It does not need a Jose Mourinho’s team to ‘kill Chelsea’. Barnsley just did it. A very strong Chelsea team were beaten by a team that is 33 places below them. Simple as that. We were just three matches away from defending our trophy. In a matter of few weeks, we are out of both domestic cups. Barnsley thoroughly deserved their win. Full credit to their players and their manager. I wish them all the luck to go on to win the trophy.
We started with a very very strong team. The intention was very clear by the team selection. This game was not taken lightly. Grant wanted to win this game. There were no reserve players in the starting line-up as such. There were no youngsters either. We are the defending champions and we need this trophy back. That was the message I got from the team selection for this FA Cup quarter final.
We played our typical 4-3-3 with a confused Anelka as the centre forward, right winger and the left winger. It took just a few minutes to realise that Barnsley could well be a headache. As the game progressed, I realised that they were more than a headache. They wanted to win this game and they did not think of sitting back defending Chelsea attacks. They came at us boldly and played with absolutely no fear.
I would put the blame on the coach more than the players because the buck simply stops at the manager, doesn’t it? I don’t think our players played poorly, some of them were but not all. To be honest, the spirited Barnsley bunch made us look poor. Grant was once again slow to read the game and unable to influence the game with this live match decisions and involvements.
We were very predictable in the way we played. I don’t think Barnsley were mentally stretched to undo the Chelsea attacks. Sure we had a good number of shots but most of them were simply poops, easily blocked and calmly saved. The Barnsley keeper did not even have to make a good save. We did not even test him for all the number of shots. Poops.
The funny thing to say is, Barnsley attacked better, with more imagination and variety. They dribbled with ease and confidence that we were completely taken aback. I wonder if the Chelsea coaching team watched the previous matches of Barnsley in this competition and in the coca cola championship. It did not look like we had a plan. It looked like the Chelsea players were unpleasantly surprised by the quality of play of Barnsley.
I’m not going over the individual player performances. It now looks like such a waste of time. When Portsmouth defeated Man Utd this evening, I was completely convinced that this FA Cup belongs to Chelsea. There would be no Arsenal, Liverpool or Man Utd. It would have been a relatively easy route to winning the trophy. Now, we’ve made a mess of the domestic competitions.
I would accept losing in domestic competitions if:
(i) we are playing youth and reserves
(ii) we lose at the earlier stages of the competition
(iii) we dominate the opponent and we simply unlucky not to win
(iv) we are not serious about this competition
(v) we have better chances of winning something else in the season
I too strongly believe Roman wants to win everything on sight. I wonder what happens after this defeat. Will Avram Grant be given the boot? Are we going to go through another round of players infighting, coach-player quarrels, Roman’s stabilisation visit etc. How would he be feeling? We have a fully fit squad but for Petr Cech, we are playing better as per Avram Grant, we had just scored 7 goals in two matches and suddenly we can’t find the net against a championship team? And it wasn’t even a stoppage time heart stopper like they scored against Liverpool. They scored at the 66th minute and there were about 25 minuted to weave attacks and score one goal. We couldn’t even take the match to a replay at Stamford Bridge.
After the match Avram Grant said:
It is a big disappointment, a quarter-final we lost. I think first I need to congratulate Barnsley. They played very well today, and showed a good spirit. For us it was not a pitch we can play quality football on. In the first half we played not good, second half we started very well, very quick, and created chances, but then conceded a goal and we couldn’t score so they won. [A long ball game] is not my idea, we tried to play. In the second half we played good until we conceded a goal, which was their first attack of the half, but again I give a lot of credit to Barnsley.
These things happen. Man United lost at home to Portsmouth, and we played away against a team that beat Liverpool away. I don’t know but I’m very disappointed. I wanted them to play but they are injured so they didn’t play, but we played with a team good enough to win this game. We lost the Carling Cup and then we played two great games, 4-0 and 3-0. We lost the game today, we are not happy from this but it has happened to all four big teams this year. Maybe this year the Cup is not for the big teams. We move on and look forward, we have two competitions to fight for. You can say it yes, since I came to Chelsea this is my most disappointing day, [but] we have a good team and look to the future.
Now Grant makes us believe that this is just another result. He takes shield under the fact that none of the big four teams are not there in the cups. This is a very cheap defeatist mentality. I don’t want my Chelsea coach to sound like this! Also he simply can’t say this because the other teams in big four did not have friendly owners with deep pockets. When Grant has all the support and the money, he should deliver. No excuses. He got all the players he wanted to buy in January. I don’t think many teams spent like we did in January. He got all his players fit and ready. He even had the luxury of not having to play two of his January signings. And here is a team that we should beat with our second team with ease. In a difficult pitch, we should have played much more in the air, that’s sensible smart tactics. It’s much better than losing to Barnsley. I don’t understand why Grant considers the playing in the air so bloody inferior?
Why does he have to talk about the 4-0 against West Ham and 3-0 against Olympiakos here? Why is he saying ‘but it happened to all four big teams’? What does he mean? We will play another couple of great games and lose when it matters? This defeat was the very reason why I did not weigh those big wins so heavily. I always felt that, on the whole, we are slowly losing our resilience and our collective character. The killer instinct that was a mark of Chelsea has been waning. Such a defeat was always coming. You need to lose only two matches to go out the two domestic competitions and we’ve lost those.
From Guardian, Trizia Fiorellino, Chair, Chelsea Supporters’ Group had said this:
It was awful. Grant has changed a team of winners into 11 strangers. It shows our desperation that when we needed a goal we had to bring on Pizarro. Did their keeper have a save to make? You have to be worried now – the players have a huge lack of confidence. The West Ham result was papering over the cracks – they were woeful, whereas Barnsley, like Spurs, were up for it and beat us. Abramovich is going to have to face up to the fact that he has made a big mistake with Grant and get in someone new to salvage our season.
Finally, something to cheer about. The BC Shout thingy is a roaring success. Thanks to the guys who turned up and livened up the BC Shout – live match chat today. It was fun and interesting. And you don’t need to login or anything. Just click the BC Shout banner on the top of the sidebar and you’re in (ok Moyo?). Also please allow it a second or two to load. You can still go there and read the live match chat, just for fun!
I await the champions league draw. Let’s stop kidding ourselves about still being in the premier league and champions league. I want Chelsea to be handed out the most difficult draw of the lot and I want to see what we’re made of. No more easy draw and premature undeserved celebrations. If we win the tie against the toughest opponent, it will surely improve our confidence and belief. If we lose, we can’t complain if we aren’t good enough. Finally, one positive feeling is that at least we did not lose to Barnsley at Stamford Bridge!
Is it time to take up the petition again?
135 Responses - Add your comment!
@Barnsley : they deserved a win…. and right now its time to CHANGE OUR MANAGER!!! Give BACK OUR SPECIAL ONE!!
A day when we deserve to have a manager not an idiot.
The players are to be held responsible for sucha shit result
and not Avram Grant
grant isnt to be blamed here…the guys on the pitch just didnt perform…joe cole ..bridge and ballack were the only guys who were good..even bridges crosses sometimes were bad…swp,malouda and anelka were terrible..essien wasnt to be seen much..i dnt remember swp having a single shot on the goal and he was playing upfront…anelka was looking like some old man …and malouda always reminds me of the villain in 300!!i cant think what grant could have done better…he brought in kalou who was not upto the mark either..and pizzaro was well pizzaro!!
just only one thing to say …. sack the f***er
now we are not only losing to big teams and in big games but we also lose to teams from lower leagues
we wasted our chance to wine another trophy while we could have been the only team from the big four to be left in the competition…!!!!!
now is he going to say that we have two other trophies to win as if he is capable of winning shit
this season is officially OVER
why grant couldnt use one unused sub?
anyways very poor performance… as i said earlier was expecting it but thought wll win
last season when we defeated arsenal at league cup final next 1 month showed them out of every competition they were playing.. looks the same story is gonna repeat just that now we are at the receiving end.
I’m so mad, not even upset at the way we played this game. You say Avram isn’t to blame, however it is his job to fire up the players before the game and at half time. He just isn’t cut out to be manager and this is the nail in the coffin for me. The sooner he walks or gets sacked, the better. We are playing rubbish football with no real flair and grinding out results.
I’m glad Barnsley won in the end… had we scored it would of been such an injustice to a team who showed real spirit and fighting desire.
new records are bein made!!
Chelsea had lost to lower division opposition in the FA Cup for the first time since 1995, and the first time since 1992 without a penalty shoot-out.
