MitchellJames

Great stuff from the club. Hope you and your Dad have a great day tomorrow

Love that paper clipping from 1980, we were only 70p more expensive than Aldershot lol. Personally I don't think we will ever, ever see terracing at premier league grounds. Clubs would have to drop prices significantly and that's never going to happen. I also don't think the clubs, police or the premier league would want us to have too much fun.

Born is the King

What would you take? Watford H Win M Utd A Draw Palace A Draw WBA H Win Everton H Win Arse A Draw Pretty simplistic for me, if I got offered 3 wins and 3 draws I would take it. I think any mixture of results that give us around 10-12 points would be a realistic target.

Reference the brick choice, Chelsea deserve some real credit for going into that much research on a decision that a lot of people (myself included until now) would never have even considered.

I got my info from here.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chelsea_F.C._managers If your link is correct and mine is wrong that is pretty funny and to be fair wikipedia is not always correct. If he has managed 310 games then he is already ahead of The Doc in 4th place, but still someway of David Calderheads 966 games (if thats correct ).

Although the East stand nearly ruined us it really was so far ahead of its time. It does not look at all out of place with the other stands at the Bridge even at 42 years old.

I was just browsing manager history on Wikipedia today and noticed that tonight (Porto) is Jose's 299th game in charge and his 300Th is on Saturday against Leicester. He is currently 5th in the all time games in charge list with Tommy Docherty just ahead on 303. On a personal note this means Jose has been in charge for the longest period of time that I have been a Chelsea fan. Of course all of the above is both his tenures put together. I thought this was quite a big deal and deserved its own thread, but apologies if its already been mentioned elsewhere already

You can actually go back a bit further with that list. Fleck, Furlong, Sutton, Casiraghi, were all pre Roman purchases. Im not saying these. or some of the ones on the list above, are bad players, they just didn't work at Chelsea for some reason.

Thanks PloKoon13 and Carefree92, I was not aware of the under 21 rule Bring Bamford back from Palace then, give him a 6-10 game run. Or give Tammy Abraham a run of games, the guy cant stop scoring.

A few people in this thread, and other threads, have mentioned playing the youth players etc. I was wandering, could we even if we wanted to? I thought a 25 man squad is registered at the start of the season, so not sure how many players can be promoted from the youth ranks mid season. For the record there is at least 5/6 players in the youth teams or on loan I would like to see get some 1st team game time.

I think he will do good as a manager, I always thought It was a great move by Hodgson to make him one of his assistants. Also as others have said, he was the most refreshing pundit in years.

Im from the North East Hampshire/Surrey border area, local towns are Aldershot, Farnborough and Camberley. This area is approx. 30 miles to the south west of Stamford Bridge and has always had very large Chelsea following, even before the Abramovich era. When I first started watching Chelsea, Chelsea was my closest 1st Division/Premier League team.

Ive got to be honest, I was gutted when Vialli got sacked and CR was brought in. I thought after the successes under Gullit then Vialli, Chelsea under Ranieri were not as good, He could not speak English to start with and im sure that led to communication problems on the pitch. I cant remember that well but im sure his substitutions often seemed negative and sometimes lead to draws and defeats from winning positions. I don't know how many of the signings made when Roman Abramovich first bought the club were actually Ranieris, as there was a lot of gossip at the time suggesting the players were being chosen by the board or advisers etc. Having said all that, I never disliked him, I actually quite liked him in the end, that result against Arsenal in the CL QF was epic, and the way he handled himself in the last months of his tenure was very dignified and respectful with all the speculation going on all around him. He will get a good reception when he comes to the Bridge and rightfully so, as he, like all our past managers, is part our history.

I think he will, im also thinking a big club will buy him in January.

I would love to see one of these players get a run of games. I really don't think we need to spend big on second and/or third choice strikers with guys like Abraham, Solanke and Bamford in the wings.

I get the point about him being to close to 30 rather than 20 but if, if, he could deliver 15-20 goals a season for the next 3 years he could be a bargain. It does seem these days that unless a player has come through an academy and is in a top team by the time he is 21/22 then they don't get much of a look in. A club will prefer to spend 20 mil on a player from a foreign league who, although may be good in their own league, may not perform in the Premier.

So JV has just scored his 9th consecutive premier league goal. Is he really good or just one of those players that is going to have 1 great season. He's 28 and English, could he be worth a top team buying? What is he worth? If he scores for England and also ends the season with 25+ goals his value will surely rise. I admit I don't know much about him other than his age and he plays for Leicester.

I was trying to put my finger on what is the difference between now and last year. Unfortunately the problem is at both ends of the pitch. For every goal less we've not scored, we have conceded 1 more, compared to this time last year. For me the first thing we have to do is every thing we can to stop conceding, it might not be pretty and we still might not win but we badly need 3 or 4 clean sheets in a row. Admittedly it dosnt help when the opposition often seem to have their best games against us but that just goes with being Champions.

I have just been through this whole thread over the last 3 or 4 weeks. Its not just the best thread on the site, its not just the best thread on any forum, its possibly the best thing on the internet full stop. I started going in the late 80's and have seen several pics of games I was actually at, and even more great stories, pics and vids of such great crowd shots and atmospheres from years long before I started going. Well done to all the contributors to this epic thread.

Having said that, RIP Mr Harding, cant believe its been 19 years.

Did Matthew Harding give Chelsea money or was it loaned. Did he pay for the MH Stand. There is no doubt that he helped Chelsea but I was never sure exactly how and what he invested. I remember it kicked of big time between Harding and Bates and even back then I was never quite sure what their big fall out was about.

I guess it all depends on what a manager wans from his captain. Does he want an extension of him self on the pitch, some who is totally on his wave length and will carry out his instructions and make sure his team mates do likewise. Personally ive always liked a captain who keeps talking to his team mates, keeps them in line, tells them when they are not doing their job or getting caught out of position, has the ability to read the game from back to front no matter what position he plays in. Commands respect because his effort can not be faulted. Its always a bonus if they are local or have come through the clubs ranks also. Then there is also the school of thought that you just give the captaincy to your best/most popular player. I didn't get it at first when Beckham got the England captaincy and Owen the vice captain. I didn't see either of them as the type of players that would dish out rollockings to other players when needed but I think it had a positive psychological effect with the fans, that the main man was going to win us the game type thing. I would definitely go with a defender as I think that position is best for reading the game. Azpi seems a pretty good shout, he ticks a lot of the boxes. I think any candidate would really need some trial games, how was it transitioned to JT, I really cant remember, it was Desailly before wasn't it, that man was immense.

Just remembered another funny memory, Southampton at the Dell in the 90/91 season (I think). Two things that popped in my head, apart from being in another open away end, a football hit a copper and knocked his hat off and he looked like Jimmy Greaves and everybody starting singing "one Jimmy Greaves". Also at the end of the game, while we were being held in for maybe half an hour, some guy stood up on one of the crash barriers and sang "London Girls" to what must have been at least 3000 Chelsea fans. Very funny and very brave from the guy

My first ever Chelsea game was an away. Wimbledon at Plough Lane in what must have been 87/88 season. Qued up in the hot sun to get in the no roof away end with the big fence at the back. We managed a 2-2 draw after being 0-2 and here is my point, I swear the whole ground erupted when we scored, I was gobsmacked, we must have had 15,000 in a crowd of 20,000 lol. Unfortunately we went down that season but I was hooked