Superblue

Firstly I'm not one of these people who naively points out we should be getting rid of 10 players and buying 10 players - all superstar signings of £25m or more. But I think the biggest worry for the club is if people were to do a general assessment of the players currently at the club by splitting them up into one of only a few categories. What I am about to post is obviously my own opinion and may differ from others, and I would also be interested to hear others opinions using the same criteria. I have split the players from our first team squad into 4 categories - "Bulletproof" - Those players which are central to the clubs plans for the forseeable future. "Keep Hold" - Those players which aren't perhaps indispensable, but should still be considered important players at the club, or are young enough to still offer something, or there are other areas of the squad which are far more important to revamp at this moment. "Question Marks" - Those players who could still have a part to play in the future of the club but are also just as much dispensable. "Surplus to Requirements" - Those that are either too old, not good enoughm, don't fit the changes the club are trying to make, or a combination of the above. Bulletproof - Ivanovic, Romeu, Ramires, Meireles, Mata, Sturridge Keep Hold - Cech, David Luiz, Bertrand, Essien, McEachran, Lukaku, Torres Question Marks - Turnbull, Cole, Terry, Alex, Bosingwa, Mikel, Lampard Surplus to Requirements - Hilario, Ferreira, Malouda, Anelka, Kalou, Drogba I think the biggest worry of such a general assessment is that IMO there are just as many players in the entire first team squad which could easily be allowed to leave as there are those which should be retained.

The club has dismissed far too many managers now without giving them opportunities to put their own stamps on the club. I think the board have finally twigged that the club needs some serious rebuilding, with injection of youth and pace an absolute necessity. This isn't an overnight job, and whoever the board has backed, the fans need to back aswell. I like the signings of Romeu, Meireles and Mata, coupled with the emergence of Ramires and Sturridge. Unfortunately AVB is suffering from the club experiencing problems in the two most significant areas of the team - a defence about as watertight as a bath with no plug in it, and no central striker that can score.

I think that most Chelsea fans would openly agree the squad needs rebuilding. A successful group of players have been left together to grow old, probably over fear of being able to replace them with success. No manager can participate in such a large and significant rebuilding process at such a big club without time and resources. Roman paid a lot of money to acquire AVB, and I believe that he will be given the time and resources over the next couple of seasons to rebuild the club in a new image. Patience is the key...

How many more managers can the club just sack and people blame...how about the players take some responsibility for a change? The only player which has come out and spoken about the current situation to be fair to him is Malouda. Why aren't we hearing from Terry? Or Lampard? Or Drogba? The so called senior players seem to be hiding at the moment. I think a number of them consider themselves bulletproof and have always carried so much (dangerously) influence within the club, their noses are being put out of joint by a young manager trying to reinvent the team. There is such a lack of passion at the moment it's frustrating. On a positive note, the change in formation to 4-2-3-1 is so much better, but for me Mata must play centrally and Torres up front. That will give us the mobility and drive in the final third. A left winger in January and Sturridge on the right and that is our front 4 for the next 2-3 years at least.

I'm not saying I would like seeing Terry play for City, but I'm just saying in hindsight we should have taken the £30m on offer and brought a young up and coming centre back on a fraction of Terry's 5 year wage deal which half way through we're now all questioning how we ended up being lumbered with it.

Fully agree. It can be argued that Lampard has still given good value for money and is still scoring consistently, but I think for him it's more the fact that a change of tactics and style of play may come at a detriment to his game, but will be beneficial to the team as a whole. If Lampard was to accept yearly extensions thereafter 2013 on, say £50k pw, á la Giggs and Scholes, I could see him still having a future in a reduced capacity for another couple of seasons yet, but I'm not sure if he would accept this with greater riches available in America and the Arab countries. The Terry contract was a monumental f*** up. He basically milked City's interest and completely held the club to ransom with the firm knowledge that fans would revolt if he was sold. In hindsight we should have taken the £30m on the table from City (or asked them to throw Micah Richards or Kompany into the deal) and let him leave. We could have replaced him with a younger defender and already had Carvalho, Alex and Ivanovic at the club. The move would have also ripped City apart as the Bridge affair would have come out with Terry and Bridge both playing for City. I may be wrong but I also believe Terry has a clause in his contract that matches him up to the highest earner at the club whilst he is here, so I believe he is on £170k pw in line with Torres. Again, this is another huge mistake because if a real top player became available on the market as the clubs 'marquee' player on £200k pw, we may have to put a 32/33 year old centre back on the same wage?!!

