The only place to be

Wow, so the true colours are revealed. Galatasaray is a tiny insignificant club supported by the worst fans in Europe. Enjoy your day in the sun because in a couple of weeks the only thing you'll have to look forward to is a match against some other shit Turkish team like Fenerbache or Besiktas. Hell isn't Galatasaray, but supporting them must surely be.

There's a survey doing the rounds asking Chelsea supporters for their views. It takes a couple of minutes but might make some difference, who knows? https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/W8KJCFN On another note, one barrier that is cropping up on the horizon is the Hillsborough Family Support Group and in particular a woman called Margaret Aspinall who is urging the Premier League clubs not to listen to the majority of supporters who seem to support safe standing. http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/safe-standing-debate-hillsborough-campaigner-3122805

I'm absolutely loving the hypocrisy of United supporters right now. For years they've given us shit about sacking managers and how they were a different breed....how they stood by Fergie for 5 years (which isn't quite true) and how they're loyal. Now look at this poll on the cafe. http://www.redcafe.net/threads/moyes-has-to-go.385470/ 83% want him out and a fair number of the votes to keep him are from supporters of rival clubs. Despite that I think they will stick with him either out of some misguided sense of being 'better' than us or simply through ineptitude. To me it goes some way to vindicating Roman's firing policy over the last few years. I actually think Woodward and the Glazers might allow Moyes to spend that rather large transfer kitty as well, which based on his first couple of acquisitions will be less than astute.

No matter what happens tonight, you still won't be Bayern or Barca. Do you actually think you could win the Champions League? You're a poor team from a poor league. Just keep trotting out the 'welcome to hull' shit.

We aren't Man United and you guys certainly aren't Bayern or Barcelona.

I like how people talk about Van Der Sar at United but completely gloss over the 5 years between Schmeichel leaving and Van Der Sar arriving. They ignore that period of Bosnich, Taibi, Barthez, Carroll and Howard when United lacked stability. What about Arsenal after Seaman? We have a chance to move from one world-class goalkeeper to another, with no waiting period and for only £7 million. Bayern are perhaps the only other club who did that (from Khan to Neuer) and that cost them €22 million. It's a massive risk not making the move now.

He talks about Eto'o, Ba, Torres, Lukaku and Sturridge all being prolific outside of the club but not here. It's an atrociously flawed point. Lukaku and Sturridge were never given a run as a number 9 here so it's impossible to say they weren't productive here. Eto'o hasn't played in a proper league since 2011. Torres and Ba are perhaps the only fair examples he makes, and Ba has never really been given a long run here because he's actually not that good. Torres....well there's a fair case for there being a gypsy curse on him. But this whole notion of our club being a 'strikers' graveyard' could probably be used as an excuse for the last 20 or so years. We bought Robert Fleck for big money but he was a flop - is he included? Yet we managed to pick up Steino who was prolific for a time. Vialli struggled for a while but then we also had Flo. Casiraghi really did end up in the graveyard metaphorically. We bring in Mutu and Crespo - again one almost has his career ended whilst the other actually pitches in. Drogba himself went through 10 goal seasons and 20+ goal seasons. But we're looking at a period when he was under different managers, different systems and had different levels of quality in the team alongside him. At the moment, we have poor strikers. That's evident from the chances they miss game in and game out. There's nothing in the water that causes strikers to be poor, but I think you have to look at the way teams come here and look to defend deep. That's always going to make it hard for us and we have lacked some creativity at points over the last 5 years. In the past we also set ourselves up to get a lot of goals from our 20 goal-a-season midfielder (Lamps) which is something a lot of people overlook. Look at how Swansea set up against us and Liverpool. When they came to the Bridge they sat back and managed to get just one shot on target the whole match. But at Liverpool they left massive gaps and looked to attack scoring THREE goals in the process. Teams come to the Bridge often looking not to get beat because we simply don't lose at home that often. That's always going to make it tough for a top striker to score, let alone our poor ones.

I live in England! Everyone here supporting Olympiakos too!

The camera may have been set up correctly but it's clearly not part of the interview. People are moving around, cups are being clattered....if that's truly the environment that they conduct interviews in then they're at best unprofessional. It's not part of the interview, it's off the record but it is 100% accurate.

And why's that? Baker has fantastic technique and just needs to keep his temperament in check. Boga could go either way.

The players who aren't good enough must be dragging it down....and before you respond, EBOUE!

It's not hell. It's a retirement home for players and managers who are either past it or not good enough. That heat isn't hellfire - it's just the thermostat turned up on full to help with the arthritis.

£12 million? Nice bit of business. Not sure he'd be missed but he's been part of this club's history and put in some good performances. Italy should suit him nicely although I honestly thought he'd end up going to Turkey, or maybe even Russia.

