Wayne Bridge's transfer to ManCity. . . it's been on for a while now but it looks like he might be leaving for close to £15m. . Thoughts on this please

Ferreira plays at left back for Portugal

Chelsea with our inconsistencies. I wonder which of the "Chelsea" teams will show up on 11th against manure. I guess if we lose that then we should start preparing our minds for another trophyless season.  I seriously think LPS is losing the plot, that is if he ever had any.

This is that season we all talked abt! Scolari here to the rescue

As unpopular as it might seem, I still think Scolari is not the problem. Don't get me wrong, I think he can do better but we need to look at a fundamental structural problem.
Watching the madrid game some hours ago, and Robben was firing on all cylinders. The hosts in the studio said they had Grant in a few weeks ago and he (Grant) said the club should not sell Robben but someone said he wasn't playing enough.
We sold Eidur, Duff, Diarra, Makalele and now Bridge, tell me who have we replaced them with. The difference in these Chelsea sides will always show no matter who is in charge. Now we have 30year-olds all over and we paying them at least £80,000 a week and expect us not to keep drawing games. One starting line-up and we have five 30year-olds, one is 29, the rest of the "not that old" have Mikel as the only reasonable player. This is going to continue for a while until,

1. We have a transfer policy that targets young players.
2. The manager is allowed funds to buys his own players.
3. The manager decides who goes and who comes in according to the funds available.


If we want victory after victory we need to invest in players and not all the players we have now living on past glory and earning a fortune. I refuse this ACMilan-like approach to football. When players are beginning to lose it, we move on. We sell all our young players and keep the old ones.   


If we do not sign anyone, this winter, I bet Ashley will be injured and that's it!!. .  we now have a new "RIGHT-BACK" problem. And we only started dropping points.

All I can say is thank God we only gave LPS a 2 year contract - just incase we need to sack him. We should know by the end of this month.

Secondly, all those who were shouting SOS to Drogba, saying Drogba is going to save our season, Drogba will do this, that and the other - where is your Drogba now? Apart from his usual once-in-a-blue moon good performance against CFR Cluj, WTF has he actually done except miss chance after chance and spoil the rhythm of our game? It is time to stop accomodating this idiot.

Drogba is an immature prat with a narcissistic, God-complex personality who thinks we care about what he thinks - every week he cannot wait to tell us that he wants to play for Milan, then Juve, then Madrid, then Barca. Now he wants to tell us that he has lost his love for football (i.e I want to leave), Chelsea did not support him when his grandmum died, and the breaking news: He is expecting a 'nice surprise' in 2009 i.e. a transfer.

All I have to say is "PHOCK OFF DROGBA!!!". I am tired of this prat. I will give him away for free if possible.

I hope you guys noticed that he was the one who was supposed to be marking Clint Dempsey in the Fulham game.

I am glad all his teammates have turned against him now. I don't know why Africans, especially Nigerians fall in love so easily with this hair-frying prima-donna anyway.

Oh, and I forgot to mention. . . . . his first touch is rubbish. Infact, it is so poor, he would be rejected from our 5-a-side monkey-post matches that we used to play in Port-Harcourt.


OK,  now let me turn my attention to the others.


WTF happened to Bosingwa? Explanations on a postcard please.

I hope you guys notice the mistakes Alex made against Cluj and West Ham, being drawn to the ball and leaving Craig Bellamy all on his own. Time to go. He is not happy on the bench, and he is too quiet to be an effective defender. Need I remind all that 50% of defending is communication.

Deco - please return to sender.

Malouda, Kalou - not even good enough for Aston Villa.

Ballack - Old Rojer is dead and gone to his grave. I hope it's just a temporary thing.

Joe Cole - WTF happened to Joey? Current form is unacceptable.


Scolari - Out of ideas and rapidly running out of time. His initial 3-5-2 system has been sussed out. Yes, it was 3-5-2, because Mikel was made an auxiliary defender. Like I said at the start of the season, as soon as you put pressure on the full-backs, Scolari's system falls to pieces. His attitude and body language is defeatist. Yesterday, he said he needs to teach his players "confidence". What confidence? They had confidence under JM and Avram. He has broken their confidence with his defeatist attitude. Training is not intense enough, and half of confidence comes from knowing you are fitter than your opponent, as a famous footballer once said. The reason we are conceding late goals? - lack of intense fitness training. Players lose concentration when they are tired. And yes, we are missing Steve Clarke. Ray Wilkins is too much of a yes man. We need someone to inject some fire and anger into these players - and Ray Wilkins is too jovial for that. Who remembers Henk Ten Cate? That mothaphocka really beat the players into shape under Avram Grant, to the point that he almost had a fight with JT because he was pushing Mikel too hard. That is the kind of sergeant we need right now. I am not surprised his Panathinaikos team won their Champions League group. Scolari's assistants look like some pot-bellied moustached relics from the 1970's.

