Three crucial points! Thanks to the linesman and Kalou, in that order. In a remarkable day of favourable results, West Ham complete the double over Man Utd but Arsenal top the table which leaves us trailing them by 6 points.
We started with 4-3-3 once again but Cech and Shevchenko were missing due to injuries. We completely dominated the first half but I don’t mean we played brilliantly. Newcastle were way too horrible and gave no challenge at all. It was just a question of Chelsea taking advantage of a poor opposition and killing the game off. Ideally we should have finished off the game in the first half because the second was going to belong to Newcastle.
In the first half we were really helped by our poor opponents. Sam’s boys were so bad that on a different day they might have got conceded about 3 goals in the first half. Martins was the one and only danger from their side. It was clear that if the supply to Martins is cut, there would not be any threat from Newcastle at all. While we were attacking relentlessly, we could come up with clear cut chances. I was quite happy with the individual performances our players in the first half but the when we got closer to the goal, each of them were having different ideas of finishing the attack. We got a thoroughly deserved lead in the first half. Though the ball brushed Kalou’s arm, that was not a punishable hand ball.
Get ready guys! I’m gonna talk about Grant’s post match comments. I know you’re getting sick of it but you know what, same here. I’m getting sick of his digs. If you think his remarks have no malice and he talks like any other noble gentleman, that’s your view.
I didn’t see it (on Kalou’s offside goal) but we created so many chances that we deserved to win anyway. I think we are in the picture with the race to be champions, I never give up. The situation sometimes is not easy, and if Man Utd didn’t lose today we would continue to fight. You saw the spirit of the team today, they showed great spirit. The supporters are behind us, and know that we are not in easy times with all the problems we have. It’s not easy, I think everybody remembers what happens last year with two or three injured, but today with ten injuries this is the time to speak about the players that played. They showed good football, especially in the first half, a lot of chances, and a lot of character at the end of the game. I made substitutions because after the goal we didn’t play well, Joe Cole had some problems, and Ballack hasn’t played so much so he cannot do 90 minutes in our programme. Because of the problem I preferred to change the system, and changed to 4-2-4 and I think it changed the game, so it was a good sub. You need to think about tactics more carefully than before.
This year better than last year . . blah blah blah . . yawn . . blah blah. Look at him talking about his own tactical brilliance – his substitutions, his change of formation, his tactics – man, he needs appreciation. I’m sure he wants people to say ‘Avram is a master tactician’ or something. No Avram, your tactics did not change the game. Did you thank the linesman after the match? That’s it. My boring, annoying, stinking remarks about Avram’s boring, annoying, stinking post match comments is over.
Today at the Stamford Bridge, Avram Grant was heavily boooooed and he had to listen to the Chelsea fans singing “you don’t know what you’re doing”. That was really bad but I’m very serious when I say Avram needs assistance in building up his image because left to himself, he’s gonna ruin it badly.
Sam Allardyce was furious over the Kalou goal which is quite natural as it costs not only points but also his bloody job! But he should that it is part and parcel of professional football.
It hurts deeply – not just for me but the players in particular. A result has been taken away from us by no fault of our own, by an assistant referee that has got a horrible decision wrong. You have to complain when a decision like this is made and it has cost us a crucial result.
Now coming over to our second half performance. Newcastle was the team that played the second half. When they equalised, that was may be to some extent, against the run of play. From that moment on, they were a completely different team. They pushed us on the back foot and started playing as if they were in St. James Park. We were just spectators for long periods of time and I even thought we’re going to concede sooner or later. The Chelsea I knew was much different than the one I saw today. One thing is opponents like Newcastle would never get to score at the Stamford Bridge. Even if they get to net one, they’d preserve it so well and play for a draw, because one point from Stamford Bridge was quite an achievement. But today, Newcastle equalised at the 56th minute and from then on they played to win and get the three points and in the process, dare to break Chelsea’s home league record.
If Newcastle had won the match, I would not have had anything to complain about them. They deserved something for their show of spirit and perseverance in the second half. By statistics we were clearly the better team but from the 56th minute the away team had real fire in their belly to win the match. For about 25 minutes or so, they outplayed us in fortress Stamford Bridge. And it was so pathetic to see that we were in such terrible panic when Newcastle came at us.
Just when this was all set to become another disappointing draw, Kalou found the net. Kalou could slot it home peacefully because he had lots of time and space. He had lots of time and space because he was offside. Atleast by a couple of metres. As he was celebrating, Kalou kept looking at the linesman as he could not believe his luck. If you want to explain your girlfriend about the offside rule, you can show this goal video. Anyway, I don’t care if it was a good call or bad call. Any goal that stands is a goal. But that does not hide the fact that we allowed Newcastle to outplay us for quite some time while we could muster only few quality chances.
I could not appreciate the two second half substitutions. Pizarro came in for Joe Cole at the 65th minute. Under the situations where we’re looking for a winning goal, I’d not bring in Pizarro. Sinclair early on would have done better than Pizarro. If someone had to be subbed at that time, it must have been Mikel. Mikel is not the ideal guy to keep on the pitch when you’re chasing your winning goal with some urgency (which wasn’t there).
From our side, SWP was impressive. He did not make even one row Z cross. Such a relief. Alex and Belleti were solid. Particulary Alex played with such ease and composure that he made Ben Haim look ridiculous. Tal is really a disaster waiting to happen. I don’t know what happened to him. When he was in Bolton he was quite decent and I had more respect for him then. Kalou did a decent job as the striker, and of course scored the goal that won us the match.
Essien and Ballack were very good and they also seem to play nicely alongside each other. Mikel was average and inconsistent. Hilario was right on the money. He was not really tested to the maximum but c’mon he got a clean sheet against mighty Barca on his Chelsea debut, he is lot better than how we rate him! I liked Joe Cole’s contribution today. He has certainly started to take things on his own, holding the ball for too long, trying his little tricks and all. But today, he was quite busy and effective. Overall, individually there were good contributions but as a team we seem to be failing in certain areas.
Man Utd and Arsenal taking turns in dropping points is the best thing that can happen for us. Now we are 6 points off Arsenal and Liverpool are 5 points below us with two games in hand. Off track – Fibreglass keeps giving me new reasons to despise him. His ugly dive today had me curse him non-stop for 5 minutes. If there is such thing as football karma, he’s gonna see a long lay off, mark my words. Allright, back to the table. We have got closer to the table leaders which is nice. The manner in which we have been playing gives me butterflies in my stomach. We seem to lack the spirit and gung ho mentality. When teams score against Chelsea, we used to start bombarding them attack after attack to such an extent the opponent would be ruing why they scored he goal. That does not happen now. I don’t see players playing for the collective good. That’s why this 6 points gap looks to me like some 16 points.
I don’t think they look too worried to concede a goal or committing a mistake or to draw or to lose. In the previous seasons, we were a team that hated losing, that hated conceding goals and we felt badly when such things happened and make good if they made a mistake. The current Chelsea outfit reminds me of Real Madrid of 2003-05 – not so much attachment for the club or for the manager, nothing was a matter of worry – conceding goals or losing points or matches. The ’sense of pride’ is now missing. Hope it will all be allright once the core group of Cech, Terry, Drogba, Essien, Mikel and Lampard get together after the ANC.
Just a couple of days to go for the transfer window. About half a dozen names are discussed with Chelsea and I’m sure we’d be getting 3 or 4 new names. For this to happen we must now get rid of 2 or 3 from the current team. We more or less know those names but I just can’t wait for the incoming names. Hope to see some young and hungry players with the right kind of spirit and attitude, which can sometimes make up for other attributes. We’ll keep discussing on the transfers.
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Avram showed he is not a big manager. However, Celsea fans showed they are not real fan too. booing Pizarro affected hib badly.
As i said before, EPL is over for us.
man utd lost!! cmon if arsenal lose then we are rioght back in the title race
woow
West Ham 2-1 Manchester
If Everton beatr Arsenal , we are back again .just pray Everton wins .