A poor poor performance. Cech would have saved that goal but that doesn’t change the fact that the team had absolutely no drive up front. Frank is probably kicking himself for not playing. SWP has been given one chance too many…at best, he deserves to be a late-game sub. Send him off to Derby County and let him help them lose.
Who can you blame but Roman for this mess…it’s his team to destroy I suppose.
@2, Why is Grant not to be blamed? Any manager who cannot motivate and inculcate the spirit of togetherness and determination into his team – especially against a lower side – is not fit to be a manager. Chelsea has not lost to a lower league opposition since 1982 but now that’s all over. I remember mourinho almost getting sacked last season in the fa cup because we drew against wycombe. If Avram doesn’t get sacked this time around for losing to barnsley, then something is wrong with roman and the board. Barnsley played better, attacked better, defended better and had a better manager. Their coach can win the fa cup with chelsea…of course he can…. he’s already doing that with barnsley. This could have been the easiest fa cup ever for us with man utd arsenal and liverpool all out; even mourinho never had it as easy as this but this old israelite illiterate we have as a coach has messed it all up.
He got his formation wrong. Where was lampard or mikel…. mikel….mikel…mikel. Mikel hasn’t been playing in over 3 matches now. Mourinho never did that, that young boy is the future of our midfield. When did mourinho bench for more than a match since that carling cup final, he holds the ball and passes and tackles and gives us possession. He sent makelele to the second team, but this stupid buffoon can’t see all that. I would have played mikel for malouda, sidwell for essien, lampard for swp, with bllack and j cole still on and we could have easily won this game.
Mourinho would have won with only di santo up front. Di santo won’t have to score coz the midfield will. Who remembers last season in the fa cup when we were striking with sahar and sinclair against macclesfield and we won… it was either 6-1 or 5-1… even mikel scored a stunner in that match. That’s how mourinho would have played today to ‘disgrace liverpool.’
The sooner Grant is sacked, the better it will be for us. We need to start preparing for the next season; get a new manager who will take us place and restore our former glory and as i said some weeks earlier, our season is over. We are not winning anything this season.
What if we face barcelona in the champios league….lol
2 gone
2 to go
i think its a loss creditted to ten cate and steve clark as grants job is to just announce the first 11 isnt it? get lost grant!! and take SWP with u
SACK GRANT ALREADY ROMAN!!! Watch it we are not going to win nothing this year….
we have to get rid of this joker next season we might fall to a top 8 team poor performance i am ashamed i to say i support Chelsea and it hurts to say that
Hi guys,
The game wasnt shown live here in UAE..its being shown recorded tomorrow..anyway i am happy i didnt see the game..it would have been too depressing seeing a full strength Chelsea team lose to lower league opposition
We had the chance to easily defend the CC n the FA cup..but we screwed up big time..
RA..please take notice…We are going DOWN the hill..not UP
That was embarrassing. Just when Grant seemed to have done something right, he goes and fowls it up. There’s not turning back now; he must be sacked.
Where do I start criticizing? The team selection… Malouda, Joe Cole, and SWP all playing in this game. How can you play three wingers in a 4-3-3??? Ferreira has played very well as well of late, and Belletti this match wasted cross after cross. Makelele would have controlled this game like he did against Olympiakos, yet he was nowhere to be seen. And worst of all, the substitutions!! Kalou should have started, first of all, and bringing Pizarro in was like red-carding Belletti…
All I could think of when they scored was, this is a sad day for Chelsea. With AG I really didn’t believe my team could come back and win. With JM we could always believe, and we rarely, if ever, lost this sort of match, even being a goal down.
Even sadder, there are no managers available that can take us to the next step. There really aren’t.
No JM, no trophies. It’s a sad thing!
GRANT YOU CANNOT SMILE YOU CANNOT SPEAK ENGLISH GO HOME LEAVE THE BLUES BEFORE THEY END.UP A CHEAP RUBBISH SIDE
GRANT GO AWAY FOR GOD GOD GOD SAKE
I finally return to see a match and Grant serves up this rubbish. What a bloody fat fool.
I just cant shed tears. I believe Chelsea board will have a close look at this result and decide in favour of the loyal fans. The best team and a good coach won. SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE DONE QUICKLY.
Very unfortunate. We just couldn’t break them down. They put 11 players in front of the goal and it looked like a damn pinball machine in their five-yard box.s
It’s a sad day when we seem to have screwed up a perfect chance (see: ManU loss). But if there’s anything positive to be taken from today, it’s the fact that we can devote more time and energy to the EPL and the CL. United, Arsenal, and Liverpool are all in the same boat. Well, maybe not Liverpool…
It scares me that Chelsea are only in contention for two trophies this year, and neither are likely to end up in our cabinet. Not a single piece of silverware for Grant? Roman would never imagine it.
He will be gone soon enough. Pizarro late in the game? Sigh.
barnsley beat us hands down. did i think we are not being feared. fecking hell, we’re being ripped apart. what will happen if we play barcelona or even man utd in the champs league?
grant’s excuses ran out in the end of january. he got the players he wanted. he got all players fit and available. he got his bosses supporting him. he loses two cups in two weeks to weaker opponents.
when JM won the domestic cups with us, we beat liverpool, man utd, arsenal the three finals. looks like a long time back. bring back jose. please for gods sake.
hahahaha!!!! Barnsley is it???
lets move on boys, whats the next match? just sit back and endure!!!
I did say that if Chelsea remain in the running for the last three trophies by 12 April then Grant should stay on as the manager. The win against West Ham was great. But, I did warn that the win did not put any silverware in the box. Whipping Olympiakos was cool. But they were a fairly weak side so I said nothing. This was a cup loss to a team that we should have also beaten 4-0. A loss to Man U, Gooners, Spurs, or even Anfield would have been bad. But BARNSLEY?
Roman Abromovich owes an appology to every Chelsea fan for this season. Had Jose Mourinho been that rotten of an apple (for winning two prems, two carlings, an FA cup and shield), he should have either been fired last summer or held on for this season and then fired. If Abromovich wanted another manager, he should have taken the time to select a quality, qualified man for the job. No, I don’t expect JM to come back. But, Grant is simply not the man to lead this team.
Other than the fact that we have to face the likes of Derby, Sunderland, and a couple of other weaker teams, is there any reason to believe Chelsea can sneak up on Arsenal and Man U and take the prem? With the teams left in the Champions League, who can we look at as being a soft competitor? Indeed, it isn’t impossible for Chelsea to fall from the top four.
Grant has to do a lot of convincing for anyone to belive that silverware is possible this season. 12 April may be too late for the team. Clark as caretaker manager is starting to sound really good to me.
this stupid grant’s post match comments really make my blood boil. either he wants to justify that this defeat what we exactly wanted at this stage or tries to say that manu, liv and arse lost so we can also lose. such a loser he is.
he is not the man to leaf chelsea. he is a disgrace. he is slowly making us a bloody laughing stock.
under JM, we were a european power rivalling barcelona. and today, we are a big joke. we are going downhill. players would soon like to leave. new players may not want to join. it could be a disaster if grant is not sacked soon.
can someone call john terry about this? i won’t speak so much when i know i have waste of space like this toad as the manager.
I have never seem them perform. SWP is just too awful. In the end, he was unable to run also. Can’t see a team full of stars failing against a championship side. If Man U lost, at least I felt bad for them because the referee was very bad . They made a zillion chances .
Today I did even find one good chelsea effort on goal . And our 15 million signing , this winter , he was playing a role of winger .
I just can’t blame Grant alone.
I pray to God, please give us Man U , Arsenal , Liverpool or Barcelona for the champions league. Want to see us trashed so that R.A knows where we stand.
Barnsley was definitely a better side tonight. There’s no doubt about it. Starting kalou would have been better, but still the starting lineup was pretty strong. Anelka looked clueless throughout the game, Malouda lacked the zeal, defensively we were quite weak though we had everyone and I expected to see ivanovic in the right back position and anelka and sheva up front.
It looked like we were just defending because they were attacking us most of the time and if we continue to play the same way we won’t make it through the CL or the EPL.
Everybody were quite optimistic about this match and thought that we would be thrashing them at least 2-0 but instead they thrashed us. At first it was a quadruple every chelsea fan wanted and later it became a treble and now it’s only a double and that too is doubtful.
If Mourinho was sacked for not winning the EPL and for getting knocked from CL then Roman should go for Grant’s head and sack him as soon as possible. I have been against him since day 1. Its quite disgusting to watch him on the stands and his substitutions are insanely mind blowing, even a 15 yr old would know whom to substitute. I still don’t understand how Roman could replace TSO with Grant. What’s great about this guy anyways ? Ofcourse his track record is good but he is quite poor tactically.
