abister1

My bad. Didn't intend to be disdainful.

Great. You've cracked what modern football now is. Not pleasant,but it is what it is. We as fans are supposed to be the second half of what's most important. The first being the players of course. But it is now a business especially for top clubs. Fans feelings/input are now an afterthought.

It fits because Mourinho is not a fan. He is an employee. Employed by a different organisation. If he has emotional feel gs toward Chelsea and the fans he shouldn't show it. Not in that scenario anyway.

Man leaves British Gas and goes to work for SSE. Wears SSE jumper at work. British Gas customers upset SSE worker wears SSE jumper.

Pretty sure he wore blue and white trainers when he was our manager. Whether it was his dream job or not he has good history with Chelsea and would have been hurt at getting sacked a 2nd time. No matter what he achieves with United he would always be first thought of as chelsea first before United. And I certainly won't criticise a manager of a new club at his new club's marketing event signing a shirt of a rival team who happened to just sack him in the open season. I think it's a bit of pettiness to criticise him for that. Sure it'd have cost him nothing but why would he put himself in a vulnerable position i.e target of media and new fans who he was trying to win over at the time.

Your negativity on everything Mikel is brazenly petulant. If others are posting nice things and you don't have anything positive to say but your fingers itch to type why don't you just try stuff like....today is Sunday,I am Ernie blue, Mikel is a man,etc. ...

But surely no different expected. Man's a serial winner. Even his critics know this and even not even 3 separate seasons like he had last time with us will change that fact.

Totally get what you're saying. The board will be responsible and they know it. Truth is as fans it costs us bragging rights and expenses associated with watching/supporting the club. It costs them their reputation,points on their cv and perhaps ultimately the loss of livelihood. I'm just being pragmatic and looking at things realistically. All well and good saying we have a rich benefactor and he should splurge the cash. I've never supported it even though it sure feels good to show other teams you have the financial ability and spend violently. But the tide with chelsea's spending over the last few years has changed. Like a poster said earlier we have spent on duds recently and not chicken change, but they have generally bought less and sold more. I do not in anyway support paying 50m plus for a defender and 70m plus for a striker when we have a youth team that has dominated home and abroad. They aren't at that level yet but can't we start to integrate them slowly instead of letting teams fleece us. Napoli are not even bidding up to 30m for KKs supposed replacement yet they are gunning for over 50m from us.

Wonder if some people are stupid to ask the questions they ask when looking at the team from the outside. No stakeholder consultation apart from with other fans yet they're so much more enlightened than the board. Like poster above said the market dynamics is different. No more like taking cake from a baby.

Does he have to toe the line to be a chelsea supporter? Can't a man judge a situation on criteria he considers important without playing to the gallery or emotions? Please let our passion as fans not also be our weakness all the time. For the most part of it fans are fickle minded. Love and support a player,staff member or the board when they show positive or acceptable performance,give them unfathomable amount of warm love to foster a relationship where said player or as the case maybe begins being held to high standards of loyalty and commitment to the club. Once said player has bad performances or even great ones that earn them potential bigger moves they become subject of all sort of vilification and threats spouted without said fans holding themselves to high standards of loyalty and commitment to the player. Sad and sickening.

I can relate to people wanting a chelsea affiliate e.g ex player/ex manager to do well if chelsea don't.

Foe Nigeria he plays AM. Chelsea he plays DM. It's one of the things that baffled me the most about Mourinho. Turning a very bright AM youngster into a DM. I guess Mikel is more professional than lots of people that slate hin realise. Putting your own potential and spark on the line for the benefit of the team as a whole by just playing the spoiler role you're asked to.

Feeling the Sankara pic by the way.

Thank you Plokoon. Too much sense in your words. That's why i never criticize a manager for benching players. As much as they may have "talent" and "prospects" we see them in action one for 90 mins a week, sometimes twice. Managers see them up close for more than 90 mins a day, several times a week , so what right do we have to criticize his selection or rewarding a player's performances in training with either match time or a contract renewal?

