Open Thread: Where does Chelsea go from here?

I agree with most of what everyone is saying except for one thing: SELL MALOUDA! For what it's worth, he's never cost us a game unlike Anelka, Bosingwa, etc. Against United last week, he was the closest thing we had to a playmaker and had Lampard buried that chance Malouda so delicately carved for him, everyone would be singing a different tune. Yes he holds the ball too much, unnecessarily slows down the play at times or takes shots from impossible angles, but every once in a while he brings that spark of BRILLIANCE that had there been solid teammates to rely on, would change the game and even season for better. He also never gets to play full games as he has to compete with his spot with Yuri and even Kalou or sometimes Anelka, but he shows class on the international level, an indication of his true worth, and is someone I don't have to worry about pulling bullshit on the field like I do when Anelka costs us a game or even Ramires or any other so called impostors of their true selves.

put Torres out on loan and bring back Sturridge.
Ever since RA bought in Torres the team has been disrupted , and goals have dried up.

Get Neymar and Ganso package... We need ganso for playmaker!! However there'd be no room for Paizon or Josh in the future if Ganso's there.... I thought Modric could be it... only if he's sold in 20 million or less

"An aging nucleus. A manager in limbo. No director of football, the lack of a proper scouting network and, of course, assistants who appear to offer nothing. A summer ripe with pivotal decisions approaches."

You nailed it Jack.

To all the people advocating an idiotic fire-sale: If we sell 5 - 10 players without replacing them first, we'd have to spend one 200+ million to replace them.

Think of it. If we publicly axe Bosingwa and Ferreira and we make an offer for a RB, what do you think the other club would do? If they had any brains, they'd just ask for insane prices, knowing that Chelsea have no real RB and have to get one from somewhere.

If we axe Kalou, Anelka and Drogba and we make a bid for Aguero and/or Neymar, how much are they going to ask for? When Chelsea had 4 strikers, Liverpool asked for 50m for Torres. How much is a striker of Torres' calibre going to cost when we have just Torres and Sturridge?

Replace first, axe later.

We should be making preliminary deals with players right now, we sign them on the first week of the transfer window and then let some players go.

But no, that's not the Chelsea way. Our way is to axe first, get into bidding wars with City/Madrid over overpriced players, get into bidding wars with no one ("Other parties are interested, but we can't disclose who it is") and then overpay out of desperation.

The fees for players is only going to go up for the foreseeable future. It sucks, but this is what Chelsea started, and clubs like Madrid and City have followed. The smart thing to do would be not buy players at all. None. Manchester United, Arsenal, Barcelona (kind of), have been smart by not playing into the transfer market.

It's like the current international housing market. Don't buy brand new properties at overinflated costs. Improve the current home you're living in and weather the storm. Prices will come down eventually.

I like your philosophy, but I disagree with the state of the market.

Mesut Ozil: €15m
Chicharito: £6m
Van der Vaart: £8m
Sneijder: €15
Khedira: £12.5m

and my personal fave:
Seamus Coleman £150,000.

How much does Torres make a week again?

We could've assembled half a new team for the price we paid for Torres.

I could go on and on. And these are not obscure players from Balkan and Caribbean leagues, but big leagues.

What's the point of having scouts if you're not going to use them?

It's just that Chelsea prefers flash to substance, we want to have a team of stars over performers. It's a Novye Russkie (New Russians) thing.

The real solution is to actually use the scouts to find players and to benefit from other idiotic teams that have fire sales, selling players for much less than they would normally be worth.

But that's not what we're going to do. We'll sell for cheap, buy expensive and everyone else will be happy.

Do you remember how much crap United got for buying Chicharito? He was good, but he came from Mexico. Van der Vaart and Sneijder both wanted out. Ozil is about where he should be priced, and Khedira, well he's OK.

I agree, we had been doing well scouting under Arneson, albeit shadily.

