The Mak

Wow. What a hit by Danny...

Poor performance. Even when we were 2-1 up, I had no confidence at all and by the FT whistle, I wasn't even angry. I just accept it now. Newcastle's second just seemed to sum up the team at the moment, mistakes everywhere; Torres gives the ball away, JT does a Luiz impersonation and Cech palms it to Sissoko. Edit: Also, Newcastle fans are the biggest bunch of ungrateful scum in the league. Fair enough, boo Ba, get it our of your systems or whatever makes you feel better; but booing him when he's legitimately injured after receiving a boot to the face? When he's clearly bleeding profusely? They wouldn't even have a season to save if it wasn't for Ba. Half the players they signed wouldn't have came to a team rock bottom of the league. Scumbags.

Haven't been convinced by JT at all this season. His decision making in particular has been awful. Yesterday he was doing his best Luiz impersonation. Yes, he's just coming back from injury, but I also remember his Juve mistake. I think his injuries and age have made him a bit lazy. He's been caught a few times now getting the offside trap wrong, very uncharacteristic.Hope I'm wrong though...

I'm afraid if we're losing 2-0 leads to the likes of Southampton and Reading, along with games/performances like QPR, Newcastle, Brentford etc. I just don't see where the points are going to come from at the business end of the season. I wouldn't mind, but the performances just seem to be getting worse. At least if we lost with Robbie, we went all out, the players left it out on the pitch; but with Rafa, not only do we draw/lose, the players' performances make me want to gouge out my own eyes.

Cheers Torres...if you can't play it forward, play it back to Ramires...

@ for me!

I love it, absolutely love it. I'd like to think he put a bit of extra effort and muscle into that, just for us! I don't know about you guys, but after watching that a few times, I see a guy who had the ability to keep pace with Messi; Ok, Messi is running at more of an angle, but Essien started running, practically, at a standing position - while Messi was already in full motion...with our current DM problems, I don't know why he's in Madrid right now to be honest.

The only way for fans to protest is with their feet and stop going to games. Still, it's easier said than done. It was tried a couple of years ago for a CL group game (against Zilina in the 10-11 season if I'm not mistaken?), but the club ended up giving away free tickets to get bums back in the seats, even if they weren't Chelsea fans. I, for one, was planning on going to at least one game at SB before the season was out, but I'm not now. Why should I spend my hard earned money on flights, tickets on accommodation to see a team where the majority of players seem to not give a shit? Why should I give them my money? I'm not even buying a kit this season, and it's the first time in a long time I haven't. I'm not giving the club another penny until, at least, the fat spanish waiter and his blonde busboy are out of the club.

The "no time" to bring on Terry comment really gets on my tits. It's actually unbelievable he actually said that. I mean, yeah sure, don't bring on our captain, an extra defender, for the last few minuties, don't break Reading's momentum, don't waste time, don't give our team leadership... I'm not just coming down on Benitez here. If I was in the Chelsea locker room now, I'd probably slap everyone of them, bar Lamps and Mata.

For the past number of weeks, I've thought about just not watching any Chelsea games until that fat bastard is gone, but I just can't do it...and then I sound a partner in an abusive relationship: "Maybe this time things will be different.", "Maybe Ba will start", "Maybe Lampard will go CAM". Nope. None of those. All I get is a fantastical insight into new ways the master tactician can throw away points/leads/cups. It's quite bewildering how this fat oaf is still here when you think about the reasons we've done away with other managers, like: not winning the PL/CL etc. dispute previous success...how about not losing points against fucking relegation candidates?!? That's QPR, Southampton and Reading we've dropped points to. Read that line again if you dare. Not to mention the cup competitions. To go from absolute joy in May to feeling like this is too much. Yeah, winning the CL was worth it and all, but who ever imagined this? If anything positive comes out of this, it's Roman realising that, not only should he stay out of certain decisions, but the board are a bunch of fucking retards, and that a group of shit-slinging chimpanzees could've overseen a better transitional period...but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Someone make it stop, please make it stop, it's like a nightmare...please transport me to the summer so this season can be over and Benitez and Torres can just fuck off from the club I love so much. Seriosuly, it's like being paralysed and watching your girlfriend getting doubled teamed by your fat arch nemesis and his little blonde minion.

A nice deadline day song, featuring our very own Roman!

Well Courtois' name could be 'Arseface' for all I care, but I'd still reckon he'd still sell more shirts than both of them...