Please correct me if I'm wrong but I believe Kalou, Anelka, Drogba, Bosingwa and Hilario all have contracts that expire at the end of the season, and Ferreira, Malouda, Alex, Lampard and Cole all have contracts that expire in summer 2013. I believe all 10 of these players have question marks on them (remember Lampard will be 35 and Cole 32 by the end of their contracts), and I just wonder whether the club do cut them all loose over the next couple of seasons. Lampard may be offered a new deal and retire at the club, but it would have to be on drastically reduced terms to his current £150k pw and he would have to accept a lesser role within the first team - something I'm not sure he would be happy with. Alex and Malouda will likely be sold on in the summer with a year left on their deals and if Cole continues his poor form I wouldn't be surprised if he moved in the summer to finish his career abroad which he has regularly admitted to considering.

Valid points - everybody needs to realise that Chelsea need to rebuild again. For too long the club has been left to coast along changing the odd player here or there and allowing a core group of players to grow old together at the club. It is difficult because this core group have been the main factor in the club being so successful over the last decade, and I think the emotional ties have always made it difficult to accept, particularly for fans. However something needs to be done. The likelihood is that Drogba and Anelka won't be here next season with their contracts running down and both players turning 34 and 33 respectively early next year. So they should be phased out over this season - Torres and Sturridge should get the nod in front of them to play regularly and develop an understanding together, with Anelka and Drogba waiting in the wings either as substitutes or in the event of injuries/suspensions.

I agree wages is the biggest factor in regards to Financial Fair Play, and younger players are naturally going to come at far lower wages, but it's the footballing side which concerns me more. I want to see how AVB's tactics are going to develop, because I think the ideas are there and the approach looks more positive from an attacking point of view. However it requires new fresh players to do this, not the same players which have been here for 5 years or more playing 4-3-3 religiously! People always go on about the need for experience alongside youth, but we have a number of players in the 25-30 range at the club who can provide that experience to the younger players - Cech, Ivanovic, Essien, Meireles, Torres. Why when we think of experience do we naturally need to immediately point to the old guard who now must be seriously questioned for their places in the team?!

I think it's never worked in the past because the club has only ever looked at the short term picture, and in doing so the short term fix has always been to buy or use already established players. If the club is committed to backing AVB to rebuild this club then the tactics he wants to use requires younger, dynamic players, who can find it more easier to adapt to change. The financial fair play rules will force us to start planning more long term and shift our policies on both recruiting younger players and bringing them through the first team.

There have been reports in the papers recently, intensifying today, that Chelsea are looking to adopt a shift in their transfer policy by securing some of the best youngsters from around the world, with a focus on Spain. Now firstly I would always much prefer the club to sign a younger player who can both be given time and patience to adapt to the club, but also have a resale value in the future. This as opposed to previous seasons where the club have signed players already at their peak (or over?) at 28+ who carry high transfer fees and wages due to past performances and hold no future resale value. I believe the club over the last year or so have been trying to shift to younger players and I'm happy with signings such as Mata, Ramires and David Luiz. However I have always said the club should take their transfer policy one step further and the financial fair play rules seem to be doing just that... Why is the club paying Benfica £18m for Ramires when only a season before Benfica brought him for £6m? We have seemed lazy in the past and allowed other European teams to take a punt on players or nurture talent, before paying top dollar for them. Honestly what difference would it have made for Ramires to come straight to England? It's hardly like he is going to become accustomed to English football by playing in Portugal first. The club needs to be much more proactive in this area. Javier Hernandez was arguably the buy of last summer - he was good, and even better that United only paid £7m for him. In previous years, Chelsea would have looked at a player like that, let him move to Valencia or Porto for a season or two and then buy him for £20m. I take much more satisfaction from the fact that Chelsea only paid £5m for Romeu and he looks a class act than paying £18m for Ramires despite how well he has been playing. Hopefully this is just the beginning of a rebuilding process that the club is in need of...

It's easy to apply a generalised 'peak' age for players but the fact is Terry peaked 6 years ago and has been on a steady decline for the last couple of years. I think Alex has been an unsung hero for us but his head was turned of talk moving to Juventus in the summer and he hasn't been the same either. David Luiz has a lot of defensive flaws but he also brings a lot to the team, and his enthusiasm and determination is unquestionable which is what I want to see within a players game, even if they're having a shocker. The problem for Luiz is he has nobody around him at this present time, with the exception perhaps of Ivanovic, who is playing anywhere near the top of their game. This makes it so difficult for Luiz to play his own natural game. And if Luiz is to play midfield, is this at the detriment of Romeu who should be given an extended run in the side now.

