Ossie the King

Drogba was being offered £200k p/w to play in China. Not a single club in England could have offered him close to that amount. I don't for a minute think Frank tainted his legacy, nor did Big Pete at United. Maybe a few fans threw their toys out of the pram but even over time they come around.
I can't find fault with Cech. We chose to let him leave to a rival even though he was under contract. At best it was naive.

I get that thinking, I do. I think the idea of it being a Gulag is a bit hysterical though. Petr chose to be a footballer, just like you or I chose our careers and just like you or I he understood that to maximise his earnings he'd probably have to move abroad. He's known that ever since he left the Czech Republic to move to France. I love the man, but again he's a grown man. These are things we have to deal with as adults.
 
As for Jose, there are various reports that he didn't want him to go to Arsenal and that Roman sanctioned the deal. Based on everything we know about Jose and Wenger's relationship, and Jose's relationship with winning I tend to believe those reports. That brings me to your third point that Arsenal have been lacking a leader and a top-class keeper for a decade. Every pundit and supporter knew this, and we gifted them both for what is at best a fair price. He's been the difference for them in a number of matches, most recently yesterday and he's made them proper contenders and absolutely no-one should be surprised by that.
 
Maybe if we'd been contenders too it wouldn't matter, but because the board have fucked up so badly this past summer and gave up on the title before a ball had been kicked then it wouldn't matter. But there's every chance that Arsenal will win the title and whilst we can talk about being classy to Pete and not forcing him to work in a Gulag/spend a few years in a beautiful city like Paris (oh the horror, someone phone The Hague) I think it would've been classier for Roman to think about his fellow Chelsea supporters/customers and not put them through the shitshow that would be Arsenal winning the title.
 
But I also think it would be a great way for Roman to pile more shit on Jose. He says Wenger is a 'Specialist in Failure' so Roman does what he can to help him win the title. 
 
But I do understand your points. I just disagree and for me the focus isn't on what's best for Pete, but what's best for this club and it's supporters going forward. Always has been, always will be.

Drogba was being offered £200k p/w to play in China. Not a single club in England could have offered him close to that amount. I don't for a minute think Frank tainted his legacy, nor did Big Pete at United. Maybe a few fans threw their toys out of the pram but even over time they come around.
I can't find fault with Cech. We chose to let him leave to a rival even though he was under contract. At best it was naive.

I get that thinking, I do. I think the idea of it being a Gulag is a bit hysterical though. Petr chose to be a footballer, just like you or I chose our careers and just like you or I he understood that to maximise his earnings he'd probably have to move abroad. He's known that ever since he left the Czech Republic to move to France. I love the man, but again he's a grown man. These are things we have to deal with as adults.
 
As for Jose, there are various reports that he didn't want him to go to Arsenal and that Roman sanctioned the deal. Based on everything we know about Jose and Wenger's relationship, and Jose's relationship with winning I tend to believe those reports. That brings me to your third point that Arsenal have been lacking a leader and a top-class keeper for a decade. Every pundit and supporter knew this, and we gifted them both for what is at best a fair price. He's been the difference for them in a number of matches, most recently yesterday and he's made them proper contenders and absolutely no-one should be surprised by that.
 
Maybe if we'd been contenders too it wouldn't matter, but because the board have fucked up so badly this past summer and gave up on the title before a ball had been kicked then it wouldn't matter. But there's every chance that Arsenal will win the title and whilst we can talk about being classy to Pete and not forcing him to work in a Gulag/spend a few years in a beautiful city like Paris (oh the horror, someone phone The Hague) I think it would've been classier for Roman to think about his fellow Chelsea supporters/customers and not put them through the shitshow that would be Arsenal winning the title.
 
But I also think it would be a great way for Roman to pile more shit on Jose. He says Wenger is a 'Specialist in Failure' so Roman does what he can to help him win the title. 
 
But I do understand your points. I just disagree and for me the focus isn't on what's best for Pete, but what's best for this club and it's supporters going forward. Always has been, always will be.

There's a difference between not keeping a player and letting a great player make a despised team into a title contender against the coach's wishes.
Roman fucked Jose and this club with that move but he doesn't work with Arsenal fans or know what that rivalry is because he's not one of us.

