The only place to be

Exactly. Although, as I've mentioned before, at some point we're going to have to choose between Courtois and Cech.

Because Roman made a new year's resolution to keep his sackings to one per season? I don't know. Part of me thinks he deserves to be stuck with him (and the shit that goes along with it) for a few more months to learn a lesson. On the plus side, he's hardly doing anything to make sure he stays on beyond the summer.

We don't exactly have a good track record with Laudrups. We hire him in August and by November we'll have Bjarne Goldbaek in charge. But I'd be cool with him. He fits the system, he's done pretty well in his first season and he might benefit from the dressing room being the power centre of the club that it once was. My only reservation is that he's not really stayed anywhere long-term, but his career has been on a steady upward curve since he started and he has a good pedigree.

In Roman's defence, he gave Robbie a job at a top club when he couldn't even get past an interview at a Championship team. Sure he sacked him, but that's happened to better managers than Robbie, and he knew the deal when he signed up. I think you're overstating Roman's 'itchy trigger finger' like a lot of the tabloids do. The sackings of AVB, Scolari, Ancelotti and Robbie all came after poor results or performances. The one he probably regrets is sacking Jose, but their relationship just fell apart. I thought the same as you when it came to Mourinho, but maybe he's reaching a point in his career where he wants to settle down and do something long-term. He's won almost all the top prizes, so what's the next challenge for someone like him? A project? I would hope he's learnt something from this Madrid experience and that he might have changed. The same goes for Roman. Maybe now is the perfect time for them to come together and look to build something new.

So we're doing Mourinho a favour? From what I heard we were looking for ways to reduce the wage bill by loaning out players who weren't going to be part of the first team squad. Benayoun had about half of his wages paid by West Ham whilst the figure I heard for Essien was a little higher. It made sense at the time, considering Essien hadn't looked like his old self for about two years.

Are we paying his wages? What percentage are Real Madrid paying?

People understand his role in the team and what he's asked to do (it's not about having eyes as you assert) but some (like me) simply don't think he's good enough. I don't like his attitude more than anything and I think he lacks the personality or assertiveness to really dominate in that position. It's funny that you mention maturity and discipline as being pivotal to the way we play- I agree which is why their absence when it comes to him makes us weak. My problem with him is that he's a weak human being. He's not a leader and it's getting high time that people stop making excuses for him because he's not a youngster anymore. He's a 26 year old man with over 200 appearances for this club and he should start stepping up especially when we're struggling, but too often he simply gets carried along with the tide. If we're playing well, he looks good but if we're playing poorly he simply fades into the background. This club's success was built on men, not boys.

Not really. Most players are contracted because they have transfer value, something Frank probably doesn't. I also don't know where you're getting this idea that 'most managers think' whatever. Yes some have spoken out, but I think we all have to acknowledge the issue of player power in our changing room. He's a big personality, and not every coach will want that looming presence around if they're trying to do something new. Anyone who has had a job knows that sometimes age and experience can be a bad thing (as well as a good thing). It's why I think it should be the coach's decision, and if Jose does come in then I think he could effectively manage Lamps. A younger, less experienced guy might not.

See, I don't understand this. Doesn't it depend on who the manager is whether or not you sign a player to a new contract, especially someone with so much power in the dressing room?

Same here. We simply missed someone who we could bring on to shore up the midfield a bit, especially at 2-1. I think he's competent enough to do that against Southampton.

The only other option would appear to be Man City for Jose and they hired Ferran Soriano and Txiki Begiristain to work above the manager. I don't think the idea of going for Jose is as daft or unlikely as I previously did.

So you're questioning the validity of these loans without knowing what type of playing time they're getting?

Because Courtois, Chalobah, McEachran, Van Aanholt, Kalas, Kakuta, Lukaku and Piazon are all young guys in need of regular playing time for them to become good footballers who can serve the club over a long period of time. De Bruyne is probably a bit further along. Young players need to be developed otherwise there's no point in having an academy or scouting system.

The first point has some merit. Our midfield should be better without question. We're unfortunate to be without both Romeu and Mikel at the moment though and that has some bearing on what's going wrong at the moment. In terms of strikers, we're still paying the price for signing Torres. The second point about our players on loan is a little unfair though. The club, Emenalo in particular, will be the point man for dealing with these guys. We've actually done remarkably well to arrange worthwhile loans for many of them, and it was actually AVB who fucked up the progress of Josh and Romelu by keeping them in the squad and then not using them. You may reckon that he's had little contact with them, but I know he looked at bringing Josh back (who asked to stay at Boro) and has also spoken to Chalobah at least twice. Neil Bath and Dermot Drummy are also in contact with these players on a semi-regular basis so I'm not quite sure what you're basing these concerns on. The final point is fair, but no manager on Earth can manage the entire scouting program of a top football club. I agree with the overall point that we need stability, but it needs to be with the right person and apart from Jose and maybe Carlo, we haven't sacked anyone unfairly (maybe Robbie, but he was always a goner).

Is it me, or are they making a much bigger deal of signing him than you'd expect??

I just posted in the 'next manager thread' that Jose might not be the worst shout in the world, and if that's the case then I think Frank should perhaps be given an extension. His contract isn't up until the summer, and we won't have a new manager until then. I think so much of Frank's future is based on that.

Here's the highlights. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz-xAAECB8c Hunte's winner is sublime.

