Jonty

A great shame, I hope the players that just have not shown up this season are shipped off in January, disgraceful.

I'll agree that Mikel must be a super-intelligent man to continue to get paid millions of quid a year to walk around the pitch and do nothing.

It's always been evident he's had the ability to influence games as much as he is this season, and i'm glad he's finally taking that initiative. It's more than just the free kicks, his energy to pop up all over the field and help win the ball back one minute and be leading a counter attack to the opposition box the next is the main reason why he's been our best player this season. While everyone else is looking lethargic and half-assed Willian is doing the work of 3 men.

To echo the sentiments of others in this thread, big thank you to the fans last night who showed their support.

We already had our November in October, so i'm pleased to announce that the title challenge is back on.

Since when is breaking news a reiteration of what has been said repeatedly for weeks. The only people talking about him going are the media and opposition fans. The club, the players and 95% of the fans have fully supported him. Glad to hear it all the same though.

When we lose a game instead of posting like a normal person you type out some stupid sh*t like this. I wonder for whose benefit you continue to do this for? Not yours surely otherwise that would make you a hypocrite.

Yep, I look back fondly on Ancelloti getting sacked in the tunnel at Goodison and Robbie being replaced by the FSW. And who were their best players from memory? Drogba? Lampard? Terry? Remind me again which manager those 3 credit as being the biggest influence on their careers and sucess.

I guess people yearn for the glory years of Avram Grant, Felipe Scolari and Andre Villas Boas. I can see why that is such an attractive alternative.

Only way this season could get worse is if we were to sack Jose. In times such as these you see who has loyalty and the balls to stick by their own, and those who give in at the first sight of difficult times.

Willian. Ramires, Zouma and Dave were alright.

Don't even give a f**k about the results in this season anymore, they are meaningless for us now. Worst thing we could do now is sack Jose. Stick by him, give him the funds to fix what is wrong with the team and look ahead to the long-term future.

The Mikel of opinions would be to not post anything meaningful or insightful, maybe quote someone else without actually saying anything yourself, then getting paid 2 million pounds for your trouble.

Imagine if we had a defensive midfielder that actually defends as opposed to walking around the field doing nothing. Oh wait he's on the bench while Mikel steals a living for another day. Anyway I think we've been alright, with Matic on for Mikel we should be able to actually win the ball back before it gets into our own box and then we can start making things happen.

We all saw that Fabregas can be the best player in the team if not the league, its up to Jose and his team to work out how to get the most out of him, because if they can do that he is an absolute monster on the pitch.

Even if we were to miss out on the top 4 this season i see very little ramifications for us, just as United did not suffer at all in failing to qualify the year before last, when they brought in Di Maria, Falcao, Shaw, Herrera, Rojo and Blind, most of who were big names and had other clubs vying for their signatures. We (and United, City and Arsenal) have too much money and reputation to fall out of the top 4 for a sustained period of time, particularly now that FFP has fallen apart. Unless a club outside that 4 were to get a very wealthy backer there is no-one there to consistently challenge. In reality we'd probably throw a lot of cash around and easily qualify the next season.

The first excerpt made no sense to me, what culture or philosophy is the author referring to? He spent two large paragraphs talking about how Jose ruins a culture and a philosophy without naming what exactly they are. I'm not surprised to hear he is also an Arsenal fan, looks like just another excuse to blast Jose without giving any evidence or justification for it. What philosophy has he ruined at the club? What has he done to the culture? We're only a few months on from a league and league cup double. Who may I ask is better for a clubs philosophy or culture in the prem right now? Van Gaal, who numerous players have spoken out against since he came to the league? Pellegrini who had his star players serially under-perform last season? Wenger who hasn't won a title in over a decade who has a record of his star players leaving him at the first opportunity? Jose's philosophy is winning, we may not be winning right now but we will again, and will do so long before that specialist in failure gets his skeletal talons anywhere near a league title again.

Dortmund were god awful in his last season and Liverpool don't have the squad to match their ambitions (top 4). Can't see this ending well for him.

Thanks for solving this crisis for us Eligius, glad Oscar's return has got us back to winning ways.

Jose will take us back to the top 4.

I can see the logic in leaving him out. With him in the team we have to play a lot deeper, which means we can't have our midfield press up the pitch as they'd leave a big gap behind them, which leaves us playing more negatively. However it seems to have backfired. Partly because Ivanovic is getting done by any man and his dog anyway so we'd probably be better off playing deeper, and partly because the team seems to have no balls without him on the pitch.

When was this? Surprising he'd say that after Jose got rid of him.

Even if they aren't showing it, most of our players are among the best in the world in their position, its illogical to think we won't eventually get back to winning ways.

The only place he is going on current form is Vitesse.

He had one nice little run which ended in Matic getting booked but i'm not sure i'd break out the cheque book without seeing or knowing more about him.