The only place to be

Boro vs Watford McEachran vs Chalobah.

I usually like Dan Levene and find some of his musings and articles to be insightful and thought-provoking but this is just a poor letter. He spends much of it telling us what Frank did do and what he represents to the fans and very little (if any) explaining where he fits into the squad next year. Yes we have an emotional attachment with Lamps, but my emotional attachment to the club is far greater and I think we're better next year with other players filling his position.

I could be wrong, but I never heard it around then. There wasn't a huge amount of antipathy around Blackburn's spending because, well they were Blackburn. It's hard to hate them and Jack Walker was a 'local boy done good'. I actually have a funny feeling it comes from Rafa's apparent comments about the flags, but I could be wrong.

I'm 99% sure that isn't true. I never heard it around that time to be honest and I've always understood it just to mean 'not real'. In those days the United fans were simply called gloryhunters.

Real Madrid and Barcelona maybe....but when did Bayern and Juventus become more attractive options for big players than us??? I also think that's massively unfair on him. He's actually surprised me with how little of a diva he's been. He's reacted well to Benitez wanting him to defend more and he's not sulked when he's been taken off. There's enough potential at this club to keep any young star around for a long time.

It's true though. Luiz has received plenty of credit but people want to see some bias from certain fans when there simply isn't any. It's got NOTHING to do with his nationality (never had a problem with Emerson Thome) and everything to do with the way he plays football. We just want a centre-half who does the basics and doesn't try and run the ball out of defence. In fact, Cahill does the same on occasion but he knows his limitations and doesn't try too much risky stuff. I'l give Luiz a lot of credit for actually hoofing the ball out now far more than he did when he arrived, but he'll still have the odd 'moment' every now and then.

Really? Most people will say that 7 years ago he was one of the best midfielders in the world. 5 years ago he was our most important player. Even last year he played an important role, but we weren't that great last year. Even this year people cite the Everton game as an example of his importance based solely on the fact he scored two goals in that game. Now that's great, but do we want to spend next season playing like we did against Everton? We got lucky in that game. We were completely overrun in the first half-hour by a team with two important players out. Lamps has done well to play in a deeper role but that simply isn't his game. It never has been. That's the reality of the situation with him. He simply doesn't suit our style of football as well as other players might. The position he made his own - IT DOESN"T EXIST. And now his presence isn't going to be a positive one for the rest of the season in my opinion because the atmosphere at the Bridge is fucking toxic. I'm not going to get many likes for saying that it might be better if we sold him before the end of the month.

We outplayed Swansea the other day so if we just do the same thing today but with Ba upfront and cutting out the silly mistakes, then we should be fine. And people saying JT isn't ready or he only played 45 minutes for the u21s - when has that ever stopped him?

I like the idea of committing so much money to a manager. It makes him much harder to sack. The total control thing I'm not so keen on because I actually think that the board have made some good moves in the market, but I assume this is pretty much a bs story anyway. The most exciting thing with him coming in could be having a fresh set of eyes evaluating all of the talent at the club. That can only be good for players like Chalobah, Feruz and McEachran.

See, this might look right from the stats but I remember us playing United 3 times in 93/94 (the season after they won the first EPL) and their starting line-up was something like. Schmeichel Parker Pallister Bruce Irwin Kanchelskis Keane Ince Giggs Hughes Cantona So saying 'you had to win that way' is not true. Who was the next team to win? Blackburn. Sutton, Shearer, Flowers....all big money (for that time and that was around the time Lentini going for £13 million was astronomical). Hansen was wrong. The kids that Fergie bought through (after selling established starters) were high quality, and I think we have some who come close to that. Benat would be better than anyone in our squad?? I remember when we were talking about Fellaini and I seem to recall you (or someone equally enamoured with stats) said that his passing percentage wasn't good enough. What's Benat's? Now we've got Oscar, De Bruyne and McEachran already on the books. You could even throw Chalobah in there if you want. I want to see these young guys that we already own given a chance, especially Josh. You were probably the only one. The poor lad couldn't ever find a shirt small enough to fit, let alone a decent pass against a top team.

Suggs surely. :blue scalf: Damon Albarn as assistant.

Cech Azpi Cahill Ivanovic Luiz Ramires Bertrand McEachran Lukaku Chalobah Moses Hazard Mata Terry and hopefully Cole.

Spot on. I swear some people just look at the stats from games as if it's Football Manager rather than actually watching what happens on the pitch.