Everyone has always said that his workrate is exceptional, but that he needed to add assists and goals and he's done that tremendously. Fair play to him for stepping up when others have faltered and for becoming a better player in the last 12 months.

Precisely.
For some bizarre reason people think we can become Barcelona. For some even more bizarre reason, they want us to become something like Barcelona and we won't. We're torn between two identities at the moment, the Chelsea Jose built in 2005, a strong, powerful, intense, fast, resilient team and a plastic Barcelona-lite that Roman is trying to establish and apparently some fans want us to be because it's 'entertaining'. The thing is there's already a Barcelona and they didn't exist overnight. If that's too far for people to travel then there's a slightly snootier, less successful verson of them in North London.
We're the anti-Barca though. We're the team who used to bully Wenger's boys off the pitch and then when they were down we'd dance around them. We're the team that blew Barca away in 2005 and then stood toe-to-toe with them in 2012 (in the most Jose of performances) yet people now want us to become them?
We're Chelsea. We're built on being a tough team, always have been right back to the days of Ossie and Cooke we'd have that tough underbelly. In the 90s we maybe forgot that a bit and that's why we were a great cup team, but we still had the likes of Wisey who knew how to stick their boot in. Why can't we build on those principles rather than trying to be something we're not? 

No need to use words like stupid now is there? 
I brought it up when perhaps I shouldn't but I have a massive issue with twats like him, Johnny Come Lately's to this club who seem to get responsibility and power handed to them when they're not qualified and whenever there's a changing of the guard and another fuck-up, they get away scot-free. It actually sickens me to see people like that associated with this club, but you have to laugh at the people that blindly defend them. 
But that's just me. I may be wrong but when Roman came along in 2003 we attracted a new breed of fan in many ways and not always for the betterment of this club.
And just to add, once again we need something between Roman and the coach. Despite what the job description might say on the Chelsea website, 'Mike' is it. He's also become Roman's spokesperson apparently now as well so he's going to attract a lot more attention. Personally I'd prefer proper Chelsea in that role or at least someone with a proven track record because what's established there at the moment isn't working and any discussion of new coach is pointless until we actually look at the whole organisation of this club.

Money
London
Money
Challenge
Money
The chance to work with Mike Emenalo (alright Mike!)
Money
A talented squad of loyal, hungry.....actually have some more money Pep.

I was 95% certain that he was going to City. I'm still hovering around that mark except he said one thing that made me question it.
"I want to experience a new city and I want to work in England"
Nobody says they want to 'experience' Manchester. London on the other hand fits in with the mentality of a guy who took a year off to live in New York. I'd like to think money isn't that big a factor (anyone will give him a big contract) but he did play in the Middle East at the end of his career. But who wouldn't.
I just think the culture of our club doesn't fit with what he wants. On the other hand I don't think anyone else gets us out of this repeating cycle that we'd be in. He's the only coach Roman would back totally and he'd have a blank cheque to build a new squad. Then again City has been purpose-built for him, but would he feel comfortable displacing Pellegrino? 
What's clear is that he's Roman's 'white whale' and I don't see us being outbid for his services, and it might spark Roman to make some changes at this club. I'm 5% less certain than I was 30 minutes ago.

Everton's defensive woes might actually open the door to a move for Stones. They are looking to replace Howard and probably Jagielka sooner rather than later so why don't we go back in with a bid that enables them to rebuild now? Maybe even offer them one of Djinobody or Hector either on-loan or permanent. Finally makes one of them useful.
Stones actually looked a bit miffed with some of the stick he got from the crowd yesterday and gestured to them to 'calm down, calm down' but probably not in an annoying, high-pitched squawk. 
Would love him here. Just need to treat Everton respectfully this time. Tell Bill how great Blood Brothers is or something.

Bloody hell. Always amuses me that those with the 'little black book of people I like to moan about on the internet' are so quick to pounce.
The guy has been magnificent for us at times but as soon as his form drops, boom. 
What's happened today is the gauntlet has been thrown down and it's up to him to respond. Our squad isn't big enough to just sell people so unfortunately you have to just support them. Take a leaf out of the book of our wonderful travelling support today and enjoy the result ok lad?

