Chokin Chelsea

[Deuce Bigolo]

I agree they need a clean out but what they dont need is a new spending spree...beating Aston Villa 7-1(who drew at home with sunderland & Wolves) will probably mean they wont but hope springs eternal

Mourinho while winning 2 EPLs seem to go though quality players like an army at war.....I dont think a Huddink wouls ever have been that cavalier because he would have had a better idea of what it takes to create a team

Porto winning the Champions league with him at the helm said he knows what it takes but the number of players he hired and fired through Chelsea always gave me the impression that he wasnt always in charge of who stays and who goes?


I'm curious as a stalwart of Chelsea how you see Mourinhos time at the helm

A wasted chance to take the entertaining perennial Cup Winner Cup team into the big league and not just be the bridesmaid?

John Terry in Moscow penalty slip aside they really havent been close
to really snaring the grand prize which Roman seems obsessed for
which Avram Grant came closest to giving him

Watching how long it takes Chelsea to reach another European Final will be interesting

[Bob Singleton]

Deuce Bigolo wrote:

> I agree they need a clean out but what they dont need is a new
> spending spree...beating Aston Villa 7-1(who drew at home with
> sunderland & Wolves) will probably mean they wont but hope
> springs eternal
>
> Mourinho while winning 2 EPLs seem to go though quality players
> like an army at war.....I dont think a Huddink wouls ever have
> been that cavalier because he would have had a better idea of
> what it takes to create a team
>
> Porto winning the Champions league with him at the helm said he
> knows what it takes but the number of players he hired and
> fired through Chelsea always gave me the impression that he
> wasnt always in charge of who stays and who goes?
>
>
> I'm curious as a stalwart of Chelsea how you see Mourinhos time
> at the helm
>
> A wasted chance to take the entertaining perennial Cup Winner
> Cup team into the big league and not just be the bridesmaid?
>
> John Terry in Moscow penalty slip aside they really havent been
> close
> to really snaring the grand prize which Roman seems obsessed
> for
> which Avram Grant came closest to giving him
>
> Watching how long it takes Chelsea to reach another European
> Final will be interesting



The obvious, and simplest, answer to how I see Mourinho's time as manager is "a successful one", if talking purely in terms of titles and cups. Until Mourinho, while I'd seen Chelsea win FA Cups in 1970, 1997 and 2000, the League Cup in '98 and the Cup Winner's Cup in 1971 and 1998, (I'd also seen them play teams like Shrewsbury in the old second division) with the exception of 2003/04 under Ranieri, Chelsea had never come close to winning the title. Under Mourinho we not only won the title, but retained it the following year.
Two Premiership titles, an FA Cup and two League Cups in just over 3 seasons is not a bad return.

As for the supposed revolving door regarding players... I think it's fairly obvious to all now, even if it wasn't to the more myopic at the time, that Schevchenko's transfer was the sole doing of the owner, and Mourinho made a point by rarely playing him. As for Ballack, I'm not sure whose decision that was. Did Mourinho want him, or was he, as some suggested, another "great" player foisted upon him by an owner wishing to see a London version of Real Madrid's Galacticos?

Carvalho, Ferreira, Kezman, Tiago, Drogba and Essien were undoubtedly Mourinho's signings, as was Malouda shortly before he was sacked/resigned/left by mutual consent.

Mourinho revolutionised the training methods employed by the club, and instilled a mentality that meant that even if 0-1 down with 30 seconds to go, you didn't give up trying. That was something that had always been lacking in previous Chelsea teams. The 1970/71 team of Osgood, Cooke, Hutchinson, Hudson, etc was probably a more gifted team, but never had the mental toughness (Ron Harris and Dave Webb excepted) to properly mount a title challenge.

The one criticism of Mourinho is that he rarely gave any youngsters a chance in the first team. For a club that had announced (after spending a hundred million on players) that it wished to break even by 2010 (a target that will not be met), it seemed strange not to blood "home grown" talent that would help achieve this break-even target.

