The only place to be

At the same time??? My bet is on Jason Lee and Henrik Larsson - she likes people with weird hair.

And the 'Pancake' rumours. There's a good story to be told once everyone's had a few years in retirement - the Scouse Goodfellas.

There are plenty of good young players we're not linked with, especially at big clubs. There's no doubt he's struggled with making the transition to first-team football, but he's still only 19 and a small 19 year old at that. Look at someone like Cleverley - he didn't make the United first team regularly until he was 22, yet now he's seen as an England fixture for years to come despite him being wildly overrated in my opinion. Josh still has a lot of growing to do yet he's established himself as a first-teamer in a team pushing for promotion. Who knows what he could do in two years? We've never been linked with Wilshere, but I think he could be a decent player. There are certainly question marks over Josh but I'd say a lot of those are to do with his physicality. He needs to grow and learn to assert himself in games, but those are things he can work on. Where Josh excels are in the things that you can't usually learn.

Just thought of a good one - Stevie G. That looked like a done deal and then all of a sudden Rick Parry is on SSN saying he's staying. The thought of pissing off every scouser was delicious and seeing a few of them burning shirts when they thought he was off was hilarious. From a footballing side it would've been interesting to see if Mourinho could've got Lamps and Gerrard playing together in the same team, but ultimately we got Essien instead and Gerrard still hasn't won a title. This season it's been annoying to see Spurs get Vertonghen and in particular Dembele. He could've been great for us in the midfield but it wasn't to be. I can't remember if we were properly linked with Kompany either (might be thinking of Vanden Borre), but he's the one player I would truly love for us to have gotten. Intelligent, aggressive and a proper centre-back.

One minute he's one of Roman's 'yes men', the next he has the ultimate authority on who we offer new contracts to.

Who says it's Gourlay's decision?

I thought that might come out a bit wrong. You know what I mean though. He needs to bite a few more ankles, have a bit more arrogance about him. A bit more Cooper, a bit less Larkham.

Also......and this one is the worst..... Cherno Samba. Rooney not really. Phil Jones a little bit more than the average young English player we get linked with. We were linked heavily with Fellaini and were interested too, but weren't prepared to stump up £15 million for him. Also fun to look at players we're linked with now and probably won't get. Right now that's Luke Shaw.

That's exactly what Josh needs - a bit of spite. Lovely bloke, needs to be more of a cunt.

I think he's off-limits now, but in the future I reckon he could leave. Apologies to anyone I'm about to offend, but if he's got ambition then he'll probably want to leave the Bundesliga at some point. Yes he's at a top German club and he's big in Germany, but so's David Hasselhoff. If you want to be the best you can be then you still have to prove yourself in the Premier League or La Liga. That will probably change as the Champions League grows ever bigger, but right now I think it's the case. That's not to say there aren't reasons to stay at Dortmund but there's a reason Guardiola went to Bayern - he knows he can win the title every year for the next three years and then go to United.

Just a quick thought having seen Gazza in the news earlier, but who are the players that we were linked with that you're gutted we never signed? I remember us being linked with him when he was at Rangers and always thought it would've been awesome to see him here. The other one from that time was Le Tis. There was a point when we looked to be close to getting him for about £5 million (so probably around Hoddle's time) although that could've gone either way. Classic Chelsea player in terms of skill but a lazy bugger. We got Zola instead in terms of skill and had to wait for Benaoyun's arrival to have a nose has prominent. Finally, and this one is still fresh in the mind and extremely painful, Aguero. £10 million cheaper than Torres and would've fitted into this team perfectly. Never hear too much about him in the news and a consistent performer on the pitch. That one hurts to think about.

I'm usually like you about international matches. Personally I think international football is now behind top-class European football in terms of importance and entertainment, but I'm happy that Ashley is getting his 100th cap tonight. It's just a nice milestone for him to reach and I think it's important that he gets more recognition because (bizarrely) he's still underrated by a lot of people. This guy is probably the best player England has had in the last 20 years and one of the few truly world-class players we've developed, yet he still doesn't quite get the credit I think he deserves. Everton build their whole team around Leighton Baines and all of a sudden people think he's ready to clean Ashley's boots?? Plus it's nice to see David Luiz back in action and I hope he keeps Rooney in his pocket all night. A good result is all the Chelsea players coming through unscathed and having good games. In fact I'd love for Oscar to absolutely destroy England and have a part in at least 3 goals for Brazil.

