Looks like things may finally be settling down

[coombsie]

Following another away win at Boro yesterday I feel that things may finally be settling down at the Club after the terrible 6-7 weeks we have had to endure.

I've been very impressed by the spirit in the team and it was hugely evident after Alex's screamer yesterday. On the pitch , I expect quality and proffesionalism from a talented squad often touted as the best in the game, but off the pitch we have been sadly lacking in any type of professionalism for many months.

Over the past 7 days this seems to have changed. I (ducks !!) liked Avram's post match interview and his comments re Drogs. He is obviously a calming influence on all around him and is not one to wash the dirty linen in public. (this is a step forward)

The unity on the bench with Clarkey, Top Cat and Brendan looked good too, lots of smiles and back slapping at the end. I think these guys are just going to get on with the job, ignore the furore and pull together for the Club. It is very early days but I have a feeling that collectively, these guys just might know what they are doing.

Ten Cat was on Chelsea TV on Friday night and was impressive. Very understated, dismissing all his past achievements and seeing the Chelsea job as the chance of a lifetime. He is obviously not a guy to cross and will bring that bit of steel to Grant's calming influence. If he is as good a coach as his credentials suggest it could be a winning formula.

Lets hope so !!!

[Guest]

I'm not quite so optomisitic, I think theres still alot of things going on at the club that need to play themselves out before I feel we are moving forward again.

[Chippy]

Following another away win at Boro yesterday I feel that things may finally be settling down at the Club after the terrible 6-7 weeks we have had to endure.

I've been very impressed by the spirit in the team and it was hugely evident after Alex's screamer yesterday. On the pitch , I expect quality and proffesionalism from a talented squad often touted as the best in the game, but off the pitch we have been sadly lacking in any type of professionalism for many months.

Over the past 7 days this seems to have changed. I (ducks !!) liked Avram's post match interview and his comments re Drogs. He is obviously a calming influence on all around him and is not one to wash the dirty linen in public. (this is a step forward)

The unity on the bench with Clarkey, Top Cat and Brendan looked good too, lots of smiles and back slapping at the end. I think these guys are just going to get on with the job, ignore the furore and pull together for the Club. It is very early days but I have a feeling that collectively, these guys just might know what they are doing.

Ten Cat was on Chelsea TV on Friday night and was impressive. Very understated, dismissing all his past achievements and seeing the Chelsea job as the chance of a lifetime. He is obviously not a guy to cross and will bring that bit of steel to Grant's calming influence. If he is as good a coach as his credentials suggest it could be a winning formula.

Lets hope so !!!

Agree totally

No huge change involving such a high profile manager (specially a winning one) is going to be easy to get over but Grant is steadying the ship amiably and with Steve and TC as you say the mix might have something.

6 games, 5 away and the only loss so far at OT with ten men is good going, if Hiddink had been the one to take over with the same results a lot of people would be right behind him by now.

nice to see a positive post mate, god one

[callista]

I'm not quite so optomisitic, I think theres still alot of things going on at the club that need to play themselves out before I feel we are moving forward again.

Agreed, I'm not prepared to say well that's it then we are home and dry until we are more than 6 games into a new regime.

Cate has been here what a week?

[Chippy]

I'm not quite so optomisitic, I think theres still alot of things going on at the club that need to play themselves out before I feel we are moving forward again.

Agreed, I'm not prepared to say well that's it then we are home and dry until we are more than 6 games into a new regime.

Cate has been here what a week?

Yeah we're Chelsea fans lets not let optimism stand in the way of a good slagging off of the club/board/manager/hotdog prices

I say we hang our heads in shame and ignore any good results while crying out for a damn good sacking,

no one has said we are home and dry, a few have just seen some signs that there is better to come,

we have only just got the coaching staff together and not many would have guessed six games down the line we would have had the results we have done since Grant took over.

He seems to be a calming influence and with TC the opposite they could compliment each other well, and Clarkey is still with us which is another good thing.

we'll be back

[loz]

Viva Chippy!!

Yes it has been a bleak few weeks and yes things could definitely have been managed better however screw all this doom and gloom, lets get our heads up and face the future and remember that we would rather be in our house than scouse - Chippy's attitude is spot on as far as I am concerned.