People thought we were back to form as soon as we beat West ham and olympiacos, both teams were mediocre opponents and olympiacos were without their top players. If Chelsea continues this way I doubt whether we would finish in the top four this season and I hope this guy doesn’t ruin our home record because we would be facing ManU and Arsenal soon.
I still don’t understand why we need so many players in a team and also why he still uses the 4-3-3 formation when he has a good choice of fit players and TSO didn’t have the liberty, the situation was quite bad last season with many injured players during christmas. Also Drogba, Sheva, Sidwell, Ben-Haim should be sold next season especially Drogba (talking crap about Chelsea all the time. We don’t need a player who does not like Chelsea and states it publicly) his form is also diminishing and his market value would decrease if this goes on. If you have noticed Sheva never publicly states that he does not like Chelsea though he rarely starts and he is a world class player and once feared striker. He’s humble and tries to fight for a starting place(many still think he does not like chelsea but the thing here is he doesn’t state this publicly unlike Drogba).
I strongly believe Sheva, Ballack, Lampard and Anelka can play together. Hope to see a better Chelsea in the coming weeks.
another embarassment not gd enough with exception of j cole the only cunt that was bothered swp tried but aint gd enough get a fkin manager and some fkin pride i will face the second ribbin in weeks nogd without lampard n drogs n thay wiil prob fug off shame on these 100 k a week prats well played barnsley u deserved it
This season we will be without Silverware, first time in the last 4 years.
If I was Roman , I would sell of Droba, Maluda, SWP. Don’t want people who cry every fifteen days or who simply don’t perform. 16 MM for Maluda could have been spend on a Nani or Anderson or even Ryan Babel. Maluda has no pace at all.
even if I don’t get any silverware, I would invest in kids probably sinclair, di santos by playing them regularly and buying young ones like lulinha .
Next season, he is prepared to spend 100 MM.I wish he invest these in our youth academies instead of buying Villa’s, Amauri , who will again find difficult to play. At one point, he might get feed up and stop this funding and probably sell Chelsea. Even the blackburn and fulham match was better than the Chelsea one.
Pathetic is just one word.
I dunno why we all blaming Grant, he is actually innocent yu know. Did this guy ever said I wanna to be/become a Chelsea manager in my life time. Man he was doing some xyz dummy role @ Portsmouth ‘n’ living peacefully. Its all our brain-stormy, honourable owner Roman who had chosen this guy considers it as a master-stroke. Temme when some billionaire gives yu arnd 2-3 million pounds as wages juss to read his transcripts in the media and to name da starting 11 randomly, would yu deny that honestly? dats what Grant also did and dat wat any human would do. So stop blaming Grant, he himself knew dis role is beyond his capabilities, instead blame Chelsea Management and our owner Roman for all disasters dat all happening to us!
i dun understand what da fuk Chelsea management thinking? Give some respect to this league (which many say best league in da world including me) dat it deserves, EPL is not yur fekin Play-Station piece. In my honest opinion according to Grant’s CV, he is not even deserved to lead League-II relegation zone team. or Chelsea giving some top level mgmt training to Grant? I dunno but I dun blame Grant for all the scenes dat happening wid Chelsea. I beg yu Roman, please consider/respect Chelsea is a honourable football club @ Fulham road and so many Generations lived and living as its their soul, as their joy, as their culture, as their breath. So pls dun destroy their soul just for yur fun!
j cole only one 2 try swp not gd enough with lamps and drog gone nxt season what will appen new mnger reqd i cant go ouy 4 ribbins again twice in 2 weeks u scum players should give barnsley a months wages each they av pride wp u tykes
Our campain will be done by April 8th . On March 23, Arsenal will kill us at Stamford Bridge ..
I am sure we will get Liverpool or Man U or Arsenal in Champions League and our hopes will be done by April 8.
We will be fighting for a Champions league spot with Liverpool & Everton.
shame on u over paid egotistic twats except j cole ur turning us supporters into laffin stock wp barnsley wish we had the commitment
keep drog check lampard terry cole ballack and roman fug the rest off inc manager kenyon and all the other stirrers return of mourinho needed return of pride needed wp barnsley wish we had that fight another embarassin day down pyb 2morrow best get used 2 it with this shower of over paid under performin losers shame on u
joe cole only one with abit of pride everyone else donate wks wages to a charity u under achieving no hopers
w p barnsley u showed these no hopers a lesson fat greedy overpaid losers thanks 4 2 morrows stick down pub hang ur 100ik aweek heads give ur wages to charity u embarassing sodz
the pricks are pribably all out clubbin or roastin now u useless nohopers
the pricks are pribably all out clubbin or roastin now u useless nohopers u finished that bottle u had swp u useless vunt
Grant is soo gone at the end of the season
Us chelsea fans + abramovich need to get on our knees and beg joe to come back.
Today’s loss could have been easily sorted by playing a diamond formation, taking off swp and playing drogba instead. Look at all those chances swp had to bring the ball down in the box, make a break, have the shot. Drogba would have made something out of those chances. Malouda was in good form in lyon but is struggling somewhat. I think the defence was alright but lampard and drogba should have played instead of malouda and swp.
Midfield_Decider, Joe Blue, and all other Mourinho haters; was it worth getting rid of Mourinho for this? I know, your arguements against Jose’s tactics and lack of a mind for attacking football. Yes, you all described Chelsea under him as playing “boring” football. But, is this type of “beauty” any better than what we had?
Okay, y’all might be thinking that if Chelsea wins the CL and Prem, then I’ll have my foot in my mouth. But tell me why should I have any reason to believe either trophy is a possibility?
In time, Roman may hire a top manager and the team will play and win trophies with a sexy sleek style. But, admit it, sacking mourinho in exchange for grant was the worst thing to happen to the club.
Anyway, before I read the blogs, I must say this is the result of playing far too many games with under achievers teams.
I am absolutely disgusted at this result, speacially as the manager knew the result from manU v ports, this cup was made for cfc to keep.
Anyway, I rather stay short of analysing Avram Grant, for the simple reason you guys know my opinion about this monkfish, so called “manager”.
Again JM openedd his mouth, with precise “moment”, and wether u believe me or not he got an email from me.
The fact that we lost against weak teams, is the law of probabilities, you can only win so many, ok we had chances, but there is something I have been noticing the players do not play for the manager, recall the interview with kalou, he (AG) is different, so on and so on…. .
Ok I can not blame AG for not winning this game and for that matter to win a troffy, at least to bury the JM ghost, once and for all, after he had so many directly and indirectly digs at a winner, so for that matter I am going to be like him (AG). Speak my mind.
This most poor, an unachievable manager, biggest back stabbing (of the most despicable way), guys I am so annoyed that I cant even think, this cup was there for takings.
I no longer go on and blame AG, whats the point? anyone, fansd, directors,sub directors, ROMAN ABRAVONITCH, peter kenyon, buck etc etc , they all knowthis guy is like a rocket can go any where, however the PLAYERS do know , DO KNOW, he isa FAKE.
No doubht , when he (AG) speaks to RA, he will say you know Roman, I have not got the loyalty of the players, because they are JM players, however if you open your cheque book, as you didnt to JM last Xmas, I am sure I vcan deliver the type of football you want to see.
Yes bey Kaka, Robinho, Cristiano Ronaldo, Nani, all the other very top playersin the world, the type that do not need any motivation to win a game, and yes Roman I am your man.
….. I must carry on next page I think,I am furious guys allow me time
0
……. And so on, ok I believe an army, or for that matter any football team wishes to win, however you always need a specialist to direct and motivate the “workers”.
Unfortenatlely this guy maybe a “peacefull man” but I rather have a “war a man” and win troffies than a pathetic man that “believes” he is in the same league as AW, SAF, SE etc etc , not to mention the continental managers.
Ok I had enough, I have a ticket to sell for the FA cup final, thats I was confident to go there when JM was the manager.
I will have a message to RA next blog
Thisnis a message to the CFC directors , ot to the ones t hat rtead the blogs and confide to the directors.
It is time to take the fans’ opinions seriouly. RA took away the most successful manager in history of our beloved team, I know you are a Russian, and love to deffy the majority oppinion, I know Russians love chess, however you are playing with emotions with the “fan club” Mr RA it is time that you think, however much money you have invested,and WE ARE all gratefull for that, that next time you choose a MANAGER, have A POLL and ask the fans that buy the season tickets, wether you should change or replace the manager.
