But those who was good enough i.e Jose and Guss both was due to reasons that was nothing to do with their ability to do the job.

What are you meant to do when a manager does not wish to work in club management? What would you advise Roman and Chelsea to do to? Turn Chelsea into a country?

Jose is a great manager but can start a fight in a empty room, The main reason he leaving Real is his inability to get on with people higher up, Their was stories about the same happening at Inter, What do you advise in that case? Hand over the keys to the manager? Peter Kenyoun one of if not the best guys around to take care of the day to day running of the club could not get it to work between them. There is one boss, Jose has a problem with those above him there is little you can do about that.

Given the sheer number of managers that Abramovich has gone through, even after delivering success to the club, it's reasonable to question whether it's the club management who have a problem with working with managers, rather than the opposite way around.

I think ultimately if we don't make the CL it will be an important lesson for the higher-ups at Chelsea, it's no having loads of money if you cannot value experience (Drogba and soon to be Lampard), and it's no good having expensive players if you don't have the squad to back them up - they may be bloody good but they are only human.

Yes I would agree if the two managers who had been good enough had did something different to why they left Chelsea then you would be correct

But Jose has stayed true to form and fallen out with senior management more then once and Guss has proven he does not want to be a club manager.

If Jose had a wonderful working with rel/ship all his former bosses and his current club then yep it would have been all down to Roman but that's clearly not the case unless their has been a person like Roman at Inter and Real.

If Guss had left Chelsea then gone on to be a long term club manager then again I would have said we had a issue with Roman and the board since he said he did not want the job, but again he has not done that.

The rest of the managers Rafa,Grant,Robbie,Carlo managers I would say only one of them was any where near 100% good enough for the job and he made a mistake of not moving the team forward after the double and anyone who watched Chelsea week in week could see something was quite not right

Jose accomplishes things then moves on. It doesn't indicate a particular habit of falling out with club management. The relationship simply runs its course. Naturally egos are present. Football is full of them, but it's nothing out of the ordinary for managers to switch clubs regularly. For one owner to constantly replace managers who deliver top level trophies is the pattern at Chelsea


The amount of "moving forward" a team can do after winning the double, and then the Champions League is rather limited. It's pretty much the apex of accomplishment. As I said, if the "improvement" consists of winning the CL and Premier League every season, then these are ludicrously unrealistic demands, but these appear to be the demands Abramovich has.

Well, we can hope they take some notice and learn from their mistakes. We potentially had a good enough squad to finish in the top four with ease. A blend of older experienced players, brilliant new signings, and youngsters who could have been gradually brought into games during the season.
Some very poor deciisions were made before a ball was kicked.

Not one of those who hold the Champions League as the be all and end all of football, Yes I wanted to win it but would pick the league every single time and since the double we have not really moved forward in the league (one step forward 3 steps back), Carlos season after the double had some really bad loses Liverpool,Sunderland,Arsenal,Wolves. The team was going backwards league wise and that's the only way to measure the team. Cups as we have seen take a fair amount of luck while the league less so.

Yes trophy-wise the Chelsea managers have done very well but league wise its not been so good, Not saying we should win the league every season but I expect the Chelsea manager to mount a title run and more so in the poor league (compared to past leagues) like we have at the moment I do expect us to be single points away from the top one or two come March and since that's not happened the people in the job have not been good enough.

I definately wouldn't take the league title over the CL every year!

The titles were fantastic but we had a great team at the peak of it's powers, and with great managers. We did what we were expected to do at that time.
The CL victory was an extrodinary backs to the wall run that could have ended in Napoli if Cole hadn't cleared off the line in the closing mins
Nothing has, and probably never will match the incredible experiences of seeing my team battle the way they did to win that CL.

But it's where your teams at.
I'm now far more interested in seeing us challenge for the title again than winning the CL. If we win the title again, then the next goal should be the CL again.
If i was a UTd fan i'd take the Cl over the title next season.

All I want is for Chelsea to go for the point of any game be it football darts snooker or any other sport (sorry Sky its Sport not entertainment) and that's to be the very best, Was we the best team in Europe when we won it? No where near, Yes it was very good to watch and enjoyed being in Munich and one of those memories I will never forget but nor will I forget coming out of Wembley after a FA Cup game against Utd when the smacked the hell out of us, Once in a while in cups the best team win it, where as with the League the best team always win it, Every single time, no questions asked be it won by 15 points or goal difference.

I know 100% given the right route the slice of luck here and there we will get to another Champions League final in the next few years, but what I am unsure of at the moment is if I will see the Chelsea team challenge for the title, I know JT,Cech,Lamps,Ash have got that little bit extra that league winners have but I want to see if Hazzard,Mata,Luiz.Dave,Oscar have, That's what made those players Chelsea legends, JT playing with a hole in his foot until the title was won etc, You need that little bit more to win/challenge for the league title then you do to win a cup be it Champions League or any other cup.

SAF has won the Champions League only twice but will anyone really say that makes them any less the most dominant force in English football in recent history?

