responding to nubskeh’s comments in the previous post

nubskeh - stop preaching, will ya? last season there were so many who hated jose and wanted to see him die. those buggers who did not support the manager last season are not supporters of the club, is it?

let them come out and admit that. just because avram is the manager why should i support him? did the real madrid fans support capello, they fecking spat at him.

you can replace avram with my grandma, she will do as well as we have done with this great team, brilliant assistants, co-operative owner etc. Only thing is my grandma does not know football but that’s ok, she then makes a nice one to one replacement for grant.

finally, stop this double standards. avram will be treated the same way the legendary jose mourinho was treated by his haters.

i wish i had befriended roman, i would have become the manager lol!!!

@BC
No bad feelings mate between us…………as a gift[u will consider at as gift]i m posting the link of lol thread

“Luis Figo Has Accepted The Contract From Queens Park Rangers and Has Rejcted The One Off Of Fulham.

He Said “Queens Park Rangers Are On The Up. And I Want To Help Them. “”

one of those shocking transfer news from:www.football-rumours.com
i have been laughing since last 30 min………..it’s a discovery by mistake………….whenever feelin low go to this site

Guys i was looking at the fixtures and i came up with the fixtures during the ACN where we will be without drogs, essien, kalou and mikel(anyways out for 4 matches)
premier league
12.01 tottenham Home
19.01 birmingham city Away
30.01 reading Home
02.02 portsmouth Away
10.02 liverpool Home

carling cup
23.01 Everton Away

FA cup
26.01 Wigan Away

So what we have is on stake is our existence in 3 of the competions we play. We can be out of carling cup and FA cup and may loose further ground in title race.

League - I dont see too much of a threat from the teams we play and may be we can have a few players back by liverpool game.

carling cup - we have conceeded 1 away goal but i dont see us not scoring against everton. 1 goal lead is quite good to hang out.

FA cup - wigan is manageable with the quality we have.

So do we really need to put in a lot of money for this period of time. we might be able to get better players in summer. anelka is ok as he is not CL bound. Do you think its a tough time for us????

THIS IS A JOKE - WHAT A JOKE - A bad one I must add!

You are right ,you and many of the others HATE AG just because he is AG!

No reason - nothing (how can you have a reason , anyway he does nothing-your Grandma can do the same) -right?!

One need only to read ” Own Goal winner again” to understand the state of mind of some of you.Yes ,poor JM he didn’t have the same luck as AG.

You create luck ,you don’t just seat there and wait for it to come- got it ?

This is what I expected - Right BELLA ?

He maybe a friend of RA,I don’t know where you got this knowledge from .
But since when friendship is a substitute for knowledge and ability?
Since when an owner who spend fortune on establishing a new Chelsea will
take a risk in appointing a friend to this demanding job?

Or are you trying to tell me that RA wants to show that he can win without
a manager?
That he can buy any player and have your Grandma manage them and they can win?

You are ridiculous!!

JM was on the way out before AG arrived ! He was in the way out for the same reason Cappelo was out.

No supporter of Chelsea ever hated JM- !!

If anything they hated the style of play he preached and made his team play.
If anything they were upset to see how the attacking minded team Reniery build was downgraded to a boring ,defensive team with no game spirit.

The same is true with Cappelo in Madrid.That is why he was sacked after winning the La liga in his first year.

Swallow it - If Chelsea will continue to play as last night -AG is here to stay.

And with him a new Chelsea will be build ! A team that will dominate the EPL for years to come .A team that will attract more and more new supporters for its style of play as well as winning trophies.
The legacy of Chelsea started with RA ,not with JM , and will continue with RA!
Both JM and AG are only the tools to get there.And tools has to fit the aim ,not
vise a versa !!

