The only place to be

Bollocks.

I've long said that we weren't being run properly in the early days of Roman's time, but I've seen certain signs that we are trying to build something that can maintain success. Unfortunately the Torres deal and the inability to find a long-term manager has impeded any meaningful steps forward. I disagree with the idea that we've wasted resources on the young players that we've loaned out. There are a few there who have the potential to be first-team members for years to come which wasn't the case a few years back. You're right it doesn't take into the trends of both men, but I think you're overlooking an important thing - they're humans. They have the ability to learn and change their ways, especially when faced with adversity and disappointment. Jose is an older man now. He's won in Portugal, he's won in Spain, he's won in Italy....men change when faced with no more lands to conquer. Their priorities change. Roman finally seems to know what he wants, and if Jose thinks he can do that then we may finally have some stability at the club.

You forgot to mention the Champions League win as well, but one league title in that time isn't good. My opinion is that we didn't do things properly to ensure long-term success 10 years ago, but that we're making the right moves now. The number of players we've got out on loan is part of that because we need youngsters who can contribute to the first-team and this is how they get experience. I'm not entirely sure what a football person is, but the board have many, many advisors who are 'football men'. The Torres deal looks horrendous in hindsight but at the time, it wasn't in most people's opinions. If you want to use that to bash them over the head then you should probably give them credit for the signings of Mata, Azpi, Courtois, Lukaku etc. I'm not saying Jose's the best of a bad bunch either. He's probably the best of a decent bunch. Who would be better in your opinion? When you say 'let Jose bring in his own people to deal with scouting', do you mean we should get rid of the entire scouting network? Has it not done a good job in bringing in young talent? Is two Youth Cups in three years not evidence that we have good youth but struggle to implement them into the first team? Have our signings in the last 18 months not suggested we have a pretty good network? As for letting the academy manager manage, what if he wants to play a different style to the first-team coach? Do we just let him manage or do we need someone who actually makes sure that everyone at the club is working towards the same ideas, and shouldn't that person be a long-term appointment and probably not a coach who struggles to stay at clubs for longer than 3 years? What's your opinion of Emenalo based on? Sorry if it sounds harsh but people seem to keep bringing up 'the board' and those in between the coach and the owner, but I wonder how much of it actually has any basis in reality.

There are lots of people who offer advice on transfers but I'm not sure what the benefit of hiring someone like Pat Nevin to replace Emenalo is.

I don't know if we've underachieved when you take into account what we've won compared to where we were previously. I think some of the big ticket items have been dismal (Torres, Shevchenko etc.) but you have to remember he's been learning on the job and has tried to change his ways slightly. As for the criticism of the board, what do you expect chairmen to be? What's wrong with a lawyer or God forbid a businessman being on the board? That's what boards tend to be. Laporta was a lawyer and Rossell a businessman - just imagine how good Barca could be if they hired a guy who could do 100 keepy-uppies. Yes there are warning signs around Jose, but that's the same with any coach. Of the managers who will be available I'm not sure if there's a better choice.

Is that what you think Emenalo does?

We're not exactly the same, but that's football. Ozil doesn't contribute as many goals as Mata for example. I don't think Varane's price is that much of a factor. We spent more than that on Lukaku and he's out on loan after being wasted for a year. I think he's simply a good player that Mourinho hasn't let age be an encumbrance. I actually agreed with your last point up until a a few weeks ago. I simply don't know who else is out there (realistically, so not Klopp in my opinion) that would be as good a fit for us. I've used the 'never go back' argument against him and it certainly has merit, but there's always an exception to these things. Couples do get back together and are stronger for their time apart. But this is all dependant on Roman and Jose truly learning from their humbling experiences. Neither one is stupid so it's possible.

I think we're one player away from being a very similar team to Real Madrid - Modric. Defence - almost a carbon copy. Midfield - Khedira is their Mikel (but better imo) and we're missing the DLP like Alonso or Modric. Could be Oscar. Ronaldo - Hazard (hopefully) Ozil - Mata Benzema/Higuain - Ba/Lukaku/A.N.Other I think it's encouraging that he's been comfortable using Varane considering the amount of young players we have.

I know Emenalo gets lumped in with 'the board' but I'm not entirely sure he should be sacked. If you accept that we need a DoF then he's not a bad choice, especially from the point of view of a manager. He's not really ever going to pose a threat to their job like a Hiddink might, although Grant showed that anything can happen. We need a long-term presence to guide the club and Jose doesn't tend to stay at clubs for longer than 3 years which means long-term planning is tough. I was in the same boat, but I think Roman and Jose could both be in new positions - they're both humbled men. If they can learn from that (and I suspect Roman is far more capable of that then Jose) then they could build something great together. At the moment they're both on the mat for the first time in a decade. I'm a romantic so I will always look for a good story to be told.

Couldn't you say that every sacking Roman has made is him admitting he got the hiring wrong? I was against the idea of Jose coming back but it might be perfect considering where both he and Chelsea are at the moment. Unless he fancies a go in Paris I don't see many other leagues that would be attractive to him and the only other job possibly open in Summer is Man City. Don't quite know what that would mean for Emenalo though.

