Premier League: Chelsea 1 - 1 Wigan Athletic

Can't really disagree with any of your report Nick......

Except for "This can’t be blamed on Grant’s decision to rotate the team ahead of the game against Everton on Thursday; the players he put out had more than enough quality to beat a relegation-threatened Wigan"

Our squad players are not a patch on the 1st eleven and almost all of our goals come in one way or another via Lampard (not blaming Avram for the 'family crisis'), Drogba or Joe Cole. If you start a game without all of these three, you will struggle. To then compound the problem by putting Kalou out of position on the right instead of the left (where he is much more effective) makes it worse.

Wigan were always going to put up a fight with relegation looming, so we were guilty of showing the opposition too little respect.

Shit on a stick management.

This was rediculous. Never have I seen management this poor. I can understand resting some of the starters but you can keep them on the bench. I think everyone expected CFC to score and to score first so why not have Makelele on the bench ready to come in and steady the game? I hate the fact that I can't move on but I can't think of many matches where Mourinho's chelsea gave up a goal at the end of a match they were winning. Drawing Wigan at home is an embaressment no matter what is at stake.

Patience guys, the summer is arriving soon. Im waiting for that day to come. As long as Man U dont come and celebrate at our ground, i have no complains. We need to make sure we have enough points in our next few games to push the celebrations further back.

I (stupidly) got up at 4am here in OZ to watch this game in anticipation of seeing a fired up Chelsea get 3 points to keep the pressure on Man U... Well as Nick so correctly stated "Utter dross" until Joey came on to change the rempo.

I also strangely feel a sense of relief that the title race is effectively over, if only to put one more nail in Mr Grumpy's considerable coffin and to avoid the endless chorus of you didn't deserve to win if we sneaked it. Because everyone would be right we DO NOT DESERVE to win anything playing this sort of football given the quality (on paper at least) of our squad.

No passion, no sharpness, no desire only apathy is all I can see and I pity you poor folks turning up and paying to watch this crap. Even the second half we only played half decent football for about 10 minutes before apathy set in again.

What really got me going after the game was reading these quotes from Mr Grumpy's post match press conference...

"We are still in the title race. It is more difficult now but we will still fight away" - Bollocks its over and there is no fight in the players at all so I have no idea what he means by "we will still fight away.." unless that is a misprint.

"In the second half we played wonderfully. It was one of our best performances and we had a lot of chances. But this is football. If you don't score the second one and don't pay attention, this is what happens" again utter bollocks - he obviously wasn't watching the same game we were, there was nothing wonderful about the second half except maybe Joey's burst of energy and the nice strike by Essien when teed up by Anelka.

And finally the best one of all...

"Our problem this year is we don't use the chances. I don't know why, maybe it is a lack of concentration" he doesn't know why !!!!! I can guess - the players don't believe in you, the training is not up to scratch and players are not prepared or motivated properly before the game - oh and the can't understand or probably care that much about your tactics. It is patently obvious Steve Clark doesn't care - wonder what he is doodling on that pad of his - his travel plans for the summer...?

It will be ironic and well deserved if we end up beating Loserpool and then loose to Man U in Russia after Man U had taken our unbeaten home record away to win the title.

Surely that would spell the end of Mr Grumpy's brief stint in the big league.

Yes I still want Chelsea to win but it won't feel good at all playing crap football like this.

One more thing, if he goes then I guess he will be moved "up stairs" but I fail to see what possible use this man is going to be anywhere in the Chelsea setup. Can anyone enlighten me as to the sort of role this dour, passionless person can have on our beloved football club - other than be a source of derision and mirth for out rival supporters...

Disastrous Team can only get this..........Grant is poor from Day 1 and now this team which look much poorer than Grant.......We need changes all across....for surely Chelsea has millionares on Bench who are good for nothing and just taking the salary without even considering or thinking about ....WHAT EXACTLY is FOOTBALL!!! Lets forget that they even know what is EPL.....Shame...............!!!!

Well, unlike Peter I didn't get up early for this one, had a feeling things might end up like this. But having read Nick's report and the late comments from the Fenerbahce page I think there are a vast majority of Chels fans that now feel AG's had the benefit of the large amount of doubt some of us had when he walked in.

There was a comment from limetreebower [286] on the Fener page, he said “But the team is less than the sum of its parts.” Exactly. It's become a shadow of the old team and though AG has ridden on JM's coat-tails with the team he inherited and ridden his luck, when it's mattered he's been found lacking.

As I said before. It’s just not good enough to stand there head-scratching and saying “I don’t know why this has happened… in football these things happen.. etc.” It’s because the input, guidance and motivation has not been there to create the whole that is greater than the sum of the parts. Fucking impostor. Not good enough, never was, never will be. Jog on upstairs.

@ PTG , David etc....

I was there when we were crap. Spot on guys, especially PTG - once again we hear the 'this is football' mantra from a man who patently doesn't know what football is. SB was stunned when the ball went in at the Shed End, many had left daftly assuming a turgid 3 point performance, bar the electrifying 10 mins or so at the start of the second half, before apathy and dispassion once again set in. Kalou and Bridge had stinkers last night and I can't see how anyone can argue with that. Nick (ed) is right, the team out last night had enough quality to waltz past Wigan as it was arguably stronger than anything we had during the ACN.

I'm with Nick, we don't deserve the Premiership with this brand of football, and truly the sum does not add up to the parts anymore. You don't win the PL with 6 home draws from your 19 games. As a team that used to be as strong after 90 as at the 2nd minute we now have this

6 home draws

0-0 Blackburn (good goal disallowed)
0-0 Fulham (a desperately poor team)
4-4 Villa (Conceded at the death)
1-1 Everton (Conceded at the death)
0-0 Liverpool (no shots on goal - simply the worst game ever to haunt SB)
1-1 Wigan (Conceded at the death)

I fail to see how anybody can defend Grant for giving us a team of strangers who don't know their roles, haven't worked out free kicks, have lost belief in themselves and in some cases don't seem to care.

Did anyone notice how none of the players went to the crowd at the whistle last night?

“Our problem this year is we don’t use the chances. I don’t know why, maybe it is a lack of concentration”

No Avram.... Whilst missing the chances is a problem, the concentration relates to the different problem of why we keep getting into winning positions and fucking them up!

Concentrate on the defence first.... It is far easy to concede 0 and score 1 each week, than concede 1/2/3 and have to score more than that to win.

@ PTG [6]

I think the role he has is to be a trusted confidante to RA more than anything else, relaying and filtering information within the club. Maybe when RA decided to get rid of JM, AG was just asked to fill in until a proper replacement could be found. There is the story that RA offered players to JM like Ronaldinho etc. and he turned them down, AG seems more like a yes man, "Yes, I'll create an exciting attacking team for you..." There is also the story of RA and Sheva with the whiteboard in the dressing room last year telling a player (was it Essien) what to do. It's not likely to make too much difference what role AG has after playing at being coach, but it's the role of RA that worries me more. Fergie and Whinger have not built their dynasties with interference or direction from a board or owners. Apart from the brief to go win matches and be successful that is.

Surely, any manager who causes this amount of hurt and heartache for the fans would go upstairs and will have a tough time there. That is Karma!

@Tont

Did anyone notice how none of the players went to the crowd at the whistle last night?

Not really surprised because they were being booed off, as they were at half time. To be fair to the crowd I thought they tried really hard last night to support the team and the atmosphere was good with even the East Lower getting into song. But it was difficult to sustain with the first half dross.

Agree with Nick's report almost word for word except for Anelka. I must have a downer on Anelka because most seemed to disagree with my negative report on him away to Manchester City. Last night I don't remember him having a shot on target, he kept drifting to the wing, he stood around in offside positions, didn't chase much and gave the ball away to set up Wigan counter attacks. Also Mikel was disappointing because all he did was short sideways passing that turned defense into defense. The team got booed a few times as they managed to turn attack into back passes to Cech, whose kicking looked suspect.

Full credit to Joe Cole. His introduction was like adding new batteries to an erotic toy and set the whole team buzzing.

Yesterday I received my itinerary for the free Everton away trip. For the return leg the train departs Liverpool at 11pm and arrives at Paddington at 4.37am. If Chelsea think I'm going to spend nearly 6 hours through the night on 1950's rolling stock with depressed fans returning from another shocker they had better think again. I'm staying at home.!

@ Mark [13]

LOL "His introduction was like adding new batteries to an erotic toy and set the whole team buzzing".. can anyone think of a suitable 'toy' to send to AG for him to use at his next player briefing to get the players buzzing for Everton/Liverpool games.... or should I say 'tool'...

Good review NICK

Preety much sums up the whole game really..shit game, shit performance by all concerned..bar Joey. What the hell has that lad gotta do to get a full 90 minute game for crying out loud?!

