See, I’m going to be as level-headed as possible in the assessment of our situation. We all had enough time for our knee-jerk reactions, outbursts and execution orders for our manager and some of the players. Posting this after more than 36 hours since this match got over, I’m able to see the varied views of the visitors of this blog and other blogs, sports websites etc. Dont see me as a prick with eternal hope. I just want show you the unpopular perspective.

We lost to Liverpool (of all teams) once again at Anfiled in the Champions League semifinals. I’m as frustrated and annoyed at this like anyone else. The team has given their everything over the last 9 months. They are really hungry to succeed wherever they go but sometimes, they did falter. You can’t win them all everytime. They may be one of the best-paid players but these defeats would have given ‘them’ more pain than they have given to us, because they have this tremendous winning mentality. I for one, in whichever sport I follow, never talk about the players’ salaries, when they show commitment and hard work and still lose. That would be a very cheap thinking, from my point of view. Instead of shouting for their heads, I feel sorry for them. I’m unable to hate them or frown at them for what they have done so far.

Many times, I get annoyed/frustrated at myself for some of the words/actions. What I can do then? Nothing. I just go on and hope I dont repeat the mistakes. That’s how I feel now about Chelsea now. It will be very cruel and heartless if I go overboard on my assessment of my team now. Drogba scored 32 goals and most of them very crucial ones and he had a bad day in office on Tuesday. I can’t simply pounce on him because he had a bad day after he outscored every striker in Europe. We’ve all had bad days in office. Sometimes, they just happen. It’s not that you’re not concentrating enough or something but they simply happen. Some call it the law of averages or fate or destiny or whatever. That’s what happened to Chelsea. We played superbly for 8 months despite all issues and remained as the only team in all competitions as on first morning of May. Teams do have their bad days and luck does play a part on when you’ll have that bad day or whether that would make you draw or lose.

I’m not a Jose Mourinho worshipper. But I love him. He is a great manager for his age and a fantastic personality. Most of the mourinho-haters are uncontrollably jealous of this man and also because their manager is a lousy, fat, old-fashioned bugger. Mourinho is all they want their manager to be. They have a secret admiration of his style, his tactics, his people management and his media-handling. Like anyone else, he is not error-free. He makes mistakes and learns from them faster than anyone else, which is why I’m hyper-confident about the next season. If he can achieve so much without his first choice keeper for half the league matches, without his centrebacks for so long, his pacy wingers who are the life blood of his formation, with problems with his ‘next to God’ Forbes 10 owner – hats off.

If you say Jose did not anticipate these or did not act swiftly, that’s your opinion, not a fact. Well, I have an opinion too. I feel that Jose must have done all that is possible to avert an injury inflicted selection crisis. Knowing that Roman and Jose had a poor relationship (which is a fact), knowing that we were after so many players in January (which is a fact), I will conclude that Roman’s stubbornness or way of showing ‘who’s the boss’ has cost us dearly. Dont get me wrong. Roman had a huge influence and contribution in the revival of this club. The trophies that we have won over the last few seasons would not have been possible without Roman or Jose. There is a general formula that sells easily: “credit all the successes to Roman’s money and debit all the losses to Jose’s management”. Think of a multi-billion producer who hands over his mutli-millions movie project to a director. When the movie becomes a blockbuster, how much credit do we give to the producer and the director?

For more than one reason, Jose’s situation is unique. One important reason is that the owner of the club knows, follows and loves football. Owners of many other clubs (incl Man Utd) may not know that the football is round (or sphere, for purists). Roman wants to be involved in certain things which Jose may not be able to refuse. Jose did say that he would quit Chelsea, if Roman starts interfering in his business but that’s only good for the media interview. How practical do you think it is to quit a club like Chelsea which pays him handsomely, which gives his a great challenge to test his genius. May be, he thought the Roman-Jose battle is also a challenge for him to manage and succeed and he doesnt want to give in.

We had injuries in Jose’s first and second seasons in Chelsea. We ended up winning the league in April. Our ill-fate with injuries was so much that even the ex-Chelsea players ended up with broken bones and twisted shoulders (Gallas, Duff, Gudjonsen, Crespo etc). Add to this, the uncertainty of Jose’s situation, requiring players and managers to rally around him. Because of all this have we performed poorly? A big NO. Okay, the idea of quadruple which was alive until day before yesterday, has taken a beating. But that doesnt make this a bad season or something. May be, expectations on Jose has increased exponentially, only because he was good enough to deliver back-to-back titles. Remember, the expectation of the Board (read Roman) is to win the league title one more time by 2010 and win a champions league title by 2015. Going by this, suggesting that Roman should sack Jose is complete madness. Keeping personal egos aside as much as possible, for the good of Chelsea and the dream Roman has, it makes perfect sense for Roman to keep Jose, unless he dates Roman’s new wife or something.

There is a widespread feeling among Chelsea fans that we should drop league ambitions and conserve and preserve our resources for the FA Cup final. I disagree here. I’d prefer to give it one last big push for the league. Man Utd is on the driver’s seat in the league but their semifinal loss is also going to have an impact on their game. Our loss will impact will our game too but I dont think many give us a chance now and the pressure is less, which can work to our advantage. The manner in which Man Utd were beaten must have been very heart-breaking for the Reds. They went their as favourites to win, had thrashed another Italian team 7-1 but they were taught a lesson by the Italian giants last night. They now have to fly back to UK and get ready for the weekend derby against Man City, who I believe, would give them a fight and might even nick a point or three.

Instead of getting overboard and over-emotional, I prefer to appreciate what we have managed to achieve and hope the promises and potentials can come good. The future’s bright and the future’s blue!