Who has come in for Mikel for Jose to keep him? Don't see a large number of clubs chasing him.

He left Inter because the biggest club in the world came in for him. He left Chelsea because him and the owner fell out. He left Porto because they was not big enough to keep him. How many mangers have stayed at Madrid longer then Jose?

OR you could say, he left Chelsea because he failed to change and adapt.. No, I totally disagree, hopefully he can turn it all round, but he is on untested ground, and sticking doggedly to someone because you like them doesn't win trophies, and it doesn't make business sense.

But Mourinho has won trophies everywhere he went

You could say he left Chelsea because he did not like the weather over here, you could say he left Chelsea because his favorite restaurant closed you could say many things. I don't like Jose or dislike him I have never met the guy. But he is a proven winner. Maybe he will never win a league title again or maybe he will win another twenty, none of us knows but with his history of winning titles it's more then likely he will win more titles

That sums up our whole transfer window in a nutshell. Why on earth sign a 23 y/o player from Reading on transfer deadline day and loan him straight back to them? If he's one for the future and not the present then why was the deal done right at the 11th hour as if it was some sort of afterthought? Baffling if you ask me….

Imo, and I think many objective fans will agree is that he left because he did not change and adapt the team. Can he do that in any league? We don't know, because he has never stayed beyond 3 seasons anywhere.

Any genuine fan will look back at season 3 the last time he was here and audibly groan at the same long ball to Drogba, the same free kick from Lampard, the same corner from Lampard, etc, etc.

Now it's, give the ball to Hazard, switch to Ivanovic, give it to Willian, who runs back towards his own goal. Long ball to Costa, the opposition know all his moves now, the opposition target Ivanovic, etc etc.. It's too predictable.

That was the problem, he could not change, and imo it's happening again. Maybe he can't change, he can't adapt, and he is unproven at building two sides in one tenure. Those are the facts. We'll see.. The club is bigger than any player and any manager. It's nothing personal

But you are making out the reason we don't know is for the reason he cannot change but that is not actually true (there might be a argument for his first time at Chelsea) all of the previous moves have been perfectly sensible and logical moves. Once's that most managers would have made. Two of them was because he was successful and the other one was the culture of the club is to get rid of managers on a regular basis (and he lasted longer then most of recent history). We won't know for at least two more seasons

Listen, if Jose manages to make this a successful season and turn it round, I and many others will be happy fans, but as a few others have pointed out, we are not talking a few freak results. Things look bad, very bad..

Considering only two managers have defended the title and only one has successfully created a number of successful teams in the history of the premiership , what do you class as a successful season? Winning it? As we have seen before more easy said then done? By creating a new "team"? even SAF had quite a few wobbles on that front before he hit upon the correct formula. The only way we can find out what Jose can or cannot do is by giving him time and time is not just one season

Make all the excuses you want to. Fact is, he has had 5 jobs in 10 years which shows he does not build teams and has always been a short term fix.


Btw. A couple of weeks ago i said we should close down our academy if we are not going to give the youth a chance.
Do you know that Jose, said the very same thing last year?

Yes, he's quick with the ball at his feet, but that's when he's got acres of space to run in.
Again, for the millionth time. When it comes the dangerous areas of the pitch and he's
got to do something with it, he can't do it so he starts running back or looking for someone else to give the ball to leaving them to do the difficult job.

Also, he's a million miles from being a Makalele. You're not closing anyone down if you're often 20 yards from the ball which he often is.
Watch him on tv where the camera view is usually high up. You get a better perspective of the area of the pitch and can just how much he meanders aimlessly running around the pitch in the direction of whichever way the ball is going. It's an quite incredible waste of time and effort for so little end product.

How is leaving a small club in a small league to go to the biggest league in football a excuse? How is leaving a decent club in a average league for the biggest club in the world a excuse?

If you was working in a company and a much better job with much better pay come along would you turn it down?

The reasons why he left the clubs are a important issue.

See you do get your views from other people. Jose says something a year ago and you now make it your view

Rafa has had 4 jobs since 2010. A short term fix

He most certainly did wreck a midfield trio that was working extremely well together!
A midfield that was bought for years ahead and one that did not need touching. The problems were in front and behind the three wizards. it makes me sick to see them ruined and replaced by useless rubbish like Salah, Cudrado, and the marathon man. 3 players who couldn't score in a brothel and couldn't create a goal if their life depended on it.

We won probably the poorest quality premiership there's ever been! Someone had to win it and we were the least worse! Our clubs non showing in Europe underlined how poor the league was. City are going to be the team to benefit from it this season and will be able to stroll to the title in 3rd gear.

Jose's first season back was full of mediocre, functional, dull football.
For the first few months of last season we did play some very good football, but since then it has been a dire struggle to beat even the very worst teams in the league, and now we are getting even worse.
I think Jose is facing the biggest test of his entire career!

Is there actually such a thing as "least worst" or is this something made up?

Why i had a complete turn round of opinion on him was because i could see he wanted to take the team into a new direction, one that would have been build around Hazard, Oscar and Mata.
With a quality number 9 and a couple of quality defensive players behind them, we would have had enough creativity and firepower to give serious trouble to every team in Europe. Alas, Jose thinks players who run fast are worth more than proper footballers.

Best of the worst, or whichever way you want to put it.

Come on! Years ago we had to beat top quality Utd, Liverpool and Arsenal teams.
Every year our top four were serious contenders for the CL, with 3 of them winning one and Arsenal a few mins from winning one. The standard these days has been nowhere near that level!
Our team of a peaktime Drogba, Lamps, A Cole, Terry and co, would destroy the current team!

And things was better in the old days where we could leave the door open.

Football was better when players earned 2 and 6.

Comparing things from the past and the present day is pointless.

You can only live in present day. The standard of the league 10 years ago is as unimportant as the level 100 years ago.

It's the level today that matters.

Its not what something looks like etc that's important its what it actually is.

You cannot live your live by what something was you have to live it by what it is.

I agree. Rafa made some stupid comments about Chelsea fans, but took the team in a good direction. Most fans accepted him by the end, and he was happy to rotate to rest players at key times. Imo, that's a huge problem now, with Ivanovic, Matic etc, being asked to play too many minutes and doing the same thing over and again. Imo, they know that Jose is bereft of new ideas, and again, maybe he has lost the dressing room

And its been a pretty successful chain of thought (not that I actually think he thinks that)

While Rafa's chain of thought made Liverpool go backwards during the end of his time there (to such a extent they was only just recovering recently but then they gave Rogers the job) managed to take the league and European champions backwards and while seemed to be doing a decent job at Napoli left them rather then trying to build a team (something he had not done for quite a while).

Ok, Jose debate to one side, what team should be playing in the PL next game:

Courtois

Azpi rb
Terry / Cahill ? would have been Stones, but..
Zouma
Baba

Matic? this isn't easy, can't exactly say Mikel can I?!
Loftus Cheek

Fabregas further forward

Kennedy in for Willian, at last the roadrunner is dropped!

Hazard

Falcao / Costa

Options are poor, very poor. There should be competition for Matic and Fabregas but there isn't, and where is the other tough deep midfielder? Not Mikel, Ramires maybe..

Ridiculous post.

Rotation he handled very well, especially the way he played Lamps.

Have they moved the dressing room? I would have guessed things would be moved around when they build the new ground but did not think that had started now.

Have been in the dressing room and its pretty big, Very hard to lose it

Defo time to give Kennedy and Loftus a go! Must at all costs rest Ivanovich.