League Cup Final review: Chelsea 1 - 2 Tottenham Hotspur (AET)
Match reports
The Times, Martin Samuel: “If this was a triumph for Jonathan Woodgate, Tottenham and Juande Ramos - who has been at White Hart Lane less than four months - it was a catastrophe for Chelsea’s regime under Avram Grant. There was nothing to suggest that Grant has advanced the club one iota since the departure of Jose Mourinho, who, Chelsea fans will recall, never lost a final in three seasons. Grant’s team bore more than a passing resemblance to the one that got Mourinho the sack in September. They played dull, direct football, with their most inventive player, Joe Cole, stranded on the sidelines. And they lost. This is what happens when an owner phones a friend instead of a manager with vision, which is what Tottenham sought once it had been decided that Martin Jol was not the man for the job.”
Daily Telegraph, Henry Winter: “To Woodgate the spoils, to Grant the brickbats. Like a profligate heir, Grant has now squandered half the family silver he inherited from Jose Mourinho. Like a startled fawn, Chelsea’s manager failed to react when the team cried out for guidance, for inspiration. Steve Clarke delivered the rallying cry before extra-time. Grant listened.”
The Independent, Sam Wallace: “Grant deferred to Steve Clarke for the team talk after full-time and scratched his head while John Terry did the same 15 minutes later - this was not the Israeli’s finest hour.”
The Guardian, Kevin McCarra: “Grant now has to start all over again to vindicate his appointment. Don’t tell him the Carling Cup is an irrelevance.”
Official Chelsea FC Website: “For the first time since 2002, the Blues failed to triumph when making the final of a knockout competition as they failed to take control of a London derby in which set-pieces decided the day.”
The good
In time honoured form I got the job of reviewing a game in which it’s going to be hard to find anything good to write about the whole experience. Maybe it’s just me? Maybe I’m the Jonah here? I must have been a right bastard in a previous life…
I could have written one word for this review. Fuck. Or maybe two to describe the team. Those two words rhyme with cucking funts, such was the paucity of entertaining and passionate football on display from us. Here goes…
- Spurs. Yep, put all your hatred and in-built despising of them to one side, take a deep breath and try to remove the emotion and view the game logically. Spurs were all over us from the start, and by the time we scored with our first shot on target after 37… yes count them… 37 minutes we could have been three down. They fought for and deserved this victory.
- John Terry. Played like a captain should and did very little wrong, apart from being dragged away for Spurs’ second goal, a crime all the team were guilty of. Should have told Didier Drogba to shut up near the end of the game (see Ballack below).
- Petr Cech. Another player in both sections. Made some fantastic saves to keep the score down to something almost acceptable including a full on stinger in the face from Didier Zakora. Then completely loused everything up.
- Michael Ballack and Joe Cole. Both must have been bloody mystified why they were on the bench and if anyone doubts Ballack, then watch the game again to see what “big game” mentality is. When Drogba was drama queening it and sulking at Teemu Tainio for time-wasting at the end, it was Ballack who had the balls to run over and push him away, no doubt telling him to shut up and get on with things. That’s a captain’s behaviour. Joe Cole showed why he should have started, as in his 25 minutes or so he showed more wit, invention, verve, passing ability and ball control than Shaun Wright-Phillips did all game.
- Mark Halsey. His first major final and a performance of common sense and genuine interactivity with the players. I don’t often have the chance to commend a referee for a good performance, but on this occasion he deserves a mention.
- The last 20 minutes after Spurs scored their second goal - but why did it take this to put a firework up our collective arses?
The bad
- The performance. As bad as the Liverpool and Olympiakos games? No, but not far off. Our last two outings have been downright pathetic and lacking in invention, skill, flair, passion and team spirit. Avram Grant can say what he likes, and so can the players, but since the return of Terry, Frank Lampard and our African contingent, the dogged spirit and performances of the team formed from the adversity of necessity has gone into hiding. Miserable, boring, lazy, sloppy, lacking in effort and utterly passionless.
- The football. How does this differ from the performance? Because one can play poorly and still try hard, and maybe lack skill and flair but through effort and heart, win. Our time under the maestro Jose Mourinho delivered so much in the way of victories against big teams or in big competitions. Those days seem a very long time ago now. Today, until the second half we barely completed a pass, were full of unforced errors and… well even in the second half when we were getting a grip I counted a good half dozen times when we had possession in Spurs’ half in an attacking move, and then had a collective episode of Ray Wilkins syndrome and passed it back to Cech, for his inevitable hoof back to a big Spurs centre-half. Absolute fucking garbage.
- Petr Cech. The world’s best goalkeeper? Only for three-quarters of the time. The big guy has had a season of howlers and today was no exception. Having made some great saves he then conspired to try a bit of fisting in the style of Larry Grayson. In fact I’m not so sure Grayson would have been as limp wristed as this pathetic little pat-a-cake push onto Jonathan Woodgate’s ugly mug. Okay… I’ll forgive the odd error, but now these are getting too regular for comfort. Paul Robinson must have been laughing his todger off.
- Petr Cech. Yes… again! I’m frankly sick to the back teeth of his incessant and mindless hoofing up the park. Think Peter Schmeichel, think David James on current form, think Peter Shilton, think Gianluigi Buffon, think Oliver Kahn, think Gordon Banks, think David Seaman, think Peter Bonetti and any number of great keepers who would play the ball out to the back four to build the move, or via the quick incisive throw to start a counter-attack and then tell me the last time Cech ever took this option. Nah… didn’t think so.
- How this result might affect us. Yes, theoretically it could do us good and remove the complacency and incompetence of late, but I fear the other route. Our recent years of wearing a cloak of near invincibility are rapidly disappearing and the cloak is lying in tatters being fought over by Manchester United and Arsenal. I mean did you watch Manchester United destroy Newcastle yesterday? Does anyone really think we’re even capable of getting close to that these days? I think we’ll have to swallow the bitter pill of a trophy-less season and start using the words “transitional season” when talking with other fans down the pub.
Player ratings
- Petr Cech: Would have got higher but for yet another howler, the mindless hoofed clearances and his pathetic penalty record - 4/10.
- Juliano Belletti: Set the tone within twenty seconds with a horror cross field ball to… a Spurs player! Robbie Keane was unlucky not to have buried the shot but for John Terry - 5/10.
- John Terry: Did well considering the amount of time he’s had back in the front line - 7/10.
- Wayne Bridge: A bright light in today’s debacle. Unlucky with the handball so shouldn’t be too down - 7/10.
- Ricardo Carvalho: Solid performance but guilty like all the others of complacency and his understanding with Terry went walkabout - 6/10.
- John Mikel Obi: Obviously playing the Claude Makelele role and was booked for not understanding the rules of the Dosy-Doe - 7/10.
- Frank Lampard: Did nothing wrong, but did little right until he, like the rest, suddenly realised we might lose - 6/10.
- Michael Essien: Has he had a brain transplant with Florent Malouda? Dire - 2/10.
- Didier Drogba: Scored a lovely goal but I got the impression he doesn’t want a strike partner because he ignored Nicolas Anelka. Player seniority syndrome methinks - 7/10.
- Shaun Wright-Phillips: Piss-poor ball control and passing skills that would have had him hooked off by Mourinho within 25 minutes of the game starting. Aaron Lennon showed just how much better than Wright-Phillips he is. Marginally better than Essien - 2/10.
- Nicolas Anelka: Why buy a player and then play him out of position? A dunderheaded choice by Grant and Anelka struggled until Joe Cole and Salomon Kalou came on and he could play alongside Drogba. A bloody waste of his talent - 6/10.
- Salomon Kalou (sub): I’ve been a critic in the past, but not for his skill, but his intelligence. We needed his skill and things looked better when he came on - 7/10.
- Michael Ballack (sub): Straight away he took control of midfield and made surging runs trying to get things to happen. Should have started and a place on the bench is a shoddy way to treat someone with his experience and ability, not forgetting his recent form - 7/10.
- Joe Cole (sub): Another who can feel a bit pissed off with a place on the bench for despite his recent re-introduction of Fancy Dan foibles, still possesses the guile, desire, flair and skill to transform a game - 7/10.
- Overall team performance: No real signs of improvement in entertainment, flair or effort. One thing has returned though… losing games that count. The good old days? Not for me - 5/10.