Credit to Wigan, they were fighting to get above relegation, they showed fire, spirit, hunger, a real "wanting to win" attitude. If our boys were any more laid back they'd of fell over! Aren't our boys supposed to be fighting for the Prem? No chance of that now. In reality, we needed to win ALL 5 games to finish top at the end of the season. Can see Everton being a draw and a draw aginst Man Ure, so i suppose that's it.

Over and done with..
The Prem belongs to McFergie..
So does the Champs...

We are officially crap guys. Proof; Lose to Spurs, Lose to Barnsley, Can't beat Wigan..

Christ, how infuriating!

Oh well..maybe next time..

I'm starting to sound like a scouser!!

@ TONY

Yes, noticed the guys didn't come to the crowd. Think they were just desperate to get off the pitch and avoid the boos..

We need a new top class manager to shake up the club first and foremost. That is even more important then buying the Villas and Silvas. Who knows we might see a change in attitude of the players? We lack motivation and passion.

The Anelka situation is of some concern, 2 goals in 18 games is a poor return by any strikers standard. It's not as if he needs time to adjust to the pace of the Premiership, and as far as our playing style goes we're as crap as Bolton.

Realistically the PL is over for us although mathematically we can still do it, but I'm more of a realist than a mathematician. As much as I hope we can now win the CL or at least beat Liverscum and get to the final, if we do win it we all know that luck will play an absolutely massive part.

Mark it really sums it up the sad state we've reached that you're not going to Everton even when the travel and tickets are free, I wonder how many other fans will be doing the same?

I'm actually beginning to think I might not contribute financially to the club with renewed membership fees and tickets/travel next season while Grant remains in charge. If this continues Man Utd could dominate the PL for years to come or for at least as long as Fergie remains there.

@ Clive (17)

I won't be going to the Everton game, but then I live in Australia ! However as I did this morning I will get up and watch the game in a vain hope that I shall see some sparkling football... or at least some real passion from the guys.

Come on players if you can't fathom AG's tactics or basically hate playing for him, can you please put on a show for your fans... particularly as I have to either stay up very late or get up very early to watch you play and a large group shell out hard earned readies for the pleasure of watching your earn your squillions every game.

BTW, on Anelka he looks like a very confused player when compared to the England game, he clearly has no idea what his role should be which to me reflects very poorly on the coaching staff and training ground preparation. But I guess most of the team have that look lately... except maybe Joey, Essien and Frank.

I won’t be going to the Everton game, but then I live in Australia ! However as I did this morning I will get up and watch the game in a vain hope that I shall see some sparkling football… or at least some real passion from the guys.

@Peter
It's no excuse you can't come to the game, don't use geography as a reason. ;-)
Besides airfares are relatively cheap, and if you fly BA they'll even lose your bags for you to make your trip a memorable one.

Man Ure can afford realistically to lose and draw a game and they'd still be comfortable..
The optimist in me says, ok if we win all our remaining fixtures we could still do it..
The pessimist says MAYBE we could win Everton (though i'm not confident of that, think it'll be draw) but win Man Ure?...seriously doubt that one! If we can't win Wigan at home, we won't beat them!

The pressure started to show on A.G last night. Haven't seen him looking that angry before!

I said in a previous post that should we win anything this season, it will be in spite of, and not because of, Average Grunt.

Last night he took his tally to 3. That's competitions (so far) he's guided us out of. One more for the clean sweep, Average. Yes, there has to be a degree of blame with the players, but managers live and die by their decisions.

Why he treats Joe Cole as such an enigma is a mystery. Anyone with an ounce of footballing knowledge would have realised that after dropping him in the Fizzy Pop Cup and us losing, and the way he's performed since then, that he is probably our best player. But no, we'll continue playing with 10 men and Florent 'The Passenger' Malouda. If ever you wanted a reason to prove just how over-paid footballers are, this specimen surely wins hands down. He's done precisely bugger all this season.

Sod resting people for Thursday, they're professional athletes earning tens of thousands of pounds a week. It's what they are paid for. If I'm expected to work on a Saturday, I dont get a day off in the week 'to rest'. It's pathetic. And probably an indication that Average hasn't got the bottle and man-management skills to control the group of players he has so woefully been put in charge of.

To come out post-match and say he's not sure why we're not converting the (albeit very few) chances we're creating is surely a contradiction of his selections. If you start one striker, and only have another on the bench (who is Sheva) then you're shooting yourself in the foot. DD was rested and Pizarro nowhere to be seen. Get a grip, fuckwit. Clive mentioned Anelka's pretty tame strike rate, which is a good point, but there have been many occassions since he signed that we on this blog have discussed how he should have been introduced earlier in games, or just introduced when AG hasn't. O.k, many comments are posted with the benefit of hindsight, but as a collective we could have run the team more successfully than AG. That's right, a group of 'civvies', with actual day jobs, living in the real World, from all walks of life and I dont doubt that it would have been any worse.

I flicked SSN on last night at 10, knowing we had been 1 - 0 up, but unsure how it ended. They said 1 - 1 and the missus gave it the usual 'Never mind, there's always Thursday etc. (you know, all the usual cliches)'. And for the first time in AGES, I actually replied with 'I dont care'. Like many other posters, I'm glad it's over. There is no pain for me, I dont really think we ever had a chance, we did well to hold on like we did. I guess it's summed up that instead of us losing the title to an actual rival for it, we capitulated at home to a team at the bottom of the league. Which kind of sums up where we've been taken with our new manager......

9. Tony Glover · 6:47 AM · 15th April

0-0 Blackburn (good goal disallowed)
0-0 Fulham (a desperately poor team)
4-4 Villa (Conceded at the death)
1-1 Everton (Conceded at the death)
0-0 Liverpool (no shots on goal - simply the worst game ever to haunt SB)
1-1 Wigan (Conceded at the death)

that's 6 (SIX!) points conceded at the death. And add a sitter missed by shevs (b'bum).

United dropping points now means two draws or one defeat. granted we always win. How likely is that to happen?

*types and endless series of SHITE*

21. Fifty · 8:36 AM · 15th April
Average Grunt

So we are officially the "Average Grant Band" :). Let's pick up the pieces then

@ Bluetone

Actually 8 points at the death if you include Spurs away.

@ Peterthegreat

If you are in Melbourne let me know as we often catch up before games ( apologies if I have already asked you).

@ Clive

Totally agree and have done snce almost day 1, regarding Anelka. There is no doubt he is very comfortable on the ball, but when you spend 15 mill on a striker, you expect goals. Now maybe it is because of the system and it will take him a while to get used to it, but if he has been bought to replace DD next year, then we really are in trouble!

Dunno about you guy's - but this hurt me a lot. I really did feel we could win the league this season if we won our 5 remaining games.

I am actually quite bullish about the CPL - I think we will beat Liverscum and I think ManUre will lose to Barca. I can see us beating Barca in the final.

That said - AG must go. The real question is who the hell do we get to replace him?

The only good news is it seems like Roman is willing to spend big again in the summer - so here's to getting some young bloods like Aguero, Silva and Micah Richards!!

As LTB stated in the other thread, we used to be the team that scored in the last minute to win games, and not be on the receiving end of what we used to dish out.

What does it say about our organisation, concentration and fitness levels, we seem to hang on to leads through sheer hope and desperation at the moment, and not with total belief we used to have.

If we are to win the CL, lets now rest players and play with some conviction and style, and if we do get beat at least we can say we had a go. But lets be honest that's as likely to happen as Derby getting promoted back to the PL and then winning it.

I just heard that Lampard was due to play last night but pulled out an hour before kick-off due to a family reason.

I can't verify this rumour.

I just heard that Lampard was due to play last night but pulled out an hour before kick-off due to a family reason.

Heard this from someone in the post match press conference too; no further elaboration on why etc. He was on the team sheet as I understand it.

Crap first half, Joe Cole added a bit of spark and Kirkland had one of those games where he looked largely unbeatable. But as usual, we sat back, invited pressure onto ourselves and the line between defence and midfield got blurred, confusion ensued and another late goal conceded.

Whilst we'd love to give Avram the benefit of the doubt, he really isn't helping himself much, is he?

Fuck me, that was shit. Thanks for the memories Avram, don't forget us when you bury your nose in Roman's golden trough this summer.

Re: Anelka. There was a moment in the first half when he dropped back to near the halfway line to receive the ball, played a pass sideways and... just stood there and watched an attack build without him.

At least he looked like he was trying in the second half, but I suppose all the players were better second half. He did set up Essien's goal with some determined hold up play.

Also, it is harder to gauge a player's overall contribution to a game when watching on TV or online.

@Clive - "I’m actually beginning to think I might not contribute financially to the club with renewed membership fees and tickets/travel next season while Grant remains in charge."

You're not alone, Clive. I think there's an increasing air of apathy and resignation among the fans (and players).

