champions, wigan athlectic

Whilst we’d prefer to remain at Stamford Bridge, we’re not naive enough to think that we can challenge the Barcelona’s, Man Utd’s & Real Madrid’s with a stadium that has half the capacity of our rivals.

However, whilst we are in favour of a move in principle to a nearby site, the current bid by Chelsea FC to purchase the shares of Chelsea Pitch Owners is nothing short of scandalous.

Here’s the facts:  12,000 Chelsea Pitch Owners own the freehold to Stamford Bridge, the pitch, the turnstiles and the Chelsea FC brand name.  The Club want us to sell these rights for £1.2 million in return for NOTHING except a shallow promise that no new stadium will be built outside a radius of 3 miles before 2020.  After 2020, the Club can do what it likes.

By any reasonable measure, the rights to the freehold of Stamford Bridge and the brand name Chelsea FC are worth a combined total of £1 billion (editor’s note: Adidas has announced we outsell every other Club in the world on shirt sales including Real Madrid and Bayern Munich).  It seems strange that all these rights combined are only worth £1.2 million in the Club’s eyes.

However, this isn’t about the money.  It never was.  Chelsea Pitch Owners (CPO) was set up BY THE CLUB ITSELF to protect us, the fans, from being taken over and the ground/Club sold off by unscrupulous property developers and rich opportunists.  Now, according to Chelsea FC, we have nothing to worry about and we are in good hands under Roman’s patronage.  But are we? 

For us and other fans groups representing Chelsea fans worldwide, the devil is in the detail. The potential Lucifer is hidden in the sentence that says ‘The Club promises to only relocate within 3 miles of the current stadium until 2020.’  The key question is why 2020?  Why not 2050? 

A cynic would argue that it will take almost 9 years to plan and re-develop a stadium within 3 miles of Stamford Bridge anyway.  So what’s to stop Mr Abramovich pretending to “look for a site” over the next 9 years before stating, “we didn’t find one” and then “moving beyond 3 miles” into a “ready built stadium” such as “Wembley or Twickenham” whilst “pocketing £750 million from the sale of Stamford Bridge”.  Trebles All Round and damn fine business.

This lack of a firm guarantee regarding the future of Stamford Bridge, entrusted to us the Chelsea Pitch Owners, means that we are left with no option but to recommend a ‘NO’ vote. 

In short, we either need the date moved to 2050 (meaning that the current Club incumbents will be long dead and can’t ‘relocate us to Wembley’ in 2020) AND/OR a separate vote is required once a new stadium site has been properly identified.  Failing that, it has to be a ‘NO’. This view is shared by the majority of our readership who voted ‘NO’ in a recent poll. 

We’ll leave you with a quote from an email we received from Max Dowling, a CPO and ex-box holder who told us, quote, “In the Club’s offer document there are no guarantees from the Club apart from ‘trust us’.  The last time I trusted someone without a written agreement I couldn’t sit down for a week.”

Exactly.  Vote NO.

Yet it’s not just a question of whether Frank has outlived his usefulness. Is it not also a question of whether the team under Andre Villas-Boas has moved on?

Under Mourinho we played deep and used a powerhouse midfield to wear down the opposition. Under this system Frank would run box-to-box and drive forward mopping up any loose balls. His main weapon, one that helped earn him the silver award for the Ballon d’Or in 2005, was timing his runs into the area perfectly and rifling the ball into the net.

The Cech, Terry, Lampard, Drogba axis became the backbone of our most successful team of all time. Central to its success was Lampard who, aside from his average of 20 goals a season between 2004 and 2010, was voted the Premiership Player of the Decade using the Premier League’s own statistics.

Fast forward to 2011 and it appears that the style of football demanded by Abramovich and implemented by AVB renders Lampard a far more peripheral figure. The swift pass-and-move style, somewhat reminiscent of Barcelona (albeit in its beginning stages), does not ideally suit Frank’s game in the same way that our style in 2006 didn’t suit Shevchenko when he arrived.

That doesn’t make Frank any less of a player (although the media would like to think so) it’s just that this change in style has coincided with Frank’s age starting to catch up with him. Both factors combined have impacted his performances and have seen him dropped for both England and Chelsea.

So where does it leave him, Chelsea and us? It all depends on whether Frank has the maturity to realise that his pivotal role at Chelsea has come to an end and his importance to the team has diminished. Note that I have said ‘team’ and not ‘Club’. Indeed Frank has been a monumental presence as our Club vice-captain and represents himself and the Club impeccably.

If Frank can stomach his declining influence in the same way that an aging rock group can gracefully embrace the downward trajectory of their album sales (Rolling Stones anyone?) then Frank still has a long term future with Chelsea both as a squad player and, eventually, as a coach and manager (or ambassador).

