coolhead23

This guy is gonna be a star and leader and a damn good fighter ... gave it all despite playing out of position ... there was disappointment when the whistle was blown ... U can just feel it that this guy gives it all in the field. I hope he stays with us and develops into the player he is capable of.

Fingers Crossed!!!!

I think and believe that the board is playing smart specially with our history of sacking managers. The board might have accepted the fact that this is going to be a poor season maybe outside top 4 and if there is anyone who can revive us it will be Jose and no one else ... Showing faith in Jose will help us score some brownie points within the Managers community and they could be a change of opinion abt us. Is Jose the man to take us forward? Well I was in awe when he came over and started talking differently; Keywords: Long terms, Youth, Attacking style. The question i posed to myself then was, has he actually changed and is he really gonna do what he said ... To be honest, I had hope but then we know what happened. I dont think he has really evolved in his tactics, he can still win u trophies till the club keeps feeding him good players but building something ... i have my doubts. I guess he is not aligned with what the board/owner wants currently and that is not a good thing. Fingers crossed!!!

Honestly, not expecting a massive turn around but atleast we can salvage some pride. · Everyone should let go of their EGOs and start fresh as if we are starting day one of a season. Believe in the team. · Go back to basics, we have been good with parking the bus or defending deep let’s go with it. One point is good than no point should be the punchline atleast for the next 10 games. · 4-3-3 is the best formation with Matic-Ramiers-Oscar/RLC. Need to forget creativity and dump Cesc for now, get in Oscar atleast he is a work horse and can defend well. Hazard, Willian and Costa should be the one with minimal defensive duties. Get back few of the loanees who aren’t getting game time (eg: Bamford and Chalobah can atleast provide some muscle in the center & up front, they can’t be bad then what we are currently so better to give them a chance). Don’t play Iva in the RB but he can be used as a CB, he might do a better job. I wouldn’t mind Ramiers at RM for now rather than Zouma only till we don’t have a solution. · Don’t think we will finish in top 4, 5 or 6 would be a real bonus for us because the top 7 teams from last season baring Chelsea have improved or have got momentum … so it would be difficult with the current form to even finish top 6. But anything is possible on the standings. · I doubt we will go shopping in Jan but if we do get in team players rather than stars who will fit in a system. We need a Young CB, LB & RB, a work horse B2B atleast. However getting in new players would resolve our issues with the mentality we have right now. · On sacking Jose, for now I don’t see the board firing him not because of money or for the extension that he has received. I believe our owner/board have surely evolved for period of time. I believe they have accepted the fate for this season and they will keep continuing with Jose so that we can score some points in the manager’s community (surely have a bad reputation with all the chopping and changing) which means we still are showing confidence in the manager despite bad results.

I believe we use parking the bus kind of tactics. Target would be to have a clean sheet to have our discipline back rather than playing a free attacking football. If we are getting our confidence back then we will come back with a point but cant see anything more than it. West Ham are playing well and looks like to be very patience in their game play specially while creating chances/attacking the opposition. Fingers crossed!!!

I m not denying where we are and the difference ... Nothing is impossible, we can win the title also even that is possible ... But realistically we need to look what we are doing now and are we improving in terms of tactics which is not. Our strategy is still dependent on players to lift us rather than changing our game plan or tactics ... We played the same way one year back and still there is no change in our game plan (please educate me in case there is a huge difference) ... Today every team does an in depth analysis of their opponents and it is so simple to read your opponents if there is no change in tactics. Every one of our top players have been now found out by our opponents ... else how can you describe the best player from last season to be at most average in a span of 3 months? Last season we managed to find success because the momentum was there, form was intact, new faces ... the moment that went off the tactics/strategy is gone for a toss. So today even when we recover our form it would be difficult to get those ease 3 points ... Plus the fact the team which were at 4,5,6 last season have improved in terms of quality of players ... For this reason I doubt we would make it top 4. Having said that, I'm a human and a fan at the end of day and will always hope for the best for the club ...

U r expecting a lot, mate ... specially in the state of affair we are in ... Top 4 is not possible ... Maybe CL semis with lot of luck ... rest all down to luck actually everything down to luck for us at this point of time ....

In our lifeline, Managers will come and go ... Players would come and go ... Not the club .... We all are Chelsea fans and everyone who doesnt perform or does stupidity will always be criticized no matter how big they are ... like wise they will be taken on the shoulders for all the good thing that is been done ... So please be a little humble, we havent achieved anything yet this season it is just a win ... And stop gloating on the past thats behind us!!!

Decent game ... Liked the aggression, decent shape ... Fab is the weak link ... Importantly for us, 3 points ... Still lot to be done ... One step at a time!!!

Is Jose aware that we have already signed him or something? Guess the window closed on 31st Aug, been a while now ...

Desperate times, Desperate measures !!! Just kidding ... I hope he recovers very soon ... ... a month should be fine

Jose, please for GOD SAKE ..... ZIP IT UP!!!! Concentrate on YOUR game rather than blabbling away to glory about others.

So you want to go back to the same person who kind of slapped us openly when we had the red carpet and flowers ready for him? P.S: sorry cant help it .... I m the sentimental type

... Not sure what to Hope right now ...