At least Pat Nevin's allowed to write what he feels on the official site. The photo of Joe Cole says more than a 1000 words, though.

@Nick

Balanced report from you.

I would love a follow up on Lampard's option to drop out of the team at this point in time...

Family emergency...only a death in the family would prevent me from playing for my team...

I blame Avram for one thing...joining Chelsea of players not willing to play for him...

Joe Cole, Essien Mikel and Ballack were awesome...

Shevy at the end...surely Avram you are having a laugh...oops not really not in the way you were scratching the patch on your head...

I have lost all confidence in this team...out with
1. Lampard
2. Drogba
3. Malouda
4. Pizzaro
5. SWP
6. Ben Haim
7. Cudicini
8. Painfully...John Terry

The above are not playing for neither Avram nor the team...

I may be angry and probably a little over board here but enough is enough the shame is becoming unbearable

Great match report, especially point 1 in the Good section. Felt guilty but was genuinely relieved when Hargreaves scored the winner on Sunday. Obviously yesterday was harder to take but I really can not stomach the prospect of us winning the league as I feel it will seriously damage th elong term prospects of the club. It's an absolutley horrible feeling but it is honestly how I feel. I jsut don't want United to do it at the Bridge.

Re Anelka i am not particularly worried. He rarely plays (and when he does it is with useless fools like Malouda), when he has done he has looked relatively sharp, he creates chances (and lots of chances for others) and we play far better football with him at the spearhead of our attack (with the Drog the temptation is to hoof it). He will settle. I thought his touch last night was superb, especially second half.

Sad. Sad evening, sad game, sad manager. The team looked as if they were playing a testimonial (wishfully Grant's) they were so laid back, until Joe came on. What the fuck is Avram doing? I think the kudos he received from certain quarters for the Arsenal game subs went to his head and he thought what the hell, I got lucky then and I can get lucky again.
Cole not starting? Malouda, following recent form, gets a start? Where was Riccy? Maka in civvies? But my favourite was bringing Sheva on with maybe 30 seconds left to play...somebody posted (I think on the Fener post after last night's game) that Sheva deserved a standing ovation just for agreeing to go on!

All in all, I'm inclined to go with the general mood here and say that I'm more relieved than anything else. We should get our shit together now and over the summer, break the bank for new talent and a great manager. I hope RA's little experiment will have shown him what a bunch of nodding heads he's surrounded by.

Extending Fifty's (21) theory, RA should let all of us on this blog actually manage Chelsea plc as a collective so we can spot, choose and buy the talent ourselves, including the manager.

One of the commentator's on yesterday's dross actually said that he felt sorry for Avram as the wins are celebrated as the players' and the losses his.
Way to gauge the zeitgeist!

Oh I had also forgotten to mention that the debate on who should be our first choice left back between Ashley and Wayne does not hold... Ashley wins it for me by a mile...

Wayne bridge is not comfortable with the ball on his foot at the back...he is so panicky it is embarassing...

what can I say?
SHIT....
it's like watching the team die a slow lingering death,
the 'winning' mentality is slowly leaking out
as our team becomes like soft wet cheese,
and uncle fester tells us everything is fine
'that's football'

From todays Telegraph report :

"Chelsea are a good club, with a strong squad, loyal fans, a generous owner and exceptional training facilities but they lack a first-class manager. For those ambitious players who can look beyond the noughts at the end of their pay-cheque, why would they want to sign for Grant? "

Something we've alluded to many times. If those people at the top of our club choose to ignore it, then it may well be some time before we see the glint of silver-ware back at the Bridge.

The worst thing would be for us to start hiring and firing managers every season (hello Real Madrid) regardless of winning trophies or not. Average Grunt needs to go, and to be replaced by someone who will stay at the club.

I'd take a tophyless season again next year if the person in charge actually made it look like he was building something that would go on to win things. In truth, we're only a real manager and one or two players away from having a really good chance of winning the league next season.

So - for the love of God - Roman, Eugene, Peter, Bruce and whoever, see the 'glowing brightly enough to burn your retina's off' light, do the right thing and get AG as far away from 'managing' (in the loosest sense) our team as humanly possible.

Or face the consequences of another season of the drivel on the pitch he manages, and the drivel off the pitch he speaks.

I hate to tell you I told you so, but I did!!! I knew it from the day Grant has arrived to Chelsea, not the day he has become manager, but from the day he has showed up in the club!!!! I knew it will be disaster. Since that day in July I have been screaming out loud "Grant is not manager for us!!!!" People told to give him time , to judge him by results. Well now you can do it, you can judge him by results. We have had to shout and scream against him from the first day, make protests and whatever it takes!!!! After all this club leaves because we love it!!!

"I’d take a trophyless season again next year if the person in charge actually made it look like he was building something that would go on to win things."

@ Fifty -- hear hear. Well put. Arse fans must be hating life at the moment but at least they know they have a proven manager and a young team playing pretty good football most of the time. I'd take that. I'd even take an unproven manager if he looked like someone who was determined and bright and knew what he was doing, Bilic-style (Zola-style?).

Jose Musumba

even for you, that comment about Lampard is low. You have no idea what his personal situation is, so show some fucking respect.

‘Frank Lampard in dash to be with ill mother’.

Can anyone tell me if RA has already sacked AG?

Can anyone tell me if RA has already sacked AG?

@Marco
That's just wishful thinking, and would be better than any trophy we might win.

Well said, Peter.

I for one don't mind us losing to Man Utd but if we can beat them at Stamford Bridge and they still manage to win the league, awesome.
Let's not put blame on Lamp for whatever reason he's been up with. He must have a decent one. Anyways, we are talking about management crisis. I am getting sick enough to say Grant out week in week out.

Up till this point, he is definitely unqualified, and everyone knows about it. He must go this summer, and we must all now start to realise we are to win no trophies this season with this kind of management. We simply do not deserve any.

Not even carling cup.

I think I'm with Fifty again, not for the first time as we both admire a certain Spanish player whose surname shall remain anonymous because you're all sick of hearing us clamour for David Villa. No, it's the 'I don't care' bit. An awful feeling and an awful thing to admit, but if the players, the management and the board don't care then why the fuck should I?

Once again we hear the 'this is football' bollocks coming from a man so completely out of his depth he is making fools of the club and its brand. It's daft but for the last 3 months I've operated a boycott of the shop and the online Megastore not because I don't want to directly fund the club, but because as a fan I can only make small protests about the piss poor way we're being managed. Mourinho may have lost the plot, but the empire he built through fastidious planning and hard work is being undone by a complete clown.

Last night I booed the team at the end of the game after a minute of stunned silence mixed with apathy and bewilderment. God knows I'm no fan of Sheva, but the last 30 seconds is insulting him and us. My boo's are directed at partly the players for becoming so clueless, apathetic and yet seemingly arrogant in their belief that one goal is enough, but also at AG, HTC, SC and the whole senior board team (team in the loosest sense of the word).

I reckon when they see the gate receipts fall off a bit, and the dismal merchandise sales, along with equally dismal end of season DVD sales the truth might hit, because these things need to be sold globally...and lets be honest Man Utd, Arsenal and maybe even Liverpool have more cachet than us globally. Money talks. Once the cash stops coming in like it did under the ever marketable Mourinho then maybe the message will gets across. Until then no more of my cash other than my ST fee goes into the club. If that means missing the new shirt then so be it.

I hope others think the same as me. A small boycott that could grow into something noticeable might raise an eyebrow.

Are we all wrong, and that band of numpties right?

For the last few months I've been thinking that we'd put up a good fight and equal the Mancs on points after beating them at the Bridge. However they'd steal the premiership on their superior goal difference. That would have been hard to swallow.

Last night's result puts us out of that misery and now we can focus on the Champions League semis against the scousers. It's the last throw of the dice for the Chels.

Loathe him or hate him it's not about what AG can or can't do it's now about the team performing their socks off and getting us to the final. We shouldn't need the manager to gee up the team. We've got Clarkey, we've got JT, we've got Lamps. Chelsea boys through & through. If the boys can play with the passion we know they have, and we do our jobs in cheering them on, not knock them down, then Moscow here we come.

But it was common knowledge in SB that Lampard had to rush to hospital to see his mother (Pat), she got pneumonia.

Well RA may have a good excuse to get rid of AG, this summer, just tell him you have no qualifications, and Malsya will not give you a visa (God bless them), so you are fired.

Sometimes I wonder how AG would do in the TV apprentice programe.

45. Tony Glover · 12:59 PM · 15th April

That is exactly what happened with Real Madrid when Capelo was there.
The fans voted with their feet, and the board han no alternative but get rid of Capelo, even though he won La Liga

@Tony
As I mentioned earlier, I may well boycott my renewed membership and ticket sales for next season if that fool remains, it's only a small gesture on my part, but every little helps to coin a phrase.

