The managerial post at Chelsea is currently being viewed as something that any potential candidate should avoid at all costs. Certainly the learned men in the media claim that to be the case. But the truth is that on many levels the new man walking into the Chelsea job in the summer is on to something really very good. Feeling among Chelsea fans at the moment is pretty low, either you are frustrated that Roberto DiMatteo was sacked, annoyed that Rafael Benitez was appointment, disillusioned with the way the club is run or all of the above. The bottom line is that unless it is someone really who is universally disliked by the fans (the club have already done this one now anyway) whoever comes in is going to have the whole fan base behind them because they will feel that anyone will be better than Benitez and they will look forward to moving on from what has happened this season. In addition to that you only have to look at our squad and the potential is huge to build something very special. We have already seen what players like Mata, Hazard and Oscar have to offer and Hazard and Oscar will be able to offer much much more than that next year. A young but very talented squad throughout with the likes of Lukaku, DeBruyne, Courtois on loan and able to come back in. This is a team that has been able to trundle along in third place all season without having had the best got out of them. Some manager is inheriting a very good team of young players and likely to be added to in the summer also. No matter what you think about Roman Abramovic and the way the club is run lessons will have been learned from what has happened in the last 2 seasons and in many ways this summer will be a new start for everyone. And lets not forget that good old faithful draw for top managers - money. The role will be as it always has been a high paying one and that in itself without all the other points will be enough to draw plenty of managers. No matter how the press will view what is going on at Chelsea and how they think the job is poison any manager that takes over in the summer has a role that is ripe for somebody to do something special with, who that man will be we have no idea at the moment but i hope it is someone with the vision to be able to see the potential we have at this football club to build a new exciting chapter to follow the last that ended in Champions League glory.
Regular viewers to Chelsea's FA Youth cup games will be well used to the excitement, drama and good football that was served up on Wednesday night. In a tough hard fought game Chelsea's young lads fought back from a 2 - 0 deficit at half time to come out 3 - 2 winners at the end of extra time and will face either Barnsley or Stevenage at home in the next round. Given the strength in depth available to Adi Viveash the team selection was always going to be something of a headache, which is always a nice problem to have. Missing from the game against Colchester but back for this game was influential youngster Jeremie Boga and relative new boy Andreas Christensen to the defence. The first half of the game was something of a disaster for Chelsea, passes were going astray all over the place, biggest culprits being Fankaty Dabo, Adam Nditi and John Swift. Our key players like Islam Feruz, Jeremie Boga and Ruben Loftus-Cheek were not having an impact on the game and Charlton were pressing hard and playing at a high tempo. 2 goals were shipped in the first half without reply and things were looking pretty dire but we have been here before and most people will have believe that Adi would get them playing much better in the second half. At half time Viveash rang the changes, he brought on Alex Kiwomya and shifted the team around. Nathan Ake went to centre back and Christensen moved to right back Loftus-Cheek and Swift played as the 2 sitting midfielders and Boga moved in the 10 spot from playing on the wing. The changes and the team talk had the desired impact, the team was playing much better and keeping Charlton on the back foot. The first goal came from a brilliant run down the right wing from Christensen, the ball went to Feruz whose shot hit the post and the keeper and Christensen was following in to be able to tap it in. The pressure was now all Chelsea and Viveash tinkered with the team again to go for the win. Off came Swift and Nditi and on came young players Hunte and Colkett. Now Chelsea were playing with 3 at the back Ake on the left, Davey in the center and Christensen on the right, Baker dropped in to play alongside Loftus-Cheek in front of the defense and then a 4 of Hunte, Colkett, Boga and Kiwomya were behind Feruz. The equalizer came from a break out of defense and Loftus-Cheek spotting the run of speedy Alex Kiwomya played a lovely ball between the defense and Kiwomya sped away to slot the ball home with a tidy finish. After that it seemed just a matter of time before Chelsea got the goal to win the game but unfortunately it did not come during normal time and extra time was to be played. In extra time the pattern of play was much the same, Chelsea pressing for the winner and Charlton having worked extremely hard in the first half looked a spent force. Finally the big chance came, again a ball out of defense found Connor Hunte whose first touch was sublime to take him away from his defender and he sped away to then slot the ball through the legs of the Charlton keeper. Chelsea then tightened things up and was able to see out the game without too much drama. Again another inspired comeback from this Chelsea Youth Cup team but a lot of the credit has to go to the manager Adi Viveash, this is what you can do when a manager has the knowledge and trust in his players to change things up and go for the game. Having said that he will be asking his players to not repeat the first half performance in later rounds. Again there was some very good performances on the night, most notably Lewis Baker who was at the heart of everything good and was all over the park putting in a true captains performance.
