The only place to be

Do we want big egos at our club? Do we need big egos at our club? It worked last year where these 'big egos' (Drogba, Terry, maybe Lamps, Ashley) carried the team to success through sheer force of will and a little luck. Personally I'd prefer we built a team and there's every possibility these guys won't be there. The stars of our team will be the likes of Oscar, Ramires and Mata who are all fairly introverted, quiet guys - typical Guardiola players by all accounts.

A 3 point plan. 1. Roman identifies manager. 2. Roman hires manager. 3. Roman leaves manager alone. We're at stage 1 right now.

In the Megastore maybe? Lamps is a proud guy. Why sit on a bench when you could go overseas and experience a whole new way of life? I don't know how that would work with his home life, but it'd be nice to get away from the ***** in our media.

Quick, someone get this to Roman.

Rafa could've ingratiated himself to the Chelsea fans by nutting that **** Shreeves. The absolutely worst type of sports 'journalist'.

He's a much stronger player than I thought he would be. Solid going forward and reads the game extremely well in defence, plus has great physical tools. Needs to be playing every game if he keeps this up, and I'd imagine he'll be knocking on the Spanish national team's door too.

He's been our best centre-back when he's played in that position. Going forward it has to be him and either Luiz or Cahill.

I was very impressed with their movement, especially on the wings, and the way they created space. The strikers were pretty dire today but they isolated a problem with playing too compact and really worked the wings well. I think some of the credit for them being awful has to go to Benitez. The organisation of the defensive line and the midfield line was a massive improvement over recent weeks. The one word to describe it would be disciplined. Although I think Ivanovic and Azpi also stabilised the defence too.

The inspired sub against Arsenal almost had me convinced.....

If it makes you feel better, I highly doubt United will have another manager who lasts 26 years. Same goes for Arsenal with Wenger. It just doesn't happen that often anymore because the pressure is so great. I absolutely believe United will go through a few managers after Fergie leaves, maybe not quite as fast as us but close. The whole point with having a manager last a long period is that they've got to be the right guy. There are very few of those and in Roman's reign we've only had one that I believe was capable of it - Jose.

You can't compare Fergie to Robbie. Fergie is untouchable at United. He's been there at 26 years and is arguably the greatest British manager of all time.

A pretty dull match in honesty, but that was actually a refreshing change. How long has it been since you had to pick between 3 defensive-minded players for MOTM (Azpi, Ivanovic, Ramires). Ivanovic has to play in central defence for the foreseeable future. He dominated everything in the air and was a rock. Azpilicueta could be a real gem. Solid in defence, strong, pacy and good going forward. Luiz didn't do anything stupid. Hurrah. His decline over the last few games under RDM was getting worrying but he kept it simple today. Rami was brilliant, especially after Mikel went off. Kept it simple and didn't go too far forward. Essentially we saw Rafa just go back to basics and tighten everything up. Unfortunately we were pretty toothless going forward. I thought Mata had his worst game for a while, whilst Oscar and Hazard worked hard but didn't create much. And Torres.....he got what he wanted. Twice he was put through against the City defence and both times he failed to out run their defenders. His pace just seems to have disappeared and he hasn't learnt how to play without it like Shearer did towards the end of his career. He's still an instinctive finisher but a combination of low confidence and no burst means he's going to struggle to score unless he changes his game. All in all, a decent point against an extremely well-organised team (very impressed with City today).

What time is a good time to sack someone? From what I read he had already been told they needed 'a talk' after the Juve game. He knew the writing was on the wall so let's not pretend this came as a shock. Yeah, Ken Bates would never sack a Chelsea legend out of the blue. That would just be ruud. Getting eliminated from Europe at the group stage (which is fairly likely) is pretty bad isn't it? I love Robbie but he knew exactly what he was getting himself in for when he took the job. He knew he wasn't first choice and he knew Roman would sack him at the first opportunity.

You'll have to count me as part of the 'minority' who wanted to support the players on the pitch and the work Robbie did, instead of abusing the guy who (like it or not) is in charge of the team now. The guy who has to go in to work tomorrow and try and make a team out of guys who almost certainly heard some of the abuse he got. I understand emotions were running high, but hopefully the fans who did abuse him got it out of their system and can maybe get back to supporting the players on the pitch in the next home game. Roman got the message - he actually already knew and still did it because he figured it would be best for the club going forward. He also probably expected the booing and the banners (poor arts and craft skills from the fans who wanted to protest Rafa - apparently the only thing they hated more than Benitez was Art Attack).

Just going to echo what a lot of people have said. A true legend of Chelsea Football Club. Nice to see the whole Bridge celebrating such a great man.

