ivy taking a couple of chefs to McDonalds to see which one if best suited to running their kitchen. There was a reason to bench Cech last season....in fact he was. His form last season was iffy at times and for the first time ever he looked dodgy at crosses. I have absolutely no idea what you think we're going to learn in half-a-dozen pre-season games that the coaches don't know from watching Cech and Courtois over the last 18-24 months. Pre-season might actually be this 'mystical entity' with the stock you're placing in it. :eyebrows:

45 minutes a game? Goalkeeping is as much about building a rapport with the defence as it is catching the ball. Stability in that position is paramount to it's success. Chopping and changing between matches is a nice way to cause uncertainty amongst the back five.

Oh look, using the word 'retard' again (before the edit). http://thesaurus.com/ You're welcome.

I don't think I've ever known a player who is so happy to talk publicly, but so utterly unaware of how to conduct himself in the public eye. The guy speaks 6 languages, but manages to say pretty much the wrong thing every time and when a billion people are watching him around the world he throws a strop when he's subbed. Yes I understand the frustration and maybe that injury is still holding him back, but once again it's all about Lukaku. Of course he's still a young man, but you don't really see many other players conducting themselves in this manner. I think we're also seeing the same problems Everton fans saw in him - he's a pure goalscorer. That's great, but if it's not his day then he really doesn't offer a huge amount to the team. He is a problem. Selling him now might make some sense, but I'd quite happily like to see him sign a new contract and then maybe go on loan. At the moment I could see anything happening with him...literally. If he said he wanted to retire tomorrow I probably wouldn't be surprised. Jose needs to handle this situation and we need to trust him.

Yet if he has a dip in form (like Oscar did) then you'll be the first to slag him off. You want young players but you don't want to deal with the reality of young players. You're basically one of these 16 And Pregnant mums, who wants a real life doll but doesn't want to deal with the piss and shit.