I know I am talking to the deaf - But you can read and maybe reflect back into yourself-May be you will wake up one day.

i cant belive that stupid took of joe and put in sidwell. sidwell is good but not when u are one man down. and for those who still thinks pizarro is good. i dont know, i give upp. he is the worst striker in the world. i wanna break his neck. haha. well we won and im happy but ive never been this scared watching a game in my life. avram my friend if you really like cheslea then leave the club. do what you did before when we diddnt se you that much. u belong behind the camera. swp cole beletti carvalho great job. love to se carvalho back.

If you won’t support him, then at least give him a chance. To come in when he did, he has done a good (if not very good) job with Chelsea. We are in the Carling Cup Semi-Final, leading 2 goals to 1 going into the second leg. We are in the FA Cup 4th Round. We are in the Champions League 1st knockout round after finishing first in a tough group. And perhaps more importantly we are still alive in the premier league. Both Arsenal and Man Utd have had little hiccups this year in an uninterrupted season for them yet we are still there in January. We still have a great chance of winning the Premier League, as well as every other trophy. What more can you ask? You want success on the pitch and he has delivered that. Sure, some games haven’t been performed in the greatest style but he has been in the job for just over 3 months. That is not a long time to influence the players to his definite style. We are seeing glimpses of his preaching, for instance Man City (Man City weren’t great but it was because we played at a level they couldn’t compete with) and tonight (attacking domination for much more than an hour of play, even with 10 men!) and he has managed to scrape out good results against tough teams, for instance Valencia and Schalke in Champions League and Liverpool in the Carling. He is not the most charismatic manager alive but as Bella said in a previous post, every person makes their mistakes, nobody is perfect.

Double standards? What on earth do you mean? I treated Jose Mourinho with utmost respect! It was a shame that there were “fans” that treated Jose poorly, just like it is a shame that there are “fans” that treat Avram poorly. Double standards that.

BC - I watched the game and I can tell you that Chelsea dominated proceedings from the get go, and there was only a limited time after Mikel was sent off that we allowed Everton to attack. It was a poor decision by the ref and it nearly cost us. For their goal, Hilario failed to deal with the cross correctly, he tried to run out and punch it away but missed by a fair margin and left the goal unprotected. That is his real weakness, Hilario. His inability to deal with high balls and crosses. He is a superb shotstopper and he has shown that skill a number of times, it’s just he fails to deal with crosses that Cech flourishes in doing. However, it was a great display from Chelsea and it finally showed a brand of attacking, positive football that Avram wants. Chelsea didn’t sit back and defend, they attacked throughout the whole game (except after our winner of course). It is a shame that the winner was credited as a Lescott own goal, because it was the work of SWP that got the goal. I doubt he has ever leapt so high in his life, because to get higher than Lescott was some feat. Lescott was caught sleeping and felt the pressure of SWP before mistakingly nodding into his own net. SWP’s first goal though was no doubt his, a beautiful curling shot. Let’s hope he continues this form as if he plays like this we will hopefully see more attacking football. I know he is so very inconsistent, which is so disappointing as he could be a potentially world class player if he kept playing game after game like this.

Hopefully Spurs get a win tonight against Arsenal, that’d be magnificent

chelsea is a good team. do u think avram grant is the one that made chelsea win the games?

What a game!!! I dont know who the blues play for !!! probably for the fans like us!!

Chelsea is winning because of the players and the attitude which was built all through the last three seasons.

I bet If we would have had given the same team to Avram three years back…. we wouldn’t have been a ‘Force in European Football’, for sure….. and I guess everybody accepts that. So, we should give due credit to Jose who was brilliant in tactics and highly influential… media handling comes in as the Icing on the cake.

As I mentioned, Chelsea is only winning because of the players and to some extent even Luck this season. For the so called manager of our dear club, he has mostly been wrong with his tactics than being even correct…… I am leaving out exceptional or brillianlt here….

Finally, good for us that Chelsea is winning, Ballack and Carvalho are back in good form… and finally we don’t have any major clashes during AFC. Hope the players continue this same flow and we end up at-least No-2 in the league. Don’t forget this spot will be an achievement for us being around with Avram. Whereas Jose got us the League in his very first Season.

