The only place to be

Nice troll.

Maybe we should have bought AVB and loaned him out too.

We could always stick another player in there if we need greater solidity, but I think with the right ball-winner like a Chalobah or Ake or even a Capoue then you'd have enough energy there to control the other team. The best way to stop a team attacking is to not let them have the ball though.

So we should have stuck with him up to the second leg against Napoli? The guy made too many mistakes and burnt too many bridges here, but he seems to have learnt from that which is what you'd expect from any young manager. The Chelsea job probably came too soon in his career though. As for his signings, I don't think he's any better or worse than the average manager.

Which is why you play someone more defensive alongside him - ideally I'd like that to be Chalobah, but maybe in time it could be Ake as well. It's probably a position we'll look to the transfer market to fill though. What Modric does is move the ball forward in an intelligent, measured manner. He links the defence with the attack and makes the whole team a lot more cohesive whereas at the moment they're disconnected which means we lack numbers in attack.

Really? Sounds like a myth to me. I agree with most of what you said except for the bolded bit. He's never looked up his body as well as he could, especially in the off-season. I think this is why Fergie might be looking to get rid of him now. He's been playing since he was 16 and he was able to play at that age at the top-level not just because he was technically sound but because he was physically strong. But carrying that much muscle does put a strain on the bits you can't strengthen and he's never worked as hard on his body as someone like Ronaldo. I think he's going to struggle as he gets closer to 30 and I don't see him being a top-class striker many years beyond that.

More generalisations about him - nothing specific about his skillset. It's based on watching him over 3-4 years, seeing how he adapts to new challenges and assessing his individual skill set. I've asked a number of times in what ways he isn't ready and all I get are general comments about his age or the type of competition he's faced. So he plays in the PL next year - do we not call him back because he hasn't played in the Champions League? Chalobah is a rare talent. I'm not saying this about Josh. I'm not saying this about Bamford. I'm not saying this about Kane. It's equally important. We're not going to be able to compete at the top level without doing both and spunking money up the wall like it's 2005 won't work in the future. It can't. They're going to win because they've been doing the right thing for almost 20 years. Their success now is founded on their promotion of youth in the 1990s. You mistakenly said that they won with kids in the 1996 season and the fact is United didn't - they won then because they used a mix of young and experienced players, but weren't afraid to throw in youngsters if they felt they were good enough. I think Chalobah is good enough - you point out he hasn't played against top-level folk like Lee Cattermole, Paul Scharner and Luke Shaw. You have a point regarding the way I put that point across. It was frustration. No, that's one way of it happening. There shouldn't be a prescribed method that every player must adhere to. If a player is good enough, then put him in the team and don't bother sending him out on loan. It's debatable whether KDB needed a loan this season. Again, no specifics just generalisations. He's not ready how? So when we're talking about Lamps being kept as a squad player, it's perfectly alright for him to get 30 games a season but Chalobah can only get 15 games a season against poorer sides? Why couldn't he get 30 games a season against a range of sides including Champions League experience in the group stages, League Cup games and even FA Cup games? Oh right, because he isn't ready. Not in any specific way, he just isn't. No. Different players, different skill sets, different physical attributes, different mentalities. Again, this is the generalised view of young players smothering an individual analysis of their values.

Where is it written in stone that he has those players ahead of him? Let him fight for his place and I'm confident he'd get game time. And he lost to a team that had a 19 year old centre-back. It comes down to the individual. And then another season....and then another season....makes sense - they're legends after all. I agree. Without Lamps we still have that mix in my opinion. Good point about Bale - he had one year in the Championship and was then included in the Tottenham first-team squad. But just think how good he could've been if he had gone on loan to a West Brom or a Stoke. That's what needs to be done right? They need to prove themselves in the PL first. But Spurs didn't do that and look at what they're left with. The poor kid can barely use his right foot. Just another young player lost before their time. Sometimes the club and the fans have to show a willingness to trust youngsters with exceptional talent. It might be rocky, but it could be massively rewarding but we've been to chicken to do that and it's damaged us. Sometimes I think we'd be better off if we finished 5th and couldn't sign the Falcaos and *insert flavour of the month player here* and actually had to play the youngsters because we didn't have any other choice. We might sell a few less t-shirts but it might actually make us better in the long run. I don't think we can trust him until he's at least 25, got a couple of hundred league appearances, a few England caps and at least one European Cup. Better yet let's just sell him and buy him back when he's worth £30 million. Then we can put him on the bench whilst a 43 year old Lamps chases goal number 240. :blue scalf: :blue scalf:

Stubbed my toe on my lifesize statue of Nathanial Chalobah.