But I agree perhaps if we don't buy the new shirt and boycott the Mega-store it might just have an impact on the revenue.

Sometimes I wonder how AG would do in the TV apprentice programme.

Two words from Sir AS "You're Fired"

And two words from AG "That's Television"


But can you imagine the rant from AS before he fires him,
I've given you an unlimited budget, with top class people around you, and you go to Barnsley on a day out and lose! You're a lightweight and a total shambles.... You're etc etc

I don’t think you can blame the players. You act like they own the club. they are no different to you working for your employer. They get motivated, they become despondent and feel all the emotions we do - they just get paid a lot more with half the intelligence!

In consulting with many companies over the years and addressing common problems - the biggest one is this - if the person at the top is wrong then forget trying to change the culture at the bottom.

My point is this - if grant cant motivate them, then that is grants fault and not the players. The players are there to do a job - to get that extra 10/15% from them requires management - hence why good managers are hard to find and exactly why they get paid so much! Think of the best teams you have worked or played in - ask why? It was because you were acting as one unit and all supporting each other.

Managers have to mix two elements - man management and tactical knowledge - without both you are going to sink and sink quickly. Mourinho has both, so does Bilic, benitez, capello, mancini etc.

I agree with the not buying anything from the club - do we not think once the league is defo gone that we should bombard him with chants too - lets make the point abundantly obvious - leave nothing to chance.

I've heard that Frank made his way, in training kit, running to the hospital.

However he got there, horrible news Frank. Best wishes to your Mum, hope she makes a full and speedy recovery.

As Clive mentions, we're due a new home shirt next season, so if the sales of that aren't anywhere near what good old Peter Kenyon will have projected on his little PowerPoint presentation, and AG is still in charge, maybe they'll put 2 and 2 together and get 4 this time.

As opposed to : Managerial vacancy (2) + Average Grunt (2) = 157 (I'm no Carol Vorderman, so I hope my 'sarcastic' maths is evident....)

Iv been off work all day today and iv been wrecking my head why i fell so shit today and while playing darts i figured it out,
Apart from the dismal display last night and sky sports news flashing up wigans goal n the words from Grant "we'r not out of it yet" when we are, its because this time last year i could say " ah well, at least", At least we have the best manager in the league, at least he knows what hes doing, at least the players care, at least we could hold our heads up and say we fought to the end,
Today i cant and i feel miserable, i keep checking websites to say " Roman wakes up and sacks Dope" we need a manager that can make us hold our heads high, but unfortunatly i feel he will still be there next season,
Please please please someone give me a reason why he wont change to 4-4-2
Anyway at least the opposing fans cant sing "where were u when u were shit" Cause we'r all here and we know what we'r playing like,
K.T.B.F.F.H

@ Jose Musumba

Only if you had half the class of this lot who boo him week in and week out and call him fat bastard!!!!

You ignorant little prick.


LINK

Players have to take some responsibility, but the buck stops with the manager, as it always has. Abramovich made Ranieri and Mourinho pay for their mistakes, and will surely do the same with Grant - we hope.

In all areas of life, a good manager / leader can improve good people by 5%, but a bad one can make them 30% worse. No prizes for guessing where we are on that particular sliding scale right now.

Come thursday spot the players who have belief or not

Man utd might blow a game who knows it might happen and if we beat them and win other games we win by a point.

You have to belive

Call yourselfs supporters-you just gloryhunters if belive its over

Get behind the team

As grant wont lift them

He has to go

Call yourselfs supporters-you just gloryhunters if belive its over

Fuck me! I've supported this team for over 40 years. A gloryhunter bloody hell I must have set my standards very low if that's what I am.

Holding back spending money with the club makes sense. It's the only weapon in our armoury and the club may take notice if their revenues dip. However we all like to buy club merchandise so maybe we should trade amongst ourselves so that we keep entertained but the club doesn't benefit.

I'm more than happy to start the ball rolling by selling 2 Everton tickets. I'm even willing to throw in executive transport for 2 within the price.

Opening bid anyone ...

A commission of 20% on the above sale will of course be due to Chelseablog (Tickets) Ltd...

I'll give you £300 Mark please post your bank details and password etc so I can transfer the money to you,

The above 2 comments indicate you're not taking this seriously.

I'm also trying to kick-start the economy!

I’m also trying to kick-start the economy!

Yeah yeah, and Chelsea under Grant are playing sexy football. ;-)

LINK


A SPECIAL RECORD
In his 19 Premier League games against Ferguson, Wenger and Benitez, Mourinho lost just two and won 10. Grant has faced these three men four times in the League and lost twice (Arsenal, Manchester United), with one victory (Arsenal).

"But as usual, we sat back, invited pressure onto ourselves and the line between defence and midfield got blurred, confusion ensued and another late goal conceded."

Actually JD, I don't agree with that. I think we played the second half almost exactly how we should have played it, and in stark contrast to the games against Boro, Fenerbahce etc. The midfield did control possession and did press higher up the pitch than they have been doing. They created a bunch of chances and Wigan barely had a kick the entire half. Essien worked his bollocks off. It was, at last, a genuine 4-3-3.

What we didn't get was the second goal. OK, that needn't necessarily matter. Wigan by now had thrown on their big front guys. Simple rule of thumb - take off a forward with 7-8 minutes to play and put on a defensive midfielder. String two banks of 4 across the pitch, protect the fullbacks, keep pressing up the pitch and stop the crosses and long diagonals. Snuff them out. Keep two up (they only had 3 at the back), and smack them between the eyes on the break. Get the second goal that way.

Now take a look at the bench:

Four (4!) forwards (Shevchenko, Pizarro, SWP, Joe Cole), no midfielders, no defenders.

We had no option to close it down.

Clueless. Utterly, utterly clueless.

Good point, Jack. I remember thinking "uh oh" when I saw the bench lined up with no defenders at all -- not even a defensive midfielder.

But I still agree with JD. When Wigan began throwing people forward, huge yawning gaps kept appearing in our midfield. We didn't have a line across the middle that was cutting off their first attacking pass. In the last ten minutes, there were three or four occasions where they had a man in possession, approaching the box, under absolutely no pressure at all.

It reminds me of two Xmases ago, when José said "Everyone can see what Chelsea's problem is; we can't defend." The situation isn't the same, but some of the symptoms are. Frankly, we're very lucky the same thing didn't happen in the Fenerbahce game: it certainly looked like it was going to.

When we lost the Carling Cup Avram claimed that this cup was the least important.

After we lost to Barnsley Avram declared that at least we remained in the two competitions that were most important.

After last night he said we'll keep fighting but all along he's said the CL is the most important so he's been preparing us for this failure.

If and when we exit the CL will his excuse be

a) That’s football

b) I’ve always been a fighter and will fight for as long as it takes to make Chelsea win the Champions league

c) I’m not bothered because this seasons unexpected bumper pay has eradicated the shortfall in my pension

Jack - do agree about the midfield, but the last 10 minutes or so we were asking for trouble. Far too much possession conceded when we should have simply squeezed the life out of the game - it might not have been pretty but the win was the only thing that mattered last night.

What alarms me is how often we're starting to do this. And it is a misconception to look at the bench and say we had no options (although I agree that we were limited in that area last night). It's about making sure the players you do have available understand what to do in such situations, which at the moment, they don't seem to.

Let us look to the future:

1. Tell that Jose Musumba to fuck off. He isn't a proper fan and shows a distinct lack of class to make Heather Mills look like the Pope. Despite his idiotic personal attack on Lamps on the playing front no matter what you think of him, without Frank we are utter shit. He didn't touch the ball against Fenerbahce but still got the winning goal. Give him 200 grand a week if that's what he wants, otherwise we may end up with that bastard stevie g if he escapes the turmoil at Anfield.
2. As for thursday, why should anyone go? The club have paid for us all and seeing an empty stand at Evrton would say it all. For those who are determined to go a banner telling Avram exactly what we think of him would be appropriate:
'Avram you are the shit one.'
3. For our next home game against Man Utd i'm actually feeling scared. The players don't care anymore, which i don't blame them for, but as i said last night, Avram will cost us our home record and Rio and Neville will be celebrating the league and taking our home record at Stamford Bridge. We may even go down to a 3-0 at this rate which will be humiliating.
4. As for protests my mind is revelling in the excitement at hurling abuse at Avram. To start with a simple boycott of Goodison Park. Then a boo as soon as Avram appears on the touchline at the bridge. A boo every time he gets up. A boo every time he sits down. And for regulars at the bridge and the madejski, you know that favourite chant about Steven Hunt, well it seems to work well with Grant instead: Avram Grant, you're a c**t, you're a c**t and you'll always be a c**t, Avram Grant, Avram Grant. It may not rhyme but he'll get the message and if loud enough it'll reverberate in people's living rooms on Sky. Then to finish a nice rendition of Jose Mourinho!
5. Cheer every sighting of Sheva. He may be slow and a little bit shit but he tries harder than Malouda or Belletti ever have and treating him with disdain such as making him run back and take off his tracksuit for an apearance clocking up 10secs (is that a record low)is poor from Avram.
6. Clearout of the shit: Belletti, Tal ben Shit, Sidwell, Maka (retire), Malouda, SWP, Pizarro, Sheva, Drogba.
7. In with the new: Alves/Richards, Ivanovic, Bentley, Michael Johnson, Silva, Villa, Aguero, Benzema.
8. Promote the youth: Sam Hutchinson, Kakuta, Sinclair, Di Santo (great hat-trick).
9. Management: I say it again - Laudrup and Zola with Clarkey staying is a dream team.