Worked his way up? Like that time when we sacked Butch and appointed this bloke as assistant first team coach?
Oh and the guy we didn't promote into that role - Paul Clement. It's a fucking joke mate.
Apologies for laughing at this part. So apart from not being qualified for the role....sorry, could you name one other job you'd use that sentence in? But why should Chelsea be run in a responsible manner? It's Roman's toy after all.
 
That's not uncommon nowadays.
 
Don't mention part of his very short work history? So his job is to identify players, yet when the club (because they're all a shitshow) fail to get a ball-playing, young centre-half the best substitute he has is an untested bloke from the French leagues who is the complete opposite? OK, let's just ignore how this summer the quality of the squad went backwards under his watch.
The expectations for this guy were low and apparently we should give him credit for 'identifying' Mata as someone put it. That's a man who played in a World Cup Final and this guy 'identified' him? He has an immense scouting knowledge but beyond that we live in a world where a 12 year old can find out a wealth of knowledge about a player on google, read his stats on Football Manager (which is a remarkably comprehensive resource in some cases) and see footage of them on Youtube. Yet some will give him all the credit for his successes and put the blame for the failures on Jose or the board.
Fulham Broadway is right - the guy's fucking Teflon even at a point when we're in a complete mess with no idea of what type of players we should buy or what type of coach we should hire. 

Precisely.
For some bizarre reason people think we can become Barcelona. For some even more bizarre reason, they want us to become something like Barcelona and we won't. We're torn between two identities at the moment, the Chelsea Jose built in 2005, a strong, powerful, intense, fast, resilient team and a plastic Barcelona-lite that Roman is trying to establish and apparently some fans want us to be because it's 'entertaining'. The thing is there's already a Barcelona and they didn't exist overnight. If that's too far for people to travel then there's a slightly snootier, less successful verson of them in North London.
We're the anti-Barca though. We're the team who used to bully Wenger's boys off the pitch and then when they were down we'd dance around them. We're the team that blew Barca away in 2005 and then stood toe-to-toe with them in 2012 (in the most Jose of performances) yet people now want us to become them?
We're Chelsea. We're built on being a tough team, always have been right back to the days of Ossie and Cooke we'd have that tough underbelly. In the 90s we maybe forgot that a bit and that's why we were a great cup team, but we still had the likes of Wisey who knew how to stick their boot in. Why can't we build on those principles rather than trying to be something we're not? 

No need to use words like stupid now is there? 
I brought it up when perhaps I shouldn't but I have a massive issue with twats like him, Johnny Come Lately's to this club who seem to get responsibility and power handed to them when they're not qualified and whenever there's a changing of the guard and another fuck-up, they get away scot-free. It actually sickens me to see people like that associated with this club, but you have to laugh at the people that blindly defend them. 
But that's just me. I may be wrong but when Roman came along in 2003 we attracted a new breed of fan in many ways and not always for the betterment of this club.
And just to add, once again we need something between Roman and the coach. Despite what the job description might say on the Chelsea website, 'Mike' is it. He's also become Roman's spokesperson apparently now as well so he's going to attract a lot more attention. Personally I'd prefer proper Chelsea in that role or at least someone with a proven track record because what's established there at the moment isn't working and any discussion of new coach is pointless until we actually look at the whole organisation of this club.

You say he's not influential but you've credited him with some of our success and the fact is the guy tendered his resignation when Jose came in so I'm asking you whether you think he'd work well with either of them. You have to bear in mind that chatting to a fan of 'Mike' is something of a novelty for me.
 