And it's like you said. It's hard to buy big name stars, but a club like Chelsea won't be dipping into the Balkans for starters. Not that Mateja Kezman or Adrian Mutu were bad, per se, but Roman has finer tastes.

I remember about Chicharito, but United do things differently. They take a lot of small risks, if they fail, it's a small failure and if it succeeds, it's genius.

They don't place all their eggs in one basket - they have Rooney, then there's Berbatov, very different players, then Chicharito (small risk, huge payoff) as a young, bright prospect, then they had Owen for experience, on a free, and apparently they tried to go for Raul. They even signed a homeless guy no one's ever heard about.

It's the variety and diversity of players, ages, experience levels and risks.

There is no way Chelsea Football Club would sign a player like Owen, or Raul, or a homeless guy, (believe me, I tried to push some clients, haha) or unknown players. They're not "Chelsea quality," don't fit the brand. But United make them those "United quality" whereas we want Chelsea quality instantly, made somewhere else.

The sad thing is that in the bigger argument of academy-vs-transfers, Arsenal-Barca-style or Chelsea-ManCity, we forget that there's a third way. We don't have to build a team entirely from our academy nor do we have to assemble an expensive team for every new coach City-style. We could just get great, young players and improve them, mixing youth with experience. Nothing too drastic. We don't need Eto'o, Ibrahimovic and Fabregas, but there's a lot of quality players out there. We just have to use our scouts.

What are they paid for anyway?

Great stuff, guys. It will be interesting to see if the club will actually show faith in the academy next season. We all thought that would be the case this term, yet here we are with nearly all of them on loan and Josh, well, shoved into the shadows.

Ugh. Here we go...
1.) for most clubs, this season would be a success; quarterfinals loss against a very strong team, top 4 (probable) finish, bought a handful of very talented players...
But for CFC and the standards set last year and in the first weeks of this year, this season simply was not good enough. It wasn't just that we blew everything to pieces, it was the manner in which we did it. there seemed to be apathy on the parts of several players, and exhaustion by others. Losing to Wolves and 'Pool were my lowpoints, I think, considering the way we played in each and who we lost to. I would say this is a failure for CFC, but success can come from it if we figure out shit out.

2.) Oh Carlo. I have to say sack him. He was tactically outdone multiple times this year. he made nonsensical substitutions and starting XIs when taking a risk and trying something new (ie starting Josh, benching Essien, Flo, etc) would have been the ballsy and respectable thing to do. When the team fell apart around him, he was left with no ideas but to grasp at the at the bricks as they plummeted down. Sorry Carlo, but you left me confused more than a few times this year, the most recent being in the second leg. Adios.

3.) I have no idea who would replace Carlo. I know little about the legitimate prospects aside from Guus, and Guus is my number one choice. That being said, I'm not going to say anymore on coaches.

4.) I think players must be, MUST BE phased out. Look at Barcelona. I know comparing us to them is wrong for a host of reasons, one being that they have a world famous academy in La Masia, but whatever. They slowly work in new talent from their youth until they're starting, seemingly out of nowhere. Look at..Pedro, Messi, Busquets, what they're doing with Jeffren/Bojan. Why we do not at least try to do that blows my mind. I was upset when Daniel Sturridge left simply because i wanted to see him wearing a fucking Blues jersey on Saturdays. Kakuta, Daniel, Josh, Borini, Bruma, who the fuck ever. The players we have now are so goddamn old: Anelka, Drogba, Lampard, Malouda all start regularly and are over 30. Not only that, but most of them (they put in occasionally solid shifts) were horribly out of form. So i think our To Sell list should include...
Anelka, Malouda, Ferriera, Bosingwa. those are definite sells.
"maybe" sells, either this year or give them another year out of respect/a chance to prove they still have it (a real possibility for all of them), are...
Drogba, Lampard, Essien. Even Ashley Cole's future needs to start being questioned. I think all three of the names I just mentioned stay this year. I love all three of them, but the future of the club must be taken into account here. We cannot march from accepting the FA Cup trophy at Wembley down to the fucking nursing home.

