WhiteWall

This is another anachronism, commenting about 50 year old this and that. when i was a kid going to football, the 50 year olds were furry faced old boys in caps, smoking St Bruno, coming out with terrace banter and quips that would be "for mens ears" yet witty. A man's club that as a young boy i felt slighty privilieged to be allowed into. Now that i am one of those 50 year olds, there are as many 'erberts and hoolies at this age group as there are in the 20's, 30's and 40's. In fact the hoolies of my youth seem to be the hoolies of my ripening years. Perhaps adjectives should be banned. Then there'd be no manc, no 50 year, no black, no cockney, no rent boy etc etc. We would all just be C words and everyone would be happy that none of us had been discriminated against

Apologies for bringing a bit of levity intothis discussion but i have also often thought this about a number of our footballing traditions. Whilst i get the grown men chanting and singing together even though we would never do this anywhere else in our lives, it does seem slightly ridiculous when you see television footage of somebody driving into the training ground amid a small group of four old men and half a dozen kids all chanting "There's only one....". It highlights how nonsensical a number of our traditions are. Off topic , I know...sorry

I tried to post something similar but put it nowhere near as well as you. Often, when these things come out the perpetrators end up being regular guys, living sedate lives, family men, regular jobs. Yet for some reason they go to football and lose all reason. My other point was the level of reaction just doesn't seem proportionate making me feel that there may be an additional Chelsea agenda at play. As i said in my previous post my previous player, Christian Mbulu was also abused on the same day, while playing for Motherwell, and apparently this isn't under investigation, its proven. Where is the three days' wall to wall coverage for Christian. Christian isn't a cossetted superstar working his way through the Liverpool academy ranks and then moving to Man City. Always surounded by coaches, agents, advisors etc. Consultants helping to mould his image and to advise how to handle the more foul and disgusting elements of our society. Christian played youth football for me in Essex. As a senior he got to play for Brentwood Town in the Ryman North until he got picked up by Millwall. Trialled and passed and got offered a pro contract. He lasted there a couple of years, playing for the u23's and captaining them at times. Eventually he inevitably got released and is now in Scotland plying his trade at Motherwell. No agents, no image consultants, no advisors help to counsel against racism and general foul abuse. He wasn't even on the pitch. He was warming up, a 22 year old kid just trying his best to get on the ladder. No controversy, no gun tatts, noting about this lad that any beer up clown could try to use as some ridiuclous justification for abusing a lovely, bright, well mannered, well spoken lad. It's racism, its foul and its wrong. Its in a country, like ours, with an infamous record of alcohol fueled football violence, sectarianism and racism. But its not indicative. 99.99999% of Scots are excellent, wonderful people, in the same way that 4 morons doesn't define the entire Chelsea fanbase. I just can't understand why Chelsea are gaining the entire limelight at the moment. Why isn't Motherwell also in the news. Hearts have already acted apparently, publicly. Whilst we wait to find out what actually was said, from the investigation, Sky Sports could actually spend a bit of time focussing on Christian's situation, but as has been mentioned perhaps this doesn't fit the narrative.

If the two points were mutually exclusive then perhaps so. Ergo Aguero has spent a large part of hs career injured AND has also spent the first part of the season not even starting, being benched.

And he's been to every game, home and away for the last six years, which is a lot more than most of these "so called fans"

I'm in no way trying to diminish the unacceptable and frankly neanderthal behaviour that has been highlighted here. I would, however, say, that the vitriol, whilst fully understandable, does seem to be coming towards the club almost with a gleeful level of over reaction from some quarters within the media Raheem Sterling wasn't the only black player abused this weekend. Hell Sterling wasn't the only black player abused and highlighted nationally in the media this weekend. A cracking young 22 year old lad, that i had the pleasure of managing as a youth player, Christian Mbulu, who is now a pro at Motherwell was also racially abused this weekend. Abhorrent behaviour, despicable. Maybe i am just a bit overly sensitive as well, that it feels like its another oportunity for the media to undermine our club.

Odd comment to make considerign teh amount of times that bloke is injured anyway. In fact it wasn't that long ago he wasn't even starting games and had a period on the bench

I don't think Sarri wil have a shopping basket in january with probably one signing only, if we don't foul up the negotiations. For me, why this guy is definitely worth investing in, a striker has to be a prime target, surely.

Everyone!! Even Oliver had a decent game. Michael that is, this isn't a misspelling of Giroud

The saddest part of your post. Football for the masses! What chance do we all have of passing on the buzz and enjoyment of match going to our sons and daughters, good lord.

Great post this. One of the most pleasing aspects for me was our game management. We all know Man City are the best around without everyone bum loving their every move. I along with others have been critical of some of our players lack of willingness to work hard without the ball, but yesterday we were magnificent. Other then 1 misplaced pass from Kepa i cannot think of a single defensive lapse. Yes they opened us up on ocassion but they are the best around. Really encouraging that we didn't employ Conte's hedgehog tactics and we stood toe to toe with City and beat them. I even thought Willian played well which is fair praise from me as he is my go to guy when the frustration and anger bites and i want to vent. Lol. One very minor thing, I did think that Barkley was a little up and down, whereas i actually thought RLC added a bit of impetus and a change in atmosphere. Its undefinable because RLC's contribution was no greater but perhaps he is slightly ahead of Ross as he sems to engender an extra spark in the crowd at the moment. When we get a great performance like this it does make the Wolves debacle all the more frustrating though. I do believe that with a strong focal point up top and an addtiional option of a longer pass we could really be a force this year. Really pleased that the two game changers today were two of the guys that have been coming under the most attention and criticism in the press recently. Well done Luiz and Kante.

Spot on. Add to this a bunch of aunt sallys behind Jorginho and/or Cesc and the problems become self evident

We spent more time on the ball until Spurs at which time they sat on Jorginho , played off him and thus exposed his defensive liabilities and his critical lack of pace. Critical because in possession he is the pivot, out of posession he is the screen for the defence. But the defence is as laborious and error prone, with Luiz in la-la land, Dave decidly average and Alonso falling over his incrediby slow feet. The answer has been to put Fabregas in Jorginho's position, because Sarri is only looking at the play with the ball. Out of possession Fabregas is every bit a liability as Jorginho is. Two games ina row now, and it looks like the penny has dropped with teh rest of the teams. What Sarri needs to learn, and bloody fast is that to compete in this league you have to have two games, one with the ball and more importantly one without. We have no clue how to play without the ball. It started off high intensity pressing. We scored 3 against Arsenal and looked fantastic. But hang on, if we think about it closely we could and probably should have conceded five in the first half of that game. Have we improved defensively? Probably not, we have been very lucky until now with some criminal misses from our opponents. and teh inensity of of high press is a distance memory

As hard as it is to swallow, in reality probably Morata, Giroud, Alonso, Willian, Christensen, Luiz, Fabregas, Zappacosta, Emerson, Moses, are not good enough to compete at the top of this division or the higher elements of european football. From those that i would say are good enough, Kepa, Pedro, RLC, and even Hazard at times, need to show a higher level of consistenncy in their effort and game play. Its quite damning and i am not knee-jerking because of the result, but could any of those in the first list get into Spurs, Arsenal, Scouse, Athletico Madrid, Inter, Juve, Barca, any of them. Surely even the staunchest of rose tinters must acknowledge that we are critically bereft of players capable of sustaining a valid attempt at the main trophy targets.

Its no consolation because he didn't really have sh*t performances, like us he had a dodgy slow defence prone to erro. The difference is he then spent a quarter of a billion on replacing just his defence. He's shopping at Harrods, we're in Poundland