Carlo Ancelotti is as good as Jose.

He did a great job, solid in the league too. Carlo Ancelotti also managed Real Madrid

Jose is the best coach in the world..or I should say was I feel after Real Madrid he has a lot to prove. People still ask can he do it in England as it's a top 8 teams now not top four?

I am not sure sometimes if you truly believe what you say or just looking to bait people. Both are equally as worrying

We don't know what Jose's final plan for how Chelsea are going to play as the job has only just started. All we do know is Hazzard who I think is not going to be one of the best players in the world BUT THE best player in the world is going to be a very important part of it. Hazzard and Oscar would have spent too much energy and time along with other aspects of the team would have suffered covering Mata' s weakness for it to worth playing him just because he is entertaining. If we had not bought either Oscar or Hazzard then I have little doubt Mata would be in the team week in week out but both are all round better players then him. Yes he has certain skill sets that might be better, the same goes for them.

Your obsession with Mata and Willin is a very strange one I have to say and is a case of oversimplifying foundation's and tactics something that is sadly becoming more and common

The club has been badly run for years now and nothing has been done about it. All we have done is have "one year plans", we have either obbssed about Europe or entertaining sheep who spend their days watching you tube videos and not bothering to build anything. Will Jose's plan work? Who knows but at least we are finally trying. I would rather try and fail then what we have done for the last God knows how many years and just not bothered

The Real Madrid mangership is not a job but a game of Russian roulette where the gun only has one bullet missing, more so during the time he had the job.

Carlo is a great manager but really we should have won the title during his last year, He was just lacking that extra 3% to take us over the finishing line, his last game was a good example of the end of his time at Chelsea, it was just lacking it, at the time we was running on fummes and he could just not get the engine running again. It was a shame when he went as he did the best he could with management being what it was at the time

Plus Ray Wilkins was there helping too. I feel they both did a great job. Questionable if Torres was worth £50m though. Amazed Roberto Di Matteo has not found another job yet too.

I suspect he's had offers, but is sitting tight until the summer. By which time we'll no longer be paying him, which we've had to do for the rest of his 2 year contract unless he took another job.

Butch did great job but I think it would be a disservice to a manager of Carlo's ability to give him to much credit.

Values of players are easy with hindsight but at the time although Torries was out of form it did look a decent deal.

As for Robbie I think money and needing a break along with wanting to pick the right job has more to do with his current unemployment

The_don1:

re Mata vs Willan.
The simple stats back my opinion up. Mata was there to score and create goal. He was doing his job extremely well right up until Jose came in and undermined his confidence.
As an attacking force our 3 wizards were working brilliantly together. That's been destroyed by the arrival of Willan. I'll ask again, what does Willan bring to the table that Mata didn't, apart from a bit of extra pace and running?

There was a post last night in the thread about Jose's comments about City's spending.
It was from someone who'd just been talking to a bar full of Madrid fans. They thought Jose was the worst manager they'd ever had, adding that it was much easier to win playing ugly.
I'm on the side of the Madrid fans in wanting to with style.
Strange you think me having a very different opinion makes me a WUM.

You say our attacking force was destoryed, I would say us finishing double digits away from 1st place was destroyed. Yep they was working brillently at ensuring we never won a title again.

Jose chose to give the job of creating and scoring goals to a better player and it was Mata's weaknesses that he could not handle the job being changed.

Once again you making it too simple, TV/newspaper football is about stats. The actual game in real life and not tv world has nothing to do with stats what so ever, The people you normally find quoting stats are those with a viewpoint that no matter what happens their view wont change i.e yes we won the title by 1000 points BUT during the season we came 7th our passing was 67.2% sucessful while this season it was only 62.01% sucessful.

Yep a bar full of Madrid fans the biggest posioned chalice of football is the measuring stick of what all football should be measured by. What next TOWIE fans judges of what makes good TV?

Since we talking about "stats", I am willing to bet that this wonderful attacking football we have been playing for the last two seasons would not have resulted in any more around 5 or 6 more goals then we have now and our defence in this anti football style is not letting in that many more (or less goals but also our points (the only "stat" that matters) is also better.

I look foward to be proven wrong that with the amazing attacking talent that is Juan Mata we was scoring alot more goals

Aah yes, the old bar full of Madrid fans..... Have a drink with a bar full of Chelsea fans and see how many agree with you on Rafa.

