I suspect that not only can he see his wages trebled he also looks a very good shout for a first team place and won't have to wait long after all.

That really was the most feeble excuse I've heard so far.
You'd think by that he never crosses the halfway line. Fact is, when gets near the opposition's penatly area he is clueless and looks to give the ball to someone eles to take a chance and do the difficult job. All he can do is run around a lot a run with the ball when given acres of space. Teams give him that acres of space because they know he poses almost zero threat to them. The fact an aging centre half and right back are more of a goal threat says it all!
Watch him for Brazil and see that he's even more useless. At onetime a player like him wouldn't have got in their 20th 11.

This torn apart malarkey, same as in your game against City?

You really have become a joke poster. I was thinking of putting you on ignore but some of the crap you come out with does give me a laugh occasionally.
I was going to ask why you seem to single out Willian for your particular brand of loathing (after all, he's been far from our worst player since the beginning of the year) but then I realised, you don't appear to have anything good to say about the team, the manager, or even the fans.

Bye mate, enjoy the rest of the season.

Walsall away in the next round of the cup. Hopefully we'll see the likes of RLC, Traore and Kenedy get a run out.

I'm disappointed you've reacted this way but i won't lose any sleep over it.

Before we finish for good, you posed a few questions so I will answer them.

I'm just as anti Mikel and Ramires, but they're not automatic starters anymore.
I don't like Jose, either as a person or the way he sets his teams up to play most of the time. Lots of non Chelsea fans feel the same and Real Madrid fans couldn't wait to see the back of him.
I am dissapointed by those Chelsea fans who only seem to care about winning at all costs and therefore do not really love the game as a whole. There should be a lot more to this great sport than simply the result at the end of 90 mins.

I did not know you knew Jose personally

People often confuse Jose's team set ups for "negativity", but you should really substitute that word for tactics and strategy. Football is not just about scoring 3 but losing 4:3, its only about scoring one more goal than the other team. If you can do more than that, fantastic. If you are playing your rivals, its more about not losing than winning. This is true not just of chelsea but of every team - and every team thats won the league. United and City were all about not losing to their rivals, and beating teams that they should. Fergie was the master of that.

Somtimes you come up against a better team, and you have to use guile and strategy to beat them. There is no use playing barca at their own game.

A business cannot take the attitude you suggest - "there is more to this great sport". Its not a sport. Its a competitive business worth hundreds of millions. Teams cannot afford to go for it, lose, and get relegated. For 15 teams in the PL its all about getting to 40 points. Thats the bottom line. They park the bus more than ever against the top teams.

Sometimes managers dont fit the club. Rafa is a good example at chelsea, i could not wait to see the back of him. Jose at madrid was a bad fit with the fans. But then again, Bale is also a bad fit with the madrid fans too!

There is a reason why every club in the PL would want JM as their manager.

Would you really swap him for Wenger who refuses to accept his team is needing a few changes - has the money but will not spend it?

For LVG - who in my opinion is a rambling idiot, about to turn united into a long ball team?

For Rodgers who HAS turned liverpool into a long ball team?

I've heard more than enough about him to form this opinion..
Just recently the way he treated his own medical staff.
Publicly humiliating Kevin de bruyne saying he was a crybaby.
A while ago n Spain, poking an official in the eye.
The vicious rant about the Swedish ref after being KO'd from the CL. That ref quit the game after that.
The constant excuses, arrrogance, miserable demeanour and negativity that he brings to clubs that he manages. It all wore very thin with a longtime ago!

Here's something to chew on:

Our 3 PL games have yielded 12 goals between us and opposition.
Arsenal, Liverpool and United's PL games combined have only yielded 9 goals between them and opposition.

We've scored 5 times
Arsenal 2 times
Liverpool 2 times
United 2 times

Our games haven't exactly been boring this season. The Swansea and West Brom games certainly had "entertainment value" for the neutrals seeing as that's something that seems important to you. I'd understand more if you were disappointed with the results, but you've made it clear that they're not the be all and end all anyway….

Most managers will have things like that in their past.

Wenger fighting on the touchline, pardew headbutting a player, pearson throttling an opponent on the sidelines, LVG having many public spats with players, Fergie lashing out at Beckham, Clough knocking out Roy Keane with a right hook, Rodgers dumping his wife for a member of staff half his age, Grant visiting brothels.

