The only place to be

We need to get away from this idea that Roman doesn't know this - he knew. He's not an idiot. He was at those matches against Liverpool. People don't seem to know much about Roman - he's a football nerd. He loves the game, he devours it voraciously and he isn't an idiot. But he's got £1 billion invested in the club so he tends to look past certain things if he thinks a guy can do a job for him.

He built a car - we need to start building a factory. That team was built around expensive buys and we simply can't continue to do that. We need to start using the academy and the scouting system rather than buying established players. Can Jose do that? We can't simply waste the talent coming through. This isn't a video game where there's an infinite money cheat. We're a club looking to build a new stadium in the next 3-5 years (ideally) and we need continuity throughout the club to achieve that. I honestly don't know if that is one of Mourinho's strengths.

No. No no no no no. No. Sorry, I like him but he was fucked around by us last season and he just seems to be getting used to the English game. Leave him at West Brom and bring him back next summer. Same goes for all the other youngsters. This season is a mess and the club is toxic right now. It would do him a disservice to bring him into this. Make some cheap, short-term signings if we have to and start fresh next season. No Torres, no Malouda, no Benitez and a whole fresh slate with lots of young players and a new gaffer.

You've essentially just agreed with what I said - the spine never changed. The team he built remained the same, but there was nothing coming up to supplement or replace that. Now that might not just be his fault and we can point fingers at the board but the same thing seems to have happened at Inter. Realistically, how many years does Mourinho stay at Chelsea? 2 or 3 if we're lucky? What about all the baggage that him and Roman have? It could work. But I'm always wary of people going back to places where they had past glories. It doesn't always work out well. Do we even have the personnel that he would want? Pep Guardiola has to be this club's first choice and they have to do everything they can to get him, and let him do his job in peace. If not him then maybe Klopp at Dortmund.

If we could get Fellaini then that would be a massive upgrade on the DM position. In terms of striker, I don't know if we have to spend big. Look at the likes of Kone and Ba and there's value in the market, and we simply need someone who does the absolute basics that a striker is expected to because Torres doesn't do that. Just a guy who can control a ball, run the channels and LEAD THE LINE. Just stay on the last man rather than hanging out on the edge of the penalty box.

Is Jose the best guy for this club? Since he's left, we've had a a 5 year long hangover. After he left Inter, they've struggled. Mourinho is the best manager in the world if you want to win right now. I don't know if he's the best man for building something a little longer term, and that HAS to be the aim at Chelsea. Guardiola at Barcelona did bring through youngsters and that has to be on the CV of any future Chelsea manager. He's one of the few managers who would get time under Roman because he has the track record.

There is absolutely no hypocrisy whatsoever in what I've said. I've stated I don't like the guy and I hated the idea of him being at the club, but he's here now and the pragmatist in me wants him to succeed for the sake of my club. I've let what he said in the past go because I honestly don't care about it. I'm sorry if that isn't something you approve of, but he said what he said when he was trying to gain a competitive edge and if that meant getting a bit more noise from his own fans by slagging off our's, I can rationalise that. However I will say that he has not done himself any favours in explaining it in recent days. I'm not advocating his presence at the Bridge - I'm pointing out that for the foreseeable future he IS going to be at the Bridge. Those are vastly different concepts. I don't want him there, but he's going to be. I didn't want him to be hired, but he has been. Can you see the difference between those ideas? I probably do think it's best to support Rafa and the team, rather than boo him in the hopes it will change time and he won't have been hired. I honestly don't know who else is out there who would come in and do the job right now, without it doing more damage to our hopes our hiring a decent manager in the summer. This all completely ignores the fact that I've slated the team's performance today. It wasn't good enough and his changes were poor in my opinion. But you've decided to eschew a decent argument against me in favour of trying (and failing) to paint me as a hypocrite whilst calling me a 'charlatan', a 'hypocrite' and 'classless'. The thing is that I ultimately view you as I view Rafa. It's part of what supporting the modern Chelsea is, and I have to try and accept you both graciously.