5.) Like i said above, we MUST invest in our youth academy. The best teams in the world have really solid youth teams. Barca and RM regularly incorporate their youth players in. Manchester United have a host of very good young talent. Arsenal, even if they steal all their players from Barca, have great players around and under 21. We cling to our aging elite. Let's pump some blood into this team. A mixture of big buys and fresh youth talent will make this team successful. It's been proven by other clubs time and again.

6.) I love Lampard. I refused to sell him on FIFA '11 after I unloaded just about every other player that pissed me off this year. I think he has to get another year, has to. Roman cannot toss the heart of CFC out the window after a stretch of bad form. I know this sounds hypocritical after what I just said about Anelka/Malouda/Essien, but think about it. Lampard has always looked to give 100% for the shirt, while Anelka/Malouda can be hardly have the same said for them. Lampard came back midseason after the shit had already caught fire. He had no in form midfielders around him on which to lean, or in an form striker before him upon which to dish the ball to. He was rather quickly thrust back into first team action because we had no other midfield options. I say he gets another year, if he still looks old and horrible, then we can talk and make that decision.

7.) Everything I said above. Youth players. Knocking a few of our first teamers off of their pedestal. Anelka's nonchalant penalty against Everton was infuriating for fans and surely for Roman. That sort of bullshit should never happen. Roman needs to get his ass out of the locker room and back up to the board room. Stick to writing checks and that shit. Let the manager be the manager.

Feel free to shoot holes in all of this, I won't be offended.

KTBFFH, long live CFC.

AHHHHH :(

My view is build from the ground up like arsenal. But better than them, we keep our experianced players and put in our young players

You'll recall that Arsenal haven't won anything in 6 years.

i think this season was definitely a failure especially after the heights of last season, though i'm pretty sure we'll comfortably secure third and with some luck maybe 2nd.

As for Carlo i say bin him unless he shows more flexibility, creativity and boldness in his selections,tactics and formations in the final stretch of games that are left. The players don't seem motivated and the tactics aren't working. The team as a whole plays way too slow and that is what is making it hard to score as defenses have the time to regroup and organize.

If he does get binned, then i believe finding a replacement would be a real headache as there aren't many top managers who are available. Maybe Martin O'Neill or as a gamble Andre Villas-Boas. Martin's seems to be good with nurturing young talents and we could do with someone who is capable of phasing in the new and phasing out the old. Villas-Boas seems to be a young prodigy in the vein of Jose which could be worth a gamble on. Guus would be great but i really doubt we'd be able to get him and getting Jose back would be a dream come true but alas i doubt that dream will be coming true next season. There isn't anyone else who i'd like to see in charge at least not that i can think of.

As for players that need to be shown the door; Hilario, Bosingwa, Ferreira, Yuri and Kalou really need to go, as they just don't seem to bring enough to the team anymore. Yuri has never really gotten a good run in the first team and that may simply be because he has not been performing consistently. Bosingwa is good going forward but defensively he is lacking and Ivanovic is always gonna be ahead of him in the pecking order, thus its better if he moves on. Ferreira and Hilario are both too old. Kalou is a great impact player and does score some goals but i just don't think he's good enough, way too inconsistent, plus i feel once Sturridge comes back he will be able to fill the impact player role with more consistency. Essien and Mikel could both be on the chopping block if we decide to get a new defensive midfielder. Essien has dramatically dropped in form and unless he finds that form again soon, i think we would be better of selling him now for a sizable amount rather than keeping him on. Mikel is alright never really shined but hasn't ever been all that horrible either but if we do get a top class defensive mid then he's definitely out. I think Anelka and Drogba should both be given at least another year. Anelka is our top scorer right now and that alone warrants a stay in my book. Drogba is still tenacious and good enough i believe as evidenced by his performance against M.U.

