nick001

I don't personally see any reason to boo him. He came in full of energy and tried his best, it didn't work out for him so off he went. You could feel a little bit sorry for him that he was sacked so quickly without having a chance to see his methods pay dividends (although from a supporter's point of view I'm glad it happened, of course - hard to see us turning it around against Napoli with him still in charge). He was a victim of our administration to an extent. And to my knowledge he hasn't slated Chelsea since, even when baited by the media in the leadup to this game.

Just putting this out there, apologies if it has been said elsewhere. German newspaper Bild "broke" the story a couple of weeks ago that Jose was coming home - read about that here: http://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/bild-jose-mourinho-to-return-as-chelsea-manager-will-be-joined-by-radamel-falcao-for-e60m/ (ignoring the Falcao part which is surely only conjecture). Got me thinking about Rafa's behaviour - specifically his diatribe here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/chelsea/9899047/Full-transcript-of-Rafael-Benitezs-rant-after-Chelseas-FA-Cup-victory-over-Middlesbrough.html That was after the Middlesbrough FA Cup tie; his rant detailing about how he wasn't going to be here next season, talking about the 'interim' title etc. I thought that night marked a change in his behaviour, whereby he stopped trying to behave himself and stuck two fingers up to the club and fans. The date of that fixture? 27 February Perhaps just coincidence, but could it be that he got wind of the agreement between the club and Mourinho, took it as confirmation that he would be on his way at the end of the season, and let loose? Does this confirm Bild's story somewhat?

Is that a Hillsborough reference?

All Apologies if I'm posting this in the wrong place. First trip up to Liverpool this weekend, wondering if there's any particular pubs in which Blues fans get together up there for pre-match pints and songs, and to have safety in numbers from the dippers? Cheers

Never try to impose your thoughts on others, you troglodyte. No free-thinking fan has a "duty" to abuse anyone, not least anyone wearing the crest and trying to get us points.

Ahaha god give me strength

I guess I am one of those you have called out in such a safe fashion, knowing you have the mob behind you. Nothing has changed. I still want Benitez (don't refer to his nationality as an insult, xenophobic idiocy) gone as much as you do. Difference is I would never show up to a game at Stamford Bridge and ban our representatives while they are wearing the badge within the arena. Not only is it disrespectful, it's surely counterproductive to our cause of success as a club.

How the hell does Torres come into this?

He's a troll looking for attention and to get a rise out of people. The worst thing you can do is respond, the best thing is to ignore him. Plus he's banned anyway so won't even be able to see your replies, what's the point?

haven't posted much, but have certainly taken in a lot of the characters and opinions around here, for better or worse.

anyone who feeds the trolls. can't you work that out from the context?

just keep feeding the trolls, kids

I think you'll find KDB's main position is further forward than where Frank has played, certainly recently. KDB does need to come back, but I hope it is to offer us versatility and creativity in the wing positions and AM.

