Lampard and Terry are a problem, a thorn in the side of every manager after Jose. Scholes is a pleasure to have around. This makes a HUGE difference.

Unfortunately the only way to move forward is to shake their hand and get rid of them. Terry will not be given a new contract.

You said that they "are Chelsea". This is where we have been going wrong - they became bigger than the club. And how did Terry repay us? By getting involved in scandal after scandal. Yes he gives 100% on the pitch but we also paid a price for that both financially and emotionally.

When hazard got involved with the ball-person, if it were any other team it would be forgotten but we had "chelsea team out of control", thats because of the players we are talking about.

Luiz and Ivan do have it, both could step up.

One thing i am sure of, is that Jose would be a terrible choice. I cannot believe i'm saying this, but id rather have Moyes.

Jose is fantastic, but he is as selfish as he is fantastic. We would initially win more with Jose, but we would be constant headlines and not always good headlines. Terry and the like would be again at the heart of it.

Anyway, what tipped me over the edge was his eye gouge on Vilanova. It still absolutely disgusts me - he should have been banned for a year.

See what happens with RM against United. If they go out then Mourinho will be sacked. If he wants to come back to us then we should make the change ASAP. If he's unwilling.....we have to ride it out until summer.

Lampard is a model pro if you ask me, when has he ever been a hassle to any manager? Perhaps he was sulking a bit under AVB but imo he is a class act and rarely has done much wrong. Terry is a different story obviously, but there is no doubt he commands the dressing room and we look a different side when he is playing. He may be getting older and slower but i still think he has the brains to be a top defender through his positioning etc, whereas Luiz is very naive and gets caught far too often. Midfield is still the position he should be in for me - Lampard/oscar and Luiz is probably our best midfield right now.



I agree his gouge on Vilanova was bizzare and shocking, but other than that he is a top top manager who would walk into any team in the world and do well with them right now(maybe not Barca ! )

His interviews and offield antics distract the media from the team which is what he is great at, he did it with us too and all the pressure was on him rather than the players. He is also a master tactician and would be able to get our players playing to their best and using the right tactics. His subs also change games on a regular basis. I desperately wanted AVB to be a success with us, as i do truly believe he will be a top manager at some point in the future. I think he came in with a plan and once it fell apart and he annoyed the dressing room there was no coming back for him. He lost the players and he was never going to last long after that. I think he would have learnt a lot from the experience and will bounce back quickly. I am already impressed with his spurs team this season, CL football looks likely for them.

There is no better manager in the world than Jose for me, part from maybe Fergie. Pep obviously has done well but i still want him to do well at Bayern first.

Its a good point, he could well leave sooner than we think but I am actually backing RM to win over Man Utd. I think Man Utd are favorites for it but i think Jose will have the last laugh and could well win the CL again this season, after a miserable la liga.

Can you imagine what would happen if he did that to Fergie as CFC manager?

I just dont want to take that risk. We really need to improve our image and Jose is not going to do that. He is even ruining Real Madrid for goodness sake.

Dont think he ever would do it again, hes learnt his lesson. Dont know how you can say hes ruining Madrid either, yes he isnt going to win La Liga but he could still win the Cl/Copa del ray. He managed to win La Liga despite Pep and Barca being the best team the world has ever seen, so he must be doing something right there.

The media just dont like him, and hes somehow managed to piss off the spanish players in the dressing room, which means hes guaranteed to leave in the summer.

Hmm, these two are incompatible.

Not ruining Madrid, and yet he has players saying either he goes or they do! He has made it a complete mess.

Those "thorns" helped us win the CL, together with Cole and Drogba. Yes, I would have kept Drogba as well, his sheer presence was worth more Torres has contributed.
Teams evolve, there was no need for a mass clear-out. Time catches up with older players and new stars emerge, either from your own ranks or you go out and find them.
We were just thinking of throwing away the baby (or babies) with the bath water. All the players mentioned are capable of justifying their place in the team on merit, even Drogba had he stayed. They might all be borderline, but that's because we haven't yet found adequate replacements. Even when we do, there is still a need for two quality players in every position. Then replacing players like that becomes an even taller order.