Regarding the Champions League, you say that apart from Moscow when we lost on penalties to Man U, Chelsea haven't come close to winning the competition. It could be argued that, with any other referee officiating the second leg of the Chelsea v Barcelona semi-final last season, Barcelona would not have been crowned Champions of Europe as Chelsea would have progressed to the final to meet the team that had beaten them the previous season. Chelsea have a pretty good record in the competition... semi finalists in 2004. 2005, 2007 and 2009 as well as finalists in 2008. No other club has been so consistent (albeit without winning) in recent years.

Will Chelsea ever win it? In my heart I hope we do, but other great teams from the past have also failed to land the trophy, so Chelsea wouldn't be alone. To win that competition, you not only need to be a great team, but also a lucky team (indeed, some rather ordinary teams with a great deal of luck have won the competition in the past) so it's really impossible to say if Chelsea will ever be Champions of Europe.

[davey]

" For Arsenal it was minimal in comparison and yet Arsenal have still been able to compete. Okay they havent won trophies recently but they have been close."


only a total cunt with no understanding of or passion for football would write something like that.i was born in Islington and have been going over the Arsenal for nearly 40 years.Wengers dynasty has produced fuck all for the last 5 years and being close to winning is no fucking good.the reason they havent won anything recently is because he hasnt spent enough its that simple.i dont think hardly one player out of the invincibles came from the youth team most of them were champions league or world cup winners who he splashed the cash for.now all of them have been sold and he hasnt used the money to replace them and as a result they are not in the same class as man.utd or chelsea who have built upon success by spending big.this new stadium full of johnny come lately cunts and fancy football aint worth a wank if it doesnt bring silverware.i much prefered Highbury and george grahams teams grinding out one nil wins then whats happening now.in them days Arsenal were so free with the transfer cash there was even enough floating about for a couple of hundred grand to find its way into Georges pocket

[David Johnson]

Davey
"only a total cunt with no understanding of or passion for football would write something like that"

You seem a tad disgruntled, if you don't mind me saying. Family member run off with an asylum seeker from the Congo, Davey?

Given I was brought up in the North East and spent most of my youth going on the coach with my mates to watch Newcastle play, I'll give a miss to the lecture on understanding and passion for football if you don't mind.

"as a result they are not in the same class as man.utd or chelsea who have built upon success by spending big"

Err. one point behind Man. Utd and 3 behind Chelsea after 33 games strikes me as competing even if they didnt do well in the head to heads.
Chelsea are out of the Champions League, Arsenal had arguably a better result than United in the first leg despite getting battered but so did Utd against Barcelona last year. Oh and by the way, Man. Utd spent big in the close season did they even though they lost two of their best players in Ronaldo and Tevez?

"i dont think hardly one player out of the invincibles came from the youth team most of them were champions league or world cup winners who he splashed the cash for"

Not particularly accurate. Here's a quote from Hansen about the Invincibles

What Wenger has achieved at Arsenal is nothing short of remarkable when you consider how he has built a side from scratch, balanced the books, signed world-class players and won trophies.

And here is another quote re. your "splashing the cash" inaccuracy

Wenger is so shrewd in the market as well, and as examples we can recall how he signed Nicolas Anelka, Marc Overmars and Emmanuel Petit then sold them on for vast fortunes. Anelka came for ?500,000 and left for around ?22m

Read more to help your understanding....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 659375.stm


"i much prefered Highbury and george grahams teams grinding out one nil wins then whats happening now"

You don't seem to enjoy football at all really, do you?

I think I prefer your posts on politics. They tend to be funnier.

D

[Bob Singleton]

Interesting to see the Sunday papers today. Almost all run stories of how furious Fergie is at the officials for allowing the Drogba goal to stand and for not giving Park a penalty. Few of them mention that Anelka was barged off the ball by Neville in the penalty area, and none mention that Macheda directed the ball into the net with the help of his arms.

So... each side should have had a penalty but didn't and each side scored a goal that shouldn't have been allowed to stand. However, reading the papers and the amount of coverage they give to Fergie's rant, you'd think that Man U had been robbed of a win. 2-1 to Chelsea was a fair reflection on how the teams played.