whitewall66

Total legend and our record scorer to be replaced by a journeyman a couple of years younger then him totally pathetic. If Tiago hadn't had an ok season 9 years ago and we were replacing him with another 34 year old from Spain would people really be saying that's a good deal. Massive backward step Frank wouldn't be an automatic start but he's still a good squad player for next season Promote one of the kids let's go for it we are the famous CFC please anything but this risk free mundane football we are being served up

Great post. I truly believe then when it came to away support no- one brought the numbers we did away from home. When i was at school i had QPR, Spurs and Arsenal mates who used to love going to our away games. In fact a Gooner mate of mine changed allegiance when he was 13 after Charlton away in 1980. He couldn't believe the numbers we had and then to cap it all he watched open mouthed as our boys not only ran Charlton out of the home end but ran them out of the stadium and then started waving to us on the away end.

Let's not pussyfoot around this is a ridiculous option. Tiago is another functional hard working add your own cliche. He's 33 and was deemed surplus to requirements 10 years ago and has played for numerous clubs since. Just what does this say about our youth system when we have some promising youngsters and yet have to bring back someone of his age. Parallels have to be made with Eto- Lukaku. Still i can't wait till we play the likes of QPR at home and the special one will probably start with a midfield of Matic, Tiago, Ramires, and Mikel. Yes that's tongue in cheek but when you start with two holding midfield players against the virtually relegated Norwich anything's possible.

Brendan Rodgers is very left wing, says he’d never accept a title.

Err yes mate i know.

Isn't Tad Bumby a serial killer?.

I know Jody Morris had some attitude problems and was a tearaway to put it mildly. But i do believe he should have been a regular starter instead of Deschamps who Cantona perfectly described as a water carrier. So i'm pretty glad we didn't get him as our manager

No problem and for the record i think that's a pretty spot on assessment.

It wasn't meant to be a deep philosophical point mate just a mundane football poser.

Pele what sort of analogy is that?. When someone who was an outstanding player and manager who's as respected as Cruyff is then i'm prepared to listen. Play the open game like we did against Basel home and away and against the team when we were top and they were bottom you mean?.I don't want to sound too disingenuous because 2005 was our first title in nearly all our lifetimes but it wasn't thrill a minute football either. When we played Palace away our second game i swear i don't think they even got into our penalty area in the whole game. It was a routine win but even then i thought if he let's them go we could have won 6 or 7 nil.Have a look at the dvd of that season and look at the difference Robben makes. He comes on against Blackburn in October i think. and you can tell this boy is special and only 19. That's what we need now someone other then Hazard who puts defenders on the back foot who can do something that little bit special.Here's a poser to go slightly off topic, if we hadn't imploded against Monaco and got to the ECL final in 2004 we would have had to play Porto. I think we would have beaten them and would Mourinio have become our manager?

Why do you think Cruyff has no standing in the game that his views aren't valid. Media bullsh*t why are West Ham fans getting the hump because there fed up of watching awful football., so where Stoke fans under Pullis. If there is a lack of chemistry who do you blame for that the media? Mourinho. when it comes down to it will always play ultra defensive football it's his raison d' etre. I've said it before and i'll say it again three semi-finals in the ECL and we lost them all because he was so negative in his approach. Yet we managed to beat Liverpool under Grant and Hiddink. Oh by the way it's preaching to the converted not preaching to the choir. Excuse me will i get off my high horse.

Don't think so mate if it's not working play long ball that's his idea of a formation change. He did it against the scousers in 2005 long ball up to the cultured centre forward Robert Huth

w What valid reasons would they be?

Ha ha nice one Pete care to comment FC.

Now let me think who was it who took the corners in the last minutes against Bayern Munich and Benfica. Who was our player of the year for two seasons in a row The point people are making is that under any other manager then Mourinio Mata would have been an integral part of the team. Mata knew and so did we that the manager had no faith in him because the manager wants his players to have no flair and no imagination. You don't have to have played at the highest level to be a great coach. But i believe this is where the likes of AVB and Mourinio are lacking they spend to long studying the technical side of the game rigid formations no individualism no self expression. When someone like Johan Cruyff who yes is a miserable bar steward but who in my opinion was the greatest ever European footballer (that i've seen) and who is responsible for Barcelona's rise to where they are know. Who's seen as a revolutionary figure in the game when he says Mourinio is bad for the game you should take heed.

