Taylor Swift

If he picks the best team and it fails then it won't be his fault. But if he starts Taylor over Santon and insists on sending Shola on as a sub every game then he's negatively impacting the team. Let's be honest: we have a small squad. It isn't hard to pick the strongest eleven. In every pre-match thread on here, you can find a pretty consistent best eleven side that most fans agree on. And yes, real life football ain't FM, but it also ain't theoretical physics. We see every minute of every match, so don't underestimate the wisdom of an enlightened crowd. If Ben Arfa creates a billion good chances per game but our strikers don't score, do you think any reasonable fan will be blaming Pardew?

Learn to read.

His point is that Pardew is due little credit because: - He has players bought for him. - He has had decisions imposed upon him by injuries. - Good players automatically equals good football. - He didn't bring through the youngsters. - He reportedly wanted to buy inferior players to the players that were bought for him. - Media interaction is easy. And that's why I got the feeling that we should worship Ashley from now on from Pip's argument. Ashley decided the transfer, ordered Carr to find good prospect, invest a lot in youth academy and training pitches, didn't approve Pardew's "inferior players" proposal. He also decided to get rid of Nolan and Barton and open up spaces for the youngsters to step up. Last year he went hardcore towards Saylor, forced him to sign extension and now playing in top form. ? You're making out as if the part in bold is some deluded fantasy. It happened, you moron.

Shearer needed replacing anyway because he was too slow for the style of play that SBR wanted, and that's why SBR preferred the Kluivert - Bellamy partnership. SBR got sacked after that defeat at Villa where coincidentally Shearer was benched in favour of the aforementioned partnership, and I think Bellamy scored in that game and we played some decent football as well. But anyway, I'm not saying managers don't sign duds and they don't 'fall in love' with certain players, but in general I think there's a trend and good managers are obviously more often than not successful with transfers. SBR signed many players from all over the continent, favoured signing youth and was in full control of the club. Therefore the success that we had under him is full credit to him. Who knows, maybe someone like Viana would have been a success here if he wasn't forced to play LW and constantly cross the ball into the box. Maybe if SBR had been able to replace slow players like Shearer with more mobile players then we would have been able to afford having someone physically limited like Viana play in CM in the team because his passing and technique was so, so sweet. I'll try to look for the article where Pardew mentioned that he suggested a whole host of average players for the club to sign but thankfully all of his suggestions were rejected.

Well, no, it speaks to his intelligence and his outlook. If he was happy with signing average players like Warnock or Carlton Cole - frankly another player that I think we would sign if Pardew was in charge of transfers, given his links to West Ham that he boasted about after signing Ba - then it says a lot about his management IQ, if such a thing exists.

I agree to an extent that he's responsible for getting the players to perform as a unit. But even looking at someone like Best. The guy didn't start for ages until injuries forced Pardew's hand. Like I said, circumstances have really forced Pardew's hands to do certain things that I think a better manager would have done, and Pardew's reaping the rewards for luck (Smith's injury, Shola's injury etc.). With a guy like S Taylor, the protection that the midfield offers to the defence is a massive part in why he's looking comfortable and confident. It's no surprise that our midfield was overrun against Blackpool last year when Smith was starting and then looked like a much better unit when Tiote started the next match against Everton and all the matches after that. And this year our defence is starting to look even more comfortable because we're dominating much more of the ball. You can't concede when you have the ball. That's the reason Pique and Puyol look so chilled You can say that it's to Pardew's credit that we've become a team who's more comfortable in possession, but the players are key to this. You take out Cabaye, stick in Smith and we're back to the style of football we played last year, regardless of what Pardew does on the training ground. I'm not saying Pardew's shit because he's obviously not and that's why the players look happy and why we're performing as a unit, but I don't think Pardew deserves as much credit as any other manager would if their team was getting the results that we are getting. Many of the things that Pardew's being given credit for are being imposed on him by the guys above or through circumstances that forced his hand. It's just my opinion, anyway, and it's why I don't think we'd suffer too much if he chose to leave and was then replaced by a manager who would be comfortable operating under the conditions that Pardew's operating under. He's certainly not as crucial to our results as KK and SBR were to the success of their teams.

You look at a kid like Abeid. With Pardew in full control of transfers, no way we sign a promising kid like him. No fucking way. And if Smith was fit, I don't think there's a doubt that Smith starts. That's the type of manager that I think Pardew is, and that's by judging what he says, looking at his record at past clubs and his team selection here. It's unfortunate but I don't think it's far from the truth. We're somewhat lucky that he's only being asked to coach this team and he has a good assistant like Carver, who has a lot of experience in coaching a team to play offensive football.

