I am glad it is only your opinion, what a rubbish opinion though, BTW it is my opinion.Porto was one of the 3 favourites to win the ECL that year.Yes ManU was behind them. See the stats.

@91. israeli

Well what can I comment,
The reason AG won so many games ,1- the spirit of players that he just inherited
2-the fact that he did not interfered with a machine that was used to win, if not broken dont repair it
3-professional and player’s pride
4-Injuries was a good omen, not much to chose from,
5-very poor opposition, yes even ManCity were finding their best way of playing, Valencia were in turmoil and the players were not with the manager, they wnated him out
6- 4/5 games were lady LUCK was the biggest ingredient of the chelsea play.

Now when cfc played a better organised with slightly better players but with a more savvy, astute manager, chelsea were always 2nd class and lost or drew.
However when cheslea need the info of the manager, and it is usually in finals where managers are most important AG failed, showed us, what we, the fans, always knew his shortcomings, his lack of knowledge, inexperience at the highest level, hey israeli he did the same with Israel team, extremelly deffensive, he played NOT LOSE, even against Malta he went deffensive.
Just go back and look at dvd of the final, the man did not know what to do, he was clueless, he can not even motivate a 5 years old
it is not hipocrisy at all, it is a FACT.
The players KNOW that he got the job ONLY and ONLY because of his friendship and faith with the owner, thats all, for THAT ALONE players do not beliece him, or for that matter do not even accept, they know he (AG) is a FAKE.
When he is demoted, sacked or otherwise, AG is unemployable at any level superior to Conference League, if AG was so goo how come no other team ever went for him? the man is a backstabbing opportunist,thats all, at THAT he may EXCELL.
Players respect WINNERS not OPPORTUNIST managers, managers that can read the game as it is develloping rather than EXPECT lady luck or a genial moment from a player.

a goal made by a combination of mistake and luck. you can say it for any goal. drogba scored because of the defensive wall’s mistake and he was lucky that robinson did not cover his left. if you still say that the penalty is ‘one in a million’, i can safely conclude that you don’t know football enough. 3 chances to score? taking the ball to the box does not amount to a chance. spurs were defending with ease. they had no trouble in keeping us out. there was only one worthwhile shot that was from kalou, very well kept by cech.

why don’t you talk about zokora’s dreadful miss? they would have won the match in full time, deservedly so. even in extra time, they had a 4 vs 2 situation which again they missed. spurs could have gone 3-0 ahead in the first half itself. we were lucky, weren’t we???

sorry israeli, i have a big problem of understanding you. your last two paragraphs don’t make any sense to me.

grant was the biggest fraud in israel and now he has creeped into england. he will be exposed very soon! then you’ll eat your hat.

Then came ET and that goal made by a combination of mistake and luck.
Any ways 25 minutes where left and I agree we could have done better but there where 3 chances to score so when you say there was only one shot you either forget or lie .
If you go back to the video you would see it with your own eyes.

Now a bit about hypocrisy: when the team wins 25 games out of 34 its either luck or the players or JM or SC or HTC, not AG
But now you all give AG the credit, so that is well noted and I feel much better that finally we all agree AG is responsible for wins and losses. Or it’s only one way

Now a bit more about hypocrisy
Team selection –look back at the posts and see for your self how many where in favor of playing with both FL and JT from so many good reasons, the facts are that FL were not in his best and JT was our number one player. Any coach would keep FL on the pitch expecting his spirit to make a change.
There is to much talking about this as all the players who did play could have done the job, being smart after is so easy
What’s funny the most is that in order to establish you point you glorify Ramos as he just invented football.
Where where you when we wan the spurs only few weeks ago? I forgot it was JM spirit above SB

Yitzhak , I don’t take you as a fool so please don’t take me as one when you ask what was this pre season matches I mention in my post, my point was (I am sure you understand)that this season the team had to do 3 tune ups along the way, how can you find this funny?
Isn’t that a simple fact??

The problem here is that some fans forget there job and that is supporting there team and confused themselves as football managers not having a clue what it takes.

As for you Yitzhak I got another problem,
Some how I can understand (not agree) the fans that was here all along the way since AG took over ,I see you as one of those ppl that here only do dance on the blood of what you smell as blood.
I wish that you will eat you hat!!!

.

brilliant post. u were speaking from the heart.

and @89 ill say see the winning rate of man utd when rooney is not available.. all there defeats and draws have been when he was not available… winning formula has several elements.. u take out one and its no longer a wining formula

KTBFFH!!

Its been a while. hope all is well.

M_D@83, i have never had any doubts that all you wanted was chelsea winning by playing attacking enetertaining football. When it is that we can get that, I would not be sad cos all i really want is to win as many trophies as possible and have more bragging rights when debating fans of arsenal, manure and loserpool.