KTBFFH (if you can).
As for you Avram. It's time for you to ask McClaren for his brolley to protect you against the abuse you are going to get. You have gone beyond a whalley in a brolley. You are now the 'FUCKER IN THE JUMPER!'

We switch off at the back, ride our luck and yesterday we got what was coming.
We've forgotten how to close out games, and pull together. Players are casual and wasteful in good attacking situations.

We have three on three counter attacks, four on three etc etc, but we seem to keep messing them up.

Yesterday we had one instance in the second half were Essien came forward on the break, had Malouda and Anelka, but chose the wrong option and wasted a really good opening. That seems to be the way it works normally, mess up the chances you should be taking to put gamres to bed.

What can I say?
I'm bloody depressed.
Upped my dose of Fluexotine in recent months. Unless things change over the summer I might end up in hospital...

I really feel for Joe Cole. Busting his guts like that to get us the result. There's only so much the players can do.

If they needed any more proof, the Anti Chelsea pundits, fans etc, should see now that good players alone wont win you anything.

Agree with a boycott of tickets and merchandise..i suggested that in an earlier article and no-one took me seroiusly!!!

I feel awful about last night's result. Thought to myself, "yeah ok, it's more than likely we'll draw 1, maybe 2 games between now and the end of the season, (the most likely being the Toffees and McFergie's lot) but so will Man Ure..maybe they'll even lose one if we're lucky (please, W Ham!!)..it's gonna go to the wire, exciting to still be in with a great chance!"....F**k Me!!! I didn't for the life of me expect one of those draws to be bloody Wigan! It's a joke.

@ CELERY

The W Ham link really got to me. I got a lump in my throat reading the comments from the fans. It's so nice to know that in these types of situations, animosity can be put aside and humanity takes a step forward. It's great to see that even Hammers fans can be civilised sometimes!! It ALWAYS hurts me when Frankie gets abuse at Upton Park, he doesn't deserve it but credit to the fans for wishing him well. I didn't read one bad/sarcastic comment, thanks again xx

I believe that some of the Chels boys read this blog;
Frank, if you read this blog, i hope your Ma gets well very soon. My thoughts are with you and your family X X X X X

If the plan was to rotate our first team players and give the rest of the squad a run out,why was Sidwell and Ferreira shipped off to play in the reserve game.It's not as if they would feature against Everton,especially when our bench didn't have a defender or a mifielder on it.

Why aren't there endless photos of RA looking fed up in the stands,is he too embarressed to show his face?

Do Kenyon,Buck and all the rest of the yes men just turn up for work and pretend that there's nothing wrong and just look forward to their undeserved bulging wage packet?

If AG stays we will become even more of a laughing stock than we are now.
I would take nearly every other Premiership manager,and some Championship ones,over AG any day of the week.

Are the players hurting as much and as angry as every Chelsea fan is at this moment?

To anyone who still wishes that we beat Liverscum and go on to win The Champions League.
Be very,very careful what you wish for because it could be the beginning of the end of a club we all love.

Both lynn and Habs,
I couldnt say it better than both of ya, well done.

Right, now to move on from last night's shite...

Transfers:D

Out:
DD - Price:25-30m
Pizarro-Price 2.5-3.5 m
TBH - Price 5m
Paulo Ferreira- Price: 3-5m
Steve Sidwell - Price 5-7m
SWP - Price 8-10m
Wayne Bridge - Price: 10-12m
Florent 'shit' Malouda- Price:10-12.5m
Sheva - Price: 5-7.5m
Khalid Boularouz: Price 5m
CC - Moved to Coaching role.

Combined (minimum) Price: 78.5m

Add that to say, 50m that RA's gunna give = 128.5 m. Now lets all make our signings using that spreadheet:)

My turn:
In:
David Villa - 30-35m
Phillip Lahm - 17.5-20m
Remy Riou (Bordeaux GK, France U-21 GK, awesome) - 7.5-10m
Sergio Aguero - 22-25m
Breno (Sau Paulo DC, 19, look him up. New Cafu)- 7.5-8.5m
Matthieu Flamini- Free Transfer
COntroversially I'd like another striker, and I'm gunna go for a bit of:
Allesandro Del Piero - Free Transfer/ 5-7.5m

In total, that comes to a (maximum) of 106m

WHich leaves us with:

Cech
Lahm Carvalho Terry A. Cole

J. Cole Flamini/Essien Lampard Villa

Aguero Anelka

Or, injury prone team:

Riou
Belletti Alex Breno Lahm/Hutchinson

Essien Mikel Ballack Sinclair

Del Piero Sahar

Or 4-3-3(Midfield and Forwards):

Essien
Ballack Lampard/Flamini
J.Cole Aguero/Del Piero Villa


Yummy:D


On a secondary note, whatever happened to our Serb we bought in January? If hes alive and well, we could get rid of Alex (10-12.5m) or maybe (shock) JT(25-30m) and bring him in..

@ Max - interesting, but I'd like us to keep the spine of the team English, which is why Bentley is a must for me, and I'd keep Sidwell - he's not made an impact but in comparison to Pizzaro and Malouda by God he's made an effort when he's been played. He deserves another season, if for no other reason than he's prepared to fight for a place and not bleat to the press a la Diarra.

I read the West Ham page and it's good to see some more grown up fan sites...blimey are we trend setters here or what? I left a message thanking them for their comments, but it goes without saying that all our best wishes from Chelseablog go to Mrs Lamps in the hope she recovers, and hats off to Frank for getting his priorities ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY SPOT ON!!!!!!

@ JD - I couldn't agree more with your point of view. Under Mourinho we often held onto a 1-1 with a controlled powerful display of possession football which was near enough wlasy in the middle of the field pushing the other team back. Now we seem to sit back and as has been proven this gives the opposition some confidence to come at us. Those 6 homes draws and the Spuds one have cost us 14 points, even taking 6 of those would put us a point in front of manure. That's way too expensive an amount of points to lose on the altar of entertainment.

Given your spine= English, then I'd also buy Bentley, as my injury prone squad looked a bit ragged with Essien at RM... I'd also perhaps like a look at Gabby Agbonlahor up front, instead of Alessandro, though I have to say ADP is a fantastic player, and will be relartively cheap given that hes aging..

So Slight revisions:
In: David Bentley - 10m
Gabby Agbonlahor-7.5m-10m

Giving a total of 127m, spot on.

Anyone else care for a price list of outs, +50m to spend on Chelsea players?

Outs:

Belletti (Free transfer)
TBH (2m)
Bridge (5m)
Maka (Retire)
Sidwell (5m)
SWP (10m)
Malouda (7m)
Sheva (8m)
Pizarro (Free Transfer)
Drogba (20m)

Total: 57m
Roman top up: 53m
Total: 110m

Ins:
Laudrup (2m - buy out his Getafe contract)
Zola (1.5m - buy out Italy U21 contract)
Alves (18m)
Lahm (12m - can also play LB)
Bentley (11m)
Michael Johnson (9m)
Ashley Young (10m)
Aguero/Benzema (35m)
Villa (22m)
Hutchinson (Promote)
Kakuta (Promote)
Di Santo (Promote)
Sinclair (Promote)
Ivanovic (Already got him, just needs to play)

Total: 121.5m (good value)

Squad's average age is worryingly high at present. This would give us a young english feel with Laudrup and Zola leading us.
Any more suggestions for future protest/boycott/anti-avram plans?

KTBFFH

LTB - "When Wigan began throwing people forward, huge yawning gaps kept appearing in our midfield. We didn’t have a line across the middle that was cutting off their first attacking pass. In the last ten minutes, there were three or four occasions where they had a man in possession, approaching the box, under absolutely no pressure at all."

You're right; I think the move that led to the goal arose from Mikel and Kalou or Cole playing a bit of possession stuff near the corner, following a corner. Somebody then decided to cross it in front of the box and - no Chelsea player at all between the box and halfway line!

But this was entirely different from Fenerbahce. Against them we had gone to 4-5-1 after a mere 57 minutes, surrendered possession and genuinely did invite them on. Same story away, when taking Lampard off after 70-odd, same story at Spurs when Alex came on after 70, same story against Boro although I can't remember who did what.

