The only place to be

Underrated by whom? It's something that most football fans value immensely and Lamps has an uncanny knack to be in the right position at the right time. No-one here is doubting his abilities though. I've tried to ask legitimate questions of his and the club's future and some johnny-come-lately cunt has questioned my loyalty to this club and suggested I rape kids. It's a fucking joke in all honesty. The basic facts are that Lamps performances aren't at the level they were years ago, he costs a lot of money and the club have invested in a number of youngsters all of whom need to be looked at for that position. This isn't just about age because I think Ashley Cole should definitely be assessed differently, just a reflection of the situation as a whole.

He's a 27 year old striker in the prime of his career, on form and this might be his last big contract - dude's looking to get paid and we aren't the pushovers we once were. Problem is I don't know if the market is as strong for him as his advisors thinks it is. If he's seriously entertaining QPR or Liverpool, fuck him. If he's thinking about PSG then fuck knows how much they'll have to pay with their new tax laws. If it's Arsenal then that probably makes us getting Walcott a near-certainty. I'm going to wait 48 hours before I decide to start panicking.

True, although we've got the two in the double-pivot/DM positions who contribute to that more now. This is why comparisons with what we had and what we might have are hard because we're changing the way we play. Maybe it'll be a case of us not replacing Lampard will a carbon copy (not that there is one) but sharing out his duties amongst the team. But purely in terms of goals from midfield, we seem to have something special in Mata.

I'm just scraping the letters off my HULK shirt.

I'd like to apologise for my part in that unpleasantness above. Anyone who knows Chelsea and their fans know we aren't the type of scum who throw around such vile insults. So for my part in apparently forcing someone to use something like that, I'm sorry. Anyway..... I posted this in another thread and I think it's pertinent to a future without Lamps. How do you replace a player like Frank Lampard? Simply put, you can't. The man is a striker and a midfielder in one; a player that has revolutionised the attacking midfield position. Juan Mata is on course for a 25 goal/30 assist season. Statistically that's better than any of Lampard's season and more than 3 times as productive as Lampard's season at the same age. (Eden Hazard is on course for 30 assists too with 10 goals although I think he'll kick on in the new year).

I'm not convinced, I'm just saying that I can see it from both sides and that we need to look at every factor. Although the discussion in that thread is some 'Chelsea supporter' calling me a paedophile. You've been around the Bridge longer than me - did you come across the type of thing in the 60s and 70s?

Here's a tip - don't call fellow football fans paedophiles. It's a cunt's thing to do.

By saying he's arguably the greatest Chelsea player ever? By saying that Mata, who is having a fantastic season and is probably one of the top 3 players this season, is replacing a lot of what he brought to the team? Lampard will leave Chelsea at some point. We're not simply going to turn the lights off and board up the windows. We'll move on, and by the looks of things we've made a decent start in that process.

Actually Juan is doing it at an earlier age than Frank, whilst offering more to the team in terms of assists. Lamps is a great player, arguably the greatest we've ever had, but we have to move on at some point and despite the despondency of some on here were actually seemed to have done it. He's also scoring some of the important goals that Lamps made his trademark - the goals at Tottenham, the winner against Arsenal, the equaliser at Leeds, the winner against Norwich, the opener against West Ham. How do we replace Lamps? Maybe we just open our eyes.

Here's a little tip - don't make sick comments like that to fellow Chelsea supporters. In fact don't make comments like that to any football fan because it's not how football supporters should handle themselves. We disagree over giving a footballer a contract. We disagree over his role in the side. For that you're going to imply that I engage in one of the most disgusting acts possible for a human being?? In all my years supporting Chelsea, drinking with fellow supporters and having a few disagreements and even having some arguments with opposition supporters (that were settled with a pint) I've never seen something so fucking disgusting. Absolutely cretinous behaviour.

Getting rid of players without replacing them was their issue, as well as underinvesting which is something we clearly haven't done. In terms of age and experience, we'll have a team of players like Cech, Ivanovic, Cahill, Mikel, Mata, Torres and Luiz who are all around 25-30 which seems a decent age for a squad. People want to talk about leadership and experience - where was that in the first 30 minutes today? Where was that against Corinthians? What we need is a team of leader, rather than pinning everything on Lamps or JT (Terry of course being the player we can't live without, except we seem to have done pretty well with Cahill and Ivanovic at CB, which has forced us to play Azpi at RB who it turns out is a real gem). I'm not against giving Lamps a contract extension, but he's going to be 35 at the end of the season and currently earns more than £100,000 p/w which is about £5 million p/a, whilst we also have at least two young players who we need to give a good look at (in a purely platonic way I should point out for the scumbag who wants to say vile things on here under the guise of being a Chelsea fan) and try to maintain a profit in the second period of FFP. We aren't Arsenal. We don't sell our best players and we actually have a very good spread of age and experience throughout the squad.