M_D, let me explain why i prefer Jose’s style- my other great passion is boxing. I have over the years realised that the greatest boxers are not those who pack a fantastic punch and know how to swarm their opponents through sheer power and speed- the greatest are those who first and for all know how to absorb, contain and outmaneuver such pulverising fighters and know how to see openings and finish them off. that is what made ali greater than Sonny liston, foreman and frazier-
that is what makes holyfield a thousand times better than tyson. that is what recently made Floyd mayweather much better than Ricky hatton.

That is what Jose has. that capacity to outthink his opponents and get the better of them.

The narrow definition of entertainment in terms of sweet flowing passing football, deft touches, one twos and all those eye pleasing movements aroung the opponent’s area leading to a goal must be looked at again. the best entertainment, if you ask me is the one that consists in outmaneuvring gifted players like messi, ronnie on a consistent basis. the one that enables you to beat the manures and the arseys on a regular basis.

Would jose have won the CL? that you know depends on so many factors? Like you say porto was not considered favourites. liverpool was not rated the following year. barca won it deservedly. but milan last year should have crashed much earlier too. So like every cup match, so many factors come into play and some of them are variables that one cannot really control. luck plays some major part as well.

but one thing i know for a fact. Jose’s chelsea would have triumphed in a league that features all those teams. the league does not lie. a league with chelsea, liverpool, milan, barca, manure etc would invariably have been won by Chelsea- you know why, those teams could be lucky against him in one off matches but in a league format, they will not.

M_D, when a team uses one pass from goalie to Centre forward to score, i call that class. when a team instead of having 50 passes to reach the last third can use a quick three pass on a break to do so, i call it brilliant.

I feel, Jose should have been allowed to win us more silverwares- boost our bragging rights- make us have the pedigree as winners. then we can experiment with other managers who want to make us “entertain like barca or arsenal”-

Bottomline M_D, we both want the same goals but we have different approaches to attaining them.

Where we playing attacking football under jose? I will say yes. proof- in his first two seasons, he outscored all opposition in the EPL. he was a master at going on fast breaks and killing the opposition when they are committed.

let me tell you, the team selection by grant was awful. how can he leave joe cole and ballack out for this match?? what was the need to play both essien and mikel? how can anelka play in th left wing for the first time for chelsea in a cup final?? why was wright phillips given the starting place?? if you have anelka and drogba the best formation is 4-4-2, nothing else. the old man completely lost it.

bridge handball was not one in a million. i guess you know football rules. if a player stops or controls the ball with this arm, inside the penlty box, the penalty is awarded. no matter if the ball going for goal or not. bridge controlled the ball using his arm not once, but twice and that was a 100% penalty and it happens so often in football. as often as the type of goal drogba scored for us.

you’re just joking mate. the game was never in chelsea’s control. we were only chasing shadows. which game were you watching?

if you keep saying one mistake can happen to anyone, then you’re not trying to be champion. and there was no ‘stilling time’ in the extra time. ramos very intelligently shut shop and neutralised chelsea. we had 25 minutes in a cup final to score a goal against a tottenham defence and we had one shot.

AG looked completely clueless on what was to be done. he was just loitering around without any ideas. he didn’t know what to do. simple. i’ve seen that back in israel. it’s not new. and what is this pre-season thing you’re talking about? so you think for every such thing grant will take 2-3 matches to rest and re-coup? then we cannot win even one trophy under grant. this pre-season comment by you is one of the funniest i’ve ever read.

AG does not know how to manage a big team. period.

Manager- Grant is not qualified, nor accomplished, him and Abramovich obviously share something special but even Rom has to admit, change is needed, bring on Rikjaard. If Abramovich truly cared about his money, he would sell his soul to satan or do anything it took to bring back Mourinho

Attack- Why spend 30 mil on a 30 year old striker? keepers mature with age, not strikers. Drogba is useful, we should keep him even though he really winds me up (see him try to use his hand in cc final?). Sell Scheva and Pizzaro. Give Sahar and Sinclair more opportunity, what of Di Santo? will we ever see him? Anelka can use his feet but we need another striker – aggressive, position discipline.

Midfield- Joe cole is the closest thing to a playmaker at current. Lampard and ballack are good, but not class, i agree. Ballack is good but past prime as is Lampard. Malouda cannot replicate lyon form in premier league, we miss robben, the ronaldo of the left wing. we need a true attacking midfielder, pace, dribbling, shooting, preferably someon early 20′s to be nurtured a little
and yes, our wings (except joe) are flairless, employ someone on the right with abit of trickery and pace to open up the wing and stop drogba/anelka having to leave the box to pick up the longballs we don’t play anymore

defence – branislav ivanovic could solve our rb problem that ferreira and belleti didnt, we need to see him play, even if its just the last 20mins of a match. we should look into bringing in a right back this summer, a pacey, no nonsense player – micah richards? daniel alves? alex will adapt given time, he is making a jump from psv to be fair.

I hope change will come this summer