Jose already making excuses for poor form, I remember AVB did that at Chelsea by saying Hoops' ground is too small and he didn't last long.
The key part of the story: "I don't like the way Chelsea were playing in the last couple of years. The club doesn't like it and we want to change." He's trying to blame AVB, Di Matteo and Benitez for their current poor form. Classy guy...
croydon, then unless his ways change the club's fortunes very soon he'll be just another Chelsea statistic.
And now for something completely different. He's not the Messiah - Mourinho that is [video=youtube;Zjz16xjeBAA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zjz16xjeBAA[/video]
Well so far we're doing better without Bale, and the pic doesn't bother me at all. I remember if the first half of last season a lot of people including , disgracefully, some Spurs fans getting on Bale's back for his diving. I was outraged by the lack of support Bale got from a lot of Spurs 'supporters'. I said at the time, he'd be better off in Spanish football where his talent will be appreciated more and refs will actually not see him as fair game to be kicked and generally fouled. We'll see how it goes, but I think Bale has done the smart thing. Admittedly refs didn't victimise him as much in the second half of the season, though the Sunderland decision was appalling. And Bale was so fantastic that even the negative Spurs fans shut up and got behind him. But the damage was done. I'm sure he'd have gone even if he'd had the 100% backing of Spurs fans, but it it would have nice to see a bit of solidarity. I also couldn't believe the disgusting abuse Bale got from the Scottish fans, maybe they'll ease up on him a bit now as well.
I think you're making an issue out of something that wasn't. Bale never got a hard time from Spurs fans for diving, except, when he actually dived. That's fair enough. He got full support when decisions went against him wrongly. No player should be exempt from criticism when they do wrong, no matter how talented they are. Praise for him was exuberant when he did right so to blame Spurs fans for Bale's departure with that 'damage was done' line is ridiculous and unfounded. There's no one to blame for his departure, he was just too talented for us at the present time. P.S. You can leave all this "I was outraged", "I said at the time" bollocks at the door. I have no time for people who project themselves with this aura of infallibility on here - no one is infallible when it comes to football, as the smallest, most unpredictable, random and seemingly isolated incidents can have such enormous consequences in the wider game.
The Scottish fans abused Bale because they were scared of him and they were right to be scared too, as it turned out. I don't like this modern move towards berating the other side's most dangerous player, but it often seems to be that those players deserve some stick, unfortunately. Bale did dive, despite often being booked when he was genuinely scythed down. Suarez has a list of offences a mile long, Rooney's a horrible, spiteful troll and Wilshere seems to have an inner ear problem that makes him go to ground constantly. All very good players and all guilty of doing some dodgy things to try and grab the points.
"There's no outstanding team in the Premier League at the moment apart from Liverpool. There's no reason why they can't be top for ages yet." - Lawro
Can't say I much liked how Chelsea was playing attractive football while winning European cups either.
Bale didn't dive, and was and clearly still is being berated by Spurs supporters, who should have been backing him 100%. I'm certainly not making this up, I was outraged at the time, and I think Gareth is better off in spain, where I expect him him to get better backing from Real fans, better treatment from refs and away fans and of course he'll win more medals. He's done the right thing in moving to a club and playing culture that will be better for him.
That makes out trip to Villa less daunting, and I hope encourages AVb to heed his own advice and not play any of our players twice in three games, certainly not for substantial amounts of time.