Scolari himself has not coached club football since 2001. I hope he knows the physical fitness needed to play football has increased since 2001. I also hope he knows that you need more fitness in Europe than you do in South America.

Scolari, fix up and look sharp because the knives are out!

Ibime,
Your anger over Drogba is un-called for and your claims are exaggerated.

When did it become a crime to state facts or discuss reality. Drogba is just stating facts. He's not the first player to be embroiled in a numerous transfer speculation is he? Ronaldo and Gerrard among other top EPL stars have been in this position. You're being too personal.

He's game on the pitch will silence critics.

Nateevs,
What part of we do not have the money for new players is difficult to understand? Na you wan buy them?

@ibime, you are already lobbying for the managerial position of chelsea. With all u wrote u seem qualified for d job, but first, Allow them sack LPS b4 u throw in ur C.V.

Well all I know is that chelsea is now messing up on a whole new level. We wont get a trophy this season with all this and we will all be here ranting and thats all.

Just a pity all this is going down and we are just looking helplessly. Just so sad

somze:

Ibime,
Your anger over Drogba is un-called for and your claims are exaggerated.

When did it become a crime to state facts or discuss reality. Drogba is just stating facts. He's not the first player to be embroiled in a numerous transfer speculation is he? Ronaldo and Gerrard among other top EPL stars have been in this position. You're being too personal.

He's game on the pitch will silence critics.

Nateevs,
What part of we do not have the money for new players is difficult to understand? Na you wan buy them?

Anelka does this, you'd call him a sulker. Drogba is stating facts uhm? I bet you did not see the FA Cup match. . . . If you still fancy Drogba after that . . then . . . . .
And I am sure you have not been away. . . We just sold Bridge for £12m. . . Sell Drog, Malouda, Alex and Ferreira maybe even Kalou. . . and I guarantee you £30m at least. That's £42m.

Paulo is suplus to the team.
Drogba is no longer a Chelsea player.
Malouda is the "crapest" thing since football started.
Alex handed in a transfer request
and Kalou has always been promising. . . .


It's about Management, knowing what to buy, when to buy and who should buy. Simple.

@ Cabali, Well what can we do? LPS seems to have it all figured out "wrong", n the team spirit which used to sustain the team seems all but dead. I don't think it all boils down to age as Nateevs was saying. I think it's more of the players' psyche right now. These are still the same players that Grant had and was getting results (at least most of them), so LPS is definitely doing something wrong or how else do you explain the fact that every tom, d'ick and harry now believe Stamford bridge which used to be a fortress is now a stomping ground to go and throw tantrums and come out with results. Though I don't support Ibimes' complete loss of belief in Drogba but I think if he wants away then we should let him go and stop behaving as if he (Drogba) epitomizes Chelsea. We were doing allright without him but now things just seem to be going all awry n bitter.

Well niyoo, i feel the major difference is clark! I stand to be corrected.

Well, I have reached a stage were i just want this whole thing to continue the way it is. Lets go trophyless again so we learn to know a problem when it starts and stop making excuses for major mess-ups.

I was not so comfortable with Grant but right now I dont have as much comfort as I had with Grant and it is embarrassing.

Read this

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/article2097693.ece

JM will be at Old trafford sitting next to abramhovic watching the man u vs chelsea match.

How i wish Avram Grant will also come so Abramhovic will show how proud he is of his new team and coach

@Niyoo,

It's not psyche of players, it's a combination of many rubbish things that affect the psyche of the players. Did you see the FACup match?. . . Drogba could effectively on his own have made it 4-0. You will not believe chances he lost. He is not the same Drogba we knew and that is not LPS's fault. The management however, should know it is past the time for Drog's exit. His overall demeanor could affect the whole team. Why keep an unhappy player? because some in the club still worship him and think if he goes then we will be relegated. That's bad management.