There has been plenty of talk in the press about the way that Chelsea fans are showing their displeasure towards Benitez. They are saying these things as if Chelsea fans are the first fans to ever make their feelings felt about something going on at their club. Chelsea fans always believe that there is bias against them and their club in the media and that is wholly justified and at the same time the media journalists would swear blind that there isn't but how many times have we seen other fans applauded for their protests at how their club is being run and decisions that are being made yet Chelsea fans are wholly wrong for what they are doing? People looking in will maybe think what have Chelsea fans got to moan about? Rafa is a decent manager isn't he? He isn't doing a bad job is he? Well that is very easy to say when you are not a Chelsea fan with a Chelsea fans passion to all things that happen at our club. It was no secret that Benitez was very disliked by Chelsea fans long before he was touted as a possible manager for us for many different reasons. But since he has come he has done absolutely nothing to help that, firstly he continues to not want the fans to warm to him, going so far now as to say that "proper" Chelsea fans want him to win! OK to be fair he never used the word "him" in what he said and the media did a nice bit of spin on that one but i think it is fair to say that the implication was there. Then there is the results, Rafa was brought in to improve the position of the team but the stats bear out that DiMatteo had a better win percentage when he left than Rafa does now and we have seen the distance between us and the Manchester clubs significantly widen since the arrival of Benitez not to mention the poor performance in the Club World Cup and the real possibility of being dumped out the League Cup by Swansea. We have seen Stamford Bridge become somewhere where clubs will come and feel confident of getting a result no matter who they are. Rafa has pointed to the fact that teams will set up to frustrate us at home and that is why we are finding it difficult. Well surely any decent manager having picked up on that would have tried to find a way to combat it but clearly that is above Benitez's capability. During the games we have also seen his flaws as a manager, given our squad anybody can pick 11 players and put them out to win a game, but when things have got tough we have seen he is totally unable to do anything to turn a game around, like for like substitutions and an inability to change the make up of the team to make things happen and that is not to mention that he seems to not fancy one of the most talented players in World football Oscar and seems determined to alienate him from the team and make him unhappy. With all this in mind it is very important that we keep getting across our message that Benitez is not wanted here. That has been added to by the news yesterday that Pep Guardiola is joining Bayern Munich is the summer. We all know how Roman and the board look at manager appointments, they want big names, the 2 times they have gone with managers with less experience things ended pretty quickly and Guardiola was the name most touted to come in the summer. As much as every Chelsea fan would want it to happen i think it is still a little hopeful to expect Jose Mourinho to turn up in the summer so who does that leave for the club to turn to? What we do not want is for Benitez to be here beyond the end of the season, at the moment we see him tagged as "interim" manager, that is how we want it to stay. We need to make it clear that under no circumstances do we want him here so when it comes to the summer and they are struggling to find a name to come in and manage us we want them to know that it would be a disaster in club/fan relationship to keep Benitez on as manager no matter what the circumstances. It may come across as ungrateful and childish to the media and other fans but who are they to tell us how to feel about the club we love so much? All we can hope is that the club have some sort of master plan in place for the summer and it isn't as it looks that they have scared off any decent manager of coming to club and are left with Benitez to carry on with his step by step destruction of the club. So, all together now.... "We don't care about Rafa......"