Yesterday was another game that proves the point of many people that do not like AG, there is no doubt that it was at times end to end match, but AG is riding a lot on luck, yes luck, 2 games through with own goals.
A better team would crucify chelsea after the sending off and after 10 minutes the equalizer. For those that metioned that JM would shut shop and would be happy for the draw, may have a short memory, if I recall last year chelsea was in a similar situation and chelsea went the whole match in attack, ( i dont rtemember but i think it was against WestHam), last year we were called the kings of the woodwork, but unfortunetely there was no own goals, just like this year.
Anyway a good match, SWP played weel, so did Malouda, but for me is Carvalho the guy must be the best central defender in the world, already he was the best player in the euro 2004, no doubt he is impressive, but the italians and the spaniards are after him. Maloud was ok and played better than lately, this guy is a player that needs ;lots of attention and need really to be motivated, needs a good man to man management to get him to the level that he showed in France. Pizzarro is having a tormented time, I can not believe that all of a sudden he forgot how to play, maybe he is not playing in his usuall place, remember Ballack?? i still would keep him he cant have lost it all with his transfer to chelsea. For me though is DD, he is deffinetly 1 of the tops strikers in the world right now, Anelka is good i always liked him but is a very temperamental and also needs constant attention and motivation,
Anyway its due where it shoud go if AV can motivate his wife to drink piss, i am hoping he can motivate the players to play 100% attack, rather than the shit he has been giving us lately. Last night was better, but 1 swallow doesnt kame the summer.
Hey guys have you noticed that AV in his last 2 interviews he no longer mentions the past or does any comparions with the “before”? have a feeling he reads this blog lol, but i am still not convinced that he is the manager for chelsea.
Ok now i am going to meet AG for a coffee he loves me to bits.

It is so clear that avram is not a good tactician and manager. his substitutions and formations have been absurd. If i ever get the chance to watch a game at the bridge, i’ll shoot him dead.
It usually annoys me when he compares himself to mourinho, talking about his formations and all that as if he could ever achieve what mourinho did at chelsea. For instance, last season against everton, when we won 4-3. if you recall, everton was beating us and we kept coming back. that superb ballack free kick and drogba’s long volley gave us the points. People knew us for comebacks and almost teams were even scared to take the lead. During Mourinho’s first two seasons, we didn’t concede in most of our matches.
Now with avram, it’s always 2-1. Most of my friends over here (denver, colorado,usa) don’t watch chelsea matches again because we all know what the score will eventually be 2-1. we’ll first score a goal followed with a few squandered chances, then the opposition will then equalize. in the end, an own goal, a penalty or linesman’s mistake will give us the point. For God’s sake, we conceded 4 goals at “slaughter house”( that’s what my friends call stamford bridge) Aston villa beat us at villa park and still wanted to beat us at the slaughter house. it’s so painful.
if i ever go to england, i’ll head for the slaughter house to shoot avram DEAD.

what if we were facing AC milan in the champions league with this our current performance. That will be the end. A coach that i’m so sure no other premiership club ( except maybe the bottom three) can hire because he’s a big risk. i even heard he was sacked by portsmouth. If you give him the chance, he’ll turn chelsea’s team to the israeli national team. for some time, ben haim became a first team player. After the liverpool game, he was talking with benayoun and i saw on a site that chelsea is interested in benayoun. there’s also another rumor that he’ll be bringing in six israeli players to train with the chelsea reserve team.
is that the kind of manager we want? why didn’t ranieri turn chelsea to an italian team? why didn’t mourinho turn chelsea into a porugese team?

Guys Pizarro has never made any claims of being an out and out striker- he has always been a very good supporting striker because his strength lies more in creating great striking opportunities that can be taken advantage of by all players around the last third. Why are we on his case? Grant had it coming. If you keep an intellingent player all along on the bench even though you know very soon you will be depending solely on him, then the problem is yours.

