The only place to be

Twat.

Throw in Lampard and that's probably £250,000-£300,000 off the wage bill which is handy. I've not been too worried about the future because we seem to be buying well (and young) and also have a few youngsters coming through to go alongside the more mature members of the squad. I'm just shitting it about this season and whether we can stumble towards the finish line.

I think I was one of the ones who did say to give him time and even gave him credit for what looked like defensive improvements, but last night was the final straw for me. His two substitutions made sense, but not bringing on Terry when we were playing with our backs to the wall was monumentally stupid. And his explanation that he 'didn't have time' doesn't make it better. It actually makes him look inept. Throw in the fact that once again we underestimated weak opposition by not fielding our strongest start XI and you have a manager who fucked a game from start to finish.

Begovic would be a good signing considering we're going to be short on back-ups next season, but I really hope these stories about us losing Courtois are bollocks. Even if we're using him to sign Falcao it absolutely beggars belief that we would give up one of the best youngsters in world football. Would like us to sign Fellaini too, not only to strengthen an area we're weak in but also to weaken a team who are chasing us.

Spurs and Arsenal both have Europe too. Personally I'd just stick the youth team out in those games and focus on the league. All the teams have got tough games left and we've got Spurs at home so it's at least partly in our own hands. It's going to be tough and I'm not confident by any means but we've got a four point gap at the moment and the teams around us simply aren't that much stronger than us.

It's possible, but Arsenal are 8 points behind us at the moment. We've got Mikel, Moses and Luiz to come back and we might even do some business today. I'd find it hard to predict how it would turn out 4 months down the line. I couldn't even pick this weekend's results confidently, with us going to Newcastle, Spurs at West Brom and Arsenal home to Stoke. We could be one point clear or seven by Sunday evening.

Who will finish above us? The two Manchester clubs and.....

The thing is you seem to just be talking about personnel changes rather than tactical changes. He could've swapped Oscar or Bertrand for Terry and gone to five at the back. Don't forget, he didn't choose not to bring John Terry on, he ran out of time. This world class tactician couldn't make ONE subsititution in SIX minutes. Oh wait....yes he could. He brought on Ba for Torres, which I don't have a problem with in and of itself, but when we don't bring on a defender when we're defending a lead then it's somewhat irksome. And this isn't kneejerk stuff. This is the same problem over and over again. Underestimating opposition and not playing his strongest team from the start and then making like-for-like substitutions rather than making changes to his oh so precious formation. The point that few people seem to have mentioned is that Reading were utterly dire tonight. They were toothless in attack and aimless in defence and yet we still wasted chance after chance against them. Why are we not playing our strongest team in the league when the priority is fourth? Why has Demba Ba played about 15 minutes in the last two games, starting neither one? Criticising substitutions might be easy. How about criticising a manager's inability to make a substitution when there's six minutes of extra time and you're defending a lead? Because those seem to be the fachts of the evening.

And 5 minutes before that, they bought on Rafael for Anderson and (I'm assuming because I haven't watched the game yet) moved Jones into midfield. Benitez didn't put out his strongest team to start the game and he didn't act quick enough at the end. He said it himself. He said that they didn't have enough time to bring on Terry which actually sounds like bollocks, and is most likely a case of him trying to cover his enormous, fat arse.

According to Rafa, we didn't have time to bring on Terry. They scored their first goal in the 87th minute, their second in the 94th. That's seven minutes - the fat cunt could choke down 69 hot dogs in that time (if he pretended they were Torres's cock).

Backs to the wall and he left John Terry on the bench. That's his fault.

Would that be the worst thing in the world?

Can't say much more than everyone else has. That fat fucking cunt lost us the game. He didn't put out his strongest team at the start and he didn't make the right substitutions at the end. Terry should've been on and I hope he lamps that fat fucking cunt for everyone of the Chelsea fans who watched that tonight. We were good enough to win but we simply didn't convert enough of the pressure into goals (because despite Torres having a half-decent game tonight he still can't score goals against half-decent opposition) and we didn't defend the lead at the end. And despite all that we are so fucking lucky that the teams chasing us dropped points. We have to throw the cup and the Europa League because getting a top four spot is going to be a massive task. Youth team, reserve teams or just those three Beckham kids and a few under-9s to make up the numbers. This is the point at which we go to the mattresses and pray for things to go our way.

The simple fact is that if we had won games against 4 teams in the bottom half of the table (Fulham, West Ham, QPR, Southampton) then we would be ONE point off the top spot. If we had just held on to half-time leads in two games (Southampton, West Ham) then we would be EIGHT points clear of Spurs. Sunday May 19th, 17:45. Can't come soon enough.