Talented Attacking Midfielder Lucas Piazon has made a loan move away from Chelsea FC to Malaga in Spain. Since Piazon joined the club the talk had always been that he would stay with Chelsea and develop into the first team squad so there was never much conversation about him going out on loan, but it is certainly the best thing for the player. When players are as talented as Lucas is then going on loan to a club is the best thing for the players development. Piazon should be playing regular first team football and certainly has the ability to do just that and playing at Malaga will give him that oppertunity. Piazon's Representative on Twitter has said that the idea is that he play every game for Malaga including the Champions League although he has just missed out on playing against Barcelona. Lucas Piazon is a player with superb ball skills and able to operate in any of the attacking midfield positions and even as a centre forward if needed. He has such good close control and the ability to beat a man with either pace or skill that he is always such a threat and even in his limited first team appearances he has shown that he is a threat when on the ball. First team opportunities were always going to be limited for him this season, especially with so many new players in his positions to integrate. This loan could be a huge boost to his development and put him on a path to our first team.
Young Chelsea goalkeeper Sam Walker has today joined U21 team mate Billy Clifford at Colchester United until the end of the season. Sam is no stranger to loan moves, having just come back from a spell with Bristol Rovers he had previously been at Barnet, Northampton and Yeovil. Sam will be looking to find some good form while on this loan move and try to aim for future loan spells at a higher level. With goalkeepers it is hard to clubs to take a chance on a young loan goalkeeper but Sam is getting some good experience under his belt and is a very good young keeper. Both Sam and Billy will be looking to help Colchester improve their position and pick up some results. Sam, i am sure will not be the last Chelsea youngster we see go out on loan this month.
Finally Billy Clifford is making his first loan move away from the club and is joining League 1 Colchester United on a months loan deal. Billy has been a player that is long overdue a loan move and will no doubt enjoy the experience. Billy is a talented player who started out playing as a right back for the U18's and reserve sides but who later has moved into midfield and playing a more creative role. It is a role that he has taken well too and is able to use his ability on the ball to make things happen, he is also a tenacious player and able to get stuck into the game. He is also able to contribute goals as you can tell from the video i have made of Billy:
I am sure the club and Billy will have looked to follow the likes of Josh McEachran, Nathaniel Chalobah and now Todd Kane and get a Championship loan but as always with loan moves it is all about the game time and Billy will be looking to impress and either stay at Colchester for longer or earn a move to a higher level for the rest of the season.
It was return to league action last night for the U21's in a home game against Fulham. To start the second half of the season in the new tier 1 league was very pleasing and the performance was just as pleasing. It was a team full of youth and experience. Sam Walker returned from loan to start in goal and ahead of him was Tika Musonda, Andreas Christensen, John Terry and Adam Nditi. In midfield was 2 players looking to impress and earn loan moves in George Saville and Billy Clifford and a young man looking to settle in U21's football Ruben Loftus-Cheek. The forward line consisted of a returning loan player Milan Lalkovic, Lewis Baker and Islam Feruz. It was a game that was dominated by Chelsea as you will be able to see in the highlights but also one that full of rustiness. Things were just not clicking to full effect and Fulham were working hard to restrict us to long range and half chances. Having said that there was some very good football played and the young players will have enjoyed playing alongside John Terry who took the game seriously and used the chance to give the lads around him some good instruction. As the game wore on it was looking like the goal would never come but a quick break and some bizarre decision making by the Fulham keeper allowed Islam Feruz to slot home from some distance and take the lead that was fully earned. Fulham did press on a bit from there and the Chelsea defence did have to work a lot harder but once Chelsea earned a penalty for handball and Lewis Baker stepped up to slot home the game was well won. There was some good performances on the night, most notably from George Saville who if he does not earn a loan move in this window then there is something very wrong. Chelsea will be desperate to be in the play off stages of the U21's Premier League and only finishing top will earn them that so to get off the mark with a win was very pleasing.
