Chelsea Lad

98. Snubbed the sun, sand, glamour and Jose of Milan for the mighty Chels 99. His banner looks amazing next to JT's. I'll leave someone else for the 100. :)

Why don't you just look on the site. Season tickets get first pick Then it's done on a loyalty basis (basically the more games you've been to this season the more likely you will get one of the first picks) Then it'll go out to all other members Then all non-members I'm a member whose been to 3 games this season, a proper fan who will get an atmosphere going, it's unlikely I'll get tickets in time. This, unfortunantly, is what's wrong with modern football these days. (Btw, I'm 17 and have been saving enough money for two tickets for the cup final for a while now, I'll probably just go to the Blackburn game instead and risk not going to anymore games this season. Give the lads a good send off for Rome (hopefully))!

Arrghh it just comes up with 'sop is not a registered protocal'. f**king hate Setanta, please help guys. :(

81. Came second in world player of the year in 2005 (?) behind Ronaldinho 82. Is not fat 83. Second midfielder to reach over 100 goals in the PL 84. Well on his way to becoming our all time record goalscorer 85. Will be in the record books and history books forever 86. Never lost a game when he has been captain 87. Has played under a good few world class coaches and each one has had him as a first team regular 88. Has been the only player this season to have played brilliantly even through the tough winter period 89. Probably sings Chelsea songs in the shower like us 90. One of the two remaining Chelsea players to have played in the same team as Zola 91. Hates West Ham despite his whole family being West Ham ('my old man said be a West Ham fan, I said f*ck off b*llocks your a cvnt')

Don't the ones in the MH cover advertising boards? Or do those boards just say 'Chelsea' or something? Pretty certain that'll be fine. What you thinking of putting on it?

The ones on the MH, I'm pretty sure have just been put up without asking the clubs permission but I know there was quite a bit of trouble with them being too low and people in the back of the MH lower tier couldn't see the whole pitch because of the banner, but I think that's been sorted now. There was also the problem of the wind blowing them over so you couldn't actually see them. You also have to take them down after each match.

He looked proper angry at the start! Who was he chasing - Kalou?

Brilliant shame it'll never get sung though. :lol:

My calender is hanging on the inside of my wardrobe door so I only have to look at it twice a day. :)

Why Bosingwa out?

In: 1) JT 2) Lamps 3) Bosingwa 4) Essien 5) J Cole Out: 1) Kenyon 2) Malouda 3) Drogba (if we can find replacement) 4) Deco 5) Kenyon

Loz you need to empty your inbox.

I would say just wait until Chelsea reach a final and then follow the huge masses of blue, but then again you could be waiting a while. :o When I went to the Charity Sheild a season or two back we went with geezer's second choice, was fine for us.

I totally agree mate, and by the sound of the first two replies they disagree which is totally out of order. We were brilliant yesterday, fought to the end and never gave up. It was proper desire and passion to win that game when we went the goal down, everyone in blue desperatly wanted it. I, for one, am proud of us for what we did and anyone who isn't really needs shake or a punch to knock some sense in to themselves. Belletti, for me, should start instead of Mikel and the likes of Stoch should deffo be given more time now Cole is out. Kalou had a great game too, not to mention Lamps. Cech should still be our number one though, one of the best keepers in the world and Carlo would need time to re-adjust to first team football which is time we can't really afford or need to give.

Those are the exact reasons, to raise funds and allow Mancienne a place. Also Ivanovic has the advantage of being able to play RB and possibly LB too, whereas Alex is really just a CB. Don't get me wrong though, I think Alex is a quality player.

It's depressing if that's the case, being left with these big egos like the ones I mentioned. The thing is, I wouldn't be surprised if Malouda, Drogba, Ballack and Deco did all leave in the summer - it's certainly not unthinkable and if they do go we'll have to bring in some kind of replacement - two options: 1) Spend big and stay in with a shout of winning things or 2) Spend small and lose our chances of winning trophies. I don't see how a billionaire can't afford £70m anyway.

I'd keep the current squad but sack Scolari now and bring in Frank Rijkaard, so he has some time to see the team before starting the new season. In the summer I'd offload all the big egos on high wages and getting old: Deco, Ballack, Drogba, Malouda, Anelka and Alex And bring in: 2 young, creative midfielders that are not world known and perhaps just breaking into their international squads (age 21-25) - £25m Michael Owen - cheap, scores goals, good back up, English - Free A pacey winger, there must be quite a few unknown talents who can run at defences with the ball, search for the next Robben and hope he stays fit - £15m A world class striker, my first choice would be Aguero but Villa would also be doable and very worthwhile - £25-35m Total cost = So that's £70m max, a lot of money, but I'm sure it's nothing a billionaire can't sort out. My squad would be: (brackets are second choice): Cech (Carlo/Hilario) Bos (Paulo) Riccy (Mancienne) JT (Ivanovic) Cole (Belletti) Essien (Mikel) Lamps New midfielder (other new midfielder and not forgetting that Belletti can play here, as can Joe Cole and a few youth products) Joe Cole (Kalou) New winger (Kakuta) Aguero (Owen/Di Santo) I'd be happy with that team and we'd restore our Englishness and regain the spine of Cech-JT-Lamps that was so evident in 04/05 to 06/07.

