FA Cup: Barnsley 1 - 0 Chelsea
Match reports
The Observer, Spencer Vignes: “And they say that lightning never strikes twice. Having disposed of Liverpool in the previous round, Barnsley only went and did it again by knocking Chelsea out of the FA Cup on a memorable night in South Yorkshire. Dickie Bird, Darren Gough, Arthur Scargill, Michael Parkinson. Your boys dished out one hell of a beating.”
Sunday Times, Andrew Longmore: “So this hazy, crazy, Cup year careers on. As if the exit of Manchester United was not enough of an upset, albeit to a Premier League side, Chelsea were humbled by Barnsley on a Yorkshire night made for the underdogs. So no member of the Big Four reaches the last four of the FA Cup and all is right with the world outside the Champions League.”
Sunday Telegraph, Alex Morfey: “Make no mistake, this was no fluke because although Avram Grant made six changes to his team from the one that romped over Olympiacos in the Champions League in midweek, there was still a star-studded line-up on view.”
Independent on Sunday, Steve Tongue: “Football followers yearning to see a name other than that of the big four clubs on the FA Cup will have their wish granted for the first time since 1995.”
Official Chelsea FC Website: “Chelsea … 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.”
The goal
The good
- Barnsley. You can quote shots on target, possession stats and any other mitigating factors all you like; the home team (and their fans) thoroughly deserved their victory and the trip to Wembley for the semi-final. All the clichés were there - tough trip ‘oop north, big centre forward, a pitch like the Somme on a bad day in 1917, a player called Hassell and so on. Fair play you Tykes - if you make it to the final (and let’s face it, you’ve beaten Liverpool at Anfield and the holders in your own back yard, so why not?), I’ll stick a flat cap on, buy a whippet, indulge in a few other dodgy Yorkshire stereotypes and cheer you all the way to the final whistle. If anyone deserves to lift the trophy, Brian Howard does. Well done.
- The travelling Blue faithful. I believe our very own Mark is one of the disappointed 5,500 or so making his way back to London as I type. It’s just a shame that your performance in the stands wasn’t matched on the pitch.
- Avram Grant. And I’m not even throwing that in to be obtuse; it may have been too little, too late and badly executed, but taking off Juliano Belletti to go three at the back with another striker up front at least showed he was willing to be bold in an attempt to salvage something from the game.
- At least we can concentrate on the league(s) now.
- We’ve got our (frustrating and utterly unpredictable) Chelsea back.
The bad
- The result. I can’t be arsed to check as I’ve got a baby vomiting copiously over me (she’s as pissed off as I am), but I think the last time we lost to lower league opposition in a domestic cup was Huddersfield in the Fizzy back in 1999(?) (Millwall in the FA Cup in 1995(?), if we’re being competition specific). Whilst we’re some way from the bad old days, today was inexcusable and piss-poor.
- The players. I rarely bother with ratings, but taking Tony’s 6 out of 10 as a default, I’m struggling to find a player who manages to stay on that mark. Maybe Ricardo Carvalho and Joe Cole. Feel free to use the comments facility to agree/disagree as appropriate. Poor, poor and thrice poor.
- Avram Grant. You tried to outwit the mighty Barnsley. And you failed, miserably. I’ve tried to avoid direct comparisons, but could you see Jose Mourinho making a similar mistake?
- We’ll have to listen to Dickie Bird and the world’s most professional Yorkshireman, Michael Parkinson, banging on about this for bloody years to come.
Man of the Match
Joe Cole played quite well. But frankly, Kayode Odejayi deserves his spurs. He looked like Emile Heskey with inner ear problems on occasion, but he did the business when it mattered, which is more than we can say for our lot. ‘nuff said.
Final thoughts
I’m not so much angry at the result, more at the way the legacy of a team that not so long ago terrorised Europe’s finest is being squandered for the sake of the owner’s vanity and pride. I’m perfectly prepared to give Grant a chance and have humble pie shoved up my arsehole until someone calls an ambulance, but after United lost today, this was a gilt-edged, nailed-on chance to win a trophy and persuade the sceptics that he might have something resembling the ability to manage a top-flight football club.
But as previously stated, he failed, and failed miserably. He left a number of key players behind (and in all fairness, I know little of their availability to play in the game at the time of writing); Rafael Benitez made a similar mistake in the previous round and suffered the consequences - I thought that Grant at least had the ability to learn from his mistakes, but obviously not.
Yes, we’re still in two competitions (had to throw that one in…); keep that pie warm by all means, but I don’t think I’ll be eating it come the end of May.
So please, for the love of all that is holy, can we end this ridiculous charade and get a manager who is at least qualified to do the job properly? The manager is responsible for preparing and motivating the players for every game and on the evidence available, he is simply not doing a good enough job consistently. Roman and co., you have made a mistake - please admit it and move on for the good of this football club.
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- Posted at 10:37 PM · Permalink · Print · 4737 views · Last indexed by Google on the 16th May 2008
- Tags: Avram Grant, Barnsley, Chelsea, FA Cup, Joe Cole, Jose Mourinho, Kayode Odejayi, Roman Abramovich
So please, for the love of all that is holy, can we end this ridiculous charade and get a manager who is at least qualified to do the job properly? The manager is responsible for preparing and motivating the players for every game and on the evidence available, he is simply not doing a good enough job consistently. Roman and co., you have made a mistake - please admit it and move on for the good of this football club.
That sums it up perfectly JD, not much else to add except we’re fast becoming a laughing stock!
Spot on….
I have trouble blaming Grant for this. He brought players who should have been capable of winning. He brought players who made Olympiakos disappear completely. But somehow we lost.
Still, I find myself totally agreeing with your closing paragraph:
“So please, for the love of all that is holy, can we end this ridiculous charade and get a manager who is at least qualified to do the job properly? The manager is responsible for preparing and motivating the players for every game and on the evidence available, he is simply not doing a good enough job consistently. Roman and co., you have made a mistake - please admit it and move on for the good of this football club.”
I demand a change. I don’t hate Grant and I don’t know whether or not he’s competent at all. I just want him gone, and I want to forget he was here. I want to believe in my manager and my team.
Furthermore, if winning only the League Cup and the FA Cup saw Mourinho forfeit his job, does missing out on both of these with only an outside shot at the premiership (and an inevitably unlikely road towards the CL) mean Grant will be gone soon?
If you were talking about the manager of Fulham, or any team with limited resources and a managerial carousel, I could understand. This is the most expensive side in the Premiership. If you don’t know if the manager is competent- then there is no doubt, he is not competent.
Jonathan, you said exactly what I was thinking. I don’t care if Chelsea play attractive football. I know other people do, and that’s fine. I’d rather see my team play tactically clever, winning football. If I want to see attractive football I’ll watch Arsenal, and I won’t cry if they lose. I want my team to win. But the killer instinct has been lost at Chelsea.
Last season this was a game where Essien would come through with a herculean effort and a magical match-winner only minutes from time. Today he is anonymous. I can’t imagine that he has lost that much ability in the space of one off-season. What does that say about us?
I watched this game in disbelief!! This team is NOT performing for Mr Grant, that’s for sure. Whether it is down to them or Mr Grant’s lack of motivational power I know not but I have this awful feeling everything is going to collapse around our ears. Four years ago, it wouldn’t have bothered me……. it is what we came to expect from our team. But after the heady success of the last three years, I, like many others I suspect, have come to expect us to destroy teams like Barnsley et al. We have the players ………….. we obviously don’t have the motivation.
But after watching the game and the tremendous effort Barnsley put in ……. that last 15 was the Alamo all over again……. they thoroughly deserved their win. As much as it hurts to say it, I am not overly disappointed in this defeat as I am now sure this will hasten the departure of ‘The Normal One’.
At least that mob from ‘ooop North’ got turned over too.
Good Luck in the semi, Barnsley and enjoy your day out at Wembley.
I’m a long time reader of this blog (it’s great btw)! I’ve just arrived home from the grim north and all I can say is congratulations to Barnsley. They were exellent and fully deserved the win.
