bluedrake55

the FA have a lot to answer for the opinions of some fans. the tradegy was grieved and everybody respected the people who campaigned for justice. liverpool and all those connected should indeed allow to have a rememberence for the tradegy and it was quite fitting that their local hated rivals everton were at wembley observing the minute silence. this is harsh but as a chelsea fan i was very sympathetic decades ago but i think it is their tradegy. if people think it is the whole of football maybe they are right but the FA should not allow the situation to arise by arranging to have a minute silence with 2 london clubs. maybe i am paranoid but the FA is not really fit to rule because they are always looking to appease and to look like doing the right thing. the problem with that is it is normally the hardest things to do is the ones that will make you unpopular. here's a thought if we had liverpool as semi final opponents then wouldn't the minute silence hold more sway?

the FA cup competition is run solely to maximise earning a fortune from the fans and to show the world what a wonderful organisation the FA are. funny how fans turn up for all types of games but when it comes to the actual final, only a small percentage will get to wembley. i suppose they have to make their money from somewhere because the england team sure as hell can't!

reading all the comments has lead me to one conclusion. the English FA are selfish greedy egotistcal *****! i couldn't care less about a ****** up FA competition! my earliest memories were of us beating leeds and i thought that was pretty good. today the competition is so diluted in shmaz and money that i am glad we have priortised the CL. i for one will never give anything to the FA until real change has occurred. i will watch everything on sky!

mereiles is a very poor copy of xabi alonso. he stands of to much and hardly breaks sweat to break up play. his tackling is non existent and watch him carefully in matches and you find his reading of attacking play is average. his tactical use of the ball is average because he either gives it away or pass to non threatening positions or puts teammates under pressure. this has resulted in poor defencive play and made our strikers a bit impotent! he is not alone! ramires should be the one in his position as he plays for brazil in that position.

in the past we had a very strong midfield which supplied quick balls to our attacking flanks. our present midfield are shockingly weak and their guile in linking play from defence to midfield to attack is very poor. this has resulted in the defence struggling and made our strikers goalshy. drogba and torres is a fine idea but without anyone controlling the passage of play in midfield then you will get what happened at citeh. if we had got modric or had villas-boas had more believe in mcechren then things might of been different. granted mcechren is young and will make mistakes but can you honestly say that we will be worse of than what we are already?!

the desperation in recruiting glamourise foreign managers is 'fools gold'! we were very lucky to have had mourinho and ancellotti. to try and tempt guardiola shows there is really no structure or wisdom in this decision. guardiola is a spainish manager of a spainish team in spain. 99% barcelona's football core is run by spainish people who are fans or have an infinity with the club. abramovich is unwise to think that chelsea an english club in england can be run the barcelona way. it is even more galling that we are not run by passionate chelsea affiliated people who are like the spainish people who run barca. jose mourinho was the only one who understood this (i suspect this was bobby robson's influence) in the way he fought hard to keep steve clarke from getting what butch got. the people around abramovich has so far failed!

if spuds play through the midfield then we will be in for a very hard night! i can see dimatteo sticking with his a la villas-boas defencive tactics and hope one of our front 3 will score! i'm hoping but dreading!

we are still a very strong team and still too strong for a lot of teams. benfica do not have as strong a forward line up as napoli and the midfield is weaker and the defence just as weak. i am pretty certain we will be through to the semis.

citeh are a cardboard cut up of us. strong defence, strong midfield and able forwards. the midfield is a problem where if the opposition is stubborn or smart both teams do not have the guile to open the door with incisive passing. we will see ramires driving runs but little end product. ditto toure! i reckon this will all come down to the individual excellence of mata or silva. mata made it very personal due to the treatment he got and i can envisage him being the man of the match. in fact i believe we will win because citeh have a weaken backline.

di matteo is a legend but he must take responsibility for way the team has performed because he was number 2 to villas-boas. the way di matteo set up the team is exactly the same as villas-boas. i reckon he will play mikel, ramires, and mereiles! i really do hope napoli have an of day!

at boardroom level you have to have someone who is an absolute football fan. someone who will have faith and give complete support to the manager. david dein is a good example because what have goons won since he was pushed out?! people like fergy, moyes, o'neil and dalgleish are slightly different because they are british and know everything about english football. thus they need less support to thrive. jose with his team of clarke, villas-boas, and rodgers could of been up there with them but was undermined by the board. we got lucky a second time with carlo and the crab but they got what jose and his team got! the biggest example of disrespect was to steve clarke who decided to go to loserfools!

jose mourinho had a team that consisted of steve clarke, villas-boas and brendon rodgers. it would of been very interesting to have seen what might of been, if the board showed dein like conviction to that team? without dein's participation arsenal has won nothing. is this where we are heading? the fans that chant 'in jose we trust' wasn't far of the mark. having seen a british manager spanking citeh, i hope it has shown something to them.

the only way is to get abramovich to realise that we are an english club in england. every major football nation's clubs are run to the structure of that country and the benefits are all there to be seen. the problem we have are the 3 souless stooges who will not jeopradise their positions on the board by advising the path that we are on is flawed.

in infant school in 1974 me and my mates supported CFC because their families originated from west london. fulham

against a woeful brum the motm goes to ivanovic for his defencive work and his raids down the right. playing 3 defencive midfielders reminds me suspiciously of villas-boas selections. without anybody in our midfield to control the direction of the passing from defence to attack i give them all a 5 and the driving runs to bring the ball out a 5 also because they losted it and allow brum to have 51% of possession. we had more quality in attack and defence and therefore won thus a 6.5.

the team jose assembled of himself, steve clarke, villas-boas and brendon rodgers showed he is the special one. just a pity he never had dein like support! what if!

the question should be why is there no support from buck,gourlay and tenebaun?