Last night, we basically left it at 4-3-3 the whole match. It still had it's problems, which largely arose from missing Lampard, meaning Mikel was often isolated on the ball. Lampsy never lets that happen, while Ballack does. Also, there is no way Lampard would have left the middle of the park devoid of a blue shirt in those critical moments.

But then it wouldn't have been so open if we had had the 4th midfielder on for the last 7-8 minutes and calmed it down. What was needed was that tactical change/tweak/substitution. Bizarrely, AG had gone from making a defensive sub ridiculously early (and normally the wrong player), to not making one at all!

JD - I agree the players should know what and where they need to be in different circumstances and that is a major weakness in our gameplans/management, but it is very quick and easy to achieve that with the right sub and we were left without that option, which is basically stupid, or negligent.

If not via sub, the management still need to instigate any change from the touchline, especially to respond to the other lot's subs. Last night, there was NOTHING from the bench. I sit close to it and watched that clown all night. Occasionally he would stand up and shout and point but not once did a player even look at him, let alone acknowledge what he said. It looked for all the world as though it was an act for the cameras. When Wigan scored, he suddenly seemed to turn into Edward Scissorhands and everybody just gawped at him, not least Shevchenko. It looked for all the world as though a bowel movement was imminent.

MAX, I like your ideas and think that they would be some good moves however Breno signed for Bayern Munich in January and I wouldnt want Flamini when we have Obi and Essien to fill that role, I think we would be lucky to get £2m for Ben Haim, I hope its something like this

Outs :

TBH (1m)
Bridge (I hope he stays but its ulikely, 6m to Liverscum)
Maka (Retire)
SWP (10-14m)
Sheva (Back to Milan, 12m)
Pizarro (Free Transfer)
Drogba (20-23m)
Boulharouz (Whatever just get rid of him)
Alcides (6m)

Ins :
Laudrup (2m - buy out his Getafe contract)
Zola (1.5m - buy out Italy U21 contract)
Van Der Vaart - (21m)
Bentley - (12m)
Aguero - (24m)

I dont think Sidwell has really been given a chance, The last time I saw him start (Away vs Wigan, Long time eh?) He was solid and looked good, Paulo I feel having been very solid and tight defensively should stay, It would be harsh to sell Belletti in his first season in english football

Oh I forgot, Promote Hutchinson, Di Santo, Sinclair and Taylor as cover for Petr

Sorry gents, but in regards to your values on outgoing members of the squad, I believe the only one we will get any real money for is Drogba, because he is perceived to have value.

The other players on the list are being paid far too much money to want to move anywhere else, and so we will find it difficult to move them on for much. The best we can hope for is to give them away for not very much.

To overhaul the squad, Roman will once again need to dip into his pockets to the tune of about 80-90 mill I believe.

Habs, I think you are more or less spot on with your valuation of most of the players on the list there although I read somewhere that West Ham were talking somewhere in the region of £2 million rather than £5 million for Sidwell.
I think that we could also bump the price up slightly for Drogba, I know that he obviously wants to leave the club - and so be it I say - but we paid around £25 million for the guy and he has improved since then, I think a similar figure would be a fair amount for the want-away.
Also, I know that Bridge seems to want to leave but it should be Ashley who should leave if either, Wayne has been a good servant for the club and we could even be looking at a profit on Cole if he does leave. SWP should stay too, unless we manage to land one of the potential Summer signing's who can play on the right that have bee banded about.
For me, I'd like to see:
David Villa £23 million
Marcelo @ Madrid £10 million
Xavi £12 million
Dani Alves £25 million
That would mean shelling out £70 million over the Summer but the squad would be very dangerous next season.
My potential 2008 / 2009 starting XI:

GK Cech
RB Alves
CB Terry
CB Ivanovic
LB Bridge
RM J.Cole
CM Ballack
CM Xavi
LM Marcelo
ST Villa
ST Anelka

Of course this starting XI is missing Lampard but I have a really bad feeling that he will be leaving this Summer.

KTBFFH

For me we could have two great teams:

Cech
Alves Terry Ricky Cole
Bentley Lamps Essien J.Cole
Villa Aguero

Cudicini
Ferreira Ivanovic Alex Lahm
Young M. Johnson Mikel Kalou
Di Santo Anelka

Manager: Laudrup
Assistant: Zola

John Ford, Marcelo isnt worth 10 million by any means and I would much rather keep Bridge or promote somebody rather than try to sign him, I dont think Real Madrid would let him go just over a year after they bought him as "The next Roberto Carlos", However I do agree with EVERYBODY on this blog who wants to bring in Laudrup with Zola as his assistant, KTBFFH

Article below found on another web forum.... Makes for some interesting reading..

"I watched the game on television last night with someone who works for Chelsea and was enjoying his first night off for a month; I don't want to put him in the sh*t so I can't reveal what he does but his job entails him being on the bench for games. His comments about Chelsea are interesting indeed and confirm what most of us have been saying on this forum regarding the club. Here are some of them...

JOSE MOURINHO

He was the most brilliant man he has ever worked for. Had a personal relationship with every single one of the staff. Was the only person in football with whom you could have a conversation about just about anything. His arrogance was for the cameras, away from the game he is mild-mannered, quite and respectful.

He loved everything about the club and wanted to stay for ten years. The reason relations broke down was because Chelsea were becoming Jose's club not Roman's and that wouldn't do. When he said goodbye every single person formed a guard of honour for him to walk through. There wasn't a dry eye amongst them.

All of the players and the backroom staff are in constant contact with the man who always replies to any of their texts almost immediately.

AVRAM GRANT

Avram really does absolutely nothing, he just stands around with his hands in his pockets and - as he did in his Pompey days - seems obsessed with setting out the cones. The training schedules are exactly as they were under Jose except that there is none of the analysis of the next opposition with which Jose would furnish the players.

JT's comments about AV half-time talks is all so much sh*t said for the benefit of the club's PR. The truth is that AV's half-time team talks are a joke. He just cannot do angry and when he tries it still comes out as a confused mumble which has seen players s****** at him rather than react. It is only Stevie and Ten Cate who have ears of the players.

When on the bench, he goes through the motions but really has no idea what it going on during games. My contact related one alarming story during the Boro game when AV was at the edge of the pitch gesticulating wildly as we make a substitution. AV turns round to the bench and asks: "what's going on?" where upon Clarke had to tell him that they had put on SWP for Ballack.

Not one player wants to see him as manager next season with many intimating that they would seek a transfer if that was the case.

In fairness to the man, it seems that he also knows he is not up to the job.

The good news is that - as far as my contact is concerned - AV is definitely to be moved upstairs at the end of the season regardless of whether or not we win the Premiership or Champions League.

COACHING STAFF

Stevie Clarke is one of the boys and takes most of the training schedules. Ten Cate does have a lot of input as well but his man role is the bad cop to Stevie's good cop.

PLAYERS

Drogba is definitely leaving at the end of the season.

Kalou is very religious and one of the nicest people you could meet.

Ballack is one of the most awesome players my contact has ever worked with. According to the club's own stats he covers more ground than any other player (I know, that really does sound strange!).

In training Riccie looks absolutely dreadful, a pub team player. However during actual games he shows himself to be one of the best centre-backs in the world.

Of all our youth, Gael Kakuta looks the most likely and is, at 16, the best player he has ever seen.

THE FUTURE

Frank Arnesen has all the influence. Roman loves Dutch football and wants Chelsea to fashioned in the Dutch style. We can expect an influx of Dutch players and management. It seems that Rijkaard already has one foot in the door and my contact fully expects him to be our manager next year. We can also expect Huntelaar and Van de Vaart to be signed.

THE PRESS

According to my man, believe what you read in The Sun (yes, The Sun!!) as they get so much right including stuff that goes on behind closed doors that they must have a mole in the Chelsea set-up.

For the record, he is not Chelsea fan but says that the club's set up is now second to none and is the best club he has ever worked for."

Its funny how everyone is trying to buy the cup again..players with high price tags dont win countless leagues...
please Ra buy golden kids like wenger and mix them up with our current squad.
I agree with the departures of lampard,TBH ,sidwell and sheva.
Over the past year we have lost out on many golden boys....eg ronaldo ,anderson,nani,pato,breno. Chelsea need to become the team which has good links with other clubs like what we are doing wit psv.
luilinha, renato augasto, benzema,hatem ben arfa,nasri ,taye taiwo this is the future.portugal,argentina,,brazil and italy have to0 many young stars to name.please upgrade our scouting networks ..drop Frank arnessan(bastard derailed JM)
Hopofully everyone can learn from the mistake of buying finished products.players have to grow together like what is happening at manutd.
if chelsea keep buying these finished products ..in 2years we will be back in same situation.