My heart says yes, my head says no. And then my head says but maybe we could put Steve Holland in temporary...sorry, interim charge. And my heart gets all excited but then my head reminds me that I actually like Steve and don't want him to get sacked. So ultimately I have to say no. This is our punishment for years of ignoring the warning signs and Roman needs to learn a lesson. We all do in life and it's part of growing up. Roman has been in charge for a decade almost and he's had great success, but also done some rather boneheaded things that I'm fairly certain he regrets. Hiring Rafa might have been arrogance, it might have simply been desperation. But he's missed out on the guy he wanted and you've got to hope that such a humbling experience changes him for the better. So I don't think we can sack him, but I think we'll come out of it better.

And they can have their share of the blame, but are you saying that Rafa isn't the cause in any way, shape or form?

I'm starting to come round to the idea of Mourinho as new coach. Partly it's because we're running out of options, partly it's because he felt like a proper Chelsea manager when he was in charge and no-one has since, but it's mostly because I'm not sure he's the same Mourinho anymore. People have suggested that this whole Guardiola-chase might be a humbling experience for Roman, or at least a reality-check. I'm not sure that the experience in Madrid (which could be a rather big failure this season) won't be a humbling experience for a man who probably needs it. Unabashed success for the best part of a decade isn't the best thing for those who are susceptible to inflated opinions of self-worth. Where the first marriage of Roman and Jose was the perfect combination of limitless ambition and seemingly limitless coaching ability, the second one might be two people, older, wiser and more weary together finding something even better and more importantly, more sustainable. Guardiola's three year contract at Bayern seems to fit well with Fergie's retirement plans. Whisky-nose is building another team there so one could easily plot a career path of Barcelona-Bayern-Man United for Pep. That leaves Mourinho with maybe 2 options in English football. There are plenty of stumbling blocks that make this risky and unlikely to happen, but for the romantic there's enough there to give them hope and that's something that is lacking at Chelsea Football Club at the moment. There are also plenty of posts where I've questioned this on the grounds that they're human beings with a fractious relationship. But I think I forgot that they are human beings, capable of growth and self-reflection in periods of quite desperation. And I'll be honest - I miss the swagger. I miss the arrogance. I miss the bravado although I don't miss some of the more unsavoury aspects of Jose. My main point of criticism is that I assumed some people thought we'd just get the old Jose back. I think the main attraction in his appointment is that he won't be the old Jose - he'll be better.

Quite simply I think we missed him last night. I'm not his biggest fan but he's good enough to come on against Southampton and steady the ship. I know I shouldn't be angry at him for being on international duty whilst his club and his teammates are in dire straits, but I'm not a perfect human being by any stretch of the imagination.

The bench isn't as strong as it could be, but we were 2-0 at half-time against a weak team. Benitez sends them out for the second-half and we give that performance and he isn't at least partly to blame?

FInally, a suggestion for who should be on the board. It's not a very good one, but still it's progress. The criticism of the board is once again baseless in my opinion though. Bruce Buck is a Chelsea fan. Eugene Tenenbaum isn't going anywhere but that doesn't bother me in the slightest. Ron Gourlay is doing a decent job, especially on the commercial side of things. I will say that both Buck and Gourlay took a lot of stick from the 'football world' when they stuck by Terry after he was found (probably) guilty of racist abuse. Ultimately all three answer to the big man. I do think this is a watershed moment in the tenure of Abramovich though. He's clearly learnt lessons in his time here, but I think he underestimated the difficulty of finding the right coach. I think the appointment of AVB showed that he does want a long-term guy in, but AVB fucked up and other matters conspired against him (player power is something Roman knows he has to address and he's doing that). The next guy on the list was Pep and the pursuit of him fucked us up. Now we have to completely change the way we do things. Fortunately (in a perverse way) I think Benitez is doing so badly that he will put himself out of the running, and hopefully Madrid come calling. I'll get plenty of stick on here but if getting knocked out of all three cups and scraping a top four finish sees that cunt go, I'd happily take it.

Course. They're all perfectly valid points. Part of me thinks that a fifth place finish and a chance to re-evaluate everything might be what we need in some ways. The CL win papered over a lot of cracks, partly because we had important players having one last hurrah before falling off a cliff performance-wise, or simply leaving. What's clear is that we need to change how we do things. There are plenty of things we're doing right, mainly financially and the youth team, but what's on the pitch is suffering. I actually wouldn't mind giving Steve Holland a go. He's respected, knows the club and he has got a decent pedigree. But he's massively inexperienced and it would look desperate. Last night, the fans were in better voice than they have been for a while and it was a fucking awful night. But what came out on the pitch in the second-half was simply disgraceful and that is all down to the manager in my opinion. He may well be a scapegoat, but he's also symptomatic of everything Roman has done wrong (amongst a whole heap of good) in a long time. In context (previous home capitulations, the Pep issue, Torres) the fan's response was not surprising. Me personally, I don't like booing but I'll be honest and say I was absolutely sickened at the final whistle and looking over and seeing Rafa going down the tunnel did not help in the slightest.

It's very rare you find 17 year olds with bags of experience, but I think people who want us to buy this kid are thinking a bit further than this season. Not sure what you're on about with a lack of mental strength - he's done well at a young age in a tough situation. I'd take him in a heartbeat not just because he's looked very accomplished when I've seen him, but because he's English and he's also a Chelsea supporter. We are going to need a new left-back if Ashley leaves. Personally I'd like to see him stay and get this kid as backup. No offence to Bertrand but he's going to be 24 before the start of next season and he's still not exactly shown a huge amount in his time here. The best compliment I can give him is that most of the time he looks dependable. Shaw looks exciting.