The only place to be

We've also lost money in the CL, AVB's compensation was paid up as a wage up until the point he got a new job (so he cost very little to sack) and you also have to factor in the costs of a new manager and player acquisition in the summer. Like I've mentioned, understanding the club's finances is tricky but what is clear to see is that every penny counts in the modern game.

I can remember them being reported. But when I went to look for them being reported first-hand, I couldn't find mention of them. Now that doesn't mean they weren't said, but it's weird that we've all heard them but we're not sure where from. Here's the difference though - having seen them reported in the Mail, I didn't trust it blindly but looked for a primary source and couldn't find one. You've kept on mentioning them yet you can't give me your source either. I probably shouldn't respond because you don't seem to know when something that so enraged you was said. I've never seen such blind faith in the Daily Mail before.

You talk about the wages between now and 2010. Now not going to in-depth into the way FFP works with pre-2010 contracts I think it's pertinent to mention that in 2010 we made a loss of £70million and this year we made a £1million profit.

I'm sure Oscar is happy to have Lamps to learn for in his first year. In his second year, when he's expected to lead a country who lives and breathes football to a home World Cup he'd be quite happy with Lampard moving on. In fact won't Lampard's experience still be intact next year? There's always an argument to stop yourself from moving forward and stick with what's comfortable. It's why unambitious men have fat wives. If Lampard (and his experience) is unavaialble, why on Earth would he take a pay cut? Ferguson doesn't have an Oscar or KDB or a McEachran. Ask any United fan and they'll tell you they need a midfielder and that Scholes and Giggs are liabilities now. I don't want to see my hero sitting on the bench, getting the odd game here and there. Because he costs more than what he offers in the eyes of the board. That's how these things work. Now we can point to errors they've made, but we're replacing a legend and we have some of the most fantastic options any club could wish for. Oscar needs to play next year. This is a point that is going to be overlooked by a few and dismissed by more, but he's one of the hottest young prospects on Planet Earth and he's our's. He's going to be 22, it's going to be bumpy but I think he's about as good a replacement as we could hope for.

Torres usually waits until the game starts before he goes missing.

From that link you've posted. Other versions of this quote refer to ‘stupid plastic flags’ and end with the words ‘Chelsea fans lack passion’, but that will be largely academic when Benitez walks out at Stamford Bridge on Sunday . Now, I personally don't hold the Daily Mail in the high esteem you clearly do but it seems as though they're not too sure of the exact wording of this quote which has you so annoyed. Out of interest, do you know the exact wording of this quote and when exactly it was said?

He's also been given the Number 10 shirt for Brazil two years before they hold the World Cup, was MOTM on his debut in the Champions League and hasn't looked overawed at any point. In fact I think his workrate and toughness has surprised a lot of people. He'll never be useless, but it's about measuring his worth to the team versus the cost of keeping him in the squad be it financially or simply as another player in front of youngster who NEED a chance at some point. Against Corinthians he was anonymous. Against Everton I thought the goals masked a lot of not very good things if I'm honest. Was his 'experience' switch turned off in the first 30 minutes for instance? I think his problem is akin to what Carlo said about Joe Cole towards the end of his career - the ball tends to slow down when it gets to him. It's not about tika-taka but simply moving the ball around the pitch, and I defy you to watch the likes of Oscar, Mata and Hazard do it and not say that Lamps is a beat behind. I'm reminded of Hansen saying 'you'll never win anything with kids', except we don't have kids. Ideally we'd have the Czech captain, a former England captain, the most capped English left-back, Serbia's captain and players with enough medals and trophies to keep Arsenal fans sated for decades. As for the Arsenal point, we aren't going to be them if we lose Lamps. We've bought players with the ability to cover his absence. I've seen these kids play, I've seen them step up and I personally think the future is bright for this club with or without Frank Lampard and the fact that I can say that for the first time in a decade tells me that the club is doing the right thing.