Man of the Match
Didier Drogba because he scored. Other than that no-one would have deserved anything.
Final thoughts
We all know the story of The Emperor’s New Clothes don’t we? Well, I’m the little boy standing by the road shouting to everybody that the Emperor, Grant, is metaphorically wearing nothing that resembles tactical nous, team selection or sufficient experience to be our man, despite his constant telling everyone that he is. As Hitler once said, “The bigger the lie, the more people will believe it.” In this case, of course, it’s not quite ringing true as most experienced, long term fans will know that the lie is failing here and that his record against bigger teams and in bigger games for us is now officially as bad as Tim Henman’s at Wimbledon. In fact didn’t Henman spout the same level of deluded bollocks as Grant?
So, what has gone wrong then? Maybe that’s not the question here… maybe we should be asking how we got away with it for so long after Mourinho left? Whilst I don’t disagree for one minute that Mourinho was losing faith with the dour brand of football we played, I for one would have settled for that for another couple of years if the trophies kept coming and then replaced him with someone prepared to sacrifice the odd trophy for style. That didn’t happen today, we played rubbish and lost. What we saw was a performance as dour as anything Mourinho could inspire but with the twist that we never looked like winning after Spurs equalized and until they went ahead. Be honest people we could have been three down by the time we scored against the run of play.
What now? Well in a day or two you’ll be able to switch your phones back on and delete the texts from Spurs fans and other Chelsea haters. Unfortunately, working for the big red mobile company means that I can’t and no doubt I’ll be running the gamut tomorrow. Make the most of now? I do hope not! Life can be shit can’t it? All we can hope for now is for something to be resurrected in the players’ hearts to push on for the remaining three competitions, but frankly after the recent games I am not confident on any count. In fact I can see either Arsenal or Manchester United ending the home games run this year, such is the now apparent opening gulf in power between us and those two teams. We set the bar, they’ve jumped over it, in some style and now we lag behind them. Maybe the bitter after-taste will inspire the players to make sure it doesn’t happen again, but be honest if Spurs had beaten Arsenal today we’d be hoping that would derail them, and I fear this seems the most likely route for us. Grant, nice chap that he probably is, now looks like our Gérard Houllier.
I may be a dyed in the wool Blue, but credit to Spurs… they deserved this in the end because they were hungry and we looked a casual, bloated shadow of our former relentless victory seeking selves. Sorry I couldn’t make this very funny, but I’m not in the mood for laughing these days.
Keep the Blue Flag Flying High!
Related links
- Reaction: The analysis begins
- Jose Mourinho would have got big calls right
- Grant’s silence is deafening as Ramos outwits ‘Puzzled One’
- Posted at 11:58 PM · Permalink · Print · 3498 views · Last indexed by Google on the 11th May 2008
- Tags: Avram Grant, Chelsea, Didier Drogba, Jonathan Woodgate, Jose Mourinho, Juande Ramos, League Cup, Spurs, Tottenham Hotspur
Oh how i miss Avram Grant in your ‘The Bad’ section - but i understand it at the same time, no words can describe the things he had done to the team on 24th of february. the whole month was one big pain while watching our Chelsea playing. Avram got his big boys back and if something has changed (but not for me) it did for wrong. I had some faith in this season (but not in the manager) and after performance like that one i guess the third place will be enough for me.. oh and after all this sacking that fat, cluless idiot, Avram you’re the weakest link.
Agree with every word, Tony. Someone compared our clueless manager to Ranieri earlier but at least Ranieri looked as if he knew what he was doing whereas …….
I do hope this isn’t the start of a Liverscum style slide but I have seen nothing in the last 3 or 4 games to inspire me.
I always wanted us to win the Premiership at least once before I departed this world just that I could say I remember the day we won the title. Of course all our Christmases and birthdays came big time when RA bought the club and with the arrival of JM gave us all what we wanted, but not once twice!!
It’s a bit like taking a child into Toys’R'Us and telling him to pick the biggest and best toy in the shop, only to have it taken from him at the exit and put back on the shelf, it’s not only cruel it’s f**king criminal.
I would love to think we could go on and win bigger things this season, but every time I see that inept fool look on in total bewilderment at things it just sends shivers down my spine. And as for the rubbish he spouts on how well we played and were the better team, is only going to draw pity from the media, and piss taking by opposition fans, how I loved the days when we were hated. Jose may have said similar things when we lost from time to time but at least he was right on some of those occasions.
And yes Spurs were deserving of their victory, and if we would have sneaked it then it would have been a travesty on their part. So Spurs fans when you turn up here to add to the blog, try and be sensible and intelligent, then your gloating will be a little easier to take.
Mr Avram Grant blew it today in which had to be our easiest final.. It’s the first time Chelsea have played in a full squad this season, and in my opinion that should have been enough to win the trophy… but that didn’t happen because Tottenham’s back four have not been tested enough.. players like Hutton and Woodgate (who have been signed recently) have not played enough with Ledley King (who has been injured all season) and chimbonda (who doesn’t play at left back) were not troubled. They were not tested simply because of Avram Grant’s funny tactics and substitutions. I mean why would someone leave Joe cole out of the starting line up? He was our best player when most of our top players where out injured.. And Wright Phillps.. He is mediocre player always has been always will be!
+ I disagree with you on who should be man of the match. I think it should be Wayne Bridge(other than the penalty he conceded which is a correct decision!) He has been our best player.
I feel lousy today.
For the last few years we have become reknowned for our winning mentality and the strength of character that this squad built under Mourinho, but with each week that passes that strength appears to be being sapped from us.
We used to take to the field in the knowledge that all of the preparation work had been thoroughly completed on our opponents and the dossiers that Jose’s backroom team put together became the stuff of legend.
We also knew that the coach would be bold, make the difficult decisions, and if Plan A was not working, he would at a moments notice be able to turn to Plan B, C, D or E.
I now have no such confidence. We take the field with no shape or structure and if it wasn’t for the fact thatwe have some of the best players in the world, Grant’s lack of tactical nous would have been exposed long ago.
C’mon Chelsea….. Sort it out….. Either let Ten Cate off his leash to get stuck into the players, or bring in a real manager that is able you make the most of the undoubted talent we have in the squad.
Always Blue……
The bottom line for me is that with JM as manager, I always thought Chelsea could pull it out in the end. He fought, and he made the team fight, until the final whistle. Now I hope for the early goal, and that we can just hold on until the end. I hate talk of these intangibles like team spirit, but we used to have the mentality that we could win any game on any given day. Now we have talent but nothing else, and often the talent ain’t even there. Remember the tactical substitutions under JM? WTF?
We had a run of wins against second-rate teams, but we haven’t won against a big team or in a big game yet. Not good.
I would only blame Grant and Grant alone! He’s just a bloody puppet… clueless and toothless!
What the hell was Grant playing at by creating unease and uncertainty amongst the senior players just before the important Final?
How the hell could Grant inspire the players when he refused to acknowledge the League Cup was important in the pre-match conference? Was he preparing to lose just in case?
I was screaming my head off for Joe Cole to come on in the second-half, but Grant was sitting there like Dr Dolittle because he had not got a clue on substitutions.
Just look at the body language between him and the players: there’s no bond, there’s no rapport, there’s no passion. I’m ever so grateful that the quality of our players had overcome Grant’s shortcoming for so long. It’s about time now for Grandpa AG to step down and spend more time with his family!
As a spurs fan, I just wanted to say that I’m delighted that my team has lifted the trophy. What makes it better is that we beat both arsenal and chelsea in
successive rounds.
From an outside point of view, I think AG did a decent job when the big names
and africans were unavailable. But once they come back, Chelsea’s form dips.
Surely this is not only the manager’s fault but also perhaps the player’s who’ve
just ocme. I found Chelsea to be rather lethargic in the game yesterday, at least till spurs made it 2-1. Had they played the game at the tempo that they
did in the second half of ET, perhaps the result would have been different.
I wouldn’t say it’s completely the manager’s fault tho he does bear most of the
blame. Some of the bigger names in your team are too complacent and need to be
shaken up to maintain your challenge in the rest of the competitions u are vying for.
I wish you good luck for the other competitions you’re in
A couple of days ago, I was playing Fifa 2008 with a friend of mine. A ball fell to Anelka’s feet 8 yards out with an open net. He promptly fired it onto the bar and out to which I exclaimed, without even thinking about it, “Fucking shameful.”
