I honestly think when he took the Bayern job he thought it'd be an easy few years before moving on. The fact they won the CL and thrashed Barcelona on the way changed everything.

I'd be surprised/disappointed if he does return to Barcelona and I'm not even sure they want him now, with Enrique doing so well. I'd like to see him in the Prem for lots of reasons, not least to see him once again grapple with Mourinho, although will he even be here next season? He's never stayed anywhere more than three seasons and this is his third. I wouldn't be at all surprised though if Mourinho leaves Chelsea next summer and Pep replaces him. Watching Jose's demeanour at the moment he seems to be doing his usual act of burning bridges and almost agitating for the sack.

how do you mean? oh, because his contract was already in place when bayern did this? and it raised the stakes? yes...


ah ha ha ha. mourinho... why wouldn't he stay? chelsea is champion... where else can he go but down?

maybe luis enrique goes to real madrid and pep goes to barcelona, ha ha ha.

Exactly.


He says he'll stay as long as Abramovich wants him so he may last longer than his usual 3 years. There aren't many big clubs left that either he'd be interested in or who'd have him. Everyone knows he really wanted the MU job after Fergie left but it seems they're just not interested in him. Rumours that Ryan Giggs is being groomed to replace LVG when he leaves.

Bayern might be an option for Mourinho after Pep goes (we assume) but he's made it public that he doesn't like the Bundelsiga and I'm not sure the Bayern board would want him any more than Man U's. Plus I've heard that if Pep does go, Bayern are interested in Mönchengladbach's Lucien Favre as a possible replacement. Don't know anything about him though.

Maybe Mourinho will have to stay at Chelsea just because his realistic alternatives are slowly running out.

Someone explain to me this Audi Cup.
I see many players im familiar with..

It's a nothing cup, organised by the car company for a bit of publicity. Only 4 clubs are entered and they only use it as a pre-season warm up.

it's practice matches

but for money

don't worry about it

Think Mourinho said at the beginning of this term he intended to stay at Chelsea until he gets kicked out. I wouldn't be surprised if he's there for a good few years yet. Certainly until he wins the Champions League at least.

It'll be interesting next summer, when Pep becomes available. We know Abramovich has always wanted him at Chelsea, and I'm not sure how Jose would react if they started making bids for him while he's still there - although whether Abramovich is willing to match the £100m contract Man City are supposed to be about to offer him is another matter. Either way Mourinho's in a weird situation where he's working in a country that still sees him as the Special One, but where all the biggest clubs still seem to have Pep at no.1 on their wish-list.

So West Ham are out of the Europa Cup. Thank God for that. Whether we went out because we weren't good enough or because we really didn't want to be in it, while I hope it's the latter, I really don't care. Most important thing is we can now concentrate solely on the Prem.

Some early predictions:

Top 4:

1. Arsenal (perhaps optimistically)
2. Chelsea
3. Man City
4. Man Utd

Relegated: Leicester, Norwich, Villa.

First manager sacked: Tim Sherwood.

Yo demo, did you see the West Ham documentary about their move to the Stadium. Absolutely ridiculous.

One main point (besides the shocking levels ineptitude and corruption) is the fans blindness in believing they'll become the next Chelsea, Man City/United in the next few years. No offense but getting Bilic as their manager etc. is not the ambitions of a wannabe Champions League playing team.

Anyway it's a great, albeit depressing, look at modern football.

I didn't see it but I'll try and catch a repeat.

I'm not one of the fans who thinks we'll become the next Chelsea, although plenty do. On the point of Bilic, though, I'd say it's more difficult. The board did show ambition in trying to get Benitez, Klopp, Bielsa and Emry. That they all turned us down just showed that we're not able to attract that calibre of manager and so we ended up with Bilic, who's closer to where we're at right now. That had nothing to do with a lack of ambition, though.

As for the Champions League, the problem for a club like West Ham is even if we do become richer, the teams already filling those places also become richer, so we kind of stand still. The best we can hope for in the foreseeable future is consistent mid-table security. That's why I'm glad we're out of the Europa League; I see this season as being a real test and we could very easily find ourselves in a relegation battle.

Either way I do think the club is being shafted and its history erased by the self serving business decisions of Karren Brady, et al. But I'm probably in a minority of WH fans in thinking that.

Happy Premier League Opening Day!!!!

lewandowski needs a sub

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2...ransfer-window

and gotze wants to leave (of course--pep works for spain)

http://talksport.com/football/mario-...and-manchester

Arsenal 0-2 West Ham

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CPl...Q&spfreload=10

Obviously too early to say this but my initial thinking that arsenal could go all the way ... yet again they're looking like the same old same old. Giroud is simply not a title winning striker.

But back to west ham. Payet. Remember the name.

okay.

btw, what south americans did you end up getting this year? you had an ecuadorian already, right? and now?

Wenger's refusal to buy another decent striker will bite him on the ass pretty soon I think. Why he refuses to spend big (Sanchez aside) I'll never know.

I look forward to seeing MOTD later. All these teams around Everton seemed to have bought well so far. A bit worrying. Well, I mean very worrying.

And your next few fixtures are horrible.

but yeah, if wenger doesn't land benzema I don't know what he'll do. He could use wallcott as a striker but there's little chance of him going a season injury free.

Valencia is ecuadorian plus zarate is argentinian

i could have sworn you were hiring others during the copa américa
maybe it was rumors and never actually happened

--

eta it was perú's advíncula who plays in portugal or turkey, getting mixed info from the internets about that. i remember commentators speaking of him going to jamón-west.