The only place to be

Put out a team of reserves. Paulo, Ake, Marin, Benayoun, Turbull, maybe even Saville and Feruz. The problem isn't now or Sunday but the next set of ties and the ones after that. We should finish top four but we should also have beaten Reading, Southampton, QPR and Newcastle. No offence, but your thinking seems to be based on something that isn't a reality at this point in time.

So we rotate like we have done tonight? Playing Mata, Hazard, Lamps etc? And it's not just about rotation. That's not the reality of professional football. You spend the week leading up to a game preparing for it, working over in-game scenarios. If we take this competition seriously we face playing on a Thursday night and then having just two days (and almost no full-on sessions) preparing for tough league games. Getting knocked out isn't just about avoiding a few midweek games - it's about maximising our chances of finishing in the top four when (and here's the dirty little secret of our season) we're not that good.

That's not far off the team I'd pick (no Hazard or Luiz) but I'm saying that we should get out of this competition as soon as possible which some people don't seem to understand. Let's put it another way. Do you want us to play extra games before we face Spurs, United, Everton and Swansea?

What is the team you would've picked?

Is English your first language? Is it in the top ten? Fair point - what about the next rounds though?

That is a fucking ridiculous team to put out. Every time you think Benitez has reached the zenith of being a cunt, he finds ways to top himself. I'll readily admit I know very little about hockey. You just need to admit the same about football/Chelsea.

What is a weakened team at the moment? Two of Luiz, Cahill, Terry and Ivanovic would have to play centre-back, two of Mikel, Lamps, Rami or Luiz would have to play midfield and three of Oscar, Mata, Hazard, Marin and Moses would have to play behind Torres. The truth is that we simply don't have that many players at this moment in time and I'd rather we didn't spend any time preparing for a game against foreign opposition when we could spend it preparing for a game against a league rival. I'm not going to be cheering for Sparta but it would probably be beneficial for our future if we got knocked out ASAP.

I don't care how many FA Cups we have - it's still more meaningful than the Europa League and if you actually think the FA Cup is like some cup in Switzerland then we'll just have to add that to the growing list of things about Chelsea Football Club that you don't have a fucking clue about. So do you want us to have more fixtures in between important league games then? Do you get more money for winning the Europa League or qualifying for the Champions League? It's actually a pragmatic reaction to the reality of the situation. Exactly - this competition used to mean something. Now it's just a placeholder until the CL get's expanded yet further Look, if we had the players to guarantee top four and win this thing then I'd probably be in favour of it. But we don't. Add to that the future rounds are scheduled around games against teams like Swansea, Man United, Liverpool, Everton and Spurs and you have to weigh up the reward of playing in this competition against the cost of long trips overseas and tired bodies.

I don't think playing defensive football is necessarily 'tactically outthinking' them. What we saw was two teams playing exactly how everyone expected, and United executing their gameplan slightly better than Madrid.

Do people think Mancini will get sacked then? I thought City were all about stability and we were the ones who sacked managers. Now they're going to sack a guy after he won them the league just last season? As for Moyes, I've said before that he could be great but I have no idea what type of football he'd be serving up if he came. He's always fit his teams around the players he's had available to him (like moving Fellaini forward or focusing the play down the left to take advantage of Baines and Pienaar) whereas at Chelsea he'd have the resources to play the type of football he'd want. I just don't really know what that would be so it's hard to suggest him.

Actually you hear many European players who say they grew up watching the FA Cup. Maybe it's not as big as it once was, but I defy any Chelsea fan not to well up when they hear Abide With Me. I'm talking about sentimental value not as as Englishman, but as a Chelsea supporter.

Because the FA Cup is the FA Cup. It's the greatest national cup competition in the world and has a fine history. The Europa League is almost certainly going to be junked in the next few years, or become even more of a joke then it already is. For teams like us, it's a punishment for being crap in the group stages of the CL and now it simply becomes nothing more than a distraction.

I don't think that means he was tactically out-thought though.

But it's not a decent trophy to win, whereas the FA Cup is. The Europa League is won by teams on the way up (Porto, Shakhtar, Atletico) not by teams already at the top like us. Winning it doesn't really mean much - in fact it will just be a tangible reminder that we got knocked out of the Champions League.

My view is that we can't do both. I'd rather have a week's rest in between games to give us the best chance in every match. The FA Cup is slightly different because.....well that's a proper trophy. The Europa League is a silly little thing on it's last legs that will probably be shit-canned in the next 3-5 years. It's a pain in the arse more than anything and one of the worst things about getting knocked out of the CL is Thursday Nights, Channel 5. What makes it worse is that I've got a bad feeling the fat cunt is going to take it seriously and prioritise this over the top four, because the top four doesn't benefit him that much. He can't have his photo taken with a trophy for getting fourth, he can't really put it on his resume and it doesn't get as much attention in Spain. Fuck I hate Rafa.