You say it's a 'nice improvement' but we've been doing that for a while now. Azpi, Cahill, Moses, De Bruyne....all bought around the £10 million mark and three of them are long-term options. This will be the new reality of Chelsea were role players are bought at reasonable prices, one or two marquee signings come in, the wages are lower and we have a production line of young players coming through. Relying on Roman is yesterday's thinking and it's pretty stupid in all honesty. We're not going back to 2004 levels of spending. We're going to start using young players in the first team and as someone who grew up seeing the likes of Jody Morris, Mark Nicholls and John Terry come through I can tell you there's nothing better than that. That's why people want to see the youngsters given a go. We did also win the Champions League.... But the problem goes back to the short-term thinking of the first few years of Roman's reign. We spent big money on established players and we suffered when they either grew old or moved on and we didn't have replacements. Transitioning to a new way of running a club was always going to be painful and we lacked the stability in the manager's role to cover up the cracks. Now we're actually positioning ourselves for long-term success which is why some people think the board are doing a good job. The amount of talent we have in the academy is somewhat astounding and the amount of talent we have between the ages of 18 and 25 is amongst the best in Europe. The biggest handicap has been the Torres deal though. It was a massive financial commitment and it's had massive effects on our on-field performance. It's hard to overstate the amount that this one deal held us back and until he's gone, we'll struggle.

I would certainly like to see a lot more of this. The simple fact is that what we've done in the last decade hasn't worked. John Terry had one loan spell in which he played 6 games for Forest. Lampard had 9 games at Swansea. What we need is someone prepared to give them a chance. I've been happy with the loans Chalobah and McEachran got because they simply won't see any here, but we have to really start using the academy effectively.

AVB lost everyone at the club, from the youth players to the reserve team right up to the senior squad. They had no option - it was his personality that fucked him over. Now that might be something he learns from and becomes a better manager for, but he simply wasn't a very good man manager in his time at Chelsea. His position became utterly untenable. I think the re-adjustments for the long-term have been pretty good actually, although it's hard to judge it properly until summer. It's also very easy to say we should make a profit when we win the CL, but we have had huge outgoings for the last decade so there's really nothing to say we should be profitable especially when you compare our revenue streams (particularly matchday income) to other clubs. He plays his best team, focuses on the league and then leaves. He also has to bring Terry back into the team as soon as possible I think and marginalise Torres.

Someone with ambition who wants to work with some of the finest young talent in the world and have a large transfer budget to work with. Here's the thing people don't understand about a lot of football managers - they're competitive and self-confident. The best ones back themselves to do well in jobs and if we're being honest, Roman very rarely sacks managers who are doing a great job. Now it's not an easy job which is why it pays well. But some people need to put the black clothing and Radiohead music down, and try and think not just positively but realistically about their football club. Some of the shit that gets posted is laughable.

See I think it's very easy to blame them when things go wrong and not give them credit when they do something right. I also think football fans are by and large prisoners of the moment and very reactionary. A few months ago they were brilliant after they acted decisively to remove AVB, put in place someone else and won us the FA Cup, Champions League and FA Youth Cup, before taking the club to profitability. Now they're like a 'cyst' (apparently) and need to be attacked with cricket bats. Of course no-one can actually say who they'd put in place instead or what they'd want done differently. Boards are very rarely popular at clubs and that's not likely to change anytime soon. The best thing they can do is ignore the criticism and stick to their long-term plan.

I don't know who you'd want to hire on the board who you think could do a better job. Look at what we've done in terms of youth recruitment. Look at what we've done in terms of making a profit. Look at the corporate deals brokered in just the last year. Look at what the club has done to try and find a new location for a stadium. Oh, and look at last May. Like I said earlier, it's very easy for football fans to say 'sack the board' but unless they know exactly who they want gone and why, and who they want to replace him then it's utterly meaningless.

Personally, I don't have a massive problem with the 'hired hands' getting on with the business of transfers, but I'm pretty sure that there's a way for Roman to stay in touch with people in London (and maybe even around the world) whilst on holiday.

This all sounds like some weird 'Brazilian victimisation' which I don't think there is. David Luiz could be from any country in the world and I'd still expect him to make the odd brain-fart. Ivanovic doesn't. He's been one of our most dependable players for years and he's one of the players who every fan in the ground respects. He puts everything into his performances and has been dependable for over 150 games. He's proper Chelsea in my opinion and the fans giving him shit need to have a real look in the mirror.

Mata was rested against QPR. If we're going to go with Marin on the wing I'd love to see Oscar start alongside Luiz in midfield. If not him then maybe Ramires.

Feruz is just a natural.

Cobham. I disagree that he's better than Moses. Moses passes for a start.

Who's the best DM in the world?