I appreciate that against a Championship side you may not start with your best XI, (and I had no trouble with our starting line up). However, you always need the quality on the bench. When I saw Frank during half time yesterday at the youth cup semi I thought we could be in trouble. No Lamps, no Didier, even no Sheva on the bench. There was always a chance we could go behind, and when the best option from the sidelines is Pizzaro it becomes a massive cause for concern.
Unfortunately, today proved again that AG just doesn’t have the managerial capabilities to take Chelsea where we need to be. Game for game his record may stand up against Joses’, but in the matches that count he has once again been found wanting. Today it’s not because of the team he picked, but the people he left in London. Every trophy counts Avram!
BTW, Miroslav Stoch is unbelievable. He may be very short, but i’d give him a run out over Malouda any day!!!
Balance of the team was all wrong. We were playing 4-2-4 with Essien a sort of holding role and Ballack (ineffectively) covering the entire midfield. We should have brought on at half time (or even earlier - like at the start of the game) Mikel for Malouda (who as usual was totally useless), and Kalou for SWP (who as usual was totally useless), restoring a 4-3-3 in which everyone feels at home. AG has had about 6 big games since he took over, and now he has lost 4 of them (Valencia away was the only success). This is not a good track record. Maybe JT will brain the useless man. It looked like it was on the cards at full time. This was a much worse loss than the Carling. Much. I’m totally devastated which is not what I expected for a birthday present. Ruined my day, ruined my season.
The longer this goes on, the more our managerial saga reminds me of the sacking of del Bosque from Real. The same things are happening- the calls for style, the inclusion of flashy but inneffective players. Admittedly, losing Makelele didn’t help them at all.
Still, I hope the utter embarrassment of this game leads to the appointment of a real manager who knows how to win big games.
Great article JD, think you worded what must be in everyone’s minds perfectly
Agree with Groy, i don’t care either if Chelsea don’t play attractivee football. Although it may be exciting to watch, it doesn’t win trophies, speaking of which, our trophy cabinet is starting to look a bit sick this season.
Hard to believe watching them earlier that we’re the same team that everyone used to be scared of playing against. We seem to have gone to the dogs!!
It was bad enough losing to Spurs in the C.C but to be outclassed AND outplayed by a team that are some 30+ places below you is a tad painful and yes, very embarassing. I just feel sorry for any of our fans that paid to go and watch such a dismal performance.
Was deeply unimpressed with all the boys today, except Joe and J.T, Anelka had me literally screaming at the tv! Essien and Ballack weren’t much better. In fact, i’d be hard pressed to say who i thought was the worst of a very bad bunch.
How i missed Didier, Maka and SuperFrank today..am i naive in saying i don’t think we’d of lost if they’d of been there?
We have no chance of winning the CL when we can’t even win Barnsley!
As for the Prem? Starting to doubt that one too at the moment. Much as i hate to say it, i think it belongs to Arsenal this season.
Credit to Barnsley for a great team performance.
Just hope they go on to lift the Cup.
It’ll make this bitter pill a lot easier to swallow…
It was a great game to watch.
Cant blame the team because the opponents (and their fans) were far better than us.
Oh by the way, Why isn’t anyone pointing out that the goal was a foul on the keeper??? (The same kind of thing happened to Anelka and foul was given!) I’m not saying this is an excuse but we have to mention it.
At least in my eyes, it was a foul!
I believe Grant did this with intent. Sometimes during the first half it looked like he had told the players not to try and score goals. Soon he will have gotten us out of contention for the PL aswell, and then he will go on and surprise us all by winning the Champions League! That’s probably Romans secret plan..?
Anyway, I thought it was mighty more fun winning the Premiership and a cup now and then with Mourinho, than winning anything with that sad lookin guy from Israel…
Cheers
“This is the most expensive side in the Premiership. If you don’t know if the manager is competent- then there is no doubt, he is not competent”
Well said. Groy.
apparently malouda is not enough even to beat the crap out of championship side. No suprice though - we knew this all the time.. They’ve played so horrible i even found it hard to watch the game one more time and try to analize it..
Not even a 10% of bloody will and character amongst them tonight. and it’s not about grant misteakes (which is obvious) or how clueless malouda (swp/pizarro..) can be - it was all about lack of commitment. Horrible, two weeks and we’re out of two cups - wonder what Avram will say after another two? And for gods sake, he just can’t say that we have more important things two win this season. The last one, we fought for all 4, till very very late into the april and the fuss about it spread all over the world. Now it will be done again cause we lost to Barnsley. Credit to them but our staff and players looked in 90% like academy team. Oh, i’m sorry, teenagers from Chelsea actually have the bloody will to win every game. And their coach looks like know what he’s doing.
JD the good is that this team does not play for the “so called” manager
this cup was there to be taken, specially after the result at Manchester.
absolutely disgusted.
NO MORE COMMENTS.
THIS IS THE MOST EXPENSIVE SIDE IN THE PREMIERSHIP. IF YOU DON’T KNW IF THE MANAGER IS COMPETENT THN THERE IS NO DOUBT AT ALL, HE IS NOT COMPEENT”
Sorry, but that deserves capitalizing. F***ing perfect. These lines should win an award of some sort, w should frame those comment and hang it up somewhere for Eeverone to see…
How good was the Barnsley rearguard though?
We never troubled the keeper. Other than Anelka’s chance.
@Crjen Robben
Robben olympiakos, Schalke, the turkish champions would struggle to stay in EPL.
stop finding excuses to this “back stabbing”, pathetic, clouless so called manager, this guy could not run a bath least a football manager.
It is time that RA ask the fans for a manager, since he took the decision to replace a WINNER, with all the YES men accepting, after all they are ALL in the pay roll…………. geeeeeeeeeeeee b0i find it incredible.
This monkfish (AG) had the FA cup made for him, there are no decent teams in the finals.
How come a “peaceful man” after knowing the result in Old trafford, or whatever they call that s*hit road, can be knocked out?
Mr RA, do not get JM as I do not believe 2nd rounds work, but look at britain, spain, italy, france at top managers, do not play GAMES with the fans’ emtions.
BE a MAN Mr RA admit you made a HORRENDOUS, DESPICABLE MISTAKE, by blieving this CRAP AVRAM GRANT.
I know he is your friend, but FOR GOD SAKE havent you got a typing job in your office to give him, so he can get busy, get rid of this BACK STABBING unachievable, incapable, well there are no adkjectives to qualify this clown.
Unbelievable Barnsley kicked us out, LOL.
furious
Hey Ramos
here the Barnsley manager
Ramos what you can do good I can do better,
and i am on peanuts.
Kissy kissy
Do any of you still honestly believe that Chelsea can will the Champions League this year? The Premiership?
One can only hope for so much.
TWO trophies that were THERE for us to take, Can anybody imagine TSO losing a Carling Cup Final or a game to BARNSLEY??????? We are still in 2 competitions SO WHAT? We have no hope in hell of winning the league and I dont see us beating a in form Liverpoo or Barcelona! We are in crisis!
Well what more can i say,We can blame the manager,we can blame the owner,heck we can even blame the players if we really want to,but facts are facts and the fact is,Barnsley 1 defeated /Humiliated Chelsea 0.
Before i get shot down in flames can i just explain that in my humble upbringing and sporting life,i found at an early age that the results on feild in any sport are mostly up to the players. No one can tell me that the players,,this bunch of overpaid,underachieving, bigheads need a manager that can sooth there huge egos by talking them into playing a good game,in other words not 1 barnsley player would ever be concidered good enough to get a game at Chelsea,yet they managed to humiliate this side made up of the highest paid players in the history of football.
How can this be,and how can anyone but the players be blamed ,this side should have been able to defeat barnsley without a manager ,by blaming the manager we are giving these over paid egos an out clause,so lay of the manager,and look at where the game was lost,on the pitch ,good luck to barnsley ,i hope you go all the way,i wonder what they really now think of this chelsea team that they would have admired prior to this match???? Disgraceful is a word that keeps spinning around in my head
I am glad I did not text those Man-chest-hairy goons after their loss .. I am so fucking glad !! .. or else I’d be joining JD in the back of the ambulance with ‘that pie’ shoved up my intestines.