[Kev123]

Glad to see some people can have a positive outlook on the way things are going. It seems most Chelsea supporters I talk to these days are all doom and gloom and frankly I don't see why that's the case.

I understand some people are upset/will always be upset over losing Mourinho, but you would think we are relegation favourites the way some people go on about how bleak our future is.

Good post coombsie. my feelings exactly.

[wicksy]

Well I agree with both points of view here.

Yes there are positive signs which we can grasp and results are going pretty well so far. We also seem to be playing more attractive football than we did in recent times under Jos?, and yes the team spirit still seems to be good. I shall therefore head to the game on Wednesday with renewed optimism.

However, I thought that being a Chelsea fan necessitated having a degree of pessimism (for those of us who remember the late 70s and 80s anyway). So looking at things with less optimisim, Avram Grant has started well but I'm certainly not counting any chickens (or trophies) yet. Regarding players, I am worried about the futures of Drogba, Riccy and Lamps. Worse case scenario they may all want to leave and replacing them will be very very difficult and I don't have huge confidence in who Roman might have in mind.

So I am cautiously optimistic yet at the same time I feel that the future is nevertheless very uncertain

[bonetti]

Can you ever see the SB supporters chanting Avrams name!?

[loz]

However, I thought that being a Chelsea fan necessitated having a degree of pessimism (for those of us who remember the late 70s and 80s anyway).

Ha ha, I was always different. No matter how poor we were I was always stupidly convinced that the coming season was going to be a scuccessful one.

[The Moos]

However, I thought that being a Chelsea fan necessitated having a degree of pessimism (for those of us who remember the late 70s and 80s anyway).

Ha ha, I was always different. No matter how poor we were I was always stupidly convinced that the coming season was going to be a scuccessful one.

You sound just like a scouser

[Chippy]

Can you ever see the SB supporters chanting Avrams name!?

give me an a, give me a v, give me an ram AVRAAAAAM

[ethicalstrategy]

We also seem to be playing more attractive football than we did in recent times under Jos?,

you think so? i'd say it's hard to tell the difference myself

[barak81]

Well we havent self imploded on the pitch which was always a posibility, better teams than us (yes there have been a few) have showen it doesnt matter what quality you have on the pitch things can still go belly up in a big way!!

That said we are still 7th, I wasnt a fan of the grant being a permenant appointment idea and while ill hand it to him he's done well early doors as well as the fact he has gone some way to proving that he is not roman's mouth piece (any one notice sheva getting no more love than he did from Jose)

IMO there are three points to look at

For me his deffining moment will come in the big Domestic games, Lesser managers have managed to pull of big CL wins, in the nature of that particular competition but its the head to head's against rafa, wenger and fergi that will deffine his class IMO. Not that i expect him to win every encounter but leave with a his fair quota of points from the quartet. Jose never lost to wenger, claudio always did (other than the cl) under Jose we only ever lost once to united and that was to a freaque goal and them playing like a bottom 3 side deffending there lead and only the once to liverpool in the league when we had a center back paring of Paulo and Essien. not to mention fa and carling cups. Grant needs to try and hit somthing simmerler in terms of thease games.

He will also be judged on how well his signings go seeing as how it was such a massive talking point of Jose's regime and often seen as one of his weekness (could still be debated in my oppinion)

And finaly the style of football, Roman clearly wants sexy football, he wants the neutral fan puring at are style of play, grant seems to be really trying to encourage the forward progression of cole and malouda so here's hoping.

ps still miss you jose xx

[german-blue]

ps still miss you jose xx

[Chippy]

Well we have self imploded on the pitch which was always a posibility, better teams than us (yes there have been a few) have showen it doesnt matter what quality you have on the pitch things can still go belly up in a big way!!

That said we are still 7th, I wasnt a fan of the grant being a permenant appointment idea and while ill hand it to him he's done well early doors as well as the fact he has gone some way to proving that he is not roman's mouth piece (any one notice sheva getting no more love than he did from Jose)

IMO there are three points to look at

For me his deffining moment will come in the big Domestic games, Lesser managers have managed to pull of big CL wins, in the nature of that particular competition but its the head to head's against rafa, wenger and fergi that will deffine his class IMO. Not that i expect him to win every encounter but leave with a his fair quota of points from the quartet. Jose never lost to wenger, claudio always did (other than the cl) under Jose we only ever lost once to united and that was to a freaque goal and them playing like a bottom 3 side deffending there lead and only the once to liverpool in the league when we had a center back paring of Paulo and Essien. not to mention fa and carling cups. Grant needs to try and hit somthing simmerler in terms of thease games.