What Piz needs is real support from another striker. He is basically not a bad player but he has never claimed to be a Drogba who can hang in there alone amidst defenders who are swarming all over you.

By the way, dont i like Belleti. SWP should be made to play more inside than out there. he does a better job that way.

This is my short 2 cents

i’m not unhappy with AvG’s performances so far. i think he has done a decent job.

i also think there are managers out there who are better qualified for the job.

and i am still massively unhappy that mourinho left as he was awesome.

but… i think AvG has done a decent job so far. Things could be better but i’m happy to sit on the fence and wait and see.

i feel beletti, swp, carvalho, alex, bridge, jcole all had a brilliant game!! beletti and swp were linking up terrifically, bridge was causing problems on the left and carvalho and alex were pretty much solid in defence and jcole was just his usual awesome self. malouda and pizarro are some of the weaknesses in our team…malouda does not do much on the left and cannot dribble past a player, hes useless. while pizarro cannot play as a lone striker, he needs someone to support him…hes more of a creative player who assists the main striker. mikels red card was was not a bad call, high studs tackle explains itself. hilario is a great shotstopper but needs to work on his decision making and need to learn when to come out and punch the ball. the sub for jcole off for sidwell was absurd!!! and also the sub pizarro off for ferreira!!! wat is avram thinking? were stuck on a 1-1 draw and he decides to play defensive? we dominated the match…AVRAM HAS GOT TO BE SACKED QUICKLY BEFORE OUR LUCK RUNS AWAY!!!

@blueboy
Don’t forget who brought us that luck ?
when Jose was sacked, most of fans including me said we are out of title race , but Avram brought us the hope again.
I do not thi nk Avram is a bad coach however I am sure (I am a big fan of Jose) if Jose had been on the bench , we would have already been out of title race this season.
just take a look as last jose results . we always had problem when Terry and Lampard was injured when Jose was our coach , but now we do not even feel their absence.

@ Maysam

Oh Yes if JM was our present manager we would be out of the title race.
Just like since he joined chelsea we were always out of the title race, even last season we were chasing MU all the way , albeit with 6 ppoints adrift, and if it weren’t for RA , cox he never gave any money in January to buy players, like he is doing now to his PAL AG, I am not sure if the title wouldn’t go to the last game.
But then RA by then wanted JM out, not because chelsea was not an attacking team, only because JM does not want anyone to intefere with the team selection, unlike AG that does as he told.
Look at the 2 russian players RA bought when he went to Russia? Never heard of them, and what i have seen in the net they r really crap, but they r russians.
The same applies to AG, as I always said in previous blogs the man is there because of his friendship with RA and his faith not because of achievement.
So I am not at all convinved that AG is the manager for chelsea, but it doesnt matter as long as RA wants him he is there, and I do not think that AG has the personality of refusing any RA wishes.
Every game post JM has been a”heart attack” apart from the match against ManCity, you never know when we suffer a goal, besides lately our goals are always from corners, free kicks, not from fluid counter attack, or constant attack using the flanks etc.

AVRAM MUST BE SACKED. He is an accident waiting to happen. We are only winning because we’ve got fantastic players. He has no experience and was even sacked at portsmouth. Have you ever heard him talking during a press conference. he’s always dragging his speech like a baby, like an idiot.
Do you think our players will take instructions from that kind of person? i’m sure they usually make jest of him.
He looks too old for coaching and i canbet my bank account that he can’t run round the pitch once. (that’s if he can even kick a football) This “bomb” will soon go off. SACK AVRAM. SACK SACK SACK

I have said before I am indifferent about the appointment of AG. After last nite all I can say well it is Roman’s money after all - but I am paying to watch some real stupid like diabolical decisions just like I was doing in the 80s at least this time though we are winning.

AG hasn’t got the bottle of JM, Vialli, Gullit. Why take off your second most influential player on the pitch in Joe Cole (after Mikel got sent off) and replace him with the third most ineffective player on the pitch - Steve Sidwell to protect a 1-0. Pizarro and Malouda being the first two on the list. At this point I really thought we was going to lose 2-1 and we could have done, if anybody saw the game.