I thought you were a Torres supporter, not a Chelsea supporter. Maybe Rafa will sign him at his new club, although I doubt he's that stupid. Plus having seen Torres's goal against Brentford I reckon he could do some real damage in League Two....maybe even League One.

When you say Mata doesn't create anything, is there a particular reason you're ignoring the 55 chances he's created (fifth most in the league) or the 8 assists he's got in the league (second most in the league)?

We need a back-up keeper if Courtois is going on loan to an English club next season and at £3 million he's a steal. Putting a bid in for him doesn't mean we can't bid for other players too.

The loan thing is overblown. All of those players needed game time that they simply weren't expected to get at Chelsea. The only exception is Essien, but people need to put his situation in context. In three of the last four seasons, he's played 19, 21 and 19 games and his form has also been way below what it was around 2008. It just didn't look like he was going to contribute much this season, and certainly not at a level that he was being paid at so it made financial sense to give him a change of surroundings in the hopes of making him able to contribute next season or sellable. For me, De Bruyne is the guy we should've brought back this month but he's an important member of Bremen's first team so it would probably be best for his own development to stay there.

The question that most of them ask is who would replace him right now, and it's a totally valid question. It's not a shameful position to take in the slightest.

I don't see how Cech and Courtois co-exist when they're both good enough to start at almost any club in Europe. If Courtois is as good as people think he might be, why would he be happy playing half the games and why wouldn't he be asking to be paid the same as Cech? That's a lot of money to spend for no real reason so for me it's a non-starter. Also i don't think you can compare Butland and Turnbull. Turnbull was never seen as a future international and he was also about 5 years older than Butland is right now.

The plan for Courtois seems to be loaning him out to a Premier League side next season, whilst Turnball and Hilario are gone in the summer in all likelihood. That leaves Blackman as the only realistic backup. If Butland is happy to join a club that can't guarantee him first-team football then I'd sign him in an instant. We're going to need to sign at least one goalkeeper in the summer. Why not get one who is English, cheap, has residual value and just happens to be pretty good (although not as good as some in the media might have you believe)? Surprised there's so much resistance to this story after the Brentford game, although I think there's maybe 10% chance of us actually getting him.

Butland at £3 million is underpriced. I've made other points in his thread, but if that story is accurate then I can't think of a single reason why we wouldn't buy him.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2269990/Chelsea-want-David-Moyes-Rafa-Benitez-certain-leave-summer.html Moyes is apparently Roman's favourite. Now my first thought isn't negative, and it isn't positive. I'll be honest.....I've watched Everton a number of times over the last decade and I'd struggle to guess what type of football we'd be playing next season. That's not necessarily a bad thing but I'm just wondering if I'm alone in that. I feel kinda like Sarah Palin being asked about the Bush Doctrine. :confused:

If he's actually going to cost £3 million, then I can't see why the club wouldn't sign him. He's at least half the price he should be, he's young, he's English and he's better than Turnball who is utter shit. If Courtois actually is going on loan to a Premier League team then I'm not that worried about this transfer impacting him. Hilario and Turnball are both out of contract in the summer I believe so that would mean us having Cech as number one and Butland and Blackman fighting it out for back-up. The only person this doesn't make sense for is Butland. But if he's happy to come and not be guaranteed first-team football then why wouldn't we go for him?

I don't think they're idiots. I think they've made mistakes but I think that the general direction they're moving in has been positive. The most important thing in my view is that they don't seem to make the same mistakes. That's not a ringing endorsement but if you look at player recruitment since 2011, the wage bill, the moves to build a new stadium and even the hiring of AVB and the noises being made about Moyes there at least appears to be this capacity to learn which isn't as abundant in football as you might think *cough* Arsenal.... Yes. Moses, Azpi, Cahill, De Bruyne, Courtois, Ba, Romeu. Now of those players I'd say each one is worth more than they were when we signed them, and all have the potential to be mainstays of the squad for a number of years with the possible exception of Ba. The loan policy is a little extreme this year but it's again born of mistakes made in the past. Of those 22 players on loan, 21 are under 23 years old and roughly half don't have a future at this club if we're being honest. Essien was struggling with injuries and form for at least a year before he left and was earning a big wage whilst doing so, as was Benayoun. Of the players on loan you've got maybe 2 who could come in and do a good job in the first team (De Bruyne and Lukaku, possibly Chalobah) but you'd be risking their development which is something we've done in the past. Going back to one of my original themes, this is just the bad-tasting medicine we've got to swallow because we allowed ourselves to get into a bad position in the first place.