A personal view on where we are right now

[cujo101 75]

I would just buy Craig Gordon on a free transfer. Good experienced back-up keeper. Far better than those two sub standard reserves we have at the moment.

[gary gordon 1,777]

I just don't understand, usually if we aren't doing well we use the winter window to buy that player we need. We bought Ba, we still suck.

Is that it? Something doesn't seem right..

[Magic Lamps 11,446]

Nice thread, decent time to ponder that issue.

Let's assess what we got, a clueless board, an average and unpopular manager, a vastly talented skeleton of a squad, drained of experience, relying on 3 weakish, young, inconsistent AMs that still are to win a big match for us, serious issues in key positions, the "press" and probably half of europe having a feud with us, an immensely rich, supportive but very authoritive and interfering, impatient owner, an army of more or less quality players out on loan and a world class academy full of great talents that are still to come through

Fuck the manager and the press, we as a club are a global brand, got enough capital and surely the potential to become the strongest team in the world within a decade. The problem is that we do not have authorities in the board that really have clue, most are business men and maybe fans but no true blues and surely no football men, well many big clubs have worked without for decades but still there was something extra : la masia at Barca, corruption and the government allowing the club slush funds at Real and Bayern, political power and a competent manager in charge since the last ice age aso. Our factor of consistency have been individual achievements, Jose, RDM in the short term, Lampard, drogba, Terry, Cech in the long term have carried the club, compensating the managers and the boards flaws. Now the latter has decided to get rid of them we are in deep trouble, cos there is no basis of success nothing the club can cling on footballing wise. We cant sign young players and tell them they are the replacments, we have to ease them in, if we manage to fix our squad and are able to maintain the spirit that made us big, we are fine and will return as strong as ever but the indicated shotgun approach will simply aggravate everything. Our last decade of success is worth nothing. Success is like a building, you have to maintain the pillars until u got new ones that are esqually strong, but when you remove the old ones and got no replacements it will crush and you have to build out of the ruins. Right now our building is faltering, our future is in the balance.

[cujo101 75]

I just don't understand, usually if we aren't doing well we use the winter window to buy that player we need. We bought Ba, we still suck.

Is that it? Something doesn't seem right..

The central midfielders are knackered. Ramires & Lampard play 90 mins in every game at the moment. Essien, Meireles and Mikel now missed. We should recall Josh and/or Essien. I would also recall Lukaku and never play Torres again but that's just me. We have simply run out of gas. I almost forgot to mention Benitez's shit tactical substitutions but that's a whole another matter ....

[bushman 2,043]

@cujo

first you wrote the team is running out of steam, then Rafa´s subs are shitty.

Have you seen Chelsea´s bench, lately ?

[cujo101 75]

In reference to subs, I'm talking about waiting until the 80th minute to bring on Ba.

[bushman 2,043]

In reference to subs, I'm talking about waiting until the 80th minute to bring on Ba.

Speaking about players running out of steam. Do you think it could happen to BA ?

[cujo101 75]

Speaking about players running out of steam. Do you think it could happen to BA ?

No but I think with Benitez, Ba will run out of form...

[bushman 2,043]

No but I think with Benitez, Ba will run out of form...

He will & it´s all because of Rafa ?

Your observation is very admirable.

[cujo101 75]

He will & it´s all because of Rafa ?

Your observation is very admirable.

Benitez will not give Ba a proper run in the side. Torres will be regarded as the 'main' striker no matter what. Benitez believes that bringing Torres back to his best will be enough to get him the job on a long-term basis. This hopeless quest could cost us a Champions League place.

[bushman 2,043]

Benitez will not give Ba a proper run in the side. Torres will be regarded as the 'main' striker no matter what. Benitez believes that bringing Torres back to his best will be enough to get him the job on a long-term basis. This hopeless quest could cost us a Champions League place.

Oh yea. May I ask where did you read all that ?

[cujo101 75]

Oh yea. May I ask where did you read all that ?

Do you really believe that Benitez will drop Torres & give Ba a proper run in the side?

Benitez tries to get Torres back in form >

Torres returns to form >

Benitez credited for return to form >

Benitez proves Roman was right about Torres >

Benitez rewarded with new contract for restoring Torres' form & confidence.

Don't worry, it's not going to happen anyway...

[bushman 2,043]

Do you really believe that Benitez will drop Torres & give Ba a proper run in the side?

Benitez tries to get Torres back in form >

Torres returns to form >

Benitez credited for return to form >

Benitez proves Roman was right about Torres >

Benitez rewarded with new contract for restoring Torres' form & confidence.

Don't worry, it's not going to happen anyway...

Well, I am still amazed by your logic. Do you know, Rafa was hired until the end of this season ?

However, just keep on trucking.

