The Mak

You know, with all the so called 'speculation' around him and Barca, I've often thought it might be better just be better to sell him. Now I absolutely fucking love the tits off Luiz, and I'm not just basing this around today's game, but I've often thought: how long do we have to wait for him to become 'world class' exactly? I mean, we've heard it before, "he has all the tools" etc. etc., but how long do we wait for him to pay dividends? £24m for a defender is a lot. A hell of a lot. What happens if he never really learns from his mistakes? What happens if he continues on with his brain farts? Granted, he has improved significantly, but at the start of each season he seems to take about 5 steps backwards. If the speculation is true, Barca would need to offer around £35-40m for Luiz. Can anyone honestly say that they wouldn't, at least, seriously consider such an offer?! Especially given our glaring need for at least 1, if not 2, top defensive midfielders. Also the fact that Azpi now owns the RB spot, meaning Ivan can go back to being a CB. With that type of an offer, we could get a quality DLP (Beñat?), DM (Capoué?) a young CB (Okore?) and still have change left over! Selling Luiz for such a price would allow us to address other, more glaring, needs for the team...or is it just me thinking this way?!

Granted Ramires had a shocker, but I think some should remember it's not his natural position. He's not a winger, attacking midfielder or defensive midfielder. He's an out and out box-to-box CM; he's more of an athlete than a footballer in all honesty. Putting him in any other position restricts his abilities; a square-peg in a round hole. He did play shit, but I put more onus on Rafa for putting him on the right in the first place.

Can't even watch the game, but can I guess that Ivan isn't playing well? Azpi all the way. And wtf is with him and diving these days? Idiot. One of the strongest players on the pitch...Ok, Didier did it, but Ivan is a defender for god sake. MAN UP!!!

I'd be more along the lines of just saying that Chalobah is more likely to make it with us than Josh. Josh is very weak. I'm not just saying physically, it's actually more of a mental thing with Josh. When the team aren't playing well, Josh looks like a scared little boy. Sorry, but that's exactly what I see; and in his position in particular, having a weak mind is a recipe for an absolute disaster. It's such a pivotal (sorry) position, he'd get stick from both ends of the pitch. Until he shows some character when under the cosh, I won't be convinced by him. However, he is still VERY young, so I hold hope.

If this is true, it's terrifying. Roman can't continue on doing what he's doing with managers for very obvious reasons. Look at it this way: he's sacked so many managers, we're actually considering to rehire a sacked manager...we've gone full circle. It was only a matter of time really, because Roman is going through managers like they're free cupcakes, and there are only a select number of managers who are capable to handle a club of our calibre. Roman is fast running our of options, who is there to chose from? Eventually we'll just have two categories of manager: those that Roman has already sacked and those that are too scared of him to take the job (Pep). We'll be stuck hiring mediocre managers (Rafa) and Roman continuing to fire them, year in, year out. By the summer, we'll have gone through 3 managers in a year. I don't know about you, but I kind of laughed along with my non-Chelsea mates when they'd joke about how many managers we've gone through. But now? Now it's only embarrassing. You said yourself that he told AVB he'd be given the time and space to shape the squad, he wouldn't have said that if he didn't, on some level, want stability as well.

Just close this thread and bury it in a deep hole somewhere, along with all Europa leagues threads with games as boring as this!

It's amazing how much I continue to hate Torres. Like, you'd expect Chelsea fans to just become numb to him by now, but every time I see his face in that shirt, i somehow manage to hate him more. I think it's the whole "I clearly don't give a shit about this club, even though I'm being paid 175k a week" attitude. I'm not sure though...

The awkward moment when you've missed the first 10mins of the game because you hadn't a clue what channel it was on. Found it...eventually.

I was actually going to mention this, but I thought the differences between AVB and Mourinho are pretty clear...and I seriously doubt Roman actually wants the manager merry-go-round to continue in this vein, especially when you consider Benitez has the worst record ever and he's still in a job...

How? Fact is, if José ends up here next season, it pretty much dispels this notion. As you said, if we hire him, Roman is basically admitting he was wrong. Therefore, if this indeed does happen, there's a big probability José would be given free reign over pretty much everything at the club. If anything, I'd guess he'd have more security if he came here, rather than working under Bergiristain at City: a man who was, apparently, against his application to become Barca's manager. We're in a pretty desperate situation regarding the manager department, no Pep, no Klopp, etc. So I wouldn't be surprised if we went all out for José and promised him he could do whatever he wanted; which I, personally, feel would only be a good thing, considering the ineptitude of our board.

I feel we'd have second sewn up by now if we hap ANYONE else in charge. City are bad this season to say the least and Joe Hart is an overrated joke. If we get points off of City and Tottenham, I think we should be ok. Bodes well that Defoe is out. Bale can't save them every time.

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11668/8483316/Chelsea-s-on-loan-goalkeeper-Thibaut-Courtois-coy-over-future Chelsea's on-loan goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois coy over future Why do they have to try to make it out like he's leaving Chelsea or something? He simply just said he doesn't know if he's going on loan again or not. Fucking media.

That's funny because I don't even rate goal.com.

