The only place to be

I love how the media used to celebrate Fergie's hairdryer treatment of players yet when Jose gives the players a richly-deserved bollocking it becomes some form of meltdown. Carrot and stick.

People were always going to be a little frustrated after yesterday's performance and tomo nailed it. I shouldn't have reacted perhaps as I did but if people like lionsden and excalibur want to keep shitting on the team then I have no problem with giving them the chance to put their money where their mouth is. I agree and that was partly my fault, although I still think there are a few cunts on here who seem to revel in moaning about the team at any opportunity. It's almost like it's more important for them to be proven right in a small way than it is for the club to do well. I'm quite happy to admit Jose has proven me wrong as have a few of the players (thanks to dee's efforts I was reminded that there was a time when players like Azpi and Cahill had question marks about them). But that's what he does. That's what we as a club do. It's why I put that bet up because I see the problems in the club like others do but I don't harp on about them constantly or glory in them. I look at the guy on the bench and I have faith in him, but faith requires patience and support and I think that's what a few members on here lack. If I come off as sanctimonious in criticising them then that's kinda tough but I've got very little time for people who constantly look for the negatives and don't celebrate the positives. And there are a fuckload of positives about this club at the moment.

Think he was just frustrated. It's funny how much one appearance in a big game can change the situation and if we do end up selling Luiz then he's definitely got a shot at the fourth CB spot. Think it might come down to him and Zouma competing for it in pre-season.

Oh look at you collating posts and not providing context. Look at the last 5 words in that wall of posts - but he still needs time. Even when you're trying to paint me as a hypocrite, you still leave in posts that show I was urging patience, despite being a little frustrated at times. He still had my support. Come on babe, you're not even trying anymore. A stalker not putting in the effort is just some snaggle-toothed weirdo. Aah, is someone still upset because I called him a proven liar. I don't think I'm entitled to anything. I don't think just because we're Chelsea we should win everything (or anything). I don't think I should be treated to a finished article without having to wait for it to be put together. That's you and your ilk. Looks like the whole fan club is out today.

Right....so you just happened to know that 200 pages ago I grew frustrated for maybe a day and had a pop at Jose, before actually calming down the next day and backing him. Gotta say babe, I'm kinda blushing right now Clearly that makes me a hypocrite for criticising people who constantly moan day in and day out....

I just had a trawl back through the posts you mentioned there Dee. Took me a while to find what page December 8th was (about 525 apparently) so god knows how long you spent going through posts on here to find that or was it already written down in your notes? I tell you what - we could've used that type of commitment on the pitch in the first-half. Fantastic workrate there fatal attraction. Anyway, I was critical. I was frustrated and it's very easy to be lazy and impatient at those points and simply criticise the team. I was wrong and I'll hold my hands up. But you said I 'routinely' did it for a period of time. Here's what I actually posted on December 9th... That was a tough moment for us and we were just building momentum and becoming the team Jose started to want us to be. I also broke up my routine of bashing him to say this... So you can take a few posts made in anger and frustration and paint me out to be a serial moaner on the scale of lionsden and mr excalibur safe in the knowledge that there are very few members of this forum so tedious and stalkerish to actually fact-check your accusations but at least try and be measured in your criticism of me. Cheers deary.

Measured criticism. You understand that right? For years fans have moaned about the lack of stability and wanting the club to be patient with the right manager, and then when it actually comes time to do that people start questioning him. This is when support actually matters. This is when a bit of faith is actually needed. Not the relentless criticism and 'why can't we break down packed defences' shit, the recriminations about selling Mata (who is just lighting up Old Trafford) and the same old lamentations. Oh no, I lost credibility to you. I think I'll survive. As for me criticising Jose, I absolutely hold my hands up. I got frustrated with a few things and I did have reservations, but I'm happy to hold my hands up and say I was wrong. I still think the Lukaku loan deal was the wrong choice but as the full story of that seems to be emerging I again think I was presumptuous. Nice research there though love. One example clearly means I'm the same as lionsden and excalibur, who you so benevolently defended in no way simply to satiate whatever agenda you have on here.

I have this ability to balance those losses alongside other factors, like the clear holes in our squad. I can look at those games and then look at the performances against the likes of City, Liverpool, Arsenal and PSG. This was always going to be a transition season so you're always going to get results like that. This is when you have to trust the guy in charge and not keep banging on about how we struggle to break down packed defences. Packed defences are hard to score goals against. That's why teams who don't want to concede goals employ that tactic. There's no magical way through them, but you at least need a good striker to have a chance - we don't. The team who scored 96 goals in the league and have one of the best strikers in world football struggled as well. To be fair you don't. Like I've said, lionsden and Excalibur are the prime examples of that. I just find it a little tedious that some people bang on about us struggling to create chances when they've had it explained to them that the problem is clearly the lack of a striker. That might sound simplistic but it's a massive hole in our team and one not really down to Jose.