As for players coming in; maybe Van der Wiel for RB rotation with Ivanovic, we definitely need a midfield playmaker like Ganso or maybe Modric, Kaka would be okay too since we have been linked to him. A top class defensive mid would be great too, then we could get rid of mikel and if Essien stays then he could focus more on attacking. Someone like de Rossi but not necessarily him. Neymar or Sergio Agüero on the wings or as a part of a two man strike force could add some much needed pace. if we need to go English maybe Ashley Young or Adam Johnson? Failing which bringing in Lukaku for a year of study under Drogba before he leaves could be a good idea.

Though we shouldn't bring in too many players and the cover for the first team should come from the young players from the academy. Players like Van Aanholt, Josh and Kakuta definitely need more first team action. we need to allow these players to grow as we can't always be buying big name players eventually we are gonna have to create a few of our own. With the home grown rules and the financial rules in effect the need for bring young players will be even more pressing. We need to develop a system where there is a good mix of young and experienced players like at M.U. That way there is always a smooth transition from one generation to the next. At the moment we have far too many experienced players and not enough youth. Lets hope this gets corrected in the future.

Lampard is a legend at Chelsea and simply must end his career here. He has done far too much for the club and this is only the first season where he has under preformed, every other season he has scored 20 or more. Maybe he shouldn't be relied upon so often in the coming seasons but he should definitely stick around. The same goes for JT.

1) I wouldn't necessary call this season a failure. Disappointing, yes, but not failure. We are the defending champs but when we shipped off half our team in the summer without bringing in the proper replacements, I thought it was going to be much tougher, especially when we named like 19 players only or something. The beginning of the season was misleading b/c of the fixture list, but once November hit, everything came crashing down. I really wanted to see youngsters bled in this season but again, none of that happened.

2) Bin Carlo, only because he seems set to leave anyways and really he hasn't demonstrated any brilliance this season with regards to tactics or team selection. Granted, he seems to have minimal control over a lot of things, but I also do agree that there's just something not that great about Italian managers over time.

3) Replacements: Boas is pretty good, though Abramovich seems obssessed with getting a manager who's won the Champions League before. Van Gaal is available but look at what happened at Bayern. I just think we need someone who Roman is willing to stick to, that plays a certain style and build a team around that successful style. Hell, the Special One would be insane but the chances are so slim.

4) Sales a definite, but we always get screwed with buys because teams know we can pay. Paulo, Bosingwa, Flo, Nelks are probably gone. Yuri is iffy just because he is somewhat versatile but I certainly wouldn't miss him if he was let go. Kalou is probably one of the most interesting decisions to make since his performances are so volatile. I would only ship him off if we can get a good winger. Drogba should stay till he retires unless we get some ridiculous offer for him because he's still very much an impact player. He might have to contend with actually becoming a non-regular starter unless he can consistently put in his power performances. No way Lamps/Terry are going to leave and no reason to. However, Lamps' role is going to have to change a bit since his pace has gone down dramatically. Like Gerrard/Scholes and the like, I would like him to take on the deeper role, banging out passes and controlling the midfield. This would give Josh/Benni the creative role up front.

5) I think we need better scouts than anything. Look at all the teams that have been able to get bargains, while we had to pay 50 for torres. Our back office is in shambles and it's also going to need rebuilding. Put some money in the academy and I expect it to pay dividends. Can't possibly expect the club to be one that only spends on buys to stay successful forever.

6) Buy list that aren't people who have already been mentioned: Ashley Young, Keisuke Honda, Park Chu Young, Hulk. I'm having trouble naming right backs to buy at reasonable prices and aren't old...

Davide Santon

I think everyone can clearly see the squad needs strengthening, either through the academy or purchases, and some dead wood needs to leave like last summer. But we have to keep an eye on this finance situation with UEFA.

I'd say off with Yuri, Paulo and possibly Flo. Benayoun deserves more time despite his age. Stick with Kalou if he's willing, and bring back Sturridge and Kakuta with open arms and give them a more integral role. Paddy Van Aalnholt or Bertrand should deputise Cole, and bring in Van der Wiel for the right, and we'll be fine at the back (with a stronger backup 'keeper, Delac anyone?)