All this stuff about how great the football under him just doesn't stand up. What were the games with this beautiful flowing football you talk about ? I can think of many that weren't.

Are you a WUM ? Your continual praise of Rafa and now wanting Brendan as manager, who have achieved nothing in the game so far, sort of suggests it.

Just for the sake of comparison (I've included Ancelotti's 2nd season too seeing as it was the start of the recent title drought):

2010-11: Scored 69; Conceded 33; Points 71 (after 38 games)
2011-12: Scored 65; Conceded 46; Points 64 (after 38 games)
2012-13: Scored 75; Conceded 39; Points 75 (after 38 games)
2013-14: Scored 48; Conceded 21; Points 57 (after 26 games)

Jose is the best manager we could have got. Period.

We are at the top of the league with a team than none of us thought would be.

Just look what a terrible manager could do to a team, United will be lucky to get 7th place!

I had us down as slight favourites at the start of the season and said as much on the forum somewhere. I never saw Moyes winning the league in his first season at Man U, and thought Mourinho would have a slight advantage over Pellegrini having previously managed us (and obviously being no stranger to this league). Also bear in mind that we only finished 3 points behind City last season (with a better GD than them) and that was with all of the managerial upheaval we had. It wasn't a stretch to think we could finish above them this season.

I have always belived Football is a great way of measuring socitey. In the past it was always about the team, While we did have great players we looked at it more from a TEAM point of view and thats the way we consumed our football, We went and watched in a crowd we shared the experence of the game and that is one of the reasons I still go to football week in week out, But now its become something we watch at home on our own and have transfered that to how we follow football and more and more with that we have become obessing about "one player", Trawling for stats and gaining our info from TV idiots (sorry pundits).

As we have become more of a society based more and more on individualism, We have started to hear about individual players more

We have now put football on par with TV Box sets and turned it into a form of Sports-Entertainment, Instead of following our team we sit there and demand to be entertained instead of what we did in the past and made our own entertainment by cheering on the team win or lose, Its no different for some now then going to the cinema or watching a DVD.

I have seen some good darn awful performances during my nearly 30 years of following Chelsea and some of the worst ever ones have been the best games I have been to or watched on tv, I have seen fans on here and fans I have talked to after a 2-0 win and they have been as down as if we had lost 25-0 because "we did not entertain".

Football for me like society has become individulistic even when watching with other people

I asked you a very simple question asking what Willan bought to the team that Mata didn't. You couldn't come up with a single thing, so again you resort more condescending comments and this time sneering at the fans of argualy the greatest club in world football.
Almost all of the media have been unimpressed with Chelsea this season as well.

When bringing stats into the debate i was never thinking of nonsense ones like percentage of possession. I am talking about hard facts that prove a player was doing the job he was signed to do, and in the case of Mata it's to score and create goals.
If such hardcore stats are not important, then why should we waste time and money looking for a striker who'll score us 25-30 gaols next season? Why not just stick with ones who struggle to get into double figures?

Suddenly, to some of you, it seems Mata's ability and contribution to our team during the previous two season is now questionable, and it's become questionable simply because Jose doesn't rate him. You people follow him like sheep.
You come up wishy-washy opinions about the game being "more complictaed than that" when talking about specific roles for players. Funny that, because for years we knew exactly what Lamps wss there to do. We knew exactly what Makalele was there to do. What Terry, Cole and co were there to do.
Now, all of a sudden, under Jose, football has become this mysterious, complicated game.

Nobody has questioned Mata's abilty and contribution to the last two season but we are now going down a different route and Mata's contribution is no longer needed and his abilties are no longer needed in the same role, If he performed the new role and gave us the same contribution that he had in the past then he would have been playing

Yes Mata did the job he was signed to do BUT the job we employed him for was no longer needed due to a change in the business model and sadly he was unable to do the new job we offered him, Willian was able to do the recently created job

Lamps was bought into to do one job and now he is doing a very different job, If he was unable to do so he would have not been offered a new contract when he was.

Last season we played one system, This year we playing another system that has meant a number of players have had to change their roles from the past, Some of the players did so and have done so very well.

Mata was either unwilling or unable to change. Just because he played well for the last two unsucessful league season's does not give him the right or mean we should give him extra consideration when it comes to decided how we play going forward to correct the serious issues that have plauged the team during those two season (and long if I honest).

