brienwulff

Thanks - quite looking forward to heading down to Aldershot next Friday for the dev squad match as well!

Flying in the morning before the match for 10 days, looking forward to the atmosphere around the ground after the break!

There's a ticket buying guide on our website that should answer all of your questions (www.chelseachicago.com) I avoid Ticketbis like the plague as I know several people who have been scammed by them and like sites. Not sure if you have Chelsea in America membership either, but for future reference, you should sign up with us and you'll have no problem attending 99% of matches whenever you want.

The supporters were there as part of the CPO. And if we want to be extremely technical about it, Ken Bates did more to save this club than Roman - Roman built upon what was there. Regardless, there would still be a Chelsea Football Club playing football at Stamford Bridge, albeit it with the chance it's not as successful as the one we know today, because of the supporters that are part of the CPO. I disagree 100% with your last two lines. Our club is nothing without local supporters. If they stop going, or are priced out, they are not going to be magically replaced by other passionate supporters locally ready to swell the ranks, nor the "millions" of supporters we have around the world. Football dies if local support is treated poorly. This club, this league, this game is nothing without local supporters.

Do they though? I talk to as many supporters who say they don't believe that as I do people like you who believe it does. It's a subjective opinion and frankly, based upon a personal understanding and appreciation of football, and what one considers to be personally important to one's relationship with Chelsea. Our ticket prices have been "frozen" but they're second highest in the league and have prevented a large (and proper) following of Chelsea supporters to be completely locked out of getting tickets at all when they used to attend every match. That's not going to change when we add 20,000 seats, over half of which are hospitality, which are the highest priced and absolutely kill atmosphere, when the new ground goes through. As far as our Academy, people talk about it's strengths on one hand and yet bemoan that we haven't graduated a single player from it to the starting XI since JT, and while the manager carousel doesn't help, the same person you mention has been in charge of that process for years and we have little to show for it. I don't want to turn this into a black-white argument because we are never going to get anywhere, but there is a large contingent of Chelsea supporters, who while happy with all we have achieved, feel the club is currently treading water/moving backwards competitively, and even worse, feel alienated and treated unfairly by the club's leadership on a wide range of issues. I'm not willing to let that last bit go simply because the owner wrote 1 billion into the club, a club that exists and will continue to exist because of us supporters.

I cannot agree. As Jezz says below, 'good things from his perspective.' One can express gratitude for what we've won on the pitch, what has been built in term of brand, player and infrastructure improvements, but that doesn't solve existing issues with which many supporters are still frustrated: The lying/hiring of Rafa. The cronyism in the upper levels of directorship (Marina, Tenenbaum, Emenalo.) The underground attempt to buy out the CPO. The expensive ticketing pricing. Failure on many supporters' primary concerns for any new stadium when built. Even though I'm not native to the UK, thee issues concern me greatly - as a Chelsea supporter, as a CPO shareholder, member of the CST. As someone who recognizes there's more to football than football, and witnesses the power of our community daily.

I hear this every week, about Mourinho screwing up one thing or another, be it KDB, Lukaku, Mata, now the fullback situation. The manager's job is to win, and he did that handily, and when that happened I didn't hear any of the whining that I do now. It's only now, after the fact, that people want to play revisionist history and blame all of our problems on Mourinho. It should be quite obvious at this point with the longer sample size that Mourinho got more out of this side that it should have delivered, as the majority of the same players have turned in the same/worse form for two different managers now not named Jose Mourinho. If anyone deserves the majority of blame regarding personnel decisions, look at the technical director and the board members, none of whom have changed in recent seasons while a variety of managers with different styles and preferences have inhabited the managerial (now first team head coach) role. They are the stewards that should be looking after the long-term future of the club - does anyone seriously rate them doing so?

Actually planning that trip over the next few weeks...want to come when it's colder here, and possibly when Blackhawks are in town. Lock up Sloop for 48 hours and we're all good!

That's a good neighborhood even if you're not a fan of the lifestyle choices. That's east of the ballpark, our boozer is on the west side, more residential and small retail shops over there.

Lakeview, about 10 minutes west of Wrigley Field, at AJ Hudson's Public House

To a lot of people, that's "total football," except it's not total football at all. I sense a ridiculous conversation upcoming about false nines and (wait for it) the false 10, which I've actually seen suggested in various forums online.