Pizarro should have gone after ten mins and Sahar should have come on. Jose would have done it, any manager would have done it. And then what did AG then do. Take Pizarro off and replace him with Ferreira (with 10 mins to go) and push SWP up as centre-forward and protect what you got a 1-1.

AG got lucky as we all know now. A high overhead kick/cross from Ballack saw the nut of Lescott head into his own goal - then seconds later HIlario saved the day with a brave save from Lescott trying to redeem his earlier error.

One more thing we still havent signed Anelka. Grant said he wanted him for last night’s game, so why did Chelsea wait till Monday to put in an official offer? Surely they must have known they were going to get knocked back. I can’t see Anelka joining us in time for Saturday - Surely Pizarro can’t start again!!!!

Bring on the kids FFS

KTBFFH

Moyo & BlueBlood58

You guys make absolute sense. AG is simply riding his luck. And the fact is the team is winning despite AG’s comedic tactical disasters.

i can fancy my chances to be the chelsea manager . . poooh . . if only i’m a friend of roman!

Hey Moyo! Are you a new comer on this blog? Warm welcome mate. Even I joined recently and i’m loving it.

Cheers ‘This is a Joke.’

BTW Tottingham are leading 1-0 at ArseNIL

KTBFFH

Half-time

ArseNIL 0-1 Tottingham

KTBFFH

Guys, guys, guys. Mr. Grant…
Yesterday’s was a good game. Almost everybody had a good game, except pizarro (seriously, I’m beginning to get worried about the guy. One can see he has the moves , but… Maybe it’s another sheva). Okay Sidwell and maybe Malouda too- untill the last say 20mins.
About the substitutions, I think I see the problem Mr. Grant had: 1 man down there was the fear of conceeding the goal, but the pressure was on EVERTON yet the goal wasn’t coming. So to strengthen the defence and sharpen tthe attack. I think that was the logic, but may also have been where sense ended. I think Sahar shld have come in for Piz. and the person in the midfield that was dispensable was Malouda really. It didn’t make sense leaving swp- adrenalin rush or no- in the No 9 role.

All in all it was a great game.

IT WONT LET ME POST

I would like to counter comment each and and everyones comment, but then it might take me a whole day sitting here, like many of u i am also a Jose fan but hes past and i dont hang on to the past glory, i would rather support the present and get on with it.

Jose was sacked not becos of the results first and formost, its for the style of play, and anyone who watched yesterdays game can say we were playing with a lot of fluidity and confidence even missing several players. many of u mentioned here about Grants luck, well Jose was lucky as well in many many occasions, he wasnt given money to buy a defender during last year, well he was given enough money thorugh out and its his own fault that he didnt strengthen the defence. His famous, “untouchables” well how does every other player in the squad feels, when manager goes on about few players who are untouchables ? do any one remember how much money he was given to bring in paulo feriera ? ?? an average right back ??? how much for ricardo ? how much for SWP, essien, drogba ?? and you are going on about not paying him money during december ?? with the money he spent of players he should be able to keep quite and win every single games. instead he goes on about eggs in supermarket.

grant is lucky ok., hes lucky, everyone needs some luck. some one was saying his grandma cud manage chelsea, y isnt she then ?? If you dont follow football please dont come up with comments like these, pleasee. give credit wer its due. I support chelsea so i support Avaram grant

@16, mate u dont have a clue wat ur talking about please, cud u name me the 2 players roman bot from russia ? what are u on about ?

@17 mate, y dont u try and apply for the post of chelsea manager ?

CFC (or whatever you call yourself)

in your post, you were like jose spent a lot on some players like ferreira, drogba, carvalho, essien, etc

Drogba: was bought 24 million and he will be worth that amount forever. if not for him, we wouldn’t have won anything last season. he sored all the goals in both finals. He’s moving to AC in july to join mourinho for 25 million so i think we gained an extra million on him.

carvalho: he’s one of the best defenders in the world. infact, i prefer him to terry. mourinho brought him along with ferreira from porto.

