LDN Blue

Just because he's 17, doesn't mean he shouldn't be given his chances. If he's good enough, play him. Lukaku's 17, why doesn't everyone knock him?

Everytime Josh comes on, he outshines all our midfield players. His ball control is amazing and he's always after it. It's like Henrique said, if Pedrito was at Chelsea, he'd be loaned out - Josh deserves his starts now.

The atmosphere (well, lack of..) is why I only bothered with the Carling Cup games. We never have any plastic fans (until the QF's) so everyone there is there because they want to see the Chelsea we grew up watching. Everyone sings and takes part in the banter, I remember watching our 4-0 vs Watford in the M.H Stand, we sang through half-time as well

My thoughts exact! Suuuuuuuuper, super Frank..

I see us beating Fulham.. & Man United.

No way?! Did not expect that Surprised, in a good way! Though Stevie Me would get it.

By the way guys, international round before this. Expect injuries.

True, I meant.. New blood though. McEachran & Luiz are the only ones. Perhaps Sala. Wouldn't mind seeing Clifford occupy the bench either.

Agreed. Anelka is not consistent, good enough to play as a playmaker. We need a intelligent young player to play that role, like Deco did for Porto/Barcelona.

For Torres, this was Drogba vs Marseille. A little emotional reunion where there was too much respect from the primary player. Hopefully we see improvement next week.

If he learns English he'll be perfect. I saw Ferriera was translating Carlo/Clement's orders. Hopefully that'll be Paulo's main role now

precisely FB!

Meh, it happens. Tensions were running high..

Cech Ivanovic - Luiz - Terry - Cole Mikel Essien - Lampard Anelka -------------------------------- Malouda Torres

I understand that, but there are some very good points in this thread. Personally I'm split tbh. The club/players are at a stage where we border on the line of "transitional" or "re-building" soon the age of Drogba, Lampard, Terry, A Cole & Anelka will take their toll and most will contemplate leaving/retiring. We then need to carefully think about the future of the club. This stage is where you find your long-term managers, the ones who will build their own team with the players they see fit to sell, buy & promote. Mourinho years were fun where we won trophies yearly, now the honeymoon period is over, it's time to think long term. If the board want Carlo, then by all means, give Carlo his chance to build. But if they want stability the must stick with him for as long as possible. Even if it's at the risk of a season or 2 without a trophy, as long as their is significant progress in this time it's fine.

Read the points first..

Just to put things in perspective.. Football League 2 Burton have 8 games in hand

The sooner we win the cup the sooner we can get stability. I really want our next coach to adopt the Total Football ideology at the club. Would certainly allow us to function with a good size squad with keeping the wage bill down.

Certainly better than those who named McEachran.. JMac.

Just realised.. No Sturridge, Kakuta or Van Aanholt. Will be the same standard team. No youth, other than 23 yo Luiz.

Haha no thanks! But like I said, your points are well presented. If Carlo is sacked, it must be done after the final game of the season so the new manager can assess the players he has (including the youth) so he can sell the oldies and promote the youth, and also buy players only in areas we need and younger than 25. This is the only way the wage bill will be dropped. I'd like a manager who knows Total Football. Someone like Pep Guardiola. But no the man himself.

That's true. We lacked some spark today, Josh's composure could've helped us with that.

You guys are actually making some good points here.. Please stop spamming them with the emoticons though

There is nothing Josh could have done to break down that defence in the role that Carlo puts him. He is played as a deep lying midfielder, and there was a 5-man defensive unit holding firm. What was he supposed to do? Regardless of age, he lacks experience to make such a difference.

I still see 3rd being an option for us. City have played all their games, we have 1 in hand. I know it's to United, but they're still inconsistent and are probably bound to slip up more than us.(City)