Wow, really?

How do you replace a player like Frank Lampard? Simply put, you can't. The man is a striker and a midfielder in one; a player that has revolutionised the attacking midfield position. Juan Mata is on course for a 25 goal/30 assist season. Statistically that's better than any of Lampard's season and more than 3 times as productive as Lampard's season at the same age. (Eden Hazard is on course for 30 assists too with 10 goals although I think he'll kick on in the new year).

There's a long way to go if you bear in mind the fact that he has a dodgy knee (by many accounts) and we haven't done the medical yet. But if we do get him, then I think we'll have the right man for the rest of this season. He's good at doing the basic things that Torres doesn't - he runs the channels, gets onto the last man and seems to be rather prolific. If you look at today's game, Torres assisted well in the build-up to both goals, but he was worrying absent from the 6-yard box when Azpi zipped a ball across the goal - that's where I'd expect Ba to be. Then you had the chance at the end of the game when Oscar played Torres through but he struggled to make much of it - I'd be much happier with Ba in that position. Throw in the fact that he's probably worth about £15 million and we're getting him for about half that (maybe more if the latest results are correct) and I think we'll look back on this as something of a no-brainer. And let's try and give the board credit for getting some business wrapped up fairly swiftly.

We have a policy for players over the age of 30 and I think it's one we need to stick to. I really don't think that's reason to question my 'loyalty as a True Blue' although I'm more than happy to put my credentials up against anyone on here.

Our academy doesn't need a whole lot doing to it (for which the board and Arnesen need some credit), but before today Benitez gave two academy graduates their league debuts. That's a great boost for every lad working hard, to see someone like them getting a chance in the first-team because they deserved it.

Bertrand in for Cole, Moses in for Ramires, Oscar in for Mata and maybe Mikel in for Lamps.

On how much p/w? It's tough for a guy who was a top earner to then take a pay cut and it does affect the way people act around one another. Plus let's be honest, he'll still be on around £100K p/w along with Cole which is around £10 million p/a on the wage bill of a club who made just £1 million profit in the first year of FFP. Plus at some point you've got to look at replacing him and next year we'll have Oscar, De Bruyne, McEachran and Chalobah all possibly looking for that spot in midfield alongside Mikel, Ramires and maybe Luiz. Cole is a different issue in that regard because he's still one of the best in the world on his day (which aren't as consistent as they once were)and it's hard to say that Bertrand and Van Aanholt are capable of replacing him. But we've all seen him hobbling around the pitch after games - that doesn't inspire much confidence in giving him a two-year contract.

Hardly flying colours considering we were awful for the first third. But we got back into it and showed character. As for Lampard and Cole, I thought Cole was out of position for the goal and didn't look himself even though he was only up against Naismith. I'd definitely rest him for QPR and hope he comes back to something approaching his best. Lampard scored two goals.....his general play beyond that was a little average if I'm being honest.

Picking up runners from midfield is something he will have to learn, but that wasn't the problem with the goal. It was a complete lack of effort from him and the rest of the team to get back. In fact the first 30 minutes were awful, but once we found our feet I thought he improved with everyone else. I liked his movement when we were in possession today, I liked his effort tracking back in the second-half and I liked his workrate. But this is all still an experiment. It's not going to happen overnight and he will give up more chances to the opposition.

Hard to say because you don't know who would be in charge now.

I was watching the game against Everton. He's not a Mikel, and that has positives as well as negatives. I liked his effort all day, but he had some positional foul-ups. What I have said all along is that he is a newcomer and right now, he is doing enough to retain his position.

I think the supporters on here are able to understand what a player contributes to the team, don't you?

At some point the negative publicity associated with JT might outweigh what he brings to the side, especially with his fitness issues. I'll be honest - in the last few weeks I haven't missed him.

I've said before but I think Roman would afford Guardiola more time than anyone else. He's got the track record to protect him and he'd be the biggest appointment since Mourinho, with all respect to Carlo. Plus you've got to hope that he wouldn't put himself in a position to be in danger.