The Rainford can play, but mainly at the Shay

Despite having been out of loan at Halifax since The Early Novembers, Jamie Rainford has been one of the most talked-about Chester players of the season, his name cropping up on the Popular Swirling Vortex of Cringe-Inducing Opinions (aka. The DevaChats) more than Michael Powell's name appears in a referee's match report.

It is now estimated that two in every three threads on the genius factory that is The Devachats are about Jamie Rainford to begin with, with 30% of those that started off being about stuff like formations, Neil Young's puffer coat or the temperature of the pies sold at the Exacta also descending into Rainford-talk.

Fans who post on The Supreme Archive of All Things Intelligent (aka. The Devachats) have regularly taken to their keyboards to dispute whether or not Rainford should be allowed to return to CFC after his stint at Halifax, with some posters making multiple posts, like they actually have a say in it or something.

The dispute arises off the back of comments Rainford made on his Facebook profile, which cannot be seen by any user who had the self-awareness to realise Rainford is not their friend.  Despite it emerging that Rainford's profile housed negative comments about team-mate Chris Simm made by Rainford's family members and a comment from Rainford himself saying that he'd just turn up, play his ten minutes and go home, it was his depiction of those fans who had criticised him as "muppets", and his loose grasp of the concept of spelling, which upset those posting on The Accute Observations Auditorium (aka The Devachats).

"I don't care about his disrespecting his team-mates and manager.  That bit was fine.  But I cannot abide bad spelling," said chester4eva off of The Mensa Plantation (aka The Devachats).

Meanwhile, looking past the fact that Rainford's "muppets" comment was clearly reserved for fans who had taken it upon themselves to give him stick either at matches or via social networking, large sections of CFC support decided that Rainford was definitely likening all Blues fans to Kermit and took exception, wailing and waggling their arms in the air.  Before consulting a Swedish Chef about lunch.

Predictably, some rolled out the line about the fans being the owners, and "employing" Rainford, presumably believing their five pounds a year to more than cover Rainford's costs.

"If my employer harshly criticised me, even taking to Twitter to ram his opinion down me, I'd definitely not mention to my friends that I was upset with it," said Matthew Highground out of the P Block.

All along, however, it seemed sure to be the case that most fans were equally annoyed by the apparent disrespect shown towards Neil Young and the squad by Rainford and his allies.  After all, this was where Rainford's need to apologise lay, rather than for the personal offence so eagerly sought and joyously found by certain Chester fans.  The supporters definitely wouldn’t look past these indiscretions and focus entirely on his comments about fans.

This has since turned out to be wishful thinking. As midfielder Luke Holden quit the club earlier this week, after failing to report for duty for the Nantwich match and publically slating the manager in the vaguest of terms, he also made sure to praise the fans, so he's largely considered to be a "top lad".