Barcelona are a club that play in a system with what is called a false number 9, Chelsea are at the moment playing with a fraud as our number 9. A tad harsh maybe but things have definitely come to a head with Fernando Torres at Chelsea. In so many games recently it has been said that we are handicapped in every game we play as we are virtually playing with 10 men. Torres is offering nothing to the team and the game. It seems that for the majority and i think it is the vast majority that last nights game was the very final straw. Up until last week we have had no other option, Torres is the only player we have to play there no matter if we like it or not. But against Southampton we finally saw what a competent striker can do in this team. Demba Ba is by no means a world class striker, but he is a very good striker and he has a strikers instincts. The arrival of Ba has certainly got Chelsea fans excited, and it is because we can see someone who actually has something to offer as a striker, imagine what we could do with a player like Flacao in the team. Following the impressive debut of Ba many people like myself were interested to see the reaction of Torres, well the reaction was none. Last night surely has to be the final nail in any goodwill that Chelsea fans have towards Torres. It was again a game where he offered nothing of a threat to the opposition and made Ashley Williams seem like a world beater. The man has just lost it, he makes bizarre runs, totally against where he should be, at one point he pulled out to the right wing when we were on a break to literally stand on Oscar's toes, rather than make a run into the middle to create a different option he goes and stands by another player. Benitez should have made the change sooner and it did not help Torres at all and it got a little cringe worthy to see Torres go through what he did. Firstly the calls for Demba Ba to come on were loud and regular, although the fans were right, Rafa should have made the change so when he did make the change way too late the fan reaction must have completely sunken Torres. The cheer that went up when Ba was getting ready was one thing, but the boos that rang out when Torres was announced as coming off was surprising and as i said a little cringe worthy. But this is what it has come to, we have seen with clarity the difference with a striker on his game, Ba had 2 headers on goal, 1 goal chalked off harshly for offside with an incredible strike and a decent penalty appeal all in 10 minutes, Torres offered nothing. Last night for me in personal feeling and my perception of what the fans are feeling was certainly a breaking point with Torres. It's a shame because us fans have always stuck by him, but there comes a point where enough is enough.
Chelsea have today confirmed that 19 year old right back has joined Blackburn Rovers on a months loan up until February 10th. Todd Kane has only just returned from loan at Preston North End where he made a total of 5 appearances. The step up from League 1 to Championship level will be very positive for Todd providing he gets games. There is no doubt in my mind that Todd is more than capable of playing at Championship level but i do have reservations about Blackburn giving him the playing time he needs. As is always the case with players going on loan it is all about finding the right club for the boys to play at, Chelsea have done this with McEachran (Middlesbrough) and Chalobah (Watford), will Blackburn Rovers be the place for Kane to start to become the player he can be? Lets hope so. Anyone wanting to see Todd Kane in action he will hopefully be playing in the televised game Friday night against Wolves.
In a move of common sense it has been confirmed that Romelu Lukaku has been allowed to stay on at West Brom until the end of the season. It is the only sensible move that aids everyone in the long term. It is clear to see the benefit to Lukaku playing at West Brom, learning the league and getting more game time than he would at Chelsea. It is easy to forget that he is only 19 years old and needs to be able to develop his game just like any other young player before making a serious crack at the Chelsea first team.
We saw last season how disruptive it was to keep him at the club and it cost a season of development. Now we will look to him to keep improving and earning more game time and scoring more goals. I am sure another loan move will be on the cards for next season where he can look to continue to build. For me Lukaku is very much a part of Chelsea's future and we need to allow him to become the player we need him to be before becoming to reliant on him.