In the middle, as said, Kakuta should get some more time there. Maybe ship off Mikel. I hate to say it, but he's yet to make the huge impact he's been promising. I'd also be inclined to say bring in a playmaker like Ganso, but Kakuta could be that guy. Josh also needs to be more involved, he's a class talent.

But it's up top which is the struggle. Sturridge will be back, which means we'll have 4 strong strikers. But I'm still on the fence about Drogba's future at the club. Half of me just has to look at his records to be convinced, but the other looks at his age, and potential sell-on. We could easily get £10m for him this summer, and use some of that for another young striker, namely Lukaku or Neymar. But we'll see with Dids. With the mix of youth in the team, we should be set for the coming years. Torres just needs the pre-season to come as soon as possible.

But asides from the squad situation, the staff need to get their arses in gear. Where's the Director? Where's the assistance from the assistant, he doesn't seem to be providing much, but then how much do we know? Once we get a steady backroom, things can get done.

I say write this season off. Take third, or even second, and just move on. Ancelotti, unfortunately, is like to move on to Roma. In terms of his replacement, I'm still undecided. Guus? Doesn't look like happening. But there's no one else who I'd really love to see at the helm other than Carlo, knee-jerk decisions don't help anyone.

Bring on the summer please Roman.

1. Yes the season was (still is) a failure. Hope we keep the 3rd spot.
2. I think we bin him. Just because he said that he doesn't care if he leaves. That's not the attitude i'd want in a manager. Plus i don't uderstand the fall in form in the middle of the season (we opened the season with 10 straight wins and had a goal diffrence of something to 2). No one can say that we didn't have the quality to win anythig this season. I don't know who else to blame than Ancelotti (and what happened with Wilkins???).
3. Andre Villas-Boas. Young, enthusiastic, learned from the best ever (Mourinho). Knows how to fix a mess of a football team (look at what he did with academica - 0 points middle of the season when he arrived, 10th at the end). Plus he might be our manager for the next 20, 30, 40 years. And he's not italian (don't have a problem with italians but i don't think serie A style can survive in the premier league).
4. Anelka, Flo, Bosingwa, Ferreira (the only reason for keeping him would be so that he can translate for Luiz), And maybe (probably not) Kalou have to leave. Keep Lamps and Terry, they are still great players and icons at Stamford Bridge. I think Drogba's time might be up but i would give him 1 more season.
5. Sturridge is defenetly back. Also bring back Kakuta (what's the point of going through all the trouble with his transfer if we don't keep him. Plus he's going to be a great player). If we let go off Ferreira and Bosingwa we have to give a shot to Van Aanholt plus i'd love to see Cork get some playing time. McEachran has to given more playing time. Plus we are getting Kalas and Piazon next season. I'd get rid of Bruma and Mancienne.
I'd bring in Juan Mata (to replace Flo) and Neymar (or Aguero). Neymar would be a great additon but we might have to wait till next summer to get him (or now if we axe Drogba)
6. Keep Lampard. End of debate.
7. I think that we have to start mixing in some young blood (even at the manager position - Villas) + a more open-minded head coach. Acelotti always sticks with the same style of play (regardless of 4-2-2 or 4-3-3) not only with the formaiton but also the style off play. We lost our carisma that was the main thing that won us the double last season. We have to get that back. Our players looked so sad on the pitch (forget about the first part of the season).

