not a big fan

Whatever Uefalona fans say, Chelsea has screwed them up the most in the Champions League over the last 10 years, 4 times if my memory serves. The couple of times they got past us they could only do so thanks to dubious officiating decisions. I used to have a fairly favourable view of them when Hagi and Stoichkov were still playing for them but now I really hate them, mostly b/c of the hordes of fanbois who have been going from forum to forum preaching the superiority of their attacking/tiki-taka football and the uberomnipotence of Pep while disdaining defensive football.

Domestically Chelsea will possibly finish 2nd or even 1st if Di Matteo stays or we sign some highly successful veteran like Capello, otherwise it'd be the 3rd or, god forbid, even worse. Man City's squad looks awesome on paper but there're just too many big egos at Etihad for Mancini to handle. In the Champions League, the winner will be an Italian or a German club, while my heart wants either Milan or Dortmund, my head thinks it'd be Juven. Since no team has ever succeeded in defending the title and we're in the process of rebuilding, we will probably be eliminated in the quarters or semis. Unlike some other members, I hope we'll run into Barca in the knock-out stage. The 1st reason for that is that they've failed to beat us fair and square for like 10 years or something. And the 2nd is that if Barca screws up against us AGAIN, it'd be sweet to see the QQ of tika taka fanbois.

Pep's is good, but with the amount of top-class players he's had at his disposal and the Spanish league's duopolistic nature, plus, Mourinho didn't take the Madrid job until 2 years ago, it's no surprise to me that he's been a huge hit for the last 4 years. I personally much prefer Dortmund's Klopp, a real, proven talent in nurturing young players who's single-handedly turned a crappy side of then nameless players such as Kagawa, Sahin, Lewandowski etc. into one of the most domestically dominating team in Germany's football history in just 4 years. His pressing style of football is also much more interesting to watch than Barca's passing style. If Pep does come to the Bridge, I hope Roman will give him enough time to adjust himself to the Premier league, 2 or 3 years at the very least probably, otherwise it's more likely than not he'll end up being a big flop like AVB.

I have no doubt JT is an axxhole in real life but many famous people are like that. What's important is that as a footballer he has made many contributions to our success over the last 10 years. Moreover, 31 is not the end for a defender. Don't forget that even in their 30s Paolo Maldini and A. Nesta were still rated among of the bests in the world, and JT is on the same level as them, technically. Despite having become a bit slower he is still a rock in Chelsea's defense with a lot of experience to pass on to new players such as Cahill, and a leader on the field and in the locker room. I'm sure if the new manager adopts a proper rotation policy he'll still be very useful for the club for at least 2 or 3 more years.

I think the problem w/ Di Matteo is not the term of the deal being only 1 year but is that he knows the board will most dedinitely replace him w/ Pep at the end of the next season regardless of results so he's prolly more interested in moving to a mid level club like Villa where his future is less uncertain. This is a situation where no one is at fault. If he decides to go I'll wish him the best of luck.

This guy is technically good (I watched more than 10 BVB games this season soo I know that), hard working and humble, but 20 m is too steep considering his contract has only 1 year left. Imo it'd be better to just wait until the end of the next season to get him for free.

If this kid thinks he deserves a salary of 200k pounds/week in the first season at Chelsea then he can go to hell or Man City for all I care since paying an untested newcomer that much will only cause disturbance in the dressing room.

I haven't looked into how that website ranks coaches, nor will I, but at first sight I can know that it's most likely a joke. How in the world can Klopp with an on-going undefeated run of 30 or so games and a domestic double be #17 while ArseNIL's Wenger is #7?

Given that Gourlay has said they will take time to decide who the next manager will be, I think it's likely they want to settle for someone who will excel at the Euro with attacking football. It's probably going to be Germany's Joachim Loew.

All fans are grateful to him, except for maybe only some hardcore AVB fanboys, however not necessarily everyone would want him to become the new manager during this important transition period when Chelsea have to start putting together a new squad capable of not only winning but also winning with style (not that I care about aesthetics as long as we keep winning but this is Roman's ultimate goal). In order to achieve this goal, the club would need to sever the ties with the influential, defensive-oriented old guards brought in by Mourinho but after all that has happened this season I think RDM has become too emotionally attached to them to do so. Moreover, he seems to be more of a motivational type of manager than a tactical/technical one. The board haven't appointed him as full-time manager yet probably because they have taken those points into account.

How about giving RDM a board position with a good salary so that he will stay to help the new manager whoever he is handle the dressing room and in case things go badly and the new manager is shown the door he will once again become an interim manager to rescue us?

I find it extremely hilarious that the Daily Mail is linking us with Spur's boss Harry Redknapp: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2147068/Didier-Drogba-talk-Chelsea-Roberto-Di-Matteo-dark.html Looks like they forgot April 1st was 1 and half a month ago.

Congrats Di Matteo, you've officially become a Chelsea legend!

Capello wouldn't be a bad choice since he has been successful at club level for a long time and still commands respect from almost every player and fellow manager. It's almost certain that if hired he'd at least help us qualify for the Champions League, but he's too old already and the teams he's managed all played defensive football including the great AC Milan of the early 1990s with the Dutch trio, which is not compatible with our board's desire of developing an attractive style of football. I think we should only sign a 1 year rolling contract with him so that as soon as a young, successful, attacking-oriented manager like Klopp or Guardiola becomes available we'll be able to get him without having to pay enormous compensation fee for sacking him as we did in the case of AVB.

Good to see Cahill celebrating. Lucky guy, merely half of a season, which looked set to go down the drain, at Chelsea and he's already got an FA cup to boost his confidence. Now recover and perform well on May 19th.