You f**k off yourself. Twunt.

CFC better make sure there aren't any Eva Carneiro mentality people around the bench other wise we will be facing another tool downer and lawsuit.

No kidding Sheriff. What he should have said is happy to be here at man utd but the chelsea fans are great fans. The way they chant my name and support the team and bla bla bla..... Get real.

Well haters hate out of pure envy. Its like our "dirty bar steward" Costa. He would be worshipped if he was theirs. Why they say that is because they know they now have their hands on the best in the business. Let's just hope the stiffer competition makes it that bit more difficult for him. Jealous Ones Still Envy.

As fans we get emotional when our team lose. Natural to look for a fall guy. He was becoming an embarasssment whenever he opened his mouth but to think he will fail is wishful thinking. We all really know he will succeed cos he's one of the top 3 in the world depending on what view you want to look at it from. Haters will hate. Imagine United fans that were probably most critical of Jose when he was elsewhere and especially chelsea how much excited they are and can't wait to rub an O out when it's official.Yeh some don't like him and it was same when he was here and same with everything in life. Everyone can't like you. Let's just hope they get an itchy trigger finger at Utd and Pep,Conte,Klopp and a few others can provide just enough fight in first couple of years to keep him away from title cos if he gets Utd the title in first 2 years (I think he will)they will give him a freehand and we have seen Jose's first chelsea team achieve even without him there.....be scary to think what he will build if there for 5 years. No dominance in British football again from one team like the fergie days but I reckon Jose will come near close enough

My feelings exactly. Not blaming him,was a wonderful appointment when made but the opprtunity to try out our unknown quality in the kids especially after our safety was assured wasn't taken but instead the same players that put us in the mess in first place we're being "rewarded" with game time. I'd have rather we lost every game after safety had been assured by playing a defence composing of Aina,Rahman,Clarke Salter,midfield of Casey Palmer, Colkett,Loftus Cheek, with Traore,Tammy, and even Islam Feruz in the attacking mix. Then the "good" record he achieved with 11w 12d and 6l in all competitions would have actually been for good. The reasons we don't give the kids a chance is the competition we're always in on all fronts. This season was different. They still didn't get their chance. Would it be next season when Conte is looking to assault the top end of table again they will get that opportunity?That's where my disappointment stems from.

So sad. Nothing extraordinary achieved. Count the number of two points dropped in last 15 mins of games and we'll have a total putting us firmly in Europe. Even though nothing to play for when obvious we couldn't be there any more why not play the kids and let the fans and new manager see what they can do. The rebuilding will start next season and the chance to make it easier was not taken. Think he was more concerned about keeping his good record in place than anything else. Because though Mourinho had a car crash of a season if he was manager we would have come out of our slumber. Especially as it would have meant the primadonna players didn't have their way and they would have sat up as would have known the choice was to do that or leave the club. We will hear critics say team was running on fumes last season grinding out 1 goal wins but at least he could grind those type of results out and they do make a big difference eventually.

So the point I was making is, Mikel at his best makes the team neat in possession, keeps the ball moving etc. but will rarely directly contribute to the things that win you matches. You may well have been describing Antonio Conte how Antonio Conte describes himself as a player

Been captain of Nigeria for years and usually takes control of the games. Just dithers too much in chelsea and I guess it's probably because he came in as a youngster with a lot of older "club legends" there who set the tone and he has just kind of been professional and done what Managers say to the letter. Maybe to the detriment of his own game. One of those situations where you can't win as dammed if you don't or do.

People make arguments on sentiments. The Mourinho/Hiddink pro/anti squad but cast all that aside. Performances have been woeful and not much better than before he took over. For all the talk of improved morale and man management that's not translated to performances to be proud of on the pitch. You get 8 points from 8 draws. They say you're on an unbeaten run. They hail it as a performance worthy of praise. Shhhh don't let them hear but it means you're well below the acceptable standards for even a "poor" pass rating on the percentile scale. It's so sad chelsea football club took the wrong turn when they got to the "Mourinho T Junction".