Chelsea FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 10/11 (mod warning in post #7124)

flahavaj

Ancelotti gone in Summer?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/c/chelsea/9430548.stm

Chelsea will judge the performance of manager Carlo Ancelotti at the end of the season, chief executive Ron Gourlay has told BBC's Sportsweek programme.

Ancelotti won the Double in his first season but Chelsea were knocked out of two cups and have failed to keep pace with Manchester United this campaign.

"Carlo has a contract until end of 2012," Gourlay told the BBC.

"Let's see where we are at the end of May then we'll judge the coach and other people at the football club."

Gourlay added: "We understand it's difficult to win trophies every year. However, we also know it's very important for the club to be competing in latter stages.

"We've invested lot of money in the academy and in the playing side. This is a pressure you have to live with day-to-day if you want to be at Chelsea."

Following assistant manager Ray Wilkins's dismissal in November, Chelsea took only six points from seven league games and fell behind in the title race.

However, since the turn of the year the club have picked up five wins from nine and are in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

Gourlay also revealed owner Roman Abramovich remained committed to providing funds to purchase new players as he demonstrated with the signings of Fernando Torres and David Luiz in January for a combined spend of about £70m.

"Roman is ambitious as he has ever been," he said.

"Money is available for strengthening and with one eye on the future. We're driven if there are the correct players available at the right time. Fernando and David became available at the right time and therefore the process kicked in."

Meanwhile, Gourlay reiterated the club's stance on forward Didier Drogba, stressing that he would remain with the club next season.

The Ivory Coast international has been recently starting from the bench, with Ancelotti electing to begin with the striker pairing of Nicolas Anelka and Torres.

He added: "I don't see Drogba leaving at all. We're talking of strengthening team not weakening it. It's absolutely not the case."

Blatter

flahavaj wrote: »

Ancelotti gone in Summer?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/c/chelsea/9430548.stm

Basically that means beat Utd in the CL or get the sack.

No pressure then.

Sgt Pepper 64

flahavaj wrote: »

Ancelotti gone in Summer?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/c/chelsea/9430548.stm

Not the best timing.
I wonder what the targets are? To reach the CL final and still be in with a shout of the EPL with 2 games to go?


"Cost cutter in chief Ron Gourlay presided over the whole Ray Wilkins farce, sacking the assistant during a reserve team encounter. What followed was a severe drop in form that has damaged any chance of the West London winning anything this term. These comments don’t exactly put an end to speculation in fact they merely add more fuel to the fire that Carlo Ancelotti will leave Stamford Bridge this summer.
Gourlay talks about the obvious pressure that the Blues boss and indeed any other top flight manager has to deal with but one wonders then if something so obvious has to be spelt out at all?
For these comments to arise the day of a huge match against Man City is also mindbogglingly poor timing and just serves to put more pressure on a manager at a time when the Italian should be concerning himself only with on field duties and not off field speculation."

flahavaj

SOCCER4LIFE wrote: »

Basically that means beat Utd in the CL or get the sack.

No pressure then.

Poor aul Avram got them to the final and nearly won the league and he still got the Spanish Archer.

Blatter

flahavaj wrote: »

Poor aul Avram got them to the final and nearly won the league and he still got the Spanish Archer.

Aye, but I think if Avram had won the CL he still would have got the chop.

flahavaj

SOCCER4LIFE wrote: »

Aye, but I think if Avram had won the CL he still would have got the chop.

The downside to your club being a plaything I suppose.

Blatter

flahavaj wrote: »

The downside to your club being a plaything I suppose.

You can say that again.

Give your manager 75M to spend in January and then sack him a few months later if he dosen't win the CL. Although you would question whether Carlo had any say.

Shocking pressure to be putting your manager under nevertheless. Another sad indictment of the modern day game.

Lukker-

flahavaj wrote: »

The downside to your club being a plaything I suppose.

He never should have been giving the job tbh, the only reason he did so well was because the team was already so good.

Crann na Beatha

This post has been deleted.

Panthro

papagormo wrote: »

Malouda better get off his hole so for this game. Hes gotten so bulked up he can hardly run at this stage! Yuri on the other hand is zippy down the wing.
Kalou will hardly get a run out?!

Why I believe mystic papa strikes again.
Had a feeling he would get a start today for some reason.

jcf

Pretty bad timing allright for this , a bit worried about today to be honest,
City seem to be our bogey team of late ...

Johner

Fantastic result and a good performance.

Crann na Beatha

This post has been deleted.

Johner

I thought Torres actually played pretty well! The goals will come.

Nuri Sahin

What did I tell ya's about Luiz back in January The guy is immense.