Would Man Utd fans agree with you? Stopping City winning another title when the noisy neighbours have been very noisy again? Moving that one step further away from their other best mates Liverpool? (or moving one step closer to their Europern Cups its a tough one).

I just want to know if Chelsea can be the best again (or give it a bloody good go) and a Champions League win wont prove it to me, back to back titles will,

Ultimately I'd like an even spread between CL and PL wins, winning the PL multiple times makes you legends at home, winning the CL multiple times and you are down in world football history.

It's the highest level of football on the planet, higher than the World Cup.

Can't believe we're still chasing Mutu compensation. Feels like a lifetime since he played for us.


Seems we're still some way away from agreeing a deal for Schurrle. Still chasing deals without a manager in place for next season :yawn:

If it was a actual league I would agree but its still a cup comp at the end of the day, Was we really the best team in Europe the year we won it? Was Liverpool? Was Utd? (not the year of the triple as I think they was that year) I don't think so.

The Media and the armchairs have made it the most important cup in football. The media can talk it up all they want but in the last few years I don't think the best team have actually won it that many times. Remove country protection and the away goal rule etc and it might have more of a right to say its the measuring stick.

I would agree about spreading the success between the two but the first and second priority has always for me got to be being the very best and for us the only way we can measure that is the league

Good, as I won't be happy if that deal goes through. Just recall De Bruyne and Lukaku and use the money to strengthen the squad where we really need it.

I absolutely agree. we dont need him, we just need our players back.

Spend the money in midfield, and falcao.

I'd get a defensive midfielder and just bring back Lukaku, de Bruyne and Piazon. Falcao is 27 so a similar age to Ba and not that much younger than Torres. He's a risk as he might not settle, and has gone off the boil a bit recently, so the sums we're talking for him would be better spent elsewhere. Before we spend big we need to assess what we have as a lot of our young players must be very disillusioned with the chances they're getting (Chalobah, McEachran etc)

I agree, but we absolutely need someone to stick it in the net. Without that all the creativity of Mata, Hazard and Oscar is completely wasted.

Ba is a good player for £7million

Lukaku is developing well but is too young to be a main striker at CFC

Torres, Golden Boot and enigma is just unreliable

The addition of Falcao to the above three would make our strikeforce one to be feared rather than so-so. Look how RVP has changed United.

I would also welcome the addition of Felaini who would give us a plan B and some well needed steel in midfield or up top.

My team for next season would be:

Cech

Cole
Ivan
Cahill
Dave

Luiz
Felaini

Hazard
Mata
Oscar

Falcao

With Cortois, Terry, Mikel, Ramires, Moses, KDB, McEachran, Lampard, Torres, Ba, Lukaku, Romeu & Marin on the bench.

We also need to change formation from the 1 up front - I want to see us play Falcao and Fellaini up front, or Lukaku and Ba, or Torres and Falcao, or Mata and Falcao etc etc.

We also need a big squad to give the gifted 3 a rest, Moses and Marin are capable at this level.

I totally agree. If we only make Europa next season I want us to use the youngsters in that competition. We must start giving them a chance otherwise whats the point.
I am bored of us just spending money.

Ashley Cole and Gary Cahill have travelled with the Chelsea squad to Basel, ahead of Thursday's Europa League semi-final first leg.


Good to have them back

De bruyne, Lukaku, Ake and maybe Chalobah should at least be making our bench next season and be given a chance to prove themselves. Outfield players over the age of 22/23 really shouldn't be going on pointless loans as they're either good enough or not. We should give them a chance or sell them.

You arnt forgetting that only 25 players, 8 of which must be British can play in the PL

Nope, it just makes our player land grab even more ridiculous as we're buying, paying, then loaning out people who will never play for our first team.

True but I do think we are partly buying players because we are a cash rich club and can attract young players train them up and then sell them on for more money, We have really only started to buy loads and loan loads out since we started looking to follow the FFP rules coming in, I would not be surprised if this is part of the master plan for us to get around it.

It can be a valid business model.

Look at KDB and Cortois - worth much more than we paid and have not really kicked a ball for chelsea.

In the case of Cortois we payed around six million for him 2/ years ago?? On a 5 year contract, Since the players book value goes down each season in the accounts we are showing a asset of a value for 2-3 million which we could sell today for alot more money and also since he signed for us when he was 19 and has been signed for us in 2011 he is actually classed as a homegrown player which i also think would help us if he chose to run down his contract and leave for free since he is "homegrown" the club signing him would have to give us a fee (not sure about that but does make sense).

Hopefully there's some thought being put into this strategy. I'm just surprised any 20 yr olds with other options would join us because of this. Courtois as a goalie is a special case, but de bruyne and Lukaku in particular will be feeling a bit unappreciated. Also for every de bruyne, we'll have a di santo who wasn't cheap, made minimal impact for us and was sold on at a loss. Even Piazon cost us 5 million up front. It looks more like spread betting on talent rather than taking a more measured approach.