The thing is none of the people who constantly moan talk about the other side. There is no suggestion of an alternative. They just reminisce about the football that Carlo had us playing in 2010....but gloss over the fact that we had a spine that JOSE MOURINHO actually put in place a few years earlier. Avram Grant had us playing some good football, but again that was down to the players we had. We don't have those players yet and some people simply don't have any patience for us to acquire or develop them. They want it now and if they don't get it they'll stomp their feet and hold their breath and cry and cry and cry.

The truth is that we're a team without a striker and we could still go into the last day of the season with one of the replica premier league trophies being in Cardiff. There's still a possibility of us going through the streets of West London in an open-top bus - Plastic flags for everyone!! All of this in a transition year - and yes it is a transition year.

I've said I've criticised him, but I don't bang on about it over and over and over and over again. People like lionsden and Mr excalibur can't wait to jump on a bad performance but stay quite as a mouse under their rocks when we actually do well. I've been accused in a slightly snidey, roundabout way by dee of calling them plastic supporters when the truth is I don't recall seeing them support the team. As for Jose's tactics, I've consistently said we don't have a striker who is a good enough and that it's unfair to fully appraise Jose's tactical astuteness before he's had a chance to build HIS team. That requires patience and perspective. Some people need to remind themselves that we're still paying about £15 million per season for Torres. So you're criticising the guy now because you might not be able to next year when we win the league? See that sounds like a lot of hard work. I'd just wait, remain positive and look forward to buying a commemorative mug in 12 months time or something. But I'm a cup half full kinda guy. Fanboys and now fundamentalists. Jesus. Please...don't feel like I'm victimising you. I don't know how I'd live with myself if you thought that. Dry your eyes mate.

We should get that coach who got Real Madrid to score a record number of goals in 2012 - do you happen to know his name?

I love the guy but he was all kinds of awful yesterday. A really weird performance in the first-half, but he's still new to the club and that will happen. He'll bounce back, his fitness will improve and he'll dominate that midfield for us next year.

Measured criticism is fine but repeating the same old shit week in and week out is dull as fuck. This season hasn't been perfect but some people change like the wind, going from last Sunday's jubilation to shitting on the team this week. Some people simply don't know the meaning of the word support and now this 'victimisation' thing you're trying to hide behind is even more tiresome. Oh waaaahhhh..... No it's not. Measured criticism is fine but some people aren't capable of that. Some people want everything now rather than having anything remotely approaching patience. They even regurgitate the same shit about us parking the bus that rival fans use. It's pathetic. I'v admitted I can be patronising. I've also criticised Mourinho, but admitted I was wrong as well. He's building something in his first season here. Luiz and Ramires have been here long enough for me to have a fair idea of who they are and what they are capable of. I've actually defended players like Schurrle, Matic and Salah because they're new to this club and I understand that they need time. I've criticised Oscar for his poor form but I've also said he was our most important player at the start of the season, and he deserves patience. So if you want to criticise me, at least get your facts right.

Think you need to put your money where that big old mouth is. Be your way of financially contributing to this site either way. We've had people call Jose clueless, call him out after the match....hell I could probably find posts criticising him before the match if I actually looked in the match thread. All it needs is one word....yes.

Deserves to lift the league title next season.

I've expanded the last part. Felt a bit underdeveloped as spur of the moment things have a wont to do. Either way, shit result on a horrible, weird day where no-one felt up for it and it hopefully spurs us on to improve in the future. One largely for the doom-mongers to say 'I told you so' safe in the knowledge that most people won't give a fuck if we win the league in 12 months. But such is football - Jose was a genius 7 days ago when he ran down the touchline at Anfield and every fucker with even the hint of blue in their veins was going nuts as Willian passed the ball into the goal and we broke scouse hearts. 7 days. Fuck'em all.

Good thing you changed that avatar to one from about 1996 or one might have questioned you jumping on Jose's back about 25 minutes after the final whistle. Aren't you the little politician you.

Cheers love. Absolutely appreciated this post. Apologies if I meaner or impugn or insult....or maybe even spell a word incorrectly (that covers me right???) Logged on, expecting lionsden and mr excalibur and a few others to have slated this team as soon as the match finished (probably even a bit before) and I thought to myself it was a shit game. Absolutely dire. But who cares? Sunny day, Bank holiday wandering out of the Bridge heading towards the river fancying a cider - do you know what that's like? To walk out of a shitty game, moaning to a mate about spunking £60 up a wall for that? It's actually pretty funny at the end of the day. A norwich supporter can count the number of tenners they lost on one hand. But that's football. It isn't all champagne in Munich. It isn't all open top buses, there's a few shitty results like today where the lack of a striker is self-evident and the lack of quality is fucking awful. But I got speaking to an old boy later on and he spoke about the pleasure of seeing Eden Hazard on the ball. The utter joy in his voice at seeing such a great player in the team and it got me thinking... There's a fair few CUNTS on this forum who do nothing but slate the team. They know who they are because I've name checked a few of them. Here's the proposition. One year from now. Henrique, lionsden, excalibur, styles, laura90, theskipper, whomever....I'll put up the cost of the servers for one year against you guys. If we win the league, you pay up EACH. If we don't, I'll pay up. You want to criticise, put your money where your mouths are or shut up. I'm bored of the constant criticism. I look at you guys and you have nothing invested in the success of this team bar a fleeting interest in bpasting about a win on Facebook to what are surely your equally tiresome, irredeemably identical 'friends'. So here's a chance to be invested in Chelsea Football Club's success, via TalkChelsea. All six of you have to agree to it and if anyone else wants to bet against us winning the league you're welcome.

