Nevin

With the departure of Lee Dixon and the arrival of Redknapp and McCarthy MOTD is going to be more of an old boy's club than ever. Really disappointing by the BBC, particularly after the excellent coverage of the Olympics.

Prefer to travel hopefully than anticipate disaster (even if it's the hope that kills me).

Perry Taylor "Bullied by a legend" http://wp.me/p2vmEC-l via @wordpressdotcom

The sentimental 'victim' mentality seems ingrained in their psyche. In the past there was always a lot of sectarianism in their support which reflected the divisions in the city itself, and this seems to have fed into a 'them and us' mentality regardless of the reality of the situation. Granted they received their fair share of negative reporting when Liverpool were managed by Benitez but under 'King' Kenny Dalglish everything in the garden is rosy as far as the media is concerned. Imagine if AVB had sanctioned Chelsea players wearing t-shirts supporting Terry and then had worn one himself in the post-match interview. The uproar and ridicule from the press would have been deafening and he would have been castigated as some sort of mad dictator figure who was losing the plot ... yet Dalglish gets away with it.

Agree. His transfer has been mishandled from the very beginning when he was started against Liverpool a week into his Chelsea career (Liverpool, who love to play the victim, built momentum from this furore to the extent that they seem to have become CFC's bogey team). That and bad luck (for example, his disallowed goal against Manchester United last season and the 'miss' and sending off this season when he was playing well), and the media's appetite for and enjoyment in watching his destruction as a player (thank God they have nothing to rake up in his private life) make me think he is jinxed at Chelsea. At the moment he seems totally defeated and under scrutiny every time he goes on the pitch, whereas Mata, Sturridge and Drogba have more freedom to play their natural game. It would probably be better for all concerned if he went in January and tried to rebuild his reputation on the continent while Chelsea continues to rebuild without him.

Probably need to get Steve Clarke back to give AVB a lesson in tactics. On another note, 5 Live creaming themselves over Dalglish again. It seems murky associations don't matter if you're a Liverpool 'legend' ... and Liverpool fans have the gall to talk about 'class' and 'dignity'. http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2004/oct/17/newsstory.sport7

If Suarez does play better watch out for his signature dive. It's probably the wrong place to post this (mods please remove if necessary) but it made me laugh.

A terrible tragedy but the sentimentality and hyperbole on display in the press is so hypocritical. After all, they are the people whose muck-racking articles and vicious witchhunts pile the pressure on sports people and create situations which may become unbearable and impact on a person's mental health. All this talk of more understanding for people with depression is just lip service and I don't forsee a change in their mode of operation any time soon. Evil tossers the lot of them! (That's not to speculate that Gary Speed's death was anything to do with them.)

Good post. This is one of the reasons I have stopped reading the garbage that now passes for news reporting in this country, and that includes the so called quality newspapers. The bullying pack mentality of the sports media is particularly depressing. They seem to leave their humanity and sense of perspective behind when they switch on their computer screens and are at their worst and most hypocritical when taking a moralistic tone.

The media go on about press freedom etc., but their interest in the real issues – corrupt politicians, the debt crisis, unemployment – takes second place to an unhealthy obsession with money and celebrity and a compulsion and obsession to destroy and humiliate in order to sell more copy / get more hits on their websites. Nowadays you get the sense that public figures are acting to keep a vociferous and amoral media at bay rather than address the needs of the country, which is a highly dangerous situation. The football business has become a microcosm of the way the world is today with people being disenfranchised from the clubs they support (which is why the recent Say No campaign was so important). It began as a pastime of the so called ‘lower classes’ and a lot of its most passionate support still comes from those communities, and yet the underlying tone of a lot of the articles about Terry is one of pure class hatred, as if the writers see him as a representative of the much maligned ‘underclass’, which puts fear into the hearts of so many of the chattering classes, and by destroying his career are somehow putting him back where he belongs. Innocent until proved guilty should be the mantra of any responsible press instead of whipping up hysteria and witchhunts. They feed the hatred and prejudice they claim to be horrified by and then have the hypocrisy to take the moral high ground. I have absolutely zero respect for the media and as far as I’m concerned anything I read in a newspaper – broadsheet or tabloid – is suspect . With ref to the above article quoted from the Sun (don't give these rags any more hits than they're getting already!), expect a lot of copy with the line 'a victory for football' if Chelsea lose today, as if the murky world of the football business has any claim to be some kind of moral force.

The pack mentality that has driven this trial by internet and the sports media is frightening, as is the way QPR have fed into this in order to get a perceived advantage for their club. This pandering to the mob on the basis of the flimsiest of evidence is scary stuff, particularly when hypocritically masquerading as taking the moral high ground.

Neil Ashton - who unfortunately seems to have a job again after the demise of the NOTW - has written an article which seems entirely based on conjecture (I'm not going to post a link as I feel annoyed I've been drawn into reading it myself) saying Torres (like all 'foreign' players apparently) is hiding behind the excuse of poor translation and how AVB and the club are going to extraordinary lengths to keep him happy by putting his locker next to Mata's. If that is the case I would have thought it more likely to be a way of settling Mata in by putting him next to his compatriot rather than the other way round, but anything to do with Torres is immediately turned into a negative by the press. He was / still could be again a great striker but if this continues I can't see that happening at Chelsea. Unless something changes (a bomb being dropped on Wapping or successive hattricks by the player) the club should perhaps cut its losses and let him go to the benefit of all concerned. I'm sick of reading this kind of sh*t in the papers from vicious idiots like Ashton.

Good post. Liverpool were a largely counter-attacking team who played at a high tempo with Torres as loan striker. Chelsea's game in recent years has been slower and based on possession and power. To be fair I think that Torres was referring to the change in style AVB will bring rather than criticising what has gone before which, let's face it has been incredibly successful for the club. Perhaps AVB had to bring it to the fore to stop accusations of being weak and Roman's 'puppet' in terms of playing Torres. Unfortunately, I don't see the press letting up on the player until he's out of the Premier League so maybe it would be better for all concerned if he left for pastures new, even at a loss. The media have set out their stall to damage and ridicule since he came back early from injury to play in the World Cup and Chelsea have been dragged into the maelstrom. I think AVB is trying to address this by ensuring the recent rumours stay within the control of the club and don't acquire a life of their own which will disrupt his plans for the season.

I know! Even beats Robbie Keane's record at Liverpool.

Oops