EskWeston

It's a nice touch. And i am Guus appreciates it. It will make it even easier for him to come back one day in the not too distant future to take up a role at Chelsea.

It wouldn't suprise me. The papers have probably run with us trying to sign Ribery off the back of the Ancelotti story saying we should sign Ribery last season....

This is definately going to be a tough game. But there is determination from the team to win this cup and that will be more than enough to take us through this game and come out on top. If we really hit top gear we could win comfortably but we will have to be careful because Everton can be a dangerous side. We will see the same 11 we have seen from the last few league games, which i am happy with because it is the best side we can put out.

Deco would certainly be a lot happier in Italy, the style of football would suit him more for sure! If we get £12m from Inter for Deco and Carvalho i would be pretty happy with that to be honest.

£125,000 pw after tax Given the governments new tax rates we would have to be paying him £250,000 pw which is not going to happen. Actually the new government tax rate will probably put off a lot of potential players, although i believe there are ways around it.

He started off very well, but since then has looked poor and not been able to work his way back into the team. Plus like most 30+ players is starting to suffer from regular injuries.

Too big of a name to be managing the youths, but i just think that he can spot talent and knows how to bring the right players in. So take him away from Management and have him purely as player recruitment. It's never going to happen, was just an observation on Ranieri......

The problem with loaning him out is that (Assuming we keep both Drogba and Anelka) we will have to bring in ANOTHER striker as cover. So when Di Santo does come back he will have even more competition for a place. The best thing for him is to stay with our first team, but the new manager does need to give him chances. Di Santo was alway brought in as a first team player, even though he was young, not as though he is someone who has come through our youth ranks.

Without doubt it is harder to break through here than at most clubs, but also we have the best youth facilities around and can produce the best there. The club want to see the academy produce, and there will be a level of pressure on the new manager to bring them through. Even more because it looks like the Prem are going to adopt a quota similar to the lower leagues. Di Santo for me has to stay around the first team, much like Mancienne and i am sure they both will.

It is certainly understandable that Hiddink hasn't played the young players much, he has come in to do a job in a short period. Although i felt there were times when Scolari should have given some of them minutes, being a 3 goals up with 20 minutes to go and bringing on Belletti or likes. Your right though that Scolari did seem willing to give the young lads a go, and i am more than sure that part of the responsibilities of Scolari and whoever the new manager is, will be to bring through these players, because the club have invested heavily and want to see that come through. I know that this season has had massive turmoil, but the lack of minutes (it doesn't even have to be starts, 20 mins here 30 mins there) has put Di Santo backwards, and is going to made next season harder for him. I think we have seriously mis-managed Sinclair and Sahar which has given them both very little chance of making our first team and i don't want to see the same happen with Franco.

Your absolutely right. With Scolari though i think it was clear he had lost the players and the dressing room so the club made a brave descision which looking at it was probably the right one. But the new manager needs to be given the time and the money to build something to take this club forward.

Absolutely, both already have a foot in the first team squad as backup players. They comes a point when loans to the championship become pointless. They either stay at show what they can do at Chelsea or get a loan to the premiership to be playing regular premiership football. It's all about being given chances, for various reasons this club has been very reluctant to do that. Mancienne has had the best chances this season and done very well for that, but could have been give more. When you look at Man U, who have given their young players minutes on the pitch, most notably Wellbeck and Macheda, both were in the losing side against us in the FA Youth cup and both were overshadowed by Kakuta, Nouble and Borini yet they are given the oppertunity to feel premiership football for more minutes than even Di Santo.

Thats a lot of money for 1 player. He is a class player though and i would not be suprised to see us go in for him, but i cannot see us spending that much money on him.

As much as we need to, to build the right squad for next season. 1 Big name signing and a handful of big prospects is what i think we will see and what we need to see.

Yup, Deco is another we can move on, time to build for the future not look to revive ageing stars.

I would rather see Ballack move on myself. He is just not the same player anymore and i would rather see us move forward with a new player than stick with Ballack for another season because he is Michael Ballack. In my opinion he has had a poor season.

All good players and all have the potential to make it. But the club need to be willing to give them a chance or it will be pointless. Sahar has had a very good half season in Holland. He will be looked at in pre season. Personally i think that both Sahar and Sinclair were badly handled by Chelsea which has put them back a lot.

Even in Ancelotti's quotes it doesn't say that Roman lost his love for Chelsea. It is easy to blame Roman for Jose leaving because everyone loved Jose. But Jose himself said that he wish he had left after the second season at Chelsea, for many reasons the relationship wasn't working and we have to move on from that. Most people were happy to see Scolari appointed, i don't think anyone would have guessed he would have failed as much as he did. I am not convinced like the press are that Ancelotti will be our new manager, and i don't think he would be the right appointment. But time will tell. We need to make this appointment correctly so we can go forward as a club.

Speaking of Ranieri, he may not be the best tactician but the man could pick out some talented players. It would never happen but i would love to see him in charge of player recruitment at a Youth and possibly first team level.... The Ancelotti stories are becomming stranger and stranger, the sooner we make an announcement the better, one way or the other.

Ancelotti can stick Pennant up his backside............ sideways!!!

Not quite another Sidwell i don't think. We have been after him for years, and he is still young enough for us to mold him and he can only get better. The question would be if we are willing to give him the games to improve to the standard he can possibly be at. Seems to be the traits we are looking for in strikers, we are seemingly picking up the best of that mould at a young age, Di Santo, Arnautovic, Mitrovic, Pirez, Prosenik........

Good point, it could be Belletii or Ballack (or both) are kept on purely for the cover during the ACN. Or we could possibly sign another holding midfielder, a younger one, i don't feel that Essien's best utilised in that role anyway....

I don't see where in that article Roman indicates he has lost his love for Chelsea. This article says more about Ancelotti than it does about Roman. Roman interviewed him for the job last year, and didn't offer him the job. I think that says enough. The "identity" comment i can understand because we have over the last few seasons lost our way a little, that is perfectly clear and we need to bring some stability to our club. Like i said, says more about Ancelotti than Roman. Ancelotti does not come across well in these comments.

The stories around the Ancelotti appointment are becomming ludicrous. He hasn't helped matters with the comments from his book. I still don't believe that Ancelotti will be our new manager.

Di Santo, Mancienne, Stoch, Cork, Bertand and Sahar will all be looked at in Pre Season. But it is hard for a new manager to take on Youth players for the first time. Di Santo and Mancienne are more than likely going to be retained for next season. Stoch, Cork and Bertrand could all certainly be used next season but again it depends on the manager. I would not mind any of them going out on loan to a Premiership side. The only person a Championship loan could benefit would be Stoch, but even him i would rather was given a premiership loan if possible. Mancienne, Cork and Bertrand have proved all they can at Championship level, and Di Santo i believe is too good for a Championship loan. even if he hasn't done much for Chelsea yet.