If Everton wins , we will have chance,
maysam
ronaldo can loose penalty
we are right back isnt it… but thanks to the linesman.
if feel even if grant hasnt brought anything related to football he has brought luck… luck used to escape mourinho big time.. the game againt fulham we drew because of an legitimate goal being ruled offfside and here we win for an offside goal being not given
jose -2 points
grant +2 points
chelsea neutral
arsenal trailing 0-1 … looks like a very very good dsy for us..
Tired of poor substitutions; would not have started SWP. What happened to Sheva?
Is Malouda still hurt? Was Sheva scratched at the last minute due to injury?
thank god when new castle didnt got a penaly when ben haim blocked martins in the first half.. this went unnoticed.. to me clear penalty… we r just living on luck
too much drunk but cant sleep till i see arsenal loosing
hail chelsea
Wow. The linesman was really our 12th man out there today.
My Player Ratings:
Hilario – Good stuff from him. Played well and looked confident. No mistakes, which is all you want from a 3rd string shot-stopper: (7.5)
Alex – Calm, powerful, and solid. He definitely has the quality to start at centre-back. He bailed out Ben-Haim multiple times and his headers were fantastic. On top of that, he looked more likely to score than anyone else in our team: (8.5)
Ben-Haim – Awful. Must be sold. Does not have the quality, the athletecism, or the composure to be in our side. Why do we have him ? Sell him and buy another centre-back: (5)
Belleti – Great stuff from him. He is in form now and showing his class, especially running up the flanks and attacking. Linked up well with SWP. Must remain in the side as a starter: (8)
Wayne Bridge – Not too bad. Occasionally looks dangerous as an attacker but his defense sometimes feels shaky. I like Bridge: (7)
Ballack – Sometimes shows his rust but he really is class. A very complete, imperious midfielder and nothing but quality. Has been working his arse off. Good stuff from our interim captain before he came off: (8)
Mikel – Nothing outstanding. A couple of bad shots, not his best performance: (6.5)
Essien – Pretty solid. Not his best but not bad either: (7)
Cole – Didn’t look his best or most dangerous, but that can likely be attributed to starting on the left: (6.5)
SWP – Awesome. Fantastic work-rate. Really did have Newcastle’s defence dancing to his tune: (8.5)
Kalou – Plays so much better at his natural position as a striker. Looked good in the air. Made one bad mistake at the end of the game. He is an instinctive player and when given too much time on the ball he is never convincing: (7.5)
The Linesman – Great stuff from our 12th man today: (9.5)
SUBS
Pizarro – Miserable. The chelsea faithful booing him must have really hurt his confidence even worse. I found myself screaming at him when he got in the way of Essien’s shot. I am convinced that he needs to be sold in the transfer window: (5)
Sinclair – Not confident or established, but you cannot deny that he has the talent and brain to be great. Had one fantastic 50 yard run before he was eventually dispossessed, but I can’t wait for him to grow up a little bit more. We have very few natural wingers in the squad but he is one of them: (7)
Sidwell – Wasn’t on long enough to make an impression: (6)
Final thoughts:
My Man-of-the-Match today goes to The Linesman, with a runner-up vote for Wright-Phillips. I became very worried as soon as Newcastle scored, because we just lost all our composure and confidence. We’re going to have to work on that. Certainly in the second half it felt like Newcastle could score a winner and take the match, but they did not create anywhere near the number of chances we did. Even when we looked bad we were still creating more quality chances than they were.
any other decent team could had scored 3-4 goals with the number of clear chances we created today….I am waiting for the day when SWP,Kalou will start scoring legitimate goals….these two players really waste plethora of clear cut chances….am really disappointed with their goal scoring prowess….
big question is what will become of our midfield when Essien will leave for African cup…that would be biggest blow and too difficult to cope with….
when a.cole gives a long ball to dragba it is bad football… now when clichy gives a long ball to equdor and he scores is it very good free flowing football????????
I agree w/ Mikey’s assessment of Pizzaro. I too screamed when he got in the way of Essien.
modri? will stay in dinamo zagreb until 2009 said president zdravko mami?. he is rejected all offers . he want to se dinamo in europe next season
Missed the match due to work. But, I am glad for Hilario to get a chance and I understand he wasn’t too bad either. Any word or wild guesses on who will be joining Chelsea in January?
http://www.lionsandblues.blogspot.com
Some intresting post match analysis!!! Read and do comment just a another opinon for you guys to ponder on
it is funny becasue Sam said we played very well , god damnd it , N’Castle just f**ked up , they had only one chance and scored they did not do anythnig else.
No Cech?
No Cudicini?
No Ashley?
No Carvalho?
No Terry?
No Lampard?
No Makelele?
No Malouda?
No Drogba?
No Shevchenko?
No manager?
No problem.
Bella
I’m trying to contact you. Can you please get in touch with me through the contact form, with your email address?
Thanks
I’ve been hard on swp b4, but he was beautiful today. Nice one to him.
here some stats for you
after reading all your post i had the feeling something is wrong
so i did this for you guys
thats JM last 19 games stats
w d l
8 8 3
42.11% 42.11% 15.79%
thats JM last 12 EPL games
w d l
4 8 1
33.33% 66.67% 8.33%
thats AG last (the only)19 games
w d l
13 5 1
68.42% 26.32% 5.26%
Out of this 19 games 12 where an EPL games
w d l
8 3 1
66.67% 25.00% 8.33%
As we all see the # talkes for them selfs
AG as way more wins and way less drows then JM
its only 19 game and i know it dosent mean nothing yet
its only means that the ppl of this blog are bit blind
Israeli
Israeli – Thanks for the numbers.
How do you factor the cold war between Roman and Jose? How do you factor the lack of support from management for Jose? How do you factor the fact that Jose had to do his job with spies in various created official positions all around the place? And his job insecurity since Jan 2007? All these things certainly impacts your concentration. That’s why JM was brilliant in the first two seasons and dropped a bit in the third.
If AG can win titles, I’d take them and him with both hands. I have no problem. It’s just that I think he is not the best man to lead Chelsea.
Hi guys,
Great result for us..would have been even better if Arsenal had dropped points..
We ve had real bad luck with almost everything for a good part of the last 1 n half years..today was different though..maybe the linesman was dreaming or something..or maybe he thought the deflection came off a newcastle player n not pizzaro..watever the case..good for us
SWP played brilliantly today..he had 2 chances to score..but cmon..he cant score poperly with his feet..i dont expect him to score too many with his head:)..
but as a winger he did his duty..great work rate as well..thats 1 thing i admire about SWP..he was a star at man city..he was benched n used sparingly at chelsea under jose..but he never ever complained, kept trying, gives his all whenever he plays..a great team man..he has the potential to b a great winger..a good manager can definitely work on his strenghts n weaknesses to bring out the best in him
AG’s substitutions still baffle me..makes no sense..timing is wrong..everything about it is wrong..does ten cate n Steve discuss tactics n stuff with AG????..Steve certainly would have learned a lot working with Jose….maybe AG says.”I KNOW BEST”
I want to like AG..but he doesnt give me a good enough reason..He cant talk..n everyone hates it when he talks..so why doesnt he shut up n do his job
transfer window opening..i hope to see atleast 4 to 5 new players come in..n TBH out{ONLY if we buy another CB}
Fulham away next..i hope we win..
good start to the 2nd half of the season..1 win already…41 points now..we just have to win 16 more games n draw the other two..we will win the EPL;)
Cmon BLUES
BC
i cant be more greatfull for your answer
my point in poutting this stats was not to show JM was bad or that AG is so great
the only point was to show you guys miss judge him and not that fair to him.
i did not said along with this stats that AG never had the best players fit
i only think that overall and dew to so many players are missing AG is doind a magic
the 2 games we had in our hands (everton +villa ) and lost the points at the end could have gave us 4 more points.
amaizing
BC
Nothing about cold war ,Nothing about lack of support from management
only facts my firend
No Cech
No Cudicini
No Ashley
No Carvalho
No Terry
No Lampard
No Makelele
No Malouda
No Drogba
No Shevchenko
and we could have finshed the game at the first half is we had better scorring % from our strikers
Israeli
I appreciate your point. I strongly believe that even if there was no manager for the Chelsea team from mid-Sep till date, it would not have been to different. Chelsea machine will keep rolling. Avram has not made me believe that the results that we are getting are because of him. Whereas there were a few matches where he should have made a difference but he didn’t. This Chelsea team is a self-motivated team that can do a good job even without a manager or with an okay manager. Just because there is no manager or a poor manager, will the top class players stop thinking suddenly? No, they play the way they used to. The fact that we are third in the league with Grant as the manager is testimony to this.
