EskWeston

At the moment the noises comming out of the club are positive. It seems like Grant will be moved upstairs with a new man to come in. They can see the club needs clearing of deadwood and some exciting talent brought in. Lets hope that this summer can iron out all the little (and big) problems we currently have and make next season a massive one for this club.

Couldn't agree more FB!!! Good call on Ashley Cole, outstanding and a very underrated player who doesn't get anywhere near enough credit, the best player in the world (aparently) wouldn't go anywhere near that side of the pitch because he know he would get no joy out of Ash. Drogba was stupid, i won't hate him for that. I would be delighted to see him stay next season. But i would want to see more from him than we got this season, he went from a destroyer of everyone being totally unplayable to looking a lot less interested and lacking form.

Which is why looking at all the criteria we want in a new manager i think he is the best choice for us: Experience - Yes A Winner - Yes Attacking entertaining football - Yes Will allow youth players a chance - yes

I think to say that this seasons was a "bad season" is doing the players a massive disrespect. Through a loss of manager, the ACN and a LOT of injuries we have had a damn fine this season and the players have given their all for us and come up just short, we cant expect to win something every year, there are too many good teams around for that to happen. We came within a whisker of a fantastic treble this season.......... Everyone knows Avram Grant is not good enough to manage Chelsea and no-one wanted him in the first place and he should never be given the job. And it is reasuring to see that it looks likely he will once again be moved upstairs to allow a proper manager to take us forward. But you cannot use what we have achieved this season as a stick to beat Grant with because we have done fantastic. Even BEFORE Grant was appointed when Jose left pretty much everyone thought a top 4 finish would be about the best we could hope for even with a decent manager comming in instead of Grant.

Not weird at all, JT had an awesome game on Wednesday and everyone is gutted for him that he slipped at the crucial time, and even though he did slip an inch the other way and it still would have gone in.

Don't know personally Just said "looking" all the noises comming out of the press and things it does look very likely.

I think if i could have my choice right now i would bring in Kaka, Robinho and Dos Santos and have our squad looking like this: Keepers: Cech, Cudicini, Hilario Right Backs: Bosingwa, Ferreira Centre Backs: Terry, Carvalho, Alex, Ivanovic, Mancienne Left Backs: A.Cole, Bridge Central Midfield: Essien, Mikel, Ballack, Lampard, Kaka, Cork (Maka) Wingers: J.Cole, Kalou, Robinho, Dos Santos, Sinclair Strikers: Drogba, Anelka, Shevchenko, Di Santo Playing a 4-3-3.... all 3 signings are possible, Dos Santos looking like it is nearly done, Madrid aparently looking to get money from Robinho sale to finance a move for Ronaldo and Kaka missing out on CL footie could make a move likely..

Our club is primed for a good manager to come in and make us great again. Obviously they need to make some adjustments to the playing staff but we are i think on the brink of something great, but we need the right manager to take us there.

Next season could be a different story for him but at the moment it doesn't look like Anelka can play a lone striker role, we shouldn't be playing him on the wing so the only reason to keep him is if we are playing 2 up top if you ask me! Our midfield is awesome, Mikel, Essien, Lampard and Ballack are all top top class players but there is a lacking of invention in there and i think if we are playing 3 in there, then there is room to bring in another clever player who will open teams up for us down the middle. I definately can't see anymore than 4 comming in, our defence is more than sorted so unless there are any shock departures we are sorted there. Our midfield, like i said maybe 1 addition. The attacking end is where we need our tweeking done and there is no need to sign more than 3 there...

If as we are led to beleive the club are looking for exciting attacking football then we do need somewhat of a revamp because the players we have are great players but need some more creativity in the team to make it flow better. If we are playing 4-3-3 i think we need 2 new wingers (fast and skillful) and a midfield playmaker to play higher up the pitch than what we have at the moment. If we change to 4-4-2 we still need 2 wingers IMO and another big big name striker. I would be happy to see Drogba stay, Malouda, under normal circumstances i would give him another season, but considering we desperately need to upgrade our wings i would have to replace him - Kalou and J.Cole to stay and 2 new wingers to arrive.

Certainly not as a Drogba replacement, would either be a winger or a strike partner should we decide to play 4-4-2 next season.

I think strength is the last thing we should be looking for when it comes to finding creative players/wingers. The ability should come first, players adapt to the physical nature of the PL over time.