That pretty much sums up my feelings on today.
This paragraph from Henry Winter in the above Telegraph report says it all…
“A manager who never lost a cup final in England, Mourinho would have raged against the dying of the light, exhorting his players to find something extra, enacting one of his substitute master-strokes to vary Chelsea’s danger. The Blues’ huge army of support, who became so used to trophies under Mourinho, deserve better than Grant.”
I think the days of us going 1-0 up and winning games are slipping fast. You only have to see in recent results that opposition players still think they can score and get back into the game. It’s not like the days with them thinking bloody hell 1-0 Chelsea that’s it, no point busting a gut, what’s for tea? and whats on TV tonight?
We’re playing crap football… the last few games have shown that without a doubt, and if it continues Barnsley might well be making even bigger headlines in a couple of weeks.
Well after getting up in the middle of the night to watch the game, Icannot remember a more inept performance by a recent chelsea team.
The players didn’t know whether they were Arthur or Martha, and I’ve got to with all the comments to date, you can only blame one person and thats old boris karloff (AG). To say he hasn’t a clue is an understatement. Were was he when the team need a bit of encouragement and drive, he left it to others, TSO would have been there boots ‘n all
I honestly can’t see us winning anything whilst ever he’s in charge, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the players are thinking the same thing.
I can only wonder how long AG can make his time at Chelsea last. If we win something, will that ensure he stays on into next season? If we get into the finals of the CC/FA Cup? If we come away with nothing, will he be able to spin himself into next year with lies about the team not being accustomed to his “style” or “tactics”? When we were in similar positions in the past, I was not scared. I am scared now. I fear for what we may become. Not so long ago, articles were written about Grant, Kenyon, Arnesen selling Emperor Roman a nice set of clothes spun from a very exotic new thread. How true can it be? I suppose not very, doomsayers are never totally right. But with the poor performances, propaganda, and empty hearts being slung about the Bridge, it feels like a shit farm.
I can now claim that I’ve seen Spurs twice beat Chelsea 2-1 at Wembley and I was only just getting over my emotional trauma from 1967. Back to the therapist!
Yesterday certainly managed to kill my enthusiasm for this season. I was going to buy tickets for Barnsley tomorrow but I’ve decided to cancel that plan, not because I think we’ll lose to Barnsley but because I don’t think we’ll win the FA Cup.
I thought the team selection was ok – everyone is muttering disbelief at Joe Cole being omitted but I think he’s been poor recently and if you read the comments after recent matches many criticised Joe. When Anelka came on as sub against Olympiakos he looked good and yesterday the subs looked better than the original 11, so maybe we’re now stuck with a squad that can only perform as substitutes. Also we’ve been useless in the last 3 games, Liverpool, Olympiakos and yesterday yet the teams were different each time, so I don’t think it’s a function of the starting 11 but a function of our style (bit of a stretch to call it style) of play. Our style is
1. Mastering the art of turning attack into defence. I’ve never seen a team get free kicks and throw ins high up the opposition half and so rapidly get it back to their own keeper
2. Boxing ourselves into a corner. If we get a free kick we seem intent on passing it to a team mate marked by 3 opponents
3. 2 passes is now considered a lengthy piece of interplay
There were so many poor things about yesterday but in particular we seemed intent on making suicidal passes, with Belletti in the first seconds and Lampard in the second half. Drogba seems to have reverted to his old tricks and spent much of the time prostrate clutching his face. Clearly he’s not interested so I’m willing to personally buy his Easyjet ticket to Barcelona.
We were outplayed man for man, including the manager and the fans. Spurs, throughout the whole club, wanted this more than us. We (fans) sat moaning quietly at our end whilst the Spurs fans supported their team.
I’ve been one of the minority defending Grant, partly because I enjoy playing devils advocate but also because I wasn’t disappointed to see Jose leave. Sure I enjoyed the trophies but his off field antics besmirched the reputation of the club. Anyhow I don’t want to re-open that debate. Avram was left moaning yesterday that the ref blew the final whistle too early. Clearly Avram isn’t up to the task at the highest level so let’s hope that Roman correctly reads the situation and blows his whistle early on Avram.
@Mark
I hope you’re right with regard Roman reading the situation, perhaps it will take a beating by Arse or Utd 4 or 5 nil at fortress bridge to wake him up. If that’s the case then I’m prepared for the short term pain it would cause for the longer term benefits.
Or lets keep with tradition and hope he wins the FA cup so we can sack him as our previous three cup winning incumbents suffered. ;-)
I have to agree with Mask 100%, We’ve got all our players back and we are playing like shite. With the Spuds fans
out supporting our fans maybe Boris’s starting to effect the Chelsea faithful as well as the Players
> Mark…
Thanks for putting some perspectives to this issues…I’m quite happy that Lamps and Terry played otherwise our eyes and ears would have been inundated with claims like we lost cos ‘we gambled and left our 2 best, experienced players on the bench’…
Scoring Cech a 4 is very unfair for a guy who kept us in the game long after our ‘experienced’ defenders went to sleep…the threat kept coming through the middle and he kept us in the match time and time again and i dont see why a Terry would score 7 whereas a Cech scored 4…If you recall also, it was Terry doing the bulk of ‘back-passing’ to Cech simply because of his ‘defense only’ mentality… I said before the match that i prefer alex cos he’s a better player carrying the ball forward and putting pressure on the opposition…
AG fumbled….he succumbed to the pressure of playing Lampard who was nothing but ordinary (all huff n puff as usual) and Terry ‘to organise the defense’…
Essien too was a waste of space and is probably overrated this season…Bridge had a much better match than i expected and should be 1st choice over AC…
We have very sharp and deadly finishers in DD and Anelka (both hardly throw chances away)… the only problem is service and that is where the midfield question rears its head again…what kind of service did they get in the course of the match?…i am talking about passes into space resulting in 1-on-1
AG and his crew should go back to the drawing board and strategise properly on the best way to play the team he has…we should be more incisive and create more chances when we play…He should also work on the fitness of the team as i suspect that the lack of fitness may be the reason why chelsea can not keep going full throttle for 90 minutes, opting instead to catch teams on the break or from slow patient build ups…
Evrything said, i still believe the season can be very fruitful…the goners camp is experincing ’self-doubt’ syndrome now, so the premiership is far from over…lets wake up from our slumber, roll up our sleeves & keep the chase
Always Blue!
Managers live and die by their decisions, and Baron Greenback failed miserably with his yesterday.
I thought the decision to play both DD and Anelka was a complete cop out - neither would adapt to being one of the wide men and it showed. Anelka was happy to come infield, and invariably lose the ball with no-one to pass to. Drogba just stood out wide, whingeing like a little girl when he wasn’t auditioning for the part of ‘blown up soldier #37′ in the new Rambo film. Utterly shameful.
The defence were o.k and nothing more. Midfield non-existant (does Mikel have a 50p shaped head ??? Free headers in 20 yards of space and the bounce off his bonce went in all directions, devoid of any control at all.)
Sod all up front, with the usual sight of SWP and Kalou running up their own arses, losing the ball, then giving up. We’ve seen it too often now. Cheerio.
Spurs definitely deserved to win. Head and shoulders above out tepid performance. Which was almost as bad as Olympiakos (thank God I was on holiday last week and couldnt be arsed to find somewhere showing it.)
What really scares me is the bigger picture from yesterday. It’s likely we’ll be trophyless come the end of the season. If DD and Lamps and one or two more jump ship in the summer, fair enough. It’s the calibre of those that will replace them that is of concern. Joining a Chelsea side who won the league and did the cup double, with JM as your boss is infinitely more appealing than joining a side who finish 3rd in the league and lost a cup final, with a man in charge with no personality. Will the top, top names be interested ?? Are we destined to (shock horror) become the new Spurs, just win the fizzy pop cup every 10 years and be grateful for UEFA Cup footy ??
Under AG that’s where I see us headed.
from the Times “One weekend newspaper report claimed that Chelsea had edited an article about Grant in the match programme to remove references to Mourinho. Why would they cut out mention of the greatest manager in the club’s history? Because, presumably, he is the greatest manager in the club’s history and therefore puts Grant under strain.”