Precisely.
For some bizarre reason people think we can become Barcelona. For some even more bizarre reason, they want us to become something like Barcelona and we won't. We're torn between two identities at the moment, the Chelsea Jose built in 2005, a strong, powerful, intense, fast, resilient team and a plastic Barcelona-lite that Roman is trying to establish and apparently some fans want us to be because it's 'entertaining'. The thing is there's already a Barcelona and they didn't exist overnight. If that's too far for people to travel then there's a slightly snootier, less successful verson of them in North London.
We're the anti-Barca though. We're the team who used to bully Wenger's boys off the pitch and then when they were down we'd dance around them. We're the team that blew Barca away in 2005 and then stood toe-to-toe with them in 2012 (in the most Jose of performances) yet people now want us to become them?
We're Chelsea. We're built on being a tough team, always have been right back to the days of Ossie and Cooke we'd have that tough underbelly. In the 90s we maybe forgot that a bit and that's why we were a great cup team, but we still had the likes of Wisey who knew how to stick their boot in. Why can't we build on those principles rather than trying to be something we're not? 

I was 95% certain that he was going to City. I'm still hovering around that mark except he said one thing that made me question it.
"I want to experience a new city and I want to work in England"
Nobody says they want to 'experience' Manchester. London on the other hand fits in with the mentality of a guy who took a year off to live in New York. I'd like to think money isn't that big a factor (anyone will give him a big contract) but he did play in the Middle East at the end of his career. But who wouldn't.
I just think the culture of our club doesn't fit with what he wants. On the other hand I don't think anyone else gets us out of this repeating cycle that we'd be in. He's the only coach Roman would back totally and he'd have a blank cheque to build a new squad. Then again City has been purpose-built for him, but would he feel comfortable displacing Pellegrino? 
What's clear is that he's Roman's 'white whale' and I don't see us being outbid for his services, and it might spark Roman to make some changes at this club. I'm 5% less certain than I was 30 minutes ago.

Worked his way up? Like that time when we sacked Butch and appointed this bloke as assistant first team coach?
Oh and the guy we didn't promote into that role - Paul Clement. It's a fucking joke mate.
Apologies for laughing at this part. So apart from not being qualified for the role....sorry, could you name one other job you'd use that sentence in? But why should Chelsea be run in a responsible manner? It's Roman's toy after all.
 
That's not uncommon nowadays.
 
Don't mention part of his very short work history? So his job is to identify players, yet when the club (because they're all a shitshow) fail to get a ball-playing, young centre-half the best substitute he has is an untested bloke from the French leagues who is the complete opposite? OK, let's just ignore how this summer the quality of the squad went backwards under his watch.
The expectations for this guy were low and apparently we should give him credit for 'identifying' Mata as someone put it. That's a man who played in a World Cup Final and this guy 'identified' him? He has an immense scouting knowledge but beyond that we live in a world where a 12 year old can find out a wealth of knowledge about a player on google, read his stats on Football Manager (which is a remarkably comprehensive resource in some cases) and see footage of them on Youtube. Yet some will give him all the credit for his successes and put the blame for the failures on Jose or the board.
Fulham Broadway is right - the guy's fucking Teflon even at a point when we're in a complete mess with no idea of what type of players we should buy or what type of coach we should hire. 

Precisely.
For some bizarre reason people think we can become Barcelona. For some even more bizarre reason, they want us to become something like Barcelona and we won't. We're torn between two identities at the moment, the Chelsea Jose built in 2005, a strong, powerful, intense, fast, resilient team and a plastic Barcelona-lite that Roman is trying to establish and apparently some fans want us to be because it's 'entertaining'. The thing is there's already a Barcelona and they didn't exist overnight. If that's too far for people to travel then there's a slightly snootier, less successful verson of them in North London.
We're the anti-Barca though. We're the team who used to bully Wenger's boys off the pitch and then when they were down we'd dance around them. We're the team that blew Barca away in 2005 and then stood toe-to-toe with them in 2012 (in the most Jose of performances) yet people now want us to become them?
We're Chelsea. We're built on being a tough team, always have been right back to the days of Ossie and Cooke we'd have that tough underbelly. In the 90s we maybe forgot that a bit and that's why we were a great cup team, but we still had the likes of Wisey who knew how to stick their boot in. Why can't we build on those principles rather than trying to be something we're not? 

