matt1389

At least he's not bullying the players. Mourinho could have stayed at Chelsea as long as he wanted, but he screwed it up himself by picking on and isolating players. You could see it the instant he left that the players seemed happier. Such a shame as I would have loved nothing more than Mourinho staying with us for 10 years and creating another legacy team like he did before, but actually managing it for it's whole life cycle this time.

Just checking out how some of our loan players are doing, seen that van Ginkel has 6 goals in 9 league games for PSV. It was a shame he got injured when he did at us.

That's a shame. Hasn't he been playing really well? Can't say I've watched him, but from the occasional reports I've read, he's been quite well received.

Fair enough. I get what you mean with Everton and Newcastle! Didn't see the game, but I gather that RLC played well which is good.

I'm not saying this with the benefit of hindsight, but why would you think this before the game anyway when we're playing against an awful Villa team? It's clearly been a season to write off and forget, but I don't think we're at the point where we should be writing off the ability to win against easily the worst team in the league just because the team is slightly weakened.

I think the training and facilities available from a top club will continue to appeal. It's been clear to any youth player that your chances are slim with us for a number of years, regardless of some players posting crap on twitter.

Do you think we'll make any signings? Not sure we'll make any with the managerial situation not clear. Also think it'll be difficult to attract the right level of player considering we're almost certainly not going to be in the CL next year combined with not knowning who'll be the manager. If (not saying we will!) we had someone like Guardiola coming in and it was public knowledge, I could imagine players being happy to join even without CL football on offer. On the flip side of that, we could make a couple of signings in January and they've effectively got 6 months to settle before next year. I haven't got a clue to be honest, I've been trying not to think about football too much recently for obvious reasons

I think the worst thing about this is going to be the reaction of other fans... Not all of them, but you know the kind. I'm actually surprised that he's gone. The club have obviously decided this is the right thing and they'll have a plan in place, so I guess we just have to wait and see how it all plays out.

I'm starting to miss Torres a little bit. At least he tried.

The players are upset though. Whether he can win them back will be a huge part of whether he stays. I like to think that Mourinho coming back was a sign from Abramovich that he's accepted that it's not always going to be smooth sailing and that he'd be willing to back Mourinho through difficult times like this. If it was just based on results, I think Mourinho would be safe until at least January without question. Yes, it's rubbish at the moment, but I think he'd be given time. It's all the antics that go on around outside of the football that put him in more danger. That's my view at least. Hypothetically, if it came to it, would people rather lose Mourinho, or a star player like Hazard?

I don't know about that comment, but the talk about senior players being upset with Mourinho aren't rumours.

Yeah, I think it's important to win, but it's just papering over the cracks. The upset players aren't going to suddenly become happy off the back of a win over Villa, particularly with Mourinho's behavior and treatment of some players. The stories about some unhappy players aren't just rumors, but hopefully it's mostly down to the situation and we can get a run of wins now which will put some of these troubles behind us.

Hmm, I was chatting with a few people at work about this. General thoughts were that it's his behavior that's going to get him in trouble and run through Abramovich's patience.

Yeah, they seem determined to make a point. Martinez and the club will look pretty weak if they cave in now, but I think they'd be crazy to turn away up to £40m, or whatever we end up offering.

Another in the Willian fan club. I still think Oscar has a lot to offer, both this season and long term, but for now I'm in the group that view Willian as the better option. What are the thoughts on Oscar dropping back? I've seen in mentioned in here, but I haven't seen any real discussion on it. Fabregas looks shaky defensively, it's not a secret and it leaves us more and more vulnerable the better the teams we play against. He's also easy to close down and if his ability to dictate from deep is cut off, he doesn't offer as much. Oscar isn't a like for like and won't offer the same level of passing threat from deep, but he'll offer some as well as more energy and protection alongside Matic. Matic has looked a bit off the boil, like most of the team, but perhaps it's because he's being left with too much to do alongside Fabregas. Maybe I'm missing something, but it's surely worth a try playing Oscar deeper. Not sure where that leaves Fabregas though. He doesn't seem to be able to influence a game in the central AM role. He's such a good player, you want to squeeze him in somewhere. 433 with Matic, Oscar, Fabreagas would be an option, but then you'd be leaving Willian out from the front 3.