What the hell is going one at board level at Chelsea? This shows how much of their own hype the board of Chelsea believe their own and the anti mourinho media hype in the past about pretty football and the money. Put a monkey in charge with the talent you buy and anyone can win… Oh yeah? I hope they all choke on their caviar this morning!! F***ing idoits and prats all of them.
Tony. Get off Cech’s back. If it wasn’t for him we wouldn’t even have been playing extra time. He might have done better on Woodgate’s goal but on balance he was just unlucky. He had no choice but to come for the ball after Woodgate was left completely unmarked by our defence - which is where the real problem lies for that goal.
How was it that the top deck at our end was full of Spurs fans ? Was it that we could we not sell our allocation, which was then handed back and sold on to Spurs ? Does anyone know ? The support yesterday was dire, and this was a big part of it - having your end ‘invaded’ undermines everything. Things really are bad if we can’t turn out for a final.
Utterly pitiful, a dreadful game of football (we passed the ball to them, they kicked it into touch) and a shockingly spineless performance from our players and supporters. I thought I’d be gutted beyond belief at losing a final to Spurs, but I honestly didn’t care - I just wanted the game to end so I could home to read my kid bedtime stories, you know, the important stuff. Spurs were inept, but we were a different class of shit. I actually think we played better when we lost 4-0 to United in 94. We certainly sang better…
Atrocious. Grant has to go, he doesn’t have a fucking clue. If Roman keeps him on and gives him a load of money in the summer, it will make the signings of Shevchenko and Veron look like the canniest decision since we signed Pat Nevin for 25p from Clyde.
@ Tony - Brilliant write up - i agree with everything you say - especially Cech - i love the big man but he needs to read the game. If drogs is overpowering the centre back a big hoof can be great to start it off again and unsettle the other teams defence, keep them back. However when someone like woodgate had DD in his pocket most of the game it was just stupid.
Definition of INSANITY - trying the SAME thing over and over and EXPECTING a different result!!!
I will have a bet with y’all that rikaard comes to chels, JM goes to barca and ten cate links back up with the crazy dutchman - DD will go to them with frank and messi or ronnie will come back this way with rikaard. Both them and us need wholesale changes.
Grant has to go - we arent even seeing glimpses of a way forward.
Utterly poor and as a chelsea fan its humiliating.
Although I detest Spurs - god I wish we could play football like them. Great fluid passing, creating chances and fantastic movement.
As mentioned above - the last few games Chelsea have never played so badly - what is going on with all our miss-passing? Why can’t we keep the ball and carve out goal opportunities anymore? I really felt like they only we would score would be from a free kick or corner.
I think the whole “new manager” effect is over now - and our great run of games will come to an end. The fact that JT gave the ET half-time talk while Avi was behind him scratching his head really showed me that he has nothing to offer. Also - why were AG and Ten Cate wearing suits but not Steve Clark? Is there now a coach hierarchy? Steve looked like a trainer not a coach (i.e. Poyet wearing a suit for spurs).
In my opinion - our wingers are crap (with the excpetion of J.Cole) they are not strong enough for a 4-3-3 formation. We need to change to 4-4-2 or even a diamond formation. DD and Anelka upfront with Kalou or sheva as subs.
Shit - well at least our time at the top was fun while it lasted. Time to eat humble pie and admit that we no longer belong in the elite teams of the premier league.
we have not looked convincing in many past games under Avram. we look inept. we lack confidence and we do not look like we used to. we used to have teams under siege, whether a team scored first we never looked like we were caving in. you were always driven by that fighting spirit oozing through the players, from JM, to the blue boys at the Bridge and out of the screen to your living room wherever you would be as a chelsea fan. i remember how i used to be hated by the red crowds in my pub, we were hated like hell and it felt great because we turned that hate into a winning spirit to keep upsetting the Liverpools, Man-Us and Arsenals of this world.
that sounds like such a long time ago!!! its painful. i have always said that the string of wins by Avram was just delaying our inevitable disintegration and the earlier we started losing important games the more obvious it would be for Ambrmvch to get the picture and perhaps the easier it would be for us to to get a manager worthy of our team soon.
short term pain for long term gain i reckon.
We need a chant for the next home game to vent our anger and let grant know we are not happy. More importantly let Red Rom know
Any ideas?
True Blue - not sure about that. I thought Spurs were shit, but we were shitter. People thought the FA Cup final was bad, but at least that featured two teams who could pass to each other.
Grant out.
Absolutely disappointed with the tactics, team selection, and style. Even only from ethic and moral point, the players who made a contribution to get us to the finale should have played the final itself. Instead we see players just walk in to the team at will. That was the last that convinced me – AG is week, he may not be Abramovich “yes†men, but he is some players “yes†man and I am talking players coming back from ACN. Drogba and Essien especially.
The other disappointment – AG is copying what JM did with Drogba and Sheva, only he is doing it with Anelka. Why some managers play players out of position is beyond me. Anyone knows, play Sheva up front will score all day, or if you play to strikers go for 442 formation, it is in the #### basics of the game. Frustrating …since Lpool game we have been jinxed like. As the SKY commentary said – Spurs want it more! So Avram why not play players who want to win the finale, not self filed wingers
If we can not win final against Spurs, what could we win?
At one stage I was thinking, if we win 1-0 nobody will remember the bloody game. In a sense I was glad Spurs won at the end. If this is not a wake up call, do not know what is.
I can not believe how you can hide from the fact that even thou Grant does not measure up to Mourinho tactically…it has been his players that have let him down…
Essien was reason for this loss playing with the ball in his own half.
Lampard 6/10 were we watching the same match???? He was responsible for Cech keeping the scoreline down…lost a lot of possesion and did not help on the build up play….Ballack on coming on Chelsea had 4 shots on target and yet spurs had 5 defenders at the time…
People out here have failed to realize that even when gives something good, there has got to be life after their gone…Lampard out have said it before and am sticking to my guns…he is way past his best time…
Grant is another one at fault. We have all talked about the Didier-Anelka partnership. Why take a gamble to play a combination you have not tested????? There will be other times against less opposition and against less critical games(oh wait you had declared this game a no consequence encounter…how silly)
John Terry…No problem with him save for his tracking back that was responsible for the second goal…why change a true and tested partnership of Carlvalho-Alex…. The backline lacked confidence and Terry has the Sidwell disease…let me pass the ball back so someone else can hoof the ball up field…
When all is said and done…Spurs have upped their game. Credit to them and their team is decent…
It holds at Morinho 1: Avram 0
Lampard, whilst not particularly good, was infinitely better than Mikel and Essien who were, to put not too fine a point on it, fucking awful.
AG is becoming quite insightful in his old age, may I make another suggestion Avram swap jobs with him and he’ll show you how it’s done!
http://www.myfootballnews.co.u.....ory=804277
Musumba
I agree partly. A club is no different to a company - why are managers there - to motivate, inspire, give guidance and rollock those that are just doing enough to get by.
This is AGs fault exclusively - if he cant get this crop of talented players to rise up then he HAS to go and be replaced by someone who can! JM never had this problem did he and if they played a poor first half - we all know how the second half went.
Obviously steve clarke did give the bollocking at fulham - obviously the players dont respect AG and this is now showing as they have lost that extra 20% that made us so great - the I dont care what you have to do just do it and win mentality.
The SAS has the motto - He who dares wins - i think Red Rom needs to understand this is the british way and that AG is as clueless as pizzarro in the penality box!
I think the irony is with AG thinking that his job is tougher than Ramos, I reckon they could have swapped teams yesterday and Ramos would have got us to win by two clear goals.
Essien, Belletti, Anelka and SWP were hopeless. Everybody else was below average.
I said to my brother before hand that I would take a loss in the Carling Cup Final to Tottenham if the Chelsea board fired Grant on the Monday. That is how strongly I feel about him.
I had been predicting this result all week but when it actually hits you, as you walk out of that ground thinking that last year we beat Arsenal and United to lift the two domestic trophies and that this year we lost in a final to Tottenham… and that Grant will not be sacked in a month of Sundays.
Someone posted earlier that we will need to be beaten badly at home by either United or Arsenal for him to go. I think that’s probably right. I am already convinced that we will lose our home record this year against either of those sides.
I have got good contacts at Chelsea and apparently the back slapping that has been going on in the boardroom has been quite phenomenal. They genuinely believe they have discovered the new Arsene Wenger. Plus they are under considerable pressure to talk him up and support him due to RA’s affection for him. Kenyon, Buck et al are a bunch of yes-men unfortunately.
