Superblue

From what I have heard and read previously he is an excellent coach, which was a big reason for Blackburn taking a punt on him as manager. To be honest I couldn't care if Rafa stays on as no 2 as long as Jose comes home!

If that's the case Roman only has to look at the past to find his answer. When Mourinho first joined and had full power we dominated, and looked like dominating for years to come. As soon as Mourinho's power waned the wheels started coming off. Since power has been dispersed amongst others that aren't managing, we have still won things but shown a lot of inconsistency and poor footballing decisions.

This is all going to boil down to Roman making his mind up with what he wants. Either he wants Chelsea to create a new identity which takes time and patience, or he wants Chelsea to simply win. Quite frankly, I loved the identity Chelsea had under Mourinho...a winning machine! This is the greatest indicator yet that he is prepared to return and Roman must make it happen!

I'm excited about the direction the club is heading in with the young talent we have, particularly that of Mata, Hazard and Oscar. The problem that we have is in the past few years we have relied on a really strong spine to the team with decent players around it, now we have some top players around with no spine (with the exception of Cech). If we sign a top centre back, centre midfielder and striker in the summer, we won't be far away. I can see the signs of David Luiz maturing and stepping up, and i wouldn't be surprised in the next season or two to see him become captain. Although I like Ivanovic and he is a very important squad player, I do still think a top defender alongside Luiz is needed. A top midfielder is a must. I would like somebody who can get their foot stuck in but can also play. Watching Dortmund at the moment, someone like Gundogan would be an excellent buy. I know there has been talk as well if Mourinho comes that he wants to bring Khedira with him, similarly another good fit. In terms of a striker, i don't want Falcao or Cavani. They are too expensive, and every time we spend big money on a striker it is a complete waste of time and money. One player that I saw us linked with the other day that would really interest me is Javier Hernandez. I doubt United would sell him to us, but if they were to move for another forward like Lewandowski then they may have to accept letting him leave. He is a simple goalscorer, something we're crying out for. He gets on the end of everything, is always moving and playing off the last man and would feast on the creativity that we can provide. I think somebody like him would be a much greater success and value for money than some of the big name strikers we're being linked with out there.

Ironically he is correct about everything he's said. The atmosphere at the Bridge can be pathetic even when all is well, let alone at the moment. Yes we have some experienced players, but we also have a number of younger, foreign players who could well be affected by the negative atmosphere playing at home. And he is also correct about the 'interim' tag - it's fucking stupid and whether people like him or not, it gives him no basis for authrority or control within the football club which the manager must have some grip on. I actually think Benitez may have said this to try and help matters tonight, in the hope that if the fans know for sure he is leaving at the end of the season, then they'll ease up and start supporting the team and creating a better atmosphere at home. The game against West Brom at the weekend is massive and an absolute must-win. He was probably hoping this might create a positive reaction from the crowd. However the way he has gone about it, the media blow up from it, and our fan's hatred for him regardless, could make things even worse at the weekend.

Lagging pretty bad for me mate. Any other links?

Re: the queries on this wage limit - I believe the rules are that clubs with wage bills above the £50m or so limit can only increase their wages by £4m a season (although there is aclause I believe relating to additional expenditure on wages can be used from the club's independent commercial revenues - not including TV money) Any teams under the £50m limit do not have these sanctions and can increase freely up to this limit. This is to allow clubs promoted with lower wage bills to spend a little more on wages to become more competitive. Hope this helps to clear things up and I see no problems with these rules. They are not as strict as UEFA's which we must comply with anyway.

Bringing in Wallace and Kalas/Omeruo would be the cleverest thing for the Board to do. It would allow us to focus on a top striker and midfielder in the summer. I do think we are only 2 or 3 players away from getting the right squad balance despite the signs this season.