I understand that you are carrying the DEFICIT of cfc, and as a fan I am EXTREMELLY grateful for that, but for us fans the most important things is to WIN troffies.
You have replaced a WINNER, however liked or disliked , but a WINNER with a pathetic,unable,dispecable character individual, please TAKE notice that 95% of the fans know your mistake.
I do not want to bring back JM, as I do not believe 2nd returns are successful, but look at Portugal, Spain, Italy, France and why NOT Britain for managers, there are plenty with the NOUS to be successful, however consult the cfc fans, they know more about football when sleeping that you know about the next oil barrel price, so Mr RA be DECENT and HONEST, JM maybe was getting bigger than the club, howver DO NOT FOLLOW his example, just be the OWNER and opena department of synchronised swimming in chelsea and move YOUR GFRIEND there as a manager.
I had enough.
2 gone
2 to go
just wait.
sugar I am so annoyed that Im isspelled terribly
hahaha…
we need a playmaker so badly
playmaker???????????????
shit we need badly a decent manager
with the players in the team we need
a manager, just a manger not MONKFISH
What’s Up fans, We were Disgraced by Bansley today, Thanks to Avam Grant, We have never been humilated this way before. First it started with Hotspur then Bansley, Avam Grant is not worthy to be a Coach, We really need to replaced him as soon as possible. Avam Grant must Go !, We need a better Coach, Someone Like Jose M, He we always remain in my heart forever and for always, I miss him very much, Avam grant must Go, He is too doll.
We were disgraced today by Barnsley. Thanks to Avam Grant. Can someone Pls Kill Avam Grant for me before it’s to late. He Must Go or Die, We don’t want Avam Grant Anymore, He is very doll, He looks like a frog. We need a replacement Coach
I think BC would already have a fair idea about my stance on the standard of this game. I stayed awake until 6.30am in the hope of seeing my beloved Chelsea smash at least 2 goals into the back of the net.
What did I get instead? An unorganised, confused, disappointing preformance from every player on the pitch – with maybe the exception of Joe Cole who seems to be the only player who understands how much these cup compitions mean to the fan’s.
To say I am angry is an understatement, if Grant continues to be the head honcho down at Stamford Bridge then we will never win a thing.
RM sack him immediately.I know your feeling the pressure now Grant step aside before getting embarrased and maybe, just maybe a second rate team like the Wolves might appoint you as “head in charge of cleaning the boot’s of the players children”.
DISGRACE.
Anelka was utter garbage again. I said when we got him that it was a poor transfer and certainly looks it now. Kalou would have been a better choice to start the game, Sheva would have been a better choice, anyone but poor, flailing Nico.
pooor result.its a real test for grant from now he has to win something this year. roman will not sack him now …….two managers in a season is not good sign for any club.
wth just happen!!!!!!!!!!!!!totally madness…avram grant need to be replaced.and anelka played like shit
Guys! Did u guys read BC’s article fully. Now he has updated it with grant’s post match interview! HE HAS NO PASSION! He says these things happen!
The only positive………………hopefully avram will be given the boot
@BC
But honestly do we need a manager to defeat barnsley???????????when are we getting rid of our hyped overpaid stars……..
Jose Mourinho will certainly be coaching a top team next year, in my opinion, either Milan or Real Madrid… The Italian team have underachieved domestically for a few years and this early knockout to Arsenal won’t help Ancelotti’s position. They’ve had a tradition for signing former players but Jose is good enough to break the precedent. Real is also under performing. Although they’re leading La Liga, they’ve been eliminated once again from the Champions League, and they’ve been in bad form for about a month. They need stability and better organization (they’re giving up way too many goals) and defense.
This is a Chelsea blog, though, and here’s how all of this relates to Chelsea: those of you begging for JM to come back, stop dreaming. And be wary of next year’s CL; we’re going to play some tough, tough teams, and possibly against JM!!
The thing that hurt us most is SWP playing for Lampard. SWP up the middle worked in a couple of matches but ever since it’s been crap. He’s not a second striker or striker, nor is he a central midfielder. His speed is exploited down the right. He was playing Lampard’s role today, and he was garbage.
Our team looked so badly coached today. Where were the small adjustments throughout the game, the little changes in formation and such?! JM read the game so much better and quicker than AG and we’d go through five or six formations in matches where we couldn’t unlock the opponents. But Malouda stayed way too defensive the whole game, SWP remained central, Anelka didn’t, and Ballack was just not getting the help he got from Lampard last match. Essien shouldn’t be the defensive midfielder. He should be the central midfielder with Makelele or Mikel behind him. And the little page from JM’s book, playing Essien at RB at the end, really amused me. Reall, AG, it was cute. It was like a three year-old copying off their older brother’s homework. On their coloring book.
Painful!!
Thank you guys…I enjoyed reading all the comments!!
Now Im jus waiting 4 israeli to comment!
M_D say something…..joeBlue…..Where ya’ll at??
I suggest to you all not to let these results get you down…..I am more surprised when we win than when we lose!!!
It’s a sad thing to say, AgentBlue, but it’s becoming true. I’m expecting us to fall flat on our faces in the games we need to win. Something must change at CFC!
the goal was a mess started by essien loosing possesion in the midfield. Whats happeneing to our player of the season?
hmmm….was it all the manager’s fault that we lost to barnsley???the only thing as far as grant did was underestimating barnsley and not keeping lampard and drogba on the bench….even JM would have started with such a manner…may be not swp in the center instead gone with mikel as dm and essien and ballack/lampard…but by keeping lampard and drogba he is in a way considered all eventualities…i think it was more to do with the players performing below par…the players who performed or atleast i should say showed up where joey ballack and bridge…with the starting XI he put up i am sure we should have won this game hands down…but it was not to be…barnsley came with full of enthusiasm and eneryg which we were never comfortable with….
anyway…
TWO NAILS DOWN>>>WAITING FOR THE OTHER TWO
the cross should have been dealt with by cudicini….hmm gone are the days when we could say that we had the best second choice goalkeeper among the top 4
TBF
A bulk of the blame goes to Grant, the way I see it. I’ll tell you why.
1. As many had pointed before, we should have had a stronger bench in case of any unforeseen circumstances (shite, i dont believe i’m actually saying this, we were playing only barnsley)
2. As a layman I could realise as early as in 15 minutes that things were not going our way and we could not win. Grant should have also read this. The subs were once again late and bad. We should have had a half time sub. Finally, we ended the match with one unused sub but there were more than one player who was useless on the pitch. Zero imagination and creativity in tactical changes. Making all eleven players jump into attack in the last 15 minutes is hardly smart and that’s not tactics, that would happen if the coach shouts ‘gung ho boys’!
3. They scored in the 65th minute. Cannot this great Chelsea team muster 1 goal against Barnsley in 25 minutes. How many saves did their keeper make in the last 25 minutes. How did suddenly Ballack and Terry, the leaders, did not lead us to something special or did not even come close to delivering something special? I’m sorry to compare but if you give this full squad to JM at the 66th minute at 1-0 down, he would have got us 2 goals. If AG were to manage Barnsley what good will he do? Luckily, he is managing the other team.
4. The players looked a little careless. It is the manager’s sole responsibility to remove any such feeling of complacency and make them work their socks off irrespective of the quality of opposition, at least when we are not winning.
5. And as I said, the buck stops with the manager. After all, he is the manager of one of the most expensive teams in the world and he was only playing Barnsley. As the manager of Chelsea, you’re EXPECTED to win matches so don’t expect some praise every time you beat west ham etc. And if you lose, be prepared for the stick.
Did you read AG’s post match comments? He says ‘these things happen’ so cool it!
Quoting Enigmaguy
Enigmaguy – ‘would have been’ and ‘should have been’ won’t help us. It was not a stoppage time goal like they scored against Liverpool. We had all of 25 minutes to score a goal and salvage a replay at Stamford Bridge!
Axe avram the only solution!!1
@ bluechampion
my reply was to the post saying essien made a mess of it lost the ball…i wouldnt have thought that our defence would be left exposed to a cross with JT and riccy playin in defense
ok ok i get it now
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How art the mighty fallen, tell it not in portugal lest jose mourinho laughs.
What a fantastic team we have under grant. I have maintained that the greatest disservice roman did was to erase the aura of invincibility we had by replacing Mourinho with this insipid, clueless Avram.
