seanptmiller

This is the key thing IMO.
Yes, Oscar isn't the greatest in the world. But what no.10s around are realistically gettable and definitely better than him? Especially when you consider he's still youngish (23 means he's likely still yet to peak).
Unless Real continue their mental attempts to buy a WC AM every damn transfer window and decide to ship out Isco (who is just amazing) then I just can't think of anyone.
The only other thing would be to shift Cesc forwards into the no.10 role and buy another CM (Pogba or Koke?) but i'm still not convinced that Cesc is as good in that role as I think he's often marked too tightly to make as much of an impact.
For now, I'm happy to persist with Oscar and hope he develops his game a bit more (especially his passing accuracy, his consistency and general creativity on the ball). Hopefully Mou can help him out there.

Imagine someone who constantly berates a manager for refusing to show enough faith in young players, only for that person to vociferously brag about the fact that 2 & a half years ago he wrote off a 21 yr old making a big transition from the Brazilian league to English football. Imagine actually bragging about something like that. As if that's something to be proud of. As if that's something that should be lauded.
There are a few members on here who questioned whether Oscar was good enough to play in the 10 position, Skipper being one of them. Yet despite not being entirely convinced by Oscar's talent, Skipper still defended him on numerous occasions. That's what a football fan with strong principles of nurturing young players does. Regardless of whether they have doubts about the player's potential, they still show a willingness to support the player. A strong desire to see that player succeed at this club. You though never even gave Oscar a chance. You never gave him an ounce of support. A young Chelsea player making a huge step up in his career and you constantly berated him, rarely praised him when he was playing well and the most perverse thing is how you used every. single. poor performance as a victory of sorts and as an opportunity to further slam him. You sit there in front of your screen and give lip service to showing faith in young players but the truth is, you lionsden care more about being right than any larger commitment to youth.
For all your talk about the ills of modern football, you exemplify everything that's wrong with it. You're a walking parody of yourself - a parody that honestly isn't funny anymore.

People around here is so pressed about Oscar that I have to laugh about it. Broken records that have to leave 5-6 posts on here on a daily basis, except when he plays well, that is.
It's almost as if they hope or expect that repeating the same thing, day after day will make Oscar leave the team.
If Cesc is recovered, I don't expect to see Oscar playing due to fatigue... but that's it. Now carry on, lol

Completely disagree. I think Mata more than ever doesn't fit our team. With him and Cesc in the middle in addition to slow, we don't have enough physicality. Hazard while not useless isn't exactly a workhorse when it comes to pressing and defending. So you have completely useless Mata, Hazard that is more or less and Cesc who relies a lot on how much Matic covers him. Then you added a newbie in the team in the RW - which we don't know if will be able to cope with the physicality of the league and I'm sorry, but that's a disaster waiting to happen all over. It might not work even against small teams. Also, as someone pointed out, Oscar works well against small teams and we have Cesc, Costa and Hazard also working against small (and big) teams. No need for Mata at all.
His attacking abilities and contributions were never questioned (much), it was his overall contribution to the team, the defending commitment that Mourinho's system requires that cost him his position and lately led him out of the club. If anything we look way more vulnerable defensively this year than last year. Our pressing is in no way what it used to be and Mata would only make that look way worse.

Nobody in Brazil thinks he's brilliant, nobody complained about his absence in the WC, so except Liverpool fans and now you I know no one that thinks he's brilliant. Odd

We don't want you back

I guess the problem I have with most of these criticisms of Oscar is that too much significance and value is being placed on something that doesn’t really make a huge difference to the team’s success when looked at in the larger context of the player’s overall contributions. Oscar’s passing can be frustratingly sloppy sometimes, that’s a fair assessment but on the other hand his productivity has been mightily impressive. So while Oscar might be ”failing” in one or two aspects of his role as a number 10, he’s also highly performing in many other aspects of his job. The positives very much outweigh the negatives so I’m confused why so much more importance and value is being placed on him misplacing 10 or so passes than on his excellent output this season. I just think that there’s something very frivolous in complaining about the sloppiness of a player’s passing when that player's direct contributions to 13 goals in the league has helped the team maintain a title challenge. Ultimately, his input in 13 goals is so much more valuable to the team’s success than him being able to complete 85% of his passes in every game.
People have every right to criticize him, but others also have every right to say that these people criticizing Oscar are nitpicking. 23 years old, 6 goals and 7 assists, and here we are complaining that he routinely misplaces 5-10 easy passes, hmmm...
Well, in an ideal world yes but in the real world you have average players who are excellent passers of the ball and excellent players who are average passers. Nuances like that exists. Assessing a player's contribution to his sides's attacking play only by how high his pass completion is seems like a very skewed way of judging a player's talent.