The turnaround from being invincible to vulnerable is incredibly alarming and has been coming for a while. All this nonsense about how JM and AG have comparable records. Any close analysis of the teams being beaten by those two respective managers tells the real story. With the squad at our disposal we should be getting results (i.e. at least a point away from home, three at the Bridge) against every single side with the exception of Arsenal and United. Even then under JM we regularly beat them home and away. People forget that we are really only in a mini league with those two teams.
OK, last season we only won two cups but we got to the semis of the CL and were in contention for the League, despite an horrific injury list and an owner completely unwilling to support the manager, until May.
What hope of anything like that this year with arguably a better and more substantial squad?
If possible, Mourinho’s stock has risen since RA decided he had had enough.
What’s even worse is that, unless the Milan or Real Madrid/Barca jobs come up, JM will be at Liverpool next year.
Peter,
Agreed apart from Anelka. He was anonymous because anyone who should have been giving him service was utter trash (the perfect game for Makelele - he cant pass (so wouldn’t have looked out of place) but would have offered some protection in front of the back 4).
Drogba’s continued falling to the ground angered me more than ever. I’d let him go in the summer, keep Anelka and get rid of Sheva and Pizarro too.
Anthony,
I agree with your post.
I predicted we’d lose (even called that we’d concede a penalty).
What I don’t agree with is that it’ll be United or Arsenal that do our home record. We’ve been so poor for such a long time, it’ll be someone far more average than them. We tried to let Everton and Villa take it from us, bored Liverpool to tears at home. It’s imminent that’s for sure.
What hurts is that if RA actually does wake up and can AG, we’ll have to foot a huge bill in unpaid wages. Which is why I can see him being here for a long time.
I know this sounds awful and, if we make it to Moscow I may feel very differently (but then again I had the same thoughts on Ranieri pre the Monaco debacle knowing thqat JM was potentially around the corner), I genuinely hope Avram does not fluke the Champions League this year a la Rafa otherwise we will end up in a Liverpool esque situation. i.e. hanging around the top five, picking up the odd cup but no longer a consistent force.
Grant must go in the summer.
> if we make it to Moscow
There is currently very little danger of that happening…
@Alex and Ethical Strategy
No, I won’t get off Cechs back, which is why he features in the good and the bad. Great saves yes, piss poor penalty record and another howler, albeit with the catalyst being shite defending which didn’t help. But…watch the game again and see the mindless hoofing that went on, irrespective of who played it back to him. It’s rubbish and shows a lack of ability to read a game and he’s been doing it for ages, whereas Carlo and Hilario adopt the other approach of pushing the ball back to the defence to build the move up. . It’s route one football that Dave Bassett and Howard Wilkinson would be proud of, but to my mind isn’t good enough for us
‘What I don’t agree with is that it’ll be United or Arsenal that do our home record. We’ve been so poor for such a long time, it’ll be someone far more average than them. We tried to let Everton and Villa take it from us, bored Liverpool to tears at home. It’s imminent that’s for sure.
What hurts is that if RA actually does wake up and can AG, we’ll have to foot a huge bill in unpaid wages. Which is why I can see him being here for a long time.’
Agree with this, we’ll lose the home record to somebody we don’t expect to. They’ll kick Grant upstairs rather than sack him, so that shouldn’t be a problem. In fact, he’ll probably get a raise.
If we play like we have so far this month, Olympiakos (who have a good away record) will turf us out the CL. We’ll be okay in the FA Cup until we play United. We should hold out for third.
JD with performences like THAT, how in hell are we going to get to moscow?????
I’m impressed that Tony found anything to put in ‘good’ other than that the world got to see what a clueless tit we have for a manager.
Back at Tony - The distribution is not down to Cech in my view. It is the responsibility of the defenders to make themselves available. When they do that Cech is quite happy to give it to them. Yesterday, he was continually given the ball to clear when Spurs were pressing the midfield and defence. Passing it out was not an option.
# MikeL · 14th July · 9:42am
I can tell you one thing and I really do want to be a gloom merchant on this one. However, there will be nothing good about Avram Grant arrival to Chelsea. I know this guy and I know this type. Nothing else but intrigue and power fights.
http://www.chelseablog.com/200.....ment-13545
This is my post from 14th of July 2007 seems like far far away Grant just appointed! In every my post since then the only thing is shouting that this guy(Grant) is fraud!!!! I will never give till the moment I see him leaving Chelsea!!!
Sorry, about too many spelling mistake in previous post. I just worry too much when I hear name Grant and I know this fraud since 1992!!!
“> if we make it to Moscow
There is currently very little danger of that happening…”
Oh I don’t know there are lots of good flight bargains at the moment, and our boys earn far more than Spuds match winner who can’t afford a house in London.
@Tony
You make a relevant point on Cech’s penalty saves, or lack of… I think the last one he saved was against Blackburn a few years ago but i could be wrong. What I’ve noticed with him is that he moves too early and telegraphs his direction to the kicker, bloody hell I think even I would fancy my chances against him.
Also AG complaining that the Halsey blew to early when in the middle of an attack, Kalou hit the bloody post, and even if he had equalised
does anyone honestly believe we would have won the lottery of penalties?
@ Peter
It would have been too easy to have a go at Grant when it’s obvious what was missing yesterday and recently…leadership. I’ve done another post which Nick might publish mid-week which expands on the Emperor’s New Clothes theme. Like a few people I’m almost glad we lost because it might mean the departure (upstairs) of Jabba the Hut and the introduction of a proper coach…but I’m not holding my breath. Anthony’s comment about mutual back slapping sound like a real worry because we’re not paying anything like Arsenal…at least not since Bruce Rioch was in charge of them! I’ll take dour with trophies, but not dismal with capitulation and defeat and that’s what we saw yesterday.
@ Jose - Everyone starts from 6/10 and Lampard did as much bad as he did good, hence the default score. Whilst he didn’t add much throughout the 90 , when we started to play after Spuds scored their second he became far more expansive and urgent. Too little, too late, but that was the case for everyone barring Bridge and Terry really.
@ Mark - I have criticised Joe Cole lately, and to my mind rightfully so, but he likes Wembley and has been integral to our progress and at the very least deserved the nod yesterday instead of SWP, as did Ballack in front of Lamps. He might be a fancy dan, but he does create problems and all the Spuds fans I’ve met today were downright bloody relieved (if not a bit mystified) that he was on the bench.
If AG is meant to be a good man manager, then by analogy obviously Margaret Thatcher was a great humanitarian! I would have left Terry, Lamps and SWP on the bench, started with Alex, Ballack and Cole with Drogba and Anelka up front in a 4-4-2 and stuck by the core of players who have seen us through a tough spell of injury and absenteeism. If things went pear shaped then by all means change them. To push them to one side in favour of players who have been out injured or away on International duty is downright shoddy and sends one message…form doesn’t matter, friendships and player seniority do. Any business would sink quite quickly with that attitude.
This isn’t a bring back JM rant…but it is a question, an open question to the hierarchy (some of who do read this blog allegedly) at Chelsea as to why they believe AG is the long term bet, rather than a young experienced coach who has played at all levels of the game, and even better managed as well?
@ Ethical Strategy - we’ll have to agree to disagree. It’s far to prevalent a part of his game - he rarely passes or throws. Might I suggest you watch him in future and we’ll compare notes in a few games time? What he does is effectively give the opposition possession again, and if he doesn’t then it’s still Dave Bassett football. Even you have to agree with that surely?
If there has been back slapping amongst the board, I now think there should be some head knocking. If they want us to be the richest and biggest club brand globally, that’s only going to happen if we win things, it’s not rocket science. JM raised the profile of the club in two ways by being successful and controversial in equal measures, they go hand in hand surely peoples memories can’t be that short, Fergie was such an angel wasn’t he!
I bet if you ask most people who only have a slight interest in football either here or abroad, who manages Chelsea… the replies would either be JM or don’t know.
Onwards to world domination eh!
I think Cech will have been told to lump it by the coaching staff before the game, and shouldn’t be marked down for it.
For the Woodgate goal, I need to watch it again but why was he given essentially a free header unless Cech had come out and put him off. Cech was left exposed by a defence that looked out of sorts. JT needs some games under his belt to get his confidence back.