With only the League and CL left, I think the chances of the pie - arse scenario are still quite high.
The Liver-fools are going to have a smug smile on their faces / feaces .. they look like shit anyway .. ‘we told you Barnsley were good’ !!
@Johnny the Lad
The manager is the brain, right? He draws the tactics, the ideas, the innovations for the players to implement on the pitch. I don’t think Avram Ghoul is doing that !
Sure, the players should be blamed too, but we need a manager now !!
JD, thanks for speaking out everybody’s thought. Well written.
For the Grant thingy, not much to say, I only plead for something called “no more nonsense kind of rotation of your team”. He should be blessed with “that” kind of squad in his team for him to pick, but he failed to make the most out of it. Bloody hell, he thought he used the lads wisely, but the try-and-error test failed to shine out the way he wanted. Oh com’on, enough is enough. He should have learned that Barnsley is not an easy opponents, why dropped Lampard? I was totally shocked by that.
Seriously, I am not very pissed at the result as the game proceeded, I know it is the best chance for Roman and Co, to see for himself what his good old buddy could do, by not even retaining the possibility of booking a place to Wembley for the semi-final this year. Sack him or we are definitely going down, a trophyless season.
yay!
Dinesh
I reckon your right mate to some degree,Ghoul makes the move and draws the tactics,but m8,in my mind i think it is a cop out to lay the balme squarly at his feet,,mind you i also agree he shouldnt be managing the team , so im not for him,,i just dont want excuses that let the players of the hook,,Think about it m8 ,the cup was ours,they were complacent and they payed a huge price,who was going to stop them had they won? So we have just basicly given a cup away.I am so dissapointed in them, for years we had nought,suffered big time for all those years and it just pains me to see them getting a chance to make up lost ground and they get so complacent and lose to ,,lets face it,a shit team,,no offence intended but as in big league teams they are not in the league,so our chaps think they have done enough lately,,good things dont last forever and one day it will all change as it always does,,so grab every chance while you can.
Do you think if chelsea hadnt of had a cup of any description in the cupboard and were so close to grabbing a FA cup for the first time,they wouldve let it slip?i dont reckon,and as they beat liv/pool just last round,then the taking it easy factor shouldnt have come into it,,,i think the players are big enough to question the managers views if they thought it was a poxy plan,so i just want blood,so out with manager if we must ,but the players are not to be let of and given an easy way out,,,im screaming inside so much,the kids and i just hate seeing oportunities like this wasted and it was wasted m8,,,how could they sink that low to lose to a bottom team from championship???unbeleavable,,our reserves shoulda been given the oportunity if the big boys heads werent on right,and yes the manager shoulve been alert to this,,,ahhhhhhh just bring on next year,,,and hurry,,,sorry next season,,,ahhhhhh,,oh and go barnsley now,at least ill get some satisfaction,,,god what a wasted chance m8
Good blog JD, your words that captured my main thought…
“I’m not so much angry at the result, more at the way the legacy of a team that not so long ago terrorised Europe’s finest is being squandered for the sake of the owner’s vanity and pride.”
There’s a scene in the LOTR Two Towers, where King Theodin has suddenly become aware of the gravity of the situation, as a million orcs are at the gates of Helm’s Deep, and as he stares into the abyss, he says “How did it come to this?”. The difference is King Roman is only under the spell of his own ego.
Joe Cole looked like the only player that actually wanted to win this match, and whether or not Carlo was fouled, he is a good stopper, but has always been a flapper at crosses, so I half expected Barnsley to score like that. In the good old days, going a goal down never really fazed me, knowing there would be a response, but those days are well and truly gone.
I started to have a bit of faith in the management when a few wins were strung together, but I couldn’t help noticing the look on Steve Clarke’s face as he sat there in the first half… How did it come to this?.. He looked resigned to some sort of scenario that was unthinkable in previous years.
Credit to Barnsley and I hope they get a day in the sun at Wembley as a reward for their giant-killing run. JM doesn’t need to come back to kill us, Barnsley can handle it.
I would have been a willing consumer of humble pie like a few on here, but after seeing the two trophies that JM guided us to last year handed back already, I think the humble pie lorry driver will be looking for alternative employment come the end of May. I just hope to God that AG is too. FFS Roman what are you doing?
Johnny the Lad, why do you think every manager always praises the boys when they win, but takes blame themselves when they lose? That is what you do as a leader. You are responsible for the men and the results.
Look at the other side of the coin. Do you really think all the boys at Barnsley woke up one day and decided, “Hey, why don’t we beat Liverpool and Chelsea this month!” To get that kind of result it takes unity and commitment. How often do you see Premiership sides closing down shots like Barnsley did? Do you think someone might have led and inspired them?
I remember a time when Chelsea could not be defeated, when leads were never safe, when a point at the Bridge was an amazing result. The players were inspired and committed. Then a certain manager left and now play is uneven. Just look at the difference between the two legs of Olympiakos.
Johnny, everything you want to scream at the team- who is the man who should be saying those things? Who is responsible for esprit de corps?
Groy, i see your Point ,but i should have said,even if the greatest of managers were put in charge of a team,any team,i would reckon his style of play would take a while to get through,maybe he has a style that they have not or cannot adapt to,but surely all the blame cannot fall at one mans feet,not when the gap between the 2 teams is so immense .
I know managers,(well good managers) take the fall when teams fail to do what he wants them to do or fail to play to the team plan he desires them to play.
However i cant believe that the gap between the 2 teams was closed so much by 1 managers thinking,maybe i would say yes if the 2 teams were of same quality,or even in the same level (premiership) but were talking a gap that is so big between the 2 clubs that you could drive a truck through ,it has to be more than just the manager.
Just for the record,,or for my anger at the players just now, can i just clarify what i think your trying to say,,,,are you saying that because of the manager Chelsea lost the game? That the manager is so poor and his strategy is so poor and lacking purpose that they lost?
This isn’t a local team that has a team chucked together,and a manager that the guys have to have because no one else wants the job,,,were talking a professional club,professional players,,professional assistants and the best of the best in facility’s doctors,team plans etc.
I am afraid “in my view” we have a team that got ahead of itself,thought they just had to show up on the day and march through to the next round, and they got found out,before they could rectify it,the barnsley boys had there tails up rode the momentum to win,,,
Do you think if the 2 teams were to play again tommorow that barnsley would win again? I reckon NO WAY,not the next 20 times they played would they win,why? because the Chelsea team has the better players and they would not be caught napping as they were,taking them lightly if you like, . As i see it the facts are still the same,the manager cant score or save goals from the sidelines,,that is up to the professionals that are paid huge sums of money to wipe the floor with sides they should wipe the floor with.
Thats my view anyways,maybe next week i will have unwound a bit but just now i am so hurt that the players picked to represent my club went out with an attitude that allowed them to be the laughing stock of world football this weekend,and unless it hurts us all to an extent that we demand that players who represent this great club put 100% effort into there play,then were gonna fall at the same hurdle time and time again,Change the maNAGER by all means if you think that will solve the problem,but dont let the players of so lightly by saying the manager is to blame.
We had 1 player that played to his potential,j cole and that is all,the rest follow suit,were not even debating the result as we wouldve done what we were supposed to have done…cheers
Losses in CC final, and FA cup cost a lot of $, and have impact on Chelsea’s revenue. Grant can have any valid excuse, however, the book does not tolerate such blunders, and numbers will ultimately bring harsh judgment. AG should be replaced before further damage is done beyond repair. It takes years to bring a team to a winning momentum. See Liverpool, Spurs and the like, it is very difficult to get back and retain status once that winning mentality has been let to slip away. Chelsea must act now; changing team is not the answer. Building a winning team is a continuous process, and one should not allow any disruption in that process. History has shown, every time Chelsea had a winning team like in 50s, and early 70s, and early 2000s, once the momentum disrupted, the results ended in humiliation.
