Chelsea Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2013/14

grumpymunster

GavRedKing wrote: »

Thats a crazy theory, RDM was sacked because the results in Europe were terrible and he cost us a chance to defend the UCL, he didnt help himself, Roman was always going to sack him this season granted, but his downfall in the UCL and league didnt help his case at all.

When you have 2 recognised strikers at the club you have to rotate them, Torres is scoring in Europe and without his goals we wouldnt be in the Final.

Had RDM stayed incharge until now I think we'd be in a worse position as he wouldnt have made the changes that Rafa is forced to make every week and thats the problem, we'll finish the season playing 69 games and the consequence of that with our thin squad is dropping points and losing goals in the last 15-20 mins of games, it doesnt matter if Jose was in charge, this curernt squad would struggle to cope with the demands of 69 games when most are playing 50-55.

Look you dont have to like Rafa or Torres but blaming them collectively as the reason we are where we are in the league is a cop out.

I'd give ya a choice, you're the chairmen of a club with no bias towards Rafa, you've the option to hire Rafa or RDM who do you pick?

Which 2 strikers did RDM have to rotate Studge was injured for a large part of the first few months of the season that left a misfiring Torres. So it would have been very difficult to rotate him. Whilst Torres scoring record in the Europa cup is good his record in the Champions league was very poor 4 starts and 1 subs appearance fro RDM and 1 goal from the 10 we scored.

I have nothing against Torres would have loved him to do well but would you have paid ST£50m for him if you were the chairman? He starts more games than Ba has a worse league scoring record than him since Ba joined but he still gets selected ahead of him in league games.

What has our interim done in the past few years that would have placed him higher than the current Champions league and FA Cup winning manager? So you are honestly saying you would prefer a coach who has not worked for neigh on 2 years over the coach who has just won the FA Cup and Champions League. Seriously?

GavRedKing

grumpymunster wrote: »

What has our interim done in the past few years that would have placed him higher than the current Champions league and FA Cup winning manager? So you are honestly saying you would prefer a coach who has not worked for neigh on 2 years over the coach who has just won the FA Cup and Champions League. Seriously?

Every day of the week and twice on match day. Rafa is a better coach then RDM. RDM was lucky that he was brought in as part of AVB's coaching team as otherwise he wouldnt have had a snowballs chance in hell of getting the Chelsea job.

Club legend or not RDM just isnt up to the standard of what Rafa has achieved over his career.

Rafa might not get another top job after this but I'm fairly certain RDM wont either.

grumpymunster

Well we will have to agree to differ I think Gav but if you are talking lucky coaches then you need look no further than our interim.

Why do you think he has not worked since being sacked by Inter, what has he done at Stamford Bridge that would make anyone think he is the tactical genius he has been reported to be. The team selection against QPR, being out played by West Ham, his substitutions are nonsensical most of the time what possible justification can there be for the subs used last night and against Liverpool? His teams squandering 2 goal leads against much lesser opposition. Robbie may have been lucky but he could set a team up reasonably well.

I have often said I have no problem with the man taking the job and trying to put himself in the shop window, who wouldn't but it is clear to anyone who wants to look he is not capable of managing a side at this level and has not been for some time.

GavRedKing

grumpymunster wrote: »

Well we will have to agree to differ I think Gav .

Ok so.

I'm not too pushed anyway one TSO is back very soon I couldnt give a toss about Rafa or RDM.

Panthro

GavRedKing wrote: »

Ok so.

I'm not too pushed anyway one TSO is back very soon I couldnt give a toss about Rafa or RDM.

TSO, AVB, RDM, LOL!
SOZ.

blue-army

GavRedKing wrote: »

New country, new challenge, new lifestyle for Wazza I reckon.

Really? The man can barely speak English. He wouldn't be able to cope in Germany or Spain.

Add into that the fact he was a young son, I can't see him leaving England if there's a good offer there.

