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Champions of Europe 2012/13 Thread


Philip Rolfe

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Also what is everyone's view on the Malouda situation? Is he in the wrong? Is it just us?

I think it's 50/50 tbh. What we are doing to him is pretty unfair, especially how he has been banished to the u21s and we could have done with him when we were struggling for wingers. However it seems as though the club made it clear that he was free to go, even for a modest fee but he didn't find a new club, even in January. Obviously there are things going on we won't know about.

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For me Malouda has been treated poorly by the club in an attempt to force him out. He would have offered us some rotation in either the middle or out wide and it's crazy to cast him aside when we have such a small squad. I was watching old highlights recently and there are some times Malouda was just really good for us.

IMO a better option on the left wing than Bertrand or Marin.

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Is purely us that are in the wrong. If we didn't want him at the club then either cancel his contract or don't give him a long contract in the first place. Terrible behaviour by the club sticking him in the u21's, especially as he could be very useful still when we are playing Bertrand on the wing in some games and have a light squad anyway.

As for Lukaku, I don't want him coming back yet, the club is a mess and we will only destroy his confidence making him sit on the bench after we've paid £30m for a new striker in the Summer. If I was him I'd be trying to stay as far away as possible, same with any other youth prospect. Not until we get our **** sorted and are what I'd call "stable", which could take a while. Basically appreciate what Roman's done, but he is turning people off the club with the way he is so hands on with regards to managers and signings.

Basically the club is a mess, young players know they won't get a proper chance, the "atmosphere" around the club is awful, the way we go pay £20m+ on players instead of giving some youth players a chance is scandalous. Really puts me off the club at points. Did we really need Marin or was there a youth player who could have got his chance? What was the point of that signing? (and yeah I realise he was "cheap", still £8m wasted and a few youth players upset no doubt). I realise having a team full of young players would be bad, but there has to be a balance between signing backups and giving youth a chance. I mean people want Falcao for £50m but is he really worth it when that means Lukaku gets 0 chance for the next 5 years? We need midfielders in the SUmmer, will this mean McEachran gets a chance or do we go and buy Leon Britton for £10m?

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In that ballpark yeah.

And to clarify on Kakuta, he'd offer the same as Marin now and Marin at his best but would've been cheaper, homegrown eligible and slightly more...committed, if you will, as a player who's come through the academy tends to be. He's been really good for Vitesse the last three months and if you're going to have fringe players/rotation, it's pointless spending money on them when there's a neglible difference between that and an U21 player.

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And you can look at a load of recent transfer activity and question why we've spent money to move sideways on them.

Oriol Romeu - Jack Cork

Lucas Piazon - Fabio Borini

Marko Marin - Gael Kakuta

Raul Meireles - Nemanja Matic

Yossi Benayoun - Gokhan Tore

I've not just picked five random young players there either, I've picked five who have proven themselves to be very capable at very good levels of football. When you throw in that the likes of Stoch, Cummings, Sinclair, Di Santo and Mancienne (plus Bridcutt, Mellis etc in the second tier) have all done that as well in the last few years and we're in a position where the manager is crying about a small squad, I struggle to have any sympathy.

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Emenalo/Forde/the football board in general which has influences from Buck and Tenenbaum (who basically ensures that Abramovich's money is being spent sensibly, chortle). It's an overall agreed decision but I dunno who holds the most influence in the room. I'd hedge a bet it's Emenalo but then it doesn't really fit in with his apparent plan to sign everyone in the world.

Ancelotti's demise was caused directly by Arnesen; he basically said for 10-11 'look, I've got you these kids (Kakuta, Bruma, PvA, Josh, Matic and Borini), use them and don't buy anyone'. Problem with that is the ideal environment to use those players is in a squad which was as big as it was in 09-10, but out went Ballack ( :( ), Joe Cole, Deco, Sinclair, Carvalho, and Matic in January, and they **** the bed and panicked in January with Luiz and Torres, defeating the purpose and serving only to attempt to boost Arnesen's reputation through the desired enhancement of the team through the kids he signed.

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What do you think will happen in the summer?

There are clear failings from the football board in creating a balanced squad/club and these won't be remedied by changing the manager every six months. I fear we are just going to continue to see a cycle of managers coming in/out, having short term success before getting the chop after a poor run. Youngsters won't want to join us as we don't give them any opportunities and general instability around the club will affect recruiting new staff.

Is Mourinho (not going to happen :() powerful enough to come in and sort things out?

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I am generally in favour of a sporting director (or whatever they want to be called) overseeing the make-up of the squad, philosophy, etc. and recruiting coaches that would have the team work in that direction but we seem to jump from one manager style to another with each appointment. It also feels as if nobody is thinking about the long term planning and only from one season to the next.