Following the release of the U18's fixtures the U21's fixtures for the second half of the season have also been announced. After a dramatic end to the first half the season the U21's narrowly missed out on a place in the Elite group and find themselves in tier 1 with: Fulham Everton Middlesbrough Sunderland Blackburn Rovers Aston Villa The only placement that will mean involvement in the play off stages to determine the U21's champions is a top place finish in Tier 1 and that will be what Chelsea will be aiming for. The fixtures are as follows:
Chelsea Football Club have taken a lot of stick for their transfer policy over the years and quite rightly in a lot of cases but right now i think the club are getting it very right when it comes to the transfer policy. Obviously we have seen some quite brilliant signings come in, Juan Mata, Oscar, Eden Hazard, Cesar Azpilicueta ect... but it is the other side of the transfer dealings that is most interesting me. Chelsea are clearly looking to build for the future and to try and acquire the best young talent there is and do that on a tighter budget, something that is obviously not very easy to do. As we have seen at Chelsea it is very hard to break into the first team as a younger player unless you are exceptionally talented like Hazard or Oscar. What Chelsea are doing to get around this is to buy up young players earlier and allow them to play away from Chelsea to continue their development with us safe in the knowledge that they are our players. The best examples of this are Thibaut Courtois being an excellent example of that having been signed for a fee of about £7m is now regarded as one of the best young keepers in world football and playing very well at Athletico Madrid, when the time is right he will come to Chelsea with great experience and ready to step in. Kevin De Bruyne is again another example of this, also having been signed up for around £7m he was allowed to carry on for the rest of the season at Genk before moving to Werder Bremen where he is earning great reviews and developing into a top player, De Bruyne is a big talent but the chances he would have had at Chelsea this season would probably have not been enough for him to develop as needed. This is what should have happened with Lukaku, signed for a bigger fee and allowed to stay with the first team Lukaku is an example of why the club are right to make this moves for the highly talented youngsters, he is now doing well on loan and will continue to develop. Other players treading this path is Kennith Omeru currently with Den Haag, Ulises Davila currently in Spain with Sabadell, Wallace currently still with Fluminese but likely to be elsewhere next season all with varying degrees of success of course and if rumors are to be believed Serbian youngster Lazar Markovic will be joining the ranks of young talent owned by Chelsea playing in Europe. All of this is of course in addition to the many young talents we have from our academy out on loan too and the youthful side of Chelsea could be coming prominence very very soon. This is an approach that i fully applaud Chelsea for, of course they will not get it right every time but it is a policy that be bearing some very talented fruit for the Chelsea first team in the near future.
As is customary this time of year there has been much transfer speculation surrounding Chelsea, not just who they are about to sign but who could be leaving now and in the summer. With all the talk of Lampard and Cole leaving in the summer and Sturridge already gone it leaves us very light on homegrown talent. This does affect both our premiership squad and our Champions League squad. Currently we have submit for the Premier League a squad of 25 players, 8 of which has to be "homegown" (To qualify as home grown, a player will have had to be registered for at least three seasons at an English or Welsh club between the ages of 16 and 21.) With Daniel Sturridge leaving that leaves our homegrown contingent as: 1. Ross Turnbull 2. John Terry 3. Gary Cahill 4. Ashley Cole 5. Ryan Bertrand 6. Frank Lampard 7. 8. Add to that the fact that Frank Lampard is almost definitely going to leave in the summer and quite possibly Ashley Cole too then it is clear that we are going to have to invest in some homegrown talent or find ourselves having to work with a smaller squad, having to leave 4 places in the squad blank. Of course you could look to our own homegrown talent to take those spots but the only likely candidates are Josh McEachran and Nathaniel Chalobah and both of those are players who could do with another season at least away from the club before being brought into the first team squad. We need to be looking for a new homegrown core to the squad and going forward we can look to be using our own talent but at the moment that is not an option. We have been linked already with Micah Richards and Leighton Baines neither of which would significantly improve our squad and of course there is Walcott, but with Demba Ba on board a move for Walcott seems unlikely. The club will have to be looking at this and trying to address the issue and it will be interesting to see what they do as we are already suffering from having a fairly small squad of players.
The fixtures for the second stage of the U18's league season as been announced. Chelsea having finished top in their first stage group are now in the Elite group for the next stage with: Southampton Bolton Everton Manchester United Crystal Palace Reading Fulham As you would expect from the Elite group it is a tough group of teams but our U18's are having a superb season and will feel confident of doing very well. The fixtures are as follows:
Today we finally got the confirmation that Demba Ba has officially signed for Chelsea FC. The list of big name strikers that we have been linked with and supposedly signing this month has been virtually endless, so what does it mean that we have signed Demba Ba? To me what is means is very good business. Signing big name strikers is never an easy thing to do and we desperately need a striker to add to our squad, more so now that Daniel Sturridge has left for Liverpool. Demba Ba had a release in his contract of £7m, so for us to be able to sign a player with Premier League experience, who has a very good goal scoring record and would work in our system for this price is great business. It reminds me of when we signed Anelka and if he can have a similar goal scoring impact then we will be very happy indeed. From his point of view Ba has the opportunity to come into a big club where the only other striker is massively struggling, if he can come in and score goals and make an impact he would find himself the main man very quickly. Ba is eligible for tomorrows game against in the FA Cup against Southampton and you would fancy that he would be given a chance to start that game given that Benitez has stated that Torres is "tired". So welcome to Demba Ba and i am sure we are all hoping that he can start banging in the many chances that are being created in this team.