One of the most comfortable players on the ball that we've ever developed. Brilliant vision, tremendous passer and very skilful. The problem is that he's underdeveloped physically. He just doesn't look like a professional athlete and sometimes struggles to get into games not just because of his strength but also because of the pace of the game. He could need another couple of years to get into the kind of shape that someone like an Iniesta or Wilshere is. He also needs to man the fuck up a little bit. His body language can make him look a little scared at times and that's because he's fairly reserved as a person. He has the potential to be a Modric but he needs to up his workrate and just puff that little chest out a bit more because his technique has never been in question.

I will readily admit that Terry is the only product we've produced but I wasn't going to include him because he was pre-Abramovich. I agree with what you're saying here. You make some good points about Emenalo, yet you also suggested we go after Nevin for that role. To use your own reasoning, what other club would he get a job at? The one that he was a Chief Exec of before they went into administration? Should we be approaching him now before Fergie gets his hands on him? My view on Emenalo is that since he's been in his position, our transfer policy has radically changed and for the better in my opinion although driven by Roman's desire to put Guardiola in place in the Summer. He doesn't have the experience that some might want but in my opinion it's way too early to come to a conclusion on the job he's done, but I do think he's being scapegoated for the mistakes made by his predecessors. He's not made the same ones so by those low standards, he's something of an improvement. Great post btw. I think we both agree on the problems in the club, but I think we just see different root causes for them. I'm also fairly optimistic that they aren't still being made (except for the head coach position) and that we're doing things the right way now.

Of course he made mistakes, but he's capable of learning from them isn't he? When he took over, both he and Roman were learning what it was like to be in charge of a big club. Now they have the opportunity to come back a little older, a little wiser and build something at a club they both love. The possibilities of that are exciting, but of course there are risks. My problem is with people dismissing it without applying the same logic to their own choices for manager.

Answering in order.... There have been a few products that have gone on to be part of first teams squads in this country, but the youth program under Roman has only been going for 10 years. Isn't now about the time you'd expect us to be churning out the type of products we are? Don't you think that this group of youngsters holds infinitely more promise than any that have come before? Of those clubs you mentioned, only Man City have a DoF I believe. You can't compare us to Arsenal or United because they have long-term managers who take on those roles. I think that actually might change in the future because Fergie will retire and Arsenal won't make the same mistake of giving a manager so much power. That's why they can't sack him despite a lot of fans wanting that. The two Liverpool clubs don't have one although Liverpool tried and failed with Comoli. On to the club's signings which Emenalo has only been part of for the last few years. We haven't signed a replacement for Makelele because they haven't got round to making one yet. The closest we got was Fellani although Romeu could well be that guy. Essien's replacement is Ramires. We signed Azpilicueta to play right-back and he's done a fucking good job in his first season. Up front we have Lukaku out on loan, Ba bought in for £7.5 million and Islam Feruz in the youth team. The Torres deal fucked us big style but Roman and Ancelotti seem to get a free pass on that one. How can a manager dictate how the whole club plays when modern football doesn't seem to allow for managers to stick around for a long-time? We take children on at this club and they could conceivably spend a DECADE playing in age-group teams. Do we change the style they play every time we get a new coach? Like it or not a DoF provides stability for the whole club when the first-team coach doesn't perform. My opinion is that it's very easy to blame the guys in between the owner and the manager for a few reasons. Firstly, fans don't want to upset Roman because he's done so much for the club and there's always that scary 'what if?' thought in the back of their minds. They want to give coaches (present company accepted) as much support as they can because they do want stability. But most importantly, I think the majority of fans don't have a fucking clue what most of these people do. That's fair enough, it's boring and it's not well-publicised and they're not high-profile people so it's easy to see them as nothing but names on a door. I know a fair few people who work in these roles and they spend most of their time telling people no. They're not popular people and they're easy to target when things go wrong. No supporters like 'the board' at any club and if they do then it's just a respite before the next salvo of 'sack the board' chants. With regards Emenalo in particular, he came into his position when the club was doing the wrong things. We were giving old players big money and ignoring the youth. Now we are playing catch-up to rectify the mistakes that were made 5-7 years ago in both the personnel side and the financial side. I liken it to doing repairs on a Formula One car in the middle of a race.You're still trying to win whilst patching up the chassis and it's damn-near impossible. Despite that we have bought in some great players on decent wages and fees and also secured some thoroughly worthwhile loans for our most promising prospects. The problem with integrating them into the first-team is the same as it's always been which is why we need stability in that position. But too often the good work done by 'the board' is ignored as people look for a quick fix or simply someone to blame.