Yes, but where does that leave Luiz?! We have spent £21m on a 24 year old centre back with the expectation of him growing into the role and being a fixture within our backline for the next 5+ years. This is the exact problem Chelsea managers have due to the pressure they are put under - instead of perservering with Luiz knowing (as everybody does) that he will develop into an excellent centre back for the club, AVB could be forced back into playing two centre backs in their 30's and Luiz will never realise his potential. People cannot have it both ways. We either bring in new players and give them time to play and adapt (i.e. Ramires) or we continue to play the old guard. I expect Luiz's performances to pick up playing alongside Brana on the right side of our defence like the second half of last season.

It has been a problem since Mourinho left. Every manager that has come in has tried to bring in new ideas and/or players but all of them are forced into ridiculous and unnecessary pressure by the board demanding instant results and success. So if a couple of bad results occur, the manager goes back to the tried and trusted players and formation, which is a rigid, workmanlike 4-3-3 to accommodate the likes of Lampard and Drogba. I don't blame the managers for this, because they don't want to be sacked...I blame the board. AVB needs time and resources to rebuild this squad and I just hope Roman obliges because he is running out of good managerial options! There are two vital components in our game which need to be focused on - Torres needs support and not left isolated, and Mata needs to be played centrally. IMO we have looked at our best this season playing 4-2-3-1, a formation used a lot on the continent and also implemented successfully by United and City in the Premiership. Such a formation would allow Mata to operate centrally and give him licence to 'float' and provide Torres with more support further up the field. If such a formation does not accommodate or suit Lampard, Mikel and Drogba, or a high defensive line causes the older defensive guard to struggle to adapt to like Cole and Terry then I'm afraid tough luck. The club needs to move on, because we could be mistaken for the same team as 4-5 years ago, just everybody past their prime!

It's definately a topic which needs to be seriously discussed and considered now. From 2004-2006 Terry was unbelievable and arguably the best defender in world football. But I think one thing which at the time the media didn't give enough credit too (which Chelsea fans did) was the influence Gallas and Carvalho had, who were both exceptional defenders, good on the ball and had the pace and awareness to sweep behind Terry. The fact is over the past couple of seasons Terry is no longer the same player. Even in the double winning campaign, we arguably looked our most comfortable defensively that season at home to Stoke with Alex and Ivanovic at CB. I agree that Terry's leadership is vital but I even struggle to see that at times anymore. I think his own game is so poor it's difficult for him to marshall those around him. You need someone strong within the defence to lead the backline and I struggle to see anybody else at the moment which makes it difficult to drop him. The other problem I have with Terry is regardless of the commitment he has put in his performances for the club over the years which cannot be questioned, he brings huge amounts of controversy and negative media to the club. It is difficult enough with Roman's money being one of the most hated teams in the country and easy to have a pop at, without Terry giving more reasons - 9/11 incident at an airport, court case with Jody Morris, Wayne Bridge affair, selling training ground tours, and now the racism incident. I genuinely think if AVB is to truly rebuild the squad he needs to do it without the influence of the huge reputations at the club. Remember Mourinho won things with a club full of players who had never won anything (a few exceptions aside) and AVB may need to do the same thing which could spell the end for the likes of Terry, Lampard and Drogba. They pose too great a presence at the club which undermines the manager. This will be the biggest decision the Chelsea board may need to make because none of these players are what they were, neither will they be at the club in 3-5 years time.

I think AVB kept hold of McEachran because he is probably the closest player similar to Mata. He probably would have played a lot more often for 20-30 minutes in games if it were not for our inability to finish teams off until late in games, particularly at home. Yes the first half of this season hasn't been great for Josh but neither was the first half of last season for Sturridge. The difference is that Sturridge was 21, Josh will still only be 18 come January!!! I believe he may go out on loan not just after January but also next season aswell. People think that if a player hasn't broken through by the time he's 20 then he's never going to make it and that's simply not the case. Unless you are a truly exceptional talent (e.g. Messi) the truth is young players at top teams will not normally break through until they are 21 simply because of the pressures the big clubs are under to be successful. The club has to ensure the player is well equiped and mature/experienced enough to handle this. It's happened for Sturridge who will now go on to become an exceptional player for many years at Chelsea in my opinion, and it will happen for Josh (and I believe Romeu providing Barca don't buy him back!) and in the future Chalobah, but people have to be patient on the matter.

I can fully understand and appreciate both sides of the argument. David Luiz is technically a superb football player and has huge amounts of potential in his natural CB position. At this moment in time there are weaknesses to his game, such as positioning and rashness in the tackle, which will mature over time. However he can only mature and get better playing at CB and learning the trade and developing his game. I think with how quickly he endeared himself to Chelsea fans, people forget he has been with us for less than a year and is still adjusting to a new league and football culture. However on the flipside of things, Chelsea are a club challenging for trophies and consistently playing at the highest pressures. One or two mistakes through the season could have a far bigger impact on our season then perhaps, a Sunderland. Therefore the temptation to utilise his strengths, but hide his weaknesses is an apparent one. I personally also think he would make a very good holding midfielder, but he needs to learn and AVB must persevere with him at CB.