CFC 4 LIFE

1. Bring Sturridge back. With Sturridge in the mix (and even with an ageing Drogba and Anelka) we should have sufficient firepower. Torres to be given more time. Unrealistic to think the club will not try make its 50mil signing work. It is a matter of getting the players to "gel". Perhaps Kalou will have to go just because we have will have too many competing for places, and someone needs to make way for Sturridge. Just don't think we can ignore Sturridge.
2. The midfield is where I see our biggest problems. This means giving more time to Josh and finding a quality midfield playmaker or two. Love Frank but he is struggling and so is Essien. We take too long in the build up and need to get into the opposition box more quickly, we are ponderous and slow. Also, our strikers seem to be dropping futher and further back (even when we are on the attack) as a result of frustration at the service they are receiving. Watch Drogba. He is spending less and less time up front and more time trying to take the game to the opposition by fetching the ball and carrying it forward himself. I wouldn't get rid of Frank or Essien just yet but think they need to be used more sparingly (especially Frank who is not getting younger). If one or two new players come in and Josh is given more time I would think one or more of the following need to go Flo, Yuri and /or Mikel. The difficulty I think we have here is that as a result of homegrown rule we would almost be compelled to look for a "local". (Our buys in Jan were both foreign.)
3. With Alex back, and Luiz, I think we are ok at the back. (Cole, Terry, Luiz, Bane.) Perhaps sell Bosingwa and Ferreira to bring up a player or two from the reserves / academy. So Alex plus one or two "homegrown" for cover.
4. Carlo. Seems a bit inflexible and seems to have made a few errors of late. Eg, I thought that he should have started Drogba against Man U or, failing that, at least have let Yossi start with Torres. He needs more freedom to rotate Torres and Frank - not sure if this is him or instructions from above. However, I would be inclined to keep him on but seek a good assistant. He clearly needed Wilkins and we need to get someone of a Wilkins / Clarke calibre to assist and, if needs be, step up to the breach at short notice on a temporary or permanent basis if things don't turn around promptly next season.
5. We cannot abandon the academy. The simple truth is we will not be able to buy all the homegrown players we need, and buying foreigners reduces the squad size which is critical when competing across so many competitions. I think we will need to continue to hunt for youngsters and get them into the academy at a sufficiently young age so that they when mature they come into the squad as homegrown or we can at least recoup some expenditure by selling to other clubs if they can't break into the first team. (Some of our academy buys are too old amazingly enough if we want to ensure the academy is producing players who are regarded as homegrown.)
6. Generally, cover / support must be sought from reserves / academy and the the homegrown pool they contain.

I don't understand why we seem to have slowed up so much. Every attack (except Drogba) seems to go back towards our own end. We are giving defences so much time to organise and prevent our shooting. When we do get a chance to shoot our timing is out, the shots are weak and do not trouble the goalkeeper (except Drogba) Watching Lampard's chance against MU left me so depressed. He would have buried the ball in the net in previous seasons. Anelka used to be fast, now he slows down every attack, we seem to be at least half a yard slower to the ball than our opponents. Why, I do not know, if I did perhaps I would be paid millions per season!

I think Flo, kalou, yury and paulo will leave ( though i dont want our super sub to leave). Drogba has said that he wants to end his career at chelsea.. Looking the way he has played in the last few matches, i believe it is the case. He should ve started against manu.. without a doubt.. I don know how to sum up carlo.. He's not flexible.. He has lost a few games in trying to make drog-torres combo work.. He should ve conc in winning the matches!! Kalou has not started last 4 games and he looks dis interested.. We need a manager who can inspire, motivate, flexible (not playing same team for ages hoping that they will do well one day) and brave in his tactics and approach..The one who trusts youngsters I recommend this line up..

------------------Cech-----------------------
Bane/Luiz---Alex---------Terry-----------Cole-
-------Ramires----Mikel/Essien------Josh/lamps------
--Sturridge-------Drogba/Torres------Sanches/Neymar/kalou/Anelka/Lalkovic!!

I seriously feel its time we believe in youngsters.. Sad to see Borini leaving (just watch his free kick las weekend to know why).. We have good crop coming up in the names of josh, aanholt, chalaboah, kakuta, sturridge, lalkovic, mellis, clifford.. They have to be given the confidence that if they show potential they will be in Chelsea first team.. Don say that its end of an era.. I believe that it has just begun!!!!!!!!!!! KTBFFH!!