The only place to be

I thought we started the Everton game as we have done the other matches (Rami on the right, Lamps and Luiz in midfield). Now by no means was Lamps the only bad player in that opening, but maybe I expected more because of his 'experience' (and the same goes for Cole who was way off the pace). The problem with this whole issue is that it's dividing fans and taking so much of the focus. This was always going to be a tough move to make but the fact that it's still 5 months off is just dragging it out. It looks like it's a dead cert and we're looking to replace him, but some of the shit people are coming out with is simply hysterical and they're losing all perspective. Yes he's a great player, and I've loved watching him at the Bridge for many a year and he's contributed to more than his fair share of hangovers and missed trains, but the club is bigger than one man. We'll not be boarding up the windows when he leaves as some might have you believe. Frank will leave in the summer and I'll still back us to win the league if we get the right manager in. He could even sign for United and I'd say we were favourites. If I can say that at the start of the season, then I count myself as a very lucky football supporter.

What's the consensus for desired outcomes of today's games? I'm hoping for a Liverpool win to stop United getting any further away from the rest of the teams. With City-Arsenal, I'm torn. A City win keeps them in touch with United and keeps Arsenal off our tails a bit more, but takes them away from us. An Arsenal win keeps them in the hunt for fourth and pegs City back from us, but also from United. Think a City win is the best for now.

Cech Azpi Cahill Terry Bertrand Luiz Oscar Marin Mata Hazard Ba Four days between games mean we don't need to go overboard resting players, but it'd be nice to give the likes of Bertrand and Oscar run outs against Southampton. But we're still not in a position to rest Mata in my opinion because he's simply too important. JT needs to get 90 minutes under his belt and Cahill had the weekend off (congrats :tophat: ). Ba needs to start because Torres simply does too much damage when he plays.

Watch the match (and the first 30 of the Everton game and the whole of the QPR game). We really struggled in the first 30 against a really weak team and that seemed to stem entirely from the midfield. Lamps had a good game after that, but there's enough inconsistency there to suggest that he can't be the player we rely on like we used to. Ashley on the other hand is still the best in his position in the world in my opinion and we should be doing everything we can to retain his services for next year (maybe even two), especially as young Ryan hasn't shown enough thus far. The Torres point is beyond ridiculous. If we terminate his contract, we still have to pay him. For us to sell him (or loan him to a team who might pay his wages) another team has to make us an offer and that seems unlikely given his current form. I'd love for us to ship him on but that seems unlikely until the summer.

No it wouldn't. He's going to be 35, he doesn't fit the system as well as other players and we're in all likelihood going to have a new manager who may not actually want him. That's the point that's being overlooked in all of this - does the new guy really want an this massive presence who the fans love, who earns a fair wedge, in the dressing room? That's a massive shadow looming over you, as AVB learnt (although he made many mistakes of his own).

It's one think 'mending a relationship' when you've gone separate ways but it's different when you start working with one another and have that first disagreement. It's too easy to drag up old shit. Guardiola is a world-class man manager from everything I've read about him, and he'd be comfortable working in the current structure we have in place. That is preferable to pulling down everything we've put in place and letting Mourinho have total control. Personally I don't know if that chimes well with what we've got regarding the academy and our transfer system.

I'm not disingenuous in the slightest thank you. Goals and stats aren't the be all and end all of matches, and the performances against Stoke and Everton in the first 30 minutes left a great deal to be desired. We struggled to control the ball, and that was down to the midfield in large part. The QPR game is particularly pertinent because people keep harping on about his experience and his knowledge of local rivalries (QPR are a local rival btw). I believe I gave him the appropriate amount of credit yesterday, but I thought the MOTM was Luiz (another player I've criticised and had 'fans' accuse me of being disingenuous about). You're talking utter fucking bollocks there. The academy is important because we need to start producing our own talent rather than buying every single player. Plus we happen to have some amazing talent in it. I'm also not constantly pointing out that I'm 'more of a supporter', simply explaining my perspective. I've seen great players come and go, but the club has been on an amazing upswing since I started attending games and I don't see that overall trend ending. So maybe try debating the actual facts rather than lying about me, okay?

Cech and Terry will both be in their 30s (I'd still sign Cole). Cahill, Ivanovic and Ba will all be in their late 20s whilst Mata, Mikel, Luiz and Rami are all in their mid-20s. We actually have a pretty nice spread of ages across the team in all honesty, but we also have young lads who can form the nucleus of a team for a long-time to come.

Fergie doesn't have complete control, and even if he did his success wasn't instantaneous by any stretch of the imagination. Coaches nowadays aren't going to spend decades at one club, so there has to be consistency above them and we do have that in some way. The biggest problem I have with us getting Mourinho is that what is happening at Real Madrid right now isn't that surprising In fact it's rather reminiscent of his last days at Chelsea, and bringing him back when he already has a huge amount of history with Roman doesn't seem to be the best idea.

I don't see him going into coaching if I'm being totally honest. As for the rest of your post, I don't disagree but I don't think it's that pertinent going forward. The nationality of the players has always been secondary to their contribution to the team, but I'd love for the likes of Chalobah and McEachran to establish themselves in the team. For that to happen though we do need to let the older players move on. Now is the right time for Frank to move on in my opinion. That doesn't make me a twat, okay?