Grant did not have Drog fined for £100,000 after stupid outbursts. Grant had Sheva, Pizzarro, SWP, Makalele, BenHaim, Sidwell and still had £25m to splash on Anelka, DiSanto and Ivanovic.

Now what, we sold out all those players and got nada to replace them. Don't get me wrong I was also not a fan of many of those that were sold but the point remains they still scored important goals during their stay with us. I will rather have these players back than have nothing at all. Now we blame this old man for all the rubbish going on.

We just sold Bridge, and have you heard in the news? NO TRANSFER IN JANUARY!. I tell you what will happen next. Ashley will get injured long term and we will have no replacement and we'll play Ferreira - who is already a disaster on his favourite foot - at left back. He'll play against right wing players like Ashley young, Agbonlahor, Walcott, Roanldo, we'll conceed goals and then we'll all come and say something is wrong, it's the same team that Grant. . . . Is it really? Do you really think Ferreira can stop Ronaldo or Walcott at right back let alone left back.  . . Do you?

Even Grant had the guts to say either Messi or Kaka will be coming to the Bridge. . . Can LPS say anything like that now? Fulham have a bigger transfer budget than us!!. . . . Only the management sees that we need no players.

Right now they make us believe we have 27 players. Lee Sawyer, Manciene, Sinclair, Miroslav Stoch and Manciene. Do we really think these guys are ready as proper first teamers? 5 out 22 left. We have 3 goal keepers, left with 19 players, one out permanently (Essien), left with 18 players. One of them is Miniero, who supposedly did not have a club b4 joining us. That makes 17 "proper" out field players. If we player a strong 10 outfield player squad, we'l be left with Kalou, Malouda, Joe Cole, DiSanto, Ferriera, Ivanovic and Alex as subs?

Of the strong 10 we played, Lamps, Deco, Ballack, Drogba and Carvalho are already or over 30. That' 5 . . Ashley is 29 and that's it. . . . there's goes our squad.

Do we really think this is how to vie for trophies. . . I mean look at our team critically. . do we not think it is suicidal from the management's point of view to say we don't need players? Neither Jose nor Grant had this type of team and neither of then will perform under these crippling circumstances.


At this moment, the right thing to do is to do away with Malouda, Kalou, Drogba, Ballack, Ferreira any other that either past it or rubbish and concentrate on young players that have hunger, drive and passion to deliver. No! We won't and then we come back and blame it on one the manager. Name me one manager that will survive under the present circumstances. 


I will be very embarrassed if we go own the route of sacking a manager again instead of doing the right things.

So funny my first post this year had to be on the Chav's thread.

While we @ Ashburton Groove(wonder what's groovy there anyway) are complaining about foetal inundation and proliferation amongst our rank,y'all are exasperated about the senescent nature of your once upon a time solid team

Different strokes for different gaffers and followers!

I have never seen Nateevs get this antsy. . . . . .Whatz happening @ the Bridge??

In August, when Chelski was battering Pompey 4-0. . . . .everyone thunk it is going to be Chelsea's year.
All i kept hearing was sexy football, sexy football.
It seems the sun won't shine at the Bridge this season. . . . .The game at OT would make or mar Chelsea's season.
Lose that game and kiss the title goodbye.

By United's home record. . . . . .Victory for the REDS is inevitable.
Ronaldo--Rooney--Tevez--Berbatov.
Evra would be back, Rio would be back, Rafael.
Cheese n Rice, it's too soon to close down on Chelsea.

@ sauron

You got the words right out of my mouth.

nateevs is badly hurt!!

And it is all Abrahmovic's fault. This is unacceptable. We are going to get it badly if we dont do what is supposed to be done in January

cabali:

@ sauron
You got the words right out of my mouth.
nateevs is badly hurt!!

Nateevs should take a chill pill.

And it is all Abrahmovic's fault. This is unacceptable. We are going to get it badly if we don't do what is supposed to be done in January

How is it Roman's fault??
U guys should blame Jose Mourinho--He was more interested in instant success.
He had no plans for the young'uns. He kept buying OAPs when he should be buying young players who would take over from the relics.
Look at the Chelsea team and count the number of 30 year-olds in the squad.

Then why did Abramovic leave him there to reap all he sowed. I can tell u for sure that JM would not have done this badly this season at this point.