Jose said on more than one occasion that Frank was offered a new contract, he even said that he can return in any position he wants.
Then you have Neil Ashton, who is the closest journalist to Frank, and who was basically his wing man in the AVB debacle and the 2013 contract extension saga, said back in February 2014 that Frank was indeed offered a new contract on reduced wages.
If rumors are to be believed, Frank is now on a higher wage than he ever was at Chelsea. Probably why he went to City and not one of the other offers outside of the country that were available for him.

He'll always be a legend, that won't change. But before the move, Frank was Chelsea. Like Del Piero is Juventus. That's no longer the case. Del Piero was actually released. No two stories. Del Piero had the chance to stay in Italy, but he left because of Juventus.
Lampard has the right to move to City, as does any player, but it changes your legacy. He made it so much worse with the pathetic act he put up (and still is). Insulting the intellegence of the fans and playing their emotional ties to him. I'm sure his management played a big role in this but he's anything but blameless. I'm so glad he got busted. He almost got away with it.

What a fucking waste of time and patience..
This man could have had a statue outside of Stamford Bridge, could have been an icon for decades to come, he could have been somebody you tell your grandchildren about as a proper Chels lad... And he threw it all away for one fucking season at the age of 36/37. That is just plain stupid.

I apologise for my earlier comment in which I described this post as 'nonsense'. Choulo was right and I was wrong.

It's moments like this, the Villa game where he became top scorer, Bolton etc... which make it all even worse tbh. These sort of moments created an emotional bond between the fans, the club and Lampard, but Frank doesn't seem to hold it as dear to his heart as we do. Whether you accept his move to City as an okay thing to do, no one can deny that his legacy has been damaged IMO. You can't sit there and tell me you don't mind it when Lampard is winning our title rivals points.

I certainly don't think that, but Lampard knows he's carrying Chelsea's identity with him and that he's an absolute legend here. It's disrespectful to the club. Lampard is basically saying that he doesn't care about being one of the greatest players here and that his legacy here is minute to him.

I'll hopefully be at that City game. I definitely won't boo him, but I doubt highly I'll be joining in with the Super Frank chants because frankly, I wasn't even that bothered about the loan initially but the fact that he tried to be cute with it and tried to dress it up as a loan from the MLS, when now reputable sources are claiming he actually just signed for City straight and that the NYCFC presentation was pretty much a facade... I'll just stay silent. This guy was the biggest CFC hero by far, but IMO he's traded that away for some more time at the top. Worth it? I don't think so.

Should be a banner for home game against City.

Drogba's view on the situation:

Cech - nearly died playing for this club; came back and did even better than before.
Cole - faced incredible adversity after his move from Arsenal. Always in the media for the wrong reasons - cheating on Cheryl; shooting a kid with an air rifle - but came through it all to leave with dignity and our respect.
Drogba - played for the club despite battling malaria, whilst representing a country torn in half by civil war.
Mikel - constantly berated left, right and centre but has he ever moaned? Played out of position, vilified by fans for every mistake he makes, and played for us despite his dad being kidnapped and held hostage for ten days.
Essien - his career was ruined by injuries, but every time he played for us, he did it with a smile. Embodied passion and determination and had a never-say-die attitude, even when he was playing at RB/CB/LB in 2006/07.
Terry - nothing needs to be said about JT; he'd play if he had a limb hanging off.
Those are the players that represent everything great about this club.
Lamps has made his bed and now he can lie in it. I couldn't be more disappointed. Let me be honest, I always thought Villas-Boas was a whining cunt, but the way he was treated by Lampard was disgusting - he'd purposefully come in late for training and wave at him while he did it. It takes years to build a legacy but only minutes to tarnish it.

