g3.7

. (previously a 7 year old mashing the keyboard, removed to pre-empt "most sensible thing you've said all year" type comments)

from: to: within 24 hours. I didn't think we'd manage to put out a defence this poor having sold david luiz, but fair play to the lads they managed to do it at the end of the day.

I dare say those terms could be leaked, and if not the red tops at least will be sure to speculate. jose isn't our 'problem' any more, but for me this story is more about the club. men in positions of power frequently abuse those positions in relation to subordinate women in the work place up and down the country- for me it is a symptom of an unequal (historically and currently) society. that in itself is obviously an a terrible fact, but what concerns me more is that a corporate entity (in this case the club) opted to compound any mistakes jose made. for me that is the real concern. you can't account for individual racists, sexists, bullies, idiots etc, but we should all be able to expect that when something goes wrong a dispassionate board of directors running a multimillion pound international business should be able to address the issue quickly and more importantly fairly. the club did neither.

I think there is still a really good player in there somewhere. we probably only saw it 3 or 4 times at most last season but I think unless we are offered silly money we should give him another year.

it must be tough supporting a country that has won the world cup in your life time and a club that has won nearly everything it could have done in the same period.

would be a really good signing I think. clever, versatile attacker- probably suits the type of football conte will want to play. not been much of a goalscorer in his career so I think that suggests he would be bought to play alongside costa rather than replace him.

I think any chance of civility towards or empathy for carneiro herself has long gone on this thread / forum. towards me? I don't think there has been a problem. in any case I understand what some posters here think of my position whether they say it or not- that either I am being very naive OR that I am taking up contrarian positions for an argument / the satisfaction of being 'righteous'. but I accept that and I don't really care to convince otherwise. (not saying that you think those things of me, but some almost certainly do) so what does she hope to gain other than financial compensation? as you imply- I can't know- but I can guess. firstly I take issue with the question because it is framed in such a way that we should assume money is the most important thing- I don't think it is. I note that her lawyers have said she would stand to gain less than what she was offered by pursuing legal action. whether true or not, surely someone out for a quick buck would go for the compensation rather than risk losing a public court case, potentially costing her money as well as a public humliation? I think it shows great character to turn down such a large sum. I think for her going to court to prove that she did her job correctly, to win an acceptance that it was wrong of jose to criticise her decision making and to determine whether she was on the receiving end of sexual discrimination means something. she was effectively demoted for doing her job properly and wants the law to make it clear that is not an acceptable manner for a company to conduct itself. taking a payoff would mean none of these things would happen. all through the season I've read page after page of criticism for the way the club is run because they signed a player and loaned him out, like they have done dozens of times in the past. people even questioned their support based on these types of decisions. yet there has been so little criticism of the shameful way chelsea behaved in allowing fearn and carneiro to be publicly attacked and subsequently demoted despite the fact that we have people on these boards lining up to tell the world how much they care about the way the club is run. in fact the tone has been to attack one of the wronged individuals, call her a slut, who is only in it for the money and who should-in effect- know her place. I find it interesting that often the people who are absolutely adamant no sexism has taken place pair those opinions with criticisms of carneiro that I would describe as sexist. I find it incredibly dispiriting- without question it has been the worst part of a terrible season in so many respects.

She should be congratulated for refusing to be bought off.

Can I just say, your dedication to this schtick is incredible. I'm a big fan of your efforts.

portugal: first nandos' inexplicable ordering system, then cristiano ronaldo's duplicitous eyelid, now bruno alves' mobile decapitation service. truly an irredeemable nation.

Gallas, but riccy in his pomp would be the best defender in the league quite comfortably as it is now.

not for me. scholes was immaculate technically. lampard was 'merely' good. if you throw in gerrard then lamps is still third in terms of natural talent, but certainly in the top two when it comes to how good they were overall.

to be fair he would've been ten years old so a lack of experience probably would've counted against him.

Obviously I'd want England to win I that situation. Getting that group of players to the final would be huge achievement for conte (and hodgson too if we're honest). I think going out in the group stage would be the best possible outcome for Chelsea anyway. The players will be convinced by him (or not) mostly through working with him and the results they achieve.

Thiago motta handed the Italy no. 10 shirt. We should tear up that contract and, just to be sure, stick conte down a well and see if he floats. The Italy squad in full then: Graziano pelle (x1) , gianluilgi buffon (x1) , giacomo milneri (x21).

obviously it's all about opinions- that much is implied. I don't think schmeichel and butland have any business being mentioned alongside the others you cite. as for the video, surely the coaches dictate the type of training. at the end of the day you're watching edited bits of film that I don't think really have any value whatsoever when it comes to making a judgement on the relative merits of courtois and butland. I mean, I think they have even less to offer than youtube compilations, and that's saying something. I am 99% confident every top manager in europe and every single manager in the premier league would choose courtois over butland and I'm 90% certain butland would himself say he's not as good a goalkeeper. I think he had a better season last year, but then courtois had a serious knee injury and was rushed back into a badly faltering side. I don't think butland has had one season to compare to tibo's previous four and he's only a year younger. I think it's like comparing sergio aguero to jermaine defoe. there's a reason why at the same age butland was sitting on the bench watching begovic whilst courtois was picking up a league title with atletico madrid. I don't want to knock him because I do think he's a talented shot stopper, but there are players and then there are players.

He's twice the keeper butland is.

