CHOULO19

Trust me, you don't want to... Basically a matter of time at this point for us to concede.

Going to be one of those matches for Costa, isn't it?

Matic and no Hazard.... Hopefully those are just rotation choices...

Exactly. Would be typical of us to go on and drop points the moment we look like we're on the right track.

Probably when he missed a few in a row this season..

No of course Terry shouldn't be offered a new contract because the board owes him anything, he should be offered a new contract because it is clearly in the best interest of the club to do and he can still offer a lot to the club. Cahill and Ivanovic have market values (and to be clear, we're talking here about a few million, at most 5-7m and nothing actually worth while) not because of their age, but because we have offered them contracts. If it were possible, any team in the world right now would rather have JT in their ranks than any of Cahill and Ivanovic....except obviously our own board! If JT turns out to be lying, then I would take everything I said back and obviously he would have damaged his own image. But if 'exclusive source' turns out to be lying then the board would not be affected because they didn't actually put out a statement about. Some journo granted anonymity to an unknown faceless employee. So yeah, I would be A LOT more inclined to believe JT's side simply because he can actually be held responsible for it.

Tbf, until the truth comes out one way or the other, I would take JT's direct quotes over the calculated response of some faceless PR employee of the club supposedly 'leaking' what happened to a single journalist.

No idea why, but your optimism about this match just completely shattered my confidence! Almost sure we'll drop points now

Yeah, but you're forgetting that the club was getting tax cuts by listing Terry's wages as charity.... What the actual fuck are you even talking about? Yeah, Terry has been basically leaching off the club and taking advantage of their charitable hospitality of him to help his family's drug and theft mafia.... Or maybe, just maybe, the club thought that this is the best defender in the history of the premiere league and one of the best and most important player to have ever put on a Chelsea and that what he could still offer to the team BY FAR out-weighs any damage the media hysteria and exaggerations of his (and even more immorally, his family's) private lives. Every single board of a top club would have done the same and more for a player like Terry. Had the club decided to sell him in his prime, every single top English and European club would have been fighting for him. If you are suggesting, even for a second, that the board had any reasons not sell Terry, or any other player, at any given moment, other than they thought it was financially and footballing wise in the best interest of the club; if you think that the board of a modern football club would just charitably do a player a favor out of the goodness of their hearts, then you haven't got the slightest idea how business management works. Terry owes this board NOTHING. They have never done anything for him beyond fulfilling his contractual rights. On the other hand, JT has done so much more for this club than it says he has to on his contract. He's always gone the extra mile which showed how much he cared about the club and about its fans, be it watching and cheering on the youth teams on a regular basis, or offering advice and help to everyone at the club or reaching out to fans and talking and discussing with them during tough situations or regularly putting the best interest of the club before his personal health and long-term career. And THAT is why he will be immortal at this club long after this management and board have been forgotten. But I do agree on one thing, it is pretty unbearably cringe-worthy and pathetic the shit you have to read on here some times...

Just sell him while he still has some market value and while he can still salvage some sort of a career...

Yeah, our only hope of getting rid of Falcao without paying Monaco the end of loan penalty was that Jose would sign with some club before Jan and would take him with him.... .....not as a favor for his buddy Jorge Mendez, no, but because his sweet soft heart just can't handle seeing him playing so badly when he has the magical secret to resurrecting his career

Then I guess my next question is: Why? Gets on my nerves every time I remember that we actually paid his wages this season...

Genuine question: Is Falcao still here?

What? No deadline day thread?

Their attacker's pace will obviously be the main danger. But as long as the fullbacks don't go rogue and we have Mikel in the XI the defense should be able to cope. Think Hazard can really hurt them.

Very good article about how JT broke the news: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/chelsea/12133502/How-John-Terry-put-Chelsea-on-the-back-foot-with-his-contract-bombshell.html According to the journalists he actually spoke to, it was not planned, in fact he wasn't the one that brought it up. He was just asked about his future, paused for a second and decided to answer truthfully. In a lot of ways this is so much more like JT.