All this is currently proving to football fans that money doesn’t guarantee you success, which most Chelsea fans knew anyway.
The remarks of “you bought your trophies” and “my grandma could manage Chelsea and win things” don’t appear to be that accurate at the moment.
Lets hope RA (as JD said) will sit down Monday morning, and realise it takes someone with that little bit extra to manage and succeed with this team at this level.
What most of us want is our Chelsea back, that team who were for the last three seasons, feared and respected for their efficient winning football!
just hire the barnsley manager he can do better than grant with little money
Spot on JD,
Having got up ar 3.00 am to watch the games and seeing Man Ure out I thought this was going to be a good night. However when I saw the team old Boris had on the park I thought here we go again, as far as I concerned we played the first half with 10 men Malouda is just a waste of space, and how can you have Pizzaro on the bench. If you’re going to rest players at least keep your options open and have a decent bench.
As I said earlier whist ever this clown is manager no trophies for the blus
A midweeek game against Derby. They better win it big to appease the fans.
I’m sorry guys to say this but I can’t see RA sack AG that easily, a man with his pride won’t admit a mistake, at least not right after he gives him a 4 year-cntract.
I’m afraid AV will stay for another season, and soon Buck will talk about how happy the board is with Avram for this “transitional season” and that next season they expect him to get “some” trophies.
Am I being too gloomy?
The only fear I have, and that’s if you can call it a fear, is that we will do what Liverpool did and fluke the Champions League. All that’s going to do is paper over the gaping cracks we currently have, I suppose similar to what Liverpool have now with Rafa, as it seems to be buying him more time. That’s not to say he’s worse than AG heaven forbid, he’s much better than AG, but perhaps not quite good enough to win the league.
If in all likelihood we win nothing this season and finish third, or even fourth as Liverpool are only two points behind us, and I know we have two games in hand but we still need to win to get the points. What message does it send to RA about how we’ve progressed (regressed is more appropriate) under AG?
JM going is looking the most foolish decision in the history of our club, whether you love him or despise him, there was, and is no doubt to the majority of football fans he’s one of the best managers around, not exactly rocket science is it Mr Abramovich!
Spot on Clive, the Liverpool situation, this is what I see us going through, unless RA is ready to admit his mistakes.
But then again, what message will sacking AG send to other managers? A nagging club that has no loyalty wants a win-it-all-or-get-sacked manager?
who will risk coming to the Bridge? maybe only those who look for big time money.
Is there any light at the end of the tunnel? or am I being naggy myself?
When will they realise Essien is never a holding midfielder? He’s been poor this season, but the only way he should be playing is if Ballack or Lampard are not.
Also, hats off to the Barnsley boys, they were brilliant. And Joe Cole, who didn’t deserve to lose
Grant cannot motivate the players, thats obvious. His low prestige, and the fact that he cannot assert himself, is damaging the team. We all know, that in football, you need trophies in order to gain prestige and fame.
I admit that sacking him at the moment is unwise, but Chelsea fans, bear in mind that this season is may end TROPHYLESS.
GRANT and TEN KATE, should also know that playing ATTRACTIVE football is not the only quality, a manager should have, but he should have the ability to read the game, make the right decisions, and be able to manage human resources succesfully.
We, definitely miss JOSE’s managerial qualities.
Last nights humiliation left me in much the same frame of mind as I was for a weekend after we contrived to lose to West ham at home some years back, a defeat that cost us our chance of the title that year. This morning I feel no better but I think for all the contributors on this blog its time to move the debate on from whether Grant should go to whom we feel should replace him.
What we have is a high performance F1 car in the garage that in the right hands will win most races the problem is the man in the cockpit is used to driving round in a vauxhall astra. So who is our next Michael Scuhmacher. Its clear now that we should have been looking at Ramos a while back if sacking Mourihno was as inevitable as it now seems. I’m not in favour of O’Neil because I don’t believe he is a tactition - more of a motivator - we don’t lack confidence or motivation (I exclude Malouda and, on current form, Essien from that statement)- we lack direction. Is Rijkard the answer? I would need to be convinced that he has the ability to change the course of a game from the bench. Big Phil Scalachi would seem a very plausible candidate but outwitting Erikson is maybe not a complete enough endorsement of someones managerial credentials….Erikson - there is a thought - probably a workable solution for the club and has a CV that suggests he can deliver championshps in the top leagues in the world.
Saying all this the outstanding candidate is, obviously that Portuguese fella, whatsisname ….Mourihno - and I hear he is available….. never say never in football.
And well done to Barnsley - enjoy the win because you deserved it!
Think JOHNNY THE LAD hit the nail on the head when he said “they thought they just had to show up in the day and march through to the next round”
Chelsea are a squad of big name players with a record that’s enviable. Maybe they thought, albeit arrogantly, (as i did) that “it’s only Barnsley, we’ll fly this.” Letting their reputation precede them as such..
Just goes to show that over-confidence is more often than not a weakness.
You only have to watch England play to see that!!
Bet Mourinho’s laughing his bollocks off!
I’d direct you all to Harry’s comment further up the page (7.12am) - well worth reading and right on the money.
Bet Mourinho’s laughing his bollocks off!
At least that’s something else we can attribute to his abilities, because AG doesn’t appear to have said anatomical parts to laugh off!
Well done Barnsley, and well done Roman!
On the plus side, at least we didn’t lost to United or Spurs, and at least none of the other ‘big’ clubs can win it. The semis should be fun, although a Portsmouth-Middlesbrough final doesn’t fill me with enthusiasm.
If Grant is still in charge in August, we’re in big trouble.
His inability to remove the hopeless Essien or Malouda at half time and get some support for Anelka was unforgiveable. The man is out of his depth. He has to go.
There is no way we will fluke the CL, simply because Benitez is ten times the manager Grant is. Yes, he’s that bad. Go!
On a positive note, Grant has convincingly proven that money does not equal success and has given us a flux of empirical evidence to refer to, should there ever be any doubt about it… Now he needs to go though.
and well done Roman!
Yes that alone says enough, he gave every opposition team, manager and fans reason to celebrate back in September!
comrades, i am sorry to say this but this team is not in contention for any award this year..none, zero. and we would be lucky if we were in the running for anything next season, with this type of bench.
“THIS IS THE MOST EXPENSIVE SIDE IN THE PREMIERSHIP. IF YOU DON’T KNW IF THE MANAGER IS COMPETENT THN THERE IS NO DOUBT AT ALL, HE IS NOT COMPEENT” well put, nothing more to say. and nothing more can be said.
I have to say, even Ranieri wasn’t this bad. I actually feel nothing at the moment. I couldn’t care less because I’ve already accepted the fact we’re not going to win anything this season, but still, BARNSLEY!? Surely you’re having a laugh. Just when you think Cech was bad, Cudicini proves he’s worse. I mean, what happenned to our goalies? We had the best first choice goalie in Europe and the best second choice goalie in the world. Now? Well, I dont know what we have now.
At least one good thing will come of this, Grant will be going. Hopefully. I mean, Roman has to sack him! We’ve already been kicked out of both trophies we won last year. The Premier League is over. And does any of us think we’re going to win the Champions League? I dont think so. I live in hope, not expectation.
And yes, I agree with all of you. We’ve become a laughing stock. Everything we’ve built in the past three years have gone. Sad, but really, I dont know why, I DONT CARE! I just can’t wait for the end of this season.
And Bravo to the person who wrote this comment:
“I’m not so much angry at the result, more at the way the legacy of a team that not so long ago terrorised Europe’s finest is being squandered for the sake of the owner’s vanity and pride.â€
I could not agree more.
Great report as always. I’d only suggest that in the list of “The Good” we should add — The FA Cup. Ok, it’s humiliating for us, but from the point of view of lovers of football, how cool is this? Seeing all those people tearing onto the pitch at the end of the game reminded me of the feeling when we won the Cup in ‘97 — not that that was any sort of upset, but there was a still a magic about it that not many other competitions have.