Seems to be showing his true colours, unlike Terry, who I remember in 2008 stood out in the pissing rain for more than an hour posing for photos and autographs with hundreds of kids outside the Shed End after we beat Huddersfield in the FA Cup.

Please enough of this Lampard this and that. The guy has always been a selfish self centered person. Its all about Lamps. always all about him. I cannot get past when Drogba needed one goal to win the goal awards in the EPL and Lampard refused to him play the penalty that would have guaranteed the award. Fortunately, we got another PK and that was how Drogba ended up winning it. He knew what he was doing.
Lamps never left London. They sent all the fans to New York while he sat there conniving and lied to everyone. That is what is pissing off everyone. Its not that he went to play for City, that has got little to do with it. Just tell the truth and be done with it. His own cousin ratted him out on Daily mail, the day he scored the goal against us. He even went out and celebrated on town with his wife and some team players.
Compare that to Stevie G. I believe him and he's man enough to even vow that he will not play against Liverpool.Big respect to Steve. But Lampard! Hmn.. another story. I've already moved past him. Right now to me he is Lamps who? His attitude is just comparable to a weasle. Just be a man and tell everyone your intentions. Plain and simple. Like the wise men have always said, "It takes a lifetime to make a friend, but it only takes 5 minutes to make an enemy out of man". Great job Lamps. You've done well.

How many of those names were seen as actual club legends? None of those are at the same level that Lampard is (or better, was) with Chelsea. You really can't compare.

Kudos to the staff for re-opening this thread. It's been about damn time the truth is being spoken.

"I'd never play for another Premier League club" - lie.

"I want to make New York City a team that New Yorkers are proud of. And I will do my best to do that" - lie.

"It is a privilege to be able to help make history here in New York City - I just can’t wait to get started and be part of it" - lie.

"I joined City to stay fit before starting in the States" - lie.

Even this "loan" from NYCFC to MCFC was lie, because it never was a loan. He signed contract with Man City as a free agent.

As Frank said, he had 16 offers, but HE choose Manchester City.

He lied to all the New Yorkers who purchased the 11000 season tickets. He lied to Chelsea fans by going to another Premier League club. Why are you so sure that his words about Chelsea didn't offer him any contract has not been another lie?

He remains one of the greatest players in the club's history, but, as a person, he has disappointed many.

I seriously hope he's never offered a role at the club again. Not even as a waterboy. Disgraceful caracter.

If Lampard really was proper Chelsea then he should think about the PR and the image of the club. It look incredibly stupid for a player like Lampard, with all his accolades from Chelsea, to leave for the club that are in direct competition. That bit was in bold because people like to belittle the view that Manchester City are our rivals.. Let's get it right, they are. They tried to copy the model of Roman and they got it incredibly wrong/took them longer.. Now they've rubbed it in our faces that it's finally becoming successful by taking the icon of our success.
Look at Steven Gerrard for fuck sake. That prick is thinking about Liverpool's image by going to MLS and collecting bucket load of money, while being respectful of his club. Albeit he came close in 2005, but the fact is it didn't pan out. He'll forever be associated with Liverpool in England. If Manchester City win the league, Lampard will be there. People will associate Frank Lampard with both Chelsea and City. Disgraceful.

I hate being right about this issue. When everyone told us to chill out because the loan was for the end of Jan just to "train" and stay match ready, I hoped I was going to be wrong and he would leave as soon as he could. But now it's come to it and Lampard has chosen how he wants to be remembered. Yes, what he's done in a Chelsea shirt will live in and it will probably eclipse the man.
But Frank Lampard is no longer a Chelsea icon imo. The lack of loyalty shown to us, going back on his words of old, it's a tough pill to swallow. Mourinho didn't seem impressed either, but I'm sure he was saving face by not speaking further on the matter.. More so than he did anyway.
I'm just glad we've got guys like Drogba & Terry here. I hope they won't turn out the same, but honestly nothing surprises me in football any more.