We bought Yossi when he was 30 for about £5 million and on a contract reportedly worth roughly £75,000 p/w. I honestly think he sums up everything wrong with Chelsea's transfer policy in the last 5 years.

Firstly, I couldn't give a flying fuck if Falcao doesn't join us. Great player, but we've spent big in the past and been disappointed. We already have Lukaku showing he can do it in the Premier League, as well as Ba and possibly Feruz. But I get your point. The financial loss would be mitigated by the increased TV revenue for the Premier League and I'm not sure how damaging one year out of the CL limelight would be. I also think that any manager we hire would be given more time simply because the bar would be slightly lower. The more I think about the possibility of this happening, the more cathartic I think it might be for everyone at the club. Sometimes you really need to clear the decks and re-assess exactly what it is you're doing.

Just wanted to say thanks for the nomination and the kind words, but every month I've been here Muzchap has been one of the best posters and hasn't won as he should have.

He played well, but he was just an unfortunate victim of the Torres transfer. We couldn't flush a £50 million investment down the toilet without giving him more opportunities and Danny wanted to be the main striker. We did well to cash in on him when we did and we replaced him well with Ba and Moses. Constant recriminations and 'I told you so's' are surely going to get tiresome aren't they?

Pretty fair analysis. Thought a lot of our problems again came from the midfield of him and Ramires (not all by any measure) but that's simply not his fault. He's a legend but in a completely different position from the one he's being asked to play. I do think yesterday's game perfectly summed up where he is in this club now.

Financially it would be bad, but we'd have to count ourselves lucky that it would coincide with the new TV deal. That should mean we could keep hold of most of the big players but we'd have less to spend which might force us to use what we have already. Maybe it's time to blow this team up.

Feruz to be on the bench? Even if Ba can play surely this wakes the club up to the lack of back-up we have. Plus Hazard will be back, which is nice.

Would missing out on the Top Four be the worst thing in the world? It might actually give us a chance to stop and breathe for a moment, rather than continuing this relentless assault on the Champions League. I've said it before, but last year's win papered over a lot of cracks. One could easily argue that we haven't been running this club properly for a number of years, keeping the ship together with duct tape rather than rebuilding it from the hull up. We finished sixth in the league last season and that was about right, but maybe this summer is the right time to blow it up and build something brand new. We've started doing the right things in the transfer market and we're moving towards a point where youth team graduates could slot into the team. Missing out on the CL might actually force us to build something long-term rather than patch a broken system up and go again. We might even enjoy watching the games again (wouldn't that be nice?). I'll admit I'm looking for silver linings in a very dark cloud, but sometimes you have to hit rock bottom before you can do the right things in future.

You really need to stop with the constant insults to decent supporters. You don't seem to be able to post without doing so. And can we get away from this notion that we simply decided to keep Torres and sell Sturridge. Sturridge's contract was expiring and there were people willing to pay double what we paid for him. That simply isn't the case with Torres (as far as I know).

They're actually thinking long-term which is what the club didn't do five years ago. They're looking at getting the most out of a player over the long-term rather than running around like headless chickens throwing money around.

The problem with Essien is that for the last four years, he simply hasn't been the player we all seem to remember him as. The guy played less than 22 games in three of the last four years, suffered two really bad injuries, struggled with form and still made around £100k p/w. This move might reinvigorate him and he might still be able to do a job for us, or he might simply be a more sellable commodity after a season in the shop window. But I don't think anyone knew what to expect from him this season in terms of fitness, so offloading a few million pounds of wages onto another team probably made sense in the grand scheme of things. Without David Luiz and Mikel, he does seem remarkably attractive right now though.

It is kinda boring. Realistically there's no player out there that really get's the juices flowing. Maybe it's a case of us being burnt before in this window or maybe it's just a case of there not being an abundance of top-level talent available, but at the moment I'd take a bid on someone like Fellaini. In fact I'd love it if we recalled one of the players we already owned. Being a Chelsea fan in 2013 = hoping you sack the manager or recall a player you already own. I'm just going to sit in a corner and repeat the same words over and over again...... Sunday 19th May, 17:45.....Sunday 19th May, 17:45.....Sunday 19th May, 17:45.....

Fellaini for £32 million?

Fair play for going to watch that shit last night. A mate of mine gave me a bell at the last minute with a ticket but I passed. I had plenty of legit excuses like being knackered and it being a bit of a mission to get there in time for the kick-off but that's never stopped me in the past if I'm honest. I'm sick of Benitez now though. I could overlook the myriad of things that make him simply not fit to manage our club if he could do the basics right and close out games but he's done it too many times now against weak teams like West Ham, Southampton and Reading. We were lucky against Arsenal too. I'm counting down the days until he's gone and praying that the team's chasing us continue to drop points.

Our Dutch friends have extended highlights of the game. http://www.ajax.nl/Ajax-TV/Highlights-Ajax-A1-Chelsea-A1.htm Feruz looked sharp again but some of the mistakes at the back were woeful.