I can only imagine this article (from the Observer printed 3 days after Jose left) has been posted elsewhere, but I feel compelled to post it as it still feels relevant with regard to, for example, the shady yes-men all through the club, transfer policy, and our chances of Jose coming back in the summer (all strongly interconnected, of course). The Observer, Sunday 23 September 2007 Tuesday, 10pm, home dressing room, Stamford Bridge. Andriy Shevchenko is taking Michael Essien to task on his performance in the night's embarrassing 1-1 draw with Rosenborg. The former European footballer of the year tells Africa's finest midfielder that he tried to make too many passes through the centre of the Norwegians' formation where '70 percent of their players were'. Essien learns he should have been passing to the wings 'where they only had 30 percent of their men'. Not the most insightful of tactical advice, but then these are not the thoughts of a Ukraine international, they are those of a Russian billionaire. Standing beside Shevchenko, tactics board in hand, Roman Abramovich is the man telling Essien how to play football. Shevchenko is merely there to translate. In another room, attending to the press, Mourinho is utterly unaware of his employer's actions. Tuesday, 7:11pm, the home dressing room. Chelsea's squad of 18 are called out for their pre-match warm up. All the players step out for the carefully prepared drill - except one. John Terry remains sitting where he is. One of Jose Mourinho's assistants urges Terry out. Chelsea's captain refuses, swears, and, according to an eye witness, says he is upset and has 'things on my mind'. Terry is said to be furious after finding out that Mourinho had been asking in Chelsea's treatment room whether there was a medical reason for his perceived loss of form over recent weeks. The stand-off continues until a team-mate cajoles his friend out on to the pitch. The game starts, Chelsea quickly lose a goal at a free kick as Miika Koppinen stretches ahead of Terry to turn in a near-post cross. Chelsea go in at half time 1-0 down and Jose Mourinho takes his captain to task, blaming the defender for the deficit. Terry says nothing but all his team-mates can see the anger on his face. The pair had once been the closest of footballing allies, but within 24 hours Mourinho is no longer Terry's manager as Chelsea agree to a £10.5million pay-off to rid themselves of a man they describe as 'the most successful manager the club has known'. 'The relationship broke down not because of one detail or because of something that happened at a certain moment. It broke down over a period of time.' - Jose Mourinho, 21 September 2007. To understand how the winner of two Premier League titles, two League Cups and one FA Cup, a man who averaged an unprecedented 2.33 points from his 120 Premiership games in just over three seasons, steadily became persona non grata at the club he made great, it is necessary to return to the summer of 2005. 'In Jose's first season everything was fine,' said a Chelsea employee who suffered the Abramovich guillotine long before the Portuguese. 'He came in, he won the title by miles, almost made the Champions League final, everyone was happy. But then it all began to go wrong. Peter Kenyon started thinking it was his genius as a chief executive that was important. Abramovich's mates were telling him his money had done it and any half-decent coach would win the league with those resources. They forgot that the most important man at any club is the manager.' That summer, Chelsea poached Tottenham Hotspur's sporting director Frank Arnesen at a cost of £5m. Ostensibly recruited to revolutionise the club's sub-standard youth ranks, the Dane was actually brought in on the recommendation of Piet de Visser, a well-known Dutch talent scout who had advised Abramovich on football matters from his first months as Chelsea owner. Arnesen and De Visser, friends and allies from their time together at Dutch club PSV Eindhoven, steadily worked to influence Abramovich's thinking on the first team, and, most importantly, player recruitment. Along with the agents Soren Lerby, Vlado Lemeic and Pini Zahavi they sought to steer Abramovich towards the purchase of certain footballers. Their objective, according to one source, was 'to get to Abramovich's money. To do that they needed power at the club, needed a manager who would do what they wanted. Mourinho was not that manager.' Thus emerged a power struggle in which Arnesen and others seemed to undermine Mourinho by questioning him at every opportunity. When Mourinho went to war with Uefa over the actions of referees they told Abramovich his coach was embarrassing the club. When Mourinho's team dourly won key matches by a goal to nil, they told the owner a better coach would win by more goals and bring him far more flamboyant football. When a Mourinho signing failed to perform on the pitch, they told Abramovich that better players could be found elsewhere. Within a year, and despite Mourinho's success in claiming a second successive Premiership, the manager had lost control of transfers. In the 2006 summer window, Mourinho asked the board to buy Samuel Eto'o; they spent a UK record £30m on Shevchenko. Chelsea sold William Gallas to Arsenal against Mourinho's wishes, and forced the £7m Khalid Boulahrouz upon him, while Arnesen compounded the error of allowing Chelsea's most effective defender to leave the club by pulling the plug on the £5m purchase of Micah Richards. Inside a season Richards was a full England international, while Boulahrouz was stinking out the reserves until Chelsea paid Sevilla to take him off their hands. At least Mourinho could easily leave the Dutch defender out of the first team. A personal friend of Abramovich's, Shevchenko played regardless of his performances, and those were usually awful. In his first 26 appearances for Chelsea, the Ukrainian striker scored five goals. His coaches and team-mates often felt as though Chelsea were playing with 10 men and Mourinho was faced with a problem - should he leave out the owner's pal or lose the faith of the rest of the team? As January approached, Mourinho asked to be allowed to sign a new striker. The board refused. Mourinho asked for a centre-back to cover for Terry, then sidelined with a serious back problem. The board offered him a choice between Alex, a Brazilian bought via De Visser and 'parked' at PSV for two seasons, and Tal Ben Haim, a Zahavi client. Mourinho wanted neither. Worse still, Chelsea's manager was instructed to sack one of his assistants and add the Israeli Avram Grant to his coaching staff. When he refused, the club descended into open warfare. Mourinho dropped Shevchenko from his first team, leaking the story to a national newspaper in an open challenge to Abramovich to sack him. On an emotional afternoon at Stamford Bridge the manager first rallied his team around him, then sent them out to overrun Wigan 4-0. Long before kick-off the Chelsea supporters were chanting 'Stand up for the Special One' through standing ovation after standing ovation. An infuriated Abramovich ceased attending games and instructed his advisors to find a replacement coach. Mourinho let it be known that he would leave, but only on payment of the outstanding value of his contract - about £28m comprising £5.2m per annum for three-and-a-half years and up to £10m in bonuses. In the meantime he kept winning matches, pushing his injury-hit squad to within a few games of a remarkable quadruple. Ultimately Chelsea won the League Cup and the FA Cup, forcing Abramovich to reconcile with his manager. A consciously 'mellow' Mourinho promised to avoid conflict with opposing managers and football authorities, accepted restrictions on his transfer budget, and reshaped his team in a more flamboyant 4-4-2 formation. Fatefully, he also acceded to the appointment of Grant as Chelsea's director of football. Though some in Mourinho's camp had Grant pinned as a 'Mossad Spy' from the off, the manager attempted to work with him, holding long meetings with him during the club's staggeringly positive pre-season US tour and letting it be known that he welcomed his arrival as a buffer against Arnesen and route to Abramovich. The early-season optimism, however, swiftly evaporated. Grant began calling individual players aside to ask them questions. 'You look sad, why?' 'How do you feel in this position?' 'Is this the best place for you to play?' 'Are we using your abilities well?' Because many of them complained about this to Mourinho, the manager decided to cut back radically on team meetings, the only one this season having been arranged for the Jewish New Year when Grant had returned to Israel. While Grant looked on at training, Shevchenko treated it with disdain. A morose, lonely figure around the camp, he seemed to show more interest in improving his golf swing than his shooting. As the first team prepared for their final pre-season friendly against Danish side Brondby, Shevchenko declared himself unfit with a back problem. A 2-0 victory ensured the £121,000-a-week striker was not missed, but Mourinho was bemused to discover that Shevchenko's bad back had not prevented him from enjoying a round of golf at Sunningdale that day. The board, though, were not interested and the club's descent continued. Other players began to realise what was happening, that the summer's peace was a false one, that their manager had no support from the top. 'The mentality became weaker and weaker,' said one insider. 'You could feel the team's strength sapping away.' Mourinho knew his time at Chelsea was coming to an end. At Uefa's forum for elite coaches in Geneva a fortnight ago he allowed Premier League rivals an insight into his thinking. 'Mourinho said he loved Chelsea and he loved English football, but thought he would not stay for long,' said one coach. 'One of us asked him why. He wouldn't answer, but it was obvious something was seriously wrong.' His next Champions League match brought the end. On Wednesday afternoon the board asked Mourinho to resign, citing his handling of Shevchenko, his attitude to authority and, crucially, his relationship with Terry as reasons why he should go. Mourinho refused to walk, and fought only to maximise his pay-off as Chelsea apparently threatened to call club employees to testify against him at any employment tribunal. A £10.5m pay-off was agreed and the following morning Mourinho made a final trip to the training centre at Cobham to pick up his possessions and say goodbye to his squad. There was a message in each farewell. For most there was a Latin embrace and warm words of thanks. For Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard the emotions were so strong that both men were reduced to tears, Lampard retreating to the shower room in an attempt to hide his. For Shevchenko and Terry there was nothing but a handshake that, in the words of one observer, could have 'frozen a mug of tea'. No one was in any doubt about who he considered the true captains of his team. Out with the old, in with the new. Furious at Mourinho's dismissal, senior players describe Grant's appointment as 'a disgrace'. Some at Cobham call him 'an idiot' and describe his coaching techniques as '25 years behind the times'. Abramovich pushes the Israeli around 'without a hint of respect'. Former academy coach Brendan Rogers has been drafted in to help out with the first team, a promotion that may not be unconnected to the one-on-one training sessions he gave Abramovich's son. Only in Steve Clarke is there the level of football knowledge to deal with a squad full of international superstars. As the sole survivor of Mourinho's cadre of four assistant managers, the Scotsman has an unenviable task. But then neither he nor Grant will be picking the team. As Michael Essien discovered on Tuesday night, the new manager of Chelsea is also the owner.