Grant will not be fired at this stage of the season, so there’s no point clamouring for that. To be honest, I don’t think one can really blame the manager for a defeat like that: the team he picked should have been perfectly capable of doing the job very comfortably. But it does add to the overall feeling that he simply hasn’t earned the respect of the players (which was always the worry when he took over from a charismatic and brilliant manager whose players — well, most of them — would have walked through fire if he told them to).
He’s not the long-term solution for Chelsea — that would have been true even if we’d won that game, and it’ll be true even if we do somehow fluke the Champions League. The fact that we lost one game we should have won doesn’t make him a bad manager, any more than the 6-0 thrashing of City made him a genius. What matters is that he’ll have no trophies to show at the end of the season, which will make it much easier to get rid of him. That’s all that matters.
All I care about now is that we get knocked out of the CL by Barca or Roma, and not by You Know Who.
The FA Cup suprises continue; Cardiff are leading ‘Boro 1-0, controversial but nice goal nonetheless.
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink almost got a diving header but it went just wide.
I’ve always had a soft spot for Jimmy, him and Eidur were great. Miss them both.
Friggin’ hell! 2-0!
What a weekend!!!!!
I, like all of the TRUE BLUE was gutted by yesterday’s result. It just makes no sense that a team with the roster of Chelsea is not dominating the Premiership, Champion’s league, and all domestic cups. I am sure Mr. Grant is a nice man (so is my uncle BUT he can’t manage a good crap let alone a Premiership side). Mr. Ambramovich has let his billionaire pride cost us our manager (Jose, I miss you!), and now 2 trophies. If RA could just see to find an administrative job for AG, something with a nice office, with a nice view of the area, maybe a nice discount in the Chelsea Mega Store, then we got get a FOOTBALL manager and get back to winning! Although I am an American, I have been a Chelsea fan since the 1970’s. I love the Blues and do not want the confused, lost, half-witted, muppet, mentality of AG to bring us down any further.
Come on the Chels!
A load of toss.
Really unimpressed with Chelsea yesterday. With ManUre getting sent out, this could have been our year ago, but no, we couldn’t even see off Barnsley.
Barnsley thoroughly earnt their win.
Grant out.
Seeing that JC, Ballack et al played and we still lost…the grounds for argument have completely left the altar of team selection and now resides in the domain of AG motivational skills…
When we beat the hammers and olympiacos, some said it had nothin to do with AG’s managerial input…that the lads motivated themselves to win…
Funny the same lads could not motivate themselves to win against lowly barnsley…some of you guys here should be bold enough to maintain a line of thought/argument and stop ’swaying with the direction of the wind’
> Johnny The Lad
Thanks for your perspective to this whole conversation…Some fail to look beyond AG’s feet whenever the team falters, and it shouldnt be so…more worrying is when this same lot refuses to give him any credit whenever the team wins…it sucks!
Odebiyi played like DD and i’m surprised that JT and Riccy got bullied by him throughout the entire match when they should have been used to the ‘bully’ approach by now, having been training with Drogba all these years…The fact that it was obvious that Odebiyi was having his way with them encouraged barnsley a lot and they kept floating the balls to him…wonder if Alex would not have done better containing Odebiyi, given his size and strength…but then, he’s not as good as JT as some here would have us believe…rubbish!
Sad to lose out this way…really sad
Always Blue!
I think the fact that West Ham having lost their third game by 4-0 this week says it all about how shit they are, and probably Barnsley could beat them by the same scoreline. Olympiakos didn’t even turn up which made our job that much easier, so perhaps the last two emphatic victories are more to do with the fact that they made us look even better than we actually are. And after witnessing yesterdays performance and the three previous before those two victories just shows perhaps we are declining a bit quicker than people think.
We used to be feared, and used to be consistently very good, how times have changed!
At least Arsenal slipped up? Haha. If we win our two games in hand, against Derby at home and Tottenham away from home, we’ll be one point behind them! Wuhoo!! But of course, I’m being over-optimistic here. After yesterday, you never know what’s gonna happen. Even against Derby County.
But I think we’ll win….hopefully
Oh yeah, and I’m really hoping Inter knock out Liverpool!! It’s very unlikely, but I really think it could happen. Interesting fact I found on UEFA’s webbie.
The only time Liverpool FC have relinquished a two goal lead in European club competition was in the 1964/65 European Champion Clubs’ Cup semi-final against FC Internazionale Milano. Liverpol won 3-1 at Anfield but were hammered 3-0 at the San Siro. FORZA NERRAZZURI!! Source - [http://www.uefa.com/competitions/ucl/news/kind=1/newsid=660945.html]
Plenty of reasons for us to find comfort in this week….Well, again, hopefully…
@Harry
I think Derby will come to the Bridge with lots of confidence, they know they’re relegated and having nothing to lose. Would it surprise any of us if they get a huge scalp in beating us, and being the first team in 70 odd games to stop our run.
If we have any title aspirations this is a huge game, but then again if the teams above us are going to bottle it on the run in, then I’m sure we’ll all be happy.
But it doesn’t change the fundamental feeling, that whatever happens now, AG isn’t the man for the long term.
We used to be feared, and used to be consistently very good, how times have changed!
You said it Clive!!
Why has it happened though? The team is no different..so rumours of conflicts, unsettled/unhappy players must be true when you take a step back and look at the situation.
It’s so easy to say “they’re paid good money, they need to stop moaning and knuckle down.” I used to be in a well paid job (not £130k a week i must add) that i hated but turned up every day for 13 years, fell out with my boss almost daily, until one day i decided that enough was enough and got out.
Same thing seems to be happening there. Hence rumours of mass exodus of players in the summer..could be?…time will tell…
Suppose what i’m trying to say is that if you’re not happy in your job, it has an effect on you personally and you don’t perform to the best of your ability.
Some people have been quick to compare A.g’s results to T.S.O’s.
We have the same team now who turn up for games every week (barring Anelka) as when T.S.O was with us but when you look at how the team perform as a unit under A.G and how they played under Jose, the comparisons could’t be more obvious.
Think respect comes into it.
W.B.A showed us this evening on how to put on a no nonsense professional performance against a team from a lower division. Perhaps the previous results from the weekend focused their minds, but still they went out and did the job, credit to them as well.
My Barnsley adventure
After the Carling Cup debacle I decided I wouldn’t travel to Barnsley but, after seeing us thrash the Hammers 4-0, my emotions got the better of me so straight after the game I booked on-line. I intended to drive but at 4:30pm Friday I thought I’d take advantage of the free train. Even though the Thomas Cook website stated departure and arrival times were 00:00 I felt confident that the email confirmation would provide an accurate itinerary. Unfortunately not! The email arrived just after 5pm and when I called Thomas Cook I discovered they would be closed until Monday morning. Saturday arrived and I called National Rail who were unable to track down the train so I waited to call Chelsea customer services, after their opening time of 10am, and they didn’t have a clue about the departure time either. Before getting the car keys I thought I’d try National Rail one last time and surprisingly I got put through to a competent telephone operator that advised me that our train left at 11:30. The time now was 10:25. We raced down to the station and got the Metropolitan line to Kings X to arrive at 11:35. We’d missed our train. I berated the Thomas Cook representative about the inadequacies of their website. He looked us up on the list and said “Don’t worry mate, you weren’t on the 11:30 but the 11:50!†I could tell this was going to be a lucky day.
The train departed on time. The carriages were built around the year Avram was born. They’re probably both due for the crusher. Three and half hours later, having parked in several sidings whilst pucker scheduled services sped past, we arrived in Doncaster, fifteen miles from Barnsley.
We were on a convoy of five coaches with a police escort. I wasn’t expecting this. Five police bikes provided the escort, one bike always in front of the coaches regulating our speed with the other four racing back and forth blocking all junctions and roundabouts ahead of us, including traffic lights, so we had a non-stop run. The marvellous police bikers displayed the only teamwork, interplay and passing that I’d witness that afternoon.
