WeeFranco

Spot on. That's it in a nutshell

Either way, I don't think the club wanted us to be in the position to have to buy someone like Demba Ba. But it didn't turn out that way and we were, so they did. So, fair play to them for at least realising that and acting on it. I very much doubt Ba's arrival will do anything to reinvigorate Torres. If anything, his position will become increasingly untenable, most probably it will set the seal on his Chelsea adventure and he'll be off in the summer. The only positive from this is that the club will be very reluctant to splash out an embarassingly high transfer fee on a 'gift' player again, having been very publicly burned on two occasions now. Perhaps it will be the catalyst to enpower a new manager to handle the player transfers.

Benitez suggested rotating Ba and Torres and also playing them together. If they are paired up front, who gets dropped from the first team? During rotation, what happens if Ba is effective during his rotation and Torres isn't?

It looked weird yesterday playing with a striker up front. Other teams have been doing it and It clearly works. Why didn't we think of this before?

You're right, of course. Mata should be no. 10 on my list.

Hopefully, the board have got at least enough nous to realise what an asset he is. As long as we don't do anything stupid like agree to a swap deal with Modric. ....which is exactly the sort of thing the board would do

Well, it seems it's academic anyway... http://www.espn.co.uk/football/sport/story/186583.html

The loss yesterday really cut deep, but we don't have time to stew over it. A Ba debut hat-trick against Southampton would help. Jose announcing he is coming back in the summer would be better.

Bad, bad news. Can't blame Frank for wanting to go somewhere he feels appreciated. Another poor player decision we will live to regret.

The Ten worst:- 1 - Fernando Torres £50M (overpriced vanity purchase - why not just buy Liverpool?) 2 - Andriy Shevchenko £35M (overpriced bromance purchase, an act of hubris that probably lost us Jose) 3 - Juan Veron £15M (Manu reject, apparently good enough for us) 4 - Andre Villas Boas £28M (to buy in and out, a good manager at the wrong club at the wrong time) 5 - Shaun Wright Phillips £21M (he should have gone to Arsenal where he would probably still be today) 6 - Scott Parker £10M (an ugly, protracted tug of war for a player we had no intention to play) 7 - Yossi Benayoun £5.5M (another Liverpool orphan we had no need for) 8 - Asier Del Horno £8M (Jose wanted Ashley Cole, he got this, he wasn't happy) 9 - Khalid Boulharouz £9M (A panic buy bodge job for CB problems, not up to it) 10 - Juri Jarosik £5M (Not even as good as Smertin, a journeyman) + The Crap £186.5M The Ten Best:- 1 - Jose Mourinho no fee, £4,2M p/a 2 - Frank Lampard £11M (worth about £50M after that goal against Bayern) 3 - Didier Drogba £24M (if you were, say, 0-0 against QPR after 70 mins, you knew DD would win you the game) 4 - Petr Cech £7M (£7M??? Was that really all we paid?) 5 - Claude Makelele £17M (Worth every penny. His experience allowed the younger players to become stars, a good argument for keeping Frank & Ash, really.) 6 - Ashley Cole £5M + Gallas (A glorious double whammy. Troublesome Gallas out and brilliant Ashley in) 7 - Ricardo Carvalho £20M (A brilliant, savvy CB) 8 - Arjen Robben £12M (difficult, moody, but brilliant and devastating at his peak. Terrorised defences) 9 - Branislav Ivanovic £9M (Probably worth about £20M now. Strong and reliable) 10 - Oscar £23M (could be one of the greatest player ever to play in blue. If we can keep him) The Gold £128M

Er...do you think we might have made a mistake letting him go?

When you have a player that just keeps on giving, you keep them don't you? Frank is a clever player who has adapted his game to compenstate for a natural reduction in pace - as such, he can concievably play at the top level for another 5-6 years. He is highly respected at home and abroad and is an outstanding ambassador for our club. We all know this, so what's the problem? We have a lot of potentially great players in midfield, yes. But Frank IS a great player and there is always room for one of those. The club haven't been particularly vocal in reassuring us about Frank's future. Does anyone out there actually think the club should let him go, seemingly so easily?

The occasions Luiz has played DM we've looked good and won. Am I missing something or is it really that simple?

Play. he's still a kid and already looking like the real deal. WWJ(ose)D?

He's still got a bit to prove in my book. A great talent, but hardly the finished article. Sure, he'd get the red carpet treatment in Spain but would start off well down the pecking order and end up having to dazzle every time he came on. After a few months of that he'd realise Chelsea was/is the best place for him.

10 years from now... I think there'll have to be a new stadium. Probably called the Samsung Arena or somesuch. Maybe the bundesliga style folding seat/standing arena. Remaining regular starters - Courtois, Bertrand. Everyone else will have moved on. JT will be on staff as fitness coach. Lampard will probably be managing a lower league club. We will be a regular top three finishers in the EPL. Fergie will have retired and Manu will be in transition. City will have failed to capitalise on this and slipped back to where we are now. Wenger will have moved on to manage France and Arsenal will be strong again under new management. We'll probably have won 2 EPL's, 3 FA cups, 3 League cups and been in at least one CL final during this period. Serie A and La Liga will dominate in Europe and will attract most of the new talent. RA will still own the club but will finally appreciate to succeed he needs to appoint the right people and interfere less. The current Chelsea board will all have moved on to accomodate this new thinking. The manager we're about to get will be allowed to start a long term legacy and will still be in the post in 2022.

I don't think there's any chance Benitez will remain in charge beyond this season - he's clearly been appointed in an interim capacity and there's been no attempt to cover that. Obviously, there's someone in mind we have to wait for. You are absolutely correct - the team we have now is mostly young with bucketloads of talent laced with key veterans with bucketloads of nerve and experience. We we are one great striker and a long term manager away from reestablishing the fear factor we started to develop back in 2005. Whoever the manager turns out to be this time, they need to be granted automony. The new striker should be their choice.

Outhustled for the Charity Shield, outclassed in the Super Cup, chased out of the CL at the group stages, reduced to fighting for fourth place in the EPL and now outmuscled for the World Club Cup. Is this just a bad phase or a genuine decline and, if so, how do we stop it?

What's Sheva doing these days? Is there a chance he could end up doing it for his pal?

Things are looking bleak. It doesn't appear Rafa has support in the dressing room, or the stands. He probably has, at best, one or two more games left. As grateful as I am for Roman's ambition and success, he needs to be a little more realistic about football management and a little less like Xerxes from 300.

My turn must be coming up soon...

Difficult to say where we go from here. The manager I wanted pre AVB was Joachim Loew but I don't suppose that'll happen. Who's left? Benitez is an odd choice. Perhaps RA thinks if Fergie can bed in RVP without too much fuss, he can do the same with Rafa. Personally, I think we should just get behind him - I'm all out of hate for him and he is the manager now, like it or not, and fuelling disharmony with the squad won't help anyone. Player wise, we still have a great young squad. Torres, like Sheva before him, is a flop. Embarassing for RA as he has now spent £85M on two past-it duds. It isn't going to happen for Torres. What we need is a wildcard like Neymar. Too young, too reckless, too selfish - perhaps. All wrong on paper, so it's bound to work. RA gets his new poster boy and who knows? the lad might even find the net once in while.

We went in expecting a chess match and got caught cold. Better this happened now than against Juventus in the groups. Oscar was a calming influence for me although I don't know if it's more because Atletico were just done scoring by then.

Falcao. He's quite good, apparently.

I reckon Moses will get on tonight, If we're in the $hit or cruising with 5 mins to go