Mate, go back and watch Chelsea for the last two years vs the matches we've played since pre-season this year. The fullback play going both ways is completely different, and the fullbacks rarely get forward and overlap anymore.

Our fullbacks under Conte rarely overlap. They pinch inside and hold and the wingers play high and wide. It makes no difference what strong foot the fullback has in that scenario.

In defense of Emenalo, he's not going to sack himself. I applaud him trying to resign a few years ago, and shame on Roman and the board not accepting it. But he's not qualified for this job at all, and neither are any of the board members. Speak of the devil, here's Marco's write up this morning on ESPN... "Exasperated supporters raged about the glaring deficiencies of Emenalo's CV and many pointed their fingers of blame for Mourinho's cataclysmic demise at the Nigerian, who was brought into the club as a scout in 2007 by former manager Avram Grant -- another Abramovich hire with a questionable football pedigree. At the time of joining Chelsea, Emenalo said the chance of working for Grant was "a wonderful soccer education -- like studying for your PhD at Harvard". Emenalo's comment bordered on the ridiculous even then. Now it reads like a laughable example of the "it's not what you know, it's who you know," culture that has pervaded Chelsea since Abramovich bought the club in 2003. Currently pulling the boardroom strings is Marina Granovskaia, who previously worked for the Russian at Abramovich's oil company Sibneft, where the head of corporate finance was Eugene Tenenbaum -- another trusted consultant at SW6 -- alongside Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck, a corporate lawyer who worked on the deal to sell 72 percent of Sibneft to Gazprom in 2005."

On the books it actually registered as around 38-42 million.

Please do. Our match days are fantastic. We also have a few Nandos now, so more than happy to grab one and 10 pints and take you around the neighborhood - match or no match.

He's been poor for over a year now. I see a lot of online chat about his fitness but could be anything - maybe he's not settled in London; personal problems; family illness; the list can go on and on. For this long, for a supposedly fit player, I don't think it's got anything to do with football.

I'm working on a way we can honor Cliff with some type of banner recognizing the name of the Shed, hope to figure it out in the next few months. For the display on Friday night, there was a longer history left on a card on every seat in the stand that mentions his naming of it, and the whole history.

TBD. Saw on Twitter yesterday a few pikeys were saying because of the policing problems, the away allotment would only be per league standards and not the 10-15% we're due in the cup. Obviously hoping for 6000-ish but there's going to be massive problems all night if that's the case...

I'm sure at least several of you already know about this campaign, but We Are The Shed is a completely supporter driven/funded group of Shed regulars looking to enhance the match day atmosphere at Stamford Bridge, in particular by encouraging more singing and creating various pre-match displays in the stand. You've definitely seen our work before, like Friday night's 50th anniversary of the Shed tribute before kickoff vs. Liverpool, the JT tribute at the end of last season and banners like Zola's and Tambling's which now hang in the Shed. We are actively looking for people who would be interested in moving their seats to the back of Gate 5 in the Shed Upper to sit with the rest of the group, provide monetary donations for the design/creation of materials, or start similar initiatives in their own areas of the ground. We can be contacted several ways: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/WeAreTheShed Twitter: @WeAre_TheShed Website: shedatmosphere.wordpress.com Feel free to leave any questions here!

Two seasons ago, I supported him becoming the #1 over Cech. Not in favor of jobs being handed out, but like 2004 w/ Cech, I thought it was the right time to let him take over as the future #1. Since that season, and the world class backup behind him being allowed to leave, not only has he been subpar (in part to injury,) he's looked uninterested in capturing world class form and has disrespected the club and us supporters time and time again by not keeping his mouth shut. We're a bit stuck on this one, as in the summer he'll only have 12 months to run on his contract, and doubt he'll sign a new one. But I'd let him leave ASAP and get someone in who actually wants to be here.

Thanks - stickers at our website (chelseachicago.com) if you're so inclined ;) At least 6 new ones going up at the moment as well...growing larger in size and scale every year. BTW, I love Amsterdam for the same reasons, completely unique.

I'm Brian, I run Chelsea Chicago/Chicago Blues, signed up for this forum to better connect with you all. I'm a member of We Are The Shed and hope to meet more of you here and abroad. Cheers!