But having said that, coud it be that maybe fate is guiding us towards the winning of champs league by getting us out of these competitions we won recently? a part of me still hopes that maybe, in Russia this year, we may win the cl. the only sad part is that roman might use that as reason to keep Grant as our coach.
anelka had a bad day- but he had a great day last sunday- so pls go easy on him.
SWP- a bad day- but i will always be behind him cos his attitude is so excellent.
malouda disappoints- We should not have loaned out sinclair- he would have been better value today- a real fighter.
Grant is wasting essien. honestly, essien for me would offer us more when allowed to move forward instead of this Mikel/maka role he is being given. I would actually go as far as stating that essien would give us more on the right side of the attack than Joe cole does. let grant try that for a couple of matches and there will be no doubt that am right.
look forward: so now we have to win the champions league !!! this is a must!
Can you imagine belleti and essien running the show on the right side of our attack? and why can’t Ashley cole and Bridge play together one as full back one as attacking left midfielder sometimes? Come on avram!!!!!
clough had a simple way, score more goals than the other team to win, and chelsea cant score goals when it matters, cole had too much of the ball,it was easy for bansley to stop cole, with so may great player to focus on one side of thepitch was madnes, and anelka played outside the six yard box, now here is a 15 million pound strike mean’t to play, terry is still slow and unfit he needs adose of ramas at spurs to bring him back to form, balleck looke slow and lacking in pace in the first ten yards,maluda essien, again need ramas style motivation to access their future with chelsea, and the goal keeper well i believe in rotation with goal keepers to insure their premiership status.When all the talking over chelsea need a goal scorer 20 to 30 a season.
I used to think that Grant would get us either the FA Cup or Carling Cup. I believed in Grant a little. I thought he would get us some cups or win them to earn some respect, but he lost his respect from the fans since he didn’t get the FA Cup or Carling Cup.
Since Manchester United lost against Portsmouth, I was very happy and thought that we would win the FA Cup. Now what I noticed is that we loose! We only have the premier league left which we are unlikely to get since we only have 10 matches left and Uefa Champions League left. If we at least get the Champions League that would be amazing, but that would be least likely also since we are going to have to go into some very big teams like Barcelona. I go with the idea to give Avram Grant 1 more chance, and if he messes up, we sack him and get the “The Special One” back! We all miss JM!
I have just learned that we were knocked out of FA Cup by Barnsley. WQhat a shame!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kick the a** of Grant from the Bridge.
2 easy wins over two easy opponents and some of you suddenly started to think that AG can handle this. You were wrong!
That’s it enough is enough. We lost against Arse-Anal (main rivals), against a lower league team (Barnsley) and lost a Cup Final (against Spurs) – three things which never happened in 3 years under Jose has happened in 6 months under Avram-Ten Cate. We have no chance of winning the Premiership & have lost both the trophies which we won last year. As far as I know, Jose has not signed any contract with Barcelona or AC Milan, and it is high time that Roman and Kenyon speaks with him and get over their differences and brings him back, in order to have the fans with him. Horrible day to be a Chelsea supporter. What a mess we have got ourself into just because we WON a few matches 1-0 and Shevchenko was not allowed to embarass himself more by playing in first XI…
bad bad day no doubt. with the number of players we have grant should seek the best 11 but he sticks with drogba or anelka up front with a lame formation and out of form players
JM will not be back guys, even if he would come back, what would RA do with Ten Cate and AG? too expensive?, well too expensive? if it is true that RA is going to give £100Million for new players, he better use some to get rid of AG and Ten Cate.
But my feeling is that real Madrid will sign JM, and with JM a few chelsea players will join him.
I just can not believe Barnsley knocked us out.
Well the players are proud professionals to get us out of this mess, they should ONLY listen to SC and forget what AG and TC think and say.
I can see Chelsea winning the next game, but would like to see Chelsea v ManU the next draw of the CL.
Hello to all
I know some of you are waiting to kill me here just as you enjoy killing AG and that is very expectable.
It took me some time to post here for few reasons
1. i think I am banded
2. The pain I feel from this game is still all over me and I try not to deal with it.
Bottom line is we played like shit and AG is responsible!!!!
I still think that you guys take it totally out of proportion but after Man U and all the big teams dropped from this cup we all felt it’s ours and that’s what makes it so painful
After all we only wan this cup 4 times in the last 100 years or more so one more time doesn’t really make a deferent but this time it should have been ours, we all feel it in our bones
For me as a pro AG (still am) it’s painful even more!!!!
What can I say – the first half was crap and you sow the team is not getting used to the pitch ,then came the 2ed half and I was totally sure the goal is moments away , by the time they scored I don’t think they went over the half line once before.
Then we where back to our missing of any killing instincts!!
Soft players, no leaders up front
2 questions I have in mind
1-after 2 great games why the hell AG picked this poor bench
Did lampard couldn’t play for some reason? (Only today I have learned he was injured)
2.-can AG shakes this group of stars in the dressing room and gets the backing from the team management? They need some shaking!!!!
AG or not any 11 he would have put on this pitch should have wan it for there on respect
As for now I have no energy in my body to answer to some of the rubbish said here
But bottom line and AG knows it.
The manager of any team takes the credit for such as what we sow yesterday!!!
Where he will be able to take it from there I can only wish for the good and the best
@24. Johnarejr
I wanted JM to be sacked but not to be replaced with a clown. I still don’t want to have JM back as our manager, that’s not wise.
Solution for the next year:
1.Sack Grant and bring Rijkaard.
2 Sell all unimaginative and clueless players like Pizarro, SWP, Malouda and Tal Ben Haim.
3. Let Sheva go back to Milan or wherever he wants. I like him very much since he was a world class at his prime but he came to the place where at his age it’s very difficult to adapt.
4. Let Drogba go wherever he wants. Either he plays when he’s good and warms the bench when he’s bad or kick him out of the Bridge.
5. Keep Anelka as he might be a very good striking force with a new creative and fast midfield behind him.
6. Tell both Ballack and Lampard that it’s time for them to realize that they are not untouchables anymore. If they are ready to warm the bench and play when it’s needed let them stay, if not tell them to find a new team to play.
7. Bring in 1 creative striker like Samuel Et’o, 1 or 2 creative midfielders like Rafael Van der Vaart from Hamburg and 1 creative winger like Quaresma from Porto.
8. Bring back Sinclair and let him play regularly even if as a substitute. He has a potential and seems to be creative.
9. Thank Makelele for his good service at Chelsea and arrange a retirement party.
10. Adopt a new creative and fast playing style with new players.
Formation for next year
—————————Cech———————–
Belleti/Ferreira—-Carvalho—-Terry—-A.Cole/Bridge
————————Essien/Mikel——————
J.Cole————————————-Quaresma(??)
———————-Van der Vaart(??)—————
——–Et’o(??)————————Anelka——–
Bench: Drogba(??), Kalou, Sinclair, Dos Santos, Ballack (??), Lampard (??) Alex, Ivanovich, Cudicini, Hilario.
?? Means “if stays” or “if comes”. For those who stay let them stay, if not replace them with new players.
All in all
Strikers: Anelka, Et’o, Drogba, Dos Santos
Wingers: Joe Cole, Quaresma, Kalou, Sinclair
Attacking midfielders: Rafael Van Der Vaart and maybe one more creative one, Lampard, Ballack.
Defensive midfielders: Essien, Mikel
Defenders: Belletti, Ferreira, Terry, Carvalho, A.Cole, Bridge, Alex, Ivanovich
Goalkeepers: Cech, Cudicini, Hilario
I believe that the above formation and first team line-up with a manager like Rijkaard is almost unbeatable and very entertaining. Joe Cole and Quaresma will be flying on the wings. Van Der Vaart will be dribbling and creating chances. Et’o and Anelka will be “insulting” oppositions’ defenders. Essien will be destroying opponents’ attacks. It will be impossible to take the ball from us.
@59. AgentBlue
AgentBlue, is that enough for you?
M_D You don’t have to complicate things so much. There is a one point solution – get a proper top class manager. The team is all fine. This very team was winning trophies and was feared once.
As regards show pony football, any manager who is given some support and security for some time would be able to do with this team. RA should have given that time to JM himself. We were in fact playing brilliant football this season until JM was sacked.
Even if Rijkaard comes in, he may not start winning things immediately. If we are giving time to Rijkaard, we should have given in to JM as well. After all, JM was also from the Barca school and he is intelligent enough to change and adapt.
midfield_decider, eto’o said in the papers that he’ld rather die than play for chelseafc so forget that idiot. We don’t need any striker next season. We have great young talents in our squad; all they need is a good manager who can motivate and inspire them into achieving great results. Just take a look at what wenger has done with arsenal.