I don't think it does any more. big teenage prospects in europe seemed to be valued at £30m or even more. when you look at fees for di maria, sterling, de bruyne, rodriguez etc I suspect that £60m is the new £30m. factor in the gigantic tv deal coming into effect and I don't think £60m could easily buy a better player than willian. but then I accept he's as divisive a player as we have in the squad. some people here would describe him as merely a runner, I'm definitely at the other end of that scale. I would be surprised if conte would want rid too. I think he ticks a lot of the boxes he looks for.

they way jose was afforded to finish "merely" third in his first season, and the fact he was give a lot of time even after the title had gone in his last season made me thin 'maybe abramovich has changed'. having read ancelotti's account now I think I was probably deluding myself and that jose got a little more wriggle room because of who he is. I'm not hopeful on that side any more. and conte is just as demanding as jose- maybe not for political or full operational control, but certainly when it comes to signings for example. he surely has to see that given where we've finished and how tight the competition appears to be on paper even finishing outside of the top four shouldn't be grounds to sack him automatically. I suspect fourth place is the minimum requirement though.

Exactly my feelings. They've had their disaster and a gentle half season of recovery. It's about time we resume being a proper team.

He's a serious coach. A step onto the field, borderline militaristic type. You won't see much football where the players are trying to figure out what they are doing as it happens. Patterns of play will be drilled into them. Expect someone as ruthless and intense and Jose and someone who spends as much time on the training field as pochettino or guardiola. For better or worse there will be no aimless drift or malaise. This guy isn't a scolari. I'm quite excited. Though I don't see us necessarily in the top 3...

He was decent against city, but he wasn't even the best Chelsea player on the pitch, let alone motm. That performance is fast becoming mythic. He was better than many more experienced teammates and people judge youngsters more kindly. But don't get carried away.

My question, other than being disinclined to sell our player of the year and to a rival at that, is how much is £60m in today's market? It seems to me to have inflated again massively as a result of the new TV deal.

can you stop quoting it / edit it into a spoiler lads? p.s. konakai, it doesn't require a point by point answer- what I'm saying is there were too many uncontrollable variables to make your theory plausible. you should be able to see he made a couple of critical mistakes and then negative momentum took over.

I'm sorry, but it is immature. it makes no logical sense. we both think he should have been sacked. here's my take on it before he actually lost his job: http://www.theshedend.com/topic/22192-josé-mourinho-confirmed-as-chelsea-manager/?p=1117695 you should be able to see the difference between this take, or many others, and yours. what you are suggesting is that he intentionally sabotaged himself to take the united job. it is a ridiculous theory and I shouldn't have to explain point by point why it has no logical basis, but you seem absolutely convinced of it to the point of myopia. the reason it doesn't stack up is because of how high risk a strategy it would be. the questions you need to answer or explain in defence of your theory of intentional self sabotage are: 1) why did he decide to wait until this season to sabotage himself when moyes left after one year? 2) why did he sign a new contract in the summer, which made it harder, politically and financially, for the club to sack him? 3) how could he guarantee van gaal would not qualify for the champions league / have the success required to retain his job? 4) how could he have been sure that the reputational damage inflicted on his public profile by the carneiro affair would have been ignored by utd, especially given the misgivings of people like charlton in their boardroom in relationship to his off pitch conduct? 5) how could he be sure that the reputational damage done to his standing as a manager would not have hurt him in his pursuit to become utd manager, bearing in mind pochettino had not signed a new deal and guardiola, an on the record admirer of utd, had not determined his future at the point of his sacking? 6) having a bad season and no job lowers one's cachet. why would anyone do this intentionally? 7) how could he guarantee that people in the chelsea set up would not pass information on to their united counterparts that could potentially damage his ability to manage their squad effectively? 8) why did he not simply resign at any point, thus avoiding all the associated reputational damage that last season entailed? 9) why would he decide to sabotage himself as the reigning premier league champion with a better side and a champions league place? at that point it would have been a step down in what he could achieve in the short term. 10) how could he have been sure the opportunity to attack the medical staff publicly would have come up, particularly so early in the season? were hazard, courtois and the medical staff colluding in this conspiracy? 11) how could he have guaranteed that the form of the champions would've suffered so dramatically? 12) why did he manage to qualify the squad from the champions league group stage given history shows that failing at this stage could have triggered an immediate sacking? 13) if he wanted to guarantee bad results surely logic suggests he would've played the players he didn't rate over the ones he relied on to win the title? 14) if he had dramatically changed his approach to management or training why, at no stage, did the dressing room leak information to that end? 15) how many players colluded in this conspiracy? 16) why did mourinho ask for any players to be signed in the summer if he intended on a) weakening the squad and b) leaving anyway? 17) mourinho wanted john stones for us a year ago and now wants him for united. if he signed him last season he would not have been able to take him to united for next season. so why go after him for a club you intended to leave? 18) mourinho's perceived short term thinking goes against the supposed long term values of manchester united. how would leaving so soon after signing a four year deal placate their worries? 19) if he agreed with united to sabotage chelsea in order to go there, how would united be able to appoint him knowing he could potentially do the same to them, given his capricious nature? 20) if utd were in on the conspiracy why didn't they hire him immediately after he became available? he would've had the chance to determine their future in european competition rather than leave it in the hands of van gaal. I mean, it makes literally no sense whatsoever.