Despite it often being said that Stamford Bridge can be quiet, Chelsea confirm the club WON’T use artificial crowd noise to improve atmosphere at Stamford Bridge. This is a true story!!!

Quote:Chelsea have moved to ease fans’ fears about plans to potentially use artificial crowd noise to improve the atmosphere at home games after the club confirmed the idea will NOT be put into practice.

Blues chairman Bruce Buck revealed that the west London outfit will not be using the measure to increase noise levels at Stamford Bridge despite manager Jose Mourinho complaining about the issue in November.

The Portuguese tactician blasted the atmosphere during some home matches after saying playing at Chelsea’s ground was ‘like playing in an empty stadium.’

However, Buck has refuted the notion that Chelsea could record noise and play it out during games in a bid to try and solve the problem.

‘Our manager, for some reason, decided a few months ago to say that the fans were quiet at moments,’ Buck said.

‘One of the problems is it’s very difficult to get tickets when the stadium is sold out every week. It’s difficult to get young people to visit because it’s hard to buy tickets.

‘Every club is looking to improve the matchday experience, but we can’t have recorded fan noise — our fans just wouldn’t accept that.’

He added: ‘We don’t have cheerleaders; we have to do what’s right for our home environment. You have to understand your market place.’

So, here we are again. Transfer window time. And one of the big stories of the day is that WBA have enquired about Darren Fletcher:

Quote:West Brom have contacted Manchester United about the possibility of signing Darren Fletcher, according to Sky sources.

The Scotland captain has had limited first-team opportunities under Louis van Gaal this season, starting just four times in the Premier League, and Albion have enquired about his availability.

Fletcher is United's longest-serving player having made his debut almost 12 years ago, and he counts five league titles and a Champions League winner's medal among his honours.

The 30-year-old midfielder has revived his career after a series of successful operations helped him overcome ulcerative colitis, an illness which kept him out for almost the whole of 2013.

Quote:Germany defender Mats Hummels has played down talk of him looking for a move away from Borussia Dortmund.

Hummels has been linked with Manchester United and Arsenal but, despite Dortmund's struggles in the Bundesliga this season, he appears set to stay loyal to Jurgen Klopp's side.

The 26-year-old centre-back has only played for two clubs in his entire career, joining Dortmund in 2008 on loan, and permanently in 2009, after coming through the youth ranks at Bayern Munich.

“I am not really known as a globetrotter," Hummels said. "I have been with two clubs in 26 years. Loyalty is important to me.

"The only thing I am concerned with right now is to play better than in the first half of the season. I was not satisfied at all with myself as one can imagine.

"I have gotten offers from different clubs ever since I have been with Dortmund. That’s not a secret. I have always decided not to leave."

But Hummels did leave the door open to a move at some point in his career, as he added: "I think I have made some good decisions and I want to make those in the future as well.

"I have never said I will stay until 2024 or 2030 or whenever… but I have stayed until today. I will stick to my way of not promising anything and maybe leave someday, instead of saying I will stay forever and then leave all of a sudden.”

Just wanted to pop in and say hello I am a Manc who emigrated to Canada many moons ago.
I have been back to OT over the past few years to games.

Happy New Year to all

Dunc1519

We gotta be happy with that showing. This season the whole atmosphere is that of us all being at ease-Yes things go wrong sometimes, but this time last year I was dreading this game-where as now (especially with this run we're currently on) your almost looking forward to the next game as soon as one ends!! Big ask for us to catch Chelsea-but hopefully City hit a blip and we can capitalise on it!!
With an inform Di-Maria added to that team today- it would've been lethal!!!
Roll on the Spurs game-another tough test-but one we can defo win!!!!!

GGMU!!!!

hi there,

I'm Erwin, originally comes from Indonesia, but have been living in Germany since 2001. United fan since 1996.... just want to say hello to all members here, glad to be here... GGMU! btw, i just activated my gold membership, looking forward to the match today.