We can sell drogba and shevchencko then we’ll have anelka, di santo, kalou, sahar and sinclair as striking options and i believe all these guys have a lot of potentials if they are well managed. I also think it’s time for makalele to retire. Ballack can still have two more seasons and i feel very sorry for sidwell; he has not been given the chance to prove himself. we should keep mikel, lampard, joe cole and essien and all extras should be sold off. ben haim, ashley cole and ferreira should also leave the club. I prefer bridge to ashley cole anyday.
I read on the espn website where mourinho was boasting that he’ll take mikel, drogba and carvalho with him to his next club and he sure meant it. He can take the other two but i still want mikel.
Well M_D
….Not all bad in terms of your intention 4 ya team 4 the new season….I highly doubt the probability of getting any of those players without a manager as well as keeping any we have now!!!
No top player will come here based on the fact we dnt have a manager!
The way we treat players when they dnt perform
We are becoming a graveyard 4 top players slowly but surely!
Grant,grant,grant cant u sink any lower… if i was CFC’s manager, i wud have probably let cech rest and cudicini play…i realise dat cech is not up to his top form yet…he needs a few more matches to warm up to get the rythm of the important matches. I feel that grant did not use the money usefully during the transfer period…why buy anelka?Y not kaka or ronaldhino?he had a choice then but did he use it? CHELSEA REALLY NEEDS MORE KEEPERS AND YOUNG PLAYERS!
CFC FORMATION BY NEXT TRANSFER PERIOD.
GOALKEEPER: USTARI,CECH,CUDICINI,HILARIO
DEFENDERS:IVANOVIC,TERRY,CARVALHO,ANTON FREDINAND
MIDFIELDERS: RIBERY,BALLACK,LAMPARD,DOWNING,KAKA/RONALDHINO
STRIKERS: BENZEMA,DROGBA,PATO,PODOLSKI
BRING IN MORE FOREIGN PLAYERS
extract from the sunday express website, this further explains why grant should be sacked:
FOOTBALL
OUCH! ARISTOCRATS GIVEN THE CHOP
Story Image
Barnsley’s skipper and goalscorer celebrate
Sunday March 9,2008
Comment Speech Bubble Have your say(0)
BARNSLEY..1 CHELSEA..0
To get turfed out of one winnable Cup competition is bad enough. To lose in two goes beyond embarrassing. And for Avram Grant, it may have gone beyond anything he can salvage.
Tottenham winning the Carling Cup final was one thing. Barnsley
FOOTBALL
OUCH! ARISTOCRATS GIVEN THE CHOP
Story Image
Barnsley’s skipper and goalscorer celebrate
Sunday March 9,2008
Comment Speech Bubble Have your say(0)
BARNSLEY..1 CHELSEA..0
To get turfed out of one winnable Cup competition is bad enough. To lose in two goes beyond embarrassing. And for Avram Grant, it may have gone beyond anything he can salvage.
Tottenham winning the Carling Cup final was one thing. Barnsley – little, lowly Barnsley, the relegation-threatened Championship side – knocking Chelsea out of the FA Cup is another altogether.
As Simon Davey’s Tykes joined the elite group of Manchester United and Arsenal in defeating Grant’s Chelsea, they may have done more than simply reached the semi-finals for the first time in 96 years.
They may have signed the Israeli’s death warrant at Stamford Bridge.
Because Grant gambled and he lost. No Didier Drogba and no Frank Lampard meant no goals. Rafa Benitez discovered that it is dangerous to practice squad rotation against Barnsley.
Grant ignored the warnings, rested a quartet of first-choice players and was made to pay. Chelsea were shocked. Grant was shamed.
But afterwards he said defiantly: “I think that Barnsley played well, they showed good spirit. For us, it was not a pitch to play quality football. The first half was not good, the second half we started well and created chances.
“We are not happy, but it’s happened. It’s happened to all the big teams this year.”
But if every underdog has its day, Barnsley have now had two. Brian Howard and Luke Steele were their unlikely heroes at Anfield. Now there is an addition to their collection of knockout specialists.
Kayode Odejayi has barely commanded a place in the Barnsley team for much of the season.
Twenty-eight games without a goal – the sort of statistic that would even upset his cousin, Ade Akinbiyi – he ended his drought with the most memorable goal of his career.
As the excellent Martin Devaney swung in a cross from the right wing, the 26-year-old rose high above Carlo Cudicini to head in just his second goal since his summer switch from Cheltenham.
Davey said: “A lot of the credit has to go down to Kayode. He’s taken a lot of criticism, but we knew he’d come good. The performance of the team was fantastic, but he took Chelsea on and I don’t think he lost a header in the game.”
Davey’s men thoroughly deserved their latest, and greatest, scalp. They out-ran Chelsea, out-muscled them and out-thought them.
Barnsley may have spent much of the second half on the back foot, but they had plenty of chances before Odejayi’s winner.
Indeed, Chelsea had two let-offs in as many minutes. First the Hungarian Istvan Ferenczi turned to meet Bobby Hassell’s free-kick with a half-volley that flashed just wide. And then the forceful Odejayi powered past Ricardo Carvalho to draw a fine parry from Cudicini.
Nor was that a one-off. He gave Chelsea a fearful battering, unsettling Carvalho and almost embarrassing Cudicini.
It was an early sign of complacency when the Chelsea goalkeeper tried to flick the ball up. Odejayi charged down his attempted clearance and watched it fall agonisingly wide.
But while Odejayi’s physical approach rattled Chelsea, his team-mates took the opportunity to display their own skills. Skipper Howard attempted a backheeled shot and Jamal Campbell-Ryce tried a mazy dribble through a crowd of defenders.
Devaney was a constant threat on the right flank. He, like Odejayi, is a former Cheltenham player. But whereas Barnsley had a £200,000 striker, Chelsea’s cost £15million. But it was not Nicolas Anelka’s day.
Barnsley’s spirit was epitomised when Hassell flung himself in front of Anelka’s shot to deflect it over. And Anelka was denied again when Campbell-Ryce blocked.
Indeed, only Joe Cole actually looked capable of scoring. And when Shaun Wright-Phillips blazed over, Barnsley knew they had made history.
“We’re going to Wembley,” sang their delirious fans. They are. Jose Mourinho may dream of killing Chelsea. Simon Davey has done it!
BARNSLEY: Steele 7; Van Homoet 7, Foster 7, Souza 7, Kozluk 7; Devaney 8 (Togwell (73rd) 6), Hassell 7, Howard 7, Campbell-Ryce 7; Ferenczi 7, Odejayi 9 (Coulson 80th)
CHELSEA: Cudicini 6; Belletti 5 (Pizarro (74th) 5), Terry 6, Carvalho 5, Bridge 7; Wright-Phillips 5, Essien 6, Ballack 6; J Cole 7, Anelka 5, Malouda 4 (Kalou (62nd) 6)
MAN OF MATCH: Kayode Odejayi.
Referee: S Bennett.
ì
I think that Barnsley played well, they showed good spirit
î
Avram Grant
WWJD
WWJD
What Would Jose Do?
1- USTARI looks like a great young keeper(great back up to cech)
2- long service award!
3- ill just say this, any player who want to leave can leave, we want player who want to be at Chelsea!!(DROG who i like, sheva this league is too much for him, pizaro and any one else)
4- BRING back sinclair!
5- SWP must go
6- huntaar or benzema
7- Taiwo (left back)
8- Dos santos (from Barca) would be nice or even Messi
Formation for next year
—————————Cech———————–
Belleti/Ferreira—-Carvalho—-Terry—-A.Cole/Bridge
————————Essien/Mikel——————
J.Cole————————————-Quaresma(??)
———————-Van der Vaart(??)—————
——–amuari/drogba(??)————————Benzema(??)——–
Bench: Anelka(??), Kalou, Sinclair, Dos Santos, Ballack (??), Lampard (??) Alex, Ivanovich, Cudicini, Hilario.
?? Means “if stays” or “if comes”. For those who stay let them stay, if not replace them with new players.
All in all
Strikers: Anelka,Amuari,Benzema, Drogba, Dos Santos
Wingers: Joe Cole, Quaresma, Kalou, Sinclair,Malouda
Attacking midfielders: Rafael Van Der Vaart, Modric, Lampard, Ballack.
Defensive midfielders: Essien, Mikel
Defenders: Belletti, Ferreira, Terry, Carvalho, A.Cole, Bridge, Alex, Ivanovich, Taiwo
Goalkeepers: Cech, USTARI, Cudicini, Hilario
And yes, I forgot to sell Sidwell too.
