Superblue

Liverpool fans seem to moan about them nearly as much as United and Arsenal do and are regularly critical of a lack of investment in the team.

How will this ever happen when we can't even accept our role in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc in recent years? As has been brought up a lot recently, the west is happy to turn a blind eye to things that don't really have an effect or hold no real threat to themselves (Palestine, Yemen, etc). What Putin has done is nothing short of horrific and I hope he pays a heavy price for the decisions he has made but it's nothing short of embarrassing when the likes of the UK and US take the moral high ground with these things.

Before the game tonight on BBC, Lineker read out Roman's statement. The parts relating to donating money were pretty much brushed aside and Alan Shearer was still moaning he still hasn't made a condemnation of what Russia has done. The front of someone who probably would have accepted Putin himself taking over Newcastle from Mike Ashley, but I suppose settling for a regime with similar question marks hanging over them is quite frankly the height of hypocrisy but that's this country to a tee to be honest.

That was almost always going to happen when they both came in and have worked under Roman for years. Anyone looking to buy with some common sense would try to convince Marina to stay on, even if it's in the short term. Regarding Tuchel so long as he wants to stay on I don't see anything happening to him. I think who ever buys the club knows they have an uphill struggle to convince and appease the fanbase and retaining Tuchel surely has to be of the upmost importance.

Amongst everything the most important person at the football club right now is Tuchel. I feel so long as his job is secure he'll be happy to stay here under new owners and potentially new management. It is of upmost importance that during this whole process, he is backed and supported to take Chelsea on in a new era.

I'm not overly bothered about someone needing to be as rich as Roman to buy the club and just consistently pumping money in. In recent times we have worked on a model to make us much more self-sufficient and we're hardly in a position like Newcastle for example where he need heavy investment in players to catch up and we've wasted obscene amounts of money over the years on a scattergun approach to hiring and firing managers and buying players. We've been shielded from poor decisions by Roman and moving forward maybe we need to take more account and ownership of transfers and managerial appointments. This wouldn't be a bad thing. But I do not want somebody who has no affinity or passion with football, and limited understanding of the game and limited knowledge as a result of the club. For me, someone like Jim Ratcliffe would be ideal and he has been mentioned before. Whilst his resources and wealth may be vast, I wouldn't envisage him running the club like Roman as a hobby but I think he would have a far greater understanding of the club and willingness to put and focus his time and effort in to ensure that we'll remain competitive at the top level. As mentioned the stadium is an issue but it's not insurmountable. I don't think Roman ever planned to fund the stadium himself anyway and was always looking to finance it long term. That can still be achieved over time but that obviously does and should impact the value of the club. I guess depending on how desperate Roman is to sell, he may have to accept an offer that is lower than what he is owed and agree to wipe those debts.

Surely the 1.5bn would form part of the overall sale. There is absolutely no way someone is paying 2bn for a club that historically hasn't been making profits and take in a 1.5bn liability to be repaid too. To be fair if Roman got somewhere around 2bn for the club he will be making 400-500m profit on something which for him has essentially been a hobby and enjoyment, he's done pretty damn well! If this really is nearing the end it's been one hell of a wild ride and I wouldn't change any of it. Mistakes and unpopular decisions have been made at times but they all make the success that much sweeter and there has been far, far more good times than bad. If we do get a new owner I just hope it's someone who is a football fan and understands the game as a whole. They will have some seriously big shoes to fill.

Would be huge if Roman assists in getting this conflict sorted out. Of course priority above all else is to find a peaceful resolution in Ukraine as millions of lives and the freedom of a country is at stake, but there is of course also a more selfish consideration too that anything he does to indicate that he's helping will also act as a positive around the club at present in a time of uncertainty. At the very least his willingness to work with Ukraine and trying to resolve the issues can only help to soften and diffuse the whole situation around him and the club. Given the hammering he and Chelsea have had recently from so many people willing to voice their opinions but essentially offer nothing, this does seem wildly ironic. Actions always speak louder than words.

The easiest way in my opinion to make it almost impossible to still be subjective as to where qualifying body parts start, is just to base on feet. This should be the easiest way for them to assess an offside call on VAR whilst also offering a small advantage to the attacking team whom I believe should be afforded a greater benefit of the doubt anyway.

Exactly this. You're damned if you do, damned if you don't and for Tuchel, having done that once before to success he would have been questioned if he didn't do it and we lost.