I have a bad feeling the FA are going to throw the book at us over this. This is the exact situation where it shows how ridiculous it is that players/managers have to give interviews and media conferences so soon after matches when emotions are still high. If this is mandatory, so should getting a ref on and interviewed just after a game and asking him to explain his decisions publicly.

Turnbull, given his performance against Fulham deserves the nod over Hilario. Ferreira, Alex, Terry, Bertrand at the back. Alex needs game time, and Terry was rested against Genk so I think will play over Brana and David Luiz. Plus, Everton away will be very difficult, and will be more important to have an experienced leader on the pitch for this one. Midfield Romeu, McEachran, Malouda. All need game time, and the others need a rest after the effort put in against QPR. Front three of Sturridge, Kalou and Lukaku. Kalou and Lukaku need game time, and Sturridge didn't play for long against QPR, so I would look to give him an hour. It would be nice to see a couple of the other youngsters on the bench for this one, like Chalobah and Billy Clifford, and of course a handful of the experienced lads if we should need them (Lampard, maybe Torres)

No point contesting Bosingwa's red card because it's only one match being Carling Cup and I expect Ferreira to play that one anyway. Knowing our luck if we were to contest it, the FA would probably increase the ban on a frivelous appeal. I'm more worried the FA throwing the book at AVB for his post match comments against QPR, and getting a touch line ban.

There isn't just one ground per country which can host Champions League and Europa League finals, otherwise you would miss out on a ton of good stadiums. If we build a state of the art, iconic stadium in the region of 60,000 capacity do you think we are going to get turned away?

As one report says having a capacity stadium of 60,000 instead of 42,000 will bring in an additional £50m approx per annum. With a brand new stadium and expansive brand we will also be in a more powerful position with sponsorships, especially naming rights to a new stadium. This could well be anything between another £10-20m per annum. Suddenly we'll be in a position where we are pretty much in a break even position which is vital with the financial fair play rules. (particularly as debt and expenditure attributable to improving the club's infrastructure such as stadium, training ground, etc is not included in the financial fair play rules). Not to mention the likelihood of being able to host events, in particular the Champions League final! I can understand fan's wanting to keep with tradition, but it is necessary for the club to expand. I am positively certain that they will go ahead with such moves with a lot of dignity and consideration for the fans. Roman Abramovich has done so much for this football club and the final piece of the jigsaw is a state of the art new stadium. Let's look forward not think backwards. In terms of a stadium look, I must say I love the outside design of the Allianz Arena - it just stands out so well within it's community which is what we should be aiming for, although I would also like the fans to be as close as possible to the pitch.

I couldn't agree more with this. I struggle to see how another central midfielder will score so many goals in there career for such a consistent period of time. Every year, it's suggested 'Chelsea will have to adjust to Frank Lampard surely not being able to get to 20 goals again this season' but once again we are only 10 games in to a more than likely 50-55 games season and he already has 5 goals. I think Lamps will be around Kerry Dixon's total come the end of this season and hopefully be within 8-10 of Bobby Tambling's. One of the most satisfying things about yesterday also was his general midfield play. I felt that since his injury he had been playing within himself at times and contributing to the midfield slowing play down which was evident last season. However, yesterday he seemed to play with much more purpose and directness. He linked well with the likes of Meireles and Mata, and the one touch passing between himself and Drogba for his third goal was sublime. The pressure AVB has placed on his position in the team seems to be bearing fruit...

I agree that Meireles is at his best further up the pitch but his versatility is very important and he does a good job in the deeper midfield role against more inferior teams because it gives us an extra drive and impetus going forward and breaking down defences. When we were heavily linked with Meireles I preferred getting him over Modric (considering the price for Modric) and for me, £12m is very good business. I think AVB perhaps earmarked him for putting pressure on Lampard's position and I think Lamp's realises for the first time in years his place is under threat. For me that's great if he's going to put in performances like yesterday and competition in the team at the moment is generally excellent. In regards to the team lineup against Everton, difficult to predict until after the internationals incase anybody gets injured. I agree though that we are at home and should attack Everton. They are good at set pieces and if Saha plays, he should be monitored closely, but apart from that they will try to stifle us, so the best way to combat this is put them on the back foot and attack them.

Any player in and around the first team of a club for five years should make some contributions and impacts. I think the problem is there have not been enough. I don't think Kalou would ever be good enough as a regular starter, but if he was more consistent he would be a good squad player. Unfortunately inconsistency is one of his biggest weaknesses!