As with you, I'll try to stay calm. It's f**king hard though, ain't it. ;) Anyway I agree and a big sort out is needed. Our signings, on the whole, have been poor in RA's era and the ones who have done well are losing their hunger. So for this reason the following need to be shipped out to create funds that a billionaire cannot create: 1) Drogba - today, I think my local side, Eastbourne Boro, would have dropped him 2) Ballack - old, over-paid, ego higher than the sky and to similar to Frank 3) Deco - weak, over-paid, doesn't do enough, the odd brilliant goal doesn't cut it 4) Anelka - his kinda a bad luck charm, since his arrival we have gone down hill, good player but old and if we can squeeze £10m out of him we could bring in someone with a bit more potential and workrate 5) Malouda - didn't play today, but we all know he isn't going to cut it 6) Peter Kenyon - ok, won't happen, but he would be on my outlist Along with them Big Phil needs to go for the following: 1) He is poor with the media - look at the mind-games being played between Liverpool and United and then look at what Scolari is saying in his press conferences. Today, after waiting 25minds after the match to see the man speak he says something along the lines of 'the confidence in the players has all gone'. Ok, maybe true but you don't go and admit it. Where's the player-punching, journo-hating Big Phil we all wanted to see? 2) Likes Deco too much, took an injury for him to be forced off at half time, Scolari goes Deco goes happy days. 3) Seems to be lacking motivational skills, you may ask do the players need motivating? Well, whether they should or should not, they do need it. Jose was a beast at motivating players and now with a motivation-lacking manager, it puts even more jobs on JT. 4) Just generally doesn't seem to care. Then, we can look to re-shape our scouting team, bring in a young, quick, energetic, forward like Aguero plus a few other low-ego, younger players to fill a squad of 2 players per position and finally scrap the goal of becoming the world's biggest club by 2014 - it puts on too much pressure, it's a goal that really can't be measured and looks increasingly less likely to occur so when 2014 does reach we will look like right mugs.

Great post again mate! How do you know about all these youngsters? I personally get most of my information off the highly reliable Football Manager 09 when considering youngsters, and, if that has any truth behind it, young Nouble should have bashed in about 10 goals in 12 appearences for the under 18's this term? ;)

Give Carlo a new one year contract with some sort of option into a coaching role, if he wishes, after than one year. He may not play often but I'm sure he has a great influence in the dressing room. Mikel should obviously be given a new contract and I doubt he'd demand more than 100k anyway. As with Ballack a pay-as-you-play type contract would be fine, if not send him back to Bayern on a free and bring in someone young.

You write a good piece. Are you involved with anything like this in your job? I'm currently an aspiring sport jounalist, going to Uni next year (hopefully), so I'm really enjoy reading well thought out and written articles like yours.

He and Ronaldo are the only wingers, at the moment, who are prepared and can run at defenders with pace and take them on. We could do with his quality at the moment, and his way of playing is what we lack but there is also a lack of these players in the world unfortunatly for us.

I've always mainted the philosophy that defence is more important than attack if you want to win things, you win trophies with 1-0's not risking a 1-0 lead and ending up with a point each. I can't think of a side who has played attacking football, every game - like we were early season, and won almost every game and the league? When rebuilding a side you need to start off with the defence - like Jose did to us - grinding out the 1-0's before you can start working on the attack. Damn, reading that really hurt. :D I very much agree and I see an attacking, creative and full of flair January signing the saviour of Scolari's job and Chelsea's season - like you correctly state, this deficiency is our primary downfall. I think Scolari recognises he needs this player but of course he is going to say he has a good squad, though it would be nice if he was down to earth and honest like we all thought he would be, he has known this since the start of his reign hence the reason we tried so hard to secure Robinho's services.

That's so true and it's had an effect on the atmosphere at most home games. I can understand Cole's anger, he is a top quality player and out of all our midfield and forwards (perhaps except Essien and Lamps) Joe shows the most hunger and determination to win games. I love the fella and feel that if he keeps on being substituted he may get pissed off and want a move - he, Cech, Lamps and JT are instrumental to any previous or future success. Like someone else pointed out, a major problem is too many captains and big egos in the dressing room, we lack a father figure like Maka or Zola, and we desperatly need someone who will put the ball in the net at least every fortnight. A big change is needed during the summer, get rid of some overpaid, old has-beens and players whose high potential turned into stale wood - Kalou, Sinclair, Alex and bring in some players, that we as fans, would like to see at the club. Man I wish we still had Zola, Eidur, Jimmy, Wisey, Poyet etc etc :D

He's mentioned two or three times that he is only staying for 2 years, now 1 1/2. I'm prepared to suffer this season but for him to guarentee us a couple of major trophies next, but I can't see it happening tbh.