How did I manage to get dragged into this?! 😱

Because you're a journalist?

Oscar's reported injury is a worry as he was one of the better performers from the weekend. Hopefully since we not playing till Sunday he is fit enough to start.

Not sure I like this Friday Night football idea (is it a media choice or is there a actual reason for it?). Not really looked at the fixture list so hopefully we won't have any if it's a Media thing

I would be happy if this farce is the start of the end for Jose at Chelsea! The guy just brings far too much negative baggage with him!

For me, there is much more to football than simply clapping a win and a trophy at the end of the season. We live in an age where having and growing a large fanbase in Thailand is almost as important as the fans at home.
Jose's style of football pleases only those hardcore who go to the Bridge every other week and only care about winning and nothing else.
Chelsea FC will not grow as a club while he is in charge! Perhaps even more importantly, I do not see us filling an extra 20,000 with him in charge.
It was noticeable our worldwide fanbase grew significantly once he had gone, as did our away following at home, which was pretty embarrassingly small when he was here first time with thousands of tickets being returned for some games.

Win the league with Jose, or win nothing for 10 years with Wenger?

Jose has done ridiculous things in the past, but changing your team dr is not one of them.

Do not believe the press hype.

win nothing? he has won more trophies in the past two seasons than jose.

I'd like to ask a question based on this - and I'm not asking this with any kind of malicious subtext, I genuinely want to know the answer.

Does Chelsea Football Club as a whole care about the way it is perceived in the general football world?

Or has the Mourinho mantra of "winning is the only goal and must be achieved at any cost" spread throughout the whole of Stamford Bridge and everybody within it?

I know popularity doesn't put trophies in the cabinet, but when you add this incident to others that reflected badly on the club and the club's general limited response to them, I just wonder whether Chelsea have adopted the Millwall attitude of "no-one likes us, we don't care".

But EVERY club has this, it just seems that the media focus rather heavily on whoever is champions.

United, Arsenal, city, LFC, they all have records just as bad as chelsea.

Its not winning at all costs, but its also not lose and have great PR - as with all clubs they try and aim for the middle ground.

The UK media have it in for certain clubs and certain players, especially so if its a quiet week. Sports journalists are no longer about discussing the game and tactics - they are incapable. All they talk about is the popularity contest.

Rogers has his teeth fixed, dumps his wife and dates an employee, harry redknapp sells his house etc

What, real ones ??

Its trophies that attract overseas fans. They support winning teams.
Thats a fact my friend.

Tonights game is something to do with another event going on tomorrow in Birmingham. Maybe a protest march or something. Can't be arsed to google it.

Yes the FA cup is "nice" and its "nice" to win but I would swap winning the FA Cup for the next 10 years for one title.

The only way to measure success for Arsenal Man City and Utd and Chelsea is the title. They all are (or should be) so far ahead of the other teams in the league.

Not only winning it but also competing for the title. There is no point in being 4th 3rd etc if you never have a chance of winning the title.

Wenger has continuously failed to create a team capable of winning the title. He has been given the tools yet still not been able to do it. Give SAF,Jose (and I do think LVG as well) and I think you would have either seen Arsenal mount a much better title challenge or at least one title.

So true.


The new set of fans have a very different attachment then the ones who go to the game and clap every other week.

They care about "winning". If West Ham are winning titles in 10 years time they will be the ones who they will be "following".

The only people who care about "how" things are won are the Media and Sky (and now BT). They have to as they are pushing the entertainment side of the business, They don't want a team steamrollering over everyone etc.

But when it comes to attracting new "fans" the best way to do that is to win things, If they wanted to follow "plucky losers" they would follow Cardiff etc.

They want to see teams that have a chance of winning things

I don't believe for one second the media 'have it in' for Chelsea!
They were largely very positive about us when Zola and co were playing.
They grew to love Raniere.
Again, largely very positive about us when Carlo was manager.
It's Jose! He makes it very difficult for the media and neutrals to like his teams.

I was hoping that was the case

But like you I couldn't be arsed to look.

Takes me long enough to get served in a pub on friday night as it or get a decent table without a football game on

having games 4 days in a row is no good for a family life!

Of course they loved the tinkerman, We love a plucky loser over here.

We was a "plucky cup team" when Zola played. Very different from a proper title winning team.

Also the media and its reporting of football was very different in those days.

For example if the war between Matthew Harding and Bates happened to the Chelsea today and how it ended it would have been reported in a very different way.

The real 'super powers' of European football want to win every bit as much as Jose!
BUT, they also want to win with some style and try and entertain the fans.
Brazil became the 'world's fav national team because they won by playing with flair.
It's down to mindset. Jose's is just negative!

Raniere took us to our highest league position for 50 years and the CL semi final.
He basically handed the cake on to Jose, who only had to put a bit of icing sugar on it.

Utter media led rubbish. There is no such thing as "negative mindset" when it comes to winning. It was invented by the same idiots who use terms like "parking the bus"

Teams become popular by winning things. How they won it is irrelevant.

Any team that continuously win things will be "big".

Winning will always attract more fans then anything else.

While the "loser" tag in England can attract fans you will find in most places in the world winning will be the first attraction when it comes to "picking a team" in most sports or even most fields.

Still a plucky loser.

Any top manager would have taken us to the CL final that year, Even Rafa could not have screwed that up, Jesus I think us lot on here and managed the team by vote who to play and tactics and subs etc and still got to the final

That's the difference between decent managers like The TInkerman and top managers like Jose and SAF. They add the icing sugar as you put it. The cake he made would have been very nice and quite edible but that's about it. You give the same cake to a master baker and he will swap one or two tiny little bits and make it the best tasting cake in the world

I cannot agree with you here.

Barca and real dive and cheat at every opportunity. They want to win at all costs.

Brazil are the same, divers and cheters.

I liked Ranieri..as a man. But as a manager he could be infuriating. He wasn't called the tinkerman for nothing, sometimes his selections would have you banging your head against the wall.
I thought the team with Mourinho the first time around was the best we've ever had. I've never had the same confidence since, we just looked invincible at times. We weren't of course, but with that incredible back four and the mixture of power and finesse in midfield, it was some team. I've never understood the complaint that we were dull to watch either. We dominated games, and the result was often never in doubt. But if that's dull and boring, give us some more of it..starting on Sunday.

We are never really dull, certainly not more than other clubs. United under LVG are using chelsea as a model for their current dynamic and setup. I hardly see fans complaining or media reporting that they are "parking the bus".

Massive fan of Ranieri at the time. He was perfect for where we was at that time.

He was the guy who bought us to a place where it made it possible for Roman to buy us

BUT

He got us as far as he possibly could. There was no time for him to work his way in the new Chelsea, Its sad and maybe unfair etc but that's the way things go. He was the perfect guy to get us ready but we then outgrew him.

I confident he will do a great job at his current club.