Johner

Legend in the making!

Thought Terry was brilliant aswell.

Gonzovision

It'll be interesting to see what happens when Alex gets back to fitness soon.

smuckers

Big big win not free flowing but deserved.

Torres will get there, played well I thought Ramieres and Luiz outstanding as was Terry.

smuckers

Malouda can go back on bench awful yet again.

Johner

Ye second half in particular Malouda was woeful.

Panthro

the oul Kalou was pretty lively in the 1st half, seemed to drift off in the second. Would love to have seen more of Yuri today.
Top performance from the majority of the team today overall. Was very impressed with Lamps in the 1st half especially. The ould spine of Cech, Terry, Lamps, Essien seemed very much in tact.
Luiz..what can you say, his passing range alone was something fantastic.
City came to defend and make things difficult and that they did, but full marks to the lads, went out and got the result in a good strong fashion.

pistolpetes11

Malouda is ****ing cack , had we had a half decent winger , wud of done them by cricket scores , also torres will never score unless he gets service , essien , malouda , brana, kalou, lampard all missed great chances for a clear run in, need to play to his strengths cause that's where he will do damage, off the defenders shoulder,

Luiz was top class today , his goal was a bonus but his performance was top notch, Terry , ramieres, would fall into that category too.

We were very slow building up and very negative in the first half but once again we came out will all guns blazing in the second.

Hope there is going to be a good crew of us over for the champions league game, feeling really positive now.

Great game to be at and that's both sides of manchester dealt with at the bridge now

Lukker-

Yuri deserves a start.

superfrank

Lukker- wrote: »

Yuri deserves a start.

Think He will once he gets proper fit. He's only back from injury!!

Ramires put in a great shift again and deserved a goal!! Struggled at first but having a Great second half to the season!!!

McDave

Chelsea are building up a decent head of steam. Today could have been a frustrating 0:0, but we were able to put the screws on. In no time we'll be snapping right at Arsenal's heels.

Like others are saying, Torres will come good. This season, all he has to do is score a couple of crucial goals. And it's no harm if he can be left on the bench a few times. Key players are coming back from injury and are being conditioned for the big push.

It's not too ridiculous to hope that Chelsea could get to the end of the season dropping only a handful of points from now on. It mightn't get us ahead of MU, but it'll guarantee CL football next season, and ensure the rebuilding process proceeds uninhibited.

Sgt Pepper 64

gonzovision wrote: »

It'll be interesting to see what happens when Alex gets back to fitness soon.

Alex will get the 2 Man U CL games, Bose on the bench I would have thought and Ivan shuffles across
How on earth can he drop Luiz?

The great thing about today was that at last we have real game changers on the bench.
Kalou is NOT a starter

jcf

Luiz was just immense in defense today, and then he scores the 1st goal !!!!

great stuff - and a first goal for Ramires too happy days!!

superfrank

jcf wrote: »

Luiz was just immense in defense today, and then he scores the 1st goal !!!!

great stuff - and a first goal for Ramires too happy days!!

Second Goal ... First goal at the Bridge...

Also David Luiz has now scored in back to back home games...He's already a Fan Favorite..Pity we dont have him for champions league!!

amiable

Great result for Chelsea today considering a team above Chelsea in the table went to the bridge and parked the bus.
Mancini is too negative for the english game imo

MUSEIST

Delighted, david luiz is already a legend, what a player. Not even slightly over awed by the premier league. Not only did he score but I thought he was outstanding in defence for us today.

How many teams can take off torres after 70mins and bring on drogba and anelka, great strenght in depth.

:D:D
Just noticed we still have a game in hand on city.

Nuri Sahin

jcf wrote: »

Luiz was just immense in defense today, and then he scores the 1st goal !!!!

great stuff - and a first goal for Ramires too happy days!!

Scored vs Bolton at the Reebok.

Luckily vs you lot, Luiz is very versatile and can play anywhere along the back line. Personally speaking, it'd be great to see Ancelotti play Alex and Luiz together as CB's but that isn't going to happen.

Panthro

Wonder when Alex is fully fit would Luiz be moved into a midfield role.
Imagine him in front of the two CB's.
More than likely never going to happen unless a few midfielders end up injured.

MUSEIST

smuckers wrote: »

Malouda can go back on bench awful yet again.