I reckon the main reason for Rooney wanting to leave is him knowing Moyes was in line to take over.
If the price quoted of £30m is right, I reckon Abramovich would be happy to pay that. Still yet to reach his peak as a player at 27, and with him being such a huge name, marketing and jersey sales would probably mean he'd pay for himself over a couple of seasons.

Kirby

blue-army wrote: »

Really? The man can barely speak English. He wouldn't be able to cope in Germany or Spain.

Add into that the fact he was a young son, I can't see him leaving England if there's a good offer there.

I reckon the main reason for Rooney wanting to leave is him knowing Moyes was in line to take over.
If the price quoted of £30m is right, I reckon Abramovich would be happy to pay that. Still yet to reach his peak as a player at 27, and with him being such a huge name, marketing and jersey sales would probably mean he'd pay for himself over a couple of seasons.

Yet to reach his peak? Physically, that ship has sailed. Rooney doesn't take care of himself. We are talking about an "athlete" who smoked for jaysus sake. Seeing him balloon up every summer just highlights the problem.

I still think he can be a good player and score goals because only a portion of the game is physical.....but his best days are behind him at this stage.

GavRedKing

blue-army wrote: »

Really? The man can barely speak English. He wouldn't be able to cope in Germany or Spain.

Add into that the fact he was a young son, I can't see him leaving England if there's a good offer there.

I reckon the main reason for Rooney wanting to leave is him knowing Moyes was in line to take over.
If the price quoted of £30m is right, I reckon Abramovich would be happy to pay that. Still yet to reach his peak as a player at 27, and with him being such a huge name, marketing and jersey sales would probably mean he'd pay for himself over a couple of seasons.

What about his reported wages, hes on Torres money.

fozz10

GavRedKing wrote: »

Every day of the week and twice on match day. Rafa is a better coach then RDM. RDM was lucky that he was brought in as part of AVB's coaching team as otherwise he wouldnt have had a snowballs chance in hell of getting the Chelsea job.

Club legend or not RDM just isnt up to the standard of what Rafa has achieved over his career.

Rafa might not get another top job after this but I'm fairly certain RDM wont either.

wow to this!!! Just wow. I'm pretty sure rafas been on worse runs with us then rdm running up to his sacking or as bad anyway. We won the double with him so calling it lucky is a joke. RaFa is lucky.-lucky to of got the job at all. Rafa is complete muck and has proved absolutely nothing. Torres is also muck and if the club wants to be serious about the league next year both must not be at the club next year end of. People are clutching to straws with Torres he is now a rubbish p league quality goal scorer.

blue-army

Kirby wrote: »

Yet to reach his peak? Physically, that ship has sailed. Rooney doesn't take care of himself. We are talking about an "athlete" who smoked for jaysus sake. Seeing him balloon up every summer just highlights the problem.

I still think he can be a good player and score goals because only a portion of the game is physical.....but his best days are behind him at this stage.

Wouldn't write him off at all. He's only started 37 games this year, and still managed 22 goals and 14 assists. He's been nowhere near his best this season, but I'd put that down to him being rotated with RVP, Welbeck and Chicharito.
This team a year ago he was being hailed as being one of the best in the world. 27 premier league goals alone that year!

With the World Cup next year I've no doubt whatsoever he'll be back to his best if he gets a move and is starting regularly.

GavRedKing wrote: »

What about his reported wages, hes on Torres money.

I don't think wages are gonna be an issue at all.
Benayoun is being offloaded this summer - that's a reported £70k cut already.
Add in Malouda, potentially Lampard and others. I can't see it being a problem.

The fact Chelsea have the likes of Roman's old friends Gazprom on board as 'energy sponsors' means there's always going to be ways around this Financial Fair Play being brought in too.

Meglamonia

Panthro wrote: »

TSO, AVB, RDM, LOL!
SOZ.

FSW!

Kirby

blue-army wrote: »

Wouldn't write him off at all..