If this is true, it's stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, a thousand times stupid, for a number of reasons: 1. He's not needed, as we have Courtois. 2. Blackman isn't a bad backup, especially in comparison to the likes of Hilario. 3. I don't think he wants to sit on the bench and become Ross Turnbull. 4. If this even hints at the idea of having Courtois as part of the Falcao deal, our board is officially the worse board in the world because (a) they haven't learned that big money signings like Torres don't always guarantee immediate success and (b ) they can't see that Courtois has the potential to be our keeper for the next 15+ years. I'd rather have Courtois, Ba and anyone except Torres up front (Cavani?), than Ba, Falcao and no Courtois. 5. Of all signings to make in January, of all positions, they want a GK? Is it Michael Emenalo who is suggesting these signings? Is this the guy who thought if we have every no. 10 in the world, we'd play like Barca? Is this the same guy who has such credentials on his C.V. as coaching a little girls football team? Don't people like him need supervision with safety scissors?

Bossing games, bullying teams and just plain out-muscling pretty much any team we faced...those were the days. We could also play it on the ground when we wanted to as well, the perfect balance of skill and raw power! Like Essien at his peak, in a nutshell really!

If this is true and he ends up at QPR/Aresnal, it goes to show incredibly inept our board are. Our only experienced DM is at the ACON and young DM, Romeu, is out for the season. Lampard, Luiz and Ramires are not DMs. And if we're hell bent on 4-2-3-1, surely it makes sense to have more than two, true DMs?! No value in January they say? £8-10m for this guy would be pretty good value in my book. Once he adapts, he'd be an improvement on Mikel in my eyes: just as strong with quicker movement and passing.

Calmmmmm downnnnnnnn. Did I say he's a shit player? No. I was clearly making light of the fact that he didn't have a good game. Yes, he has no confidence at the moment and does need a run of games, but go ahead and crucify me for making a joke. You's swear I said: "Marin is shit, GTFO you little German prick". Jesus, I can see why some people say they don't post on TC as much as they used to, especially if your being attacked by your fellow supporters at the slighest hint of negativity in your opinions.

I voted for Mata, but he was changed to Oscar? Changed it back to Mata now though. Anyway, I voted for Mata because I felt his introduction and movement freed up the likes of Oscar, as he didn't offer much in the first half.

...for Brentford.

Sadly, that's also true mate. I would like to think we have a slight edge by having the likes of Hazard, KDB and Lukaku, but I'm not sure that would matter if the likes of Barca came knocking...at least we would quadruple our money though! I mean, if De Gea is worth near £20m, surely Courtois would be £25m+? I'd also like to think we wouldn't sell him on the cheap to Barca since they openly hate us.

Exactly YouNameIt, but the job of the manager is also to inspire his players, to make them want to win, to put the effort in even against the smallest of teams. I don't know about you, but the last thing Benitez does is strike me as the inspiring type. It's like what I was trying to say the other week, the players just seem to get tactics from Benitez and not much else input; then Materazzi seemed to confirm my suspicions: I just hope Benitez goes to Madrid or anywhere except here for next season. I don't care who we get, because, at the moment, he isn't much (if at all) an improvement on RDM. Edit: Also, RDM seemed to rely on his ability to inspire the players, to have their respect; In no way was he tactically inept, but he was just not at Chelsea's level, especially when we didn't have Drogba as an outlet. Whereas Benitez is by far tactically superior to RDM, he does not inspire them. We've just gone from one extreme to the other. Imagine what we could do with a manager that had both attributes? For the record, I put our better second half performance down to Mata alone, and Benitez only made that change because he desperately wants a trophy to show Roman at the end of the season. If this were a league match, do you think he would've made that sub? Would he fuck.

Are the 'Benitez protectors' watching this?

Torres, on 175k a week and we play him against Brentford...just think about that for a second...

It's such a difficult decision and predicament, and one any club would kill to be in. However, as much as I love Petr with my heart, my head is telling me not to even risk losing Courtois. We should loan him out as long as time would allow, but there is no way we should risk losing out on him. It might take him a season to adapt, but honestly, I wouldn't mind if it means we have a world class keeper for the next 15+ years, instead of 5+. Also, he's so tall, and not to mention confident, I can't see a De Gea situation at all. Besides from that, there's been situations this season where I thought Cech could've done a lot better. I sometimes feel that if we had the younger, hungrier keeper (like Cech himself once was), some goals could've been avoided. We're in quite a privileged situation, going from one world class keeper to the next is rare, and we have a chance to do it 3 times on the trot: Cudicini - Cech - Courtios. (A thing for C's maybe?) Don't forget, while Cech isn't as injury prone as Cudicini was, Cudicini wasn't far off Cech's age now when we decided to replace him; despite having fantastic season's previously.

That's actually a great idea! ...if they didn't cost a truckload! When there's players like Isco floating around for the same price, at the same age, I know who I'd prefer! I know Zaha is more of a winger, but still, in terms of quality at this particular moment, Zaha wouldn't be near Isco. But this is what is what happens with the inclusion of the 'British/English Premium'.