The only place to be

Why couldn't he be starting here? If he was given a chance to fight for that DM spot, I think he'd have a good chance at winning it from Mikel or Ramires. See this is our problem. We don't give players a chance and then say we can't because they haven't played enough. It's maddening.

This would be how he gets experience, no? Chalobah is good enough in my opinion. Piazon is starting games for a Malaga team who would give us a good game, whilst Ake didn't disgrace himself before although a loan might be best for him if Chalobah and De Bruyne came back. But out of interest, why isn't Chalobah ready? What specific areas of his game do you think he need to work on? What's doing an Arsenal? When people say that, they're usually completely wrong and don't have a clue what they mean. Arsenal's problems weren't relying on youth - it was underinvesting in the squad, selling their best players and actually not having young players of a high enough calibre supplement the first team squad. Now they're stuck buying players like Mertesacker, Arteta, Podolski etc.

I've not seen anyone go too overboard on him. He's an exciting young talent and could be very good indeed.

Torres cost £50 million - he had to be given every opportunity to succeed because of that investment and even up until December/January there were people on here thinking he might be returning to form. Let's not misremember history. Ba. Plus they'd already spent £68 million on Lukaku and Torres. So the board let a player that some people on here were saying wasn't good enough go on loan and now everyone wants him back because he's awesome. Let's not misremember history....again. Sold a player for twice what he was bought for, on an expiring contract without much likelihood of him being used - replaced him with Moses and Ba. Yes they did. Yep. Kenyon looks like a genius because people don't seem to be able to make the link between the mistakes made under his tenure with what's going on now. The board are the perfect scapegoat - they always are at every club who are struggling, especially when fans are too scared to blame the owner in case he picks up his toys and goes home. Does Ancelotti get none of the blame for the signing of Torres? Does Roman? It was a massive mistake that hangs around this clubs neck like a millstone, but he will go and we'll continue building. Right now the mob is angry and they want an easy target.

Am I the only one who thinks we can get a result? It's going to be a fascinating tactical battle, but this is the type of game our players get up for. Our wingers need to get back and cover because that's where they fucked us in the home game in the first 30 minutes, and Mata has to turn it on (although I wouldn't be surprised to see Jones marking him if he's fit). The back six need to keep it solid and the front four will need to take any chances they get, but United are beatable and we've shown glimpses (Arsenal first-half, West Brom, um....Everton) of being able to play like a decent outfit. The players need to have faith and so do the fans.

Bring them all back for next season and include them in first team plans. We need a deep-lying playmaker like Modric or Benat and Josh isn't ready so we'd need to go into the market, but for the replacement for Mikel we could go with Chalobah. Up front rather than going after Falcao we could go with Lukaku, Bent and either one other who can play on the wings as well, or maybe even include Feruz. De Bruyne instead of Isco, and maybe even look at bringing Courtois into the fold and cashing in on Petr. We're in transition so now is as good a time as any to cut ties with the past an build something new. Is he overhyped? He's a very, very promising youngster.

Chalobah Lukaku De Bruyne Courtois Ake Feruz Piazon Is next season the time to put the future of the club in their hands and let some of the older hands take a back seat/leave?

So what should he have said? We overpaid and he's not the player he was? That would've been a genius fucking move wouldn't it? At least you've got the bottle to say Roman should go - it's fucking ridiculous but at least you said it. Is he better or worse than Kenyon was? Who is more to blame?

Sorry, are you are Steaua fan or a Liverpool fan? #livinginthepast

So we're going to stick him in the double pivot? He may well have the ability to move back into the pack like Scholes did, but if that was definitely the case then I can see another team who are crying out for a replacement for an ageing midfielder being interested in him. They'd have a slight advantage being that they already own him.

That's your opinion and you're entitled to it. We're just going to have to agree to disagree. No point in letting things get nasty because we're all Chelsea supporters at the end of the day. We want things to work out for the best because nothing is more important than going to the Bridge to support the team.

Agree. I think he's exceeded all expectations and I'd include him in the squad this summer and give him a fair shot at fighting for a first team spot.

I'm happy to talk about them, but I don't think Emenalo is the issue. I think they pre-dated his tenure when we focused on the short-term and it's only in the last two years that our transfer policy has had any long-term planning about it, both in terms of the players we've signed and the prices paid/wages negotiated. In terms of the loans, almost every single player out on loan is getting worthwhile experience that will see them better players when they return. The simple fact is that we were doing the wrong things for the first SEVEN years of Roman's ownership and that is why we're in the position we're in now. We were only looking at the short-term and up until the Torres transfer, we were overpaying for players who had little shelf-life remaining. Now you can argue that Emenalo's appointment coincided with course correction or that he was the instigator of it, but we are now trying to do things the right way and that was always going to be a painful transition. But that's what life is - you put the hard work in to get the rewards. We have a really, really bright future in front of us and I actually think we're on the right course. The fact that Kenyon gets fuck all criticism speaks volumes for some people's understanding of our current situation. I'm not saying Emenalo is perfect, but I think it's too early to judge him when the results have been at worst a mixed bag based on what was under his control. Now if you want to talk to me about the issues then fine. If you want to insult me, then do that elsewhere.