Um, what club isn't a dictatorship? Many are owned by one person and I can't remember the last time a club got to vote for their manager.

We don't know what we'd get, but for people to start calling for Roman to leave....well that's just fucking thick. Look at the top clubs in the league. Man City seem to have decent enough owners, but who knows how invested they'll be 5 years down the line. United have lumbered the club with debt, Arsenal are happy to just make a profit for their board, Spurs sold their best player in the summer and Liverpool have an owner who refused to pay £1 million more for Clint Dempsey leaving them with just two strikers. We've got an owner who has not only helped win us trophies, but invested in our future with the academy and training facilities as well as looking to build a new stadium in one of the most expensive areas of the country. Sure we could get Man City's owners - but we could also get Malaga's. Some people come off a little spoilt sometimes.

Who on this entire forum was a 'Rafa advocate'? I think people were simply saying when he'd been hired that rather than booing him, we should give him a chance to prove himself for the good of the team. It now appears as though the problems facing the team are beyond him. Unfortunately if appears as though we're going to be stuck with him for 6 more months so we still need to hope he does something good.

The one upside of getting Benitez in is that there can be absolutely no doubt left that Torres is finished. If we're lucky we could be shot of him by January. Until he goes, this club can't move on.

Sure. My mistake.

I apologise. When you said 'the board' I assumed you meant this board/forum. It was a misunderstanding, although not quite sure you had to call me a classless wanker. But I don't really want a discussion on it. It's all very well wanting him out, but who exactly do we get in?

This comes back to the same old point about Roman never wanting Robbie in as manager in the first place. He felt Benitez would be the better bet for the short-term and there's no way of knowing if he was right or not. What I am pointing out is that things weren't exactly rosy before Benitez and we're suffering from the same problems time and time again.

Sorry but being dissected by not one, but two teams IS a problem. The same problems were thrown up in each game and finally they started appearing in games against Swansea and West Brom and Man United and Liverpool.

That would be the same Arsenal who are 7 places below us and lost at home to Swansea today? And how is almost certainly getting knocked out of the Champions League a 'rather good start to the season'?

Before then we'd lost to Athletico Madrid and Shakhtar, and dropped a two-goal lead at home to Juventus. There were problems before the United game.

I personally think he would be ideal for us. He's much less ponderous on the ball than Mikel and doesn't seem to give up or fall asleep like Mikel does. Plus he chips in with the odd goal even from a deeper position. To me he has the presence, the attitude and the determination to really make an impact in that DM role. I also think it would mean we could move Oscar back into the double pivot because he'd have this presence beside him. At the moment we seem to have to play with both Mikel and Ramires to cover up Mikel's failings.

After the West Ham game, I'm really wondering if he's the man we need in that midfield position. Physically, he seems to have all it takes but I honestly don't know if he has the mentality, the application or the leadership needed for one of the the key positions on the pitch. Earlier in the season he looked great, but when the pressure seems to mount he has a tendency to either disappear or give up. I don't think we can afford that in that position. Maybe if we had a more dependable player in that position we could actually drop Oscar back into the double-pivot on a full-time basis.

Does it have to be anyone in particular or just a manager with a contract that says he can't be sacked for 5 years?

I don't think he's public enemy or anything like that. He's just not good enough to do the role the club wants him to do. It's not his fault.

Honestly when people say CWC, I still think they're talking about the Cup Winners' Cup. I don't know who we're playing, who has won it in the past or what channel it's on. I honestly don't even know what the trophy looks like.

The CWC is nice, but Champions League qualification is the most important thing. Right now I'd take 3 points against Sunderland over this trophy.

I don't know anyone who sees him as that. He's just a good manager who plays football the way our personnel seem designed to play and is a great motivator. I hate the way people think Guardiola did nothing to get Barcelona to the level they're at. Personally, I think it's laziness because they don't seem to have read a single article, book or toilet wall scribble about what he actually did in his time there.

Why not use this competition to try some new things? The most important thing this season is CL qualification. If that means experimenting in this game then so be it.