Actually if you include Mikel and Luiz then we could be looking at 8 players for 2 positions, although some can cover others. Experience is great but players like Oscar have over 100 league appearances and the guy has been given the number 10 shirt for Brazil - I don't think he's ever looked inexperienced (his first start consisted of him scoring 2 goals and man-marking one of the best players in the world). I made the point earlier but we made just £1 million profit last year and Lamps costs about £5 million p/a. That's not an inconsiderable amount. Yes his experience is great, but (and I'm purely playing devil's advocate here) but where was that against Corinthians? Conversely, did we miss it when we came back from 2-1 at Spurs or went to Arsenal and won convincingly? This 'experience' thing is like the Anfield crowd myth - when they win, they were the 12th man. When they lose they keep schtum. Cole is a different situation because despite him being more inconsistent than I can remember him being previously, he's still arguably the best player in his position in the world, Bertrand still has question marks and he's about 3 years younger. We aren't close to being Arsenal - their problem was underinvestment. We've actually invested in both the youth academy, as well as spending about £30 million on the likes of Oscar and De Bruyne, as well as Ramires. It's completely disingenuous to suggest that a team that could start with Cech (30), Cahill (28), Terry (31), Ivanovic (28), Mikel (26), Mata (24), Torres (28) and maybe even Cole (31) could be inexperienced. The simple fact is that despite people wanting us to be like Arsenal so they can moan about the board, we've actually got a nice average age in the squad (even without Lamps), with some of the best young prospects in the world and an academy that isn't living on reputation alone (like Arsenal's). In fact your point that all that's left at Arsenal is kids is' complete bollocks isn't it? Look at their signings - Cazorla, Arteta, Mertesacker, Podolski, Vermaelen, Gervinho, Giroud, Santos - and tell me that 'all that's left is kids'. Arsenal's problem isn't that they relied on youth. It's that they've bought shit.

Didn't Scholes come back precisely because they DIDN'T develop young players to take over? In fact didn't Scholes come through because United were prepared to sell players like Paul Ince? Didn't Neville develop because they sold Paul Parker (might have to check that one)? Giggs and Scholes are the exception rather than the rule - look at players like Roy Keane who they moved on. Sure you can argue that his performances tailed off but Fergie's success has been based on not being a slave to reputation. And that's a fair point. But that's still a possibility of 4 players for 1 position in the team (not including Ramires or Chalobah) in a season of about 60 games. We're still going to have the wise old heads of Cech and Terry around too so this misnomer of us not having experience in the side is a little disingenuous.

It's entirely possible he walks away from the game when he finishes. He's a very smart guy like you say, but he's invested his money well from what I've heard and doesn't need the game once he retires. He's not going to be doing tours like some ex-pros for sure. And I absolutely agree he's smart enough to manage (in a way John Terry isn't, for instance) but I simply don't know if he'll want to. Whatever happens he's going to be a legend though. Sure we could give him a short-term contract but will that be the best for the long-term development of players like McEachran, De Bruyne and Oscar?

Except James Joyce famously adored Stevie G and felt Lampard was overrated.

Actually we already had a bet on Chelsea to finish in the top four with Benitez in charge. If we do, he leaves. I'm just going to ignore him for 5 more months. I don't know whether he should leave at the end of the season or as soon as it's mathematically impossible for us to finish lower than fourth. But for his benefit and because I'm nice, I'll point out that Yeats is WB Yeats - one of the most important figures in literature.

Look at where he was for that goal....then look at the ball Azpi fizzed across the goal against Everton. I'm starting to come around to the view we should bring him back, although you'd still expect him to get more game time at West Brom and it's good to have him as an option for them against our rivals.....except Clarkey rested him against United. So conflicted.....

So hard limiting this to one person (not really) and if I could nominate you all I would (I wouldn't). But just because I haven't nominated you don't think it's because I don't like you (although some of you know I really don't) or value your contribution (you're dead to me already). For me though, it's Muzchap but it was close (by a country fucking mile). Good insight, calm, relaxed, doesn't throw the team under the bus after 10 minutes, is fair-minded and most of all can count to 5 (which is the number of appearances David Luiz has made in midfield - all wins no less) and doesn't judge players too soon. And Muzzy (should've never let him go) if you don't win just remember it's an honour just to be nominated in the first place......by me.