No need to use words like stupid now is there? 
I brought it up when perhaps I shouldn't but I have a massive issue with twats like him, Johnny Come Lately's to this club who seem to get responsibility and power handed to them when they're not qualified and whenever there's a changing of the guard and another fuck-up, they get away scot-free. It actually sickens me to see people like that associated with this club, but you have to laugh at the people that blindly defend them. 
But that's just me. I may be wrong but when Roman came along in 2003 we attracted a new breed of fan in many ways and not always for the betterment of this club.
And just to add, once again we need something between Roman and the coach. Despite what the job description might say on the Chelsea website, 'Mike' is it. He's also become Roman's spokesperson apparently now as well so he's going to attract a lot more attention. Personally I'd prefer proper Chelsea in that role or at least someone with a proven track record because what's established there at the moment isn't working and any discussion of new coach is pointless until we actually look at the whole organisation of this club.

Money
London
Money
Challenge
Money
The chance to work with Mike Emenalo (alright Mike!)
Money
A talented squad of loyal, hungry.....actually have some more money Pep.

Worked his way up? Like that time when we sacked Butch and appointed this bloke as assistant first team coach?
Oh and the guy we didn't promote into that role - Paul Clement. It's a fucking joke mate.
Apologies for laughing at this part. So apart from not being qualified for the role....sorry, could you name one other job you'd use that sentence in? But why should Chelsea be run in a responsible manner? It's Roman's toy after all.
 
That's not uncommon nowadays.
 
Don't mention part of his very short work history? So his job is to identify players, yet when the club (because they're all a shitshow) fail to get a ball-playing, young centre-half the best substitute he has is an untested bloke from the French leagues who is the complete opposite? OK, let's just ignore how this summer the quality of the squad went backwards under his watch.
The expectations for this guy were low and apparently we should give him credit for 'identifying' Mata as someone put it. That's a man who played in a World Cup Final and this guy 'identified' him? He has an immense scouting knowledge but beyond that we live in a world where a 12 year old can find out a wealth of knowledge about a player on google, read his stats on Football Manager (which is a remarkably comprehensive resource in some cases) and see footage of them on Youtube. Yet some will give him all the credit for his successes and put the blame for the failures on Jose or the board.
Fulham Broadway is right - the guy's fucking Teflon even at a point when we're in a complete mess with no idea of what type of players we should buy or what type of coach we should hire. 

No need to use words like stupid now is there? 
I brought it up when perhaps I shouldn't but I have a massive issue with twats like him, Johnny Come Lately's to this club who seem to get responsibility and power handed to them when they're not qualified and whenever there's a changing of the guard and another fuck-up, they get away scot-free. It actually sickens me to see people like that associated with this club, but you have to laugh at the people that blindly defend them. 
But that's just me. I may be wrong but when Roman came along in 2003 we attracted a new breed of fan in many ways and not always for the betterment of this club.
And just to add, once again we need something between Roman and the coach. Despite what the job description might say on the Chelsea website, 'Mike' is it. He's also become Roman's spokesperson apparently now as well so he's going to attract a lot more attention. Personally I'd prefer proper Chelsea in that role or at least someone with a proven track record because what's established there at the moment isn't working and any discussion of new coach is pointless until we actually look at the whole organisation of this club.

Precisely.
For some bizarre reason people think we can become Barcelona. For some even more bizarre reason, they want us to become something like Barcelona and we won't. We're torn between two identities at the moment, the Chelsea Jose built in 2005, a strong, powerful, intense, fast, resilient team and a plastic Barcelona-lite that Roman is trying to establish and apparently some fans want us to be because it's 'entertaining'. The thing is there's already a Barcelona and they didn't exist overnight. If that's too far for people to travel then there's a slightly snootier, less successful verson of them in North London.
We're the anti-Barca though. We're the team who used to bully Wenger's boys off the pitch and then when they were down we'd dance around them. We're the team that blew Barca away in 2005 and then stood toe-to-toe with them in 2012 (in the most Jose of performances) yet people now want us to become them?
We're Chelsea. We're built on being a tough team, always have been right back to the days of Ossie and Cooke we'd have that tough underbelly. In the 90s we maybe forgot that a bit and that's why we were a great cup team, but we still had the likes of Wisey who knew how to stick their boot in. Why can't we build on those principles rather than trying to be something we're not?