From the Special One to the Happy One to the Delusional One ... What next, Jose?

Gonna to be the Same team ... Same tactics ... Same everything ... Result: Same/Different? Your guess is as good as mine ...

Ohhhhh .... And all this while I was racking my brains to why Ivan keeps starting every game ... Now the mystery is solved. How dumb of me! "Consistency" and "untouchable" are the keyword!

I wouldn’t completely disagree to what you have mentioned … It makes sense when you mention about what Jose is doing in terms of RLC and Kenndy, about we are more results centric, experience will always take precedence over raw youth, about Real Madrid and on gaining trust. But I have a slightly different take on this. 1. Loan system: Brilliant idea to have the young players out on loan in the hope that they get game time for development. But honestly is it helping our kids in terms of deployment … I don’t think so. because we are more focused on getting the player out which can help us in terms of revenue. Van Ginkel to Stoke was the first one that I read of having a clause where if the player get more game time, Stoke will pay less to Chelsea (I’m not sure if this is true or if this is actually the first one) Whereas we send out someone like a Bamford to Palace who already had 3-4 strikers in front of Bamford. This mean he wouldn’t get a game often which will slow down the momentum. Then there is Vitesse, even if a player does well there we still consider them as not ready. I hope we learn how to use the loan system to our kids benefit. We need more of the Van Ginkel scenario for our loanees. 2. As a club I feel we have definitely evolved … investment into youth was one such thing. In the past yes we didn’t have players to go and replace the experience lot so we reverted to the old guns as you rightly pointed. But after the Pep’s fiasco, I believe we are trying to show a level of patience with our managers … Jose still in charge is an example. So I feel there is a pressure on Jose also to start using the youth to get them drafted into the first team rather than just being result centric. (This transfer window can be taken as an example where the club wanted our manager to look into our talent pool). This is the reason why we have RLC been used more often as compared to last season. (Else how can you explain RLC not going out on loan while every one else is been sent out). I feel now the club is ready to take a chance with the youth and provide that support to the manager if we are moving in the right direction. A good manager will always blend the experience with the youth so that there is an on-transition without disturbing the balance of the team. And at the end of the day, experience will always have an upper hand over the youth. 3. Talking about the other clubs: Stating Arsenal were a mediocre team, wouldn’t completely agree … Wenger actually built up a good team after like 3-4 yrs post invinisible season but the team had a manager who had no idea kinda of mediocre one. Again United last season put their trust into their young players, they weren’t exactly mediocre side. I believe at the end of the day it is the trust that you put into the young players will make them shine or fail. Talking about Real Madrid is a not a good example of nursing youth rather look at Barca in the recent past … they had a vision for their young guns and they haven’t disappointed them much. I’m not stating lets have 11 youth players in the first team (can we do that J, wouldn’t mind) but there has to a process in place where we can access our own resource pool which I don’t think is in place. We have good potential youth players and we have a good team with certain gaps but we need someone who can bind the 2. Is Jose the man for the same, I m not really sure … I do hope he does. Talking about our current position, if we are hell bend on playing certain players over and over again then better to give the future a chance … how much more worse can it happen. In the end of the long essay, I hope we do a balancing act of getting the youth integrated into the first team because at the end of the day they are 18/19 yrs old kid and they need a guiding light. If we have to give away a potentially good player on loan for a couple of games in the entire season it would be better if we make him stay at the club and offer the same.

I agree that the quality coming through should be really good for a world class football club like us ... however how do u define quality for the youth? I know lot of us stating they are not ready, hence we send them out on loan. Now despite a player having a decent to good season (for a few) in a different club we still say that they are still not ready. So how are we going to gauge who is ready to be part of the first team, because right now I dont see anyone making it here ... When we look around in the other teams and we dont see players going out on loans to prove themselves ... it is manager & his backroom staff who needs to make that trust/belief in the players ... United put in quite a few youngsters last season, Arsenal has been doing so, Liverpool has given a run to the 18-19 yrs old ... And if i m not wrong they werent out on loan for so long. Also do you think they were better than what we have purely based on the Youth level games, because i think currently we do a have a better lot. You get potential players from the youth into the 11 when you take that risk and believe in the talent the kid has... Not everyone will be a success which is a fact but we need to atleast try ... Now are you stating that we dont have even one who we can trust from the academy in all these years (please dont say RLC).

Kudos! Everything is superbly articulated which is a fact! But,,,, This is bloody EPIC!!!!! :tophat: :tophat: :tophat: Nailed it...

Bloody ****! Sincere Apologies, mate ... *embarrassing* I agree handling of Luis was disappointing indeed.

Well Luis wasnt particularly playing well at that point of time... so the money was like a bonus ... But thats another story ... At the end of the day, we are a football club and there has to be an influx of revenue coming in for meeting the so called ticks for FFP (it is shits I know that). And 50m was well invested into Costa and Fab who gave us the title last season ... If i m not wrong, we got Zouma for Luis which is not a bad deal. We failed to get anyone this season despite getting 2 CBs and loaning out 2 or we just dont want anyone else but the current lot... Either ways, I agree that is disappointing and very disappointed.

50m ... says it all ... who would refuse that for 3rd string CB at the club ... However the question should be why didnt we find replacements for the ageing players ...

Alrighty!