BlueLion.

My arse have we got a £247 million budget. Does Roman want us to be excluded from the Europa League as well as the UCL?

We all know that the Chelsea job is the hardest in the world, so technically he's the best

It's nothing to do with Barcelona, I just want to win the competition to spite UEFA.

He's a triplet, so his skull is naturally thinner than the average person. Plus it was never a break, but rather a depressed fracture. That sort of injury takes years to fully heal. And by years you're talking about him wearing it for the rest of his career as a precaution. I'm in a similar position with my knee. I simply cannot play in goal without my knee protector/brace, my body just refuses to dive because I have a subconscious fear of damaging it. It's there as much as a psychological protection more than anything.

Welcome back buddy, I was still using that Ashley Cole sig you made me until recently

The home shirt is beautifully elegant. I've been wanting something simple and plain, and it just looks fantastic as a full kit. The goalkeeper kit is even nicer. As Steve says, this is essentially the shirt Bonetti wore with a Samsung logo on the front of it. Fantastic, definitely going to buy both. Easily the best home and GK kits adidas have produced for us.

Holy testicles, this is awesome...

I will happily concede that I am a muppet - yet one with admin privileges, so you should be nice to me In all seriousness the only reason why I am against name changes is, as Swedish House Mafia points out, it causes confusion.

Woah woah, calm down pal! I've just had a member join called BlueL1on so don't start preaching about identity theft to me!

All these names changes... 'TIS BLASPHEMY, BE DAMNED WITH YOU ALL!

Why not have red on an away kit then? White with red stripes? It would mean we could retain the actual badge rather than some differently-coloured replica. Adidas should consult the fans to see what they would like. Surely a bit of market research for their target demographic would help sales?!

All these articles - it's brilliant. Really great to see! The fact people are writing so often now is really encouraging me to up my own game!

No.

My latest article: Quickest to the punch Branislav Ivanovic was the hero-turned-villain following Saturday's victory over Wigan. After volleying the Blues ahead - albeit from an offside position - Ivanovic then blocked Franco di Santo's goalbound effort with a very, very good piece of covering defending after Ryan Bertrand and Petr Cech got themselves in a bit of a muddle. The Blues went on to triumph thanks to Juan Mata's late, late goal; the Spaniard converting at the far post after Fernando Torres had sent a brilliant volley crashing against the post, but television footage has shown Ivanovic to be guilty of . His goal-line block might have rubbed salt in gaping Wigan wounds after his offside goal moments beforehand - but on this occasion, it was he, and not the linesman, who was inflicting the wound itself.FULL ARTICLE - http://forum.talkche...502#entry385502