Thought he was very good going forward most of the times (though, tbf, Don's RB might as well have stayed home yesterday), but was a bit all over the place at other times. No idea why he never actually crosses in the air, though, but always goes for the low cross to the near post. Needs more diversity in that area.

Thought he showed some very good flashes, but I'm not going to lie, I'm not a big fan of that performance. Maybe he was given sort of a free role by the manager but his lack of desire to track back and hold position when needed would have definitely cost us against better opposition.

But I wanted 'Strawberry'!

Actually agree with large chuncks of that (on tablet now so can't discuss with length) but my main point is, how do you conclude from what you wrote that what the club needs to do now is let JT go at the end of this season instead of give him at least one more season, sign a couple of defenders in the summer, give him a much reduced role, let him help the new defenders settle in and keep him as back in case of injuries or if new defenders flop, then let him go at the end of next season if all goes to plan?

Tbh, I genuinely did. My bad.

So you genuinely believe that 57% of men are just terrible people and 'cretins' regardless of whatever else they have done in their lives? I'm not trying to convince you to cheat on your partner, I'm saying that there are circumstances and motivations that push a lot of people to commit infidelity, which is obviously terribly immoral, but that doesn't make them monsters, it just means that they did something very wrong.

Here, let me put it in order for you and do try to actually come with a response this time. This is why this is a terrible decision by the board: - John Terry was the best defender in the league last season and is currently our best and most experienced defender. - John Terry has starter almost every single match for Chelsea this season and is hence a key player for us. - John Terry is not only the captain of this team, he's also the best and most important leader in the club's history, a leadership that will VERY sorely be missed given the lack of leadership in our squad. - John Terry has the best relationship with the fans for whom he personifies this club and binning him when we have no one better will damage more the faulty fans-board relationship. - John Terry is a product of our academy and his departure (as well as the possible departure of Cahill) will further damage already almost empty 'homegrown' and 'club trained' quotas. - John Terry has the abilities to rally the dressing room and encourage and advise the youth players like no other which will be practically irreplaceable. - John Terry has won everything and been in every situation and to sign TWO defenders who can offer more to the team than him would be almost impossible with no CL football next season. - Finally, John Terry is the most decorated captain in the history of this club and telling him, after almost 700 games, that he won't be playing here anymore through a phone call with his agent is a fucking disgrace and exactly why other fans rightly call our club plastic.

Then with all do respect I think you're rather narrow minded when on this matter. You obviously don't know the full circumstances or the motivations. This is in NO way in defense of Terry, it's always an awful thing to do, but if that alone makes him a 'cretin' then we need to redefine how bad cretins are since 57% of men in relationships admit to infidelity: http://www.statisticbrain.com/infidelity-statistics/ On the other hand, Terry was always the one to show actual caring for his teammates as well as the players in our youth academy. He more than anyone is always there to lend advice and encouragement as almost any ex or current player would tell you. Now why would a cretin do that? Obviously people are a lot more complicated than to be judged on a single action or decision.

That's just your (uninformed) opinion. I don't know him personally so I can't say otherwise. But anyway none of that has any relevance what so ever to how much of a stupid decision that only weakens the CLUB this is. No disrespect, but most of the content of your posts on this so far has been based speculative conclusions (he only cares about himself and is manipulating the fans, Iva will be sold anyway, no future manager would want him in the team...etc.) while you have actually failed to address any of the points I've raised in response and just moved onto another point in each post. Not sure how you can subsequently accuse anyone of irrationality. And since you feel the need to question my personal motivations for this opinion, let me as well tell you that I think you're trying a bit too much to swim against the flow and be controversial. Last sentence is also obviously false. Of course had we, say, signed a couple of top defenders and JT had found himself on the bench for most of the matches then the reaction of most Chelsea fans would have been VERY different.