Tomo

The service excuse is about 6 months too old, for a supposed world class forward to go on a 17 game run without a goal then beat that baron run the following season renders me speechless. 5 goals in 46 games, take away that mini 4 goals in 4 run he went on in September thats 1 goal in 42 games for 180k a week, unacceptable. Watching Torres is like watching Kalou without the hope of a "lucky tap in" to win us the match.

one day something surprising will actually happen (like us god for bid appointing Allardyce) ill be the first to find out and no one will believe me.

No he shown glimpses of liveyness, made a few runs just needs more service

If he was signed for £5m from Cardiff we would have cut our loses in January if not loaned him to the championship.

Enough is enough!!!! The first few months we could excuse him because A: He came mid season and was not fully settled. B: He was thrown in the deep end with new team mates. C: Rooney, Drogba and even Henry have suffered from baron spells in front of goal in the past. But 5 goals in a year in unacceptable for a supposed world class forward at his peak regardless of service behind him, and to go on a 17 game baron run and then beat it the next season renders me speechless. If it's so ultimately impossible to score in this team then why does Sala Kalou (who is regarded by a lot of Chelsea fans as the worst Chelsea player in the Roman era if not longer) chip in with a respectable amount? Kalou gets regularly picked on for sub par displays on 60k a week but atleast he makes up for his frustrating displays with goals, Torres is on 180k a week (what possessed us to pay that much when he would surely have accepted much less) and is producing displays that make Kalou look like Pele. We should try and pull on Leti's heartstrings and try and muster up a swap (or even a bit of money on our behalf) for Falcao, we could use an extended loan for Courtious as bait too.

one of my best mates is a Birmingham fan so this is a bigger game for me tommorow than it would have been else. He has hated Cahill ever since he scored that overhead kick against Brum for Villa and ive joked that he will be doing it again tommorow

It would just be typical if Torres bags a couple tommorow then.

fixed

I so hope thats true, these players need putting in their places.

Its sentiments like that which has got us in this shit in the first place.

If AVB gets sacked we could be starting next season with "another chance" for Malouda and co with Rafa Benitez in the dugout, be careful what you wish for, very careful.

There are 2 managerial vacancies, shall we advertise for those teams on here?

Ive said all along during 2004-2008 we should have done what Barca are doing now and keep strengthening and evolving the squad while we were on top. While we build the new team we need to set our current players who actually have some hunger namely DL4, R7 and JM10 as the players to build around, well fed "superstars" and the past their best players need to leave and accept a significant lesser role respectively.

Bale would work at Barca as a left back and with Abidal getting on it would be a good move. It's what we should have done when we were amoungst the best in Europe, strengthened and evolved the team while we were on top.

Well it was Torres who persuaded Mata to join, so can we class that as we spent £73m on Mata?

I think we have actually forgot just how bad last season was!!

All out now in terms of excuses for Torres. I was one of his biggest defenders in the first 6 months, i was convinced that the summer would see a return to form for Nando but excuses (especially the one about lack of service) can only go so far. Our service was poor last season yet Kalou (who is regarded by a lot of user's on here as the worst player in the whole squad) chipped in with 11, world class forwards will still find away to goal no matter what service is behind him, he is 27 he should be hitting his prime but he is so far from that it's depressing. He is very unlikely to get back to his best, best chance we have of re-coupling a decent fee, loan him out to spain for the season and if he shine's that hope Anzhi or PSG come in with a crazy ass offer. Patience can only go so far, if he wasn't signed for £50m he would have been in the reserves.

feel free, you have every right to do so.

Didn't Kalou play up top a fair amount of games in 07/08?when we finished 2nd.

To be fair its not like he was a total novice, walked into Porto and easily got the better of Jorge Jesus (an experienced manager himself), on the pitch and the table. Ofcourse he has made mistakes but Carlo and Scolari both did and their expierenced gaffers. Fully agree with your comment about the fans however.

@BlueDutchy Regarding a top 4 finish i seriously think we should consider saying to Drogba (and promising him in writing) we will give him that 2 year deal if he plays a significant role in getting us in the top 4. I don't think its the right thing to do at-all but Gourlay should consider the cost's of Drogba's new contract against the prospect of missing out on CL football.

