Rors21

I've long hoped for a team to assign a player to shadow Messi for an entire game, irrespective of whether the team has possession or not. The idea is to never allow the little genius to be open. Of course this means a player must play defense 100% of the time, meaning this odd tactic is unorthodox to say the least. But in so many games, Messi picks up the ball uncontested, and then builds up a head of steam, dribbles around a few defenders and scores. For the life of me, I don't understand why teams allow him to be open at all. He's just too good.

The impact of FFP makes missing the CL too risky a gambit to feel comfortable with. Already, we're struggling to get within the range of acceptable losses permitted be UEFA (around £38 million over two years). Last year alone we had a £67 million loss. The CL kept those figures from looking far worse as we received a whopping £40 million in TV/participation money. Now if we had a young team, with many promising players coming through and little need to delve into the transfer market, missing the Champions League for perhaps one season wouldn't be a catastrophic blow. But the fact is, major rebuilding needs to be done in the form of player procurement...and that costs money. How we will be able to attract the right players without an inflow of Champions League dollars and all the while trying to comply with FFP is a vexing task. The fact remains that qualifying for the Champions League is just too crucial to the literal fortunes of the club for us to miss out on participating.

I have to agree with this. I was really taken aback by how negative the coverage was. I'm not saying Martin Tyler & Tony Gale have an anti-Chelsea axe to grind but I did feel they were taking every opportunity to criticize our players and management. On numerous occasions they referenced how lucky we were - not just in the game but over the course of RDM's reign. Gale also referenced Benfica's bright start and successful execution of the offside trap as "good news." Now of course he was arguing that it was "good news" for Benfica, but usually the British commentators display a slightly pro-English bias during television coverage (at least that was my take when I lived in the UK during the 90s and was even on display in the first leg via Gary Neville's commentry). I found it altogether odd that they seemed to pull for Benfica, or at least felt overly sympathetic to them versus Chelsea. Of course, I'm wearing blue tinted glasses here, so I'm sure the more neutral viewer wouldn't have noticed.

Another happy outcome from the game: by reaching the last 8 of the Champions League, the club receives a 10.3 Mil Euro "performance bonus." At least that's what the club got from making the QFs last year. I'm assuming it's still in place this year. Should help our beleaguered financials!

Definitely! I'll shoot you a message next time I'm heading down to the BB or 3 Lions. Small world eh?

Ah, the agony of defeat. Can't help but feel for the guy, we've all been there before. But what a win! Was at the local football pub here in Denver watching it - very impressive and rowdy group of Blues fans singing their hearts out all game. The best part was when a lone brave Napoli supporter walked in and was greeted with a rousing rendition of "one fan, you only have one fan...." Come on you Blues!

Every game I watch with him in it makes me upset. He's constantly diving. Great skill, but ugly approach to the game. A real cheat. Don't want him anywhere near the club.

When the whistle blew at the end of the first leg I believed Chelsea would overturn the deficit and I still do. For all of Napoli's attacking riches their 3-1 result owed more to our sloppy mistakes than their brilliant play. After all, if you stand back and allow Lavezzi a free and unimpeded shot on goal, as we did, there's a good chance he'll score, which he did. And if you don't pick up the run of Napoli's best player, Cavani, he'll get on the end of a cross and make you pay. If we mark those men tightly, which will happen with the return of John Terry, they're just not going to run roughshod over our defense. The big occasions have seemed to produce the best play out of Chelsea this season and on Wednesday night I think the aura of European football and a rocking Bridge will spur us on to victory.

The Guardian is reporting that Arsenal have signed Lukas Podolski for 11 mill. I think that's a pretty good signing for them. I've always thought Podolski's a great player, even if his stint at Bayern didn't work out. Too bad we couldn't have snapped him up - he does well on the left-hand side of an attacking trident.

Thanks for clueing me in.

What happened with Roy Keane that has everyone in a fuss?

I watched an interview of his at the last world cup. He knew a little but was definitely not fluent.

Jose Bosingwa as player-manager

Perhaps not, but it would be close. Playing in the CL every season is absolutely critical to our business model. Without it, our chances of complying with FFP is severly compromised.

Sorry you had to see that comment then!

He does some nice things off the pitch but he's still a schemer that dabbles in football's dark arts. My favorite manager in the world, no less.

I think WXWAX's film reviews are quite good.

Drogba's scored 8 goals in his last 7 games vs. West Brom. They can't seem to handle him.

Thanks for sharing the link to the blog. It had me wondering about the state our our own scouting network, given the incredible success of Porto's. They seem to be able to unearth these incredible talents while our own record is somewhat mixed.

Peter Odemwingie is their danger man. Need to keep a close eye on him.

It's not rocket science to shut down Cavani and Lavezzi. Good as they are they're not going to run roughshod if they're marked tightly (not done tonight, granted). Napoli's defense looked awfully dodgy to me. They're not comfortable on the ball, they made many mistakes, they're old and immobile and if wasn't for shocking misses by Ramires and Luiz, it would have been a different outcome tonight. We've played well at the Bridge in the big games of late and I think the team will be up for the second leg.

Napoli are quite beatable. I didn't think too much of them today, besides Lavezzi and Cavani, who were fantastic. The rest of the team is pretty run of the mill and I'm frankly shocked that they got the better of City in the Fall. I think they'll crumble at the Bridge and we'll sneak through.

I read Simon Kuper's "The Football Men" about a month ago. In it he describes Guus Hiddink as seriously interested in taking the England job after the 2006 World Cup, but he backed away because he feared harassment from the British tabloids. Apparently Hiddink likes coming into divided camps, working with difficult personalities (he's always wanted to work with Rooney) and quickly turning a team around in time for a major tournament. No better opportunity to do all that then now, and then walk away in July, regardless of what happens.

300 days of sunshine and ample outdoor recreation make for a quality living locale, but on the downside it's not a cosmopolitan melting pot and compared to other places in the U.S., it's rather isolated.

Great to stumble upon this site and I've enjoyed reading everyone's posts the last few weeks. I'm American but grew up in the UK between '83-'98. I lived in SW3 for the last four years of that time and my dad took me to tons of games at the Bridge, hence the start of my life long love for the Blues. My favorite memory was seeing the Blues fight back in the 2nd leg of the '98 Coca-Cola Cup SF vs. Arsenal, winning the second leg 3-1 after the Arse won the first 2-1. Viera was sent off, a streaker ran across the pitch and a guy standing next to me literally smoke 20 cigarettes in 90 minutes, and screamed like a banshee whenever the Blues scored. Now live in the Rocky Mountains out in Colorado.