At the start of the game there was one minutes silence for Derek Dooley. I thought this was a bit odd considering he played for both Sheffields and had nothing to do with Barnsley. I can’t see us doing the same for the death of any of our local adversaries. Anyhow the Chelsea fans observed the silence impeccably, far better than the loutish locals. Looking around I was impressed with the Chelsea contingent. I was expecting to see lots of spaces considering we were still selling tickets on the Friday.
The game followed. This has been more than adequately covered in this blog.
Returning home we again received a police escort. This time was different with the streets lined with Barnsley residents making odd hand gestures at us. Had the driver slipped T-Rex into the CD drive it would have made a perfect re-enactment of the scab miners’ scene from Billy Elliot.
So finally a further two and a half hours on the train. The teenage fans further down the carriage soon got over the agony of our defeat and decided to serenade us with chants of “We hate Tottenham†together with a wide ranging repertoire of anti Yido songs.
11:15 arrived at Kings X. Nearly home.
It’s all been very doom and gloom on this blog so let’s do a Kevin Keegan and look on the brighter side of life.
Avoiding the semi-final and final will save me at least 300 quid
By the luck of geography I wasn’t born in Barnsley, where fine dining is a choice between Greggs the bakers and Subway. Barnsley is a hole.
If we continue to drop out of competitions at the current rate we’ll be able to fully focus on our summer tour of Asia.
Out of the big three and a half we stayed in the Carling Cup and FA Cup the longest.
According to the Chelsea website Barnsley tickets are still available for sale. Anyone fancy a day out?
Mark, you are hilarious!!
You should try your hand at stand up comedy…
fine dining is a choice between Greggs the bakers and Subway..
Ha! Ha!…You’re mad you are!!!!!!
Glad you had a *ahem* fun day out, police escorts as well? Wow! Classy….
@ Roman
Well you win. We all understood now your point, that money doesn’t buy trophies. Although I never shared that opinion, I apologise for all fans and press members that insinuated that. There was no need to hire AG (better known has “the pretenderâ€) to prove your point.
Now seriously, of course AG is to blame for the underperformance of the players. TSO managed to form a family that hold together with harmony and were impenetrable. AG on the other hand is playing mind games with senior players and breaking their team spirit. What a looser….
Just want to remind what some one wrote here, some months ago, “we only realise what JM did for the club, after he is goneâ€. How true.
PS: grate article JD
OUR KEEPERS:
This could be completely wrong but I remember reading somewhere about the ‘nightmare’ Cech was having at his former club Rennes before we signed him.
With JM leaving and his backroom staff following him out (including Baltimore Brito - the gk coach), we have ended up reuniting Cech with his old gk coach buddy from Rennes. (?)
Could THAT explain the form of our keepers or am I (and I suspect I may very well be) talking utter bollocks?
Funnily enough after the loss I didn’t recognize what what emotion I was feeling. I laughed, acted as though it was ok, with an undercurrent of fury bubbling inside.
But it wasn’t as hard to take as I would have ecpected…
Was it the Barsley fans rushing onto te pitch (the kind of jubilant celebrations you can only jealously admire)?
Was it the CC final failure that had prepared me for it?
Was it the hope that after this Roman would be forced to think again about the sloth/monkfish/toadmonk?
Was it (unfortunately, and with some shame) a sense of angry satisfaction to see my convitions about AG’s inadequacies being proven?
I dunno what to m ake of it really, a very strange feeling indeed…
I want to make peace with ‘legacy of Jose’, says Grant
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.....498289.ece
http://football.guardian.co.uk.....amp;feed=5
How I miss our Special one irritating the “voyeur”…was never monotonous with him and we were wining too.
We have our old Chelsea back. Remember the last time we played Barnsley in the cup (0-4) and days out at Rotherham (0-6). That is some achievement AG. But hang on, its not just AG, the players must also take their share of the blame. If they can’t motivate themselves to beat a lower league team knowing that if they do they have a very good chance of putting right what happened in the CCF, then what hope is there ?!
AG should go - resign preferably, but the time has come also for some hefty changes in the playing staff. Too many now seem to be there just for the money. This was not the case with the Premiership winning sides. You could see clearly that they were always desperate to win. This ‘team’ has lost that mentality.
But we will have to be patient and wait for the end of the season before anything is done because we would just get ourselves in a bigger mess if we sack the manager now (look at Newcastle).
In the meantime, come on lads you owe to yourselves and the fans. Three points on Wednesday would be a good start (whoever plays!).
Up the Chelc.
I’ve watched the highlights again and it’s hard to blame most of the players. Malouda, Essien and SWP were very poor, but on recent form who would be surprised about Malouda and Essien. With Malouda we’d be better replacing him with a sho window mannequin and as for Essien….well it’s like Invasion of The Bodysnatchers…..somewhere in SW6 there’s a room with a withered husk of the real Michael Essien locked away. SWP seems to blow hot and cold at the moment and arguably missed the best chance yesterday. If I was rating the players then only these 3 would get below the default 6.
The bigger issue is the fact that the players failed as a team unit. They looked like 11 individuals and the lack of chemistry between them was obvious. Ballack looked less effective without Lamps, Anelka drifted to the wings and has yet to build the understanding with the excellent Joe Cole. I think the spirit is so low Anelka might be falling down the morale-vacuum already. How dispriting for a player to come in, do well and then be made second favourite to a great but increasingly disheartened and demotivated returnee. This was his first start in 5 games apparently. And Avram Grant calls that good man management. The likes of Villa and Kaka would look at that and think what? Chelsea is the place for me? If Sheva is fit..why not put him on the bench rather than that no-mark Pizzaro? Just how shit must all the other options be to put Pizzaro on the bench? Remember kezman…..he looked like fucking pele compared to Pizzaro. Bridge played well but was severely at fault for tracking the overlapping man instead of the man with the ball for the cross leading to the goal. Cudicini’s mistakes are rare but all that really happened was he was outjumped for the goal. There is no way that can be claimed as a foul. Riccy was immense despite getting hard time from Odejayi. JT defended well but finished like a …..well defender. Joe Cole ws our best and looked really upset…just like a fan should…when the game was over. So, yes, the players do shoulder SOME of the blame, but ultimately the leadership and inspiration comes from the coaching team. Look at Steve Clarke, the body langauge says it all….he doesn’t want to be there. Ten Cate is an enigma because as yet I have failed to see what improvements he has bought to the style of play. Avram Garnt seems a nice chap, but I don’t want a nice chap. No-one ever accused Fergie of being ‘nice’ - look at his bad loser mentality encapsulated perfectly in his post match comments yesterday…remind you of anyone? Look at Wenger’s vile post match (since retracted…but let’s face it that’s like a judge telling a jury to ignore the previous comment…once it’s said..it’s said) comments about Martin Taylor and his obvious irritation at Mourinho’s comments this week. That’s what I want…someone to get up the noses of Fergie. Wenger, Tubby Benitez, the FA, the press and the TV pundits. I had become a little irked by JM’s constant press baiting comments..but you know what…I realise what it did for the club, the team, the fans…it galvanised us..it built the fortress mentality…no-one liked us and we didn’t care…..except stupidly some of us did care and now that the universal loathing of us is subsiding, so is the defiant puffed out chest obstinacy and refusal to accept defeat mentality of the players which in turn is feeding us fans with indignation, fear and doubt, which feeds the other clubs with hope and spirit. The only people immune to this are locked away in an Ivory Tower somewhere in SW6, as someone said engaging in a little mutual back slapping and corporate cock-sucking. RA seems too trusting in the likes of Grant and the free loading Arnesen. His behaviour is a complete mystery to me. How can you be so rich and then apparently get something like this so very wrong?
