ethicalstrategy

Call me a cynical old ba****d, but in my view he ONLY factor which will decide whether Lamps stays at Chelsea is money. So long as Chelsea give in to his outrageous wage demands he'll stay, simple. You cynical old bar steward! In my view it is rarely just about money at that level. Money is just used as a gauge. So Frank reckons he has been one of the key contributors to our success over the last 3 years and feels that this should be reflected in his contract. Translate that to the real world - you are doing a great job at work and your boss brings in someone else, on higher wages, who doesn't do as good a job. How do you feel? Pretty naffed off I suspect. But, you love your job and the people you work with so what do you do? You go to your boss and say, I'm worth as much, if not more, than this new guy, and my contract will run out soon, I'd like a new one on the same basis, or better. You want to stay but you're not going to let your boss take the piss out of you. If you can agree a new deal that you believe reflects your achievement and status in the company then that's great. Otherwise you might just decide that you'll consider other offers. The amounts of money involved in football may well be considered obscene but the basic principal remains the same.

The Three Tenors did a fantastic version of it as part of the finale of their concert at the Baths at Caracella just before the world cup final at Italia '90. Sorry, I know that's no help

Yeah, all one of them! I wasn't one of those who felt he was poor last season. OK he didn't stand out, but he contributed a lot and we missed him badly at the end of the season. It's good to have him back. It will be interesting to see how Grant pairs him with Lampard.

Oh Dear. It's not funny really. Barton remanded in custody for a further 2 weeks (Well, it is a bit funny)

That's what they always say! I know that really you've been surfing http://www.hottestgirlsofmyspace.net/ I know because it's what I used to do. (still do!) Now, do you want fries with that?

I'm sort of in agreement in that Kalou is a long way from the finished article, but at the same time if he doesn't get to play then how will he ever develop? If I had the choice of a fully fit Robben or even, dare I say it, Ronaldo then of course I'd take that any day. But I read a lot about giving Sinclair his chance when the same thing would apply to him - raw, inexperienced, not really at a level to be starting for a top european team. I had a look at Kalou's stats and I don't reckon they are that bad: Last year he started 25 matches and came on as sub in a further 33(!!) and scored 9 goals This year he has started 18 matches (and 10 as sub) and already scored 7 goals Could he have scored more if he showed better composure? Absolutely. But in some ways that is a positive. I can see that if he settles down and develops that he could easily contribute in the high teens in terms of goals - a bit like Ronaldo is now doing at Utd. ( No, I don't think he is as good, or even will be as good as Ronaldo - before you ask! ) Incidentally, I think he would get some starts for Utd and Arsenal, particularly if they had some injuries. As for Liverpool - well he is far too good for them! Edited to say: You could easily make a good argument that his contribution to the team this season has been a lot more then a certain Mr J. Cole.

Interesting to look at the stats. Wayne joined in 03/04 and played 46 (2 as sub) and scored 3 goals In 04/05 he played 22 (3) until he broke his leg so badly that it nearly dropped off. 05/06 he was still recovering and made 2 appearances. Last season he played 27 (6) scoring 1 goal whilst Cashley played 37 (3) (Cole started 21 league matches to Bridgey's 17) This season Bridge has started 8 matches (5 in the league) and Cole has started 19 matches (14 in the league) Injuries apart, it does rather suggest that the new manager fancies Bridge a lot less than the previous manager. Having said that I can't see us selling him in January.

Who would you have played instead of him? (And I don't think we will get Berbatov anyway)

I was the same. I was revising and I had the BBC Sport text updates page on and I turned my computer off and went and played some 360, thinking Liverpool would win quite comfortably. Imagine my joy about 2 hours later when I went onto BBC Sport and saw the score On the Xbox when you should be revising? Tut tut. How do you expect to pass your exams? You don't want to spend the rest of your life serving burgers do you? (Just getting some practice in for when my son does his GCSE's next year!)

It would be very nice if Malouda could make himself available to play. Especially as Kalou will be off with the other African players after saturday.

Unfortunately there is quite a big gap between "I want to" and "I definitely will" I suspect it will depend on a lot of things including whether or not the club will give him a 5 or 6 year contract and what other offers are on the table. I hope he stays but we will see.....

I'm not sure we need more wide men - maybe just better ones! On the other hand I'm not convinced we need Berbatov so what do I know?!

You prefer SWP or Malouda? Even allowing for his lack of composure in front of goal Kalou has managed 5 goals so far and I think he has looked our most effective wide player out on the left.

Hilario Belletti Alex Ben Haim Bridge Mikel Essien Ballack Cole Kalou SWP That's the team that started on Tuesday - well should have started, with Mikel for Sidwell. Whilst we have 10 players missing through injury and suspension I would say that it is a pretty good team. Arguably the two full back would be our regular starters and whilst Ben Haim worries me, Alex looks good enough to be playing at centre half for us. The midfield is possibly as strong as we can field. Frank is missing, but replacing one of the other three with him would not strengthen it significantly. Upfront Cole and Kalou would most likely be starters in our strongest team. So out of the above 7/8 would have a strong claim to a starting place in our strongest 11. That still leaves us with: Cech Cudicini Terry Carvalho Cole Ferreira Lampard Makalele Malouda Sheva Drogba Sidwell Pizzaro Overall that doesn't seem like a weak squad to me. In fact the one area that I think we are still lacking is in the wide areas. We have players to cover this but none are really in the Robben/Duff mould or class.