I corrected you because it's annoying to see people refer to the ground incorrectly. Whatever you may think of their actions, calling them a 'bunch of drunkards' is still a disrespectful thing to do. Whilst I'm not the biggest hater of Rafa, I don't want him here any longer than he has to but I'm not going to boo him in the meantime.

I don't think I'm superior, but I think I might have a point of view different from certain fans who only know Chelsea as the team of Lampard and Terry. We all have different relationships with the club and for me, the club comes first. It will always be there and the players will always be part of the family, but you have to step back sometimes and look at what's best for the club as a whole going forward. I also think there's a point about Lampard's influence and standing within the squad that is not being mentioned much. The stories around the club during the AVB time suggest that Frank's presence wasn't helpful to the changes AVB was trying to make. Now I personally think he's a twat and a shitty man manager but I do wonder if Roman and the board don't think we'll have a better chance moving forward without Frank there purely for this reason.

Personally I'd prefer to give Ashley Cole and extension and get Luke Shaw from Southampton. The kid is only 17 and has impressed every time I've seen him, plus he's English. Baines has had a great couple of seasons but we could probably tie up Cole and Shaw for the same amount of money we'd need to spend on Baines.

We aren't becoming Arsenal if we let him go. You realise we'll still have experienced players all over the pitch don't you? Plus the problem at Arsenal wasn't as simple as you suggest it was. They let their best players leave without replacing them, and under-invested in the first-team. We don't show any signs of doing that. We're actually looking to replace him with players who are better suited to the position he plays.

Firstly, it's Stamford Bridge. Stamford is a place in Lincolnshire I think, so were you referring to them? The abbreviation of Stamford Bridge is simply 'the Bridge'. Secondly, the people booing aren't a 'bunch of drunkards'. They're by and large decent people who have paid a not-insubstantial amount of money to support the club and may have been doing so for a long time. Have a bit of respect, even if you like I don't particularly agree with what they're doing.

Calling people who support the club 'twats' for disagreeing on the contract status of a player after he has a pretty good game isn't the way Chelsea supporters tend to treat one another.

That's an overly simplistic way of dismissing a lot of decent Chelsea supporters' views that the club aren't doing the wrong thing in allowing Frank to leave. It would be akin to me suggesting that certain 'fans' are fetishising individual players because they haven't got a fucking clue what properly supporting a football club is. Maybe it's my age, or maybe it's the fact that I actually supported this team before Lamps was signed and have a sense of perspective on things but this whole debate is getting ridiculous. He had a decent game yesterday but we struggled for the first half hour because no-one put their foot on the ball and took control. The same thing happened at Everton. Is this honestly how we want to play against weaker opposition? The same type of performance that we had against QPR? Nice stats by the way.

I don't know what your problem is but calling people twats because they disagree with you isn't the most gracious of behaviour. Stop trying so hard.

All this shit about disrespecting him or screwing him or even 'sacking' him is just hysterical. He's simply come to the end of a contract - a well-paid contract that he got in no small part by refusing to rule out a move to Inter Milan. Now that's fair enough. In business you play sides off against one another to secure the best price for your services. Well this is business too. We're moving on to something different as well.

This is Stamford Bridge in 1998, three years before Frank Lampard signed. Just trying to show some people that the club did exist before he came along, and it will exist after he's gone. We'll win titles after he's gone and will sign amazing new players and we'll even probably move from this stadium one day. But Lamps will go down as one of our greats and we'll tell stories of his exploits like our dads told us stories of Chopper Harris and Peter Osgood and Peter Bonetti. But as time passes, things change. It's painful sometimes, but it's necessary for us to move on. The team that we were and what we are going to be are two different things and that means personnel will change. But the club will stay the same. The amount of tedious shit being written about us falling apart is absurd.

It's all getting a bit tedious to be honest. Part of me would be relieved if we'd just sell him to the LA Galaxy to have one less storyline repeated every time he has an average/above-average game or even just comes on in the last 10 minutes and scores a penalty. The one good thing about the shitty QPR result is that we had a break from the same mewling and bleating for a few days. :banghead:

But Benat's stats don't suggest he is the 'possession guy' we need, and to say that Mata and Oscar aren't playmakers is either completely fucking ridiculous or simply you using a very, very specific meaning of the word 'playmaker'. I agree we need a deep-lying playmaker but this Benat guy (always nice to learn the phrase 'flavour of the month' in a new language) doesn't seem to be the guy we need. I'd rather us pay more and get Modric, or simply try someone like Oscar there when he has every single tool that you'd want.

He's not replaceable as a person because he's unique. But there are possibly options out there (and at the club) who can be better in the style of football we're going to play going forward.

The only reason I don't think Lamps deserves MOTM is the same reason I don't think he deserved it against Everton - for the first half-hour we were pretty awful and kept losing the ball from midfield. Luis did a great job marshalling the defence and made some Terry-esque front post clearances. He was the one playing it out of defence with a sense of calm. Frank worked his socks off though and it was good to see him score his goal. I just don't know if we can be so loose in the first 30 minutes of games.

He's also criminally underrated at times too. He's a young player in his first season in a new league learning a whole new game. Today he played well, but he also gave the ball up a couple of times. He gave Wilkinson a torrid time in the first half, set up Azpi beautifully for his cross for the first and killed the game with the third. Personally I thought Luiz was the most important player on the pitch today but I have no problem with Hazard getting some votes.