And friend, look at the team that played.
40 Hilario – Third choice
35 Juliano Belletti – First choice
33 Alex – First choice (better form over Terry)
22 Tal Ben-Haim – Second choice
18 Wayne Bridge – First choice (better than ashley)
5 Michael Essien – First choice
12 John Mikel Obi – First choice
13 Michael Ballack (c) – First choice
24 Shaun Wright-Phillips – First choice (this season)
21 Salomon Kalou – First choice mostly or can call second choice
10 Joe Cole – First choice
It’s not as weak as it’s made out to be. You can also extract the maximum as you know that the owner has promised a budget of more than 50 million pounds for January, unlike last season where players had to be really preserved.
Also remember, it’s not just the results. The camaraderie that existed, the togetherness that existed in the previous seasons is clearly missing. You may or may not agree but it is certainly missing. That’s where the manager will have to play a role. Going by the post match comments of grant, i can tell you with 100% confidence that he could be a poor man manager with insufficient knowledge of psychology.
Kalouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
jajjaja.
Salomon -kalou iso el toque finala en el minuto 87:30 estava en ofside pero el aarbitro no lo vio que ciego
El bufalo iso un gol que desde ahi era imposble errarlo.
I dont think the game was that bad, i actually agree with grant that we played fantastic in the first half atleast goin forward. Some players were below their best, praise be given when due, as difficult as things are they made things work. Special mention for 2; swp had a good game, nice crosses as well as movement. This was a better performance to some earlier ones. The other is mikel, was not at his best to an extent, but i say something different today he has started takin shots and more responsibility in attck which is good as it helps the team, also i dont think he caused newcastle’s goal.
israeli :
I wonder if you want to prove Avram is better than Mourinho with those numbers or not , but even if Avram won 100 % of all games, Mourinho wouls still be better than him. no doubt about that.
Today Avram screwed up with his changes. His changes were awfull we were lucky and so does he. However, I do not approve of what Chelsea fans did after chaging Joe cole . Pizarro was so unconfident when he came in just becasue of chelsea fans.
just look at our goals, both of them were those kinds of goals, lucky goals.
BUT BUT , I understad that we have many injured players.
next games are :
Chelsea – Fulham , I expect chelsea to win this game. I wanted to say easilly but these days everythnig is possible.
Arsenal – West Ham , I do not think West Ham can stop Arsenal, West Ham was lucky against Manchester. actually West Ham did not win Manchester , Over Confidence of manchester players lead to theri defeat.
I think Chelsea should consider Jan trasnfers more seriously , now we have chance. as i said before I am not worried about Arsenal , they will start losing points sooner or later. Arsenal is very dependent on one or two players and when they were not ready , they will sink . Today they were really lucky against Everton.
Manchester is a big problem , they are very good , but this defeat against West Ham will give other teams courage to believe that they can beat Manchester and that’s good.
I am really hopefull now.
we drew against blackburn becoz of the lines man now we win becoz of him………..its football karma
BC I have emailed you.
Israeli you appear to have conveniently used 19 games which traverse this season and last for Jose where we tailed off exhausted after chasing 4 competitions! That is hardly a fair comparision I would suggest.
Perhaps you should compare similar periods of time when the players are at the same fitness levels and we are playing the same competitions at the same time from last season to this one over 19 games and see where we are?
Doing comparisons across two seasons like that is just misleading in my view and makes Grant look far better than he actually is.
I agree with the poster who said Grant has brought little to the party but one thing he seems to have in spades which Jose didn’t this season – LUCK.
Grant may not be a patch technically on Mourinho but it seems at key moments when he looks to be finally exposed for the just simply averagely competent coach he is – soomething happens to make him look a winner snd a star.
Newcastle deserved a point today, the goal was blatently offside, Grant got out of jail big time. They were far better than us in the second half and we should have wrapped things up by then but didn’t.
The team continues to dig Grant out of the sh*t but how much longer he can carry on without exposing his failings in terms of tactical astuteness I’m not sure.
The great team bonding we had and organisation on the pitch appears to drain away a little bit more after each game, with new players promised due to Roman’s willingness to now give cash which he refused Mourinho that will further add confusion to the mix.
I doubt Grant has the abillities to juggle new and old players and provide a winning spirit to our team.
Considering what Mourinho had to cope with this time last season, with being told no money for anyone new, Grant is again one lucky guy, given a big transfer kitty to buy himself out of trouble.
Whether he has the nous to actually make it work out for us I just don’t know.
Lets hope so.
what injury does sheva have can he play against fulham
Stats can mean as much as you want them to mean if you manipulate them enough, bottom line we are points down on last season and have scored less goals and lost more games. And Grant was responsible for TWO of them.
He has also had the total backing of the board and support from his boss, Mourinho didn’t have any from January onwards and was living in a snake pit of people vying for Roman’s ear – some of the problems were yes of his own making I’ll admit because of his attitude but he’s more sinned against than sinning in my view.
Grant will have money to spend this January with the express blessing of the board, he will not have to make do and mend – like I said a lucky guy to have such a now suddenly understanding and helpful boss.
Well reading all your comments, i dont care how we win, newcastle deserve nothing, if they deserve a point they should hav made it 2-2 thats the way football goes, sometimes, u get offside goals, sometimes u get a fine goal ruled out for offside(against blackburn at home). so theres no mercy, chelsea deserve all 3 points.
i still dont know why everyone jumps behind the poor guy Avaram grant, i dont think he’s trying to prove everyone that he’s a better manager than Jose. Why was Jose sacked ? or else put it this way, why was Roman unhappy with Jose ? as the common people are made to belive its the way chelsea play football, roman wants to see free flowing exciting football at stamford bridge, and Jose’s football is based on defense than attack. i dont care how many of u agree with me on this or not, its a fact, u never seen anyone scoring 4 past chelsea under Jose, as he once said, when arsenal put 7 past everton or middlesborough,” you are not playing football, it shud be rugby”
grant is appointed as the manager in a very strange situation, what ever the reason behind his appointment, let it be, he cant change the way the team plays with the players we have at the moment. managers take probably a season or more to put thier stamp on teams, instead of analysing every word he says and trying to pick some fault which comes out of his mouth, atleast appreciate he’s keeping it all together.
@BC i dont think a team would be same with a manager and with out a manage.r As u said, chelsea would play and be at the same place even with out a manager, do all the 26 or 27 team players fight with each other over who will play in the starting 11 ? especially with such high profile players in the team with egos. it would be a joke.
I dont think for once Avaram is trying to compare himself with jose or anyone, and trying to say hes a superb manager, he appreciate the players, he try his best to support the team, praising the team how well they play even if they play crap. I think hes right, becos a manager should not criticize his team or players in public. we dont know, no one knows what he’s saying to players in dressing room or training ? do any one know ??? well stop crucifying the poor old guy.
@ BC this is what i think about AG’s post match comment
“”"”I didn’t see it (on Kalou’s offside goal) — well do u expect him to say oh yeah i saw it was an offside goal and we r very lukcy, thank you lines man ??
but we created so many chances that we deserved to win anyway. — he is right, we did create few chances, poor finishing and good saves from shay given.
I think we are in the picture with the race to be champions, I never give up– he’s right again, last yeat we were pritty much in the same situation, we drew 3 games during xmas period and we were behind man utd, only diff this season, arsenal are infront as well .
The situation sometimes is not easy, and if Man Utd didn’t lose today we would continue to fight. You saw the spirit of the team today, they showed great spirit– i cant see anything wrong with the statement, if anyone can let me know. hes appreciating the team spirit.
