yogic

I remember you too, Qaz. Of all the things I've lost, my memory remains :)

Back after over a decade. Nice to see my account is still alive. How are you my old friends Loz, Butch, Coco, Zola :) Perhaps our worst year in the transfer market - after our best 'new' manager post Jose? Players 'stolen' by Liverpool & Tottenham? I don't think so -ultimately the player decides based on what he is convinced about. Preserve the energy Guide the slim squad Take each game as it comes Hope to remain a challenger in two out of four competitions Ommm Bring back Damien Duff!!

Rafa should be drinking my tea that has Brahmi in it. Brahmi is an indigenous herb in India - known to increase memory, intellect, and IQ.

It has been a few years since I walked this path. I've kept a keen eye on all things blue - but life has become busy and bluetime is painfully reduced. Never thought living the dream would be such. Some old timers may remember me talking about starting a herbal company, way back in 2006-07-08.. when I was a student and an active member. Happy to share that we are now live and are growing with organic baby steps. Hope to be in UK markets in the coming year, too. My dream of bringing natural herbal healthcare to Chelsea still remains. Hopefully, soon :) Current standings are a little unsettling. Looking at the table and standing 3rd doesn't look 'that bad'. But, 10 points off the top, and shabby recent form & confidence, looks 'very bad'. Are we missing a phenom powerhouse personality in the dressing room? Where is the new Drogba? In sheer terms of personalty. Rafa to manage the blues, who would have thought? Inheriting a squad, midway, with injuries, and no opportunity to build your own team - Ok. Secure Champions league - Ok. Aim for the FA cup - Ok. Who will lead us next season? Pep is in Germany. Jose? Rafa? Hello to all. Hope things are well. Where is Dorset? Yogic PS - Loz, apologies if this is not in the right section. Not abreast with current forum rules.

Going back to what I said in December, we have no engine, we have no legs left, and we are growing increasingly old, and frustrated. Frustrated as many, or perhaps most, of our old players have been trying to win the big ears but have not been able to. Having come so close so many times, only rubs salt in their wounds. Are they capable? Yes. Can they do it with the current squad? No. We desperately need to freshen things up. If we are an army, then our general must sacrifice some of the front line ants, who are worn out, and bring in a fresh batch. I would be shocked if we don't let 4-5 players go and bring in some special talent. We need to sign the Sneijder's of the world - young, hungry, alive. Not the Deco's, old, done it all, closer to death.

Towards the end of last season people feared that our first team had too many 'old' players. For many, that fear was dampened with our blistering start to this season. Today, Manchester city pushed our buttons and revealed are biggest weakness, age. Not trying to single out players, but Ballack and Deco's performance today underlines the growing concern in our team. As great players as they are, and as much as they have achieved, they simply do not have the legs for the pace of the English league - they will not last an entire season. This, undoubtedly, takes away our midfield 'engine' effect. Manchester City simply dominated the game, and ran riot over our midfield. We only started looking decent, and a threat, when Mikel and Juliano were brought on. Decent as Mikel brought with him composure, a threat as the 'Bison' was unleashed - oddly, it even made Deco wake up and start playing. The point to be made here, is that we need to ingest youth, vigor, stamina, and pace in our midfield. It is a conservative estimate that many teams in the league show us a lot of respect, and that makes those games 'slightly' easier - I fear that Manchester City showed other teams today that if they have a real go at us, they can come away with something. Yes, certainly, if any team has a real go at any of the top four, their chances of coming away with something are higher. But title winning sides must be capable of absorbing that 'go', and retaliating with venom, and for us to do that, we need players capable of running post-to-post all game. Sure, this could be a 'one off', and we could be back to our dominating best. But the fact is, we did not have the gusto to deal with this 'one off' today - and, we should have. Would the result have been different if Carlo had made the substitutions earlier, if Lampard had scored the penalty, and Drogba finished the chance towards the end? Maybe it would have - but it would not have changed the fact that we could not match the City muscle in the first half. And if that first half gets other teams to start giving our players a run, we very well might want to pull out the shopping basket come January.

Game highlights

Kalou beating the keeper The Bench After Drogbas Goal Lampards free kick Spot the ball Drogba sorting out the fight Half time score Half time Half time warm-up Half time entertainment Lampard's Penalty Ibra Inter free kick Ibra free kick ---

To All Obviously whatever I have said on this thread has upset everyone - was never the intent. Simply put - i did not see it as the players took the game to Barca and thats what I will stick with. Yes we were extremely hard done by in regards to the Ref and the penalties, but even before they scored I was sitting there thinking the team did not take the game to them and we did not play at our best. Credit to Barcelona for attacking us with even 10 men. This will be my last post on this site. Yogic

And yes - the REf was a twat and he did get it all wrong - but we cannot complain solely as we did not take our chances, which we had in plenty.

wow - thanks for the kind words As much as you all might disagree - the way I saw the game the players did not try to go out and win it IMO. We did not attack them as we had done the last time they came here. Essien's goal was a volley off a deflection. The chances we got we did not take and the ones we tried to take we took VERY poorly (exclude Essien) Yes it is because the squad is old. Barcelona were done to 10 and were still attacking us at our home - we really should have taken control of the midfield and kept possession once they got the red card, but we didn't. We did not take the game by its neck and take control. You might argue that we were setup for a counter-attack game: but once they were down to 10 we should have kept the ball and not given it away so cheaply. I cant remember if we even struck more than 5 passes at a go. Complain all you like about the ref and the decisions. And those who doubt my love for the club can think as they like - i have nothing to prove on this site.

What did he say? they did not show it on tv here.

Never tried to win it from the go. Drogba fluffed all his chances. We could have wrapped it up with the counter-attacks towards the end, but did not. Barcelona got one shot on target and scored. - This team is old and not innovative anymore. Anelka and Drogba are not lethal enough. Droba has his games but we need someone consistent. I truly hope Hiddink recognizes all our squad issues and talk to Roman. I truly hope Roman sanctions a squad overhall. I truly hope Kenyon recruits a TOP manager. - Chelsea forever.

thanks all

ESPN China is offline I can never load a channel from a direct link on myp2p - so can you copy the address in sopcast as it appears in the address field and paste it here ?>

loz can you copy paste the address here it does not work for me from the link

Has anyone found a working English stream?

It is on ITV1 - ITV1 always shows CL games.

http://www.myp2p.eu/broadcast.php?matchid=...amp;part=sports Anyone have other options? Anyone know how to get ITV working?

Werder Bremen have admitted that a good bid would see him leave. We missed out on Arshavin. We need a fox in the box creative midfielder. We dont have a whole lot of options.

strong midfield. Good choice not to pick Kalou Anelka Mikel and Essien both will hold the MF well. Im excited. Hiddink is Genius.

---------------------------------Cech Ivanovich ------ Alex---------------------Terry--------------Boswingwa -------------------------Mikel-----------Essien --------------Lampard---------------------------Ballack ------------------------------------------Malouda --------------------------Drogba

can someone copy paste the address for Fox Sports on SOP Cast? I cant find it on my sopcast list Thanks

if someone has a SOPCAST stream working can you copy paste the addy pl

Any luck?