Finally, I would say it is very wrong for the mods to move this thread no matter that the debate has drifted. If there are any offensive posts then simply do as they do on Bluemoon and temporarily lock the thread until it is cleaned up.
Hopefully this Lampard situation won't drive a wedge between the fans of both clubs forever.
Thanks for the input.
The thing is, this forum isn't Bluemoon. Bluemoon is a 10-year old forum with 50,000 members, and pushing 1,000 at any one time during most of the peak hours. We are a forum in our first year, with barely 1,000 members and an average online user count of approximately 25, and we don't even have any matches to talk about to distract you guys right now. On Bluemoon, if a huge argument breaks out, half the people online won't ever even know it happened, and most of those who do argue frequently know who they are arguing with IRL from when they attend games, so they know that their argument isn't going to cause any lasting repercussions. We have none of these safety mechanisms.
Right now, the mod team consider it a danger that any arguments over CFG could cause a lasting divide in the fanbase which directly negatively affects the team, or at least could ruin this forum's reputation and put it into a nosedive by driving away all of our potential new members. That means we have to try to keep a bit of a lid on things when many places would just let the argument play out.
Sometimes we'll get it right, sometimes we'll get it wrong - you have to remember that we're still getting used to how to handle the userbase and manage these issues too. I've already admitted that I got my tone completely wrong when I stepped in here earlier, but it was agreed by all of the admins that this was our course of action and so this is what we put in place. I hope that at least some of you noticed that we have actually agreed to relax moderation of this thread - as long as it doesn't turn into a trainwreck of baiting and flaming we are willing to let you guys hammer at this topic in a way we tried to restrict before.
I'd like to think that in two or three years' time this will be a flourishing community and we'll be able to be a little freer with how we let you guys interact with each other, but for now this is what we feel is best for the long term health of the forum.