It is no doubt Abrahmovic regrets JM's exit. When we lost at the carling cup final, he sent a gift to JM, one JM has always coverted. If he just stays away from football management and allow things to go on without his call with the proffessionals doing their bit, we just might have had a way out of all this. But as it is, Even LFS gets his first buy and it is a 30 yr old. so, how is it that JM takes the fall to date. Please leave the guy!

cabali:

Then why did Abramovic leave him there to reap all he sowed. I can tell u for sure that JM would not have done this badly this season at this point.

U don't know that.

It is no doubt Abrahmovic regrets JM's exit. When we lost at the carling cup final, he sent a gift to JM, one JM has always coverted. If he just stays away from football management and allow things to go on without his call with the proffessionals doing their bit, we just might have had a way out of all this. But as it is, Even LFS gets his first buy and it is a 30 yr old. so, how is it that JM takes the fall to date. Please leave the guy!

I am not sure Abramovic regrets JM's exit. . . . . .
JM did loads of damages to Chelsea's PR with his loquacity and tactless comments.

Mourinho should be blamed because he had no plans for the future.
Look at what Ferguson is doing at Man Utd. . . . . . .He was able to compete in the premier league while rebuilding and rearing young progidies.
U think Fergie did not have the option of buying finished products and using them to gain instant success for his selfish wet dreams??
Of course, Fergie coulda done that as well but the future is very important.

Jose on the other hand cared more about the present than the future.
He never bought young players who developed at the club. It was Shevy, Ballack, Carvalho, Drogba, Malouda etc.
All the players are now old and there are fears many of them are past their PEAK.
Naturally, if he had bought young players. . . . .some of em should be coming through the ranks to replace the relics but this is not so.
Take a look at United's young'uns now and tell me Ferguson hasn't done a marvellous job. Football management is a rare talent. Jose lacks it.

It has been disparaging for Chelsea fans the way the season has been panning out.It all boils down,like Nateevs elaborated,to our lack of planning.Chelsea has for the past four seasons put our trust on experience at the expense of youth.Now,these 'experienced' players are nearing diminishing returns and we are not buying young players or getting enough players progressing up the ranks from the academy.
Since the Mourinho era (let me use it as a benchmark since this is when Chelsea started to acheive major success in the past decade),it is only Mikel that have really succeeded in breaking into the first team from the youth ranks(forget the Carling and FA cup cameos of Sahar,Sinclair and the rest) and Mikel's regular inclusion in the first team actually boils down to the hefty sum that Chelsea shelled out for him or else,maybe he might still have been gaining 'experience' in the youth team till now.
The truth is that LFS and previous Chelsea managers have not done enough to blood young players into the first team.During JM era,we are introduced to only Mikel,Sinclair and David Woods who made a cameo appearance during the 2005-2006 season.During AG tenure,Di Santo came to our consciousness.Now,under LFS,we have not seen any new face from our academy on the pitch.Even during Carling and FA cup which should have been a good opportunity for him to assess the lads,he stll prefer fielding the likes of Lampard,Ballack,John Terry and other experienced players.An excuse of the lads not being good enough would be lame;as the likes of Fletcher,John O'Shea may not be the world best but they played up to 15 games every season for MU.How many games have Di Santo or even Sinclair( who have been flirting in the first team for some years now) played for Chelski?We have to put our priorities right.If the management are now thinking of tightening our purses,then we should at least see more academy players getting a chance.

@Nateevs

I think scolari brought in Bosingwa, Deco, whom he thought would replace the Shevy, SWP, Makelele and co.

Sauron said it all. when you are buying old and established players just because you want instant success.

Its either you continue buying those established players so that your success wont stop

Or you buy young ones too.

As retarded as Faggotson is, He still knows he has to buy the Rafaels, CR7, Rooneys, Andersons, those Serbian guys etc

Can you compare the age of most Man Utd buys to Chelsea?

CR7, Rooney, Tevez, Anderson, Nani, Rafael were all bought in their teens or early twenties while
Ballack, Deco, Shevy, Anelka, Beletti, Drogba were all close to 30 and at their peak on their way down

now Rafael and Anderson seems like a squad members already soon you would be asking why Man Utd never seems like they were changing teams while they actually are.

The extreme of Chelsea is Arsenal who buys embryos and senseless and completely useless adults.