Not true. Statistically he puts in more tackles per game than Mikel, Cahill or Terry. In fact in the Champions League games, only 6 players make more tackles than him per game and only 5 players make more interceptions (he makes the same number per game as Ramires). He's underrated as a defensive presence and he's always got a goal in him so I think he definitely could play alongside Ramires in a midfield two or alongside Mikel and Ramires (or even Luiz) in a midfield 3.

If it was an off the record comment, then he isn't in the wrong. If that's the case then you are fundamentally wrong about him making comments 'in public' when they wouldn't have been. Either way, he's speaking the truth. He's saying what every single fan is saying and to be honest, it's really not an issue. Ba is a goner, Eto'o is out of contract and Torres is nothing but a dead weight at this point. If we could ship all three of them out in the summer then we'd be laughing. He's also bang on about the level of professionalism of the reporter IF the comments weren't on the record. IF that's the case then it's massively unprofessional and possibly sackable.

Should've done better on this one. Surprised no-one's bought it up previously. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4q3mVaE1kA#t=56

Mata wouldn't have played. He doesn't fit the system. It's akin to saying that Oscar's dip in form is the reason letting Courtois leave on loan was a mistake.

Never too sure what to think of this guy. Has exceptional talent, likes to move forward with the ball and is good in the air and handy in the tackle BUT can seem incredibly moody and I've seen him just give up on games (City away being the obvious example). To me he's another of these guys who plays alongside the main guy (JT) and we desperately need that next main guy. If we're going into next season with Terry, Cahill and Zouma then another young guy with the potential to grow into being the next lynchpin of our defence is required, and if he's available then that's Varane for me all day long.

Really? Mancini can say what he wants, he's the one who has had to leave the top leagues to find a job.

Azpi's problem with crossing came when he had no targets and instead looked to cross into space. I think Ivanovic has the same issues, and low crosses tend not to get past the first man because (again) it's against defences who have had time to get back and organise themselves.

For it to be a successful cross, it has to be met by one of our players. Who? You can't just say it's not a valid argument when it absolutely is. Newcastle are shit. They defend poorly, they offered very little that day so of course it was easier for Eto'o to find space. Unfortunately, the vast majority of times Ivanovic crosses it's second or third phase attacks where the defences have reorganised and our first choice of attack (the counter) has broken down. In those instances, we're missing a Drogba to win those headers.

I said he was one of the most important players for us and I stand by that. He's key to the way we distribute the ball from goal-kicks, he's worked most of the season without a proper right-winger (Willian does a good job but isn't comparable to Hazard on the left) and he's popped up with key goals. The pace of a full-back? I've not seen many wingers go past Ivanovic on the outside whilst his engine to get up and down that right-wing is outstanding. You see him as a centre-back and that's fine, but I think you continue to look through that prism no matter what he does. He reminds me a lot of Gary Neville in so many regards and the same accusations were often levelled at him...they were misplaced too in my opinion.

As a unit they've been the foundation of everything good we've done this season. If you want to disagree then you're more than welcome to, but his goals alone have added at least 4 points to our total (against City and Villa). Azpi has been tremendous as well in recent months but he's not been any better than Ivanovic and has made 9 less starts. Cech has not had a better season. That's a ridiculous comment to make. He was dropped because of his poor form. Who should he be crossing the ball to? I know Drogba's in the banner but he doesn't play for us anymore so who exactly should he be crossing to? Oscar? Hazard? He put in a ball on Saturday that was perfect. It was a cross that Beckham would be proud of, yet Eto'o simply couldn't get to it which sums up this whole 'he should cross better' argument. The targets for crosses don't exist. And the FACT is that the same criticisms were levelled against Azpi all of last season. Feel free to check his thread - you'll notice the person defending him in EXACTLY the same way is me. Does that make him 'not a full-back'?

You're a joke mate. Even when he starts putting in decent crosses consistently people like you will still look to moan rather than giving him the credit he deserves. I have no problem with people disagreeing with me. I think Cech was at fault in small part too which was raised by others. You seem to want to look to Ivanovic and as I said at the time it was an imaginative view to take. Feel free to suggest that. In fact why not actually have the balls to take me to task on that comment rather than making snide little comments and retweeting any old shit you find on twitter like you normally do. Cech hasn't been a cornerstone of our success this season. He's been in poor form compared to his normal standards, he's cost us goals and he's been dropped because of it. I have no problems making such a comment. The problem with this site is that you can't put mods or admins on ignore so just do me a favour and don't respond.

Give it all the you want but Ivanovic has been one of our best players and you always seem to be one of the first to pick up on any slight mistake he makes (the West Brom one was the latest one because apparently he didn't close down the crosser properly ). He's been a cornerstone of much of our success this season - try supporting him.