Kenyon (a self confessed Manure fan) is now living up to true Agent Kenyon title. I reckon he’s getting the best Israeli blow jobs around at the moment and who would be surprised to see the Yankee Dollar tempt him back to Old Trafford, with the foundations of the Blue Empire truly crumbling away. Job done, Kenyon, job done. Buck and Tenenbaum continue to happily line their pockets with Roman’s riches and Slimeball Greenberg runs press campaigns involving Grant and the players to tell us everything is OK, and that we, the fans are all footballing fuckwits, who can’t see the big picture, or put the helicopter pilot outfit on and rise above the now to see the future. Well, after following the game for 38 years, 36 of which have seen my heart signed over to Chelsea my message to them is this…
Don’t fucking patronize me you freeloading tossers (I’ve deleted the original word, beginning with c and rhyming with hunts as I don’t want to offend our growing contingent of gorgeous girls)
Finally, news today was that the players were ‘holding a meeting to discuss the failure’ yesterday. Now let me see…is that 3…4…5 player meetings since Jose left. Did they ever even have 1 when JM was around? If things were so right…then surely the need for such player meetings would be negated? Isn’t this the equivalent of the pupils marking their own homework? Have the lunatics really taken over the asylum?
Even if as the board appears to think, Me and the many other fans are such fuckwits, then why have we all reached a similar conclusion? Are we all wrong, but 5 or 6 people are right? If we were all shareholders in a PLC…do you think they’d get away with this? I think an example is Sheffield United, where it was pretty obvious that fan power played a major part in Bryan Robsons depaerture…not completely…but certainly a major factor. One wonders what lengths we’d have to go to in order to instigate a managerial change. Are we really into the realms of Megastore boycotts? Silent protests. Anti-Avram chants? What would it take?
It’s time for change, if not now then after our last game in May. You might just be able to pick up the slightest hint that I’m annoyed and just a little frustrated!
*walks away to polish suit of armour needed for work tomorrow*
Grant has no clue, he plays Anelka who has scored twice in his last 10 games over our most in form striker Salomon Kalou!
With four up front and apparent instructions to move around freely, it seems unfair to knock Anelka who spent as much time on the wings as he did in the centre. He’s a target, not a supplier, as even Bolton realised. We should have played an additional player in mid-field and two wide up front. Maybe Malouda was meant to be wide, but there long periods when I forgot he was on the field, and when I remembered, it was generally with a wince.
If the players have yet another meeting, I hope they decide to mutiny, maybe shoot an admiral or two (pour encourager les autres), but I doubt they will. It’s not as if anyone who has followed Chelsea for a load of years is unused to this kind of abject performance, but coming after three pretty good seasons, it kind of sucks.
Is there an email address at Chelsea FC I can send rude suggestions on how to improve their situation?
Johan Cruijff? Frank Rijkaard? Carlo Ancelotti? Guus Hiddink? Luiz Felipe Scolari?
Jose Mourinho: Madrid in one, Manchester in three, and Portugal in six.
Well done TG I think you summed up everyone’s feeling with your rant, mind you I don’t think the egostical bastards running the club will take any notice as they’re to full of themselves especially Kenyon. I was never happy when we got him, him and his cohorts have done more in the last seven months to stuff Chelsea and turn us back into the old music hall joke we used to be unjustly saddled with.
For an evidently smart and ruthless man, RA seems out of his depth with their agendas
I think our season is over, although I hope I’m wrong
I think the fact that we’re all being treated with utter contempt by the club Tony, is something that pisses me off the most. I think most of us have covered everything in our views and feelings over the last few months, in which direction the club is heading under AG’s leadership if that’s what you can call it.
I’d like to be able to write something poignant that could possibly make a difference in some way, but alas I’m just as bemused and bewildered as many of the Chelsea fans probably feel today.
Headline on the front cover of the Sports section of today’s Guardian: “Grant admits he must win trophy or face the axe”.
Thanks, Barnsley!
I;ll play the devils advocate here, what would be your choice? old Boris to win the EPL or Cl and we put up with more of the same crap plus lose the basis of a good team, or win nothing and get rid of old Boris and get a half way decent manager in his place.
At the moment I think I’ll settle for the latter
LAMIN
bloody hell
had people for dinner so i just managed to take two peeks: Anelka’s “foul” and the tykes’ goal, and had exactly the same feeling.
when there’s contact between attacker and keeper, the keeper is usually protected.
If Odelayi’s was a regular contact, then Anelka’s was twice as regular, since he didn’t even make contact and was there well before the keeper.
That said i’ll put the moaning aside, give all due credit to Barnsley and get set for a for a mind-blowing grand finale of the season. our destiny is now firmly in our hands
Screw the other two cups and get rid of this old bloke pls! I’d rather win no trophys than seeing this man for another season.
I see the spin doctors are at work on the CFC site, Anelka is saying the players have to take the responsibility for not playing well. Crap it’s lack of direction from old Boris and the rest of the crap shooters, the team on the park was a good team but not once did they play like a team and whilst ever he’s in charge I can’t see it changing
James
I’d go for the Real solution: win the league and then bugger off.
After all, the league is what really matters to me, not that extended version of UEFA Cup that everyone calls UEFA Champions League.
Just call it UEFA League, for goodness sake, “Champions” has really nothing to do with it.
Where to start.
Clive’s alluded to how poor Wet Spam were when we sent 4 past them. Olympiakos were by far the worst team in the Champions League knock out stages. Even going back to the start of AG’s reign and the win in Valencia has been put in perspective by them finishing bottom of the group, and in free-fall in La Liga. A good result yes, but not great in the grand scheme of things. So in my eyes, AG hasn’t actually orchestrated any great wins; victories we wouldn’t have expected.
On the flip side, he’s damn good in providing defeat on those occassions that would have been unthinkable under JM. Take nothing away from Barnsley on Saturday, every FA Cup cliche applies, but the most important one is they were the better side. We were, by and large, at full strength and were out-played by a lower division team. It doesn’t even make sense to me as I type this.
Quite simply, even before JM with Claudio or Vialli or Gullit we would have beaten Barnsley. It’s too easy to put it down as ‘one of them things’, but it’s not. There is a fundamental problem at the club, and RA needs to be man enough to hold up his hands and admit he’s put a clown in charge, and put it right.
The Carling Cup and FA Cup (especially after the Old Trafford result) were there for the taking; and the best bets of silverware this season, yet somehow we’ve transpired to throw those chances away. We won’t win the Champions League, and I just cant see us winning the league. A trophyless season for the team who is always the last one left in all 4 competitions is simply not good enough.
And yet, despite the defeat, oddly I dont feel anywhere near as bad as I would if Liverpool, ManUSA and Arsenal were left in. Sure I’d love to retain the FA Cup, but as long as one of those 3 don’t / can’t win it them I’m not fussed.
I’m sure AG will pick a team competent enough to beat Derby, and thus put a positive spin on things again. Oh joy.
Has he gone yet?
Well, the good news is that every other fan and the media can eat their words that anyone can manage Chelsea and win!!! How wrong they were, but then we knew that but now they cant throw that at us anymore whoever comes in next and wins us trophies…
So grant realises that he has to win something does he… well, that’s a change from the ’so long as we play beautifull football better than before, is more importnat than winning’ crap. Welcome to the real world of competition idiot.!! Hopefully you will stop believing the media hype about all this free flowing football that has emanated from Wenger as an excuse for the absence of a title win in the last four years, or any other win. Arsenal are not going to win the prem this year or next year with his style of play and I can see him resigning before his fans push him out to avoid the ambarrasment of having to eat his own words ‘winning is not everything’!. Then what will the media be saying about so called beautifull football? The reason I expanded on this is because I truly believe as I have said many times before, that Roman started to believe the hype about two untruths surrounding Jose. 1) is that money itself buys success and any manager could win silverware given enough of it and 2) playing passing so called beautifull football is better than winning football…….yeah right. w’ell see the Arse fans calling for Wengers head next year, wait and see. I just hope they get booted out of the CL next round just to throw it all back in the media and Roman’s face!!!!
Simple fact is, the Mancs battered Portsmouth and were pretty unluckly. Liverpool should have had 5 or 6 against Barnsley in the previous round; we didn’t force their keeper into a meaningful save. The changes were too little and came too late; Malouda, SWP, Essien and Anelka were hopeless and it must have been frustrating for the rest of the team to see a system failing so badly and for the manager to sit looking clueless in the dugout.
