bodhi

Far from it imo. From what we've seen this season, even after he left, winning the title last season with this bunch of soft lads must rank as one of his greatest achievements. Sadly from some of the dross we have left to choose from the best choice for me appears to be Sparky - he's got Stoke playing some lovely stuff (that's Stoke, the kings of Route 1) and has massively overachieved with teams in the past. Pep won't come (not that I'd be too keen) and if Poch leaves Spurs I can see him going to United. Other than that we're left with a whole bucket of meh, and a massive step down from the previous "individual".

Don't get me wrong I'd love to see him back (but then I didn't want him to go in the first place) but I'm not sure he'd come back as long as the structure of the club remains the same. I suspect there was a big fall out about player recruitment over the summer, similar to the fall out in his first spell, and he got massively undermined which led to the tetchy grumpy Jose we saw this season. Given that now he's gone and our transfer targets seem to be fairly similar to what they were before, I suspect he had a lot less say this season in comings and goings as we think. Tl:Dr - not as long as Emalano is still at the club.

Strange, I've had a lot of positive comments about Chelsea fans since Saturday's game, with a few Scouse and Manc fans saying they take back what they said about Chelsea fans being plastic with the loyalty to Jose on show. I mean we had just sacked the manager who brought us 3 titles in 5 full seasons, numerous other cups and helped build the squad that has been so damned successful over the past 10 years, so I'd be a bit more concerned if he was simply forgotten 2 days later.

To be honest, I watched De Bruyne on Monday night against Arsenal, and I was left wondering exactly why we are so annoyed we let him go? Seems to have the technical ability, but is far too lightweight and easily out-muscled - by Arsenal of all teams - and was struggling to break down Arsenal's defence - kind of similar to players we kept hold of. Seemed to be some serious concentration issues as well - I would have loved to have seen José's reaction if he'd kicked the corner flag instead of the ball playing for us. City massively overpaid giving Wolfsburg £60m for him - I'd say he was worth £30million tops. Lukaku has done well this season (especially against the lower teams in the league), however last season we looked entirely justified in getting rid, and if someone makes it clear they don;t want to fight for their place in the team what do you do? With Schurrle and Mata it was sad to see them go, but neither have exactly set the world on fire since they left so I'd hardly say selling them was a disaster - didn't Mata initially get less game time at Man U than he did with us? However, I would lay a massive amount of the blame for our current predicament firmly at Emenalo's door - before Jose came back our transfer strategy was a bit of a joke as we only ever seemed to sign attacking midfielders and bugger the rest of the team, at least with Jose's input we got Matic, Fabregas, Costa etc.Then this summer he decided what we had was good enough when everyone else strengthened - despite Jose's protestations we needed some fresh blood, and seeing as every name mentioned to replace Jose has said the squad needs refreshed, I'm starting to see who was correct over summer - and it wasn't the U12 Girl's coach. Not saying José was blameless this season as he was far from it, but it wouldn't shock me if all the lashing out and bickering was because he was being undermined by a board member who didn't know his arse from his elbow in footballing terms. And if this is the case I can't help think we've backed the wrong "individual".

I suspect that for about 60% of the forum, that's going to be absolutely heartbreaking :(

Not sure how to embed pictures from my mobile but https://twitter.com/Mourinholic/status/677815550509191169 https://twitter.com/Mourinholic/status/677819446304620546 https://twitter.com/Mourinholic/status/677820247374712832 Costa just looks like Costa, Hazard looks either gutted or guilty, the rest just look gutted - JT and TBO especially. The couple of bad apples theory seems to make sense, just a shame we couldn't get rid of them rather than José, and I firmly believe we're going to regret that....

Doesn't seem to tie up with the pictures of players arriving at training this morning, but hey, if Sky Sources understand....

How about: Emalano is a w**ker, he wears a w*nkers hat And when we get a good manager in, he says no f*ck that. No? OK I'll get back in me box :)

Ridiculous decision.

If, as rumoured we are moving José on to make way for Juande Ramos, I suspect "Stand up for the Special One" might feature quite heavily.....

This is true. Other than the £50million on Torres and the £25 million on David Luiz, plus Ramires and one or two others, Apart from that he wasn't given a penny. To be expected when he had FFP to work to... Oh no wait that was Jose's second stint. Personally I don;t see the issue with wanting to stick behind José. Yes I love Chelsea more than anything, but I also love José for what he has done for our club over the years. To abandon him at the first sign of struggle seems a bit....off.

Must admit from the papers and BBC this morning, it isn't looking too great for José. Bit gutting really, as he's still the guy I want in charge of this football club, and still think he can turn it round. I definitely think he's had a part to play in the troubles this season, but nowhere near the biggest - that for me would be on the players, followed by the board for not bringing in reinforcements in January. To be honest, even if we do get rid, I can see a third coming at some point in the future......

Does anyone suspect that when José said he was laying his career on the line coming back to us this is what he meant? Ie he saw what our current players are made of?

Yeeeeees Willian!

I'm with Fergie on this one I must admit - of all the managers currently active, the only one on the same level as José is Pep, and even then I'd take José. Carlo hasn't won anywhere near enough League titles for the teams he's managed, and we all remember who made him look average in the Champions League last time we were here. I still maintain if we get through this moment with José we will be absolutely unstoppable next season, so I'd stick with the best manager we've ever had and let him remodel the squad how he sees fit. After all, do we really want to see José picking the team for Man Utd or Real? As either of those clubs would snap him up if we got rid.

Pretty sure it's been confirmed now the entire squad were on a night out, with José's blessing. To be honest, something like that might be perfect to sort Diego's head out.

I'm with Jose on that one, simply because Le Saux appears to be trying to make the Eva thing a diversity issue, when anyone with half a brain can see that wasn't the case. Not saying Jose was blameless, but there were 2 medics on the pitch that day, not just Eva, and Jose had a go at both.

New member here that just wants to say I am glad Roman has done this, a lot has been wrong this season but I only think a small part has been down to Jose (pretty much just the Eva thing), the rest has been a combination of a wafer thin first team squad due to FFP, and a complete lack of leadership on the pitch. This season we've had far too many players who seem to play like they've just assumed they will be the name on the teamsheet in their position, who after being dropped magically rediscover how to play football. Also I don't thinking can overstate just how much we're missing Drogba and Cech this season, two massive personalities not just on the pitch, but in the dressing room as well. Whilst Begovic is a good keeper, he doesn't strike me as a leader, certainly not the way Cech was anyway. I'll not mention that Colombian bloke we replaced Drogba with....Whilst we know it was a Jose signing I'm yet to be convinced it was his first choice - all signs seem to point to that being Benteke. Let's not do anything silly and stick with our most successful manager, as going by the rumours he's likely to end up at Real or Man U, both of which would cause us probably even more pain in future than were dealing with now.

Hi All, Been lurking round these forums for a while now, been reading some excellent discussions and have valued the matchday threads when I haven't been able to see the game, so thought I'd finally get off my bottom and register and at least try to contribute something back. Originally from Dundee (so also a United fan), started following Chelsea after the 1994 Cup Final but moved around a lot so kind of lost touch with the Premier League, but started watching again in 2002 and have been a blue ever since. Live up in the Midlands now so don't really get to go to games, so it will be great to chat Chelsea with like-minded people. So, Erm hi!