That really is absolute nonsense and you know it no matter how many times you claim differently. It wasnt a "grand plan" the way you continually suggest.

Of course not but in Chelsea's case you really have to write off the league for the last. Last season we had a manager who would be unable to win the league with Man Utd. Season before we had AVB and by the time we made the needed changes we had to put all our eggs in one basket (the Champions League) BUT we still won cups in those years.

Fulham would not not be able to challenge for the title unless they spent serious serious money, When Roman bought Chelsea there was enough decent players there that while he bought in alot of players the level was pretty decent already and could attract the top players. Fulham would have nothing apart money to attract players. To turn Fulham into a top team a owner with a worth of only 2 billion unless he put a great deal of his fortune it just would not happen. The ground would need alot spent on it, The training facilities also and plus with the FFP rules coming in the youth set up would need more money then the guy could commit.

Its not a issue with modern fans, Its just the way modern football is. Clubs like Fulham even with a rich owner would struggle to break into the top 5 or 6, A owner with 2 billion might be enough for clubs like Newcastle (due to the ground size and fan base) but Fulham? Add another two 0s after the 2 and a owner of that wealth might be able to afford to do it. But in todays game 2 Billion is just not enough unless they was willing to take a massive gamble. Buying City and Chelsea with the idea of turning them into title challenging teams was a risk but quite a small one with the resources available but trying it with Fulham on a smaller budget? You would need some massive balls

No sane person would honestly believe that.

we let our form slip to win two cups

you cannot win everything

Manchester United 1999
Internazionale 2010
Bayern Munich 2013

Yes, you can.

1) No we didn't
2) Yes you can

There's no shame in admitting we were simply shit in the league that season. It won't make you less of a supporter for saying so instead of blindly trying to defend it.

im not, but we did seem to put all our eggs into one basket at the end of the season

and you cannot win everything

Repeating demonstrably, factually incorrect statements does not put any shine on Chelsea's league performance, in that season.

If we're not getting a top quality, proven defensive midfielder (like de Rossi) we should keep Mikel. David Luiz will not want to spend this season in midfield with the world cup coming up and people like Dante competing with him for the CB slot next to Thiago Silva.
Romeu still has time to come good as he's pretty young. Hopefully an injury free season back in la liga will give us an idea of what we have in him.

The 2011/2012 PL campaign was pretty abysmal and we finished where we deserved given the internal issues and changes taking place. The CL and FA cup wins were against our run of form (which was awful), but more pleasing for it.

On winning everything, I hope we do next season or at least give it a good go

Our form was patchy throughout the whole season, and we were well off the pace in the title race anyway. I do sort of agree with you though that once we reached the semis of both cups we as good as gave up on the league - you only have to check the starting line-ups for the games at the Emirates and Anfield as examples. If the league had remained RDM's top priority we would have finished higher than 6th in my opinion, but still nowhere near the top 2.

Hope we dont get Roo, past his best & injury prone.

thats exactly what ive been saying and yet people seem to think it didnt happen!

im not saying we were about to win the league, but rather sacrificed league points for cup competitions. and it worked!

Of course we didnt "Sacrifice the league", we had to get 3rd, or at least 4th to Qualify for the CL, and we only managed that on the last day........."It worked"?? only for 1 cup out of 3, so we risked a CL place for the Europa? Really.

?!?

Averages 44 games a season for United (30 league games).

We're talking about the 2011-12 season, not last season.

Then I agree with you. It paid off but so easily could have backfired though, if we hadn't won the CL. A good decision to prioritise the cups with hindsight, but definitely no "grand plan" (not that you used that phrase, Cantona07 suggested it).

It wasnt a plan to prioritise the CL at all as your fellow blue is suggesting. You would never plan to risk your entire following season on beating Barca in a CL semi and going on to beat Bayern in their own backyard. You did it and every possible credit to you for doing it but you were bloody lucky. I dont mean lucky in terms of winning the CL - if you win that you deserve it, but in terms of had a penalty shoot out gone the other way or a penalty been scored in extra time you would have been left with a disaster of a season. NO club plans that, you just werent good enough in the league that season for whatever reason.

I think it boiled down to a simple case of the fixtures piling up near the end of that season, and something had to give. No real plan as such. RDM decided he was going to play his strongest side in the cup semis and finals, and rest/rotate in the league. For me it was as clear as day that the league became 3rd down his list of priorities, rightly or wrongly. You only have to look at the 8 changes we made for the game at Arsenal (sandwiched between the 2 CL semi games) when we were both in top 4 contention. We did luck out though, as you can never guarantee cup success like you say. I do think though we would have finished higher than 6th if the PL had remained top priority.

The thing is thats fine when talking about sacrificing a League title - i get that. But for Chelsea to say "ach top 4 doesnt matter, we'll beat Barca and Bayern anyway" is nuts. It may have happened but as you say, its not a plan! But then RDM was quite out of his depth as manager really, nice guy as he seems to be. A club like Chelsea should expect top 4 as a minimum and certainly no club good enough to win the CL should be outside the top 4 in their domestic campaign really.

That whole season revolved around one thing really, the naive behaviour of AVB. He managed to alienate practically the entire team. It wasn't just bad football management, it would have been bad management in any business.
He gave interviews to the media saying this or that player were not part of his future plans, then proceeded to pick them because he had no alternatives. Can you imagine anyone, in any workplace, doing that and expecting to get a positive response ?
In a way, he made RDM's job very easy. Once AVB was gone, there was no need for motivational speeches. The squad breathed a collective sigh of relief, and got firmly behind club legend RDM and set out with something to prove. The rest is history, as they say.
Ironically, if AVB had done things differently, I think we probably would have struggled to a top 3/4 place, but won nothing else. The Champion's League win was a mixture of sheer guts and bloody mindedness

That's true. I suspect RDM was prepared to gamble more because he was only on a short-term contract. Perhaps he saw winning the CL as his only chance of being kept on (which as it turned out is most probably the only reason Abramovich did give him a stay of execution)?

That whole season revolved around one thing really, the naive behaviour of AVB. He managed to alienate practically the entire team. It wasn't just bad football management, it would have been bad management in any business.
He gave interviews to the media saying this or that player were not part of his future plans, then proceeded to pick them because he had no alternatives. Can you imagine anyone, in any workplace, doing that and expecting to get a positive response ?

In a way, he made RDM's job very easy. Once AVB was gone, there was no need for motivational speeches. The squad breathed a collective sigh of relief, and got firmly behind club legend RDM and set out with something to prove. The rest is history, as they say.

Ironically, if AVB had done things differently, I think we probably would have struggled to a top 3/4 place, but won nothing else. The Champion's League win was a mixture of pride, along with sheer guts and bloody mindedness, mainly the result of AVB's mismanagement.

Probably a bad sign, but were now favourites with most bookies for the PL.

as we should be.

united under moyes are going nowhere. it was a fantastic appointment for us and their rivals.

moyes to united
rodgers staying at liverpool
wenger signing a new deal at arsenal
city changing manager to someone who has never won in europe

it is little wonder we are favourites