So say he comes in next year - where does he go three years down the line? Don't you also think it's possible that he might actually have changed after his experience in Madrid? He is human and capable of growth. I'm not saying it's a certainty and that he would work out here, but what are the other options on the table right now?

Then that will be Guardiola's loss. He'll go to Munich, win three titles, get to at least one final of the Champions League and then leave. The next coach will come in, do something similar and then the next one will come in and do something similar again. He's just going to be a cog in the machine and that's fair enough. What's possible at Chelsea in the next decade is incredible. Rather than simply being the next custodian of a footballing giant, someone could come in and create one. You say he 'doesn't quite fit the criteria for what has been assembled' at the same time as suggesting David Moyes for manager. Now I respect his achievements but having watched his Everton sides over the last ten years I don't know if I could say he fits the criteria any better. In fact Mourinho has set up his Madrid team in a way that we could quite easily play with maybe one or two additions. Ignoring the tactics he uses just look at the personnel he employs. I went over it earlier but our players and Madrid's are interchangeable in a number of areas. I'd hope he would stay longer than that if he came back. The man has won everything there is to win in Italy, he won La Liga in Madrid and he won everything in Portugal. I can't see him managing in Germany because he'd be chasing Munich (and he doesn't really fit Munich's style) and whilst Paris is a great city it's a fucking shit league. That may be harsh but it's like a boy band being big in, well France. Great you're amazingly popular......in France. I'd love for him to come back and settle down for a decade.As I said above he took us to a new level and there is a chance to take us to an even bigger one in the next 10 years. Plus there's something to be said for getting every fan in the ground back onside and supporting the team.

He was linked with the club before he moved to Athletico (Arsenal too), but we got Mata instead. :blue scalf: :blue scalf: Good player having a good couple of seasons but think we have zero chance of being in for him.

I had trouble getting a phone signal when I was about to read one of your posts. That was a nice surprise.

We've had a lot of injuries this season too - sack Eva. Plus some of my tickets got lost in the mail - sack one of the women in the ticket office. I stubbed my toe on one of the steps in the West Stand - find the architect and sack him.

Mata is arguably the player of the season. Cole is still one of the best left-backs in the world. Hazard and Oscar have massive potential. Azpi has been a revelation at right-back. We have two of the top fifteen goalkeepers in the world, plus a ton of young talent. Yes it's a challenge but the opportunity to build something amazing here would tempt any top coach. Some of the pessimistic shit really needs a dose of perspective. There aren't a massive number of 'top names' around to be honest. Mourinho, Klopp and Guardiola are probably the three biggest names around right now and one turned us down, one won't leave and the other is still one of the best coaches in world football in my opinion. You call it a marriage of convenience, I look at it as possibility being a nice slice of serendipity. This club still has Mourinho's feel to it and the fans love him, so why not go for it?

Martinez is a fair shout, although he's never had to deal with the pressures of a big club. Moyes is a good manager but I'm not entirely sure what type of football we'd be playing next year if he came in.

That sounds like Andre Vill.....oh wait. There are reasons to say he's the wrong guy but there are so many positives, besides the fact that he just feels right. He feels like Chelsea. He's got that Kings Road swagger that Benitez really doesn't. Maybe we could look at Gus or Blanc or whoever, but they're all gambles.

If Mourinho does come back he'll understand that the way we do things has changed. In his last stint here there really weren't any players who stood out like the ones you've mentioned have. Who else would you suggest?