Excalibur KTBFFH

So, that doesn't justify this idiocy. He was played out-wide, again by Mourinho, when it was bleeding obvious he wasn't physically capable to track their full-back. Mourinho preferred Hazard to him in the 10 role. Very telling. Also Schurrle did f**k all too. That's little justification.

Jose is a world-class manager, he's not Jesus. Of course, I want to be proven wrong, but with Mata gone, our depth is weakened and we can match City anymore. And as for the CL? No chance. Matic won't even be there. Our best players have never even player the knock-out phase before, no experience.

Are we first? Are we out of sight? No. No consolation there.

Now comparing Man City's squad to ours. Not even close at the moment. Oh well, this season was always one of "transition".

Obviously an exaggeration written by someone who's clearly a fan. Thorgan is not ready to make the jump from Zulte in the Jupiler league to freaking Chelsea. There's still some debate about if Lukaku is ready for Chelsea for god's sake. We need to buy this January and bring in a player that would step right in. Salah is not the answer as he has the same weaknesses as Mata, but at least he can play as a CF.

I watched him in Europa and he is not even close to being ready. Not in the next 2-3 years

Many people might hate me for this but I feel betrayed by Mata. What happened to all the "I love the club", "Chelsea is my home" talk on his blog and elsewhere? The first bit of adversity and he f**** off to United. What happened to trusting in your ability as a WORLD-CLASS player to get back into the first eleven. Oscar was nothing special against Hull and United and Mata was in a prime position to start the next game. I know you want to play in the World Cup, but why don't you bide your time with us, knuckle down and remind us why we loved you so much as a footballer (like Zola did)? That doesn't set proper precedent for the likes of Hazard. They are probably thinking, all we have to do is whine to the manager and board, and we can leave when we want to Madrid or wherever. People were comparing Mata to the legend that was Zola?? Mata is a lovely guy but it's clear to me that he doesn't "love" us. What does "love" mean in football anyway?

That doesn't even make sense for them. They could get ripped apart from the wings. Instead of Mata, their priority right now should be a CM. But their problem now.

If we bring no one in, I think the immediate future of the club is a 4-3-3. We can't overplay Willian, Oscar and Hazard, as they have only inconsistent Schurrle as back up and god knows I don't want to see Ramires playing on the right wing. That's the best way to compensate right now, but who is going to press the oppositions pivot in a 4-3-3 (after all, we don't play with a false 9 like Barca) and were does that leave Oscar? Again, we must bring in quality to replace quality. And please do it quickly. If I was in charge, I'll launch an immediate bid for Draxler with the Mata money. Absolutely perfect fit and probably a greater talent than Mata.

The point is that no world class striker is available in January. And the reason I suggest we sign a winger, preferably a right winger, is to restore the balance and depth that we will lose when Mata goes. They are available in January. I'm still not entirely convinced by the trio of Oscar, Willian and Hazard because of the lack of goals, loss of form and injury. Hazard and Oscar have done their fair share, but check Willian's record. He is not a goal-scorer AT all. It's not all about graft and playing with high intensity, we need that eye of the needle pass and decisive quality in the final third. We also can't really on our forwards, Demba is decent but not Chelsea quality, Eto'o doesn't have age on his side to be a regular every game and play at the same level and Nando is Nando. Injuries destroyed him. The teams we are up against can score goals at will. I just fear that Jose's defensive formations and tactical brilliance can only take us so far this season.

Just google him.

Reading through redcafe and their fans are calling us stupid and c****. I don't know what our board is playing at here. And another angle to look at this is whether Mata has even been treated fairly. Oscar was poor against Hull and Man united, but will likely continue to start. If Mata played like that, he would have been benched. We've seen it many times this season. I'm not even criticizing Jose, because he is a proper Chelsea legend, but I'm not sure if he's played this very well. Mata is still a quality player and even if he feels he can't press up high the pitch, at least try and make him feel important. Mata is just nowhere the same player when played out-wide. His best game this season came when he played as a 10 against Southampton at Stamford Bridge. And on the occasions were Jose started him as a number 10, he subbed him out early second half, almost every time, even when he was playing well i.e against Everton. In the reverse fixture against Southampton, he was continuously beaten by their full-backs and Mourinho preferred to start Hazard as a 10, which I thought was slighlty wierd. Didn't work and we had to make changes to win that game. Mata doesn't have the physical capabilities or the pace to chase down full-backs for 90 mins. Mourinho was trying to prove a point with Mata and it has backfired on us.