By Dos Santos I meant Chelsea’s Argentinian kid. Did I confuse his name?
That should have been Di Santo
Wigan-Arsenal 0:0
Wigan 0-0 Arsenal at FT. Do we still have a chance in the premier league?
@82. AgentBlue
If you pay attention my first condition was to replace Grant with Rijkaard. If we manage to do that then we’ll get any player we want.
@90. BlueChampion
With Grant NO!
M_D @ 87/88. You claim to be a Chelsea fan but you cannot name ‘your’ own player. How strange is that?
@93 Maverick
That’s because we live in a strange world.
after our 4-0 win over west ham, they have lost to liverpool 4-0 and lost to tottenham (today) 4-0. So our 4-0 result was not any special after all, only hammers are on a conceding spree.
I will like everyone to read this piece. Apology to AG .
It is titled this : AVRAM GRANT: AN APOLOGY
http://www.cfcnet.co.uk/2008/03/09/avram-grant-an-apology/
hahahaha… this reads great…
We have a really good chance in EPL. We have to just regain focus.
Man utd has liverpool, villa , arsenal to play at home and chelsea away. rooney is out of form and now they dont have a goalie fit to play either. expecting them to drop points.
Arsenal has to play everton, liverpool at home and man utd , chelsea away.
Chelsea has to play man utd, arsenal at home and everton, man city , tottenham away.
considering man utd win their match in hand (derby) and we win our 2 matches (derby sunderland) that leaves us 4 points(3+1 point goal diff) of man utd and 3 points (2 +1 point goal diff) of arsenal.
We have the best chance of all 3 to proceed. and icing on the cake will be if man utd vs arsenal is a draw.
23rd march will clear up the air when its man utd vs liverpool and chelsea vs arsenal.
bottom line is we have to win all our home matches period.
It is very nice not to see some stupid comments from those stupid members, Actually I do not see them at all here anymore but one
)
nice article , BC
where is israeli?
@BC
Sorry BC, avram must go in any case that’s clear to all of us…………..but the point is i didn’t watched the first half so woin’t comment on that.
but 2nd half we did everything right except concedin[bridge let their no.25 go for training routine....i wonder if ashley would have let him in that cross like it was training and then belletti as usual did not mark] and SCORING………..and as for as scoring part………they were probably playing 8-2-0 with 2 holding mf………..who were just blockin whatever we created………..i wonder what made you say that”Barnsley attacked better, with more imagination and variety”…………the only question “did barnsley attacked at all”……..credit to barnsley but if we need substitutions and tactics to defeat barnsley then it’s better we don’t play at all
@BC
sack avram………………….bring back jose[see how desperate i am and for god sake sell our hyped stars..........and bring better players]
We are being linked to Michael Laudrup[Getafe manager]…………looks good,young,attack-minded,legendary player who gives chance to youth and interestingly is danish[so is arnesen and reportedly they hail from copenhagen]……….has excellent cv which holds defeating barca and madrid at their respective homegrounds in his first year at getafe………..even i am having doubts about riijkard’s tactical ability………i mean losing ground in league and ronnie’s bad form are too corresponding………even looks celebrity like and is highly respected everywhere in footballing world.
what say guys
TBF – What I meant was Barnsley’s attacks were all decisive and purposeful while we were simply throwing bodies. Knowing that it was a bad pitch, we should have had players who have better aerial strength and we should have played more in the air.
About Barnsley playing men behind ball, what would you expect a championship team playing the defending champions do, especially after going 1-0 up in 65 minutes. They wanted to win and they achieved. While we also wanted to win, we didn’t know how to achieve it. There was no intelligence in our football.
I too admit some players were poor, not all. It was clear for everyone to see. But Avram Grant did not think our players were poor. If he had thought so, he would not have finished the match with one unused sub.
P.S: I read somewhere that the cost of assembling the Barnsley team was 0.5 million while that of Chelsea was 110 million. Enough said.
i read this too maybe he’ll get the trophies(if he comes)which our squad deserves
israeli @ 79
we won FA CUP only 4 times in 100 years, so we can lose this time? what a bad logic israeli?! Chelsea has never won the UEFA champions league so we can now lose to schalke in the next round is it?
grant is a very very bad football manager. he has no clue about the game and tactics. understand this. we all want him sacked right now.
now which is worse? JM was sacked after a 1-1 result against Rosenborg in the champions league group stage. Now Avram has managed to lose against Barnsley in FA Cup quarterfinal 1-0. If there is justice in Chelsea, AG should be sacked immediately.
guys grant has given roman a list of who hee wants in the summer, aguero, david bently, amauri, modric. and gone are TBH, SWP, Drogba abd possibly lamps
today websited havesuggested thta a deal was done with lyon for benzema but benzema said he doesnt want to leave lyon for the 2 years.
Next years team:
—————–Cech——————
–Ivanovic—Terry—Carvalho—Cole—
———Essien/Mikel–Ballack/Modric—
–Bently/Cole—————–Quaresma–
———-Aguero—-Amauri————–
Or:
—————Cech—————
–Ivanovic–Terry–Carvalho–Cole–
————-Mikel—————–
—-Modric/Ballack–Essien———
—Bently/Aguero———-Quaresma–
———–Amauri/Di santo———–
Means the squad would look something liek this:
Goalkeepers: Cech, Cudicini, Hilario
Defenders: Ivanovic, Belletti, Ferreira, Terry, Carvalho, Alex, Cole, Bridge
Midfielders: Ballack, Essien, Modric, MIkel, Lamps(probly)
WIngers: Joe cole, Quaresma, Aguero(can play wing), Modric(can play wing, Bently, Sinclair, Malouda
Forwards: Anelka, Aguaro, Amauri, Di santo, Siclair, Sahar, David Villa(maybe, if so add him into the teams i made)
Michael Laudrup is not a “constant” attacking mind manager, he plays the counter attack style, yes he is doing well in the La Liga, but I doubt that he could control the chelsea players’ egos.
Not everything is lost, Arsenal lost points yesterday and if Chelsea can win the 2 games in hand, it will only be 4 points behind,I think, so with AG’s LUCK, chelsea may well win something, if the players motivate themselves and stop listening to AG and TC, I bet chelsea will draw either the german or the turkish clubs in the CL, AG can not have it any SIMPLER.
@111. Den
“guys grant has given roman a list of who hee wants in the summer, aguero, david bently, amauri, modric. and gone are TBH, SWP, Drogba abd possibly lamps”
Well some good players, but lets face it, based on the football nous that AG has shown so far, who is going to take his “advice” or “recommendation” seriously?
Besides good players want to be managed by top managers that can give them the extra 10% to become world beaters, and i dont think AG has got the nous, or the man management credentials to make any one a better player, just look at Anelka his own signing hyas always been a very good player, but lately it seems he forgot how to.
Nope he could ask even for God to play in “his” team, eventual it would make no difference.
moreover how many of u guys think grant is going to be the manager after this season?
I am just curious why you guys think that Chelseafc is a big club? Why do you think you need and can win all 4 competitions? Where did you get all these expectations from? Premiership title in 50 years is a good enough sign of greatness? Or maybe recent CL performance? The problem with CFC is you – fans. Instead of getting behind your manager and supporting him from the beggining you are bashing him and by that pushing your team down. You could do much better now in all competitions if you were supporting your Club! Personally, I think that AG is capable managing club like Chelsea and even club like AC Milan. By looking on his overall performance since he took over, the results are way to good. But you my dear Chelsea fans have a very short memory. My prediction that AG will stay with yoou next season if you win the CL or EPL titles. However, I also think that Roman will get rid of CFC much faster than CFC would be able winning CL title.
Regards,
Tony
@115. Tony (AC Milan)
Keep on dreaming, the chelsea fans are only voicing what is the ineviteable, since his appointment that the fans knew he is not the man for the job.
“I think that AG is capable managing club like Chelsea and even club like AC Milan”
You are absolute NUTS Tony, so how come Berlusconni didnt get him (AG)? or for that matter any other top club in Europe? I tell you why, because he is the joke of football, after all Ancellotti is having a nightmare as a season with Milan, no news in the italian press, or Milan board going for Avram Grant. AG would struggle in the conference league in the UK, the man is clueless.
yes the chelsea fans HAVE the RIGHT to expect to win troffies every year, for the simple reason that for the last 3/4 years JM got us used to get silverware. It is a good thing “you think” he could managed AC Milan, ask the Milan directors if they share your thought, besides you can only watch the live match (or the highlights) in the italian tv and listen to the comments of the italian pundits about AG, and their views, and comparisons with JM. No one reckons AG in Europe only the chelsea’s directors saw in him what no one else did.