Essien: CFC, i don’t know if you watch football at all. Essien has been one of our best midfielders in years and it’s very stupid for anyone to just write anything on the blog saying we overspent on essien.

Mikel: If you truly watch chelsea games, you’ll notice that mikel is always the heart of the midfield. No one moves forward without passing to mikel and he is the only chelsea player that doesn’t have uncompleted passes ( check his stats) I also noticed that whenever he is attacked, the whistle is always blown (however little the assault on him might be) I know he gets red cards, but he’s a central defensive midfielder….. c’mon.

To CFC: I read you saying mourinho belongs to the past. To me, mourinho is the best thing that ever happened to chelsea. Before he came, there was nothing like “the big four” Now we are a force to reckon with. And about his untouchables, i think all managers have got untouchables in their team. He was the only one who could list out his own to the media. Every team has untouchables and Avram also has his untouchables so i think it’s no big deal.
Plus you said jose was lucky… um.. oh i see… he was lucky for three straight seasons of trophies.. huh? Hey people, let’s think b4 we post comments.

@ This is a Joke - What a joke - a bad one I would say.

You find it hard to swallow that things are changing in Chelsea, isn’t it?
And yes there is a mickymouse by the name of AG who is responsible for this
and you hate him.

I will definitely not try to anaylyze the psychology of this phenomena,but will
show you how rediculous you are ,by using your own arguments.

If your grandma can do the same ,do you hate your grandma for that ?
And if AG does nothing as your grandma does ,why do you hate him?
I don’t expect you to answer that. You probably unable to, like many of the other JM supporters here.

You claim that JM made these players so good.
I guess this suggest that they were not good when he bought them.

Than why did his spend so much money buying them?

“Chelsea always played attacking football “- what a joke !

You can sell it to the Israelies who you calimed joined in after AG.

You can not sell it to me!

“Chelsea always was playing attacking football” - Is your addmission of guilt !

Since by definition you addmit that they do play now attacking football !

Was that the case in previouse years ,under JM ? This is the big question here. You claim yes ,but all the JM supporters refute it!
Simple: The debate here on the style of play started long ago and the argument of the JM supprters was that it does not matter how he plays as long as he is winning the trophies!
Well ,they call it Tactical game not anything else.

So if JM supporters can’t define his style as an attacking football but rather as tactical football ,how can you claim suddenly that it was attacking football?

Or maybe tactical is synonym to attacking?

The only time JM played attacking football was in his first year - He was playing with Reniery team with some added strength to the defence and midfield.
From the 2nd year onward it was - JM TEAM - and it was going in one direction -from attacking to tactical.
From exciting game into an holding boring game !

So did JM played attacking football ?- You and the JM supporters answered:

clearly not !

Do we play now attacking football - You answered it -yes!

Has something have changed ? It must be - you and the JM supporters are saying that.

You addmit it ,other addmit it ,but you people just refuse to come to terms with it - why ?

Very simple - RA took a mickymouse manager by the name of AG who is exploring the weakness of your hero.

Hard to swallow - I know !

Go ahead and hate AG ,but at list you know now the real reason .

Yopu can sell this garbage to the Israelies here ,You can’t sell it to me.

