ethicalstrategy

I find all this legal stuff a nonsense. He is not being tried for murder (although you could be forgiven for thinking so!). He is appearing in a magistrates court on a public order offence that carries a maximum penalty of £2,500. If he is found guilty then he will pay the fine and be subject to an FA disciplinary hearing. If they too find him guilty then he'll face fine and a ban which should be no more than Suarez got. After that he should be free to get on with his career and life. Of course it wouldn't be appropriate for him to be captain of England in those circumstances, nor of Chelsea either. Whether he was selected for England as a player should be down to the manager and ought to take in to account any impact his past failings might have on the team. Having said that, his international career is coming towards it's end anyway so it's likely that he wouldn't be considered after Euro 2012.

Yes, of course. You'd never see Dutch football in such disarray over anything!

It's being widely reported that some of the black players in the England squad have been lobbying to get him removed. If this is true then shame on them. If he is found guilty then they have every right to shun him. But it seems as if the world and his wife are taking the opportunity to crucify him before he's had the right to a fair hearing. Whatever you do don't read it, (I am certainly not going to link to it) but Simon Barnes wrote one of the most spiteful, vindictive and vitriolic articles I have ever read in the Times this morning. If there are problems in the dressing room then it's hard to see how he could even be selected for the squad. If Ferdinand won't shake his hand this Sunday then how could they play as a centre half partnership? However, these should be matters for the manager to resolve, not the suits in the FA, egged on by some of the media and players who are wannabe broadcasters. The FA should have had the balls to carry on with their own enquiry irrespective of the court case. Whilst the allegation is a serious one for JT and his footballing reputation and standing, from a legal perspective it is a very minor matter. Why it is even in court is a mystery to me. It's simply a waste of taxpayers time and money.

What do you mean? He has 22 caps* *for Greneda

Nice to see the art of satire is alive and well

Just a couple of points. I've merged the two AVB threads. We don't need two and we certainly don't need a new thread if it's just going to be gratuitously abusive and foul. I will go back and remove posts that are abusive and/or off topic. If you want to discuss AVB's performance then try and do it in a civilised way. (I refer you to Killbill's post above!) I thank you

Which half do you fall in to?

Nice to see groundhog day is alive and well

The more I hear about this the more I think he deserves to go down simply for being such an idiot. He seems to be playing the stupid and ignorant card which I don't think will help him much and is making him look a complete prat.

Explain how a poor completion percentage in the last third equates to a lack of ambition? If anything it indicates too much ambition. Trying to force passes that aren't really on rather than being patient.

Busquets falling over? or it could be Alves? or maybe Sanchez?

Amazing how many people still feed the trolls

Update from Rick Glanvill on Twitter: RickGlanvill Bobby Tambling has asked me to pass on the following message to all CFC fans: 'I am overwhelmed with all the love & support I am getting... 26/01/2012 10:44 RickGlanvill '... from all the loyal Chelsea fans. It def perked me up. The Chelsea fans are the best fans in the world... 26/01/2012 10:44 RickGlanvill 'It is my privilege to be part of the massive Chelsea family. I want to thank each and everyone of them from the bottom of my heart... 26/01/2012 10:45 RickGlanvill '... And I hope some day to be well again and back in my home that is Stamford Bridge with all my family. Love, Bobby.' 26/01/2012 10:46

All the best Bobby. Get well soon.

I fear you are.

I watched Moneyball last week. It was an enjoyable film but I can't for the life of me see how it got nominated for an Oscar

I don't suppose this will be easy. I'd like to see us play the following team: Cech Luiz, Cahill, Terry, Bertrand Essien, Romeu Ramires, Mata, Malouda Sturridge

Could anyone work out what name Kalou had on the back of his jersey yesterday?

Yes

Great debate on Torres on the Sunday Supplement yesterday - you can get the podcast here (from 17:05) Very lively discussion between Martin Lipton, Shaun Custis and posh boy, Henry Winter. It's a bit like reading this thread to be honest!

Maybe not on in a game between the two teams, but over the 22 matches played so far the table doesn't lie. Highly debatable, but they make up for their defensive deficiencies by scoring a lot more then we do. And it's 16 (not 20) matches left to make up 13 points. It is not going to happen.

.Unfortunately, we've dropped more though.

Gotta be realistic though. We aren't going to catch City. Spurs have a tough run coming up and if we can put some form together we could catch them. Obviously it would have been better if we had won but considering we didn't the other results were about as good as we could have got.

That should do it. Overall been a good set of results for us this weekend. Especially considering our result. Moved further clear of Newcastle, Liverpool and Arsenal and closed the gap with Spurs.

Been impressed by Oxlade-Chamberlain. Arsenal look like they can win this now, unfortunately. Luckily Wenger is such a twat that he's brought Arshavin on for Oxlade. Muppet!