CHOULO19

You said that "we are really going to spend big money on a ST, CM and DM" which is just an unrealistic expectation. We can't make more than one or max two major signings in a window. Says the FFP. The only player we have been reliably linked with is Schurrle and I'm pretty sure he's not a DM. You speak as if 100m is something you spend on groceries. 100m is more than our entire yearly income!

Errmm...No.

Any Serb can tell us some 'reliable' rumors about Lazar? Last i heard Inter were very interested, which tbh, would make much more sense than a move here. Maybe buy him and loan him to Inter?

I very much doubt this will happen, he's 30! Before anyone mentions Pirlo (people just love to throw his name as if there are thousands of Pirlo's walking down the street!) De Rossi's whole game is based on his physical attributes so at 30, he's only going downhill from here. I also have my doubts that his old school style fits the EPL now. He'd probably spend half the season suspended.

Says who? Mark my words, in this summer we are going to buy only two 'major' players (meaning players that could go straight into our starting XI). A winger who could cover at ST like Schurrle and a CM to play next to Mikel in the pivot.

It does look that way, but let's wait till the start of the season at least before we nominate him for the Ballon D'ore.

Bit premature, don't you think?

What!! I was just performing interpretive dancing shows to the people who voted for me! You and your dirty mind! :P

The 'practical' part of my mind can't help but hope that he has taken a big wage cut.

I heard Van Buyten was going to retire as well. (not 100% sure)

You're just upset because you didn't get any of my 'services'

One of the biggest stars in football, but as a footballer he was never anywhere near world-class. I can't honestly say that he will be missed in the footballing world.

Many thanks for the nominations and votes, they meant a lot to me Congrats to every who got nominated and to all the worthy winners.

But should we, as chelsea fans, feel the need to compensate for that by not giving him any credit? I said this a month ago in the article I wrote (funny how most of the people who criticized me back then are saying the same things now ), and I'll say it again: Rafa made many mistakes, cost us a few games, but that does not matter because this season was never about the results as long as we achieve the objectives. Overall, Rafa did a good job and a job that was necessary if we want to compete on the highest level next season.

True. On the other hand, Ramires committed 8 fouls yesterday and didn't get a yellow card!

But that's the exactly the point! It doesn't have to be us vs him, we're on, or at least should be, on the same side here. We, football fans, are fickle by nature; we're always changing our minds and we're always wrong/right about stuff. It should be no big deal that Chelsea fans changed their minds about Rafa. If he was any other manager in the world, we'd be full of praise for him now. Point is, what we thought of him before he came here, should not cloud our judgement of whether or not he did a good job because it's completely irrelevant.

Errmm..united?

Seems everyone is in an Article-writing mood today! Great read, mate. Looking forward to part two

Pleasure as always, Strike. But I couldn't disagree more about the conclusion. Just read what you wrote above, it is clear to me that the negatives of Rafa's reign, what we all know are his weaknesses like his subs, only affected results that no longer matter. While, most of the positives, on the other hand, are things that the team will benefit from greatly in the coming season and could be crucial for us competing for trophies again like the improve under rafa in the game of our key players like Luiz, Hazard, Mata, Azpi..etc And the organization he brought to the team. To me, not giving credit to Rafa is choosing to continue to hate him for events that happened before he joined the club. I'd like to think that I am not a hateful man, and I am not an ungrateful man, so thank you Rafa for your professionalism, for helping the club and doing your best for the team and for achieving our main objectives of the season. I honestly wish you luck wherever you end up next.

I was lookimg for that GIF, thanks! I thought the ref was shit and it affected both teams. He made the mistake 6 mins in not booking Matic and it was always going to be downhill for him from there. Anyway, thankfully his mistakes did not affect the game too much.

The stick he got was because of the mistakes he made that cost us during games. It has nothing to do with his injury, it has to do with his bad decision making that has always been his biggest weakness. True, but that's a bit unfair to say since all of our back 4 had an excellent game. In fact, I'd say Azpi was our worst defender yesterday.

Yesterday was the first time that Luiz has played in midfield against teams that actually press. Even when we played Tottenham, Parker and Huddlestone were not pressing our midfield. And it showed exactly what we've been saying. He was so passive and sloppy. Just looked completely lost in there. And it's not his fault, you can't play your whole career at CB and then just move to midfield at the age of 26. It's a very difficult transition. Hope this is the end of the "Luiz in midfield" experiment unless we have a crisis of injuries there.

It was such a dramatic goal. The ball seemed to stay in the air for hours!

We started playing better when he came alive. I'm actually a bit scared of how much we rely on him!

I hope that injury he picked up in the first half was not so bad. He seemed much less mobile in the second half because of it.