The supporters are behind us, well i wudnt say that after the booin today..
and know that we are not in easy times with all the problems we have. It’s not easy, I think everybody remembers what happens last year with two or three injured,— hes right, last year we had, cech, carlo, terry, roben and joecole injured but we did have drogba, sheva, balalck, lampard, essien, mikel, and the rest of the bunch.
but today with ten injuries this is the time to speak about the players that played. They showed good football, especially in the first half, a lot of chances, and a lot of character at the end of the game.— nothing wrong with it, hes praising the players who played and the whole team for showing some charecter. and we do have around 10 injuries.
I made substitutions because after the goal we didn’t play well, Joe Cole had some problems, and Ballack hasn’t played so much so he cannot do 90 minutes in our programme. Because of the problem I preferred to change the system, and changed to 4-2-4 and I think it changed the game, so it was a good sub.– hes the manager and he made the substitution and end of the day doesnt matter if it was offside or onside, someone scored and we got 3 points, so the substituion worked, he didnt claim the guys he bot on scored so hes a genius ? did he ???
You need to think about tactics more carefully than before.”"”" yeah ofcourse he has to think about tactics more carefully than before becos wen he had all the plyers fit, he probably dont hav to think of any tactics at all, he cud jus field the best 11 and ask them to get on with the job, now he has to think whom he plays and whom to sub, shotage of availability so, wats wrong with that ????
He hasnt done any comaprison to Jose, all he said was last year we had injuries this year we have more and we will cope with it, y on earth is everyone behind the guy, i dont understand ? i know there is a divison here, jose lovers and haters, but i personnaly dont love or hate either jose or Avaram, but its unfair on someone who is jus trying to do his best for the team.
Is there an echo in here?
I agree on Avram’s post match comments. Hearing the fans sing “you don’t know what you are doing” was nice. He really seems to lack the knowledge to make the substitutions when he needs them and his reliance on Pizarro is absolutely mind-boggling.
On that, Pizarro has been terrible. No matter how much time he gets, he never seems to mesh into the game. His foul (?) on Essien today just demonstrated that. The only person in the world that wanted Claudio over that ball was him. Even his mother was screaming for him to give Essien some space. Can’t wait until Sheva is back out there and Kalou can drop back.
If for no other reason, Avram feels (and is) so wrong for Chelsea because a club of our stature is also a powerful world-wide brand/image. There are many ways to sell this brand and obviously many potential managers to be the face or figurehead of this brand, but Avram Grant does not possess the marketability to represent us.
And don’t think it has only to do with the business aspect of things either. The football itself, the Chelsea players and the opposing players and the potential transfers are also conscious of their club’s image. The players need to have confidence and believe in their own brand to really perform at top levels.
At least that is my take. Obviously the Chelsea faithful aren’t confident in their boss right now, as his substitution was received with chants of “You dont know what youre doing!” by the crowd.
for those comparing Jose and Grant also keep in mind that Jose was playing with ‘his’ team assembled by him while Grant is playing with someone else’s team…so once Grant brings few of ‘his’ players only then one can compare judiciously….btw when emotions rule the roost then statistics is the only resort, and correct one too and here statistics seems to be against Jose the entertainer….perhaps thats why they call maths boring….
I think Chelsea fans affected Pizarro
i think chelsea need support from fans !! they hav to support thm hard. .using many instruments
I think AG’s new outfit was cool ….. other than that a C + for winning last night’s match. When he gets us the Title then he has my respect…. til then I will only comment on his outfit….
I don’t have any problems per se today with Avram’s comments because for once he didn’t harp on about our wonderful football being so much better than what Mourinho was producing before.
The only thing I will take issue with was his comment that his tactics at the end changed the game.
No Avram they didn’t! The ball came off Pizarro’s fat arse or some other part of his anatomy, rebounded to very luckily for us into the path of Kalou who stuck it in the back of the net.
I guess you could say that as he put Pizarro on, so this was the change that made the goal but that’s stretching it as the ball could have come off anyone.
I agree with Michael, Grant doesn’t feel right for Chelsea, yes he is uncontroversial and has healed the rifts with the owner but if you are a huge club trying to sell a “brand” and trust me football is very much a marketing exercise as much as a game with a ball, then who would you prefer to be helping you market the glamour and passion of Chelsea the club and their fans?
Mourinho or Grant?
It’s not a case of hating Grant and loving Mourinho because no one is perfect but I just don’t buy into the PR that Grant is the man to take Chelsea to a whole new more successful dimension. I really try but every time I look at Grant standing slack jawed on the touchline or mumbling on post match TV my heart sinks like a stone.
I’m sure Grant is a nice guy and he seems a competent coach and he’s not stupid but being competent at his job is not good enough for me. He has yet to convince by his actions that he is a great coach like a Wenger, Mourinho, Fergie et al.
And Chelsea deserve the BEST.
CFC you are a nice guy who cannot read between the lines. grant refers to injuries and christmas period under JOSE last year.
@Isreali
What ever the numbers say my friends the way his decisions were booed by the home crowd makes you understand how poor his substitutions were and a common man can judge them…Remember the Reading game when in the second half Jose made soem real substitutions that changed the game completely….nobody booed him and his men….Just because he is a friend of Roman does not qualify him to be a coach of the Big-4.
Just remember he would have never been coaching any premier league side if he wasnt friends with Roman, beat that!!! no team would hire him as a coach!!! no team !!! he does not have the credentials…, you cant have a loser running the blues which is one of the biggest clubs around…Even with all the stats on his side he has no respect thats sad…even with JM’s poor stats nobody challenged his managerial decisions….if Roman is mentally unstable to invest 50Mn pounds on his team again than he must be a complete idiot who has no idea on how club football is played…
Nitesh @ 38, what a load of bull . . . when jose played with ranieri’s team, you didn’t give the credit to jose. but now when grant plays jose’s team, you think it is difficult. no manager is judged based how he manages HIS OWN team. if avram is the manager of the chelsea team, he is the manager of the lot that he has.
guys . . do you ever remember jose comparing himself with ranieri? never. jose made no remarks on ranieri, or what we achieved under him etc.
avram is a loser. he is there because he happens to be friend of roman. avram has no clue about what needs to be done. any good thing that happens under avram is sheer coincidence.
is there someone who is still not convinced that grant is not a top league coach? he can’t even be coaching teams like sunderland. meanwhile, i’d chose roy keane over avram grant any day of the year.
Guys!
A small improvement in the blog. Now you’d be able to edit your comments, withing a time limit of 120 seconds (2 mins). To edit your comment, simply click anywhere on your comment text area. Let me know how you like it!
@ 44 CRIMSON, thanks mate for sayin i am a nice guy lol, well i can read between lines and i can read even inside t he lines lol, well why is everyone reading between the lines, jus read wats hes saying, go try and read between the lines and come up with ur own analysis ?? why o why ?? i am not syaing hes perfect or hes the best we can have, hes a fat old ugly man, but hes the manager for time being and lets just get on with it,
it’s not about avram being fat or ugly, it’s about his cunningness. he can make such remarks about jose when he is not here. imagine if jose becomes the manager of man utd or liverpool. do you think avram will have a chance against him. jose will rip avram into pieces. avram is taking advantage of jose’s absence and making such cunning remarks.
When the statistic shows AG has done better than JM – with the same team -you guys claim it is not the coach it is the team (that is JM).
When the team doesn’t perform it is the manager!
Oh yes ,and one is claiming that you can’t compare the mid/end of the season to its start.What a bull.These are proffessinal players ,fit and ready to fight all season long. If not ,someone has done a bad jobe and it is not AG.
And someone cries about the lack of support from management.What that has to do with the level of play of proffessional players who are paid to their neck
(aren’t they doing now without a manager??!!)or with the decision a competent proffessional manger has to make??!!
When the guy claim this team is the creation of the defensive mind of JM ,
your answer – it is not an excuse for the bad result.
What bad result for G sake?
When he makes a sub. you never agree with him.
If it worked for what ever reason it is not him ,it was luck. If it didnt work it was him with his stupid sub.
( As much as I didn’t approve the sub of JC,though he was’nt playing well,
I did see a change in the last 15 minutes which resulted in the lucky goal.
Luck needs to be created.It was not untill the change )
AC was send out and a penalty was given in the Villa game ,that doesn’t count as bad luck.When a clear offside gave Chelsea the win – it was lucky AG !
What do you really want?
Oh yes marketing personality!