Not developed in what way? Physically? Mentally? Does he need to be a size 11 to be a premier league footballer and he's only a size 10 and a half? And no he's not the same as Lamps. Do you know what he's perfect for though? The double pivot. He can distribute the ball well, defend, win balls in the air and actually act in a composed manner unlike a certain Brazilian. He also chips in with the odd goal. You bring up this old thing about experience. What type of things do you mean? Things like the importance of local derbies? Things like securing a two goal lead and not throwing them away? People talk about Lamps like he's a fucking mascot on Blockbusters rather than a footballer. If we're going to keep pussyfooting around with youngsters and overpaying 'big names' then we might as well shut the academy and plant potatoes on the practice pitches. Transition has to be handled slowly - yeah, because otherwise we might find ourselves finishing 6th in the league and getting eliminated from the Champions League at the group stages.

Stuff like that annoys me. In what way is he not ready? Yes the jump is big but players thrown in can swim sometimes, especially if they're special talents. He's looked a class above at EVERY level he's played at and I think you could put him in the first-team against West Brom or Southampton and he'd not look out of place. He has a composure and maturity that you can't teach players, no matter how many loans they go on. Physically he's there. Technically he's there. Mentally, he's always had something special about him. He's the type of player supporters want to see on the pitch representing their club.

In what way is Chalobah 'far from ready'? How far? Is that in minutes, months, loans, litres or centimetres? Mata has been as much of a leader in this team as anybody this season. In fact JT has played just 9 league games all season. We're in transition and we're playing a style of football that simply doesn't suit Lamps. Sure we could keep him around to play against the Stokes and West Broms of this world but couldn't we be blooding the future rather than stroking the past?

Klopp plays fairly similar football, and isn't available. In fact Mourinho's style would fit our players pretty well wouldn't it?

Maybe that's a bit of an overreaction.

Maybe he's going to use Ake against United - Benitez might go up in my estimation.

Actually, you couldn't. That quote is a misnomer because that team wasn't just kids. They had players like Schmiechel, Bruce, Pallister, Irwin, Cantona, Keane and even Kiggs and Sharpe who were all experienced players much like Cech, Terry, Cole, Mikel, Mata, Ivanovic, Cahill and even Luiz would be for us. Again, we need to strike the right balance. I'm not saying we shouldn't be looking in the transfer market, but that we should also be looking at our academy. All those players we want to spend millions of pounds on did come through academies though and we've spent a lot of time and money on identifying and recruiting as many as we can before they join someone else's setup.

You have an agenda regarding Mourinho and that's fair enough, but really? First you say he's not a good tactician and now you're saying he needs to improve his man-management skills?? Do you want me to start a thread about Michael Jackson so you can criticise his dancing (when he was alive obviously)?

You say I'm singling out certain examples, but you're doing the exact same thing when talking about United. They've been happy to let players (legends even) leave when they felt they needed to move on. Scholes and Giggs are the exception, not the rule. Who was the famous quote (which I'm paraphrasing) 'you'll never win anything with kids' said about? They let some big players go in the summer before that quote was uttered because they looked at what they had and put their faith in it. We're afraid to do that despite us having as fine a crop of young talent that I can remember including one young lad who I truly believe can be Chelsea and England captain. But he's not won any Champions Leagues yet so he can fuck off can't he.