I hope we get knocked out of the Champions league next week and RA sacks AG and employs a world class manager.
9 points off the top with Arsenal stuttering, a game in hand and both top 2 teams have to come to Stamford Bridge. Lets get a new manager in and win the last 12 premiership games of the season!
Spurs won pretty much ball that was knocked into our box from free kicks. The defence gave Cech sod all protection - rumour is that Terry can’t jump since his back operation.
Peter - JT certainly doesn’t seem as mobile.
Just to clarify my Arsene Wenger comment, I don’t think the senior managment are so deluded as to think they have found a manager who is capable of creating such stunning football as Wenger, but they do believe they have plucked someone from obscurity with as much talent.
Still pretty deluded then…
Terry was passing back to Cech an awful lot rather than moving out of defence; don’t know whether this was a tactic (if that’s what you call it) or because he isn’t moving as well as he could.
JD/Tony - on the Cech hoofing it point I agree his kicking isn’t great. But one of the most worrying things about yesterdays performance (and there were quite a few) was the lack of movement from the entire team. No-one wanted the ball. The amount of times Anelka, Lamps, anyone got stranded with no-one to pass to was ridiculous.
Also Woodgate seemed to win everything in the air against Drogba and this might have made Cech’s kicking look even worse than it was.
Woodgate was brilliant yesterday.
Cech had a poor game but I’m not sure he’s completely to blame for all the long balls. It seems to me that this sort of play is tactical & I would expect that Cech has been instructed to do this. It has occasionally had success with Drogba in the past but in situations where it is clearly not working then it is up to the manager to instruct his players to do things differently.
The only good thing that might come from this result is that Grant has been exposed. Could you imagine Mourinho (or any other manager with the talent of Cole & Ballack on the bench) leaving it so late to make changes. Spuds must have been laughing when they seen the line-up - why did Grant choose to experiment in a final?
The most worrying thought is the board think that Grant is a good choice and intend to keep him on. After Mourinho went I was very vocal in shouting down the the “bring back Mourinho” chants in the MHL - JM is gone & we need to move on. However, I’ve never believed Grant was the right choice except maybe as a caretaker until then end of the season. For now we need to continue to support the team for the rest of the season. At the end of the season we need to make sure the board are fully aware that they’ve made the wrong choice.
On the other hand we could win the treble. We could start playing the “expansive” football (whatever that is) that Grant goes on about. He could bring a couple of Chelsea youth players through & develop them into international class players. I’m not asking much really but unless he can achieve all this in the next 3 months then I want him out.
Spurs have excellent centre backs and shit full backs. Which is why we picked two players who aren’t wingers to attack them.
The lack of movement and dynamism from midfield and the full backs was stunning. I’m not sure Belletti got goalside of SWP once. Carvalho is usually the player who brings the ball forward - was Keane sitting on him? I didn’t notice, but it would be a sensible tactic.
I have 3 points to make:
1) Avram Grant
2) The dead branches in the squad.
3) Roman Abramovich
The manager - Basically i think he has done a decent job in keeping us in all 4 competitions until Woodgate’s header yesterday. What i want to say is that we have a squad that any manager in the world of football desires. But how they utilise them is another story, which brings me to this: Any average manager e.g. Curbs, Sparky or Moyes can come in and do what Avram did or even better. Grant needs to go. The sooner the better. Unfortunately, we may have to wait a couple years more as he has a contract with us. At least til the end of next season where he will get the chance to build his own squad this summer. Lets keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best. Im not going into his tactical abilities which are very pathetic as a manager because you guys have discussed the whole issue throughly already.
The players - We need an influx of top quality players this summer. E.g. Quaresma, Lahm, Van Der Vaart and Benzema etc. Especially on the right flank. Its been quite sometime with this bugging problem at right back and right wing. Belletti is a typical Brazillian full back who doesnt defend much. Fine. But a serious lack of pace at the back is killing us. I was surprised that SWP started as a winger to flank Drogba. Ten Cate covered his flaws by shifting him to central midfield but once again, he doesnt have what it takes to play as a right winger. Other then mindless running, he has nothing else which was evident in yesterday’s game. If we still had the team we had 3 seasons ago with Duff/Robben, im sure we would have over ran Spurs.
The owner - Someone needs to justify the decision of appointing Avram Grant. He may dislike Jose but surely he can think of someone better? Its one of the most bizzare decisions i have ever witnessed in my life.
A worried Chelsea fan.
@Ken
You’re not the only worried Chelsea fan there’s a long list on this site alone please form an orderly queue! Yes I think you’ll find most people in agreement with you about the bizzare decision to replace JM with someone…. well we all know the rest. He has recently asked for a Director of Football to come in to make his job easier, perhaps just perhaps it’s a coded message to the board that he’s in over his head and wants the job.
Why not give Ten Cate the reins until the end of the season he couldn’t be any worse and he certainly won’t pick players out of loyalty or sentimentality if his reputation is anything to go by.
Pete - Keane seemed to be doing a very good job at keeping Mikel (and to an extent Carvalho) occupied when he dropped off; contributed a lot to our lack of any control in midfield. If he wasn’t doing that he was going wide with Jenas pushed up on Mikel.
Read an interesting article recently on the subject - might have been Henry Winter - about managers dealing with the ‘Makelele role’ by putting a deep lying forward on the midfield lynchpin to disrupt; also tricky for the centre half marking him (which as you mention was Riccy) as it creates indecision about when to go with him and when not to; mentioned that Bilic did it in the England v Croatia game. I’ll post it if I can dig it out.
Bilic - now there’s a man we could use here - smart, young, bit mischievious…
yeah I’d give Clarke and Ten Cate the job till the end of the season then bring in a heavyweight in the summer.
Yeah, I love the look of Bilic. His kid’s a Chelsea fan as well!
JD - who was the midfiled lynchpin in the England Croatia game - Gareth Barry?! Ha ha.
Bilic would be great, though more of a gamble than JM was in terms of pedigree. He could do with a bit of experience at a football club first.
I’d plump for Hughes. Please not Rikjjaard…
Mikel wasn’t that awful. Most of the game went over his head, and when he did get a chaance to put his foot on the ball he looked more likely than most to keep possession and make a forward pass. For me the really hideous feature was the absence of any movement in the attacking half. Everyone seemed to be waiting for the ball to go up to Drogba, all the time.
Thre’s no point flipping out about a bad couple of weeks now. Most of us have suspected that Grant was probably not much of a leader or tactician ever since he was appointed, for the simple reason that there was no evidence at all to suggest that he was. But there’s *ample* evidence that freaking out and chanting for the manager’s head in the middle of a season does nothing for anyone. As a lot of us have been syaing all along: let’s wait and see where we are at the end of the season.
If, as seems likely, at the end of the season we are 3rd or 4th in the league, runners up in the Mickey Mouse Cup, out of the Champions League at the quarterfinal stage, and out of the FA Cup in the semis (or thereabouts), then … I can’t say I was expecting much more when the boss’s toady took over. The suits will talk about a “transitional year” and say Grant needs time to make it “his” team. The fans will think that an excellent squad has badly underachieved, but really it won’t be much less than a lot of us expected.
I think it’s going to take something much worse than the above scenario for us to have any chance of getting rid of Grant. Like finishing 5th (seems improbable).
They blew it when they fell out with José. (I can’t see how there can be any possible argument about that.) It’s too late now. Even if we got Mr. Brilliant Euro Manager in tomorrow he’d need a while to turn the team around. (Look at Ramos, you say: but Spurs were far more broken than we are when he came in.)
I’m afraid the best hope is to remember that the team has played quite well under Grant, for whatever reason (obviously nothing to do with Grant himself), and just hope we can do that again.
Guys, Cech did not do much wrong
Essien lost carelessly the ball that led to the cross for the “penaltyâ€
Second goal to me is not the defence or Cech, Drogba lost his man
I think Slaven Bilic is the men for the future and hope we get him after the summer…
@ limetreebower
Agree that we should wait til the end of the season and see where we are. What im concerned about is that the authorities at Chelsea are not realising the mistakes they made. Something is wrong in the set up. My brithday wish is that Roman is reading this blog right now.
Sorry to join a little late, still in shock after yesterday. Very happy to read that the press have stopped saying what a fantastic manager the “normal one” is. He has rightly got destroyed this morning.