Someone who will attract good players!
What attract good players is money ,otherwise Manchester would have had the best of them all !
But they don’t – they develope them into top class players.
Same goes to Arsenal. No big names but good insight into the potential of
young players.They both now picking up the fruits of the greatness of their managers.
What did JM leave behind?
Nothing but a gray defensive minded team with no creativity that dependes solely on one striker for its survival. Wake up people !
Look at the team your prophet has created :
Probably the best defensive line up in the league ,but the poorest attacking skilled players in the first 10 teams in the EPL !
SWP can’t pass a ball not to mention that he can’t cross it which should have been his strength!
Pizaro? can’t hold the ball or overtake a pole !
Malouda ? an average player nothing in him to make him a winner.
Caloue- I’m not sure will be a sub in Arsenal or Manchester.
Same goes to Michael- simple average player that has his moments .
Tal ben Haim? That is an absurd !
Lampard- when his form of scoring is down,
his contribution is low as well. He has no creative ability.
Essien is world class ,but his strength is in the destruction of the opponent game not in creation .
Makalele- read Essien,but over his peak.When he left Madrid that when the fall started.
JC- The only player that can handle the ball in good to high standard.
Roben was the other and he was sold!
Chelsea was at its best when duff /Roben/Drogoba played together.It had the speed and the creativity.The fastforward movement killed many of its opponent drwaing forward the midfield pressing from behind.
That all changed under JM.The weight of the Chelsea game has shifted to the center of the field but here the lack of creativity is preventing Chelsea
from forcing its will on the opponent!
Take it or leave it ,while JM did bring championshipS (while Arsenal and Manchester building their young skillfull teams)He left a desert behind. He saw it ,Abramovitz saw it and his way out was unavoidable.He could not even wait for the Manchester game ,he knew what was coming !
Kapelo brough Madrid the championship in his first season and he is gone .Why ?
for the same reason JM is gone. No cry there.
Who is Schoster ? time will tell.
Forget JM. He is history – look forward and give AG a chance .Maybe some greatness is stored in him as well – you don’t know him and I don’t know him .
Everyone deserve a break in life .
@ 51
You seem to be coward that you dont want your nick to be displayed. Anyway, I still respond to you. First of all your post is too long for all the garbage in it.
Avram Grant has been riding his luck. You’re talking about the last minute penalty in the Villa game. Firstly, we were lucky to get a penalty and even more lucky to have Knight red carded. Secondly, the freekick that became a goal was not even a foul. We were lucky to equalise and lucky to go ahead. Grant, with his tactical idiocy lost 2 points for us. Just like the Everton game.
JM made a world beater team that was a nightmare for even Barcelona and all other top teams until last season. Can you deny this? If Grant does not know how to use players like Malouda, Joe Cole, Kalou, Essien, Ballack, Lampard, Belletti, Alex, Cech, Mikel etc I’m really sorry, he is not a football manager then. We have a great team and if th coach is intelligent enough he should know how to play and what formation to play with them.
What do you mean by Chelsea being a defensive team? In 04-05, we scored more goals than Man Utd and Liverpool. In 05-06, we scored the maximum no of goals in the league, more than Arsenal, Man Utd and Liverpool. In 06-07, Chelsea scored more goals than Arsenal and Liverpool. What do you mean?
You say Arsenal and Man Utd were building their team while JM won the league titles. That shows that you don’t follow football at all. You’re just making up here mate. When JM won the first title, Arsenal had just won the title in an unbeaten run.
This was the Arsenal team in 04-05 and 05-06: Lehmann, Campbell, Clichy, Lauren, Toure, Fabregas, Ljunberg, Pires, Vieira, Bergkamp, Henry, Senderos, Flamini, Pennant, Van Persie, Gilberto Silva etc.
This was the Man Utd team in 04-05 and 05-06: Carroll, Ferdinand, Heinze, O’ Shea, Silvestre, Fletcher, Giggs, Keane, Ronaldo, Scholes, Rooney etc.
So, what you had written was a pile of nonsense.
Capello was sacked because of his relationship with the fans, players and the management. You know that he showed his middle finger to Real Madrid fans after winning a match? You know the comments he made about his own players? You know that he made Beckham leave, while the management still wanted to keep him? Again, start following football.
You are asking who is Schuster??? That confirms that you don’t know football!!! Schuster has played more than 400 matches and managed 7 clubs and managed clubs in Spain for 3-4 seasons before he took up the Madrid job. Schuster brought Getafe to No.11 in the league table and his team beat the in-form Barcelona 4-0!!! Avram is a nobody if he is compared to Schuster.
Mr. What a Joke, don’t act like a coward. Come out and have a nick so that we can have a discussion. You’re being challenged here and of course, you can run for cover.
I’m happy that Jose has gone but Grant is definitely not the right replacement. Nevertheless his reign too will come to an end if he doesn’t win the Champions League. So that’s a relief.
I think we need a creative midfielder and a creative striker. As a striker Anelka will do. Just can’t wait to see him in blue.
BC, what are the chances of Anelka joinig us?
I totally agree with “What a joke?” whoever he is.
Very nice analysis of what Jose had done to Chelsea.
Truly said “Desert left behind”
Footballer @ 52 – Brilliant argument mate! Superb analysis. You completely shut the idiots up. I loved your reasoning. Truly said “Avram is a nobody”! Now I want that JOKER to come back and respond to you.
To those who still can’t see it. Well, let me make it clear………
JOSE MOURINHO IS THE BEST MANAGER IN THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Avram is shit!!
First of all its not about jose or grant or renieri… its about chelsea!!
Why is jose loved and will be loved by majority of chelsea fans? because he made us champion and gave the confidence that it was not a fluke by winning it again. Did you guys see the reception tevez got when he visited west ham… why sucha huge grand standing ovation for an opposition player before a match?? because he was the prime reason they escaped relegation… give the credit where it is due.
Jose has a deep understanding of football and his game plans were very effective just not against minor clubs but especially against the big clubs. No wonder arsenal couldnt defeat us under him. he always had a clue how opposition is gonna attack us and be ready with the measure to counter it. each and every possibility. He brought a new era to EPL where a team cant win the league without 90 points. He had a strong inclination towards defence as you cannot loose if you defend well. and with the quality of players goal will always be coming.
I think grant finds himself a bit mixed up in satisfing the owner as well as fans and yet getting results. I have been watching games under him weeks in and out and as a chelsea supporter find it hard to see the fear gone in the visiting team. i find it hard to recollect which team ever visited us thinking of getting 3 points. Now even new castle, blackburn are doing it.
you look at the new castle team in the match and sam had clearly worked up his game plan. hold chelsea level till 60 mins and then as they attack we also attack and get 3 points with owen and viduka on bench.
liverpool , man utd , arsenal all visit us next part of the season. How many of you think we can win against them at home???
every team who plays against us now knows their manager will be sacked if he does not produce attacking football… so just hold them up for some time, dont concede may be have a go on set pieces . gaps will definitely start opening up as time elapses and then attack with full force as they attack as chelsea will not go defencive after scoring just 1 goal . they want more goals rather than 3 points . we are starting each and every match in negetive. we should not be considered a team going for goals rather than result.
now after 15-20 matches grants tactics becoming very pridictable.Only thing which is saving him to get exposed is LUCK!!!
and whats the need to be so friendly with the opposition managers??? there are no verbal attacks… nothing at all.. only left to players to get a result… we r missing the 12th man…
i was watching a program where they discussed how jose helped chelsea players gain confidence in themselves after arriving calling terry the best defender in the world and cech the best goal keeper in the world. They really started believing in themselves.
amazing use of the press!!!! genious
liverpool 0-0 Man City 78:00
that’s great
Man city just cleared off the line
how lucky they are.
what a great defender is “DUNN”
you have to watch last 5 min of this game
Liverpool out of title race with a game in hand
when are we visiting man city? its gonna be tough
yeah really it is.
Chelsea Vs. Fulham
Prediction : 3-1
——————Hilario—————–
Ferreira—Alex—-Haim——–Ashly
—————-Essien——————
———-Sidwell—-Ballack———–
SWP——————————-Cole
—————–Sheva—————–
I just read that Chelsea has plan to offer Defoe .
that’a mistake we don’t need him.
