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

As noted earlier in the thread by me and a few others, the fabricated interview with Torres, which seems to have caused so much anger amongst Liverpool fans, concerning whether or not he was staying at the club, was published (originally in the People) before he left Liverpool when he was not talking to the British Press (and identified as fake by Liverpool supporting journalists such as Tony Barrett). Meireles reported comments (authentic or not) come after he has actually left the club and are about looking back on his experiences on Merseyside and saying that even though he has left Chelsea he will still retain some affection for Liverpool. Nothing to annoy LFC fans there I would have thought. After all Xabi Alonso has continued to express these sentiments, despite leaving for Real Madrid, and gets no flack for it, which is a bit inconsistent. Perhaps I shouldn't be biting here. I don't want to derail the thread into a discussion of the politics of transfers.

To be fair this was only in response to a comment I made about Liverpool fans being gullible in believing the propoganda put out by the club, and he'll be aware now, if he wasn't before, that the interview referred to was fake.

Good post! It's the sustained and toxic hatred I don't understand, particularly when football has become a multi-million dollar business whose true dealings with players etc. are largely hidden from supporters, but I'm probably just a light-weight.

Wasn't that a made up interview (I think Tony Barrett a respected reporter on Liverpool matters confirmed this) just like the recent non-interviews with the Sun and the Swedish newspaper (Torres hasn't talked to the British Press for over a year). I think you believe what you want to believe. You want to think badly of the man so you lap up anything that comes out in the media without questioning its origins, although I do agree it's hard not to be upset when a player you thought was yours through and through decides to leave - Joe Cole for one but he hasn't received half the pummelling from Chelsea fans.

When Torres left the club's publicity machine and its contacts in the tabloid press put out a load of negative stuff about him (which I don't see coming out of other clubs when players leave whatever the circumstances) and you lot seem to have lapped it up hook line and sinker, but I suppose we all think what we want to think regardless of what the reality might be. You got 50 million for a player who gave his best years to your club (unfortunately for Chelsea) and won nothing, and who also stayed to see out the sale last summer. I'm sure that the press hounding of Torres enabled you to cast yourselves as martyrs and helped take the pressure off at the end of last season. Given his injuries and lack of form, his departure didn't affect you as badly as that of Alonso who has played the PR game much better, while Torres came over as raw and angry when he left the club which makes you wonder what went on behind the scenes. Anyway good luck for the season. You've got a fantastic player in Suarez and will no doubt be playing in the Champions League again next year.

Interesting post. Still the melodrama about Torres though. LFC as a club do seem to be developing tendency of hanging their players out to dry. A bit classless to be honest and their fans seem incredibly gullible and easily manipulated. No wonder a lot of the foreign players are bailing out.

It's not a case of instantly wanting to put down all things "non Chelsea", it's all this petulant foot-stamping because Aguero isn't playing for the club that is so pointless and negative. He isn't. Get over it! Admire Aguero for what he brings to the league but getting caught up in what might have been (if fans were in charge of the club's budget and transfers) is ridiculous and makes for a very depressing start to the season.

This thread is pathetic and gives the impression that Chelsea supporters are as fickle as their stereotype - spoilt by the money and success the club has had since the arrival of Abramovich. Good as he is Aguero is now a city player ... if you love him so much perhaps you should change teams. The AVB era has only just started and already the 'grass is greener'.