Disappointing when you get that close to it but we've had our fair share of penalty shoot out losses in recent years. It is a lottery once it gets to that stage. No blame attached to Kepa and as per usual the wolves will come out berating the decision to sub Mendy off, mostly the same people labelling it genius when it worked in the Super Cup. We had more than enough chances to take during the game and I thought overall we played really well today. I thought in patches we looked much sharper against Lille and today was an improvement against a much better team in red hot form amid the backdrop of everything going on over the last few days away from football. With the exception of Chilwell we seem to be getting back together a fully fit squad just at the right time and hopefully picking up a bit of form and looking much more dangerous creating chances. Hopefully we can keep everyone behind us at arm's length and over the next 6 - 8 games pretty much get the top 4 as good as wrapped up then we can focus on Europe. Get past Lille and a decent quarter final draw like last season and you never know. Today once again confirmed when it comes to the big crunch games, we're always competitive and there or thereabouts regardless of form.

Lukaku is on the bench

Everyone would want that as it completely diffuses a situation hovering around our club that none of us have asked for. You'd think Chelsea football club has invaded Ukraine with some of the journalist and social media posts. But a number of the journalists, politicians and media people hammering the club for Roman not doing so have previous themselves of refusing to admit or denounce/criticise wrongdoings, false propaganda, etc from their employers, parties, etc. This whole situation is levels above anything like that with regards to both seriousness and sensitivity. I wonder if any of them would be so bold to publicly speak out if they were Russian and working within the Russian media or politics?

The problem is if we end up with an American owner like United, Arsenal and Liverpool have, there is a very real possibility we'll lose all of that edge. I don't want to get involved on the political side of things and Roman has always cast a cloud over the club to some degree with who he is, but purely from a football position we have benefited beyond our wildest dreams for pushing 20 years with his investment. The jealousy from rival fans comes from the fact that our owner is in it purely for enjoyment and essentially as a hobby and as a result has never been afraid to back the club with his own money. I know we're in a completely different situation to the one when Roman bought us and with more recent rules regarding financial fair play, etc the goalposts have changed somewhat but we still rely on his ability to pump money into the club to give us an edge in the transfer market (like what happened a couple of summers ago in the middle of a pandemic). The American owners run the football clubs more as a business, and few have shown the passion and dedication that Roman has shown over the years to the clubs they're involved in. It's an investment and from the outside looking in, the feeling seems to be it's a lower priority than perhaps American sports teams they also own. It isn't a coincidence there's so much dislike from the fans of these clubs to their owners. I don't have concerns over the club as a sellable and attractive entity to be purchased but I do have massive concerns over what we could end up with as owners if such a situation was to arise.

I haven't really looked into this in too much detail but my understanding is the loan is owned to fordstram, a company owned by Roman but essentially set up as a holding company for the multiple companies that are under the Chelsea umbrella. I would assume if we were to be seized, so would the holding company making it impossible for the loan to be called in under Roman if he loses his power and influence over the two businesses. I'm not even sure of the legalities of the government being able to sell us on if they were to seize us, I'd imagine it would lead to a huge, messy legal case. Hardly ideal but we'll see how things develop.

Boris would probably still find a way of coming back from the brink...

In this instance Tuchel said Werner was a doubt for today as he had a cold during the week so I assume he'd deemed only fit enough to make the bench and play 20-30 minutes if needed.

Collar looks awful but at least it's back to a plain blue shirt by the looks of it rather than a pattern. I know they feel they have to change the kit considerably each year to make it unique and in their eyes more saleable but the away and third kits are there for experimentation. The collar and trims can be changed if they need to (white, gold, black) and even the shade of royal blue can be slightly lighter or darker but the home shirt should always be plain blue with no patterns. That should be the one people want to buy but in recent years the away and third kits have been better. Having said that I must say the rumoured third kit looks very smart.

Collar looks awful but at least it's back to a plain blue shirt by the looks of it rather than a pattern. I know they feel they have to change the kit considerably each year to make it unique and in their eyes more saleable but the away and third kits are there for experimentation. The collar and trims can be changed if they need to (white, gold, black) and even the shade of royal blue can be slightly lighter or darker but the home shirt should always be plain blue with no patterns. That should be the one people want to buy but in recent years the away and third kits have been better. Having said that I must say the rumoured third kit looks very smart.