His crosses were pure muck and half the time he kept slowing our play down with sloppy and slow passing. Zhirkov has to come back in imo, he passes better and creates more and can also defend.

growler

I can't understand why Carlo is persisting with Torres, for all his running around he's still done nothing and we can't afford the luxury of waiting for him to score in the hope that that will somehow magincally open the torres goal floodgates. Kalou caused more problems for city than torres did today. But why play those two up front today when we needed some height in the box to cause any problems on all those wasted crosses in ? We seemed to have caught some of city's defensive disease today until Drogs arrived, Essien seemed determined not to make a forward pass for the first 70 minutes and all our midfield were guilty of being overly cautious I thought. Again we tried to walk the ball into the net for the first half (same as on wednesday night's borefest).

Drogs needs to start every game from now on, I'd bench Essien for mceachran and Yuri / Boswinga are deserving of a place, Malouda seems to have lost the plot. I just don't think Carlo is getting anywhere near the best out of the squad at his disposal and its very frustrating. With city playing for the draw today we failed to get any decent quick counter attacks mounted being content to play 20 passes before the ball got near their goal, not at all like chelsea.

Anyway, back in relative safety for next year's CL and taken a measure of revenge against City but we still need to improve massivley in our attacking attitude for the remainder of the season.

How good was Luiz today? legend in the making and great goal from Ramires !

The Davestator

As one of ramires biggest detractors, he had a great game today and capped it off with a super goal.
I'm still not sold on him but more games like today and, as I have always said I'll be happy to be proved wrong!

Sgt Pepper 64

El LoCo Ade wrote: »

Scored vs Bolton at the Reebok.

Luckily vs you lot, Luiz is very versatile and can play anywhere along the back line. Personally speaking, it'd be great to see Ancelotti play Alex and Luiz together as CB's but that isn't going to happen.

It might - Terry's back aint the best and as the games pile up
I reckon he will have to rest him

Johner

Who is Ian McGarry?

Couple of Chelsea sources on Twitter have re-tweeted what he said there earlier,

garbosj Ian McGarry
To clarify. Ancelotti will leave #CFC at end of this season. Regardless of results. According to my information. Shame. Good man.

Sgt Pepper 64

Johner wrote: »

Who is Ian McGarry?

Couple of Chelsea sources on Twitter have re-tweeted what he said there earlier,

garbosj Ian McGarry
To clarify. Ancelotti will leave #CFC at end of this season. Regardless of results. According to my information. Shame. Good man.

He's just some Journo gob****e.
Take it all with a pinch of salt. Ive seen Frank LeBeef quoted as saying the same.
Be a shame if he does go. He's managed to turn it around and try new systems, if he was a little slow to do so. Shown he's not afraid to drop the big names
Certainly the whole Ray Wilkins thing hasnt helped, bit of a wake up call to him. And the strange transfer policy - Ramires wasnt his call, nor Torres.

The one blot on his copy book for me, was that he never started Danny with either Anelka or Drogba. Now he rotates them all! Maybe if he had tried that earlier, it might have worked.

And surely Chelsea must realise now that the world isnt full of available top class managers, and that a few might view Stamford Bridge as too much of a Hot Seat!

I'd like to see Carlo get one more season at least, let him get a few of his own transfer targets in. The revolving door becomes a bit too much of a joke and Chelsea need to show some class

McDave

Sgt Pepper 64 wrote: »

And surely Chelsea must realise now that the world isnt full of available top class managers, and that a few might view Stamford Bridge as too much of a Hot Seat!

I'd like to see Carlo get one more season at least, let him get a few of his own transfer targets in. The revolving door becomes a bit too much of a joke and Chelsea need to show some class

Bang on. IMO Chelsea need a period of stability. Maybe if RA gets his CL, then he'll settle down to play a longer game a la Ferguson/Wenger.

Panthro

as said, such a pity he didn't unleash Danny during the blip period this season.
That said, Danny is gaining valuable expericence elsewhere.
Think he will have done enough this season to be kept around.
On a personal level, I like the way he conducts himself when interviewed too. Fierce likeable character I think.

Soby

Maybe experiment with Torres as a CB and swap him with Luiz :P

DOC09UNAM

Soby wrote: »

Maybe experiment with Torres as a CB and swap him with Luiz :P

He'd probably start scoring OG's because he'd be confused :P

Jagera

I was delighted watching that yesterday. After looking at some highlights again on MOTD, I don't think Malouda was as bad as some think. ManCity were just totally shutting down the left hand side, committing most of the team to to defending, and playing for the draw. Malouda had nothing to work with.

Ivanovich had acres of space, but Chelsea went forward down the left & centre most of the time. I was not overly impressed with Ivan's service though. Usually he whips them in well.

The change in play was the downfall of Man City. I feel sorry for Torres in that regard. He played OK. Goals will come.