I was saying to my Chelsea/Tottenham supporting friends on Friday and Saturday night, that wierdly our downfall on Sunday would be because we had too many world class players available and Grant would mess up the tactics/team selection. Sure enough he did. It cannot be coincidence that he has done well when we have had injuries/suspensions depleting our squad to such an extent that the team basically picked itself.
Leaving out Ballack was a complete joke. Putting Anelka on the wing was a complete joke. Useless manager, useless performance.
We need an overhaul of the squad in the summer with Grant, Pizarro, Sheva, Malouda, SWP, Lampard and Drogba (irreplaceble but he obviously does not want to be here so let him go) going. We need to sign Benzema, and a World class winger who scares the hell out of teams like Robben used to, like Ronaldo does now. We will obviously need further additions but no more central midfielders.
One question, if Abramovich wanted flair why not appoint Ramos? I was very impreesed with them yesterday, and can only see us losing to them at 3 point lane again. It is so depressing.
A lot of guys here amaze me…Tottenham’s game has been on the rise recently (see what they did to the goners and the stress they put manure through)… currently, they are as good as the so-called ‘top 4′ in my opinion
I recalled asking what the fuss was about Lamps and JT not playing in the final and JD inferring that they were our ‘best players…when fit’…maybe sometimes in the past they were best, but here and now…they are not! AG was stupid to fall in for undue pressure in fielding both players as they made no positive impact on the scoreline… and play!
We played the same Tottenham a few backs in case you all have forgotten (practically the same set of spuds players) and what was the result…2-0 And the spuds did not as much as trouble Cech like they did yesterday…we change the team and what did we get?
Those clamouring for JC seem to have forgotten that he was anonymous in his last match…no guarantee that he would have played well for 90 mins (he’s not even fit enough for 90 mins in my opinion, would burn out after some runs and remain anonymous for the most part)…
> Tony Glover…
You keep harping about Cech and have been silent on JT why?…was he not supposed to ‘lead our defence’?…the same defence that was broken at will by the spuds?…Did you notice JT stooping and ball-watching while berbatov narrowly missed the sitter of a header in the 1st half from keane’s cross?…what did JT do to merit a 7 and Cech a 4?…Countlessly, when we were 1 goal up, JT had the ball with acres of space in front of him and opted to back-pass to Cech (and you opt to blame Cech and stay Silent on JT)? Thats not leadership and i think you are not being fair here!
I think the undue pressure from ’sentimentality for the english’ would be our undoing as i stated in my previous post…especially if AG continues to be swayed by the sentiments
Lets face it…the same team that beat the spuds some weeks back (perhaps with the inclusion of Drogba) should have been allowed to play and i’m sure they would have done us proud…
Hope AG has learnt his lessons and would stop playing to sentiments as the buck stops at his footmat…
The season is not over yet… AG should show balls and do what i think he should…”shelf the ‘names’ and play the game”
Always Blue!
MEN YOU GUYS HAVE GIVEN ME A LAUGH.
SOME MEMORABLE QUOTES.
BUT SERIOUSLY, THINGS CAN ONLY GET BETTER FOR US.
FIRST THE SPUDS GET US. NEXT BURNSLEY BURNS US THEN COME THE GREEKS,WELL LET US SAY THEY GET THE BETTER OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. WHAT NEXT? WELL GRANT IS GRANTED A GARDENING LEAVE AND WE GET RID OF SOME OF OUR SUPPOSADE STARS. SOME GUYS JUST NEED TO MOVE ON. LAMPARD,MALOUDA,SWP,PIZZAMEN, SHEVA,BRING IN A YOUNG RB AND PAULO WAS GIVEN 4 YEARS? WHAT FOR? OBEDIENT BENCHING, HILARIO OUT,DD SHOULD MAKE UP HIS MIND, WE DONT WANT ANOTHER GALLAS ON OUR HAND. NEXT SEASON WE NEED ATLEAST 4 MIDFIELD PLAYERS BTWN 18 AND 24 YEARS. MEN JUST LOOK AT ANDERSON OF UTD. HOW COME OUR SECRET SERVICE NEVER SPOTS SUCH TALENT? WELL I DONT KNOW THE SCOUTS BUT MEN THEY DESERVE A SUCK.
I DOUBT WHETHER ANY CLUBS WOULD WANT OUR JUNK,MAYBE START CHELSEA TELVIV OR CLUB AMERICA WITH THESE CLOWNS.
To start off with, I am a huge JM mark. But my problem is that I am a bigger Chelsea maniac. However for the first time, I don’t feel the pain that we lost, maybe I was expecting this!!! It’s not the feeling when we lost the CL Semi’s at Looserpool, not like the feeling I had when a defeated JM came and gave us the chins up… I was so proud to be on the losing side, with the team that lay in shambles from failing to conquer Europe again… Boring??? Yea, hell yea, if that was boring football, bring it on, week after week, and I will sing my heart out… I mean I don’t like Grant, I didn’t like him and I don’t think that I’d ever like him!!! I’d be glad to eat my words, but it’s gonna take a hell of a turn around for that to happen. And it’s not just the tactical nous that we are talking about here. Where is the passion??? Where is the love for everything blue??? JM was controversial, but then it showed more than that… It showed that he loved the club; he was passionate about the club… And you could see that every time he was on the touch line… I know that my feelings don’t amount to anything, but I’d rather have a brash controversial man who loved the club rather than a politically correct dumb f**kwit…
One question for all the Chelsea supporters who said we were playing boring football before Grant supposedly rescued us … What’s your idea of boring football??? Winning all the time??? Or maybe lightning quick counter attack football??? Maybe scaring the s**t out of your opponents??? Or was it because we never looked like loosing at the revered Bridge??? Really, when was the last time you really thought about it rather than make up your mind by reading the papers??? And wasn’t the orchestrator of all this boring football hailed as the savior of England by the same people who said he was the enemy of football while at Chelsea??? And before anyone starts off, this is not a post to start a “Bring Back The Special One†campaign, no, far from it… I just wanted to share a few thoughts…
I have no hope that we’re gonna see the light at the end of the tunnel, not just yet, but I fear that by the time the board realize and come around, it might be too late… But whatever happens, the memories of the past three glorious years are more than nuff to keep me going for a few more years…
And as my signature in all my official mails say, “I Bleed Chelsea Blue!!!â€â€¦ always…
Im not done, where on earth are we going to get a brilliant manager?
Ancelloti for champs league
frank of barca? ur kidding, that guy tactically?
ramos, well we let him go i hear for a younger guy, that will be grant
who? Rafa. to show us things can get worse
ah, that leaves me, yes me jard. JARD FOR MANAGER.
IF U MAKE ME MANAGER, I PROMISE TO MAKE THE SPECIAL ONE THE DIRECTOR OF FOOTBALL, I HEAR THERE IS A VACANCY AT THE BRIDGE.
TO MAKE RA HAPPY, I WILL MAKE AVRAM THE FORMER MANAGER OF CHELSEA.MY CHELSEA
@Alex
I think you are reading my mind exactly… Lampard and JT SHOULD NOT have played this game. We need to sell Lampard and get Modric…I am almost getting tired of saying this…It is so obvious…his heart and body are no longer with us….
We have gone a couple of games without losing and then silly toad looking Avram decides to croak a “benitez”…
Hopeless…
Cech
Belleti-Alex-Carlvalho-Wayne
JCole-SWP(Essien 2nd Half)-Makelele-Ballack (Lampard 2nd half) -Kalou
Drogs (Anelka 2nd Half)
That line up would have white washed our psycho friends..
@ Alex - Why not JT…because when JT passes back to Cech it doesn’t follow that Cech then needs to hoof it out mindlessly. Explain to me why he did that when JT was injured? When Riccy was injured? It’s his way of clearing from the back and it’s wrong. JT had a reasonable game yesterday, but he did little wrong and warranted an extra mark from the default 6 for staying on the whole game…..BUT…I don’t think he shouldn’t have started. Alex played to get us there so should have been rewarded with the start, as should Ballack instead of Lamps and Cole instead of SWP, because he is a better big game player.
Oh, and our piss poor form and negative style of play should include the Reading match as well. Go a goal up and then sit back and let them come at us. Under Mourinho, yes, under Grant no because the players don’t believe!