It has been confirmed today that 18 year old Nathaniel Chalobah will stay at Watford with Gianfranco Zola until the end of the season. Since going on loan Chalobah has really impressed for Watford and become an important player in their team. More importantly for Chelsea it has been some very important game time in professional football for a very talented young man. Increasing the loan was the correct decision for all as Chalobah is playing at a very good level in football, Watford will continue to play him on a regular basis and Chelsea get to improve a player for the future. Having impressed so much there was always going to be talk of him coming back to Chelsea, but we would be doing him no favours to bring him back at this stage in his development and not play on a regular basis. No doubt he will improve a great deal over the rest of the season and look to push on for next season for probably a loan at a higher level.
A move that seems to have been on the cards for a long while has finally taken place today. Daniel Sturridge has left Chelsea FC and moved to Liverpool for a fee of reportedly £12m. I have mixed feelings about this move. I always liked Daniel Sturridge and when given a decent run in the team has always done well and scored goals, but he has very rarely been given a chance and since AVB left the club it seems that Sturridge has had one foot out of the door. It always seemed a little strange that we would persist so much with a player failing to perform and struggling for goals big time and not give an opportunity to a young player who although was pretty selfish on the pitch was full of energy and made things happen for himself. Many people cite his attitude as being a problem, but i would take a selfish Sturridge over the disinterested Torres we have seen on a number of occasions. But such is life at Chelsea and we have seen another young English talent moved on without being afforded a fair crack. Since he has moved to Liverpool i will find it hard to wish him well, but i have no doubt that he will end up somewhere if it isn't Liverpool and make himself a very good player.
It is the subject that most Chelsea fans are talking about and the main thing mentioned in the press at the moment when Chelsea are discussed, what to do about Frank Lampard. Everyone seems to be in agreement, the fans want Frank to stay, the media say that Frank should stay and both are pretty scathing towards the board on the subject as it looks like a new deal will not be agreed with Frank Lampard. But should we be so critical of the board in this situation? As football fans of course we want Frank to stay, he has been arguably the best player in the clubs history. His contribution to the team during his time at Chelsea has been massive and of that there is no doubt. Putting our fans hat on it is a no brainer that Frank should stay and see out his time in football at this football club. But to be fair to the club things are not always so black and white when it comes to contract negotiations especially of this sort. I don't think it is exactly a secret that Frank is likely to be one of if not the highest paid player at the club reportedly on £120k to £150k per week depending on which paper you read. How do you give a contract to a player who is not going to be playing as regular as they used to and is coming to a point where they are on decline rather than being at the top of their game £150k per week? You can't, especially when you think that our best player at the moment, Juan Mata is reportedly on half of what Frank is earning. Given the football market where clubs in America, China and other places are happy to sign older players with a big name on a big salary Frank has the option to keep his big salary and make a move, so unless his loyalty is so fierce that he would be willing to take a pay cut to stay at the club he loves then the writing is on the wall and Frank will move on because lets be honest there is not many people who would take a pay cut when the big money is available elsewhere. Like i said things are not black and white and it is harsh to judge the club too much in this situation, certainly without knowing all the facts of what has been discussed. It would appear that neither want to back down, Chelsea don't want to offer such big terms and Frank does not want to take a cut. Both parties are in the right here and neither should be criticized for the stance they are taking. I think we should view this the same way we did with Drogba (although Frank is unlikely to go out on such a high), admit the time is right and part company in a nice way and let the man always be a legend to this club. If Frank wants a big salary and a guarantee of regular football then maybe it is best for him to leave now.