I like KDB, but we spent about £20 million on Oscar and I think that was mainly due to our inability to get Modric. I think the club sees him being Lampard's long-term replacement and I tend to agree. He has the vision, but also the workrate that you need in that position. What he needs is time there, and for the fans to hold fire on criticising him if he has a few bad games. Having seen some of the responses to the Luiz experiment, that might be asking too much of some.

Absolutely agree. I said earlier he should be rested but he's just too important at the moment. If we can start like we did against Villa then he can maybe play a shortened number of minutes or we could simply rest him in one of the cup games and go with Oscar further forward. Personally, I'd like to see Oscar in the midfield alongside Mikel or Luiz. If the Lampard situation goes the way it seems to be then it makes sense to start looking at other options.

People are free to chant what they want, and RDM is a Chelsea legend. But the Villa game did make me laugh. Chelsea fans chanting on 16th minute - why? Well we hired this guy after he couldn't get a job in the Championship and then promoted him to manager because no-one else was available. The guy did an amazing job and won us our biggest prize, but then underperformed when he was given the job full-time despite the owner not really wanting to hire him and he was sacked. But he was well-paid and should be far more employable after his stint here. Aston Villa fans chanting on 19th minute - why? Well, he had cancer...... Oh.

My point was that the win against Spurs counts as a win where Lampard has played, but we were already 3-2 up at that point. Now one could argue that he played a part in securing the win and that's an entirely fair point, but without analysis these stats can be fairly superficial. The same goes for the Arsenal match - he was included in the matchday squad but didn't play.

Do those stats include substitute appearances as well as games where he was an unused sub? For instance, he was an unused sub when we beat Arsenal, and came on in the 90th minute when we beat Spurs. So does he get 'credit' for being in the team in those games despite his impact being minimal? Lies, damn lies and statistics - did you know that we're undefeated this season when Ross Turnball plays. The guy hasn't conceded a single goal!!

Those would be the blind twats who have gone out and bought in not one, but two of the most highly-rated youngsters in that position in the last year (De Bruyne and Oscar) whilst also securing valuable first-team experience for two of the most highly-rated young English talents around (McEachran and Chalobah) as well as buying another midfielder who has arguably been the player of the season so far in the Premier League, on course for 25 GOALS AND 30 ASSISTS.

That makes little sense unless those people want Malouda, Essien and Benayoun to stay too. Personally I wish Malouda had gone in the summer and I supported the deals to move Essien and Benyoun off the wage list in whatever small way we could. None of these players has a future with the club yet they're taking about £250,000 p/w on their current contracts.

Not to engage in childish arguments more than I already have, but it is akin to having a dictionary thrown at you in each post with no discernable self-editing skills. In fact the only word missing from his dictionary seems to be is; brev·i·ty /ˈbrevitē/ NounConcise and exact use of words in writing or speech. Shortness of time. Synonymsbriefness - conciseness - shortness - concision - short

He was signed because we thought we might not make the CL. Unfortunately we did and we spent £32 million on a fairly similar player, then Moses took his chance with both hands and it's been hard to drop him unless for tactical reasons. I would love to see him given a chance and he'll get it, but he's going to have to play his socks off when he does but I think he's just very unlucky and will probably leave sooner rather than later.

I've sorta alluded to that I think - he's irreplaceable in the sense of a like-for-like replacement but someone will be wearing the shirt he wore on Sunday. We aren't going to shut up shop and say 'we had a nice run but we can't go on without him'. In terms of goals from midfield, Mata is statistically on his way to a 25 goal (and 30 assist) season. He seems to have picked up the slack not just in terms of goals from that position but also in terms of getting key goals at key times (Leeds, Spurs, Norwich etc.). His responsibilities will have to be spread amongst the team, but someone will play in that midfield two alongside someone else. Again, we aren't going to play with 10 men and wear black armbands when he goes (we aren't scousers). Someone will be the 11th man on a team sheet.

Great news. They seem to be giving him enough responsibility and there's a chance at a playoff run. He's always been big for his age, but his technique is phenomenal too. His reading of the game is at a level that 90% of pros will never have and he's got that knack of slowing everything down and not panicking. A good season and he'll be in contention under a new manager in the summer.