@ moyo, i am not saying drogba, essien or ricardo or even paulo was bot in for huge amount and are waste, u didnt get my point, what i am saying is he was given enough money for players he wants to bring in, and ofcourse its not one way traffic, when ur the owner and u spent half a billion pound on a team, the owner of the club hav something to say, dont u think so ?? if u spent half a billion would u completely let ur manager do wateevr he wants to do ? i wouldnt,,,and when the money was stopped he had trouble in dealing with the defence, y is that ? injuries ofcourse happens in football, and its the managers job to deal with it, he should have thot about it, incase his untouchable JT gets injured whoses gonna fill in, he didnt and he paid for it, simple as that, one thing i wanna say is i am not a jose hater or i dont dislike him, and i have been watching football for more than 20 years now, so i know exactly what i am talkin about, all i want is people to appreciate and give credit wer its due, I am not blind, i know Grant came in under what ever circumstances, he has done a pritty good job. luck, players commintment, watever u wanna call, hes keeping it all together and i hate when poeple jus slate him for no reason, and by the way, hes not my uncle or F in law, i support him and justify him becos i support the manager of the club i follow, i criticise him when its required and i dont go looking for every word he says and try and give my own interpretation to it and comment on it.

Big sam sacked!!!!!

now its time for rafa !!!!

THE GRANT SECRET from vital football
Writer: Lindy
Date: Wednesday January 9 2008
Time: 4:31PM

I have suspected it quite a while now. At the end of the Everton game I was convinced. I have finally figured out the secret of Avram Grant as person and as manager.

It is luck.

He is simply one of those rare persons that brings with him luck. The charm of the Irish or what the saying is, though he is hardly Irish. Pure simple luck. A most needed quality.

Don`t knock this. I am really serious. (Mostly). I do happen to seriously think that luck might be the most important weapon in a manager`s arsenal. Of course the great managers don`t need it. But I can give several examples of managers that have built a career where the main quality is luck. I will take one close to heart, the national manager of Sweden. I happen to think he is a nincompoop. He has very ordinary skills as manager, can`t coach a team during games, he has a very set mind on tactics and dare not take risks. He awards players for long time service instead of playing the best at the time. Picking the Swedish national team is the easiest thing in the world, just use carbon paper of the last team he fielded.

He does however have the greatest luck in the world when it comes to draws before and in tournaments. The only time it looked on paper that he had bad luck we drew England and Argentina in the World Cup 2002, it was the death group of that tournament, before it started. Both countries were arrogant or totally underestimated Sweden, and paid the price for it. Thanks to good draws Sweden has qualified for all national tournaments in the last 10 years and we do usually move on from group play. (Probably not in Euro08 as I think we have a weaker team this time).

Grant has luck. Like no other Chelsea manager I can remember.

Some might make an argument that he can not be lucky considering the number of injuries we had. Wrong. Totally wrong. Other managers have had half the number of injuries and it cost them many valuable points. Grant doesn`t lose even with half his team in the rehab facility.

If that is not luck what is? Grant`s management skills? Even when he subs a target player for a right back we go on and win the game thanks to a 166cm tall player outjumping one of the better headers in England! In overtime and with only ten men on the pitch. That will not ever happen again. Hence it is pure dumb luck, and I love it.

Grant, an obscure, totally unknown manager without any real merits and qualifications, gets to play with one of the best teams in the world. If that is not luck, I don`t know what luck is. Wish I had a tiny, tiny bit of it sometime.

He gets all kind of support no other manager ever gotten in our club for showing not much of anything, except not losing. A four year contract and the people he wants around him. I would call that luck. He lies openly about our play and nobody cares. Other managers have been fired for the same behaviour. Or at least risk a media storm.

He also showed his luck in the Champion`s League draw. The former manager drew Barcelona and Liverpool with predictable frequency. Grant draws Olympiakos. There is a difference, at least on paper, in opponents there. Again I calll it luck.

Our results during the holidays are excellent. With several late goals that very easily could be called lucky. The Villa game an exception, but after the first half when they outplayed us who did even believe in a draw?

We went through in the FA Cup with a weird goal. Some might even call that lucky,

Don`t knock luck. It is a very important part of the game. And our manager with the sad eyes has it in abundance. Keep it up.

(Do you think he will buy me a lottery ticket if I send him the money?)