And of course lets not forget players who have done far worse (murder, rape, manslaughter, fraud, racism, drug abuse etc).

Football, unfortunately, accepts them back with open arms. I would gladly remove all of them from the game.

Correct, what had dixon got to be worried about - this season has started perfectly for him!

No problem at all with the entertainment on show so far this season.
As you pointed out UTD, Liverpool and Arsenal have been the dull ones so far this season.

That is in his professional life.

Very different from his personal life.

Not problem with you saying you dont like him from a professional POV.

"heard" is the problem. Heard quite often is very different from the truth. Moreso when you look at who you are hearing things from

But to say you dont like someone as a person when you dont know him as a person is very strange.

Its quite common today. People think becuase they see someone on tv or in a public domain they know them. They dont.

I know quite a few people at work who from a professional standpoint are a pain in the arse but in a personal standpoint they are very nice people.

I like seeing us play exciting football too, but not if it means we're not winning games. Hopefully we'll manage to do both going forward. Pedro looks a very good signing and should make a big difference for us. I'm looking forward to seeing the new left-back play too.

As its a business, winning games has to be the first priority. If you are not winning but playing pretty football, you are going to run into trouble.

In terms of prize money, sponsorship, global reach, quality of players you can attract, all will be negatively affected.

Arsenal went 9 years playing nice football but won nothing whatsoever. Their fans were crying out for a team who could actually have strategy and manage a game. There is a skill in managing the last 5 minutes and not conceding.

Their "invincibles team" won it by grinding out draws, settling for 1:0 and outright cheating and diving.

First and foremost, Football is a sport!

People play it and watch it for fun. Messie would play foottball for nothing, as do countless numbers of other people around the world. The fact that there's a lot of money in the game these days doesn't alter the fact that it is still a sport.
A real 'business' is simply all about buying or making something and making a profit out of it. Football has more in common with Picasso, than it does with Asda.

The Messi who is court for setting up companies to hid his earnings from football etc?

Yes he would play football for nothing.

Or have you just "heard" Messi would play for nothing?

Unfortunately you could not be more wrong.

At the top levels, football is a business. Man United is owned by businessmen and shareholders who want to make dividends and profits.

Sometimes the "profit" is not just money, but reputation and recognition as in the owners at City.

Football is exactly like Asda. They buy commodities, hopefully cheaper, and sell products to customers. Hopefully they will make profits and increase their market share.

Football clubs buy and sell players as a commodity, but they also sell a visual product to paying customers and TV companies.

Compare it to a tv production company. They buy assets in actors (who would act for free as its their passion but they have to pay), produce a product to sell to live audiences and to TV broadcasters.

The only difference is, if the TV production is rotten they will lose their live audience. This is not the case in football, where a majority of punters see it as a "religion" where they will pay money to attend even if what they are getting is garbage.

All club owners are invested to make something, be it money (like the glazers for fenway) or stability and respectability (like roman) or to diversify and brand (like city).

its odd than none of them actually do play for nothing. Most would rather take a pay increase and sit on the bench!

I dont see owen, rio, et al playing much football in the lower leagues for free

Ha Ha, so LVG's a rambling idiot and Liverpool are a long ball team.

Keep up with the entertaining posts Codeblue.

Just my opinion based on observations of his press conferences. He comes out with utter rubbish that's hardly a coherent sentence. I think he gets away with it due to "language problems".

I have watched several liverpool games this season and a huge part of their new tactic is to lump it forward to Benteke who they hope will bring it down. Their keeper mingoly almost always kick the ball from his hands and punts it downfield rather than roll it out to a defender or throw it to a midfielder accurately.

The football pundits and commentators have all noticed this too - they say "liverpool now have a plan b with benteke", but its almost at the complete expense of plan A.

Watch the next liverpool game and count how many times this happens, then see if you change your mind.

I wonder how Uniteds new striker, Fellaini, changes their number of punts forward?

Codeblue you make some good points in general which as always are totally undermined by your constant need to couch every single thing to say in multiple digs at every player and every club that isn't Chelsea-related.

Its a bit of a shame really.

Sadly, money can change and corrupt some people.

But my point still stands. If there was no money in pro football, he would be turning out for his local team. Sports and the Arts are things people do for pleasure. Those that end up making a living from it are just a very lucky, very small percentage.

But you accept that football is ran by businessmen for profits at the top level? (apart from the government sponsored spanish clubs)