Well, if this below is true then Roman can kiss goodbye to the Cl for the forseable future.
!Mourinho already discussing backroom staff with Barcelona
tribalfooball.com - February 25, 2008
Jose Mourinho has agreed to work with existing Barcelona coaching staff should he replace Frank Rijkaard at the end of the season.
El Mundo Deportivo says during talks in Portugal, former Chelsea boss Mourinho spoke with Barcelona directors Txiki Begiristain and Marc Ingla about his backroom staff.
Pep Guardiola (current coach of Barca B), Luis Enrique and Eusebio Sacristan were all put forward to Mourinho as potential assistants - ahead of Rijkaard’s current No2 Johan Neeskens.
Mourinho already knows Guardiola and Luis Enrique from the first spell he had at Barca as Sir Bobby Robson’s assistant. “
The board should all be rounded up and put on a boat out to sea frankly. Bunch of idiots.
Tony, I agree about Czech. I think hes the best in the world I really do but I noticed his long ball kicking many times especially in the CL against barca when we should have worked up from the back. A long kick is always a 50-50 as to which team ends up with it on the pitch. He defiantley does it too many times and has cost us countless hours of possesion during many games. I noticed it most last year. Maybe some players are starting to believe they are invincible without having to work for it.
I Usually Agree totally with these blogs however how the referee has been praised is just ridiculous!
I was at Wembley yesterday (unlike the person who wrote this blog because your views are way off!!) and found some of his decisions totally shocking. Drogba was being wrestled to the ground from behind in the box towards the end of normal time and a free kcik was awarded against him?! But I am not being totally biased towards Chelsea Spurs had some dirty tackles agaisnt them only for the ref to award us a free kick for making them? Absolutely pathetic and the near side linesman wasn’t much better.
I don’t believe Tottenham deserved to win at all although they wer clearly the better team before we scored. I hope we learn from losing this final as we have been well consistent of late!
Another shocking contribution to the game was Shaun Wright Phillips absolutly pathetic all game why Avram (Hope he gets sacked, may aswell give Steve Clarke the job as no one else does f*ck all!) kept him on instead of J Cole and Essien instead of Ballack come to think about it, puzzles me. To buy Anelka and play him on the left wing is ridiculous as well
Yet some moron on the tube back with me was saying we should sell JT because he jsut doesn’t cut it anymore yeah nice one mate!!
When are we going to start playing some proper football instead of that b0llocks?!
The worst of all is this. How many of the worlds top players are even contemplating coming to Chelsea. I know money talks but so does the wish for glory in sport. Ask y0ourself this. If you were Ronaldinho, Messi, Kaka, Alves or even Man-u’s Ronaldo would you even have in your mind to move to us if your agent came to you in this situation? No, I did’nt htink do and this is what we had the last three seasons where all the best players were mulling over coming here. Now, it all seems so lost…….
@ DIO
Its all because of Avram Grant.
@Tony, I dont get the excuse to other fans down the pub about being a transitional year. that’s fo rteams that loads of players are being replaced for a new sqaud and hence the transition. When you take over and manage a squad which previously was almost an invincible sqaud who won six cups in three years and challenged the best top clubs in europe and they are all still there, that’s not transition, that’s down to the only change there was, i.e the manager. and that says it all……
Matt - your post has been allowed to stay but has been edited; it may well be a nickname that Spurs give themselves, but it is insulting and has no place on here. If it gets used again (by anyone) the post in question will disappear, as will the poster’s future contributions.
Matt,
The point you make about DD be wrestled to the floor is, well, point-less. He was offside, hence the free-kick against him.
Having spent a fair bit of the afternoon reading the post-match analysis from various journalists and player interviews, what really takes the p*ss is Avram and his continual whingeing about how it wasn’t a penalty or when the ref blew the final whistle (despite the fact when we were attacking it was PAST the alloted added-on time). For all his flaws, had JM been in charge and the same result ensued, I think he’d have been honest enough to admit we got what we deserved.
All Grant is trying to do is detract attention away from the fact that his decisions are ultimately what cost us. He’s just not big enough to admit it.
However, I think it’s unfair to point the finger solely at Grant. In the past, where we’ve discussed his lack of anything resembling managerial abilities, the players have dug in and performed. We’ve scraped 1 - 0 wins and claimed it’s all because the players wanted to show what they could do in the face of adversity. Yesterday they didn’t and some of them can’t hide from the fact they were apalling.
Picking the popular players and dropping the form players to the bench is something from the realms of a no-mark nobody managing the England team (Hello Steve McLaren), and Grant has no way of hiding that. He and the board may put a brave face on it, and attribute the loss to any one of their wildly vivid conspiracy theories. The fact of the matter is the real sense seems to be talked about on here, where the fans appear to be the ones with the footballing management knowledge, and Grant is left looking like, well, a look-a-like from your favourite Sci-Fi film. With as much footballing knowledge as someone from the Planet Tatooine.
Jog on Avram, jog on.
@KEN your’e right mate, You all know I’ve been saying it all along. It’s more than Grant though, it goes to the top. An owner who got jealous and replaced one of the best pound for pound managers in the world because he could’nt put up with the established anti-anyone-new media and also, believed the hype that money alone wins things and personally because he was overshadowed by JM on the world stage and that’s why he went for Grant, not a real proven world manager. In fact, I would go so far as to say to everyone here that Abromovich has put his own self before Chelsea. You do what is good for the club not yourslef and that includes personal sacrifices which he is’nt willing to do since he’s the boss…..and that’s why we lost yesterday. Simple as that!
Apologies i didn’t know he was given offside.
There is definatly a problem within the club from top to bottom but i do believe they are picking up points when they do because they are a squad who has always done so in recent years. Mourinho didn’t make some of the best signings lets not forget. whatever anyone said about Ranieri he created the back bone i mean Mutu,Kezman,Smertin,Tiago,Del Horno,Boulharouz… all shocking Ranieri signed Lampard (whatever anyone says about him now he gave so many goals) Duff, j cole i even think Robben was signed before Mourinho came.
The point i am making is i could be there manager right now and absolutely nothing would be diffrent Grant is hopeless and is in way over his depth! and there needs to be changes i want to enjoy going to the bridge to watch us play football not see us scrape 1 nil against the likes of West Ham!
We won’t win anything with this peice of shit in charge. We no longer play with any convitcion that well score a goal if we keep at it. When the players feel that way, we won’t win anything, and that’s what it’s been lking like for a while now.
Everton both legs, Portsmouth, Liverscum, Olympiakos, and now Spurs -
HOW MANY PROPER GAOLSCORING CHANCES DID WE MAKE IN ALL THOSE GAMES COMBINED?
Probably less than MAN U do in one game.
That’s the truth.
We have no ideas, our central midfielders are are all slow and ponderous.
Too many big lumps who wont break out of a trot.
ESSIEN NEEDS a good kicking up his lazy arse. When Ghana were a goal down againstNigeria, he singlehandedly got them ack in it with fantastic header. Where’s the determination?
KICK OUT SWP! ASAP
@ Dio,
Got to agree with you mate. It’s been this way for quite some time though and his interest in the club definitely seems to be fading. I think that perhaps he is just waiting for the moment to jump ship and I can see that moment coming soon.
Not that I think that would be bad for the club, since he has come in it’s been like his play-thing, hence the reason why Sheva signed and Jose left. He has so many people below him carrying out his dirty-work, Peter Kenyon, Bruce Buck, Henk Ten Cate and while Mourinho was still in charge Avram himself that he has lost touch with the way the club should be run and most importantly, the fans.
We will still be around supporting the club long after Roman and his rubles have packed up and moved. The way things are going though Chelsea by that time will already have become the laughing stock of the Premiership.
Can someone explaimn what Henk Ten Cate’s role at the club is?
If the assumptions that some of the Chelsea heirachy read this blog are true… might I make a suggestion. They obviously read it because they find it informative with a wide range of opinions from the general fan base, some of which are nonsense and some which are very insightful (and I don’t include myself in the former or latter) just in case someone has a go at me.
So here’s my suggestion why don’t we, and I mean by we… JD ;-) pen an open letter type blog to RA and the board raising our concerns as to the direction the club is taking with managerial structure. After all JD would have enough material from various posts and blogs since AG took over to give a balanced consensus of views.
A lot of us on here pay good money to watch Chelsea, I spend on avera