LOL LOL LOL LOL ha aha ajha aha aha aha aha

@ 24 - CFC

Let me tell you something about your 20 years of watching football.
JM has always since he started as a full manager, not as an assitant/translator been an attacking football manager. When he was in Benfica the first 3 months Benfica was running away with the title, and the best team then was Porto, he left benfica for the same reason he left Chelsea, he does not like owners/presidents to interfere with his work and how he sees it. When he left Benfica he was supposed to join Sporting of Lisbon, but has he was presented to the fans of Sporting of Lisbon, he was booed so badly, that he did not join, the reason Sporting fans booed him, it is very simple, everyone in Portugal knows that he is a benfica fan and because he managed Benfica the sporting Ffans didnt want him, hence the reason that JM still hates and always rubbishes Sporting of L. He then left and went to managed a provincial team that had just been promoted from the 2nd portuguese division and he took them to 3rd place in that league. Then he joined Porto, Porto was struggling that season and he told the press, with 3 more players I will win the championship and he did. Porto did very well in the CL but did not qualified for the knock out games went to the UEFA and won. The Porto president gave him some more money and he bought 4 more players, and he won the CL title, now watch the games of Porto v Manu, Porto v Liver, Porto v Milan and tell me if they were defensive play. We can not have winning teams with oinly a defence, the forwards and midfielders also score goals. Now he is an impressive tactician, the same school as the brasilians and italians, and he believes that matches are won with a solid defence and midfield, if the midfield players are good than the forwards score. Regarding last year compared to this year, there is not much difference, last year even with more injuries than this year he kept MU on sight and managed to finish 2nd in the league, what I believe is that he lost some passion when RA refused him money to buy new players.
Now the players he bought:
Ricardo carvalho and Paulo ferreira since the european cup of 2004 where always in the team selected by the french newspaper L’Equipe, and all the spanish and italian newspapers, Paulo Ferreira and R Carvalho when they came to chelsea where considered the best defenders on at RB the other CD together with Jorge andrade 9now in juventus). Regarding DD, Essein ans SWP, that RA paid lots of money, well DD, Essein no point to comment, you only have to watch them, about SWP he was the most talented right forward in the UK THEN, it is not his fault that RA paid about £21MM to ManCity, we all know that when chelsea wants a players the price inflates, just like anelka now, though I think he is a damn good player.
So use your analysis without bias; unlike me that I am complete bias against AG, he maybe a nice guy but the way he was promoted makes me sick, thats all.
Yes chelsea maybe was practicing a bit DULL football style in the last months of JM rein, but never defensive because they were still winning the games, and no OWN goals, no luck involved, and had JM stayed you can be sure that Chelsea would win the CL, I have no doubt at all.
About the money that RA spent, well it is his money,it is his toy/hobby but he maybe a very successful business man but he showed some naivity (stupidity?). Because he has so much money has he got the right to interfere with the work of an expert? would RA allow JM to interfere in his oil business?? c’mon he got rid of JM only because JM wouldnt allow his interference in the selecting the team,i.e. Sheva brought against the will of JM, but if you read the teams JM field him for many many games, even when everybody could see he was past.
Regarding AG people slate him because of his comments, the man brought into himself the criticism, he tried to convince people that he knew better and just after a few games i recall him saying that NOW chelsea was playing a much better football, the guy is a talentless idiot, has no experience, he a lucky guy, not to mention his substitutions and tactics, again he very lucky to have Steve Clark and ten Cate maybe he can learn something specially from Steve Clark.
So CFC I hope that your 20 years of football can give you a better understanding/ analysis of his skills.
Just to finish, to be a good tactician in football, sometimes it may look that a team is playing defensivelly, but in fact is studying the opposition in order to score when they attack. I rather have 5/6 chances of goal and score 3 than have 20 and score the same goals. A good tactician and manager studies the opposition and make sure the probabilities of scoring are higher when they attack, like going forward like headless chickens.
I go furthher there is no merit at all in the gamse that Chelsea are winning under AG, luck, own goals and fantastic, intelligent substitutions.
Buy the DVDs of his managerial time with the Israel team and tell me if he is lucky or if he is lucky, and look at his defensive team.
C’mon.