I don't agree with Jorginho being a complete liability off the ball. His lack of pace can leave us exposed in an open position but ultimately something higher up the pitch has gone wrong first to leave us in that situation or we're chasing a game which is leaving us stretched and exposed anyway. The rest of his defensive contributions are mostly very good. He reads the game very well and regularly intercepts and recovers balls as a result which stamps anything out before it can even start and he's also an important trigger and leader when we press. As above, my preference this summer would be to keep all of Kante, Kova and Jorginho and add Rice or Tchouameni to that group. Gallagher and Mount in the squad too would allow Tuchel to use a midfield three if he wanted to, with the latter two being able to offer that more attack minded option.

If the tournament is every 4 years, option 1 sounds the most logical although not sure how the Europa Conference would now be interpreted into this. Having said that, they will probably want the most marketable teams in the mix which with the greatest respect the Europa League winners regularly won't be. It'll probably end up being last 4 Champions League winners and 4 wildcards so the likes of Barca and United can be shoehorned in. Either way though, moving forward, it'll become harder to win and less regular so I'm thoroughly delighted we've got that trophy now in the cabinet.

I believe we need one but I think it would be silly to buy both when you're likely looking north of £150m for the two. I think to add one of the two to Kova, Kante and Jorginho we'd have an incredible blend of different midfield types that Tuchel could utilise. I wouldn't be prepared to let Jorginho or Kante be moving on any time soon. Firstly and especially when we have players on big contracts who are contributing far less at present. Saul will leave and Barkley and RLC I think would be moved on before the likes of Jorgi and Kante are considered. I also think people are far too quick to write players off nowadays once they hit 30. We only have to look at the incredible output we've had from Thiago Silva who will be going into his third year next season having joined at nearly the age of 36. Who would have expected this to last that long? But his big game experience to the squad as a whole is just as crucial as his performances on the pitch. Players like Fernandinho at City and Henderson at Liverpool may not play every game any more and become more managed as they get older, but the experience for their clubs is vital and we have to be careful that we don't lose that. Yes our younger players have won a couple of trophies now which is massive for the future, but if we're going to mount a sustained title bid we need some of those experienced heads around the squad. With the future of Rudiger and Azpi still up in the air, it would be silly to let too much of that experience leave at the same time.

Hope Frank does well at Everton. I don't mind Everton as a club either (maybe it's my hatred of Liverpool) I think this season could be a struggle but if he can keep them from getting dragged further into a relegation battle and settle the squad this season I think he has a really good opportunity to build on from next season. Will be interested to see if he's learned some of the lessons of mistakes made here.

There has been talk that Tuchel is a big fan of his too. I think the price being mentioned is pretty insane but I must admit that the Declan Rice we see now is a vastly superior version to the one that Lampard wanted the club to buy 18 months ago. I would have no problem with the club buying him because I think if they pass over him he will end up at one of the other big sides in the Premier League. One thing to note is come the summer he'll only have 2 years left on his contract and so far he's apparently turned down West Ham approaches to even negotiate a new deal. West Ham will have a decision to make because the longer his contract runs down, so does his transfer value. He seems to be content at West Ham currently who are punching above their weight and he's only 23. He can actually afford to wait and run his contract down if he chose to and move at the end of it.

I think Colwill will be better served having another year on loan, hopefully being able to step up to playing for a team in the Prem. With the likes of Mount and James stepping up immediately from the Championship they were at least walking into a squad they had a very good chance of playing regularly within. I don't think Colwill is in that position yet, even more so if we were to play with a back 4 more often moving forward. Whilst Tuchel rotates the midfielders and attackers a lot, he doesn't do it nearly as much with the defence unless players are unavailable. I think coming back to play 4th or 5th choice won't help him. He needs chance to develop further. Gallagher and Broja probably would have experienced something similar here this year if they'd stayed and going out on loan has really seen their development reach a new level. Whilst Sarr isn't the greatest on the ball he has filled in admirably recently and defensively has been pretty good in recent games. He reminds me of Zouma somewhat where I don't think he's good enough to be playing regularly but he's solid and dependable as a squad option. The best thing in my opinion Chelsea could do is retain Sarr for another year as a squad player and loan out Colwill for a year in the hope he kicks on even more and can come back in the summer of 2023 to take Thiago Silva's place in the squad, as I assume that will likely be the time he decides to go back to Brazil.