Jose doesn’t need to worry about ‘killing’ us; we’re doing a perfectly decent job of it ourselves.
Just emailed Thomas Cook Travel
“This morning I thought I’d be writing to complain about your booking process for Barnsley v Chelsea because the departure and arrival times on your website and email confirmation stated 00:00. I booked late on Friday and then discovered your offices were closed for the weekend so I was unable to find out what time to arrive at Kings Cross.
However instead of complaining can you pass on my thanks to the reps and stewards. I travelled on the Blue train and bus 1and your crew were organised, courteous, helpful and smartly turned out. Ignoring the 00:00 issue the overall event management was excellent. For the next Chelsea away day is there any possibility you could extend your management remit to include the team?”
For the next Chelsea away day is there any possibility you could extend your management remit to include the team?
On the other side of the coin, I can see Grant as a member of staff for the hapless Network Rail. I certainly wouldn’t get on a train that had anything to do with him though; the easy signal points would be a breeze, but the first sign of a tricky Clapham Junction type interchange and you’d be straight off the rails.
Next stop, oblivion - all aboard…
Arsenal fans will never call for Wenger’s head, unless they all suddenly went completely insane.
@Peter
Is that because they’re happy not having won anything for 4 years?
I haven’t posted here since the beginning of the season when Jose was still in charge, though I always read the excellent reports and comments by the best and most insightful contributors to the site. To be honest, I’m still getting my head around Avram Grant’s appointment – things have to be taken a little calmer when you’re older, and 44 years as a fan gives you a certain perspective on things. A further cause is I’m based up north now (at a University not far from Barnsley) and don’t get to see too many games in the flesh. But Tony’s extended blast from last night demands a reaction. The way I see it is that Chelsea fans, in general, are probably still in a state of suspended shock. Sure, there are a hard core of the old, true fans who regard the club as their own, let their opinions be heard at games and are not frightened to scare the horses…by which I mean the owners, and in particular Roman. But the majority of those who go to the Bridge, and who make up the wider pool of dedicated supporters in the country, prefer not to make a nuisance for fear he will walk away if the revolt is big enough. (I’m tempted also to think that real dissenters might be afraid to raise their voices too loudly in the light of what our owner’s mate and benefactor Putin does to his adversaries, but that is stretching it a bit.)
This is the wisdom of the crowd kicking in. Like me, they never expected to see two back-to-back titles, never expected the explosion of Cup wins, never expected the regular Champions league semi-finals that have come with Roman’s money, albeit that they came with his investment in Jose and good players. And, also, they probably agree, in principal at least, that with our resources, we ought to play with more style than we often did under Jose (though I was the first to defend his tactics and see nothing essentially wrong with controlled, thoughtful football), so probably, on balance, are willing to go along with changes Jose was not likely to achieve. So, what we have at the moment is an impasse. The fans are tolerating the current results – let’s face it, most of us wrote this season off in September – and waiting to see what Roman does next. Does he stick with a puppet he sees as an extension of his own power in the dressing room and on the training field? Or does he wake up and realise football is a more difficult, more creative, more unpredictable game than he realised? Which would mean him appointing another manager. Because what must now be clear to him is that it takes more than keeping players sweet with high salaries and simply picking a team from a big pool every week. There has to be an overall ethic that bonds the team, a clear set of playing principals and a collective focus – especially in English football, where the power of the collective spirit is probably more pronounced than in any other country.
I think he will re-assess in the summer, after he sees what the current set-up achieves from what is still a potentially successful base. I think what we are all seeing is that a group of very good players, picked in a basic formation can get to the advanced stages of the Champions League (albeit with the fortunate internal collapse of Valencia in the first round, and a lucky draw in the first knock out stage) and can maintain third spot in the Premiership against the expectations of many. Some of Jose’s remaining spirit among the players has ensured that, embodied in JT mostly, who keeps them motivated (what a manager he is going to make one day!). But can it be translated into winning the big trophies that Roman demands and the fans, all with raised expectations now, want to see? Well, we have another 10 weeks to find out. I’m expecting nothing, but hoping for everything. As for the fans in general, I think you’ll see the revolt Tony calls for emerge in the summer if we win nothing and the current set-up remains in place.
I think if there’s a revolt, it will be fans voting with their wallets. Our fanbase has always been quite passive, now more than ever. Old fans will just stop going because the club is taking the piss, and the tourists will go to the Emirates.
‘Is that because they’re happy not having won anything for 4 years?’
Arsenal fans totally in love with the fact they are the press’s darlings - a completely novel experience for them - and that they have a young, exciting team created on a relative shoestring. And the trophies will follow.
They know a good thing when they see one.
Morning Danny - nicely put, and good too see you back on here. Just hope you’ve found a little more fine cuisine up there than Mark described in his post…!
Gooners are probably more than happy at present; they are aware that even when times are tough, they have a manager that has been the distance and won trophies here before.
@ Joanathan and @ peter.
Wenger has won 3 prem titles (I dont care about cups)!in 11 years with all the clout, big name and history that Arsenal won before he came. Last year the media were all against us because ‘(it is better for football that Man-U win)…remember all these arguments? about stopping Chelsea dominating the league? Two wins in fifty years and they are all terrified of us dominating the league.! Mr Wenger has utterly and miserable failed in his bid to stop Man-U dominating English football in his country. In that time Man-U have won 9..yes 9 titles! If he is so good then how did he let this happen? Do you think if Jose had still been here this year or for another 5 he would have let Man-u win so much? Wenger inherited a side that had a lot more history, money and fan base than Jose inherited , not to mention fans in the press and media. Teams rebuild and Man-u were rebuilding a new side when Arsenal won the title in 03/04. what he he won since? Further, below is Jose’s CV…..by the age of 43!! Compare that to Wngers…
Titles as main coach
2002/03 – UEFA Cup (FC Porto); Portuguese Champion (FC Porto); Portuguese Cup (FC Porto)
2003 РC̢ndido de Oliveira Cup (FC Porto)
2003/04 – Champions league (FC Porto); Portuguese Champion (FC Porto)
2004/05 – English Champion (Chelsea); Carling Cup (Chelsea)
2005 – Community Shield (Chelsea)
2005/06 – English Champion (Chelsea)
2006/07 – Carling Cup (Chelsea)
2006/07 – FA Cup (Chelsea)
Personal Titles
2003 – Best coach in Europe (voted by fans on the UEFA site)
2004 – Best coach in the world (IFFHS election); Best coach in Europe (voted by fans on the UEFA site)
2005 – Best coach in the world (IFFHS election); Best coach in Europe (voted by fans on the UEFA site)
2005 – Order of Infante D. Henrique Honour (distinction attributed on 10 June by the President of Portugal, Jorge Sampaio
2006 – Best Coach of Premier League
Compare this to Wenger, who is how old? When the facts are told, Wenger will be found out in terms of consistency in winning the premiership over the next two years, and they used to call him the professor??, but as DANNY above pointed out, ‘controlled, thoughtful football” more like a Chess game as played abroad rather than telling players to run up the field passing the ball as if your’e in a circus, wins titles and he did that in his first three years. SInce then, he has not a jot on United and now he and his media friendly luvvies constantly sniped at JM about the style of play to make up for his own failures. So give me JM above Wenger ANYDAY of the week.
In italy we have a saying - Chi fa falla, e chi non fa sfarfalla - this means Those who act make mistakes; and those who do nothing really blunder.
I dont think any of us mind a mistake as long as it is recognised as one.
I feel a win in either cup will mask over the cracks.
If he cant rally us to beat Barnsley then god help us - its the managers job to put the rocket up them, he lacks this talent. Imagine JM - he would have literally been strangling them to get them up for it.
Apparently Laudrup is the fave to take over.
However, Grant would have already seen mounting speculation on who might succeed him at Stamford Bridge, with former Danish international Michael Laudrup seen as one of the leading candidates.
The 43-year-old Laudrup is currently coaching Spanish side Getafe who beat Benfica in the Uefa Cup last week while also guiding them to the semi-final of the Copa del Rey.