Luiz.. the afro'd genius.. He's fantastic on the ball.

pistolpetes11

bw wrote: »

I was delighted watching that yesterday. After looking at some highlights again on MOTD, I don't think Malouda was as bad as some think. ManCity were just totally shutting down the left hand side, committing most of the team to to defending, and playing for the draw. Malouda had nothing to work with.

Ivanovich had acres of space, but Chelsea went forward down the left & centre most of the time. I was not overly impressed with Ivan's service though. Usually he whips them in well.

The change in play was the downfall of Man City. I feel sorry for Torres in that regard. He played OK. Goals will come.

Luiz.. the afro'd genius.. He's fantastic on the ball.

Malouda was very poor on the ball , cant recall him taking on a player when he was against the last man to whip one across , anyway even when he did get a clear view , he took a shot from a stupid angle with the box full of blue shirts and the second time put it stupidly wide before even getting the ball past the front post.

chelseavera

Sgt Pepper 64 wrote: »

He's just some Journo gob****e.
Take it all with a pinch of salt. Ive seen Frank LeBeef quoted as saying the same.
Be a shame if he does go. He's managed to turn it around and try new systems, if he was a little slow to do so. Shown he's not afraid to drop the big names
Certainly the whole Ray Wilkins thing hasnt helped, bit of a wake up call to him. And the strange transfer policy - Ramires wasnt his call, nor Torres.

The one blot on his copy book for me, was that he never started Danny with either Anelka or Drogba. Now he rotates them all! Maybe if he had tried that earlier, it might have worked.

And surely Chelsea must realise now that the world isnt full of available top class managers, and that a few might view Stamford Bridge as too much of a Hot Seat!

I'd like to see Carlo get one more season at least, let him get a few of his own transfer targets in. The revolving door becomes a bit too much of a joke and Chelsea need to show some class

Not quite just another Journo G*bsh*te though as he co-wrote Lampards Biography and is generally regarded as being quite well connected. Just saying like - I think there maybe something in this whether we like it or not.

Sgt Pepper 64

Found this info here, article by Lee Dixon

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thefootballtacticsblog/2011/03/luiz_shows_man_city_the_way_fo.html


But what really made him stand out at Stamford Bridge was his ability to stop City's attacks and get Chelsea moving forward. The key to this is his capacity for intercepting the ball.

Although the 23-year-old can tackle, he is proving a fine reader of the game, anticipating his opponent's attacks and moving across to pinch the ball before it reaches its intended target.



He did this on several occasions on Sunday and since the beginning of February when he made his full debut for the Blues he has become the Premier League's leading interceptor. Once he has recovered the ball, he is also able to display his range of passing thereby allowing Chelsea's forwards to counter-attack quickly.
The Brazilian was certainly put to the test once John Terry was injured early in the second half, but City again showed why they have failed to break through to the highest level in the Premier League.
With only Edin Dzeko up front City started brightly, but lacking the injured Carlos Tevez they only really made any progress down the flanks.
And once they attempted to get the ball in and around the box Luiz was waiting to nullify their efforts.
"In order to intercept well you have a good football brain and work out whether you are in the right position to steal in, in front of a player," said former Arsenal defender and Match of the Day 2 pundit Lee Dixon. "You need to be thinking all the time.
"The second thing is you need to be quick off the mark and he has shown both those attributes since joining Chelsea. He looks a good all-round centre-half.
"He's good in the air, he's quick and fleet of foot and he reads the game well. He can also step into midfield, as he is good on the ball and can carry it out of defence."

Johner

Reserves won away to Wigan 1-0.

Billy Clifford with the goal.

Gonzovision

Johner wrote: »

Reserves won away to Wigan 1-0.

Billy Clifford with the goal.

Whats the story with these games played behind closed doors? (not sure about todays, but it wasn't televised)

GavRedKing

3 points what more could we have asked for? We deserved to win and its about time we beat City in the league.

There was some fantastic performances for us. The ones that stand out, JT, Luiz, Ramires, thought Torres was good also.

Things I didnt like, Kalou and Malouda were nearly absent in the 2nd half, I tihnk Torres should have been given the full 90 mins anyway, the Sky shots of him coming off told alot. Even the fans reaction too him coming off must have been an indication it was the wrong thing to do.

RA back at the bridge and seemed to be enjoying it, but of course he would, we won.

Main thing is we are winning again but I fear its too late to push United but its a good start too hopefully rebuilding for next year.

If we cant beat United / Arsenal too the EPL title we still have the CL in our sights.

Panthro

Heard this story this morning, him working with Carlo possibility?
Would be intersting, then bring back Wilkins and sure Clarkey aswell and we will have the dream team at the helm.