The Great Mass Debater

I think he looks like Darth Vader myself...

The guy on the left in the green bomber jacket looks like Grant Hanley. 'Oh ****, that's tonight?! I thought those f ckers said it was tomorrow!''

I've always felt Villa are the most deluded set of fans there are. And I say that as a one-season Leeds Utd season ticket holder (Champions League season). Back in the days of the 606 forum the Villa fans were on another planet. I remember O'Leary went there after they'd narrowly avoided relegation. They had only 16 professionals, but he got a letter from a Villa fan saying 'Welcome to Aston Villa. We expect Champions League qualification'. He kept them up and said he thought he'd done a good job, but he was getting hate mail. Deluded. I remember waiting for the bus after a Leeds game once and some fans were talking about Woodgate possibly moving to Real Madrid. One slack-jawed no-teethed Leeds scr ote proclaimed 'I dont know why he'd want to go there - Madrid's nice and all, but there's NO club in the WORLD as big as Leeds Utd' And he believed it

I have to say Im really surprised they appointed Mourinho. I thought he was finished in England, Im amazed he has walked into another job. Mourinho in his first spell at Chelsea was passionate, enigmatic and charismatic. He energised players who would run through walls for him. See Drogba and at Inter Materazzi in tears at him leaving. 10 years later and he is unrecognisable. Embittered, think skinned, miserable. What used to be his strength in galvanising players is now his biggest fault. The collapse at Chelsea seemed to begin with his treatment of the players and later the club Doctor whom the players supported. As David O'Leary at Leeds showed, once you lose the dressing room it's over, and Chelsea came close to being relegated that season, in a spell where he was trying to prove he was more than just a chequebook manager and was trying to carve something out. Rafa Benitez's wife had some interesting comments about him 'We consider ourselves the clean up crew. 3 times Rafa has succeeded him to clear up his mess. Mourinho has become toxic. He burns players out then jettisons them. Youth never gets a chance, he's only interested in ready-made players at great expense. The culture he develops within a club is toxic (a far cry from his first Chelsea spell). I think this season we have learned that Solksjaer is a busted flush and his great run last season was simply him not being Mourinho, and the players having the Mourinho environment lifted. Sudden bounce effect, enjoying their football, but eventually that wears off and the players return to base, which is what we're seeing now. I thought that we had enough evidence in English football of what he does at a club to override the primacy effect of his first spell, which he has traded off for years. His spell at Man Utd was disastrous quite frankly and Im very surprised Tottenham have gone this route.

Not been struck off yet...

If you actually read my previous posts I DID want him subbed at half time, I was simply making the point that if Todd feels he is being harshly treated for his mistakes it may not be good for his morale. Farke seems to be a good man-manager though (the Oliveira/Watkins/Edwards/Roberts thing says more about the players attitudes imo) and you would hope he is well experienced in dealing with young players and supporting them. Doing it in the right way is a skill Im sure Farke has

Im a Doctor...

Tettey has also put the cat amongst the pigeons with his post-match comments. We've had a lot of praise in the last year. Perhaps we also need some harsh criticism

I had completely forgotten about Roberts - which itself speaks volumes. He is the obvious choice to play on the right if we want to try Emi in the middle

Why? You need to support young players. They're going to make mistakes, you cant sub them the minute they make one. That creates a culture of fear. He knows he's made a mistake, he doesnt need to be punished for it, that doesnt give him the confidence to play with freedom in future games

Thanks

Why are we wearing black arm bands?

Ha, well the two changes I wanted are on!

Todd's had a poor game on the face of it. I'd like to see Onel on at half time to see if we can open Utd up a bit, but you cant really take Todd off after giving away a goal and a penalty, would not be good man management. Maybe Stipermann on for a bit of physicality for Todd and Onel for McLean

Does Todd Cantwell remind anyone else of Anakin Skywalker?