Branislav Ivanovic was the hero-turned-villain following Saturday's victory over Wigan. After volleying the Blues ahead - albeit from an offside position - Ivanovic then blocked Franco di Santo's goalbound effort with a very, very good piece of covering defending after Ryan Bertrand and Petr Cech got themselves in a bit of a muddle. The Blues went on to triumph thanks to Juan Mata's late, late goal; the Spaniard converting at the far post after Fernando Torres had sent a brilliant volley crashing against the post, but television footage has shown Ivanovic to be guilty of . His goal-line block might have rubbed salt in gaping Wigan wounds after his offside goal moments beforehand - but on this occasion, it was he, and not the linesman, who was inflicting the wound itself.Having watched the footage, it is hard to offer any sort of defence for the Serbian's actions. He quite clearly hits Maloney in the small of the back with his first; an action warranting a three-match ban for violent conduct (,for that is the equivalent punishment doled out if the referee sees it and waves his red card). Should he be found guilty, Ivanovic will miss crunch fixtures in Chelsea's end-of-season run-in; with the possibility of a ban being imposed ahead of Sunday's FA Cup semi-final clash with Tottenham a likelihood. The Blues number 2 would also miss key London derbies away at Arsenal and against Queens Park Rangers at Stamford Bridge. However, what the media are not focusing on is what happened previously. Having replayed the match in its entirety, the pair are at each other well before the actual incident; holding one-another in the penalty areas whilst waiting for corners, as well as having the odd word or two to say when jogging back up the pitch. The footage shows Maloney swing an elbow at the Serb, prompting Ivanovic's understandably angry reaction. This is not some sort of comical appeal to the FA begging for forgiveness, like Liverpool did with Luis Suarez and the allegations of a racist remark he made to Manchester United captain Patrice Evra. Do not expect to see #JusticeForIvanovic trending on Twitter any time soon, nor will John Terry and company warm up in 'BRANISLAV IS INNOCENT' t-shirts on Sunday evening. Nevertheless, the FA need to be careful if they are to set a precedent with this incident. What Ivanovic did was wrong, and if the referee would have seen it, he would no doubt have been shown a red card - hence the reason for retrospective action by the FA. Yet should the referee have reviewed the incident, he would have noted that Maloney provoked the Chelsea defender, and would probably have been shown at least a yellow card for his role in the fracas. Maybe even a red; let's be fair - swinging an elbow is hardly an acceptable action. If that is the case, then what of the FA's intention - or lack of, rather - to punish Maloney? I have already expressed views of an anti-Chelsea bias in the media in the past few days, and this forms a perfect case study in support of that particular argument. Between them, the British media and the FA seem to be making punishment and vilification of Chelsea Football Club the norm. Where is the condemnation of Manchester City's Yaya Toure after his in December's meeting between the two sides, for instance?But for the sake of repetition, let's not get back onto that argument again. My point is simple - the FA are treading on incredibly thin ice. Of course I can see why they would seek to impose a punishment on Ivanovic, but this path is a particularly slippery route. This sort of thing needs eradicating from the game, and harsh penalties put in place by the governing bodies would serve that purpose well. Similarly, condemnation of the sort of behaviour Ivanovic expressed is a positive move to take when it comes to seeing footballers as role-models; we do not want to see children replicate such base aggression in their Sunday league matches. Yet if the FA are to go ahead with this, it has to become a consistent policy. Singling out certain incidents will only cause aggravation for supporters and leave players like Ivanovic aggrieved that their own idiocy is (quite rightly) punished, whilst thugs like Nigel de Jong go on without facing the consequences of their actions. This is a slippery slope indeed, and soon we will see incident after incident reviewed. That is not necessarily a bad thing - it does not take authority away from the referee whilst reinforcing a sense of discipline in the minds of the players, who will know their every move could be potentially discriminated against. But this Big Brother system demands consistency. On so many occasions in the past, the FA have adopted a zero-tolerance stance against this sort of behaviour before suddenly becoming more lenient and allowing other things to pass. Maintaining this aforementioned state of consistent retrospective action is the difficulty, however. Furthermore, where would we draw the line between using this for corrective action, or using it to entirely officiate the game? The line needs to be drawn at a simple level; using video technology retrospectively to pick up on incidents that referees miss. Overruling on-pitch decisions is both patronising and an insult to professional officials, but highlighting what they do not take action on in matches will also encourage them to try and be more comprehensive in the way they officiate the game. This would be a big step towards bringing in video refereeing, but that is way down football's to-do list. Goalline technology is needed first and foremost, but having a dedicated panel that are instructed to review incidents in matches will be an effective way of Guinea-pigging potential video refereeing technologies. 'Third-eye' cameras and other appropriate technologies would have to be installed, but if this helps towards sorting out incidents such as this Ivanovic punch, then it can only be for the good of the game regardless of the expense. I just beg the FA to be both firm and consistent over whatever action they may take.

Thanks for reading and commenting!

Superb stuff, Greg. I'll get Jim to upload that, quality stuff. Strike, that's brilliant as well. I'll upload that after the FA Cup semi-final! (It's a little too soon atm). Great work, both of you.

Only serious chance of silverware we have; reckon it could be a repeat of the 2009 final as well. We HAVE to beat the Yids.

Not as far as I know...

Haha was watching that, that was against Villa

Maloney swung first. #MaloneySwungFirst #JusticeForIvan

Thanks for reading and commenting. And you make a very good point. Things do even themselves out over the course of a season.

What don't you agree on? As for the point you highlighted. We had plenty of golden opportunities, just so happens the one we finally took happened to be offside. Whether that sounds like a Barcelona fan or not, it's a fact. We warranted the lead and we took it, regardless of the referee's decision. As I said, you don't just pass an opportunity up just because it is offside.

Yeah, sat in the West Lower against Portsmouth in 07/08 when we won 1-0. Went absolutely mental after Lampard scored and started singing 'Super Frank' with my dad. I would have been 13 or 14 when the bloke in front of us told us to shut up or he'd complain to the stewards. I told him to fuck off and got loads of other people around me to start singing Carefree just to fuck him off. No-one tells me what to fucking do, especially when it comes to football. Cunt, hope he got hit by a train or something after the match.

Let's drop the romance with RDM. Yes we have an 80% win ratio under him, but the games we've won we should expect to be winning. That being said I can take nothing away from him as he has done brilliantly just to improve the morale of the squad.