Fans want to win trophies, I agree, but come on, the season when we broke the goal scoring record in any PL season: http://www.chelseafc.com/news/latest...--2011-12.html

That was some of the most attractive football many fans have ever seen from any side. It can be done..

Of course it can be done BUT it can also lead to failure like it has for Arsenal. Two season's ago Liverpool should have won the title but did not because they refused to play intelligent football.

All that matters is it is done. How we do it is not as important as doing it.

If you could say we can 100% win the title (and that is the benchmark trophy) this way or 90% chance of winning the title that way then then 100/100 times we have to pick the first option. If you say 95% chance of winning title one way or 92% chance another once again you have to go for the first option.

Winning something is a certain way can not be a higher objective then actually winning something.

Yes, that's the whole point of any sport really..winning. If you can achieve that while entertaining the public, so much the better. But there are no prizes for being plucky losers or being stylish and attractive to watch. You might get remembered fondly, like the great side Holland produced in the 70's. But I'll take the trophy every time.

The issue at the moment imo is not how the team wins, but that on current form, and given Jose's unwillingness to change formations etc, and drop certain players, not only might the team not win anything at all, but qualification for the CL could become very doubtful. A double wammy. That's boring football AND no trophies. Not a nice combination.

Other teams around us are equally boring.

United are relying on Rooney and fellaini, lumping it forward as they have no pace.

Liverpool have turned into a purely hoof it to benteke team, awful to watch.

Arsenal are good going forward but have no bite up front and are weak at the back.

City have strength all over .

Unless you have a time machine you have no idea what we will or not win this season. You have very little data to go on. Its very early in the season. If this was Xmas then yes but at the moment we are not even talking a handful of games into the season.

Form is looking at a very small picture (more so when we have only just entered the season). As in any sport form more often then not goes out the window.

Of course the team might not win anything that's like any season. But you shorten the odds. Which other manager is more then likely to win us titles? Its a very short list.

And no in any sane and logical world does the list include anyone with the name Rafa

Yes, but there's no magic cure is there ? We have half the team (including several who would be "untouchables" on last season's form) who are playing well below the standard expected. Maybe Ivanovic should have been dropped sooner, but the problem goes deeper than that.
I think there are a couple of positions that should have been strengthened in the transfer window, but with the players available I don't think my team would have looked a lot different to the ones Jose has put out. Would you have made wholesale changes to the team on the evidence of a few games ?

Can you confirm you celebrated when we beat Liverpool at Anfield so that their hurt continued. That was a great day right in stopping their party ?

Damn right mate. That's the thing with Tip Top and Dixon. Already trying to make out the season is over. They are very strange Chelsea fans.

It is bizarre that Dixon and Tip Top seem to share the same rose-tinted recollection of Rafa's time at the club. I just remember it being a hugely frustrating time where I don't mind admitting that I really felt like taking some time out from watching our games. They cite him winning the Europa League as if it was some sort of real achievement, but I would have expected any manager that's been in charge of us since Roman arrived to have won it had they been in it.

And a love of style over substance and a reliance on smilies

Interesting (well I thought it was) article/blog about Chelsea's transfer policy. It's by a fan who is also a writer, and perhaps a little too supportive to be truly objective. I would certainly be more questioning about some of our decisions. But he does appear to be pretty well informed about the mechanics of our operations.

http://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation.c...ransfer-window

I remember some of the home games being desperately poor with a less than positive crowd.

You're semi-right about the pace, but the rest is the kind of view that you often hear from people who haven't really watched United.

Anyway, I really came to post that any Chelsea fan complaining about Mourinho doesn't know that they're born.

Is he perfect? No. Has he just won you the title (again)? Absolutely.

I've watched every united PL game so far.

As a team, they have definitely changed tactics. Its no longer the United way of fast wingers but definitely a more direct game. LVGs comments about playing Fellaini up top would strengthen that new philosophy. However, i will say that Liverpool are far far more direct to the point of ridiculousness thanks to Benteke.

There are only two fans in this thread complaining about Jose, strangely they come out of the woodwork when we have lost a game but disappear for months when we are winning the league!

Tip top seems convinced that the majority of Chelsea fans liked Rafa as the manager, when its almost universally agreed by others that this was simply not the case.

Chelsea have not had a good start, the players look jaded and there is little option on the bench to freshen it up. Its absolutely not the time to sack the best manager, who won the league least season, after 4 games. A similar record to the start of last season i might add.

Its also fair to say that Swansea and Crystal Palace are fantastic teams. They came out and went for it against us - they will win against other top 5 clubs too. What a player Cabaye is. And Shelvey at Swansea will be Rodgers' worst transfer decision (even worse than the disastrous Firmino)

It's funny that you should mention people disappearing when it's convenient. It's your speciality.

Hardly.

I noticed forum members saying exactly that in the neutral thread after the palace game, and yet i had posted!

People only see what they want to see, when it suits their unconscious bias.

Does that include the owner of the club and the board who sacked Mourhino first time around? Or are they not real fans? The right manager will give youth a real chance, and play the sort of football that defines the history of Chelsea FC, and that style is not overly negative play asking already tired players to play the same way game after game. It works for 2 seasons, and then it falls flat on its face.

I am reminded of a quote that Tip Top the V told me many, many years ago,

'The giant oak tree is just the acorn that stood its ground'.

He was never pushed around Tip Top V, and was quite handy in the boxing ring.

Not the liverpool way, or the west ham way?

I wasn't insinuating that Chelsea fans have no right to question certain aspects of the manager's approach, just expressing surprise that some fans would be so down on him. I'd have loved Mourinho at United.

And I didn't mention 'real fans' once.

What? Most United fans are getting annoyed because we spend most of the game just passing the ball amongst the midfield doing nothing with it (hence 69% possession against Newcastle), we definitely don't play a more direct game. Pretty much the only time we go direct is in the last minutes of a game if we desperately need a goal, like every team since football began.

The right manager is the one that wins titles.

The flipping of young players going forward has to be a route we go down. It's a fantastic way of adding another revenue stream. We not only have the resources to find the best young players but have a top class facility for them to join. We cannot only judge the academy going forward on how many players it produces for us. That's a very old fashioned way of looking at it. We are now at a level (or should be) that really only special players make it and those players only come around once in a while. But we should be more then able to develop players who are good enough for most clubs in Europe and make some money from transfers

Jim, I don't get it either. A strange breed of supporter if you ask me.

This.