It's so difficult to speculate when we're not sure who will be joining the club. What I would say is next season's side should revert back to 4-3-3. Unless we buy at least one, probably two midfielders for our pivot - there are actually very few who I think can successfully play such a role, whereas there are plenty of players who can play 4-3-3. Our own players like Ramires are born to play in a 4-3-3, and the formation gives greater solidity to the midfield but also can be deployed in a very fluent way. GK - Cech LB - A Cole, Bertrand RB - Azpilicueta CB - Terry, Cahill, Ivanovic DM - Mikel, Romeu CM - Ramires, David Luiz CM - Oscar, De Bruyne RW/LW - Hazard, Mata, Moses ST - Ba, Lukaku IMO we require a young fourth choice centre back or box to box midfielder depending on the preference of where to play Luiz, backup right back, backup keeper, backup young winger and a top striker to challenge with Ba. I'd be happy to see a couple of those backup slots taken up by younger players we already have if the options are available. De Bruyne and Lukaku should come back from their loans to take their place in the squad. Courtois should have one more season on loan but not at Atletico. I'd like to see McEachran and Chalobah get a season of Prem football on loan before playing for Chelsea. Hopefully Zola will take Watford up, because Chalobah could stay there another year.

I'm pretty certain we'll negotiate a new contract with him in the summer. Whoever we get as manager will not make a difference because anybody with an ounce of brain can see Mata is our best and most important player, and this will not change.

He's been critical of the Spanish League since being here saying it's not competitive enough and has stated so many times how much he loves Chelsea and London. And despite our struggles, he has still won the FA Cup and Champions League in his first 18 months here. I'm pretty sure he won't be going anywhere else soon.

With Real Madrid losing last night maybe we could do a manager swap with them. Apparently Benitez is highly thought of by them and Jose could come home and fix this mess!

This really annoys me, with the exception of Azpilicueta, Romeu and Moses, all of our transfers over the last few seasons have been incredibly lazy. I'm not saying the likes of Mata and Hazard aren't fantastic buys but they arrived with big, well known reputations and price tags to match it. Spurs have snapped up Holtby and Newcastle snapped up Sissoko each for under £2m. Both would offer a LOT to our squad at this moment. But no, we're more likely to make a move for someone like Fellaini in the summer for about £25m. That's not saying Fellaini is a bad player or I wouldn't have him, but he's a big name player again carrying a big price tag. Emenalo must already be sweating on his position for pushing for us to hire Benitez, and his lax work in the transfer market is not helping him either.

Don't worry everyone - Rafa is adamant we're improving. Did he watch us at all before he came here, fucking idiot!

1 win in our last 6 games but don't worry...Benitez thinks we're improving

Arsenal are winning, we have to get a win from this!

If this is true then it would dispel the general consensus that the manager has no say in transfers. If the board operated wholly on their own they wouldn't have been too caring who was in charge if they wanted to bring people in. Ray Wilkins has always said that signings when he was there were with Carlo's approval and he really wanted Chelsea to go for Torres.

To be fair it's not just us. For a transfer deadline day, this has been nothing short of pathetic across the whole country!

Ok, wasn't sure if you meant 'Dickhead Benitez'

DB?

Guess that's one positive...

Don't let Spike read that - it's Xabi not Xavi Alonso.He'll crucify you for that

I don't want us to spend huge money whilst we have no permanent manager in. Recalling Essien and KDB to go alongside Malouda and Benayoun would give us a lot better depth and in the case of 3 of them good experience. Bear in mind we also have Luiz, Mikel, Moses and Hazard back over the next couple of weeks and we should then have sufficient quality for the rest of the season - the rebuilding job can be done in the summer.

And Essien played in the Classico tonight, albeit at right back. Ok he is not the same player he once was and never will be again, but is someone seriously telling me that he couldn't even do a job here?! Letting Essien and Meireles leave and freezing out Malouda already looked like leaving us desperately short at some stage and that time has come. I think many of us are actually underestimating the rebuilding job that is still required to get us competing at the top of the league again.

Whilst Benitez doesn't help matters and needs to go asap, our problems run much deeper than that - Our team lacks depth and top talent in key positions of the pitch. With FFP kicking in, it makes things much harder to go out and spend big on a world class striker and midfielder. We have a ton of players out on loan, but the key to blooding most of these players into the squad is to bring them into a winning system. At the moment that isn't the case with us. Our main experience comes from players, with the greatest respect, who are nowhere near at the level they were a few years ago. Our club adopts a policy where the players are picked for the manager which has to have a big influence on the mish mash of players we have now. In hand with this a manager is never given any longer than a blip in results, with the club living on a proven track record of changes in manager = results which has finally caught up with us. Unless the club changes the way it is run, the problems we are experiencing will continue...