The only place to be

Chelsea is a London club. In fact it's a West London club first and foremost. I understand we're a global brand but please don't try and tell me we're not an English team. I can totally understand the branding of clubs in the modern world, but there is something distinctly West London about Chelsea Football Club. It's the foundation of our identity. Now onto the larger point of the CWC - I can respect it's historical underpinnings, but for fans in this country and fans of Chelsea Football Club it's simply never held that much significance. For us Chelsea fans it's always been about the domestic and European competitions. In fact the view of this competition from most British fans is that it's a marketing exercise by FIFA and that the prestige associated really isn't that great.

You're absolutely fucking ridiculous. We were a Champions League side pushing for the title before Roman even came here. City, as much as I like their fans, weren't. It doesn't tarnish anything. What City losing does is damage some of our prospects going forward when it comes to going for managers. :wank2:

I'm a Chelsea fan and I want a Man City win today. In fact if it comes down to the two Manchester clubs, I absolutely want City to win it. I hate United with a passion. I've hated them since that cunt Ellery gave them that second penalty when contact first occurred outside the area. If United win, Ferguson retires and Mancini gets sacked in all likelihood. That throws two more hats into the ring for the available managers. If City win, I don't see either of those happening. So tell me now that I'm not a Chelsea fan.

I'm not quite as pessimistic about our future as you. I think the only reason we won't compete in this competition is due to it being abandoned due to lack of interest. I'll be gutted if we lose this mainly because it might affect morale before the Leeds and Villa games. It'd be a nice line in the history of the club, but I simply don't have the affinity for this trophy that I do for something like the FA Cup. That to me is a special day for all football fans. Like I said, I appreciate there is an upside in winning it. Now that we're in it I hope we do bring it home. But to me it's like the Super Cup.

Fans know that, but I'm not so sure they care. We won the big one, this is something we're obliged to do because of that. I was talking about this with some guys who I go to the games with - going to Munich to see that was a dream come true. But none of us are going to Tokyo. We didn't even know exactly when the games were. Personally I think this competition is much more important to the Brazilian teams and their fans because their own competitions don't have the prestige that our's do. The Champions League is the biggest competition in world club football - it has the best players, the best teams and a much better looking trophy. :blue scalf: I'm not sure if the upside of use winning it is bigger than the downside of us travelling to Japan and losing it (of course if we win it I reserve the right to say it's the best thing ever).

I mentioned this earlier and I agree with you - losing Romeu was a major blow yet it still took something extremely special/lucky for them to score. Yes they were missing key players today, but we looked to lose all structure when Romeu went off as both Ramires and Oscar seemed to drift out of position much too easily.

Part of this story seems to be about him wanting more money, but if Guardiola did decide to become our manager then I could see this transfer going from 'improbable' to 'possible'. He's arguably the best in the world at what he does and the most available of that Barca midfield. Plus he's still young in football terms, and very young in terms of the position he plays and it would also be a case of weakening a competitor. To have him as part of the spine of our team would be a massive coup.

Out of interest, do any of the British-based supporters here really care about this trophy? Obviously now that we're in it I would like to win it, but was anyone here thinking in May whilst they were hugging and kissing complete strangers and having the greatest night of their life that 'great, now we get to play in the Club World Cup'? I certainly wasn't.

Whilst Falcao is undeniably a great player, I can't be the only supporter who has reservations about is signing him. 1. We signed a 26 year old 'world class' striker almost two years ago in the same transfer window, and it hasn't quite worked out. 2. In six months time, we will probably have a new manager who may or may not want this new striker or might have a formation that requires someone different and we're then left with two £50 million strikers on the payroll. 3. January is a notoriously tough time to buy players because prices are inflated and it's hard for new players to settle. Now this could all be solved by Torres getting his form back and us just bringing in a PL-proven backup like Ba. Even if that doesn't happen though, this is a transfer that really has me worried.

vs

Exactly. Some of the crowd singing anti-Rafa songs when we were 3-0 up have to have a word with themselves. And that chant they kept singing is fucking awful.