Oh by no means am I writing him off. As I said, I still think he can be a good player for any number of teams and score lots of goals. But my point was that physically, he's only going one way. Talk of him hitting his prime in the future is foolhardy. It would take a drastic change in his lifestyle.

McDave

Lukker- wrote: »

You can't be serious? Kept Bale quiet all night, counter attacked superbly and capped it off with a goal? One of our most important players.

I'm quite serious indeed. Ramires gives up too much possession too easily. Last night, he put his team under needless pressure on a number of occasions and ran into frequent dead ends.

Ramires is a good player, but on balance he's only a bit better than, say, Shaun Wright Phillips. He can't deliver consistently. If we're going to challenge for honours, I think he's really only decent backup.

I'd be looking to upgrade for next year, along with Mikel who is also below par.

Garzorico

McDave wrote: »

I'm quite serious indeed. Ramires gives up too much possession too easily. Last night, he put his team under needless pressure on a number of occasions and ran into frequent dead ends.

Ramires is a good player, but on balance he's only a bit better than, say, Shaun Wright Phillips. He can't deliver consistently. If we're going to challenge for honours, I think he's really only decent backup.

I'd be looking to upgrade for next year, along with Mikel who is also below par.

I hate to admit it about Ramires but you are right on the money.

Meglamonia

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11668/8701055/Transfer-news-Chelsea-midfielder-Frank-Lampard-hopes-to-stay-at-Stamford-Bridge

Still hope of Lamps staying??

duploelabs

Meglamonia wrote: »

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11668/8701055/Transfer-news-Chelsea-midfielder-Frank-Lampard-hopes-to-stay-at-Stamford-Bridge

Still hope of Lamps staying??

And I'm hopeful that Scarlet will be bouncing on my lap when I wake in the morning, doesn't mean it's gonna happen!

RichT

duploelabs wrote: »

And I'm hopeful that Scarlet will be bouncing on my lap when I wake in the morning, doesn't mean it's gonna happen!

:eek:

Duck Soup

Wouldn't be over the proverbial footballing moon at a Rooney signing. I agree with Kirby - he's Wazza in the Gazza atyle. Drinking, fags and chips and it's all downhill over the next 5 years. That's not to say he still can't score the odd Hollywood spectacular or have days when he'll terrify defences, but he's slowly losing fitness and focus. Happy to have him at £15m, not at £30m.

duploelabs

RichT wrote: »

:eek:

dammit my secret's out

Corvo

Duck Soup wrote: »

Wouldn't be over the proverbial footballing moon at a Rooney signing. I agree with Kirby - he's Wazza in the Gazza atyle. Drinking, fags and chips and it's all downhill over the next 5 years. That's not to say he still can't score the odd Hollywood spectacular or have days when he'll terrify defences, but he's slowly losing fitness and focus. Happy to have him at £15m, not at £30m.

I think you are being extremely harsh on Rooney here. He is still a 1 in 2 scoring player who, while fitness may be a problem on the horizon, is still only 27 years of age with the ability to fit in across both the front line and midfield.

Ask any United fan this season who was the best player behind Van Persie and most will say Carrick, but a lot with also say Rooney. I certainly think his focus has gone alright, but I think that is more to do with United than anything else. I think he is ready for a move.

£15m? Ah come on! He's a £30m standard player. No less.

hots

I wouldn't be for a Rooney move to us anyway. One of his biggest strengths was his tenacity and ability to 'be up' for every ball in every game, this season and last he seems to be just on the pitch because he has to be.

GavRedKing

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/chelsea/10046642/Jose-Mourinho-returning-to-Chelsea-would-be-great-thing-for-the-club-says-Frank-Lampard.html

Jose Mourinho returning to Chelsea would be 'great thing for the club', says Frank Lampard

Essien

I'd also be against signing Rooney - I really suspect we'd just end up getting the very worst of him.

How many times have we bought big name forwards at the wrong time? This would be a textbook case.