@mykali

word

dayokanu:


The extreme of Chelsea is Arsenal who buys embryos and senseless and completely useless adults.

MINT! Like sauron would say.

Well, lets see what happens on sunday. I will be watching that match without anxiety for the first time as I dont expect LPS' technicals to beat fergie's. And if it does then and only then would there be a light at some point in the tunnel

Now this place is beginning to resemble Arseland. . .worries and woes. . .

has been; for a while now. Thx to scolary

@ Nateevs n Cabali, guess it's just a combination of many things going wrong at the same time. I guess Sunday will go a long way in determining our fortunes this season. Make I join una siddon look. 

This is just so damn funny. 

The Gospel according to Nateevs -

1. JM and Drogba are to blame for Chelsea's poor performance for the past two seasons - Of course Grant and LPS share no blame in this matter.

2. Scolari was not afforded funds to buy players - Bosingwa, Deco were probably not bought by Scolari. Let me guess JM bought them. Failure to acquire Robinho was erm . . . JM's fault.

3. JM and Grant did not have things as bad as LPS - Replying to this will only dignify its inaccuracy.

4. JM bought old players - As opposed to LPS and Grant that got in young guns like Anelka [/b]and [b]Deco. 

Face it man, LPS has fallen well short of expectations. What kind of team do you need to beat Burnsley or Southend (or whatever they are called)?

@Somze,

This is the part of you that makes me worry about your extreme fanaticism with fellow human beings like yourself - Jose Mourinho and Didier Drogba.

That post, even though carefully constructed, not exonerating any manager at the same time not condemning any, still makes you draw your swords in defense of these fellow Mammals. What is it with you and these guys that makes you smoke every time you hear their names in a sentence?


I started, talking about how many things have caused the problems we have now. I went further to about Drog's unhappiness with the club? Is that fiction? Is it not plain for everyone to see? Even with that, I did not condemn him but I blame the management of the club for not deeming it right to sell him.


I spoke about not having transfer funds now, and how it might affect our season, even pointing out that[b] JM[/b] and GRANT would have found the present circumstances very difficult. I pointed out how the size of the squads we had in the previous seasons gave us success, how we now have next to nothing as subs on the bench. How we can get into trouble by selling Bridge (our back up left back) and still not bringing in some compensation for the team.

I also talked about the ageing team without particular reference to who bought what . . but with specific criticism directed towards the upper echelon of the club's management team.

Everything was stirred up by the disappointing news that there will be no transfers this winter.


Now you turn around writing all that stuff and I can't help but ask myself WTF has all you've written got to do with I said? Everyone's come to read and no one has said anything close to all these you saying.

I am not getting into a JM V Scolari argument with you . . must you draw me into one? You've said you want Scolari out . . Fine!!


Look setting the record straight. . . If I take 2 of the world's best tacticians, JM has to be one of them. If I take 5 of the world's best football and team managers JM won't be in my top six. That's the difference you can't make.

At the same time If I take 5 of the world's best taticians, LPS won't be in my top 5 and if I take 5 of the world's best Managers LPS still won't be in my top 5.

I don't hold any allegiance to LPS. I am only asking for stability. . and giving managers a transfer budget is one way of ensuring that. I don't adore him. I only look at the positive sides and hang on to the fact that he is world class and not a dumb ass. Pardon me if that offends you. I just don't think it makes sense to fire three managers in 2 seasons.

What happens if the next one "falls well short of expectations" in his first season?

With outsiders like Dayokanu and Sauron confirming my various critique of JM's transfer policy, I think we can safely say that the chickens are coming home to roost.

I was the lone voice on Nairaland speaking against JM's transfer policy more than a year ago, being browbeaten into silence by my fellow Chelsea-ites in every post on here.

I always said that there was no longevity in JM's strategy, but the idol-worshippers of Nairaland always ignored the facts on the ground in defence of their messiah. A few titles are good, but what legacy are you creating for the long run, except debt and short-termism at Chelsea? Wages skyrocketed, players were bought and sold like barrels of crude oil with no regard to cost and without proper market research.

I think those who worship at the altar of the special one should go and read the meaning of the word "management". Fiscal responsibility is key in management. I do not believe a manager is just a football coach. I believe he is a manager, just like a shop manager is a manager. You can be the best restaurant in town and win all the awards for cuisine, but if you are not taking care of the bottom line, the management of that restaurant is poor.