Morning here (in OZ).

@ Greenlight

Unfortunately I live in Adelaide where not much happens so I had to invest in Foxtel to watch the games.

Fascinating insight in your last post at what we have all believed. The day Jose walked was the end of a short but exciting dynasty for the club and I can just imagine how everyone felt as every fan could see just how much passion and love Jose had for the club and how good a manager he really was. Please take note Avram the word manager implies man management and orchestrating the resources you have at your disposal, clearly you possess neither of these key traits.

My mind is now focused on the CL and by a quirk of fate playing Everton tomorrow means we have 2 extra days on Liverpool and 5 days before the game. My gut feel is the players themselves will have sufficient motivation to win the one competition the club hasn't won in recent times and when they celebrate they will pointedly exclude AG from the fun.

Hears dreaming... KTBFFH folks

LINK

Looks like many of the expected departures could well happen this Summer.

The article does though agree with my above point that the players won't actually be worth an awful lot to the club and RA will have to cut his losses again.

Technically speaking, we only need 2-3 new quality players if we can somehow still keep Drogba who IMO can contribute alot more.

1) A new right back - Rafinha, Bosingwa, Lahm and Dani Alves (1 of the 4)
2) A new playmaker - Van Der Vaart, Modric and Diego (1 of the 3)
3) A new winger - Silva or Quaresma
4) A new striker - Villa, Aguero, Gomez and Huntelaar (1 of the 4)

Depending on how we are going to play, certain players can cover more postions on the pitch such as Silva, Villa and Aguero who have creativity to be the playmaker of the team too. Just 2-3 players from that pot of players i have mentioned would be enough.

We still have Di Santo, Stoch and Kakuta who are doing well too. So lets not get carried away and buy too many players at one go. Leave 1 or 2 slots in the first team for them, especially Di Santo. I would like to see our team in this frame work next season:

3 Keepers: Cech, Cudicini, Hilario and Rhys Taylor

8 Defenders: Ivanovic, Ferreira, A new right back, A.Cole, Bridge, Carvalho, Alex and Terry

7 Midfielders: Essien, A new playmaker, Mikel, Ballack, J.Cole, A new winger and Sinclair

5 Strikers: Anelka, Drogba, A new striker, Kalou and Di Santo

Total we should have a reasonable squad size of 25 players and enough covers as backups. In the mean time, youngsters like Sinclair and Di Santo can be given a chance.

Players that MUST GO: Ben Haim, Belletti, Malouda or SWP, Sidwell, Makalele, Pizarro and Sheva

Btw, i strongly urge you guys to sign this petition to get that muppetoad out of SW6. As it stands, about 950 people have signed it. Lets make it as big as possible, starting with you guys. Thanks alot =)


The Managerial Position at Chelsea FC - petition
...just in case anybody wants to add their name (it isn't going to make a blind bit of difference though).


Quote:
To: The board of Chelsea FC

We the undersigned are true Chelsea supporters. We believe that the board of the football club was wrong in its decision to sack one of the world's most talented managers and replace him with someone with no proven track record of winning trophies at the highest level of football.

We believe that assembling some of the most gifted footballers in the world is insufficient to make a great team. Would the best musicians make a good orchestra without a conductor? Would the world's top movie stars make a great film without a great director? It is the same with football.

We ask the board to appoint a new manager who has the proven track record of motivating players, of being able to understand and change tactics as the situation necessitates and who has the full respect of his players. This will involve the sacking of the current manager.

We further request the board to make this announcement immediately in order to pacify the large majority of Chelsea supporters who were mystified by the decision over the change of manager at Chelsea FC and who would like to believe that the mistake is being rectified.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned



LINK

@ jang

Good idea, added my signature.

Of course RA and baldy seem to be on a different planet now so I am not sure how the signature is going to be delivered - teleport maybe ...

I don't know if anyone watched Soccer Saturday on Sky Sports, but they were previewing the Wigan and upcoming semi final game, when Paul Merson said something interesting. I'll roughly quote what he said.... " I wasn't a particularly good manager, but even I could get Chelsea to second place in the league and to the semi's of the CL with those players"
Says it all really, and I just wonder how many other managers currently in the PL think exactly the same.

@CLIVE

Be positive. At least he's praising our players. They are so good to the point that they are like a machine on auto pilot mode. Default mode is to win 1-0 every time.

Pat Nevin's sticking his neck out

LINK

If Roman's main criteria is that the manager has to be Dutch we could end up with Martin Jol.

Clive,

"...I just wonder how many other managers currently in the PL think exactly the same."

19 I reckon. And 24 from the Championship. 24 in League's One and Two and probably 24 in the Conference. As I said yesterday, everyone who posts on this blog could do it as well. Maybe Average Grunt is doing it really badly on purpose, because you'd have to try very hard to make it not work......

Good luck to the Youth Team tonight. Let's make it at least one trophy Chelsea win this season....

Nice to see Di Santo got a hat-trick against the Spuds - give him a chance in the first team.

Edit : LINK

NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !!!!!!!!! Roman, FFS, he says it all. Sack Grant immediately or we'll lose him to one of our rivals.

Greenlight, if your post is true, it makes me feel a lot happier about things than I have for a while. Though I'm not sure Rikjard would hack it in the Prem, at least it means this bumbling buffoon goes. It makes Pat Nevin's piece to the BBC this morning seem more like a staged leak.

But this quote from the Mirror, also this morning, from one of those famous Mirror 'inside sources' who usually turn out to be a joke, is my worst nightmare: "Roman feels that Avram has done a great job in bringing calmness to the situation, even though it has been with the squad Jose left behind...Things can always change but Roman believes Avram deserves the chance to show what he can do with his own team."

"Things can always change but Roman believes Avram deserves the chance to show what he can do with his own team.”

Relegation springs to mind!

If Roman’s main criteria is that the manager has to be Dutch we could end up with Martin Jol.

Perhaps going Dutch to RA means the manager pays half of his own wages.

Finally the mates rediscovered their sense of militany.Hibs your proposed set of actions read like they are from my manual.

I think a draw against Everton will do our cause some good.

LADS I PROPOSE WE GO IN OUR NUMBERS TO CHEER OUR YOUNG BLUES AT MAN CITY INSTEAD.NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS THEY DESERVE A BOW.

LAUDRUP, ZOLA AND STEVE CLARK FOR NEXT SEASON.

Avram, we love for showing the board that its not about the squad and money spent or salaries. ITS ABOUT MANAGEMENT. MANAGEMENT.

Really not sure about Rijkaard, although at least it would be an entertaining shambles rather than a slit-your-wrists one.

Interesting post Greenlight, cheers for that.

Yeah, Im not a fan of Rijkaard either......Never liked him since the 'Frisk' episode. He has turned a wonderful Barca side into an incompetent rabble this year...... 'Ang about.. That sounds familiar!

LINK

Ben Haim not happy!

Interestingly enough, I regard dropping Tal Ben Haim as one of Grant's more impressive decisions!

Received my Season Ticket renewal today so Chelsea will be getting my money 5 months before the start of next season.

A note states that seat moves are not allowed except in the case of a medical condition.

I think I'll claim that watching Chelsea makes me feel sick, causes a heart condition and could I be moved to a seat that faces away from the pitch.

Re 86

"THE FUTURE

Frank Arnesen has all the influence. Roman loves Dutch football and wants Chelsea to fashioned in the Dutch style. We can expect an influx of Dutch players and management. It seems that Rijkaard already has one foot in the door and my contact fully expects him to be our manager next year. We can also expect Huntelaar and Van de Vaart to be signed."

You have to hand it to the Dutch. As befits a coutry that could be washed away in a flood at any moment, you always have to have a plan B.

Once the European pecking order was decided by potential audience size when the CL was created, Dutch football was always going to struggle without the big bucks.

So they gained a foothold down at 3 point lane as well as the in the Chelsea hierarchy, saw the way the wind was blowing, have backed the big blue horse and its all aboard and away we go.

The "RA is Jewish, Avram is Jewish, Tal Ben Haim - oh my are we set to become an offshoot of Isreali football? question" - all a smoke screen. You have to hand it to them.

We are set fair to become a Dutch "football in exile" haven from where they can re-assert their place at the top table.

Good plan. Well executed.

Jang - i have signed buddy - good shout.

Renewed mine too. Not much use boycotting merchandise etc as I never buy any of that stuff anyway (though I did indulge in a scarf to commemorate 1997).

However, there's a definite sense that the public momentum is increasing. I wonder if Pat Nevin's column on the club website will be mysteriously "cancelled"?

A lot's going to depend on what happens at the end of the month. If we go out of the CL to Liverpoo, again, in front of our own fans, a few days after officially confirming Man Bloody U as champions, in front of our own fans, then I think the crowd's patience will snap, and the last home game against whoever it is (Bolton?) will be a festival of anti-Avram chanting.