Yes I also think that with AG’s LUCK on draws that chelsea maybe able to reach the CL final, you only need to draw either, turk or german clubs, but if they draw Inter,ManU, Arse hmmmm I have my doubts, though thte club has the players to go all the way.
An Toiny I dont believe you are an AC Milan fan, it is only a disguise .
” I am just curious why you guys think that Chelseafc is a big club?”
I will tell you why, in order to satisfy your curiosity.
The same reason that in the 80′s italian teams like Parma, Lazio etc without any history in european football were big clubs, thats all, and now Parma and Lazio even risk to go to serie B, and Lazio were beaten by one of the weakest teams in CL. NOPE ,chelsea fans have the right to expect every year silverware, and if RA had not sacked JM we would have won at least another 2 cups this season. period
in all fairness against a side like barnsley, chelsea shouldnt even need a coach. The difference in skill should have been made apparent. In part the only job the coach had to do is choose the players. The annoying thing is he chose such a piss poor side for the conditions. essien should not have been playing and instead have lampard and ballack, use a tall forward and instead of SWP use kalou. Basically make the game a long passing game with lots of chances for long shots or headers.
Anyways personally i dont want amauri coming to chelsea unless he comes semi-cheap. Aguero would definitely do well playing as a second striker. Di Santo i still have my doubts on. The players i want most in are some strong attacking mids. Of the lot joe cole is easily the best we have, malouda is an awesome player but hasnt performed this season. Lulinha could be coming to chelsea and he has alot of clubs chasing him. Ben arfa is actually the player i most want, now that him and benzema are kind of pissed at each other, im guessing one of em is gonna leave this season. Him or nasri i guess, hell the turk in me want nuri sahin to come as well.
Is chelsea management having a bout of cronyism…picking people who are highly praised by a few choice friends of RA….Grant, vissier, arnesen etc…
are ny of u on facebook? if so… thinking of joining a sack ag group
@ 119, why would you like to do that. do you think roman has facebook and it will make him sack avram. alot of people wants avram to be sacked, we all have to wait untill the summer and se if avram will get the CL trophy. wich he probably wont. its no use talking about avram now. lets just wait and se. we have all seen that our (the fans) oppinion does not mather to abramovic.
HEY GUYS ARSENAL HAVE DRAWN AGAINT WIGAN AND CHELSEA HAVE 2 GAMES IN HAND AND THAT MEANS IF WE WIN THEM THEN WE GO TO 2ND!!!!
we would need to score around 24 more goals to go pass Manu because we would need a better goal average than Manu.
At least when we lost The Carling Cup Final, we could blame poor selection, i.e no Joe Cole etc. But this time there is just no excuse — apart from Malouda this wasn’t a bad team. We were, and are, just not good enough at the moment. Apart from the occasional game we haven’t played really well for a long time now, even under Jose — quite frankly, I don’t really fancy us against any one at the moment and I fear that we’ll end the season with nothing! That’s how it used to be for us old-time fans, so we’re used to it!
mike ayad,
so Chelsea are so good that they get 4 points for a win?
We should not think, that when the team is not winning , we probably should buy new players, just because we have money. What we really need is a good coach, not a manager!!!
@joe
good coaches can train the players and make them better..but a better manager can use the players at his disposal and produce good result..when we already have worldclass players i dont think getting a good coach is the answer…
@125. joe
I entirelly agree.
I read this evening in the Evening Standard that JT promissed to get cfc out of this shit.
Now for a player. albeit the captain to say this, hmmmm makes me wonder what AG and TC maybe thinking, does a manager need a player to get them out of this mess?
This outcome was coming, you only have to analyse the teams and the matches that AG has managed and see, lots of wins and draws were due to LUCK, yes pots and pots of LUCK, must be a reason why they call AG the “ass” in Israel.
The man (AG) took advantage of his friendship, the dislike against JM; the so called “negative” play, but winning; and got the job, I bet RA didnt even asked AG if he had any qualifications, lol.
regarding the players they are the same, how come that they all of a sudden forgot how to win???
Easy the players do not believe in AG and that BULLY Ten Cate, very simple
the 2 best g/keepers make now mistakes that even junior g/keepers don’t, the 2 central defenders, Carvalho and JT read the game so differently from “before” and the “past”, malouda suddenly can’t play, lampard suddendly dont score, DD is left in the bench, essien forgot all about how to kill an opponents attack into a chelsea attack, SWP is no diffrent as always been inconsistent, so what?
C’mon guys the difference is OBVIOUS it is the MANAGERS ( I include here TC), thats it PLAYERS do not believe in AG, they know he is FAKE, they know how he got the job.
Do you guys really belive that JM would lose thes 2 cups?? LOL he makes me laugh, specially the FA cup was made for cfc to keep.
I sincerely wish cfc to draw ManU or Arse for the CL, just to see the TACTICS of this GENIUS.
By new players my arse, with only 3 different players from Ranieri’s team, JM won the EPL, BUY a NEW TEAM of MANAGERS (but keep SC), thats the message.
The amazing thing is AG doesnt even appologise, shit so much for JM’s arrogance LOL.In the RA shoes I would ask Peter kenyon, Buck and the other guy that his name starts with a T, cant recall now, which kind of adfvice are you guys giving me? is not only all these millions you “idiots” get from me, I WANT RESULTS.
Anyway now comes Derby, no doubt Derby is going to pay for the pathetic results that cfc has been achieving, even the fixtures work in favour of AG, imagine instead of Derby chelsea plays against AV,Everton, Portsmouth or the like, nope they have to play Derby, slightly better than barnsley,
so less than 4-0 and convincingly I wont buy.
BC ACTIVATE THE PETITION.
Are these players good enough for chelsea, namely:
- Aguero
- Amauri
- Modric
- Ustari(keeper)* the Italian(carlo) is getting old plus Hilario is even older
** why arent these players given a chance (FA cup CC)
Ivanovic
Di santo
Siclair – very quick and creative (better than SWP!!!
Sahar-very quick, good technique
Quoting denver
um those players are awesome, modric is awesome, aguero is messi level imo. Amauri is a great post play strong striker but he is old so i dont want chelsea to spend too much on him. Ustari would be a great keeper, but im not sure he would want to play bench warmer for cech when he used to 1st team.
Now ivanovic doesnt play because we already have two world class RB’s. Di santo is still young and doesnt have the strength to really stand up to the premiership defenders. Sinclair, no clue but im guessing same reason as ivanovic we have “better” players to fill in that role.
Sahar wont play because avram doesnt have the balls to drop either anelka or drogba. He doesnt even want to drop pizarro from bench for him, shame really.
sinclair didnt play because he is on loan…..sinclair got starts in these cup games when he was at chelsea
AGFriend – the petition is still active. btw, you’d change your nick when AG leaves, right?
Certainly Aguero is the best player that’s being mentioned in here… I’m certain I wasn’t the only one to see the 4-2 shelacking Atletico handed to Barcelona a couple of weeks back. El Kun dominated the whole match and made fools out of Marquez and Puyol… He set up Maxi with the greatest flick and scored two himself. Majestic performance. He can become the next great player of the world.
About Modric, all I’ve seen are Youtube video’s, and I’m no Sven-Goran Eriksson!! I can’t judge
So was our good run after JM left because of AG or in spite of him? My worry is this — if you take the three ‘serious’ goals we conceded – Arsenal, Spurs and Barnsley— Arsenal, cross to the back post, Gallas easy header, Spurs, cross to the back post — Woodgate easy header, Barnsley — cross to back post, Odejayi easy header. Is this a pattern or what? Have our army of coaches spotted it? What’s happened to our rock solid back four and unbeatable goalkeeper(s)?
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133. BB Richard – 11 Mar
So was our good run after JM left because of AG or in spite of him? My worry is this — if you take the three ’serious’ goals we conceded – Arsenal, Spurs and Barnsley— Arsenal, cross to the back post, Gallas easy header, Spurs, cross to the back post — Woodgate easy header, Barnsley — cross to back post, Odejayi easy header. Is this a pattern or what? Have our army of coaches spotted it? What’s happened to our rock solid back four and unbeatable goalkeeper(s)?
Are u serious!!! i dont get to watch a lot of the matches and when we loose i dont want to see.
We seem to be conceding all the goals from set peices!!! not good
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