The way he treated players like Ramos and Casillas for example

I don't know how old you are Chippy but have you seen any other football then Chelsea under Roman. I'm sorry but when your the self- proclaimed special one you should be able to have a bit more imagination then he's showing..Doesn't it sum him up when our best players are defenders. Hazard has been outstanding and when he makes one mistake a very important one granted he gets slagged off by the manager who then a week later says he wasn't fit.

Two games in a season sooooo exiting.

Yes mate because contrary to popular belief football wasn't invented in 1992. Football had a lot more passion in those days of course there was loads wrong with it as well. But to stand in the shed with your mates singing for 90 minutes was a lot better then sitting next to a tourist who keeps calling it soccer . Football is so sanitized now. Then it was like going to a gig now it's like going to the opera

No way that's not what Chelsea is about. Give me the old inconsistent Chelsea any day to this negative defensive bore the arse off football we get served up.

What about the battles with Basel home and away. Sunderland at home and the league cup. The battles against Palace and Villa away Newcastle away. It's quite simple he knows how to defend and defend well. Against any other team where we have to take the initiative or the opponents play us at our own game and defend deep we are pretty clueless. My major gripe with Mourinio is the style of football. I've seen some awful Chelsea teams down the years but at least they tried to play attacking football.

Do you honestly believe that with a different manager Spurs and Everton would have finished above us?. Don't forget who the Spurs manager was last season and if we hadn't loaned Lukaku where would Everton finished up?. I've heard of being an apologist but that's taking the piss.

Firstly, before he goes so far as to unsubscribe from the world’s leading tea-timely, football-related, pedant-monitored newsletter, let us just say this: Happy Birthday Yaya! Your cake is in the post. In fact, we’ve ordered cakes for all our readers, except the sub-editors, as it’s abundantly clear that they never read this thing well enough to make necessry crrections, the lazy shots. Oh, and there’s nothing for the lawyers either because they only dine on blood. In fact, scrap that. There’s no cake for anyone. It’d be more hassle than it’d be worth. Our generous intentions would only end in tears because this reader would consider marzipan a threat, that reader would find the box it came in offensive, and Samuel Eto’o would be apoplectic with rage over the number of candles on his. We were tempted to ask the Special One for advice but, of course, he has no idea of the age of the player he signed at the start of this season to fire Chelsea to glory. And the flame of fury over his manager’s lack of tact skills still burns hard in Eto’o. After referring to the Special One as “a fool†an irrelevant number of days ago, Eto’ has now dismissed José Mourinho as a “puppetâ€. “Contrary to what a puppet says about my age, I am still physically fit,†roared Eto’o with youthful vigour in an interview for the website of the Confederation of African Football. “At 33, I feel real good. I have proven that I could do better than youths,†concluded Eto’o, who by “youths†presumably meant those fresh-faced whippersnappers Fernando Torres and Demba Ba - and not that gnarled veteran Romelu Lukaku, who was allowed to totter away from Stamford Bridge at the start of last season to go and play for plucky little Everton, for whom he scored six more league goals than Eto’o managed for the west London branch of Roman Abramovich Inc. Still, we can understand Eto’o being irritated by the Special One. After all, who isn’t? Torres? Ba? Lukaku? Hazard? Juan Mata? Abramovich? Of course, you can’t build a title-winning side without bruising egos just as you can’t make a birthday cake without breaking eggs but, as the Special One seemed to demonstrate this season, sometimes breaking eggs is not part of the recipe for a well-deserved treat for neglected multi-millionaires, sometimes it’s just plain careless This is from the Guardian

This absolute crap about Mata not fighting for his place. The first transfer rumour involving us last summer was a swap deal Mata for Rooney. I thought at the time this was laughable but it would have happened if Man U had agreed. Mourinho didn't want him from minute one and to treat our player of the year for the two full years he was here was appalling. Can anyone really believe that we wouldn't have had better results with him in the team?. For arguement's sake lets say Willian was his replacement i'm sorry there is no comparison. I don't know if Willian will start for Brazil but it will be interesting to see what role he will be given and if he's allowed to play his natural game. He reminds me of a spinning top he just goes all over the place and his end product is woeful.

Would he have been sent on loan if he hadn't taken such a bad penalty against Bayern Munich no. If he had skyed it or made the keeper make a decent save there would have been no problem. But Mourinho believes that taking the penalty in that manner was undermining his authority. Lukaku is by no means the finished article but i don't think he has a future with us. Why would you send a young hungry kid on loan and replace him with someone coming to the end of his career.