sides still aching, indeed.

Hard to have much sympathy with the complaints about squad depth. Chelsea have been unlucky with goalkeepers but have only themselves to blame for the defensive crisis. One of the problems with every other team knowing how much money you have to spend is that you get overcharged something rotten.

Poor Chelsea.

heh heh...

Poor, poor Chelsea.
 

We got through five goalkeepers last season, they're only on the third one now. Nothing to moan about there!

Mwahah.
 

"Not every club has bottomless sums of cash to bail themselves out."

Yes, and that includes Chelsea, who work to a budget like every other team in the Premiership. If Mourinho finds himself out of a job at the end of the season, the title defence having been screwed up, it'll be because he misused the money that was available to him. Like other managers who may get sacked.

I'm unclear precisely what it was that Chelsea Football Club did to inspire such hatred in you, as illustrated by your last couple of posts, but while you clarify that point for me, I'll enjoy the irony of an Everton fan attacking another club's "moaning twat" of a manager.
 

Sorry Jawbox, I may have been literally incorrect when I used the term 'bottomless sums'. The fact remains though, that comparatively that is almost the case. I'm sorry but I find your suggestion that Chelsea "work to a budget" quite laughable. Chelsea can afford to lose money left, right and centre and do just that. Damien Duff, signed for £17m, sold for £5m. Veron, signed for £15m, left on a free. Del Horno, in for £8m and sold for £4.8m. A nett loss on Parker of £4m. That's without mentioning the Obi Mikel debacle - gifting Manchester United with £10m for a player who didn't actually play for them. Enough of that though, it can continue at length and will doubtlessly not convince a single Chelsea fan.

Your point about Mourinho having the same job security as anyone else is of course perfectly valid, I've never suggested otherwise.

What have Chelsea done to inspire such hatred within me? Well, I'm not ashamed to admit that the thing that seemed to galvanise all the little annoyances into outright hatred was the post-match interview Mourinho conducted and stated explicitly that Andy Johnson was "untrustworthy". Not so much the comments themselves, more the sheer arrogance of the man, in that he clearly felt he could get away with it. There was the whole charade with the Reading game and his comments to the press about the time it took for Cech to get medical attention - proven to be exaggeration.

Oh and then there's just the fact that they are ruining football. Clearly football has always been an industry... blah, blah.. but that's how I feel. Not just Chelsea of course, but the Sky dominance and the influx of business into a sport which has created a huge divide between the haves and have nots. I must state again, this is not solely aimed at Chelsea of course, but of the direction of football in general.

Moyes or Mourinho? Ask a neutral selection of fans and I think we both know where the consensus would lye. I appreciate that you think he is a moaning twat, personally though, I don't recall too many incidents (if any) of unjust 'moans'. Perhaps you could remind us all of a few?
 

Forgot to mention Mutu (£15.8m), Crespo (£16.8m), Tiago (£10m) and of course, Shevchenko - £30.8m for a striker in his 30's. Not much resale value there.
 

Abramovich has made it perfectly clear, as I understand it, that he expects Chelsea to be run as a business; that is, they will spend no more in wages and transfer fees than they get in the financial year's income. Abramovich is a post-Soviet businessman with his wits about him - having seen what happened to the Russian Federation in the 1990s after Boris Yeltsin tried the financial approach you descibe, he's unlikely to think that throwing vast amounts of money at a concern with no regard for the losses that generates is a particularly good way to run anything, be it a country or a chippie.

On other matters, players who dive cannot be accused of diving anymore? If Everton play United, and during the course of the match Ronaldo takes a load of tumbles (as he does), why precisely shouldn't Moyes accuse him of being 'untrustworthy' in the post-match interview and expect to 'get away with it'? Andy Johnson is a diver like many players, as he demonstrated yesterday (among other days).

On which note, you state it as a fact that Chelsea are ruining football. Our current form, when contrasted with the money that has undeniably been spent on the team, ought to demonstrate that that's rubbish. The game's always had its plutocracy, and the members thereof come and go. Currently, it's Chelsea's time, previously it was United's, and in a couple of years it'll be someone else's turn. Get over it.

Incidentally, no, we don't both know where the consensus would lie on Moyes v Mourinho - the latter is frequently very entertaining, the former is not. Given the usual standard of football interviews, that counts for a lot in popularity terms (see Gordon Strachan for details).
 

"Abramovich has made it perfectly clear, as I understand it, that he expects Chelsea to be run as a business; that is, they will spend no more in wages and transfer fees than they get in the financial year's income."

Really? Still quite some work to do to make Chelsea look anything like a well-run business: Chelsea record losses

And why dislike Chelsea? For me, it's not because they have money, not because they are champions, but simply because they don't like football.
 

Hello Pro, I don't have anything intelligent to say about Chelsea, but am just dropping in to say Happy Birthday! Hope it was a good one!
 

Apologies for my delayed response/s, I’ve had New Years Eve, a birthday and a stomach bug in the mean time.

Patroclus:

Thank you! I'd had better (see stomach bug) but it wasn't a total washout - I had a much better Christmas which sort of made up for it. Hope you're keeping well.


Jawbox:

I see you nicely skipped over my transfer losses data there and that you haven't provided a single instance of David Moyes moaning unjustly.

Moving on though,

As Lyndon pointed out, so far, Chelsea appear to be anything but a well run business. With an estimated total fortune of $19.5 billion, Abramovich's expenses at Chelsea are relatively small fry and the whole venture has been suggested as both a status thing and a means of getting some of his cash out of Russia.

I don't think Andy Johnson is a diver, I've not seen him go down extravagantly - unlike Drogba or Robben for example (see the videos in my earlier post). Johnson is a player with an exceptional turn of pace, he entices defenders to stop him the only way they can — most often by pulling him back, tripping or pushing. Johnson might go down under a challenge be it legitimate or otherwise, that's what happens if you're a slightly built 5ft 8 attacker running at pace, but as I say, I've not seen him take a dive and if you can prove otherwise, I'll gladly take notice.

I've no problem with managers criticising whoever they like as long it complies with the satisfaction of the FA and is used appropriately and as infrequently as possible. You've not mentioned that Mourinho actually apologised to Johnson for his comments, does this not suggest that he feels he was wrong?

Before Chelsea's dominance it was Arsenal and United, the former was/is a wonderful to watch team of attacking players assembled by Arsene Wenger for relatively little expense. The title winning United were similarly an easy on the eye attacking team comprising largely of home-grown players and those transferred for comparatively (to Chelsea) less amounts.

If we can agree on a neutral location, I’d gladly set up a poll for football fans to vote on which manager is the biggest ‘moaning twat’! I can only see one result.