[gary gordon 1,777]

It just seems as though he players attitude at the moment is "well Rafa ain't here next, who gives a fuck, We'll just impress the new boss next season" I feel as though the players don't care. I can't believe we lost the CWC. If we started the same team that played Bayern, There is no way in the world we are losing that game.

[GodZola 630]

It absolutely depends on who we get in the summer, but I wrote elsewhere that I think the Pep saga has been a massive wake-up call to Roman. He was led on and then rejected, something that hasn't happened during his time at Chelsea. For most people that would be a humbling experience and I think Jose might be experiencing one of those in Madrid too.

If the two have learnt something then maybe they can come together and build something special here. There have been many mistakes made at the club, but the encouraging thing is that we seem to have learnt from them and not repeated them. We just need to learn how to do better with managers......

Essentially i concur with most of your first post but could be 'picky' with it, however the point you make in this post is something that i have said recently and stated many times since Jose left. I was apoplectic when Jose was sacked, i couldn't understand why both Roman and Jose could not iron out their differences for the long term benefit of the club, they were both at fault but there was no possible explanation for Roman to sack Jose.

This brings me onto the relevance of my post, imho it is absolutely paramount to have the right man at the helm and can use Ferguson as a benchmark, he has revolutionized Scum U into the power house they are today with never ending success that continues churning out trophies, he does this successfully despite having to rebuild teams over 4 decades, a large part of that success is due to the fact he has total control over all footballing issues and rightly so (before someone comes in with Wenger having the same power at Le Arse, they have been for large part of a decade a selling club amongst other deficiencies including Whinger's poor on field management)

Now back to Jose, when he arrived in 2004 he identified our weaknesses and brought in the Portuguese contingent as well as the magnificent Drogba, instilled confidence which is/was underrated by many and for me a major reason why were successful during that period, he went hell for leather to win the Carling Cup to give the players much needed confidence to go on and win our first league title for 50 years, laterally he brought in Essien and a few others to bring the squad up to strength in every department - his view was to have 2 class players in virtually every position and to have some versatile players mixed in with it. If we use our the position as goalkeeper as an example, in 2004 Jose had to make a massive decision were he had the number 1 keeper in Cudicini and the incoming Cech, suffice to say he got it right by making Cech the regular keeper, now forward to next season, i have absolutely no doubt he will bring back Courtois from his loan to give him the same problem. My point is he will identify the weaknesses of the squad and put it right, were as i'm unsure of a different manager coming in can implement this successfully but am welcomed to be proved wrong.

I believe that Roman bringing back Jose would rectify many of our deficiencies, would unite the fans and the club can move on as one - its a no brainer as far as i'm concerned, both Roman and Jose need to swallow some pride, set out a series of objectives were Roman has to be patient and were i would like to see Jose give much more thought to our youth team players, as if there was one criticism from Jose's tenure then this would be it.

[kellzfresh 7,226]

The board were used to buying anyone to solve their problems. With FFP, that has changed now so i think they came up with a plan to buy a lot of young players with great potential, loan them to various clubs for experience and get them back when they become big players we usually spend cash on.

The problem is that they forgot about our small squad right now, and were too busy trying to balance the books on FFP. When they realised almost all of the on loan players are not chelsea quality yet and that it will take time we were already in the mess.

They now tried another drastic decision by hiring a new manager to spark a season revival. But their choice was a horribly woeful one, someone that is hated by the fans It has never worked, just ask alex mcleish of astonvilla and gary megson of bolton, they felt the full effect of this.

I just hope something can be done, before we go even lower than this.

[Joker10 946]

It absolutely depends on who we get in the summer, but I wrote elsewhere that I think the Pep saga has been a massive wake-up call to Roman. He was led on and then rejected, something that hasn't happened during his time at Chelsea. For most people that would be a humbling experience and I think Jose might be experiencing one of those in Madrid too.

If the two have learnt something then maybe they can come together and build something special here. There have been many mistakes made at the club, but the encouraging thing is that we seem to have learnt from them and not repeated them. We just need to learn how to do better with managers......

wanted to make this point about the Pep saga for a while.

Pep said on numerous occasion before and after his appointment as Bayern manager, he said that he would not talk to a club with a manager already at place and felt it would be unfair to any manager. Rafa and Pep are also known to have a personal relationship, i am sure this further made him uncomfortable about the prospect of taking over at Chelsea.

So i am not sure how serious Roman was about Pep, because the hiring of Rafa absolutely deterred the chances of landing Guardiola. i think it is quite possible that there was never serious talks between Chelsea and Guardiola.

[Stingray 9,441]

The board were used to buying anyone to solve their problems. With FFP, that has changed now so i think they came up with a plan to buy a lot of young players with great potential, loan them to various clubs for experience and get them back when they become big players we usually spend cash on.

Elementary and so obvious actually , come think of it ....

damn