Maysam,
I watched the last 40 minutes of Man City-Live’pool game and must admit that Ericsson has taught Citeh to defend. Masterclass defending!
Back on the JM Mr Grant Palaver. I have a few thoughts
1. Would Drogba have gone nfor the Surgery if Jm was around
2. Does anybody still see the fire in Essien, Lampard, Mikel and Cech?
I am not sure what Mr. Grant has going for him but the impression I get when the players comeout is that they are tired and they are just going through the motions. Nobody is talking to them.
3. What is the nature of Lamp’s injury. Would he have comeout just like that under Jm.
@51, our friend does not want to use his name anymore or what? One needs not be a rocket scientist to see that the comment is from none other than JoeBlue.
Hi JB, Merry christmas and a happy new year.
Grant versus Jose? What a travesty? What a mismatch? To know the crystal clear difference between the two, one only needs to see how the aura of invincibility around us has completely gone with the departure of Jose. Everyone no matter how weak fancies himself even coming to the Bridge. When in the past people came intent on limiting the number of goals to be conceded, now opponents come believing they can win.
Guys, pls lay off Pizarro. How many games has he even been given a chance to start? Sure his pace is bad and he had a bad match especially yesterday- but who will not whwn there is booing as you enter the pitch to help the team?
Piz, I maintain is a very intelligent player- Like Ballack and Sheva, he needs more matches to shore his confidence and not this bit part roles.
No 51
How best to respond to your varied points because most are based on the weakest of foundations.
But I will only pick out a few:
“He left a desert behind”
A desert? Really? Now let me see.
Drogba – most feared target man in the premiership if not one of the most feared strikers in the world.
Riccy – one of the best defenders in the world.
JT – ditto.
Essien – a midfield dynamo,when on form a great driving presence.
Mikel – so young and already the heir to Maka can play higher up the pitch if necessary.
Maka – still not past it, never was even when he left Madrid, at times can be vital with his calm presence and clever passing – cannot be played as often as he used to be but still a class act.
Cech – one of the best goalkeepers in the world.
Ballack – one of the best midfielders in the world when fit and in form. Intelligent and great passer of the ball.
Joe Cole – on his day a great little player, albeit needs a firm hand.
Lampard – hardworking, hardly ever injured, great goal scoring record from midfield, very underrated.
“What did JM leave behind?”
Take a deep breath 51 whilst I list what he left behind in this “desert”:
FA Cup
Carling Cup
Two League Titles
RECORDS:
Most wins in a season (38 games): 29, Chelsea (2004-05, 2005-06)
Most home wins in a season (38 games): 18, Chelsea (2005-06)
Most away wins in a season (38 games): 15, Chelsea (2004-05)
Fewest home losses in a season (38 games): 0, joint record:
Chelsea (2004-05), (2005-06), (2006-07)
Most points in a season (38 games): 95, Chelsea (2004-05)
Fewest goals conceded in a season: 15, Chelsea (2004-05)
Most clean sheets in a season: 25, Chelsea (2004-05)
That enough for you?
How about some intangibles?
Unbreakable team spirit.
Ferocious will to win.
Great team bonding.
Making players believe in themselves utterly.
Making a club that always underachieved previously be feared by our rivals even hated due to our success.
Raising the profile of Chelsea markedly in the world.
Giving Chelsea the winning culture critical to future success, we expect to win now, we expect to challenge, we expect silverware as a matter of course (not right but we do expect to challenge).
THAT is what Mourinho brought us – not bad for 3 seasons is it?
Oh and finally that genius and God of the beautiful game Wenger never beat Jose in all the time he was here.
For some reason that last fact pleases me more than anything as it sticks two fingers up to the likes of you trotting out your weak arguements and also to other critics who say that Wenger’s football is the be all and end all of life as we know it and that Jose was some dinosaur of the game who only brought us pragmatic football and his type needed to be stamped out.
And I believe this quote below from you was directed at my point to Israeli so I feel duty bound to respond to it:
“Oh yes ,and one is claiming that you can’t compare the mid/end of the season to its start.What a bull.These are proffessinal players ,fit and ready to fight all season long. If not ,someone has done a bad jobe and it is not AG.”
This proves to me your total lack of footballing nous. My argument was clear to Israeli, when making comparisons you cannot legitmately take 19 games from the start of this season when the players are just starting out a campaign and are therefore fresh and usually fit and are starting to play certain competitions (CC, FA Cup, CL) and then simply pick the last 19 games of the Mourinho era which traverse the start of this season AND the tail end of last when the players have been playing upwards of 60 games and the competitions are tailing off with semi finals and finals being played against top opposition!
If you had cared to read the papers at the time of MU and Chelsea both exiting the CL and after the FA Cup Final you will see that one of the reasons given that Liverpool made it through and the Final was so poor was because MU and Chelsea had both tired themselves out chasing so many trophies. Comparing across season in that manner is patently unfair. If Israeli had compared the same period at this time last season over the same number of games including all competitions that would have been much fairer analysis. And I’ll wager the percentage rations would be much fairer and more telling.
The fact you cannot see this patently obvious point tells me all I need to know about your utter lack of footballing nous.
Hey ,what is wrong with my nick name?
Is Footballer and Bella is a better one ?
Same as JM is better than AG I guess.
The points I am making are simple yet you people refuse to understand.
I am not comparing JM to AG -simply because I don’t have anything to go by.
What I am doing is exploiting the unfounded reasoning you people use to do just that- compare him to JM.
You have no base to do that but your guts feelings and the admiration you have to JM as if he was and still is above all.
What I am also doing is demonstrating that while JM won the trophies,his style of play is the one which brought us where we are today.
“If Grant does not know how to use players like Malouda, Joe Cole, Kalou, Essien, Ballack, Lampard, Belletti, Alex, Cech, Mikel etc I’m really sorry, he is not a football manager then ” – Footballer
The record shows he is doing just fine so far isn’t it ?- the stat is on his side .Malouda and ballack ? Ballack just came back to the line up and if you can’t see the difference in his game now to the time under JM ,you must be blind.
He is given to play where his strength is ,not where the manager wants him to play!! That is the different!
Same goes with JC – He is born again under AG- His contribution is by far better now than under JM.
And those 2 are the only creative players in Chelsea !
You fail to see how the style of play and with it the fear of Chelsea has deteriorated since JM took over from Reniery.That is demonstrated by my argument on the Duff/Drogoba/Roben combination with an added value of the like of Essien and Maka . Every team which played Chelsea knew that if they don’t watch it they will be destroyed by the Chelsea attack.
Barca would never forget it.
These days were over last season.Chelsea had lost its key strength – the fast moving attackers who sting like a bee !
It was the Reniery team that won us the trophies with the added strengthening of the midfield by JM. But as soon as the JM affect took over
and started to dominate Chelsea’s game the downward direction was just a matter of time.
Yes, Drogoba is still there and he is the most feared forwarder in the world probably,but he can’t do it all alone.He is helpless and has to work harder all by himself.Is SWP the unswer ?- forget it- big and costly mistake by JM.
Crespo ,a skillfull player has gone- never got his days with JM.
Is anyone sees a replacement ? I don’t !
Cheva, couldn’t find his way with JM style of play.Signs are, his days are not over yet under AG .He is playing 10 time better now than before (same as Ballack).
So who is there to attack? Kalou,Malouda or perhaps JC ?
I love JC ,but he is a creator not a finisher.
So this is the answer to why teams are not feared playing Chelsea anymore.It was a matter of time until their managers realised that Chelsea has no speed,no skill and no creativity and they rely on Drogoba and Lampard .Stop these two and you can take away the game from Chelsea.That what is happening,that why Chelsea has become- an average team.
JM was never a fear factor on the field-get it through your mind- It is the style of play which makes you wonder what is coming to you.
That style is no more and that style was taken away by JM in favour of the boring holding game that JM was good at.
And that is I beleive what AG means when he is talking about ATTACKING FOOTBALL.He wants to bring back what Chelsea had lost during the last two seaons.He is not trying to be better than JM ,he wants to bring back the fear factor ,not of himself but of the style of play.