Buying a 27 year old (will be 28 early next season) forward from a rival having not been in the best of form lately. Also, he's won heaps there, how much desire could he possibly show at Chelsea? A club who he probably hates and who's fans aren't particularly fond of him either. It absolutely reeks of disaster.

Essien

GavRedKing wrote: »

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/chelsea/10046642/Jose-Mourinho-returning-to-Chelsea-would-be-great-thing-for-the-club-says-Frank-Lampard.html

I'm like an excited child at this stage now that Moyes is confirmed as Uniteds new man, it really looks like this is going to happen.

GavRedKing

Essien wrote: »

I'm like an excited child at this stage now that Moyes is confirmed as Uniteds new man, it really looks like this is going to happen.

Duncan Castles on Twitter said Jose is giving the Real board one last chance to keep him.

He points out that he wants a clear out of some players and wants the poison out of the squad.

Although with Moyes going to Utd that does take away one of our biggest rivals for Jose.

grumpymunster

To be honest I am really fed up with the whole managers thing at Chelsea it has been a mess for years - nice winning stuff though.

Essien

grumpymunster wrote: »

To be honest I am really fed up with the whole managers thing at Chelsea it has been a mess for years - nice winning stuff though.

Maybe Jose is getting ready to settle down, you know, somewhere he's loved. We can dream.

GavRedKing

grumpymunster wrote: »

To be honest I am really fed up with the whole managers thing at Chelsea it has been a mess for years - nice winning stuff though.

Its frustrating though when you hire a good manager and turf him out after a few months or on the back of a poor sequence of results.

GavRedKing

Essien wrote: »

Maybe Jose is getting ready to settle down, you know, somewhere he's loved. We can dream.

Hes had enough one night stands with Madrid and Milan, time to come back to London and settle down Jose, we forgive you.

:pac:

grumpymunster

When you think of it Jose was a mistake but did he want to change difficult to say. Carlo was an absolute disgrace no other way to describe that and given our resources AVB should have been given time. Though in AVB's case don't think we would have won anything last season.

GavRedKing

grumpymunster wrote: »

When you think of it Jose was a mistake but did he want to change difficult to say. Carlo was an absolute disgrace no other way to describe that and given our resources AVB should have been given time. Though in AVB's case don't think we would have won anything last season.

If Spurs finish 5th they'll have gone backwards onAVB compared to Harry, in league terms anyway, although Id rate AVb much more highly then Harry.

grumpymunster

Indeed in league terms but losing Modric and van der Vaart was a big loss for them. Also not having van der Vaarts missus around the place would make it far more depressing.

greendom

Chelsea under-performing in the league last season helped their league position too.

Essien

greendom wrote: »

Chelsea under-performing in the league last season helped their league position too.

I doubt that :P

podge79

Panthro wrote: »

TSO, AVB, RDM, LOL!
SOZ.

you forgot TGR... Tactical Genius Rafa... *cough*

GavRedKing

greendom wrote: »

Chelsea under-performing in the league last season helped their league position too.

Newcastle also very much over-acheived last season and this season they've massively under-performed.

FWIW i reckon the 4 best teams in England are the current top 4, last year we poxed getting into the UCL by winning the thing but we had basically lumped it all on the UCL for the last few games, it was s**t or bust for us.

grumpymunster

Will the official announcement that Petrov is to retire put an extra step in the Villa players this weekend do you think?

I really hope all thoughts of the Thursday league cup final (ironically on Wednesday) are banished and the strongest team we have faces Villa

GavRedKing

Buddy of mine is going over to the game tomorrow, hes a villa fan has a spare in the Holte end, flights are about 150-160 when I checked last night.

I was very tempted to go.

Crann na Beatha

This post has been deleted.

GavRedKing

grumpymunster wrote: »

Will the official announcement that Petrov is to retire put an extra step in the Villa players this weekend do you think?