As to Otter's comments about him not being as bad as we thought, well, I think that's because many, many things are being imposed on him. Like I said, the comments about signing players like Warnock and Crouch still bother me because it just reeks of the usual closed-mindedness that British managers have in regard to transfers. Maybe British players are easier for them to control and manage because of the language, but you then restrict yourself to such a small group of players that you inevitably overpay - like MO'N constantly did - or you sign a bunch of big-club rejects - like many, many British managers like to do. Let's be honest, never in a million years would Pardew have signed someone like Santon. He just doesn't strike me as the type that would even be aware of someone like Santon, let alone his availability. What else is there? The press conferences and media management aren't rocket science. You don't need to be a genius to keep the media on your side, especially when there is an easy target available. He's been shrewd in this respect and deserves credit, but results will always come first. It's easy to have a good time with journalists when you're undefeated but when a team full of good players is underperforming, then Pardew will be under some real pressure for the first time. Someone else also mentioned his gradual introduction of young players into the first-team squad. Let's be honest: firstly, he didn't develop these kids. The development work has been taking place for many years before kids like Sammy are ready for first-team football, and the credit for youth development should fall to the reserve team coaches and other related staff. Pardew's not responsible for this. Secondly, their introduction into the first-team squad is also being imposed on Pardew because of the size of the squad. Maybe I'm being cynical, but is there even a doubt that Pardew would prefer the likes of Warnock to a youngster like Ferguson? That he would prefer some big-club reject like Duff to someone like Sammy? There is still a lot to worry about with regards to Pardew, but I'm actually thankful that things are being imposed on him and he's accepting of these conditions. He's certainly not some visionary, some younger version of Fergie or SBR. He's a Shearer-type, a Curbishley-type. He's an old-school manager who's used to controlling every aspect of the club, but the game has changed to such an extent that these managers often fail because they don't have enough support (scouts, negotiating team, coaches etc.). Even at a big club like Chelsea and with a highly-rated manager like Vilas Boas who could have gone to almost any club in the world, he came to a club where he can only request a position on the pitch to be strengthened, and the recruitment team then selects the player and proceeds with the signing. Even a manager like him doesn't have the control that many British managers are used to. It's just a general point I'm making, but I'm hoping Pardew realizes this and doesn't start demanding more control if we are moderately successful on the pitch because he's not good or smart enough to get into those other things.

This team - with this set of players - would be a joy to watch under KK. But anyway, Pardew's doing a decent job. It seems that he has a plan and is trying hard to implement it, but I think the quality of players that we have makes it much easier to do this. If left to his own, we would have signed a bunch of big-club rejects and other English no-marks that have Premiership experience - the likes of Warnock come to mind. The quotes about Crouch, Defoe etc. that he made still really bother me. I don't think he's anything better than an average manager, and I think this 'sexy football' thing is being imposed on him by the hierarchy as well. I suppose he has good man-management skills, but I would give more credit to our recruitment team than to Pardew. I just don't see anything in his record that says that this guy is a good manager, but now with quality, skillful players, we're playing better football. I don't think that's a coincidence. If you have sexiness like Cabaye, Ben Arfa and Marveaux on the pitch, they're going to pass and move well because they've been doing it their whole lives. But if you had Warnock and Crouch on the pitch, then the team would play hoofball. The style of play is just a product of the players on the pitch, so that's why the credit to our recent improvement in performances should be given more to the recruitment team than to Pardew. In my humble opinion, anyway.

If he ever read this thread, he'd be on the first flight back to France. Look who's talking

Only 3 years ago this guy was linked with a 20m euro move to Liverpool linky link. The reason the owner quoted 20m was because Nasri went for 16 His benchmark is fucking Samir Nasri! Anyway, you can see one of the comments there saying this... All right, there is an idiot who also said that he'd prefer Milner over him, but that's just one idiot. To sum up: time for a collective wank. The Ben Arfa reign has begun.

To be frank, he's the most gifted player we've had in about 20 years. He's the type of player that would star in a team like Chelsea's so we should be fucking excited that he's back. Technique-wise, he wouldn't look out place in a team like Barca's. Let's hope he's matured and thus is a more willing passer as well being calmer and thus able to produce consistently. I honestly don't have any doubt about his footballing ability. This guy is top, top quality. I remember when Spurs were linked with him for 15m+ a few years back and feeling jealous as fuck because his footballing ability is out of this world. Somehow we ended up with him for 6m and he loves it here, too I know it's somewhat normal for players to feel honored playing for their clubs but there are certain exceptions where the fans feel lucky to get to watch some of these players feel. The obvious guys are Messi whose skill is so sublime that you're willing to spend 150 euros to watch him kick a ball around for an hour and a half. Ben Arfa is one of not many players who has the potential to be that ridiculously good.

Man U could have scored 3 or 4 more than they did, they are playing an excellent passing game and Chelsea were nowhere near matching them. I thought Chelsea more than matched them. The stats seem to confirm it. I thought they played a lot of the ball in Man Utd's half and looked really dangerous, then Man Utd score an offside goal and play well for a while, then score two more ridiculous goals. Then the second half was all Chelsea with sporadic Man Utd counter-attacks. If I was a Chelsea fan, I'd be disappointed with the defeat but hopeful because they controlled the match for quite a while and Torres looked really sharp.

That was a class match. Torres looked really sharp. I hope he's back. Chelsea are title challengers with him back.

Nah, only a goal. They're still in good position for the CL because of Arsenal's shit start. It's between them, Arsenal and Spurs. Today's been entertaining but it's still only 3 points for Spurs and Liverpool have some winnable fixtures coming up.

Get a couple more for the GD.

:lol: Good shit

Game over. Time for a shower.

Defoe!!

Skrtel Well done whoever said Skrtel would go.

They'll score /mad reverse jinx attempt

What a dive by that cunt.

It's harsh to judge Carroll in a match like this since he's playing LW/RW and his team don't have enough possession in good areas to supply him with good crosses, but he's looked woeful for close to a year now whereas his good spell last just about a year as well. It's obvious that he's not a 35m player, but maybe he's not even a 15m player? He's a player that needs a team to be built around him and the way Dalglish has Liverpool playing - pressing high, counter-attacking fast and playing balls on the ground - Carroll doesn't fit into the team.

They need to send Bellamy on for Carroll.

David Pleat says he's spoken to Modric's dentist and the dentist says that Modric is fully focused on the football this season. :lol: