BlueLion.

Andre Schurrle looks set to leave Stamford Bridge this month after being left out of Chelsea's 18-man squad for their cup clash with Bradford. The German World Cup winner had a phenomenal start to the season off the back of his international success in Brazil, but has since found first-team opportunities under José Mourinho hard to come by. The former Bayer Leverkusen man was an £18 million acquisition in the summer of 2013 in what was Mourinho's first signing in his second spell as Blues boss, but rumours of a big-money offer from Wolfsburg have prompted speculation over the German's future with the West London club. There has been a suggestion that the sale of Schurrle would free up funds for a move for Fiorentina's Juan Cuadrado, who is supposedly Chelsea's primary target this transfer window. Mourinho has suggested that "only a phenomenal offer" would see Schurrle leave, adding that he wanted the Blues' number 14 to stay. But after on Friday saying that the German would be involved in yesterday's clash with Bradford at Stamford Bridge, the German was left out of the Blues' matchday squad altogether, prompting speculation that he may have played his last game for the Blues. Schurrle has scored five goals this season despite making only a dozen starts in all competitions as he has found the form of Eden Hazard and Willian a tough obstacle to overcome in nailing a consistent run of games in the side. His overall tally of fourteen goals in 64 games - of which only 35 were starts - is a respectable return, but Mourinho has identified the more consistent output of Cuadrado, who netted fifteen goals for Fiorentina last season, as an option out wide. Fiorentina boss Vincenzo Montella has insisted Chelsea can only sign Juan Cuadrado from Fiorentina by paying his £26.8m release clause, however. Chelsea have so far offered £20m plus bonuses but Fiorentina coach Montella said: "The issue around Cuadrado is very simple: he has a buy-out clause, which was written into his contract along with the club. If a team comes along and pays it, and the player wants to leave, then he can go". The Blues will have to act fast, though, as the end of the month and the closure of the transfer window approaches swiftly. Having baulked at the price Fiorentina have set for their star midfield, Chelsea are maintaining negotiations with Shakhtar Donetsk for Douglas Costa and have offered £18.7million. They have also considered Enner Valencia of West Ham as a back-up option.

He's as good as gone.

Essien, if he ever comes back here, would get an incredible reception to be sure, especially after turning down offers from other English sides (though I for one wouldn't have begrudged him a move elsewhere in England).

It's one of the reasons I don't go to the Bridge that often anymore. One being it's too expensive for me (add the price of a 250-mile round trip in fuel and parking to the match ticket cost - while I can go and watch unlimited cricket at Trent Bridge for £80 a year and it costs me next to nothing in fuel to go to Nottingham; a 50-mile round trip at most) and the other being that unless you're in the Shed or MHL, if you stand up to sing you get told to sit down by stewards who can't speak a word of English, or someone munching on a prawn sandwich whilst using selfie sticks shoots you a glare. An embarrassment, and until the ticket costs come down there won't be an atmosphere at Stamford Bridge because of the tourists and fairweathers that don't care how much it costs to go to the Bridge and will pay silly money.

Petr Cech's face said it all as Chelsea were yesterday dumped out of the FA Cup by League One side Bradford City. The Bantams, famous for another recent "cupset" when they surprised Arsenal en route to the 2013 League Cup final, were truly magnificent as they came from 2-0 down to end up 4-2 victors at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea were cruising through first-half strikes by Gary Cahill and Ramires, but when Cech was surprised at his near post by a powerful drive from Jon Stead, Bradford were reinvigorated and ended up worthy victors. "It’s one of the biggest ever surprises in the FA Cup", Cech said in an interview with chelseafc.com. "It’s one of those where it can always happen. Obviously we are not proud of the result but I wouldn’t want to take anything away from the Bradford team because they came here, they fought hard for their luck, they got chances and they scored four goals. Credit to them. "I’ve been here for more than 10 years and every year you can see these kinds of results in the FA Cup. That’s why I have always said it’s special. This can always happen and unfortunately for the first time I was on the wrong side of that. That’s the way it goes". Cech has identified Tuesday's second leg of the Capital One Cup semi-final at Stamford Bridge as being the perfect opportunity to make amends. "We need to take it on the chin and pick ourselves up. It’s up to us. We have put ourselves in this position and we only have ourselves to blame for what happened. We play at home on Tuesday [against Liverpool] and we would like to use that as an advantage. We need to clean the mess up". Cech made a number of excellent saves throughout yesterday's fixture, not least a stunning reaction stop from a well-worked corner routine from the visitors, but he was left over-exposed by a leaderless Blues defence and could do little to prevent the League One side from exploiting gaps in Chelsea's rearguard - stretched in search of a leveller - late on. The Czech international stresses that Chelsea were not complacent and that José Mourinho warned that an upset was on the cards at the break, but was thoroughly magnanimous in accepting the better team went through - as was Blues boss Mourinho, who entered the jubilant visiting dressing room after full-time to congratulate each of the Bradford players individually. "Sometimes it’s hard to explain why things happen. We came out for the second half perfectly aware the game was far from over and it was going to be difficult. They came out, had a number of set-plays and corners and gained some confidence. "We let them feel they might have some chances. When we conceded the second goal we lost control of our game. We forced everything and it was not working for us".

You play attacking football, you have a shit defence. It really is that simple. There is no need to over-analyse defensive mistakes. If you want to play possession football you play with a higher defensive "block" which has to be able to cope with the constant threat of over exposure. When all of our natural width comes from our full-backs, it leaves massive gaps to be exploited by teams with a microcosm of pace. We're just going to have to either a, deal with it; or b, return to playing shit football.

He could have one leg and still be better than Mikel, let's be fair.

Get him back in the squad. He can't be any worse than the other options we have right now.

I feel this is partly directed at me so I'll respond to it quite simply: I'm not happy we lost today, in fact I'm very upset. I clearly react differently to others after defeats. If people on here would prefer for me to try and get #MourinhoOut trending on Twitter or to punch a wall or two, I'm afraid I've grown out of that stage now! I'll be very blunt with you and say that if we win the PL and the League Cup this season, that is more than enough for me. People are overanalysing this result. We've been caught up in the magic of the FA Cup. This is a classic giant-killing and they will talk about this one for years to come. But results like this happen every now and again. All we have to do is dust ourselves down and bounce back for the next game. Edit - If I don't reply to you its because I'm logging out now; but basically I'm not getting worked up because it really isn't healthy for me.

Could there possibly be a better game to bounce back from today's disappointment?! Liverpool at the Bridge in a semi-final, bring it on. I'm bothered about the League Cup because we've got this far - why not win it? With the FA Cup there were weeks left; weeks where, if we'd have gone through, City could be racking up the points while we have to play catch up. The League Cup won't offer too many more distractions.

That's something I'd have to discuss with Jim, especially regarding the potential cost of it. But it's an option.

Every now and again, but not every game. But that isn't my point. There are a lot of fraying tempers on this board and I want to log off now before I get further frustrated. What I personally believe is that the level of criticism directed at Mourinho is totally unjustifiable compared to the relative lack of congratulations he gets at the end of most matches. Ultimately I hold the players responsible for almost every defeat. They're the ones kicking the ball around, not José. He shouldn't have to motivate £100,000-a-week players to score more goals than the opposition, especially a side 45 places lower down the Football League pyramid than ourselves. There are times when you can critique José's team selection, his substitutions or his tactics, but the side we put out today was good enough to beat Bradford. We were just undone by an horrific second half performance and were caught up in the magic of the FA Cup.

For obvious reasons I can't explicitly disclose every detail that can bed pulled from the Admin CP, but people need to appreciate that we don't actually have physical access to those records - only the Police can, but we will share whatever information we can. Totally agree Sam. I'm going to put the entire tickets section under stricter rules.

Really? I must have missed that.

It has come my attention a member on this forum may have potentially fraudulently taken money from another member after taking payment for match tickets. Anyone who is caught doing this will have their details passed onto the Police. You'd be surprised just what information we can pull from the Admin CP. Your details will be shared with the relevant authorities and Chelsea Football Club will also be informed of your actions. May everyone heed this as a warning.

We win and it's the player's who deserve all the plaudits. We lose and Mourinho is a clueless cunt. I'm not sure what has annoyed me most today; being criticised for not being a proper Chelsea fan as in the grand scheme of things I'm not overly bothered about the FA Cup, or seeing the same cretins creep out of the woodwork to splurge their dirge across this forum.

So you're questioning my loyalty to Chelsea Football Club because I'm nonplussed about the FA Cup? You have my permission to go and fuck yourself.

I'm obviously speaking hypothetically. If someone offered me the Premier League and that only, I'd bite their arm off.

Feel a bit sorry for him today. A couple of stunning saves, but then he should have kept out Stead's shot, no doubt about it.

I didn't watch the game, nor did I listen to any commentary. I went to watch Derby-Chesterfield with my mate and thoroughly enjoyed my afternoon. When I heard the half-time score of 2-1 I was pleasantly surprised as our first half performances in cup games are usually staid and uninspiring. When I saw the 4-2 final score, I could barely believe my eyes. Then I saw City, Southampton and Spurs are all out. Add United's draw with Cambridge last night and you can see this competition still has a bit of the old spark left. Whoever said the FA Cup is dead? However, this is the calmest, most ambivalent I have ever been about a Chelsea defeat. I wouldn't go as far as saying I don't care, but when I say I was more upset at the fact we "only" won 5-0 at Swansea than I am about this result, I'm not lying. In fact I'm almost relieved. With City losing, us going to a replay and then potentially staying in the FA Cup could have been disastrous, especially with a potential League Cup final on the horizon. City will punish every misstep we take in the Premier League and stretching our clearly thinner-than-first-thought squad across four competitions throughout the season would only lead to disappointment, the same way it did in 2007/08. However some of the reactions on here are hilarious. Yes, José rotated too many players and we were incredibly poor after half-time. But this is the FA Cup. Bradford were absolutely magnificent and I just have to say we were simply beaten by the better team on the day. I'll support them for the remainder of the competition. Let me make this abundantly clear: I'd be happy for Liverpool to stuff us on Tuesday and PSG to do us 6-0 on aggregate if it means we win the Premier League. Four years is too long for a club of our size not to win a league title. In the grand scheme of things, the domestic cups mean nothing.

Would surely need a defender, or at least Matic?

I should have said "in the last ten years". Rooney has never lived up to his potential, though he is a very good player technically.

Got the link for this mate?

My work here is done.

But my point still stands; we can't say Zouma is a Chelsea academy product