ColeMan

Agreed mate that a squad refresh is well overdue, but not the complete dismantling that some are calling for.

I agree entirely Loz, the whole point of the initial group stages in the UCL, is to reduce the possibility of one of the bigger clubs going out in the early stages, as could have happened to Barca this season. Cup competitions should be knock-out from the outset. The problem is money, as always. Listening to an interview the other day, with regards to the EPL having 80% of the debt in european football, one of the "experts" interjected, that a collapse of Sky television, and the resultant reduction in revenue to the clubs would result in the almost, immediate collapse of the EPL, food for thought .

I felt from the beginning during the build up to the match, that most of Jose's comments had the pre-defined intention of getting into the minds of our players, which, ironically, is exactly what happened. Mourinho is dedicated to whichever team he manages, despite any reservations he may imply in interviews. I agree wholeheartedly that Carlo should be given the chance to build "his team" before his tenure is judged, but on the flip side of the argument, he has hardly inherited a poor squad by any stretch of the imagination.

A lot of the people on here are too young to remember the bad old days John, thats half the problem. Us older guys remember when we were also rans, who played good football, but rarely won a thing.

the major fact you are overlooking mate is that Roman almost demanded immediate results and Jose realised the only way to achieve that was to spend big. If you were in Jose's shoes and given an unlimited amount to spend you'd have done exactly the same. There was no initial interest in building for the future. That materialised after we won the back to back championships and the decision was made to try to cut costs.

I got it wrong in my edit, they were both out of position for the second 2 goals.

I believe that if both DD and Nico are to play, we need to go to a 4-4-2, Anelka is wasted out wide. Our main problem at the moment is lack of pace, and without Ash and Bossy I'm pretty much at a loss to see where we can get any pace into the side. But, the biggest miss is Michael Essien, his drive and determination are sorely needed, and the sooner he's back the better. If we go back to the Sunderland game, it was a joy to watch how the midfield rotated positions, where has that gone to ? We commit too many players forward, as evidenced by both centre halfs being out of position for the 2nd and 3rd goals against Man City.(On rethink they were both in position for the 2nd goal but still manged to balls it up) We can't defend at the moment so maybe its time to tell the defenders that their main job is to defend first and foremost. Why Carvo and JT burst forward at all times is a mystery to me. The more players you commit to an attack, the more defenders track them and congest the opposition penalty area. If we must persist with Anelka out wide, then we need to play more counter-attacking football, get the ball to him early, against fewer defenders, and then he can kick in the afterburner and leave them in his wake. Maybe its time to go back to basics before its too late.

stay out of mcdonalds and you should be ok mate -_-

had the same concerns with regards to Jose's knowledge of our play Moos, but still decided to err on the side of optimism. -_-

We definitely need to be looking towards signing more youngsters, more so than the suppossed "marquee" players. But one thing to consider in all this is the ability of Carlo to prolong the careers of ageing players the way he did at Milan.

I think the threat of the transfer ban was completely behind Joey failing to sign a new contract, no doubt spurred on by his greedy bloody agent. Now, with the lifting of the ban, the shoe is definetely on the other foot. The club now hold the upper hand, and may indeed decide to reduce his weekly wage, if he decides to sign, or they indeed decide to actually offer him a new contract. I'd be gutted if he left, but as has been said many times before, players come and go, but the club itself is the only constant.

4-5-1 for me too, but probably with anelka instead of joey. Any score draw would do me, but a mourinho like 1-0 away win would be great.

Great post yet again Doset. But to be honest, none of us should be surprised when this kind of thing happens. The vitriol against our club from almost all parts of the media is unbelievable. When we come from behind and snatch a win we get the old "lucky Chelsea" from all concerned. If the mancs do the same they are praised for a great recovery. Same goes for the mousers and to an extent the arse. When Jose took the two titles they were still very lapse in giving us any kind of acknowledgement, they are just a bunch of biased twats.

Good team display after an under-par first 20 minutes. Great goal from Ashley, typical never give up attitude from Frank on the second goal, and a goal for DD as well. Thought Ricci's challenge on Keane was a pen, but so was the punch away by E'kotto from Franks free kick. Great result against the spuds, we owed them one, and more importantly, 3 points against one of our possible challengers for the title.

This situation just gets more and more ridiculous. The two clowns Platini and Blatter, but especially Platini, must have people trawling the laws of the game just to come up with more bullsh*t to throw at us. The legality of this whole situation seems very suspect. No mention of Barca 2 "enticing" a then 13 year old Messi to Spain. No mention of the many young africans purportedly offered positions at "French" clubs. If they want to clean up this so called "child slavery", then why not go after the kit manufacturers, who exploit very young child workers in the far east and India. If you exploit someone, you give them little or no wages. You do not take them from a virtual slum, pay them pretty good wages, and offer them the opportunity to maybe, one day, become a world class player, if they are up to it. Double standards are never acceptable, but that is exactly what Uefa are using here. From my viewpoint, the only thing we are guilty of is offering a young player the best possible opportunity to further his career.

Lofty, just ignore him mate. He's on a massive wind up, and has certainly grabbed your attention.

Durham is a complete twat ( is he a gooner by any chance ), heard him on talksport yesterday, tearing into some poor Chelsea guy who phoned in. Every comment the guy made , Durham just kept saying that we deserve whatever we get from UEFA/FIFA, what a complete tosser.

Paranoid delusions son, you got through due to the indecisions of a pathetically weak referee, to a final that tosser Platini wanted. If, and I state if you manage to beat Man Utd, then come back and spout off again. Until then piss off and keep your opinions to yourself.

Nice to see the smile back on their faces.

Great result today, the whole team showed character after the tribulations of last wednesday. Shaky first 20 minutes, when they all seemed to lacking a bit of focus, but shook that off to emerge worthy winners. How the hell fibreglass didn't get sent off I'll never know, and as for adebayors dive, Didi would have gotten slaughtered if he'd done the same. Still think they need to do all they can to keep Guus, his contribution to this seasons revival cannot be over-stated.

Cant agree with you there Iniesta, you may have had a lot more possession, but a lot of it was in your own half, and you were far from the best team last night.

I was listening to talksport today and they had an ex-premier league ref on there. his name is Keith Cooper and reffed in the premier league between '93 and '96. He said there were 3 stone wall penalties, and that he would also have given the one against E'too as well.

Thats exactly how I felt last night, I wasn't upset, just so f**king angry. Let me tell you nearly 24 hours later I'm still utterly pissed off.

I punched the wall at the end of the game, then turned the box off in case I put my fist through that as well, f**king gutted.

If we sit back like we did against the mousers in the second leg, we will be in trouble. We need to take it to them without getting over-extended at the back, but the most important thing will be taking our chances. We all know what they are capable of, but they will have concerns about us as well, I would take 1-1 now. COME ON YOU BLUES