That's not going to be too difficult - Lampard plays, Ballack plays. Essien and Mikel are both away. Why did Mikel not start? He didn't play against Villa so he couldn't have been tired. Sidwell really doesn't look up to much at all. Good come back in the second half but Fulham are even worse than Newcastle. What happened to the new formation that was debuted against Villa? It didn't last long.

It certainly was. Maybe they were chanting it because they knew the change should have been made 20 mins earlier.

No. The boos were aimed at Grant for taking Joe off. Stupid really. Even if he wasn't injured it was hardly as if he was playing well. The "don't know what you're doing" chants were when Ballack was subbed.

Don't get me wrong - I kinda agree with some of that. As most know, I'm pretty biased towards Joe, but even I would admit that he isn't doing it for us. When I say that, he is still contributing as much if not more than a lot of players, but I'd expect him to offer us what Fabregas offers the Gooners and Ronaldo offers Man Utd. Most of us know what Joe could be capable of when he is truly on song and I guess that's why he'll get criticised more than the likes of Kalou as perhaps we don't expect too much from them? But yesterday, of the attacking players I thought SWP and Ballack both did okay and were the pick. As I say, I thought Joe was pretty okay in the first half - lot of good movement and some good balls into the box but in the second half he was non existent and was rightly subbed (but it seems he was carrying a knock). Kalou was poor throughout. His touch was bad, he loses too many 50/50 balls and he doesn't appear to have much in the way of a footballing brain. Essien too was not great. Loads of mis-placed passes and just running about a lot does not count for much in my book. And Mikel? At times he looks class and unlike Kalou clearly does have a footballing brain, but he misses a fair number of tackles and was at fault for the build up to the Newcastle goal and I recall a very lazy back pass that could also have cost us big time. So all in all, we have quite a few who need to improve (although three of those will all be off to the ANC soon. Still, if they play like that, they'll be back with us sooner than we first thought). Fair enough Nibs. In Kalous defence he was playing most of the match up front on his own which is not really his position and is pretty tough anyway. I think he has shown a fair amount of promise recently wide left. Mikel was definitly sloppy at times but he made us look more secure generally.

You have to be joking. I've already said I was disappointed with Joe but in the first half he at least put 3 or 4 decent balls into the box that a good striker would have made count. As I say, aside from the goal Kalou was dreadful (and even that was offside). At times he looks totally out of his depth. Not joking at all. Joe has scored two match winning goals in recent weeks. If it wasn't for that I'd say he is barely worth a place in the side based on his all round game. I realise for many the sun shines out of Joe's rear orifice and he can do no wrong but for me his game is going backwards at a rate of knots.

The interesting thing about the booing when Cole went off was that it wasn't a particularly surprising or unjustified change. It was almost as if people were just waiting for an excuse to have a go. Similarly when Ballack went off. It was clear that he had run out of steam and should have been subbed quite a lot earlier. But as soon as his number went up the chants of "you don't know what you're doing" started up. I do think that Grant lost the plot after Newcastle scored. It was obvious we needed to bring on Sidwell for Ballack to try and get control of the game back but instead he did nothing and then brought on Pizarro for Cole. In the end we got very lucky, but the warning signs are there for all to see.

Nope! but they were singing "you don't know what you're doing" - not me, I might add! (although I agree with the sentiment)

No kudos here at all. He didn't replace Cech. Cech was injured and shouldn't have been playing in the first place. That decision just confirms what many of us thought in the first place.

I think we have our answer. Cech was left out due to injury today so clearly played against Villa when unfit. I would venture to say that he was probably not fit against Arsenal too. He should be rested until fully fit and then go straight back into the team. Anyone who thinks he should be left out when fit needs their head examining. And his error against Villa didn't cost us points anymore than all the other mistakes that gave away goals.

He may not have been great but he was a hell of a lot better than Cole was. Grant was right to take him off although not for Pizarro. Mom for me was Alex. He looks pretty good to me and should only get better. Honourable mentions to SWP and Ballack for his 1st half performance ( should have bben replaced by Sidwell much earlier though)

well. Some interesting conclusions from today. First half we played quite well. We were lacking a cutting edge but that was no surprise. Second half we started well but lost a goal as a direct consequence of our "new style" of play. Obi had the ball, beletti went bombing forward along with the rest of the midfield and obi lost the ball. Seems crazy to me as a strategy but I guess I'll have to get used to it. After the goal we completly lost the plot. Ballack ran out of steam and should have been subbed much earlier. Replacing Cole was fair enough. He hardly made a contribution to the game. But I would have replaced him with Sinclair. The crowd booed Grant loudly when Cole went off. They also booed when Ballack was subbed. There was also a very loud chorus of "you don't know what you're doing" For the last 30 mins we were absolutely clueless and extremely lucky to win. Cechs absence just confirms that he was never fit enough to be playing against Villa - probably against Arsenal too. Results went our way today but we really need to sort out a manager who at least has half a clue as quickly as possible.