OhForAGreavsie

Thinking about the slightly longer term, before leaving Gourlay said he had a development player in mind who he thought was already demonstrating the qualities to follow in JT's footsteps by graduating to the first team and eventually to the captaincy. Ron said he wasn't going to name the player but I wonder if anyone has any ideas about who RG might have meant? I've got my own thought, and it's probably not the obvious player, but I'd be interested to hear what other people think.

Yes, I think you are right that it won't happen. For one thing I don't suppose enough people feel as strongly as I do about this and for another Blatter is against it. He says that, on grounds of cash flow, smaller national associations need the regular income from regular international fixtures. He's in a position to know without doubt, but I just don't believe that a cash rich FIFA and their cash rich broadcast partners can't find a way to deal with the cash flow requirements of the affected FAs. Meanwhile, I'd be interested to hear why you prefer things the way they are.

I call on everybody to do what I do; go on international strike. Don't buy tickets, don't watch on telly and don't buy merchandise. If we hit FIFA in the pocket they will soon see sense. As long as we let them get away with disrupting the season to put on a series of almost meaningless fixtures they will continue doing it and fleecing us for the privilege. We should demand that FIFA allow the club season to flow and finish more quickly (without the breaks) which would leave room for an 'International Season' after the domestic one is over. Then we could all get into full flag waving mode and enjoy the international calendar instead of being frustrated by it.

Schurrle is not the complete answer for us. If we can find an upgrade we should do it but I can't accept that Schurrle deserves to be called a clown. He behaves impeccably, speaks well and does whatever PR is asked of him. If he isn't quite as good a player as we'd like him to be that's not his fault; it's the fault of whoever it was at our club that decided to buy him in the first place.

Like your thinking.

Claude Makelele says hi, even I know Yaya is way better than me. And I've got to agree with Claude.

I stopped reading at "Robbie Savage". Gary Neville says a greater number of interesting and insightful things every single time he analyses a game than I have ever heard Savage say. Ever. In total. Ever. The fact that so inarticulate a man as Savage; a man with such limited understanding of the game despite his apparent qualifications, is employed to talk about football ,speaks volumes about what our society has come to. If he happens to be making sense in that article it'll be no more than a fluke. Normal service will, I'm afraid, be resumed.

In terms of FFP, we are in a better position than City. UEFA took more of their fake income into account than I think was justified but City still got sanctioned, and quite right too. Real-income for real-income, we're well ahead of The Citizens.

If only it was as simple as out competing other clubs on the wage packet. I'm guessing of course but it seems likely to me that all of the candidate clubs would match that figure. What is more, taking FFP into account, a number of those clubs can pay a fair amount more than we can. As for Schurrle, he is a good player but 'good' is not good enough for the level we aim to compete at. If you want to be a serious contributor for Chelsea then the entry level job spec starts at 'great'.

He was blowing hard after the run. Maybe he ought not to have taken it but a miss was bound to come along sooner or later. What's really bothering me at the moment is Drogba. He's embarrassing.

Agree with you some of the way but not all of it. Our squad definitely needs a player who offers the qualities you list and Rami is one such. His shortcomings are well known however; shortcomings which often become an issue during games. If we can find someone else to match Rami's strengths and to offer improved finesse in possession, that would represent a significant upgrade. That player may not be easy to find but we should be looking. Hard.

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Although I'd dearly love to have Robben playing on the right of our current team, I won't be a hypocrite and pretend that I regretted his sale at the time. Between injuries and form Robbie hadn't really been contributing consistently for a while. By the time he left he was glad to go, Jose seemed happy to take the money and I wasn't too unhappy about it either. Studge was a different matter. Although I'd like to think that I recognised his weaknesses as clearly as anyone else did, I always felt he was our best striker and that he should be starting at centre forward. I remember thinking one day, as he tracked back to the corner flag just below where I sit, what a terrible waste it was playing him wide and forcing him to do this. That said I'm over it now, just as I'm over Mata's departure. It's done and they've gone.

Like you I hope to see progression from the development squad but it feels to me that I'm more patient than you are in waiting for it to happen. Even if you disagree with that, let's get our priorities straight. Promoting youth products is not an end in itself. If we are able to discover, develop and eventually select young players who contribute to our success then fine but the real aim is to have a strong team which is as competitive as possible across all competitions. Your perspective seems to be to take the long term view; to place the emphasis on giving opportunities to young players in what, by common consent, is a junior competition, and not just on winning. I'm sure you'd argue that this would lead to us having a stronger and even more competitive squad down the line. Well that view is reasonable enough but I don't share it. I don't particularly agree that developing home grown talent is a route to competitiveness at the very top of the game and, even if I'm wrong about that, I don't want to put potential silverware at risk in order to pursue that policy. I enjoyed seeing Ake and Christensen play last night but their presence would have been no consolation to me if we had lost. In this sense, I want to have my cake and to eat it too. I want kids selected but I'm not prepared to sacrifice the win in order to see it happen. If I can't win with kids then I'd rather play without them. The question then becomes who is to make the decision about which kids to use and when to use them. Here again there seems to be disagreement between us. You appear to have your doubts but I have no doubt whatsoever; Jose is the man I want in charge of our team. One hundred percent. I've been supporting this club for longer than most users of this forum have been alive, and for longer than their dads have been alive in some cases I'm sure. In all that time, JM, for all his faults, is the only boss to whom I feel a personal allegiance. I believe he is getting it right. We were, in my opinion, a million miles away from where we wanted to be when he returned. Fixing that was never going to be possible in one or two years. Even if we win something this season, the squad still requires upgrading. I'll be ecstatic if those upgrades come out of Cobham but if we have to buy them then so be it. Either way, Jose is the man I want to see making those decisions.

