BigIzz

Hey Sam, welcome! I'm from Jersey myself, Morristown to be exact, how about yourself?

The notion that Buffon, Bale, Ferdinand, Nesta, Essien, Kaka, Berbatov or Ronaldinho is on this list is crazy. What did any of these players so to warrant being considered one of the best 11 players in the world for the whole of 2010? I mean we love Essien but how can he be one of the four best midfielders in the world for the last year? He maybe played in what, 20 games this year?

I picked Kalou. I thought he had a real impact on the match when he came on in the key period where we got the equalizer. I could understand why he wouldn't be picked because of his limited time of good play but he seemed to make the difference for me today.

I voted for what interference because really, what interference? What has he done to interfere? I'm not sure that we know. I know that you can blame him for Jose leaving but you need to look at it objectively. Jose is always going to have a short shelf life as manager. How much longer would he have stayed? If he never talked to Roman and was given whatever he wanted, would he still be here now? It seems doubtful given his personality. Is breaking all sorts if transfer records and buying someone who is considered to be the worlds best striker interference? If it is there are hundreds of football clubs on the planet that wish there owners would or could interfere like that. Is Roman to blame for this Wilkins fiasco? Do we know? My point is how much of the problems tied to Roman are manufactured by the media and how much is true? I know the question isn't if Roman has been a benefit but he doesn't exist in a vacuum. If this website had a poll in 2003 that asked "Would you want Chelsea to be bought by an eccentric billionaire under whom they would win three league titles, a few FA cups, make the Champions League knockout stage every season? As a caveat the Billionaire might interfere, cause some drama and make a few poor decisions that may cost a couple more League titles and maybe a Euro Cup." What would the result of that poll had been?

I don't disagree. I've said for months that this roster is constructed poorly. At the same time would we be better off selling one of our top players to bring in a few mediocre guys for more depth? It's certianly a question that needs to be considered. We don't know the financial constraints that are on this squad however there obviously are some.

This is a good opportunity to work some young players into the lineup but at the same time we shouldn't field a youth team. We want to integrate the young players into the first team and get some of our big guns confidence and good form back.

Either way we aren't 10 players short. That would be the case if teams 25th player were better then our 16th, which isn't the case. We might be 2,3,4 players short which would make our 22nd player our 25th and knock our 25th best out of e discussion. How important are players 16-25 anyway? I'd much rather have a better top 15 then 16-25. You could probably argue that you're better off with a netter top 4 or 5 even. Health plays a bug factor though and that's impossible to predict before the season.

I buy that to some degree with a manager but I'm not sure how much an assistant would effect things. It would probably be hard to measure objectively because the effect the assistants themselves have within clubs is probably quite variable. Do I think that Wilkins departure effected the results of our last two fixtures? Not at all. If we have a bad run if form for the next 8-12 matches? It might be a contributing factor, one of many reasons the club isn't playing well. In all honesty though I doubt it effects the first team players very much (read:they don't really care). I'm sure we can all agree that this was a PR disaster that could have been handled much better by upper management. Maybe that would have slowed down the media circus that has followed. I think that the subsequent scandal that the media have cultivated has a much more detrimental effect on the team then Wilkins actual departure does.

Interesting question. Assuming everyone is healthy Chelsea 16-25 is probably Ramires, Ferreira, Sturridge, Bruma, Kakuta, McEachran, van Aanholt and then either backup keepers or youth players. Spurs 16-25 would include guys like David Bentley, Keane, Gallas, dos Santos, Corluka, O'Hara, Sandro Arsenal have Vela, Ramsey, Bendtner, Gibbs, Djourou, Eboue, Denilson and either Koscienly or Squallici (not sure which is the preferred choice)

The notion that Wlkins leaving has any sort of immediate effect on the first team is absurd. These players are all professionals, they understand this is a business and have played for dozens of managers/coaches and with hundreds if teammates. Some of them might even think Wilkins is a super guy who got a raw deal but exactly does that effect their performance on the pitch a few days later? Do they not shoot as accurately or run as fast because they are distraught? For sure it could have a negative effect in the long term but I just don't see what it has had to do with recent developments on the field.

All of this is true. Matches like Birmingham happen, sometimes a team just can't score. It came at a terrible time though. The last thing that we need is panic.

Kalou is one of the most frustrating players I've ever seen

Goal attempts 1-17. Score 1-0. Football is a cruel game sometimes.

We need a positive break. Like last season when the ball bounced over David James foot to set us off on our title push.

Is it me or does it feel like we will never score again?

Exactly, when all is said and done this could be the result that is the difference in the title race for us.

Was Wenger throwing down the water bottle in disgust on the international feed or just the American one? Because it was hilarious.

Odd to say but this is a fantastic development

Yes, those are all very fair points.Saturdays lineup will be interesting

I'm pretty sure he's scored 1 for Chelsea and 5 for City. I may be wrong though but I really can't remember him scoring 6 times for us. The fact is he hasnt produced when he has played. And I agree 100% that he hasn't had the opportunity needed to make a solid assessment. None of our young players have really. The question is why? Is Carlo biased towards veteran players and doesn't see integrating the youth as a priority? Does he feel he needs to churn out results with senior players rather then suffer a potential setback playing unproven players to keep his job as manager? Or does he just not think the young players are good? Just because a player is young doesn't mean he deserves a chance. It doesn't mean that they're going to develop into great players because they see time on the pitch with the first team.

Do you think that Carlo thought Ferreira would be a good choice at centre back? I don't, which frightens me about what his opinion of Bruma is. At least in the short term it looks doubtful he is going to offer much help.

Just because players are young doesn't mean they deserve a chance. Carlo sees much more of them then any of us do. It says a lot that Paulo started ahead of Bruma on Sunday. That isn't Carlo not integrating youth, that is Carlo not thinking Bruma is very good. Based on what I've seen the young players haven't done a whole lot to impress. Obviously McEachern has been the most impressive but we need to remember he is very, very young. Kakuta clearly has sublime skills but hasn't produced much. Sturridge has scored once now in 19 matches. Borini never looked very good to me and doesn't seem to be anywhere near the first team these days.Van Aaholt hasn't shown me a whole lot the couple of times I've seen him and kept back isn't really a weakness. Maybe these players just aren't that good and don't deserve more playing time. How much should we be willing to sacrifice to find out? I don't pretend to know these answers.

If Alex and Ivan are both healthy this wouldn't be devastating but Alex's health is a question mark for sure. Paulo is no where near a starting calibre center back in the Premier League and it speaks volumes that he started at an unnatural position ahead of Bruma, Boswinga isn't a picture of durability himself and Zhirkov is needed in the midfield because of our lack of depth there. This back line is very, very thin. Last season we had Belletti and Carvalho to add to the above list but they clearly weren't replaced. I wonder how much the club knew about this before the transfer window closed. From the article it sounds like this is nit a new injury for JT. If they knew he had a chronic nerve injury and a layoff like this was possible, why wasn't the squad strengthened?

Is Carlo just very conservative with his selection or does this lineup say a lot about Bruma?

This one is so shrouded in rumor and speculation it's probably a waste of time to even discuss it. Let's be honest - none of the fans nor the media seem to know the reason behind this. I'm sure it will come out someday but until then I don't see why it's that big of a deal. I can't see how anyone thinks Wilkins was a great assistant manager. Apart from giving a decent interview and sitting next to Carlo what does the public know about him? The media loves to stir up Roman-related drama and that's just what they're doing now.