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I'm fine with it, the problem at Chelsea isn't that, it's the structure of having too many cooks and no linear working relationship between SD and manager. If that doesn't work and shows no sign of working then there's no real worth in having it, and let's face it, it's cost the club big time over the last few years; Mourinho ****ed off because he had his influence diluted, Ancelotti was sacked because he was given a depleted squad, and this season has been a mess because of the same thing. It's been a relative constant under Abramovich so short of him changing (and he'd only do that if he wanted Mourinho back because Mourinho would likely demand it) I guess we're just gonna have to cross our fingers that things change with regards the squad and the SD/manager relationship.

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Possibly. He's prone to those sort of 'swing' decisions and splash moves aimed at trying to get the fans back onside, and that would be pretty much the ultimate one if he were to do so. If it's gonna happen, I expect it'd be as a result of Mourinho manipulating the situation to force his hand, so to speak, rather than RA going out and chasing him like he did Guardiola. If Mourinho puts him in that position and he's torn as to whether it's the right thing to do or not I'd expect him to err on the side of yes and give the usual confidence boost, then go from there.

Trying to second guess this man is mental though. I wrote this at the weekend trying to get an idea of who he'll look at but it's just as likely to be spectacularly wrong.

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Maybe, maybe not, but it's a moot point because Emenalo is trusted at Chelsea and I don't think he's going anywhere. Even if Mourinho came in I expect he's done well enough to be retained in a different capacity within the academy or something.

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Emenalo responsible for the loans this season? Because for once we seem to mostly have sent players to good clubs with good playing time.

Yeah, it's mainly his influence in getting them in across Europe. Neil Bath does more of the domestic communication as I understand it.

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Possibly. He's prone to those sort of 'swing' decisions and splash moves aimed at trying to get the fans back onside, and that would be pretty much the ultimate one if he were to do so. If it's gonna happen, I expect it'd be as a result of Mourinho manipulating the situation to force his hand, so to speak, rather than RA going out and chasing him like he did Guardiola. If Mourinho puts him in that position and he's torn as to whether it's the right thing to do or not I'd expect him to err on the side of yes and give the usual confidence boost, then go from there.

Trying to second guess this man is mental though. I wrote this at the weekend trying to get an idea of who he'll look at but it's just as likely to be spectacularly wrong.

Cheers Phil, I saw that piece, well written and made a lot of sense, but as you said, who really knows what Roman is thinking? Looking at the candidates you posted, none of them jumps out as a Chelsea-style manager to me. The only candidate out there right now who looks to me that he'd suit the club (Other than Jose of course) is Laudrup. I know he hasn't achieved too much, but there's just something about him that I think would fit in well here.

Can anyone else see Mancini getting the boot from City, Roman going after him while Jose takes over up there and turns them into the best side in Europe? Hopefully that's just me being overly pessimistic though

Sadly that's exactly what I expect to happen, he'll stay there for 5+ years and turn them into a ridiculous force, before going on to manage Portugal to a world title, while we'll be stuck with bloody Benitez. I hope I'm wrong so much.

Edit: I didn't see Robo thinking we'd get Mancini, I just think Jose will go to City, I don't think we'll get Mancini, I think we're more likely to be stuck with Benitez in the longer term (or as long term as we go, so 1 season)

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Cech; Azpi, Cahill (v. lucky not to get sent off) Ivanovic, Bertrand; Lampard, Ramires; Marin (Benayoun), Mata, (Oscar), Hazard; Torres.

Oscar scored a great goal straight after coming on but otherwise it was absolute ****. Very open at the back too, so glad Mikel is back now, he and Lamps in the middle should keep it much more solid now.

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When you throw in that the likes of Stoch, Cummings, Sinclair, Di Santo and Mancienne (plus Bridcutt, Mellis etc in the second tier) have all done that as well in the last few years and we're in a position where the manager is crying about a small squad, I struggle to have any sympathy.

Cummings has only proven capable at the second tier, and even then he hasn't been amazing- he would never have played for Chelsea for more than a one-off and I think you said as much when he signed for Reading. But I do generally agree with your point, you would probably have been better served by keeping Cork, Kakuta, Borini, etc. around the squad than spending fairly large sums on players who are roughly their equals. Whether the likes of Cork and particularly Sinclair would have reached their current levels without regular football and an arm around their shoulder is up for debate.

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We have to play Sparta Prague again 2 days before away at City don't we? Hopefully we can beat Brentford and them relatively comfortably and be in good form to go to the Etihad. Would be happy with a draw but if we actually stay tight at the back (and play Demba Ba) I reckon we could sneak a win.

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