The thoughts of the world media mean as little to me as the thoughts of a random toddler's i pass in the street on the cause of global warming (But i am pretty sure they will be then valid then the media's views on Chelsea and be based on more facts).

I am not a sheep when it comes to Jose, I did not think he should have come back BUT that was not important as due to the years of mismagement and bad choices in managers we had little or no choice but I can see what he is TRYING to do and the reasons why he is trying to do them. I said at the start of the season his main concern this season should be to keep us within single points of who wins the title. At the moment we are on course to do that and I next season I will say his main concern should be to ensure we are in a real hunt for the title and again at the moment I can see that happening.

What i am looking from Jose or the team has no connetion to entertainemt this is a sport and we are not in the entertaiment business no matter how much the worlds media wants to spin it. Me and the people I go to football with will provide that, Same as when I watch the game on TV. We will entertain ourselfs by singing songs and having banter with each other and with the fans of the teams we are playing.

Wont really tell us much until the end of the season. But looking at this point in the season for the last 2.

2011/2012 Played 26 Scored 47 Conceded 31 Points 46 (5th place) Won 13
2012/2013 Played 27 Scored 55 Conceded 30 Points 49 (4th place) Won 14
2013/2014 Played 26 Scored 48 Conceded 21 Points 57 (1st place) Won 17

By that Mata not being in the team has not cost us that much but we have won more games, Got more points and in a much better place in the league. We have become a more balanced team and thats why I think the changed made have been the correct ones so far.

I understand a certain posters view on Mata but the team is in a much better place under the current playing system

I agree with you about the entertainment issue. I've said time and time again that winning football IS good football, and in sport the end result really does justify the means. People used to call Steve Davies boring, but he wasn't. He just played snooker to win, weighing up the percentages and choosing the right shot practically ever time.

I'm not sure that I'd agree with you about Mata though, and I do think Dixon has a point about that particular player. I'm sure you'll agree, Mata wasn't just some ordinary player, he was outstanding over those two seasons. I do think we could have used him in a similar way to David Silva at Man City. I'm not saying he should have been one of the first names on the team sheet (as he had been) but he did give us a different option. I'm surprised really, Jose did begin to see the value of Modric at Real Madrid and he was no midfield workhorse. Mata had a similar knack of being able to open up defences with a quick through ball or a flick over the top. Mourinho also tolerated Arjen Robben during his last spell with us, and despite his brilliance he really WAS a lazy git at times. Mata was never lazy, he just lacked any pace.
Still, in the end it was fairer to the player to let him move on. The price we got was also too good to turn down for a player the manager didn't rate very highly.

Yes Mata staying would have given us another option but a option I dont think we would have ever used. We cannot go down a route of making a special case of particular player no matter how good he is. The TEAM balanace has always got to come first if we want to win title after title, SAF was ruthless in his treatement of great players, Until the end of his time at Utd when he did not have the same standard he would get rid of great players with the same speed as we have got rid of managers. We are not in the same boat as Utd are now.

Thats the system we need to copy as that has been sucessful.

Ideal world and if we had done what we doing now 3 years ago I would have been the first one to say keep Mata but just as SAF made some hard choices when he started at Utd and got rid of some great and popular players we have to do the same.

Man Utd are the only club we should be looking at as the perfect way to run the club as they have won title after title, Created great team after great team and even when they have not had the best teams they have run the title race to the wire and even sometimes won it.

We should not be looking at Real or Barca or City or Arsenal etc.

We're competing for the PL for the first time since Carlo left. That really ought to be enough for us to get behind the manager and his decisions. I'm hopeful for this season and future seasons with Jose in charge and I trust he knows what he's doing.

In the meantime, mata has clearly dumbed himself down to Rooney level by suggesting he thinks united will finish fourth!

So what do you expect him to say when asked the question?

"Naaa dude we got no chance, Its more then likely we will go down and in a couple of seasons be in League 1"?

Must say I felt sorry for City tonight, Imagine having to play Barcelona with 10 men and they have a penalty as well, nobody could overcome those odds and get something out of them, City was lucky because if it was away surely no team ever could ever overcome such odds?

Oh wait I have a vague memory of some team doing that, cannot for the life of me think who it was?

City are simply not the same force when Aguero is not playing!
Company, is very overrated at the very top level as well!

Why did they play the pony tailed one who was rubbish against us?
Really wanted MC to go through, more chance of the PL with them in 4 comps.