That game was almost 20 fixtures ago - since then has he been someone you can look to build around? Is he actually part of the core of our team now? Most fans recognise that the midfield is our biggest weakness, yet he's part of that isn't he? Isn't it our core which is weak? Isn't that what we need to replace because we have all the shiny accouterments surrounding the core but not the core itself. Don't tell me what I do and don't know, especially if you're going to be wrong about it. I think Chalobah is ready, I've long said it. People keep wanting to take things slowly....because that's worked so fucking well with all the other youngsters we've had come through. Ake might still need more time but he stepped up against Boro - why not give him another shot? And Piazon is getting starts for a team who would probably give us a run for our money on current form. I've never thought he was as good as the hype suggested, but he's put in a couple of good shifts and surprised me. Why not give him a shot? As for Lampard's experience - where was that against QPR? Before that game people were saying that he needed to be kept around to tell the young players and the foreign players what certain games meant to this club and it's fans. Google fucking Maps would've done a better job of telling these players what this fixture meant to the club because it was the most pathetic performance I've seen in years. 'Decent in the pivot'. That's the new standard for our midfield is it? Decent. That's what earns you £80k-£100k p/w at Chelsea Football Club in 2013? I won't disagree that he's a good role model, but so is Mata. So is Lukaku. So is Cech. So is Cole. You're at Chelsea - if you can't work out on your own that you need to work harder than the rest then fuck off. I do sometimes wonder how much people believe this stuff to be true, and how much is down to Football Manager. We need to keep Lampard around so we can right-click on his name and make him mentor John Swift. Isn't the flipside of this that we have a person who costs £5 million p/a in the same position as 3-4 youngsters who also play that position for the same amount? That's one more high-priced 35 year old player in front of them. Because god knows you can't win anything with kids (and even if Lamps left we'd still have plenty of experience in Cole, Cech, Mikel, JT, Ivanovic, Cahill, Ba and even Torres). At least having the four of Lampard, JT, Terry and Cole until next season is essential IMO. At this very moment, these four are the soul of our club. No. No they're not. The supporters are. These are very good players without doubt but when they're dead and buried the club will still be here. It was here before any of them arrived too. At some point you have to move on from them and now is a good time to start doing that.

You'll not get an argument from me regarding Benayoun, Torres and Malouda but surely if you're going to suggest keeping someone around you have to look at the implications of that. You say he offers massive amounts on the field - does he do that consistently enough? I'm not sure. Yes he was great against Everton, but our midfield was god-awful for the first 30 minutes and we were lucky to still be in it. The next game was QPR at home - was he great in that? Everyone wants Frank to stay - but is it best for the club going forward? I'm still not sure.

I haven't forgotten any of those performances and I've explained that he does well when we're under pressure and exploit teams on the break but I don't think you can win consistently using that tactic. If we want someone who can dictate the tempo then I really don't think Ramires is the man for us. At least two of those games came with him playing on the wing as well. I don't see a future Chelsea team with him as a winger and if I did then I'd get comfortable with the Europa League because that would be our level. What I wish for is for Chalobah to be given the chance because I truly believe he's a better footballer than Ramires. I think he's better technically, I think he has a composure and maturity that Ramires could only dream about and I think the sooner he's in the middle of the park for us the better. Ramires has a great engine and works hard which is why he'll always be loved by the fans, but I'd rather have a player who can move the ball around well and make the other team run around like headless chickens.

His comments were classic Mourinho. He won't have wanted to win that way and he'll make sure his players know they have to do better in the next round.

West Brom are not a very good team, and Clarkey didn't have them put enough pressure on the midfield two (Pulis did the same against us). That is Ramires's level apparently and if we're going to keep him around then we have to keep him as a back-up and look to replace him either from within or in the market. As for Watford, I think Ramires would probably look okay but I actually rate Chalobah's technical capabilities higher than Ramires. He has a composure that Ramires simply doesn't and you might say that's down to the opposition he faces, but I disagree. He's shown it at every level he's played at. Combine that with his workrate and physical presence and I would be absolutely comfortable with us flogging Ramires and replacing him in the squad/team with Chalobah.

How much should the club commit to a bench player per year? £5 million? That's in addition to the £20 million (plus wages) we're going probably end up spending on his replacement. Why does the club need him around if we're transitioning to the 'next level'? If we're going to stick with the 4231 (which Mourinho played last night) then is Lampard and effective playmaker? I don't think he is. I don't think he's the type of passer we need in that position - yes he can spray the ball around but I don't think that's what you want in that position. If we're talking about transition, then why don't we look at the players we already have like De Bruyne, Chalobah, Ake, Piazon and maybe even Oscar? When you start a new job, do you want the old guy sticking around? I think he's a good role model, but we seem to have players with the right attitude coming through like Mata and Lukaku. Yes the Everton game was great but that was almost 20 games ago - the game after that was a 1-0 defeat to QPR which Frank started in. Has there been a game since where he's given a great performance? Stoke away maybe but they were woeful in midfield. I'd love him to stick around for years but the question of what best serves the club needs to be asked. And the same will go for JT next year.

Just watching that interview now and I'm beaming. He's just such a great guy, a lot like Drogba was. Humble. I really want this guy to be a success at this club not just because he's a young talent but because I like to see guys like him succeeding, and succeeding at Chelsea. When you listen to how he approaches the game, he's already a role model for the kids in the academy and to see him make it here would surely send the right signals to them.