Arsenal 2 Man Utd 1

[Bob Singleton]

Watched the game on Sky... Man U looked like they had settled for a point when Arsenal got the second.

As a Chelsea supporter I'm pleased with that result.

I don't think Mourinho will leave before the end of the season, but I'd be very surprised (and extremely happy) to see him still at Chelsea next season. I know RA put in hundreds of millions of his own money into the club, but he really ought to leave the MANAGEMENT of the football side of the club down to the man in charge of team affairs!

Did JM really want Schevchenko and Ballack? Did he really want Gallas to go? I think the answer to all three is no, especially concerning Gallas.

[Robches]

I'm United born and bred, but the thought of that evil gimp Glazer getting his withered Davros like hands on the Premiership trophy fills me with disgust. Ferguson pissed all over United when he thought he could act the big man with a couple of Irish billionaires who could buy him and sell him for the change down the back of their sofas. Sir Matt Busby built the club, and Sir Alex the big I am Ferguson ensured it would be sold to a Florida chancer and put in the hole to the tune of a billion dollars. Fuck him and fuck them. I'll never forgive him for his hubris, the Glasgow cunt.

[Ned]

It looks to me as if your lot have given up, so I doubt the result yesterday will make any difference.

It takes some talent for a manager to split his club from top to bottom, but Jose has managed to do it, albeit with help from "upstairs".

I reckon United will win it now and it depends how bad things get at Chelsea over the next few weeks as to where they finish. I can even see them getting knocked off second, if they're not careful.

[Sam Slater]

Arsenal just edged the game, though I'm not sure they deserved the win. Arsenals 1st goal was a foul on Paul Scholes.

Arsenal should have had a penalty in the 1st half but it served them right not getting it, what with Eboue trying to get Rooney sent off. Disgusting.

Two of the best footballing sides in England, and much better to watch than Chelsea and Liverpool on average.

When Utd lose they usually follow up with 6 straight wins, and if this happens, the title is theirs. At the moment though I still think Chelsea can nick the title by 1-2 points.

[Bob Singleton]

Ned wrote:

SNIP
>
> It takes some talent for a manager to split his club from top
> to bottom, but Jose has managed to do it, albeit with help from
> "upstairs".

SNIP


Mourinho isn't the one who's split the club... the blame seems to lie more with people like Frank Arnesen who is MEANT to be head of the youth academy but seems to be pitching his oar in regarding first team matters, and Eugene Tenenbaum.

Mourinho is the man in charge of first team affairs, and should be allowed to pick who he wants in whatever position he feels is right. It's a very basic business principle... you allow your specialist managers to do their job. If they are succesful you keep them in place. If they are not, you look elsewhere.

JM has been successful so far... back to back Premiership titles in his first two years, and currently still chasing trophies on four fronts!

The problem started when Gallas was given the new deal he believed he was worth and was allowed to leave in the dying seconds of the transfer window in August. The team didn't perform as well as in past years when the formation was changed from the successful 4-3-3 to 4-4-2 to accommodate two players we didn't need.

The biggest problem came when, having lost first and second choice goalkeepers to lengthy injuries, we also have had to make do without Terry.

JM wanted to bring in cover for Terry & Boulahrouz (desperately needed, especially with the odd suspension and virus suffered by Carvalho recently, leaving no central defenders at all in the squad). There were a few options open, but on the recommendation of Frank Arnesen, JM was offered Alex (part owned by Chelsea and playing at PSV), a player not rated very highly by the man whose job it is to pick the team!

JM isn't the one at fault... it's all those around him who feel they know better than a man who has won four domestic titles, a UEFA cup and the Champions League in the space of four years.

[Bob Singleton]

Sorry, fourth paragraph should read "The problem started when Gallas wasn't given the new deal he believed he was worth..."

[Ned]

Just looking at things from a distance, but it seems as if he has more than played his part in splitting the squad into pro and anti him sections. He has criticised players publicly who he hasn't given a fair chance to (like Wright-Phillips, who was only bought because Arsenal wanted him anyway) and Kalou.

I know Kalou was supposedly an Arnesen signing, but it can't do any good for the manager to publicly complain about a young guy playing his first season in England, effectively alienating him and seemingly putting him in the anti-Jose camp.

[Bob Singleton]

He has publicly criticised players who havn't been pulling their weight. As a manager he is perfectly entitled to do so. Since his admonishment, Kalou has upped his work rate and finally scored a goal, though he's still short of what's needed.

In a Radio Five Live interview at the weekend, Peter Kenyon pretty much admitted that everyone (himself, RA, JM, Arnesen, Bruce Buck, Tenenbaum, etc.) discusses the transfer targets... can you see Wenger or Ferguson accepting a similar situation?

Was SWP bought by JM to be added to the squad as a useful attacking player, or was he bought on the advice of others purely to stop someone else, such as Arsenal perhaps, from getting him?

You can tell which are the players JM actually wanted by the enthusiasm when he talks about them. He's never ever sounded as enthusiastic about Scheva, Ballack, Kalou or SWP as he does when talking of Terry, Lampard, Carvhalo, Essien and Drogba.

Is RA so poor now he can't afford ?3m for Tal Ben Haim? Or was the extra ?1m needed to clinch the deal not made available to JM out of spite?

No wonder JM is starting to show his frustration in his body language (looks resigned to losing all the time) and in his (tetchy) pronouncements. A man widely accepted to be at the top of his profession is being dictated to by people who know nothing about football.

[Ace]

Bob wrote;
No wonder JM is starting to show his frustration in his body language (looks resigned to losing all the time) and in his (tetchy) pronouncements. A man widely accepted to be at the top of his profession is being dictated to by people who know nothing about football.

The trouble is Bob, RA and PK want our beloved Blues to run as a business first and foremost, whereas Jose just wants to get on and manage a club as he does so brilliantly.

[Bob Singleton]

Ace wrote:


>
> The trouble is Bob, RA and PK want our beloved Blues to run as
> a business first and foremost, whereas Jose just wants to get
> on and manage a club as he does so brilliantly.
>


I've no problem with RA & PK saying, having spent hundreds of millions, they now want the club to run on a sound economic basis, but not giving a valuable player wages commensurate to others in the team so that he gets pissed off and ends up being a "make-weight" in a deal (Gallas) is NOT, in my mind "sound economic business".

Season tickets sales, merchandising, TV revenue, sponsorship revenue and prize money is DIRECTLY linked to success on the pitch and that can't be achieved by selling players the manager wants to keep, buying players he doesn't want, and then not backing him when an injury crisis requires a couple of million quid (not, anyway, at a club where the owner is about to take delivery of his fourth yacht... the most expensive private vessel ever built).