We don't need to buy another 27 year old striker who is physically on the decline and brings a lot of baggage to the club. We have Ba and Lukaku - let's focus on other areas on the pitch and maybe supplementing those two guys with a third option.

You haven't explained it though. You can't. You don't know the problems, you don't know where their roots lie and you don't know what the solutions are. Don't tell me I live in the past either.

Sorry, but it's the pessimism of writing big games like Sunday's off that pisses me off. We were shit last night and we didn't want to be there, but we'll turn them over in the second leg and move on. We can play well when motivated and I expect us to do well on Sunday.

The squad is a mess. But this is a problem that has been coming for a while and the club are actually trying to remedy it which is why I continually question the logic behind replacing him. Everyone can see that we were treading water this season because Roman wanted Pep, and that's part of the reason we're struggling now. You seem to have a problem discussing things. You called the loans 'fucking baffling' and then acted like a little girl when the logic of them was explained to you. You see only the short-term and don't understand the long-term. I also didn't make a quip about you, but if you think I did then I apologise because that's what grown-ups do when they make mistakes.

I honestly don't know what good replacing Emenalo would do. Yes we have a lot of players out on loan, but we needed to do that because we weren't doing it 5 years ago. We're paying for those mistakes now and firing the guy trying to fix them seems completely pointless to me. As for Gourlay, I have no fucking idea what people want him to do. What exactly do you want to see him doing right now about helping us get top four? And once again the man with the money gets a free pass because fans like you see him as a saviour and infallible. Seriously, some people treat him like Kim Jong Un on here. He can make mistakes and guess what - he has made mistakes. Right now we're trying to fix them and we're having more success in some areas than others but if it makes you feel better, this is about as bad as it gets being a Chelsea fan nowadays.

Oscar, Mata, Cole and maybe Ba. But that's a weak line to take when we're discussing him isn't it? Because other players haven't been good that gives him a free pass? If you don't want to discuss Lamps in his thread then fine. I'd argue that many of our problems (and this other players poor performances) stems from our weak midfield.

I only skimmed it last night, but I see Alex is talking about co-efficients again. Fuck co-efficients. They're meaningless at this point in time. We could have a gold-plated co-efficient that shoots ambrosia from it's nipples and it wouldn't mean shit if we're not in the Champions League next season. The fact is that to be the European Champions you have to beat the best. Seedings are becoming meaningless because the gap between the top 8 seeds and the next 8 teams is becoming wafer-thin. Dortmund, Juventus, PSG and Ajax were THIRD seeds for fucks sake. Money is elevating all the teams competing. The co-efficient at this point in time means absolutely fuck all if we're not in the Champions League draw next season. Fuck this pessimism as well. What the fuck type of supporter throw the club they supposedly love under the bus two days before a big game? I'm sorry we're not as good as we were. I'm sorry we're playing a bit shit. I'm sorry that when you go on FIFA the player ratings are a bit reduced. But has that fucking badge on your shirt changed at all in the last few months? Have the club changed their name? Did we lose some of the history and no-one told me? Too many spoilt fans bitching because it's a little bit hard to support the club right now as if they're entitled to win every game or enjoy every moment.

Glad to see a deserving member won this.

Roman's the boss and every major decision is rubber-stamped by him. You're saying he's hands off, others like to call Emenalo and Gourlay 'yes men' - to me it seems like there are some fans who are so afraid to criticise him because they're terrified that he'll take his money and leave. If you have problems with what has happened at this club in the last 10 months of the last 10 years, then there's one many who you ultimately have to lay the blame at either for hiring the people who made these decisions or for rubberstamping them. Me, I actually take the longer-term view of this club and think we're in a bad moment but i can see the proverbial 'green shoots'. I also think the problems we have are much longer-term than others might and pre-date Emenalo and Gourlay's tenure at the club (in their current positions). But if I didn't believe that, I'd actually lay the blame at the feet of the guy with the billions of dollars in the bank without being scared of upsetting him.

Lamps is a great player. But if you think about all the other great midfielders of his generation then they've probably said at some time that Scholes was the greatest midfielder of his generation. His passing was sublime over the short and long-range, his shooting ability was second only to Lamps in my opinion and really his only weakness was his tackling which was stupendously awful and dangerous at times. United fans would pick him in a heartbeat, Chelsea fans would pick Lamps and neutrals would probably be split about 60:40 in favour of Scholes.

Ultimately the blame lies with Roman then.