So, Scholes is a pleasure to have around is he ? Is that a joke, he may act the shy, innocent choir boy off the pitch, but he's a nasty piece of work on it. I would prefer any of our "bad boys" any time.

As for Jose, calling that "gouging" is way over the top. It looked to me as if he was trying to tweak his ear and missed. Stupid but not malicious.

Err you do know that Jose admitted a deliberate eye gouging dont you?

I remember when Jose replaced Claudio Ranieri (the original Tinkerman who had finished 2nd that season) he wasn't welcomed with open arms, but we took to his brashness and spiky personality because he got results immediately and the media never got a chance to throw his cockiness back in his face (they would love to and have had the "not so special one" headlines on ice for years). To an extent, there's nothing left for him to do with us as he's already had his back to back PL wins and "some other guy" has got us our first Champions League trophy. I wish him well in his next appointment and would obviously welcome him back, but in all likelihood he would end up eventually tarnishing his legacy (same with Drogba).
Poyet, Zola, Moyes etc would be starting something new with us, though I think it will be Schevchenko. Whoever it is I'd personally prefer a quieter, less media whorish manager to replace Rafa as I'm tired of CFC being back page fodder for anything other than football.

Appoint Di Canio

A nice quiet manager who avoids controversy.

Did he ? Oops sorry, I must keep up. Just looking at it on YouTube it didn't seem that bad.

Fine performance by Sturridge so far this afternoon, with a great goal as well.
Another bad decision by Chelsea ?

Awful decision, not that many will admit it.

Not so much to let him go (he wanted out), but to not give him a proper chance. He's a great young player who will only get better.

Terry, Lampard, Cole, Drogba were the spine of our recent success and we need to develop a new spine rather than keep digging them up and expecting them to hold everything together. Essien's injury problems have been a real blow as at 29 he was one of the few players who could bridge our generation gap.
Luiz and Ivanovic have the opportunity to step up and be part of the new spine as have Mikel/Ramires and to some extent Mata but whether they do or not is up to them.
We have lots of young players who go missing when things aren't going to plan and they need to take a bit more responsibility for the team and make things happen.

Maybe. We won't know as he wouldn't have been starting many games for us this season. Hope he does well for them as we messed him about for 2 years and he never got a proper chance.

And yet before he scored today, lots of LFC fans were moaning about him being greedy and not hitting the target.

Sturridge had a terrible attitude with us, just a bad fit.

We did great business with Ba and 5m for sturridge. We just have to play Ba more.

We didn't need the £12m though, did we. I wold have preferred to have both. Can't really blame him for the attitude. He went out on loan, and did ok. He came back but wasn't given a real chance in his favoured position.
Another victim of the "Torres must play even when he's shit" syndrome ?

Which LFC fans? It's been mainly praise since he's come here. Some are still reserving judgement but considering recent purchases I don't blame them.

The only person on both sides who is trying to justify how Sturridge won't turn out to be good is you I'm afraid......

Sure they said the same about Suarez at the start of the season. As long as they both continue to score goals - which they are - they will be forgiven for the occasional act of greed.

He had every right to be pissed with us. As does Lukaku, and as will Ba when he realises he's being overlooked.

We had a goalscoring striker with us for a year and-a-half while we were struggling to find a striker to score us goals. Does that really not annoy you?

Hi, just poping in to ask if there is any news on how Ba is.

Lukaku was p'd off with the terrible treatment he received from AVB.

Lets hope he can be talked round.

Broken nose....maybe out for a few weeks

What a disaster.

And not even a sending off. Hazard gets sent off for nothing, and Ba gets kicked in the face.

Sums up this season.

Brave lad, hope he'll be okay.

Ouch, thats too bad. Really wanted him to get off to a good start with Chelsea. Hope it not too long.