you are particularly humourless/overly serious/thick, even by this forum's high standards.

the ironing is delicious

saying "we don't care" is not ignorance... ignorance means you don't know about the subject...

this!

The Mancini troll pic has been removed, but the banner showing "all new 2011/12 Chelsea replica home kits" modelled by Torres and Kalou is still up!? I mean, one of those players hasn't played for us for ages, and the other one went to the French league in the summer. /low hanging fruit

Agreed! As an immigrant to this country I have never been able to work out the masses' fixation with the redtops. Is it the boobs, short sentences and capitalisation of the important words within the article which appeals to people? Is it their loose grasp on "the truth" when the articles are being written? Whichever it is, people need to realise that they are putting up controversial/offensive content to rein people into their site - as blizeH notes, clicks = revenue. Find journos whose opinions are generally respectable (even if you don't always agree with them - what's the fun in that?) and stick with them. Boycott eejits from rags like the Mail, Mirror, Sun etc.

I'd forgotten all about this, love it! Best thing the monobrowed one ever did for us, except perhaps convincing QPR to pay him £65k a week to be our agent on the inside...

I agree Hazard needs a rouse up to let him know that we're behind him. Perhaps to support him we should sing and cheer during the 18th minute of the Wigan home game, in the style of the Di Matteo support?

been deleted, you got a screen grab?