Heh, maybe you could bring in Rob Green. At least then I wouldn't have to worry about the rumours of us signing him.

6 weeks and 1 day until our first proper match.

Not that I'm counting of course.......

Nah, he wasn't and it's shown. A very good player but that fee was too good to turn down.

He got a great reception at SB. He was even applauded when going to take corners.
He will alway be popular as he is a class act.
I think fans were sad to see him go but the fee was good and used to invest in the team. Sometimes you have to do that.

Agreed on all counts.
Players can't be expected to be at one club for their career.
Doesn't mean when they leave you can't show them respect.

£36 million for an attacking, creative midfielder player who was doing exactly what we bought him to do, and then some!!! vs £30 million blown on an attacking, creative midfielder who doesn't score or create.
If the other teams were not so piss poor last season we probably wouldn't have won the title, and that would have been entirely down to the marathon runner and Oscar not doing what we brought them to do!!!

A player who is so good that (and this is according to you) will never get to the level he was "because a manager didn't believe in him". Yep that's the type of player we need.

"If" City was given a 20 point lead we wouldn't have won the title "If" we had kept the clown as manager we had before Jose's return we wouldn't have won the title "If" this "If" that if I had picked a different set of numbers in the lottery I would have won 94m instead of a tenner. Let's use actual facts instead of nonsense.

We bought him for a job, his job was then changed but he was unable to perform his new role, while the marathon runner and Oscar was able to perform their new tasks.

A employee who is not flexible or ones who are? Would say what ones would be better but I know which option you would go for

Oh behave. Stop all this blaming everyone else for being poor.
Mata has so far proved that 37 million was a great fee.
We won the league and as a Chelsea fan you should be happy.
I find it strange you don't seem to be.........

Willian does a great job, one of our best players.

When the pressure was off at the end of last season he was terrific going forward, in some games better than hazard. Certainly one to watch this season.

Would I have Willian or mata? No contest.

Bringing in Fabregas (who, lets be honest, is weak defensively) to play in a pivotal role alongside Matic meant we needed attacking midfielders able to press from the front and with a willingness to track back. With another Essien or Ballack we could have probably have accommodated Mata.
Mata was geat, I was sorry to see him leave. But he just didn't fit the system.

And there you have it!
Even with the pressure off and playing at his best, he still can"t score or create anything.
He's about as much use as a batsman who doesn't score runs and a bowler who doesn't take wickets.

No wonder Mata was left nonplussed by what happened to him. It was like taking a brain surgeon and telling him he's now a porter.


For a good 6 months of the season we were struggling to see off even those teams near the foot of the table. There was a spell of 4 games when had something like 3 or 4 shots on goal during the entire 360 mins of those games.
When Oscar is scoring and Hazard creating and scoring we had to rely on the likes of JT to step up and knick us a goal. It's says everything about the lack of threat from certain players when an ageing centre half is more of a threat.
We got away with last season, but we are dicing with danger if we expect that will be enough next season.

Hey Dixon, we are Champions. And we did it without Mata.
Just enjoy it

From career never being the same again to "nonplussed" what is it? Being nonplussed is not a excuse for not performing.

Now if he was told he is just about finished or couldn't play every game you might have a point it's not like you could be told that and play every game and be one of the better players in the entire league is it? Oh wait.

Mata is a fantastic player but has some shortcomings that meant he was not going to get any game time. You cannot overlook those shortcomings no matter how good his plus points where

If Jose was the manager, he would have axed Platini from that wonderful French team and Cruyff from that Dutch team.

But it's OK to ignore the massive shortcomings in Willian's game

More of your "if"'s

Yes, because what he does well is more fitting to the tactics employed unlike Mata's who shortcomings affect the team and who's plus points don't win titles as proven by actual facts and not your "if's"

Football in reality is not played like Fantasy Manager is

To be fair, I have said that for a number of reason, just winning the title no matter what, was all that mattered. However, i want us to be quite a bit better than what we are and we can be quite a bit better than what we are! To be up there with the best in Europe we will need a lot more creativity and firepower. We will not get that while the marathon runner is clogging up a space in the team!

And the actual evidence has proven non of that will happen with Mata in the team.

We can always be better but what you want won't happen for at least 5 years. It's a work in progress.

All the creative and firepower in the world must never replace intelligent football. Otherwise we will end up like Madrid getting rid of top class managers for clowns

The fact that we didn't win the title had nothing to do with Mata being in the team!
Back then we had a centre foward who wasn't scoring. JT was struggling with injuries. Cole was on the slide. No Matic.
In this current team, If we find another midfielder who gives us 20 goals and 20 assists we will be good enough to challenge for the CL. That is the number one thing missing from this team!

Mata would not give us 20 goals and 20 assists.

I also wonder how much protection he would give Ivan at the back?

And again with this obsession with the CL, it's cost us in the past and will cost us again. It's a media obsessed circus.

We wouldn't have won the league with Mata in the team because he lacked a certain skill set (which other players have) and we would have had to cover and would have cost us big time. We needed skills that Mata sadly doesn't have (or according to you is so sensitive he is unable to learn)

Let's concentrate on being a real force in England before we try conquering Europe.

Our first second and third priority has to be the league, winning cup competitions will come as a result of winning league titles over a long period of time.

We are missing a few things but one of those things we are missing is not a player like Mata.

Don 1 is correct. We have won the cl only a few years ago, brilliantly.

But it's still a cup competition and you need a huge amount of luck to win.

Let's cincentrate on getting better and defending the pl, a far far better trophy to win.

Watched a bit of the Copa tonight. No signs of improvement from Falcao.....