But if by that stage we still have the CL final to play for, the mood will be totally different.

At least it'll make defeat against Liverpoo easier to swallow -- we'll have a bit of ugly mob hysteria to look forward to.

The odd thing is, I have no idea whether we'll beat the 'poo or not. Essentially I'm pretty sure we're a better team than them: the table doesn't lie. The heart says AG will f**k it up somehow, the head says that since he doesn't really make any difference to the team anyway then maybe the players' desperation will carry us through.

@thanks for that Greenlight. lets all hope that is how things will pan out. i feel much better reading that, i hope it happens. i am not too sure about Rikjaard, too soft for me, would rather go for someone like Lippi. i want a veteran who is about results more than anything else, we need to win everything for the coming four seasons and then we could start talking about fluid football...anyway to hell with that fluid football thing.

LTB,

"the head says that since he doesn’t really make any difference to the team anyway"

Except when it comes to the subs - although according to Greenlight, that's not down to him either. That said, there was no doubt Shevchenko was Grant's call against Wigan.

If the subs are not AG but HTC, and HTC has also been behind this 4 up front bollocks, he's shown himself to be as big a clown as Grant.

This was why I was a little heartened by the second half against Wigan. The midfield operated in a much more dynamic and efficient way, and with Lamps back in it against Liverpool, we've got a chance. It seemed as though the players had finally said enough to AG/HTC, let's play the game properly.

A note states that seat moves are not allowed except in the case of a medical condition.

I think I’ll claim that watching Chelsea makes me feel sick, causes a heart condition and could I be moved to a seat that faces away from the pitch.

Be careful you might get issued with a season ticket to watch Rottenham!


I wonder if Sven is getting Citeh to play poorly on purpose so he gets sacked, and then gets his compensation, and walks into a very highly paid job down south.
Who said conspiracy theories are nonsense!

LINK

Vaguely reminds me of a tale (probably an urban myth) about Man City when they were suffering in the lower divisions not so long ago; turgid home defeat, several disgruntled fans threw season tickets onto the pitch in disgust and marched out.

Few days later said individuals received letters from the club - not banning them for an infringement of the rules, but returning their tickets and pointing out that if everyone else had to tolerate dismal football and worse results, they would too...

Keep it going guys: LINK

Just browsing through the on line petition, and reading some remarks, but this one made me chuckle. "Wouldn't let Avram play Championship Manager"

How about Football Manager? Just see some circles running about. All he needs is just to buy players and choose the team. Leave training schedules as default. An ideal job for him to take.

Damn its only 962 signatures. We need more.

114. Jang · 1:36 PM · 16th April
Damn its only 962 signatures. We need more.

it's 963 now :)

If you email in to the timesonline you will get greater exposure of our cause. If you tell one of their journalists (Matt Hughes) about firstly chelseablog and secondly the petition they will be able to tell people how real chelsea fans feel without the censorship of Simon Greenberg. The same should apply to Ian Mcgarry at the sun who is the journalist with all the contacts at chelsea. If you tell him of our site then he will start showing how there are more than just Tal Ben Haim who think that Avram is a joke of a manager.

I'm also glad to see that there are others who agree with me about my plans to show the club exactly what we think of Avram. Would like to know if anyone else has anymore creative ideas?

KTBFFH

[Would like to know if anyone else has anymore creative ideas?]

Turd in the letterbox?

@HABS

Who's going to execute the action?

It's a collective fight against Avram. If one man against Man Utd is th eonly one to boo Avram then it just seems half arsed. But if a group is able to build up enough momentum at the Bidge or at Goodison park with their chanting then not even Avram can deny the truth - that we want him out and we want him out NOW.

This is the problem with the poor souls who suffer from major psychosis, they have no insight!

LINK

Re my post 105 and the Dutch invasion

They have got previous on this of course.

William of Orange and 1688 anyone?

just got this from times online.avram already has excuse that chelsea had more advantage two or three seasons ago (jose's times) even if he's given money to buy players in summer to improve the squad. He even sees the boo as something that started since rosenborg match- meaning its nothing to do with him. what a joker!!!


Avram Grant will receive funds to improve Chelsea

Roman Abramovich is ready to hand Avram Grant a blank cheque so he can turn Chelsea into stylish champions next season. The billionaire Russian owner is pinning his faith on Grant's ability to deliver a team that will enable the club to dominate the game both at home and abroad.

The 52-year-old Israeli expects to be in charge of the team next season despite continued speculation over his future. But while he stopped short of admitting that he has been promised a £100m kitty to spend, he did reveal that cash would be no object as they look to re-build the squad in the summer.

Grant understandably refused to put names in the frame but is clearly planning to raid Europe and match the spending of their English rivals. "We know the vision of the club and the money won't be a problem if we find good players to bring here," he said. "So you could say £80m or £100m but we don't have the advantage that we had two or three years ago.

"We know that Manchester United will spend a lot of money and Arsenal will buy a few players as well as Liverpool. We will do the same. We want to improve."

Grant was vilified by the fans after the club's 1-1 draw with Wigan on Monday effectively banished their title ambitions for another season. Chelsea are five points adrift of Manchester United at the top of the Premier League and their chances will disappear all together if they fail to beat Everton at Goodison Park.

"We feel pressure all the time but it is a good pressure - I don't want to live without this pressure," Grant said. "We are still fighting and will continue fighting even if the chances have been against us from day one.

"If the club is not happy with me tomorrow or ten years from now it is okay. It is a good relationship and that is what it needs to be. I need to do my job for Chelsea and that is what is important.

"Nobody told me I had to win a trophy this season but I want to win one. Most of the fans respect what we did for them and we respect what they did for us. We took a lot of points with so many injured players and with so many problems. But there was a good spirit shown by the team. The fans are like us, sometimes we are disappointed also. But most of the time we did a good job.

"I was at the game against Rosenborg earlier this season and heard the booing at half-time - I had never heard that before. But most of the time the fans are behind us. You cannot win every game and I think they know it."

Yet Grant's preparation for their must-win match against Everton has been hampered further by an astonishing outburst from Tal Ben Haim, the Chelsea defender. He is alleged to have said that he would have signed for another club if he had known that Jose Mourinho was to be axed and Grant put in charge. The comments could earn Ben-Haim a club fine unless he can produce an explanation.

"It is an internal matter and we will deal with it like this - we know we need to hear from the player first if it is true or not," Grant said. "I don't think Jose promised Tal Ben-Haim that he would play before John Terry, Ricardo Carvalho and Alex but maybe yes. I will ask Tal. It is internal business but in my opinion if the player was wrong we need to deal with it in my way."

Grant could also be without two key players as striker Didier Drogba is struggling with a knee injury and Frank Lampard remains on compassionate leave after his mother fell ill. The manager confirmed that Lampard had missed training this week to remain with his family and with the squad flying to Merseyside on Wednesday afternoon, the midfielder is unlikely to figure in his plans.

"It is a personal matter with Frank," Grant said. "I tell the players all the time that football is very important but sometimes there are things that need to be taken care of. This is more important and I understand that. I hope everything will be okay. Frank has not been training he has been at hospital with his mum. I know the feeling and it is not good.

"Drogba didn't train on Tuesday but he is doing everything to be available for us as soon as possible."

Also on the season ticket renewal notice it mentioned new style tickets and automated turnstiles. This is a shame for the old boys who've been collecting tickets for the last few years but it also reduces the options for redeploying Avram next season.

I see many of you want to wield the axe on many of our top players, Dont get me wrong I feel moving some on is neccesary (cant spell) However getting rid of Lamps would be suicide considering that without him get beaten by teams like Barnsley and Wigan etc

The positive is the negative. Toady is going to waste 100m downt he drain but we also get 100m to spend which is loads and loads of money. If Jose has a motor mouth, Grant has a stinking mouth. Nothing good comes out of it. Uses the same old lines and phrases. Seems like his vocabulary is limited.

Everything he does is irritating!

On what basis is Grant thinking that he has been doing a good job and confident that he will stay? Just that line alone made me irritated for the whole day. He overestimates his own ability, underestimates his opponents from a tactical point of view and screws up the big games. The longer he stays at CFC, the more hated he will be as he is going to screw up more things. Just the possiblity that he's staying for next season is enough to make players sick and scare them away from Chelsea. I really wonder if the 100m can get quality players who want to play for the manager and Chelsea. We might as well raid Macabi Tel Aviv for their top striker then...

jang - have you posted that on the other chelsea blogs?

Villa wants to go to Arsenal!! Sorry Fifty!! I cant blame him - with Grant at the club can you expect any big name to come??!

I think we will be turned over by everton - not being negative but they are a solid team and i think a 1-0 loss or 1-1 is most likely.

Yeah he wants to go to ARSEnal and his next choice is Liverscum

Please get him, LINK