Quite right although I'd say that we need two upgrades, not one. Willian, Schurrle, and especially Oscar, have their backers; I might almost say their 'believers'. This is unsurprising; they are good players in possession and they make big contributions to Jose's ball recovery structure. The problem is that 'good' in possession is no longer good enough. We have grown and the level at which we must perform has grown with it. Great is the new good at Chelsea. In my opinion Reus is great. It may be that we can't get this particular player but, whether we develop our own or buy them in, we need to trade in our good AMs for outstanding ones.

In terms of deaths per km, cycling is the most dangerous method of travel.

Just to ease my fears, I googled 'The King of Stamford Bridge' and was relieved to see wall to wall hits for Ossie. I only scrolled through the first few pages of results but, that far at least, there were no hits on Drogba. I did see The King play so it sounds like I'm older than you, I'd guess quite a bit older. What Chelsea fans come to think and feel in the future will be decided by the younger fans of course and what I want won't come into it. Even so, as I said, I really would hate this particular tradition to be thrown away. The title 'The King of Stamford Bridge' is not, in my opinion, a transferable one. It absolutely should be a one man show. It's not about who is currently the best loved or most talented player; it's about a personality who has been anointed by fans to embody, for all time, the spirit of the club. In the same way that Bekenbauer will always be 'Der Kaiser', Ali will always be 'The Greatest', and Jose 'The Special One'; Ossie will always be The King. At least I hope so.

As Chelsea fans, we all share in the Drogba worship but I'd hate to loose the tradition where The King means one man, and one man only. 'King Didier', 'King Drog', or even 'the current King' work for me but I'd like to think that the title, 'The King' is permanently taken. From what Didier has said in the past I think he agrees.

Thanks. Great news.

Has there been news that Remy's injury is not as bad as we've been led to believe? (P.S. I thought it was 'Borges da Sila' but I'll be grateful to be corrected if I'm wrong about the way Willian's name is correctly described.)

Wow I'm out of touch. Again I thought Matic was clear man of the match but again he's way behind in the voting. Oh well, suppose I'll have to watch more closely in future.

Based on the choices Jose has made so far this season, it seems that RLC is behind one or two of the other youngsters and I can't say I'm surprised. That run against Schalke is the first impressive thing I've seen from him for a long time. Mind you it was also the most impressive thing I've seen from anybody for a long time. This is the heart of the matter with Ruben. His talent is stratospheric but when I watch him play he almost always strolls around doing nothing much. I would bet quite a lot that Jose and/or Adi have had a talk with him; the Hazard talk. There is absolutely no point being better than everybody else unless you use your ability to hurt the opposition. As far as I can tell Ruben uses his mostly to look pretty. If Jose gets through to him, he'll have a great career and we'll have a great player but it's a long, long way from being a given.

Lots of stuff crammed into a relatively short, but enjoyable, post. Thank you. I also have doubts about Remy but was hugely encouraged by his performance at Selhurst Park. I thought he displayed good control, linked well and demonstrated a useful amount of power. Not to mention that he forced some important fouls. If he replicates that level of output each time he's called on I'll be absolutely delighted. I do agree with you however that he is what he is now. His form may rise and fall but his basic level isn't going to shift up at this stage. On the point about us being able to do better in the second striker market, I wonder if there was any player who would: Match Remy's output.Accept the backup role.Be available at a backup striker price and preferably for around the £10m that Remy cost.Sign for a similar wage packet. (Not that I have any idea how much Remy actually earns.)I've a feeling there might be some players who would pass all of those tests but they'd have to be unknowns I think. No 'name' striker is likely to have fitted all of those criteria. On The Drog, I'd add that he was already below the desired standard when he left, which was why he left of course. I think we'd all agree that he must be here because he offers something which Jose felt was important; something that does not depend only on Didier being in the XI. The situation with the defence is really interesting. As ever it's a battle of the competing priorities. Given that more possession and more fluidity naturally draws players forward the back four is automatically going to be more exposed. Jose's comments in his presser today suggest that he's happy about the balance at the moment but I suspect he'll still feel compelled to employ the 'low block' against the major sides. People claim that using the low block will be Jose reverting to type but I don't buy it. He'll press and attempt to dominate possession if he feels he can win that way but the supreme, lovable pragmatist that he is will always do what it takes to win. It's just that we're not yet good enough to go toe-to-toe with the very best and expect to prevail often enough.

1. All this media chatter about the possibility of our team going unbeaten is self-serving drivel spewed by pathetic media types. They have newspapers or broadcast schedules to fill and that's the sole reason they write or speak about it. They don't believe it's actually going to happen any more than we do. 2. Of all the reasons being given for why we won't go unbeaten the one which has, so far, been conspicuous by its absence is the fact that the 03/04 Arsenal team was indeed genuinely brilliant. Cesc is right to say that our side is not at their level and he deserves no criticism for speaking the truth.

Not, as I understand it, without a change in the law. As far as I know, the law requiring Premier League clubs to have all-seater stadia is still in place.