He will also be judged on how well his signings go seeing as how it was such a massive talking point of Jose's regime and often seen as one of his weekness (could still be debated in my oppinion)

And finaly the style of football, Roman clearly wants sexy football, he wants the neutral fan puring at are style of play, grant seems to be really trying to encourage the forward progression of cole and malouda so here's hoping.

ps still miss you jose xx

Well proportioned view Barak,

If Grant does get the chance to be here for the longish term you are spot on about the way to judge his progress, the form and availability of players still needs to be

taken into account but as you say the big head to heads will be telling,

I would like to see what the team is like after a few months and see if improvement is there not just in results but in the style of play.

I hope we are talking about this after some of the big PL games in a positive way.

[callista]

We also seem to be playing more attractive football than we did in recent times under Jos?,

you think so? i'd say it's hard to tell the difference myself

Neither can I and neither can the media frankly who say that we seem to be playing in the same professional, clinical, suffocate the life out of the opposition way now that we did when Jose was here.

chippy

not many would have guessed six games down the line we would have had the results we have done since Grant took over.

Well what has Grant faced exactly?

MU - some dodgy referring decisions made it difficult to assess properly, so I'm giving him a pass on this one it was his first game.

Hull - if he couldn't have beaten Hull frankly there was never any hope.

Fulham - a team struggling, not quite in danger yet but getting there.

Bolton - a team sitting bottom of the table, in total disarray not a patch on the team of last year.

Valencia - not the team of last season when we play that quarter final in terms of threat and really neither were we, a pressure time for Grant though and probably his greatest result to date.

Boro - heading for the drop zone, poor form, toothless up front, sold Viduka and Yakubu and a shadow of the team that used to give us problems.

Look I'm not belittling Grant or saying he can't take us on to bigger and better things, may be he can win us the CL and PL this year, and then again may be not.

I'm sorry but trumpeting we have won five away games and you then look at some of those away games - come on, we should be winning them! Even Grant despite his only recent appointment would have trouble mucking up Hull, Bolton and Boro (given their current form) I would suggest.

But the proof of the pudding is not raving over beating the likes of a woeful Boro or Bolton or putting goals past Hull. The real proof of where we are will be is when we face the big/bigger boys at the top of the table not the ones toiling down the bottom.

Then if we are fighting the good fight and doing well against them then yes Grant will certainly have earned his gold star in the report book and can continue on as head teacher for the forseeable future.

It's not about being all doom and gloom as some here are quick to suggest or that by pointing out something that appears negative I am "slagging off" the manager.

I just happen to look at the teams we have beaten and I think that Grant should have beaten them simple as that - I don't think he has done anything overly out of the ordinary so far and I don't see where our more attractive football is either that some say is blatently obvious.

Grant doesn't either regarding the latter by the sounds of it because he keeps on saying each week that it will come eventually but it is not the work of a moment.

I happen to agree with him there on that point, it can't happen in five minutes (or 5 games) flat.

When a few more months have gone by then we will have a better idea how things are going to pan out with this guy and how Ten Cate and everyone else is fitting in.

In the meantime I wish him luck and hope he does well, not that he needed any luck against Hull, Bolton or Boro.

[dkw]

Fulham - a team struggling, not quite in danger yet but getting there.

Bolton - a team sitting bottom of the table, in total disarray not a patch on the team of last year.

Valencia - not the team of last season when we play that quarter final in terms of threat and really neither were we, a pressure time for Grant though and probably his greatest result to date.

Boro - heading for the drop zone, poor form, toothless up front, sold Viduka and Yakubu and a shadow of the team that used to give us problems.

im sorry mate, but what utter garbage. fulham and boro are teams weve struggled against the last several seasons. in my opinion they were excellent results. and some pretty good football played. weve always done well against bolton so fair enough. but valencia poor? are you kidding. they were 2nd or 3rd in th league when we played them. and if anything are stronger thatn last season. it was an incredible result. made better by the spirit we played with.