Now ,the problem he is facing is that he has the desert that JM left behind
and the only way he can change it is by bringing in some new players .He can’t do it with the existing caliber of players ,though you can see he is trying.Pizaro is not the answer and Pizaro was JM answer!
Yes ,JM won Chelsea the trophies. That is not taken away from him.
JM was and is a charismathic,entertaining guy but that doesn’t make one a good manager. A good manager is measured by the success of the team and the foundation he builds for the future.Foundation means the resources he has for times when the top players are out of form or when they are wounded.
Resources means that if the team fail to win the trophy in a particular year he has the right format to regain it the next year. He had the most generouse owner on his side yet he failed to do that. If I was the owner watching Chelsea play I would wonder where was my money has gone.
The question is not what had happened in the past but rather what he left behind to continue into the future- the answer is clear cut- nothing !
An average team with nothing but strong defence and one top scorrer who can not do it alone . That what I ment in saying above that Chelsea ,as far as attacking skill, is no better than any other of the 10 top teams in the EPL.
Yes I know Schuster played 400 games-so what? being a player doesn’t make one a good manager.Was JM a football player?
o yes he manage to bring an unknown team to the 11th place in the La liga,big deal .
All I know is that AG was the Israeli national team manager and if my memory is not playing game on me ,he never lost a game to any of the Europian teams he played against though never made it to the final.
All I am saying is that Chelsea needs to change its game 180 degree and that the job AG was given to do by the owner.Let him show us what he can do and for that he needs time and the support of all of us.
you guys are still comparing Jose with Grant. come on!
yesterday has gone. talk about now.
Joke No. 73
You are wrong again. But I dont have time now to respond. But I will respond later. One thing – you say something about JM not building foundation for the future. When he arrived in England he was supposed to win trophies as soon as possible and he delivered just that.
A manager’s performance should be measured with the club’s ambitions. Today you’re talking all this because, Chelsea won the trophies under JM, otherwise you’d still be talking how important it is to win matches and trophies.
It was JM who pampered you lot with his incredible success.
poor pizarro… why everybody is against this guy. He is trying really hard. In his national team, he is not welcomed anymore. THere are not tournaments in southamerica until june 2008, therefore, Pizarro will be playing only in CHELSEA.
Pizarro is afraid of being a selfish player like KALOU.
Pizarro gives a lot of passes but his passes are not as effective as JC or Ballack, but he is trying.
I would love to see PIzarro being more Physical w/ the defender from other teams but I think pizzaro is gay or something. Even Shevchenko goes physical but not PIzarro. If i were Pizarro, I would get the ball and shoot from FAR AWAy like ALex DOes.
Happy Safe NEw YEar to everyone
51 I don’t know what to say to the comment that winning trophies a la Mourinho does not make you a “good manager”.
Let me ask you this, if Avram Grant came on the coaching market tomorrow with his current credentials who exactly would be offering a job?
Milan? Barcelona? Real Madrid?
And if one of those clubs get rid of their coaches at the end of this season who do you think they would turn to?
Mourinho? According to your logic no they would dismiss him because all he does is win things which is not good enough. They would in fact go begging to Roman to release Mr Grant from his current contract because unlike Mourinho he will actually be trying to build something great.
Mr Grant’s record by the way for the Israeli National Team was:
14 wins
6 draws
2 losses
Israel had France, Italy and Switzerland in their group but never beat any of them and finished third. According to some reports his team played the most boring and yes defensive football imagineable and many laugh at the new Avram being painted by Chelsea PR as this great attack minded coach.
He preferred to play things safe it at all possible.
He was also known to be very lucky within the Israeli media, they even made jokes about it – that luck has apparently carried over into his career here by the looks of it.
So let me just get this straight, Mourinho is not that good a coach despite winning in 7 years more than Grant has in almost 20 years of management?
And another thing, Ballack is only playing with supposed freedom because Lampard is conveniently injured. Otherwise Grant would have the same problem as Mourinho did trying to fit these two together in complementary way.
Joe Cole has played well in fits and starts but his tricks and step overs have increased under Grant unfortunately leading his contribution to the side to actually decrease not increase. His form has been patchy at best all season and to suggest he is a changed footballer under Grant is simply misrepresenting things. Given more freedom yes very possibly he has but it has not markedly improved his output.
I take it after all this, if Grant messes little with this squad inherited by Mourinho and actually comes close to winning or actually wins a trophy or two that you will obviously give praise where it’s due to Mourinho for building such a great squad and that perhaps his legacy to Grant is not such a disaster after all?
No, I don’t think you will somehow.
Now excuse me whilst I just get used to the idea that Mourinho is not that good a manager because all he has ever done has won trophies and not built a team sufficiently good enough to provide Mr Grant with a fantastic and appropriate footballing legacy!
I hate to tell you this but in the real world out there success and excellence is measured by what you produce ultimately in terms of tangible things such as trophies won or exams passed etc.
You don’t get extra kudos (or points) for anything else.
Mourinho built a Porto team that won a CL and UEFA Cup plus two league titles – yes he blended a team to become winners.
He has done the same at Chelsea again in a short time using the bedrock of what Ranieri left which previously had won little.
Fergie and Wenger have been left alone by their bosses to build a legacy – Mourinho was not left alone to build his but was shown the door after three successful seasons overall and 6 games into his fourth.
To build a legacy you actually need time not just a few years or so – and he was not given enough to have the ups and downs and learn from mistakes made that Fergie and Wenger were granted.
Lets see in three seasons what Grant’s legacy is to Chelsea shall we and then make a judgement? If he wins as much as Mourinho then I’m quite happy to say to anyone here that he is a great coach.
I take it though based on your thoughts that if Grant wins litte or nothing but we play attractive attacking football far better than before with a team of his own making he will be a good manager in your eyes ?
For some reason I feel a majority of Chelsea fans might soon get fed up with their “good” manager if that is the criteria we have set ourselves and see that the trophy cupboard is repeatedly bare year after year.
At least Mourinho earned his moniker of the “Special One” with silverware even if he wasn’t perfect in many ways.
If you want to make Grant out to be the new messiah go ahead there is no law against it but I don’t think he’s the messiah “he’s just a very naughty boy!”.
Sorry to talk about the past Maysam rather than the future but if people are going to say things about our previous manager could they at least try to be as fair as they say we should now be to Avram? Mourinho gave us a lot and spoiled us really we should be grateful overall with what he left us.
And finally Happy New Year to everyone who posts here, and congratulations to BC on having such a great blog.
@WHAT A JOKE,
u r right when u say we played good football when we had duff/robben/jcole playing together, no one is denying that. The reason we were not playing attratvie football last year and grinding out results are quite clear and simple.
if we analyse performance of players u mentioned team last year.
duff – sold to NC. will come to this later
robben – injured for majority of the time.
j cole – injured for almost whole season.
SWP – was pathetic last year.
now if above mentioned players are injured and owner is not supporting u in xfer market, what do u expect JM to do ? how he is supposed to play so called beautiful / attacking football.
Selling Duff and Robben – Duff wanted to play more first team football and JM could not give it to him because Robben was on song years before that. so it was clear tradeoff between duff and robben. when we sold duff, jm had following to say in press conf – “Duffy is good player. but robben is a player i m desperate to keep.” and everyone will agree about his assesment on Duff and Robben.
JM never wanted to sell Robben, it was robben who wanted to go. it was somewhat similar situation to Gallas. If somebody is blaming JM for Robben being sold, i can only pray for him.
hey BC
i think its high time u step in and rename this forum as josevsAG.com
i feel that this debate goes on until ag is in charge and if a new manager is appointed it would be him vs TSO….
y dont people here understand that there is only one JM in the world and he is TSO.he is way ahead of others.it is a case of crying over split milk and not relishing the glass of water in your hand
to be frank u are the one who ignited this debate by reading in between the lines of Grants post match comments. that poor guy is just lifting his players by saying so.
and by the way i am a a jose fan and not a AG fan..but before that i am and will be a chelsea fan forever…….
is czech available for next match?
BC please reply soon
@51…great analysis and a great post….
You again missed my points Bella. I will try once more!