I really hope all thoughts of the Thursday league cup final (ironically on Wednesday) are banished and the strongest team we have faces Villa

I'd agree, finishing 4th is more important then winning the EL and finishing 5th.

There will be changes, Lamps/Jt will probably play, Ba, Moses.

Bertrand, Mikel and maybe Hazard could all miss out. Romeu is expected in the squad actually.

Team that Id guess will play is

Cech
Azp Ivan JT Cole
Ramires Lamps
Oscar Yossi Moses
Ba

podge79

grumpymunster wrote: »

Will the official announcement that Petrov is to retire put an extra step in the Villa players this weekend do you think?

I really hope all thoughts of the Thursday league cup final (ironically on Wednesday) are banished and the strongest team we have faces Villa

it might alright but if Chelsea hit Villa hard and early with a couple of goals it should negate any emotional flip Villa will get from the occasion

as for strongest team.. I'm not so sure... can see Rafa resting whatever players he can as he really really wants to put 'Europa League' winner on his CV and he's in a stronger position to 'rotate' players than he would if we were down in 5th

GavRedKing

Phoenix wrote: »

I remember the last time I was at a Villa away game,the only Chelsea fan in the Villa end,I didnt have my colours on,we beat em three nil..oh the looks i got jumped up when gudjohnson scored

We could do with of that tomorrow. The goals and points that is. :pac:

grumpymunster

GavRedKing wrote: »

I'd agree, finishing 4th is more important then winning the EL and finishing 5th.

There will be changes, Lamps/Jt will probably play, Ba, Moses.

Bertrand, Mikel and maybe Hazard could all miss out. Romeu is expected in the squad actually.

Team that Id guess will play is

Cech
Azp Ivan JT Cole
Ramires Lamps
Oscar Yossi Moses
Ba

He has to play either Mata or Haz otherwise my fantasy team is in bits and I am 20 points behind my young lad. I would prefer if he plays both they each score a quick hat trick each and then take them both off after 20 minutes :rolleyes:

I would say your team might be close, starting JT, Lamps, Moses and Ba does not weaken it too much. You could argue it strengthens in 3 out of 4 of those selections. Yossi cant start he simply is not good enough, we cannot rely on Everton being on the beach at SB the following week.

GavRedKing

grumpymunster wrote: »

He has to play either Mata or Haz otherwise my fantasy team is in bits and I am 20 points behind my young lad. I would prefer if he plays both they each score a quick hat trick each and then take them both off after 20 minutes :rolleyes:

I would say your team might be close, starting JT, Lamps, Moses and Ba does not weaken it too much. You could argue it strengthens in 3 out of 4 of those selections. Yossi cant start he simply is not good enough, we cannot rely on Everton being on the beach at SB the following week.

I'd agree but the Twitter machine and internet reckon Hazard will be rested as hes carrying a niggle for the last week or two, he was our best player agasint Spurs but he was fading towards the end.

I'd happily play Mata in palce of Yossi and take Mata off if were coasting with 20 minutes to go and throw on someone else.

Ake might well get game time in CM to replace Ramires whos taking a battering the last few weeks.

GavRedKing

Its too early for Romeu but having him back is a big bonus too, he'll get a full pre-season under his belt at this rate.

hots

Hope we play a relatively strong team against Villa, a win is not a certainty by any means... Moses, Lamps, Terry and Ba definites to start, would love to see Ake given a go but I'd say we've got more chance of seeing Benayoun named captain.

GavRedKing

Rumours abound also that we're in for Lewandoski but Dortmund want De Bruyne in the deal to replace Goetze.

GavRedKing

Also Wilfred Bony's agent is reported by ESPN to have said Bony is leaving in the summer.

Chelsea and Vitesse have strong links and we've sent many youngsters there to get experience, could be another interesting one.

GavRedKing

<

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New avatar :pac:

To be replaced by Jose soon, hopefully.

Crann na Beatha

This post has been deleted.