Fair play to you for still having feelings for Torres, mine ran out a long time ago...

Exactly. He hardly did a Reina. He was trying to make it difficult for Maloney, not giving him time on the ball, but he was too composed. People seem to forget that a lot of our goals this season have come from playing the offside trap.

I'm afraid if Hoban is playing for Ireland, he's not 'British talent'!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2146013/Didier-Drogba-The-Chelsea-striker-unplayable.html#axzz2K2tPNyVy I respect Carragher, but especially after he said that. I believe he was talking about this:

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11661/8475692/Transfer-news-Manchester-City-readying-move-for-Napoli-s-Edinson-Cavani It'd be really shit to see him go to City. Aguero and Cavani is not fair. You'd have to wonder though, how would they be able sign a £55m+ player, have their current wage structure and comply with FFP. It all seems to be a farce. There must be loopholes and such. Anyway, personally, I'd much rather Cavani than Falcao. He's more of an all-rounder; holds it up, strong, tracks back, can run the channels, shoot from distant, poach. Brilliant player.

Aguero for obvious reasons. Silva as well. It would be amazing to see Silva and Mata work their magic here, but maybe Mata might not have turned into the player he is now if it worked out that way. Cabaye definitely. Can only imagine him in the pivot now. And at £6m? Daylight robbery. Now for my love affair with Dortmund. Marco Reus and Subotic/Hummels. Beasts. Enough said.

My sentiments exactly!

Yes! This is what I was trying to get at when I started the "Why are we playing 4-2-3-1?" thread. Even 4-3-2-1 or 4-2-2-2 or something. The pivot is such a major part of this formation, but we don't have the players for it. All last season I thought that all we need is a creative partner for Mata and I think we got that in Hazard. Oscar I felt was a bit too much in terms of AMs. However, it's be great to see him alongside Ramires with Mikel/Romeu deep. He'd have to discipline himself though, otherwise it can turn back to 4-2-3-1. Add KDB rotating as a CM and a world class DM and it's a mouthwatering prospect... I hope so! But until then I don't think we're suited to 4-2-3-1 at all...we've more CMs than DMs. It only makes sense.

In terms of what the team actually needed, does anyone else feel that buying Oscar was a mistake? I love him, he has great potential and all, but spending £25m on an unfinished product when there are other glaring gaps in the squad? We could've bought 2 very good or 1 world class DM for that price (Cabaye, Capoué, Beñat etc.). I just feel buying him was a bit of an overkill in the CAM department. We look much more dynamic with Moses alongside Mata and Hazard/Oscar. Or maybe it's just because of this stupid 4-2-3-1 we're so persistent with. We don't have the players for it; no DMs, only one actual striker (Ba), but we go with the invisible spanish ghost up front. Ramires' ability is shackled as a DM, along with Frank's. Luiz is a defender and I've always said there are players that can do what Mikel does, except they can also distribute the ball effectively. It's all bullshit. Emenalo/Roman/the board playing fucking fantasy manager. I don't know, there's so many things wrong, I don't even know where to direct my anger anymore... The other day I thought "be great if we still had Kalou" Ha! I think that says it all!

We can say to ourselves that he wasn't up to Chelsea standards or whatever, but the fact is, he's playing brilliantly for Liverpool right now. Whoever says he's not, is clearly blind. I've one of Danny's biggest critics and, I've no shame in admitting it, City could just not handle him today. And the fact that we sold such a versatile player is ridiculous when you see our "depth". I'd be much more comfortable selling him if we even gave him half a chance at the start of the season, but we didn't. No run of games, nothing. Not even RDM gave him a chance. This is a scenario where I think we were better off not buying Oscar. Don't get me wrong, I love the lad, and one day he'll be great; but when it was announced that we signed him, my first question, I'm sure like many here, was: "Who is he?" and my second was "Is he a DM?". I just felt that Oscar is a bit of an overkill in the CAM department, especially since it seems it's the only position he can play. I love him, but £25m could've been better used in other areas of the squad. We could've had 2 very good or 1 world class DM for that price (Cabaye, Capoué, Beñat etc.). This probably would've given Danny more playing time too. It's just me rambling at this point, but I'd much prefer if we had spent that money elsewhere and had Mata/Hazard for CAM/W, Moses/Sturridge/Marin for the wings and Ba/Sturridge/Torres(cunt) up front. Better yet, it'd be great if Torres fucked off at the start of the season when we could've got money for him, but now we won't even get £12m... Anyway, I wish Danny all the best. If he keeps performing like that, surely it's another nail in the coffin of Emenalo and our board? Doubt it...

Reina = Retard

At least we know BR can get the best out of him, as he can with a lot of young players. But can you imagine him still here with Rafa? Not a chance he's be working as hard as he is now. No way. As I've been saying, Rafa is absolutely useless at motivating players and that's what players like Danny need most, not fucking tactics. I can't stress enough how important motivation is for young players and for the board to appoint, probably the most useless manager ever regarding motivating players, to oversee a rather young Chelsea squad, well, there are no words.... And before someone asks "how I know Rafa doesn't motivate them?", have you seen our performances under him? Seen him at in Inter? Heard Mazzrati recently?