strong centreback

Like covering up an affair or stopping an ex employee going to the press saying how you use brass regularly, gary johnson went to the club after the fa/met palmed him off for compensation for the alledged ordeal, the insurance company/solicitors involved agreed a apparant industry standard non disclosure clause be added i to the settlement/compensation, to me that doesnt sound like hush money but a ill advised clause added to the compensation payout. 
I believe carneiro also has a gaging clause as part of her payout

compensation is the term I believe, unless your working for one of the many media rabble and want a sensationalist headline that is

Hush money is when you find out someone is going to spill the beans and you pay them to keep quiet. Gary Johnson approached the club for compensation, via his solicitors. A compensation package invariably comes with a gagging clause, and Johnson didn't raise any objections. There is a moral argument about such gagging clauses but they are within the law, and if anybody has any beef it should be with the law-makers. The payment is compensation rather than hush money though such a distinction may not mean anything to the man in the street and it certainly doesn't mean anything to the media, who choose to go for the sensationalist term, and the one which discredits Chelsea as much as possible. That's my opinion. Merry Christmas everybody. 

compensation is the term I believe, unless your working for one of the many media rabble and want a sensationalist headline that is

compensation is the term I believe, unless your working for one of the many media rabble and want a sensationalist headline that is

Well he is...he is literally asking for more money. I am just questioning why he is asking now. Why not 3 years ago when he signed a contract. 
 

50K is probably far more than he would have received through the courts though according to the Times. Money is an issue in this particular case because so far it's the only one where compensation is known to have been paid. It's perfectly reasonable to discuss what's 'fair' or otherwise without implying Gary Johnson is a money grabber. In my opinion the Club has tried to be fair but that's not how it's being presented in the media.
 
 

If he wasn't happy with the payout, why did he accept it?
Why didn't he kick up more of a fuss if this was all about the principle?
He seems happy to have his mug all over tv and the papers now, just comes off as a money grabber to me. 
 

Has he not had his compensation though? If he didn't think 50 grand was enough for his pain and suffering take cfc through the courts, between him and his solicitors they agreed on 50k and took the money, what has changed since then? other than it's probably all gone and with the fallout of the other victims he thinks he should of got more?
 
sounds proper c**tish saying it but if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck it's probably a duck. 

I salute this man! He's a genius for turning around the club's fortunes in a short space of time.
I haven't had this much affection for a new manager since Mourinho in 2004.

I have huge admiration for Antonio to be animated on the touchline for the whole game. He must have huge energy to do that every game.
His passion is infectious and it's evident within the playing squad.

Id say there is no guarantee he will make united a success, the league is alot stronger now due to midtable clubs being to spend 50m on players, so there is a lot of strength running from top to bottom now, you have spurs, arsenal, liverpool, leciester, west ham, man city who will spend hundreds of millions with guardiola in charge, and depending on how things go us as well who could all put in a credible title charge next season.
 
Personally id be interested to see how he does as a neutral as I wasnt sure he was the right manager for us when he came back and I wasnt too sad to see him go, and while he was here he wasnt the same type of manager as he was back with porto chelsea mk1 or inter, he has become tactically inflexible doesnt seem capable of changing games with his subs anymore.

The one thing which slightly concerned me was when Moses was replaced with Ivanovic
This just goes to show that if Moses were to get injured Conte sees Ivanovic as a replacement, I would much rather Ivanovic cover the back 3 and maybe have Willian as cover for the RWB position

Sooo is it time to give the board some credit for parting ways with Mourinho and bringing in Conte? Its early, but looks a great decision. 

I was referring to 2003, when Roman forked out £60m for something he could have apparently had for peanuts days later. In 2003 we had £250m of fixed assets, including a stadium on the most valuable real estate in the world, a multi-million pound squad, were in the CL, etc. The problem was short-term liquidity, with the £9m Eurobond installment we were struggling to pay. Not exactly an ideal situation, of course, but it's an exaggeration to claim we were at the point of extinction either. Had Roman not bought us we probably would have been sold to Ecclestone's group.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. So many people were praising Emenalo and our transfer strategy a few years ago when we were replacing unproven players with proven quality and making a profit while doing it, yet now those same players are fading (inevitable as they are older) and we are unable/unwilling to replace them at a cost, the criticism is coming in.

Who is to blame? Everyone. The manager (Mourinho) wanted players to come in to improve the squad, which is a natural demand of most managers. The players that came in DID improve the squad at the time and we won trophies.

There are 2 ways the transfer committee could have prevented our current situation. Option 1) refuse to buy the older players the manager wanted, and insist that the younger players stayed to help us in future years. This strategy would have a long-term benefit, but could anger both the manager and the players who want to leave.
Option 2) Keep buying. When it becomes apparent that Matic/Ivanovic/Cahill etc etc are losing form/ageing, you buy in quality replacements to ensure the quality of the squad stays high. Obviously this is an expensive option and may be very difficult under FFP rules.

If Mourinho was promised some control over transfers, then refusing to buy players he demands is immediately going to anger him and cause issues. The ideal scenario would have been Mourinho keeping and utilising our younger players at the time, but nobody was complaining when we won the league. Nobody complained when we made a huge profit on KDB and Lukaku and re-invested in quality. And most of all, Mourinho claims he never wanted those players sold, so who sanctioned those sales?

Mourinho had a short-term vision which the younger players didn't fit into, but with Abramovich's reputation for sacking managers who in the world would come here and NOT have a short-term vision? I don't blame Jose entirely, although his refusal to use some young players is a factor. I don't blame Emenalo entirely, although his decision to allow those players to leave is a factor. I don't blame Abramovich entirely but he has created a short-term working environment for managers coming in due to numerous sackings (some deserved) in the past. Blame lies everywhere at the club and now we have a huge job to pull ourselves out of the sh*t. Roman has to put up big money, the transfer board needs to make smart signings and we need our manager to feel confident that he has time and job securiy to think long-term and ensure that we build a squad that will stay together for a long time.

And we might need to see some flying pigs too, for good measure

Didn't we get 50m for Luiz? 
And to me one position sums up our insanity in the last couple of years: left back. We have spent 55m plus trying to replace Ashley Cole. And of course we offloaded the talented Ryan Bertrand as well.
And while it's true KdB and Lukaku were sold against Jose's wishes, you can certainly question his handling of them and his part in making them want to leave. He felt Willian was better than KdB and went for Eto'o rather than give Lukaku a bigger role in the squad.

I don't disagree, they're one of the biggest but for me it's clear that Madrid and Barca occupy #1 and #2 respectively and no amount of London based Manure fans can tell me otherwise

Imagine having the pulling Power of Klopp. To be able to pull any player from the mighty Southampton and Newcastle.
 
Im just gonna sit down and grab my popcorn, cause I really like were this thread is going

Moses aside, Jose was just so stubborn last season that I honestly don't understand people still longing for his presence.

I often wonder how people with your expectations would have got on week in week out watching us in the early 90s

it's the mental aspect that's going to be a big hurdle for him to pass

Absolutely right.

Ive never got that either, British/English managers have got chances.
 
Roy got a chance at Liverpool, made one of the biggest f**k ups i've ever seen got deservedly sacked and still got the England job after that, McLaren got the England job and f**ked it, Moyes got the United job and f**ked it, Hughes for the City job and f**ked it.
 
Ironically the British manager that's got the best chance of succeeding at a top job is the one who had to wait the longest for it (Big Sam).