Wow, the toys really came out of the pram with that one. I'm sorry but I have to disagree with your assessment of Fellaini and I don't really care if 'members of the month' disagree with me too. To be quite honest, I don't think it's that big of an award in the real world (but congrats on having won it ). I actually don't play FM anymore either as it's too much of a time sink. The thing is I've been watching football all my life. There are people on here who clearly didn't know Fellaini was a DM just a couple of years ago and has recently restated his desire to go back to that position. In my assessment having watched him play that position and seen him play in person a number of times, and also having spoken to Everton fans and people actually involved in the game, I think he could be a world-class DM and has the positional sense, passing ability and has that innate sense of where the ball is going. It's hard to explain that last point to someone who doesn't understand the DM position properly, but it's very important in my mind and it's one of the reasons he's also so impactful in attack. There's no need to cry about it though. Tell you what, if you ever actually make it to a football match at the Bridge I'll buy you a drink to say sorry for hurting your feelings. I can only make assumptions on the evidence in front of me.

:D Like. Fuck.

I didn't say I wanted to lose it, I just find it a little lacking in prestige if I'm totally honest. It might be important in the trophy but right now it really doesn't hold much importance in English football fans' hearts.

So about half what we apparently miss out on in the CL. Maybe it isn't such a pointless waste of time after all.

Personally I think this trophy is a bit pointless and would rather we continued the momentum with the scheduled game against Southampton rather than some FIFA jolly to Japan. We won the big trophy in May. If we win this trophy, it'll be nice but I honestly don't think the upside is that massive although if someone can point to some financial data that suggests it is then I'll have to concede that point.

There are no guarantees, but I strongly disagree with the rest of your post about him being overrated etc. What I would say is that they are both world class coaches but I simply don't think Klopp would come to England next summer. Guardiola is refreshed and available. Some people are alluding to Klopp being more suited to our club and I'd be interested to know what they're basing that on. I will admit to not having read many profiles on him so if there are people with links to things like that it might help this thread. With regards Guardiola there are a number of profiles and interviews with him, but a good place for people to start might be the new book by Balague about Guardiola. It might dispel a number of myths about him and Barca.

Well that's disgusting. He's trying to blackmail the refs, he must be stopped, WON'T SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!! Fair play to Mancini though. He knows exactly what Fergie's like and he's beat him at his own game this time. On a personal note I like these little battles before big matches. It adds something to the game and every manager is well within their rights to indulge in a bit of this.

Let's not forget that we lost Romeu in the first 20 minutes which completely fucked our game up, yet the players stepped up and held on. You can't have Oscar and Ramires together in that midfield together - it needs to be Mikel/Romeu and one of them (Mikel's limitations mean it has to be Ramires). Everyone worked hard and Johnson's goal was a freak one which Cech could have arguably done much, much better on. But it built on last week's first half against West Ham and sets us up nicely for the CWC, before returning to English football against Leeds. Could set us up for a nice run into the Christmas period.

Technically it's Leeds, not England.

3 Points much needed. Could have controlled it better at times, but the biggest disappointment was some (not all by any means) singing anti-Rafa songs when we were 3-0 up. Seriously, what the fuck??

Sorry mate, but we were looking at him in 2010 when Carlo was here. We actually scouted him when he was at Liege like a lot of top clubs but we were late to the party (De Visser was particularly keen to get him) because the quoted figure was too high. He was actually 'moved up further in midfield' in his first season at Everton too so this really isn't anything new. But he's always seen himself as a DM and the view at Everton was that he'd eventually move back but that's a little in dispute now.

Wow. Torres stepped up and took the penalty. I've given him stick but he deserves immense credit for doing that. Well done Fernando. Nailed-on penalty too.

Get in. A proper striker's finish by Torres who started the move too. Hopefully that'll stop the fans singing anti-Benitez songs.

Torres just 2 metres off where he should be.