Because it is more than likely that Grant was never long term replacement and was always going to go back to his director of football role. I don't see how Mancini and Laudrup are better options than Rijkaard but we have no idea at the moment what the situation is and who they are looking for. Hopefully we will know sooner rather than later.

Well i think we are looking at pretty much certain exits from Ben Haim, Sidwell, Pizarro. There are more than likely to be exits from Belletti, Sheva and Wright-Phillips. A lot does depend who who the manager is next season and what formation they have in mind. I don't see any reason why we can't build our squad as normal and then expand it with a few youth players and keep them involved with the first team and given chances wherever possible - hopefully the 7 subs rule will make it easier to do.

Dos Santos at the moment is looking the most likely to arrive. And i for one would be happy to see it happen, to get these players who are not yet the finished article but have the ability to be massive players with great ability are the type of players we should be looking at. With any luck we can get a deal done sooner rather than later.

A couple of players? could be anything really from 2 to 4 or more! Very vague as usual. Obviously it all depends on who leaves because people have to leave for players to come in because our squad is very very full. I would be amazed and also bitterly dissapointed if we didn't sign a winger!! That for me is the most important position to fill.........

Peter Kenyon has declared Chelsea are set for a summer shopping spree in order to land the 'star' names required to bridge the gap to Manchester United. Chelsea narrowly missed out to United by two points in the Premier League title race and the Blues also suffered penalty shoot-out heartbreak against the same opponents in Wednesday's UEFA Champions League final. The failure to land a trophy this season has heaped pressure on manager Avram Grant and chief executive Kenyon has admitted his disappointment at finishing behind United. Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is now expected to make available a £100million transfer kitty and Kenyon has revealed the club are only looking to bring in big names, with the likes of Milan playmaker Kaka and Real Madrid ace Robinho thought to be prime targets. "We will be bringing in a couple of players," Kenyon said in the Daily Express. "But we are looking at a very thin market from a quality point of view, and it's realistic to say we're only looking at a small number of players. "We're looking at players who have the potential to be star names. When you look at what we've already got, are they better than that? "Manchester United set the benchmark for transfer fees last year. I didn't expect them to go out and spend that much. "But what this season has proved is that we have a squad of real depth. It's more about tweaking than a rebuild. "Three months ago, we were involved in four competitions, six weeks ago we were still in two and we got knocked out of the last one. "It's disappointing from that point of view, but we're going to regroup from that and come back better next season. "It's been an interesting season, but you don't like finishing second and as runners-up. Given the standards we've set at the club, that's not something we've settled for." Kenyon is also confident Chelsea will be able to keep hold of their top players this summer, despite speculation that Didier Drogba is heading for Milan and that Internazionale have set their sights on Frank Lampard. "We're pretty confident that the players we want to keep, we'll keep," Kenyon concluded. Source: Sky Sports

I am not at all worried about Frank leaving, he will stay and more than likely finish his playing days with us.

I firmly believe that they have all known for a very long while if Grant is staying or not, and if not who the new man is! My only hope is that we have confirmed as soon as possible what the situation is. I would hope this is done by the weekend so we can all move forward and look forward to next season... My money is on Rijkaard to come in

I don't think the aftermath of last nights game is the right time to dig at Grant, you can't fault him at all for last night.... However, i want this situation resovled sooner rather than later, we need to know immediately if he is staying or going, this has gone on long enough now..

How absolutely awful was that, there is no worse feeling in the world. After the first 30 minutes we had united pegged right back and they never looked like scoring again. We looked so comfortable and the ammount of chances we created says everything, you just know though that somethings things are just never going to go your way, the post hits, the ammount of times we didn't get a corner we should have had or conceeded a corner we shouldn't, you just had that sinking feeling that it may not be your night. Then the pens, i wasn't confident in the slightest! Our shootout record is awful, but when we got down to JT's pen i honestly thought we had it won. Then bugger me, luck deserted us again and the ground went from under JT!!! I think we can be incredibly proud of our team last night, and in the season in general! I would never have thought we would have achieved what we have this season....

f**k me, today is going very slow. Can't wait to get home and settle down ready for this game. Not much nerves suprisingly, but i am very excited.

I am 99% sure that there is no beamback for this game. Not sure the reason why to be honest.....

We currently have 3 right backs and 5 centre backs on our books. How can we give him a chance?

Not suprising really though is it? The media really don't want us to win...