[bonetti]

Do we keep our home record this weekend - thats a fair test!

Will I ever feel comfortable with Grant at the helm - unlikely but not impossible - bit like the way I still feel about Cashley

[abramovich]

Obviously it is still early to draw any conclusions but two things about Grant team selection gave me hope that he isn't Roman's yes man as pro-Jose crowd would like us to believe.

He barely plays Sheva and with JT injured he prefers Alex to his country mate Ben Haim. I have a feeling that Avram does know a thing or two about managing a football side. Here's hoping he'll do well as the season continues.

[Chippy]

Callista

"Well what has Grant faced exactly?

MU - some dodgy referring decisions made it difficult to assess properly, so I'm giving him a pass on this one it was his first game.

Hull - if he couldn't have beaten Hull frankly there was never any hope.

Fulham - a team struggling, not quite in danger yet but getting there.

Bolton - a team sitting bottom of the table, in total disarray not a patch on the team of last year.

Valencia - not the team of last season when we play that quarter final in terms of threat and really neither were we, a pressure time for Grant though and probably his greatest result to date. "

What exactly did we face earlier in the season? resounding victories like the Reading and Portsmouth ? The desrved Draw with Liverpool or the great home draw with Rosenbourg, Villa was a result as well, wake up mate we are better off drawing with Fulham 0-0 the then 2nd top scorers in the prem than losing 2-0 to Villa, we are better off beating Valencia in spain 1-2 than drawing at home to Rosenbourg.

Trumpeting about results.....are you sure

pointless response as to some life after Mourinho means we must have another big name big ego manager, to me a gradual improvement in style and similar results would be brilliant,

I like Grant so far, his interviews are refreshingly un self centred and his quiet get on with it style is to be comended not belittled.

as I said before if a big name Hiddink or Lippi type manager had have came in with the same results he would have a lot of people right behind him by now instead of waiting for the fall.

I have been a Chelsea fan for 40 years, Iv'e supported them after losing managers like Mcreadie, Gullit, Sexton and the like, I have always been behind the next man and always will.

I would still have my grievances about things I thought they had done wrong, i.e team selection, Subs, tactics etc but would reserve bleating until they had had a proper chance to get their ideas across to the team,

while waiting for that if they manage the kind of results that Grant has on the way, I will feel free to Trumpet about it till my hearts content.

OK with you?

[glory55]

I agree that things are settling down.

Actually I cant moan about anything Avram Grant (the normal one) has done so far.

At Boro at the weekend I thought we played some good football and recentley we seem to be getting back on track.

We need to win our HOME remaining CL group games to progress through the group,but we'll just have to see what happens,Im quite confident of reaching the next stage.

City on Saturday,looks to be a really tricky game and as long as we keep our record going i'll be happy!

[mbh]

Very good response Chippy, I specially like :-

"as I said before if a big name Hiddink or Lippi type manager had have came in with the same results he would have a lot of people right behind him by now instead of waiting for the fall."

Never a truer word said, the majority of fans are/where waiting for him to fail, but by him failing so would Chelsea our team, so in retrospect lets us all get behind Avram Grant, Top Cat and Clarky and see where a 100% support of our Manager, players will take us this season, you never know it could be upwards all the way, I for one am always optimistic and really believe it to be so.

[BLUENUT]

It's gonna take a bit more than drawing at home to Fulham winning away at Bolton and Boro to convice me.

[ethicalstrategy]

I'm obviously the only one who thinks it is ironic and rather pathetic to hear Grant keep saying we need to play a more attractive game, we're improving slowly, match by match (as if we were a heap of crap before rather than 5 time trophy winners in 3 years) and implicitly slagging off Jose whilst at the same time watching Jose's team win, playing the Jose way!

Anything we achieve this season under Grant will be inspite of him rather than because of him in my view. Ten Cate may well help. He at least has experience of guiding an average manager in charge of a successful team in Rijkard. Although his comments about changing our attitude from a team whose main concern is not losing rather than winning suggests that he hasn't actually been taking much notice over the last 3 years, which is worrying.