Im not even joking if it comes down to it we should sack some of the well fed players, if that isn't a clear statement that player power is a thing of the past i don't know what is!! For the youngsters point we can't judge AVB till he's been here 18 months, but even so far ive only been disappointed with the game time for Bertrand, throwing Hutch in is a big ask, McEachran would have played more if the season went to plan and Lukaku struggled at the start and had a bit of time in the reserve's and lately has looked lively when played, so i think AVB has got it spot on with Lukaku if im honest.

I would give you 1 million rep for that if i could. Both incredibly frustrating but Torres frustrates and we know he won't score, with Kalou no matter how bad he is playing we know there is a goal in him, thats the difference and for that reason alone ill have Kalou starting over him.

The job he has had on from the start was next to impossible, in the summer he took on a bunch of egotistical, past it, well fed "superstars" who have been playing the previous season in a casual mode i do when i play headers and volley's up the park. What will it take for every-one to realize its the players that are the problem, is it really going to take Jose or Hiddink coming back and struggling just as bad? Their last reign's Jose inherited a spine of players on the up, all he had to do what a little sprinkle of the squad with a few signing's and he was laughing. The squad when Hiddink came in were still in and around their peak, he done fantastic when he was here, absolutely fantastic, i still laugh at the way he royally owned Benitez and (unbeknown at the time) started Liverpool's downfall but he is no superman and as his spell at Turkey and Real Madrid shown, he isn't immune to walking around wondering what the hell to do when things start going wrong. How do you know it won't be any different with these group of players? This club has been riddled with player power for years, we spent most of last season screaming for Carlo to try and stop this player power and stamp his authority but it got even madder (Malouda getting haircuts at training, Cole bringing in a machine gun, a revolving door for visitors at the gate), AVB has come in and done his utmost to get rid of this player power for good, only visitors are allowed in if they have an appointment, no more Cole machine gun rubbish and no more revolving door. Yes AVB may have gone a bit to far in the Anelka and Alex situation, but it's better that than let player power get even worse no? Speaking of player power if AVB get's sacked, these well fed "superstars" have won again, they will start to believe they are invincible, if AVB goes we might aswel make all them joint managers and be done with it. Its time to show them this is Chelsea FC not (insert well fed "superstars" name here) FC and sacking AVB will make it twice as harder than it already is. The most important thing seem's (for me) to be that the group of players we currently have that are considered to be our future are behind him (DL4, Ramires, Romeu, Mata, Danny etc) there the future of this team, the well fed and past it "superstars" who want AVB out and are showing no effort whatsoever can leave, keeping them and making player power worse will be disastrous. It's no secret that SO FAR (in capital letters as those are the key words) AVB has fallen well below expectation's, but it's not like a season like this has came out of the blue, there has been problems with players in the team since 2008, all of our season's (bar the double) have been well below par for our recent standards. Also have you forgotten just how bad it was last season and that was under one of the best managers in the world. While there was a few (me included) who thought AVB's Porto momentum could have given us an outside shot at the title, i was always prepared for the worst case scanereo, which is not far off what has happened and thinking back at comments from August/September a lot of user's on here were prepared for this possibility. Right now our team overall is in a mess and something has not been completely right since 08/09, even in the double winning season we had some stinking performances, infact after the Inter and Blackburn double header (where we went out of the CL and lost our place at the top of the table) it looked like that season was going all wrong until the team somehow found that extra bit of hunger, energy and determination to get that double in the last couple of months (which ironically probably delayed the rebuilding process), it will take a while to get back to being one of the best in Europe if we do at-all, but it was our fault for not strengthening and adding to the squad when we were one of the best in Europe. In terms of the problem's we have at this club right now, AVB is a long long way down the list, and we cannot even contemplate sacking him until at the very least the well fed past it "superstars" have left. The double was a classic example of short term gain for longer pain, now we have to work it the other way, because letting AVB go before the ego's go will put us back to square one.