Thank you Ash. It's a bizarre feeling in football when a player becomes one of your own. For a while after you left Arsenal you still felt like one of them. The first image you conjured would be red and white, but at some point you became a blue. It's not often a club can say they had the best in the world but we absolutely did. You took far too much shit and maybe you cared too much about what other people thought, but you were the absolute best at what you chose to do. Those tears got me today because I knew we were probably losing one of our own. Fuck me it's going to happen a few times in the next few years but no matter what, thousands of people will know they got to see one of the best ever. So thanks. Hundreds of times I got to see you and I still probably won't realise how good I had it. :blue scalf:

Just exemplifies how you don't understand football and see these as mutually exclusive. Counter-attacking play will always be part of this team's philosophy as a first-phase attack. Do you know what that is? Teams transitioning from attack to defence leave gaps, and we will always look to exploit these gaps with our pace. The key is the next phase if this counter breaks down. That's where we've been poor and that has a lot to do with our strikers' movement. Eto'o's has been terrible at this and just seems to stand there. Torres always seems to drift to the edge of the box and Ba probably has the best movement in the box which is a woeful indictment of our options. So it's become fashionable for people like lionsden to not even contend this point, but try and diminish it by suggesting that strikers really aren't that important. This is hogwash of the highest order. A dangerous striker puts defenders on their heels and creates space between the lines for midfielders to operate in - that lack of space has killed us. The lack of a threat at 9 is the reason teams can double-team Hazard. It's why people like you should have some patience when 'assessing' the tactics Jose employs. He doesn't have the requisite parts yet. Just look at the transformation the acquisition Matic made to our midfield and use your imagination to think what difference a striker might make to our attack.

Cahill has passion. Terry has passion. Lampard has passion. Azpi has passion. Ivanovic has a ton of passion. Ramires has misdirected passion. Hazard seems to genuinely enjoy being a footballer. Costa (if we get him) certainly has passion and fire. I think you're confusing passion with taking selfies and giving thumbs up whilst sticking your tongue out. That's Miley Cyrus passion. There's always a hope that David Luiz can mature as a player.... I mean he is only 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 . Newcastle was a big game and he didn't perform in that. So was West Brom. In fact people need to get over this notion of their being 'big games' - every game where a person pays to see you put on the shirt with the money they've worked hard for is a big game. There were also plenty of mutterings about players being pissed off with his attitude as well. Yes take joy in the football but do the hard bits as well. No-one will disagree that he has EVERY physical attribute needed to be a top-class defender. But it's the mental side that is highly questionable. For me he is fourth-choice centre-back behind Terry, Cahill and Ivanovic and I'm even tempted to put Kalas above him too. As a midfielder, maybe he has a future here.

In the real world, Jose doesn't bring negativity. I challenge you to honestly say the atmosphere at Chelsea matches has been negative this year - it hasn't. In fact Jose has brought a kind of unity and togetherness amongst the Chelsea support (I'll repeat that, the Chelsea SUPPORT) that hasn't been there for a while. Under Robbie there was a defiance because we were underdogs, but under Jose there's been a belligerence and strength amongst the crowd. On the internet it's a little different. In fact on this website there's been just a few negative members who constantly criticise Mourinho based on an agenda. I've been critical at times and I was wary of him returning, but I see the smiles back on people's faces in the crowd and the optimism that he has brought. But I will say this. You are not representative of the vast majority of Chelsea supporters. Lionsden is not representative of the vast majority of Chelsea supporters. Mr Excalibur isn't representative of ANY Chelsea supporter that I've met in the last 20 years of going to Stamford Bridge (that's our home ground FYI). Now I do understand some of the criticism and frustration. People want things overnight. There's a certain sense of entitlement that fans who came to this club really from the turn of the century have. The type of fan whose brain wasn't blown by seeing that we'd signed Mark Hughes on Ceefax. The type of fan who had to look twice when they went to Priesfields in Gillingham and saw RUUD FUCKING GULLIT in a Chelsea shirt. There's a type of fan who thinks Roman's money entitles us to success and success now and if it doesn't arrive within the first year then it's time to turn on the manager. Those supporters are a cancer. Maybe parasite is a better word. They take all the good stuff and aren't prepared for any of the hard graft and the occasional fuck-up. Their form of 'support' isn't worth shit and for you to take that tiny, insignificant minority's negativity and attribute to the support at large and then blame it on Mourinho is disgusting and it should be viewed as such and nothing more.

I'll miss them. Never could muster hate for Fulham because they're just so....beige? Most interesting fact I know about Fulham - only league ground in England with a tree in it's grounds. That pretty much sums them up for me.

He'll win it if he works hard. Ronaldo for all his talent is one of the hardest-working players in the world off the pitch. When Eden starts doing that for a few years then he'll be right in the mix.