I don't know if it says more about sportsmen or South Africa that these scenarios are equally realistic, but he did want to raise the profile of the Paralympics and make it more like a 'proper' sport - I'd say he's gone some way towards that today.

No-one's going to disagree with you. He's one of the finest pure athletes this game has had in the last couple of decades and that's simply a sign of his dedication to his sport, which people sometimes want to ignore as they paint him as a diva or arrogant. He's football's Lebron James - a genetic (although there have been whispers) freak who is physically head and shoulders above the competition. Compare him to Wayne Rooney - a lucky chav who spends his off-seasons smoking and drinking whilst cheating on his wife.

Apparently been charged with murder and reports that there were previous 'incidents' between the two. Doesn't sound like he'll have a leg to.....well it's been done to death already. I know plenty of guys who lived there and some of the stories are horrendous, but apparently this place was pretty safe which is why there were red flags when he said it was an intruder. Not to stereotype, but according to a mate it's very rare that white women break into houses over there.

Why? Just think, the next round comes in between West Brom, Fulham and West Ham. These are all games we need to win but the type we struggle with. I'd rather not have the distraction of a tough game against Ajax or a trip to Bucharest in between so the sooner we're out of this competition, the better. Oh, and if we win that then we have a quarter-final before the game against Spurs. Then the Semi-Final 1st leg comes before a game against Swansea, and the second-leg is a few days before we play Man United. And the final is just a few days before we play Everton on the last day of the season. I don't think the schedule could be tougher to be honest. We NEED to throw this game. There's no other way of saying it.

How so?

What exactly do you think Ron Gourlay has done wrong in terms of the remit of his role? Do you have a problem with the commercial deals he's put in place or the role he's played in the stadium issue? Are you unhappy with the part he played in our recent finances? What makes you think that 'people' don't know who they should report to? Why do you not criticise David Barnard in his role as club secretary? In fact why does David Barnard always get a free pass on criticism (not that I'm saying he should be criticised)?

Let's say.....two-four years down the line. Courtois Azpi Luiz Chalobah Shaw Fellaini Oscar Moses Mata Hazard Lukaku Blackman, Wallace, Cahill, Kalas, Omeruo, Bertrand/PVA (one sold), Loftus-Cheek, McEachran, De Bruyne, Piazon, Feruz, Markovic

I think JT is just being realistic. Top Four qualification is a must for this club and if that means sacrificing the Europa League and FA Cup then so be it. That isn't a small club mentality, but a realistic, pragmatic approach to our situation. I've seen you arguing the toss about the football we played in the CL last year, saying that it was the only way we could win and you're spot on. It was a pragmatic response to the reality that Barcelona were a better team than us. Sure we could've gone out and tried to outplay them but that would've been suicidal (as Wenger demonstrated not too long ago). Sometimes you have to take the long term view that a bit of restraint now allows you a bit of freedom later.

Really? Right now we're third in the league. Our main problem has been throwing away leads and leaking goals. Our main striker (Torres) has scored just 7 goals in the league despite a lot of playing time. Ba has scored 14 (13 at Newcastle) and Lukaku has scored 10 (the same number as Rooney). I'm not saying we couldn't use a 3rd option in the mould of Anelka or Kalou who could play on the wings as well, but I don't think we're quite as far away as you might be suggesting.

So you're saying an egotistical man is worried about what will happen if he gets sacked? In my experience, egotistical men don't tend to countenance failure when approaching a new task. I think he's the same. In fact Chelsea have gone through about eight managers since he left and finished outside the top four last year. The bar has been set fairly low. Roman is not a stupid man by the way. Torres cost £50 million so of course they need to try and make that deal work but he's shown he's capable of learning the error of his ways. In fact isn't every sacking of a manager a tacit admission of failure when appointing them? Wouldn't a man capable of admitting he made a mistake still have Scolari or AVB in charge? It may well be a slightly different situation, but there's still history with the Barcelona guys and Mourinho comes with a lot of baggage. They've shown a dislike for such shit with Balotelli, although they did stick with Tevez. I don't think Citeh are the type of club we are, or the type of club that suits Mourinho. We've always been a glamourous club who place a premium on style (which is why it pisses me off when people moan about us going for the glamour names or the drama attached to the club) and we've got that arrogant swagger that Mourinho has. It's why he was such a great fit for us in the first place and why someone like Benitez would never be right even if he didn't have his history with the club.