I didn’t say that JM was a bad manager.That is your own interpretation.
What I am saying is that sucess alone isn’t sufficient .
I could argue your argument – given the calliber of players the owner bought for him,he had to be a loser not to win trophies.Or further ,I can argue that with these players any coach could have made it or even without a coach they could have won trophies.
This of course shows the ridicule in your measure of greatnest !
The proof for it is easily demonstrated – when the owner didn’t open the wallet the success was gone!
No ,my arguments are not for or against attractive football!
),
Where did you get that from?
I clearly stated that having a fast moving forwarders enabled Chelsea to
move the balance of play into the opponents side ,quick and lethal !
I don’t think that Chelsea played attractive football during the duff/Drogoba/Robben time.They were never in the class of Barca , Real or Arsenal .But they were very effective.The style of play was such that the opponents was constantly under threat – that what made them afraid of Chelsea -not the presence of JM or his charismathic personality.
And if AG play attractive and win nothing I will be the first one to tell you he had failed . I want teams to worry when they play Chelsea ,that is the first step towrds winning a game – and that can only be achieved with attacking
style,be it attractive or not !
(and for that matter I see Ballack gaining his position in the team together with JC and Essien – I don’t see Lampard in his current level able to carry Chelsea further – each one of us has his moments ,I hope I am wrong but Lampard seems to be over his best – an average player with some moments of briliancy- sorry guys).
As I said ,my message is not to undermine JM and his achievements – not at all.
I am proude of them as you are .Yet ,I was not blind to see the problems we are facing as from the end of the 2nd championship ,I could see it coming. If you can’t recognize that the players he brought in like Kalou,Mikel,Malouda Pizaro SWP Tal B H and some others are 2nd rated players(that cost fortune) than you will never understand the problem we are facing now.We don’t have the tools to win the big games.Not JM not anyone could turn things arround with the current players .
As far as AG record goes.It seems you know more than I do,and it doesn’t look bad at all.Look at England this year and tell me if a 3rd place with France and Italy is a bad result. I was told that during his time they could not played home games due to the security situation there.If this is the case that is even more impressive.
Look I am not an AG guy ,nor JM , I am a CHELSEA SUPPORTER and that what matters to me and I want them to win and win ,but please let the new guy work and give him a break . JM got his with Porto (I was told he was an interpreter in Barca in his earlier life- that how close he was to football
maybe it is AG with Chelsea – one never knows .
And if he is got the owner support (for what ever reason-it is immaterial) I beleive that he can make it,if not this year than the next one.Abramovitz is not a loser and he will not throw away his money just for the fun of it.
I once read that he wants to build a team and a legacy for the next 100 years.
Isn’t this impressive ? Isn’t this enough to trust him and let him prove his point? Isn’t it what you want for Chelsea?
What a Joke:
“The proof for it is easily demonstrated – when the owner didn’t open the wallet the success was gone!”
We won the FA Cup and the Carling Cup.
Came close to getting into the semi final of the champions league.
Came second in the premier league.
No we did not win the league or gain the much more important cup trophies but we still earned silverware AFTER Roman shut his wallet in January this year and refused to spend any more.
I obviously have a lower threshold of excellence in that I am quite happy to embrace a coach who gives me the number of trophies and records Jose did in his time here – the fact he still failed in your eyes as a manager of quality or for the long term – well that’s your view and I will respect you but not in any way agree with it.
The reasons we were a threat during those first two years was because of the great team spirit that Mourinho engendered and phenomenal will to win. Ranieri built the bedrock of that side initially that Mourinho added to and yet they did not win the league with Ranieri and Roman gave him lots of money – why was that I wonder? He had quality players and lots of cash – in that case should Ranieri not have won things?
Could it possibly have been Mourinho inspiring the players with the force of his personality to raise themselves to higher levels of endeavour then ever before tbat made the vital difference? May be not for you but I like to think he did.
You can’t just get a group of high calibre players together, throw them on the pitch and expect to produce a winning team, yes they will win games and be there or thereabouts but you need to be a fighting UNIT a TEAM working for each other.
That’s what Mourinho gave to Chelsea along with his success and I’m surprised you think Mourinho’s character was not a huge factor in how we approached games back then.
I certainly agree that there were problems with the team after the second season in terms of player balance and our football was not as good in the third season – like you I am not blind to went on and things certainly needed sorting out but I still feel on balance there were far more plus points than minus ones. Every team has faults, none are perfect specimens and neither are their managers!
Now Mourinho has gone we look to Grant to inspire the players in the same way he did. I personally doubt he can do this having listened to the man but perhaps he is a different person behind the scenes with the players.
I am willing to give him a chance to show what he can do for us this season with the players we have plus any new ones he buys that he likes. I personally don’t want us to play like Barca, Arsenal or Real Madrid I enjoyed our football under Mourinho more often than not and never yearned for 5-4 scorelines week in week out. I can be just as much entertained by an excellent lower scoring game that is of high quality than the mess that was the Villa draw.
So I appreciate you responding back to me, despite others being none too happy with this thread turning into a JM v AG conversation yet again.
Happy New Year again to everyone and lets hope for a win tomorrow against Fulham to keep the pressure on Arsenal and MU.
@Mourofessien
Lol dude………..it aint me…………but whoever this guy is he makes a lot of sense, and he is right, but anyways i will take it as a compliment……….cheers dude and a very very happy new year…………………………………
and to everyone lets hope this new year brings a sea change and we get on top of the table, big names this winter and summer wear the blue jersey and we march on………….a very happy 2008 mates……….
@Bella
sucess is the carling cup?? or the FA cup??……..lol
second place in the league after doling out multi millions for players from all over the world??……….or another semis in the CL??even Ranieri got 2 in the league and the CL semis……and was still fired…………….(even though no other earlier manager cld even get us where he had)
what did u expect in the winter anyways?? a move for Ronaldo??Messi??Ronnie?? or where u expecting Tal to cm out blast 10-15 goals with double digit assists and great defending??………lol……….
Happy new year to you all
any news on sheva & cechs injury…..??????????
HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL
joeblue @ 85
he won 2 league titles and also won fa cup and carling cup. such ingratitude after all this hardwork!
grant would deliver nothing and then you’d start supporting man utd or liverpool. if that’s the cost of getting rid of cheap fans, i’d take that.
hahahaha is this the xmas present or the new year fireworks ? lol AG vS Jose .. happy new year to everyone….
Jose the special, AG is special for his wife, (i didnt say this, they said it themself.)lol
Hey Bella
Did some more home work for you
i looked at last year same time and JM stats where much better then his last 19 games as Chelsea manager but not as good as AG 19 games
this is the 4 big teams table in the last 13 EPL games ( thats AG’s games as Manager)
scoring points l d w
21 + 31 2 1 10 man u 1
17 + 30 1 3 9 chelsea 2
13 + 30 1 3 9 arsenal 3
11 + 27 2 4 7 liver 4
Let me say it once more and please try to understend my point
JM is still one of the best ever Chealse managers if not the best , but (and thats my point)
this fact does not mean that AG is not doing good job till now
He is doing great and with this long list of players that will start come back to the first team i think we need to be very wishfull and positiv.
Bestboyvijay @ 79
Of course, I initiated (and not ignited) this topic this time. What’s wrong about discussing this? Discussions and arguments are what the blogs for, provided they stay decent enough!
Happy NEW Year to you all!
happy
You strike me as being somewhat ungrateful JoeBlue and appear to expect that we win everything every year just because we are now a wealthy team, it does not always work that way I’m afraid. I think Mourinho and Roman have spoiled many Chelsea fans with the money one brought in and the success the other achieved.
Bottom line, Mourinho won things for us every year, you may not appreciate the FA Cup or Carling Cup but Mourinho had never won the former and it was his last trophy in England he had to win.
As for the January transfer window I am not naive, he was asking for defensive cover as I am sure you are aware, he was not wanting Ronaldinho to come over and play for us. He was worried about our defence not our midfield or attack.
He simply wanted some cover and unlike Grant this year, he did not get anything.
That had grave repercussions for the rest of the season.
Thanks for the stats Israeli.
nice arguement on here…but do you’all know that fulham is leading us 1-0