In the past couple of years, Ancelotti's second season has been rewritten by a number of fans. It wasn't hasty in my opinion. The football in that season, especially after Christmas, was appalling at times. He was getting plenty of stick for it in the crowd and it was fairly apparent a change was in the offing. With Robbie, it was always going to happen if there were any major problems. I just get fed up with this notion that Roman doesn't care about fans. He is a fan. I love the sight of him awkwardly convulsing in his seat when we get close to goal. I don't know many other owners who attend as many games as him, apart from Dave Whelan and a couple of others. People call this club his plaything, but that to me implies a sense of fun in owning a club. Why the fuck would you spend a billion quid on something that isn't fun???? He listened to the fans in the summer when we appointed Robbie. It wasn't his first choice.

I can't even be bothered if this is the position you're starting from.

Robbie probably earned his chance with the Champions League win and the fans wanted him in. If he hadn't then we would have probably had Benitez installed in the summer for a year, until he could have a run at Guardiola. Getting eliminated from the Champions League group stages isn't a little twitch in Roman's view. It also doesn't show up as a little twitch in the accounts - I believe the accounting term is 'major fuck up'.

A bit of this today would be very welcome.

So if we play 433, where does Lamps fit in? In my opinion if we're going with that then he still doesn't get in. The midfield 3 is either Mikel-Ramires-Oscar or Mikel-Ramires-Mata with Hazard on the left and one of about five players on the right.

The reason he sacked him relates exactly to the last point you make - Roman didn't think he was the right manager going forward. He wanted Guardiola but he wasn't available, and the only real option was Robbie. He was always going to take the first chance he had to get rid of Robbie and install a better manager (in his opinion). The only managerial change I think he really made a mistake on (and now regrets) is the Mourinho one, but by all accounts their working relationship (which does matter in any workplace) was at rock bottom. We have this reputation for sacking managers without thinking, but each change after Jose can be justified when you understand Roman's perspective. Funnily enough the successful businessman has the mentality of a successful businessman. You can argue that Robbie would have been a long-term success, but we'll never know. He did an amazing job galvanising the squad last season after AVB's disastrous run (I'm sure someone was making a case we should've stuck with him too), but the job he was being asked to do this season was completely different. Unfortunately there are not many jobs in the world that pay millions of pounds and afford you the chance to 'learn on the job' and get away with unacceptable results (brink of elimination from the Champions League group stage). And I guarantee the one person who knows that and agrees with what I'm saying is Roberto Di Matteo.

I've thought that about Oscar for a while now. The thing people seem to ignore about him is his workrate and aggression. He can do a job defensively - in the first game against Juve he man-marked Pirlo like he was Keown. He fights to win the ball too and isn't afraid of getting stuck in.

Jesus....seems I'm taking a load of shit for daring to question the role a player I've adored for years plays in a new system at the age of 34. I'll start by saying that he's been one of our greatest players of all time and one of the greatest English midfielders ever to play the game. He's the bargain of the century and a great guy to boot. He's also fiercely intelligent and someone I could actually see managing us if he wanted to. But I simply don't see what role he plays for us in the majority of games going forward. If we are going to go with the 4231 then I simply don't think he works that well in either the double pivot role or the more attacking roles which are firmly Hazard, Mata, Oscar and Moses territory. In the games I've watched him in this season, the ball slows down when it gets to him. It's noticeable. Ramires isn't much better, but he offers a lot more in terms of physicality with his engine. It's why he's been preferred alongside Mikel who we also need in that midfield for a number of reasons. I don't know if Lamps wants to spend his last few seasons on the bench, getting increasingly few minutes. In terms of our defensive organisation I think the problems stem largely from missing Terry, but also from a lack of protection in midfield, but Lampard doesn't remedy that in my opinion. I may have not made a few points as clearly as I should have, but I'm slightly fucked off by anyone questioning the esteem in which I hold I guy I've been supporting since his debut for us. The guy has given me so much enjoyment, but at some point players have to move on and there is also the point that we have young players who need gametime to help improve their game. The likes of McEachran and de Bruyne might not be there yet, but it can be detrimental to their long-term development to have a 35 year old (which he will be come next season) taking that spot on the bench ahead of them.

Our biggest problem has been in defence in my opinion. I don't think he helps that problem. He may have chipped in with a couple of important goals, but Oscar has done a pretty good job of that in Europe. I honestly don't know where he plays in the 4231.

I'm wondering who tackles in that midfield. Who drops into defend (like Mikel does, and Busquets does at Barca) and picks up the ball. I love Frank but when I've seen him play this season, the ball has actually slowed down when it gets to him. It's been fairly noticeable actually. None of the problems we've had would have been solved by Lamps, in my opinion.