I would like to think so. Off the top of my head, our realistic options now are either Draxler, Cuadrado or even Di Maria.

United are under no obligation to sell us Rooney. The player wanted to leave but they flat our refused. They didn't even sell Heinze to Liverpool. Heinze!! What really annoys me right now (IF REPORTS ARE TO BE BELIEVED) is that we've offered zero resistance to this happening. What is our endgame. If we had any sense, we will be paying the release clause of Draxler right now with the soon to be available Mata money.

We no longer have any goals in this team. We can't really on our strikers and we can't expect Hazard to continue to carry this team. Right now we really so much on our defensive organisation and intensity of our pressing, but for how long I wonder. Man City are scoring goals for fun, they get goals from all their strikers on demand. Add that to the brilliance of Toure and Silva and with Mata gone, the quality of our squad pales in comparison to theirs, Mourinho or no Mourinho.

Man United are a sleeping giant. They might not seem like a great team right now, but they have RVP and Rooney up top, add Mata and Januzaj and all of a sudden, they look like a top 4 team again. They will then add some more quality in the summer and we have to worry about them. We've played ourselves again. Looking like the dunces of English football. The whole footballing nation has been rejoicing about the impending demise of United and we give them a huge life-line? F*** that. Now, we no longer have the strength in depth or quality to even come close to a man-city. We signed Matic, the hope was that his defensive and anticipation qualities will reduce the workload on Mata in the AM position. Also, Matic's ability to pick out a pass from deep would have opened the attacking lanes for guys like Mata to play in. We took 5 steps forward with that brilliant signing (Matic), we've taken 10 back on what is surely going to be a monumental f**** up on our part.

And also, a link to those of us who remember. (the bit about Lamps and Carrick is funny). http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Football%3A+Blues+fans'+message+to+Ranieri%3A+You+must+play+in-form+Zola...-a092208577

Hello guy's just woke up to the bull**** and this is my first post here. Safe to say I'm f****** disgusted by what has transpired in the last few days. Now we read Mata is forcing a move and won't train. So much for some people hailing him as a "Chelsea legend", he "loves the club", blh, blah, blah!! Loyalty means f**** all nowadays. Remember when Ranieri used to bench Zola? The bloke just went on with his training, trusting in his ability and eventually found favour with the new manager. And this was when he was out-performing both Eidur and Jimmy, he still got benched! Now Mata faces the his few weeks of not being played enough, instead of trusting in his world class ability as a footballer, and getting his head down and fighting for a place, (afterall, Oscar has been poor against Hull and Man United, he will certainly have had a chance to lay down his marker against Stoke and thus put himself in a great position to start against West Ham), instead, he f***** off to one of the most detestable clubs in England. Strengthening a sleeping giant, and weakening us with less than a week in the transfer market?! Safe to say, I'm disgusted by football sometimes. Anyway, I hope we launch and immediate bid for Draxler and pay the release clause. We are now short in what was previously our strongest position. Schurrle is inconsistent, Willian is a workhorse but doesn't score enough goals, check his record, and freaging Oscar, while a fantastic player, his playmaking skills pale in comparison to Mata! Anyway, in Jose and Roman we trust. Two PROPER Chelsea legends.

PSG will have to sell us the Eiffel tower for Hazard.

OP, I think your criticism is way off, hence the anger in the responses. Cole has been struggling with a rib injury all season and hasn't been up to standard, and Luiz is a lost cause. He will never be a good defender and the moronic deal we did with Benfica (20 mil pounds + Matic) for Luiz is really looking bad now. Matic is one of the best CM's in the world today and that's another position of weakness in this Chelsea squad.

Interesting how low-key the press have been about Terry being the highest goal-scoring defender in premier league history. I didn't even know of it until recently. If he was a Man United player, can you imagine the w**k-fest? Notice how much publicity they gave to Giggs (a guy found guilty of incest) for turning 40. The double-standard in English football is incredible sometimes. And sad.

First post here. Am I the only one that feels that Lukaku is at least partly responsible for our striker situation after asking to be loaned out when he heard of Eto'os arrival? What a silly thing to do. No wonder he said in an interview that Chelsea hadn't been in regular contact with him like last season. Hence the "phone call" celebration against Newcastle.