It all depends on whether he is willing to come to terms with his slow decline and not be swayed by media provocation –the media would like nothing better than to hammer Chelsea with a barrel load of ‘Lampard crisis’ stories as typified by The Mail on Sunday’s back page non-story.

Fortunately, Frank possesses an emotional maturity far beyond his years and, in Villas-Boas, he has an equally intelligent manager to oversee the final years of his career. These two factors alone will ensure an excellent future for Frank both as a player and an ambassador for our Club.

It feels strange to talk about the past ten months in this manner especially as we came second to a club who were Champions League finalists. However, the feeling of anti-climax is palpable to CFCnet’s readers and, aside from the odd magical moment, we’d rather push last season into that section of our brain which manages ‘suppressed memories’.

Our previous post, End of Season Review Part One, covers off the departure of Ancelotti and has a basic overview of our season. This current post highlights what we consider to be our (few) sublime moments. Here goes:

• Best Moment: The signing of Fernando Torres. After having to endure a mid-season collapse and the media carping on about Roman’s closed cheque book, out comes £50 million and a one finger salute. 11.30pm on transfer deadline day was about as much fun as we could endure short of a beach holiday with Eva Mendes.
• Second Best Moment: The following day, when Fernando Torres went on record stating that, “The target for every player is to play for one of the tops clubs in the world and I can do it now, so I’m very happy.” So were we Fernando, for more reasons than you would ever know.
• Best On Field Moment: Probably when Torres eventually scored. A long, long time later.
• Worst Moment: Losing to Liverpool in our first home league game after deadline day. Why oh why did we play Torres in this game of all games? Ancelotti’s biggest black mark.
• Player of the Season: After each game, CFCnet conducts an online poll ranking each player’s performance. It’s an accurate way of evaluating a player throughout the whole season, not for just one month’s worth of glory displays (aka ‘doing a Malouda’). CFCnet’s Player of the Season as voted by our readers? Step forward in 1^st place John Terry (2^nd – Ramires; 3^rd – equal between Drogba & Mikel; 4^th – Petr Cech; 5^th Branislav Ivanović).
• Signing of the season: Unpredictable, crazy, a Lisbon hairstylist’s dream etc, Sideshow Bob will undoubtedly enter Chelsea’s Hall of Fame at some point. Immensely talented and passionate in equal measure, Sideshow is tipped to one day become our future captain. His display against City was the performance of the season by any Chelsea player bar none.
• Most improved player: Ramires, finally getting used to the pace of the Premiership after ten months.
• On the decline: We can’t go there, it’s too distressing and we also value our knee caps. The next manager will have to be brave and ruthless, particularly when it comes to one or two legends.
• Most needed: A creative midfield genius. Barcelona have a habit of pulling a Maradona, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho and Messi out of the bag. Can we start too? A fast winger or two wouldn’t go amiss either.
• Please keep: Our defence. Still world class and (joint) best in the Premiership.
• One that got away: Christian Ceballos, Barca’s Under 17 Captain. We dare not say more. But you can read about it here.

Perhaps it wasn’t such an uneventful season after all … Whatever happens over the next two months, let’s wish for a top class manager and a number of world class signings. We need them.

Finally, CFCnet would like to wish all our readers a great summer break and see you back at the Bridge in August.

The fact remains, however, that we’ve come second in the Premiership to a team playing their third Champions League Final in four years.  For that reason, allied to last season’s Double, two thirds of CFCnet readers wanted Carlo Ancelotti to remain our manager for season 2011/2012.

It was therefore a sad moment when CFCnet received a text informing us that Carlo’s contract had been paid-up and the manager asked to leave on Sunday evening.  All we can say is ‘thank you’ and we’d like to wish this honourable man our very best wishes for the future.  He will forever take a prominent position in our history for winning Chelsea’s first Double.

Our Chelsea message boards have reflected the disappointment of readers who wanted Carlo to stay, although it must be said that criticism of him was not restricted to those who wanted him to go.  Indeed, a vast majority of our readers were disappointed at his inability to tactically influence a game (once it had kicked off) and doubts remain whether he ever had a Plan B.

Some CFCnet readers have since argued we should have retained Ancelotti if only for stability’s sake.  That’s a spurious argument because Arsenal have had one manager in the time we’ve had six yet the Emirates’ trophy room still contains the emptiest cupboard this side of a student drug bust.

Attention now focuses on who should replace our likeable Italian. CFCnet readers, once a passionate bunch regarding the choice of new manager, are a bit long in the tooth for all this nonsense.  We all know that (a) a new manager will be appointed and (b) he’ll have to deliver.  The days of a Ranieri-style trophy-less tenure are long gone so why worry?  A bit harsh but you tell us if it isn’t true.  Alfred E Neuman rules.

The romantic amongst us would dearly like to see one of our ex-players come into the frame, either as a Number One or as a Number One ‘in waiting’.  Gus Poyet, Franco Zola and even Steve Clarke are all held in high esteem by our readers and it would make all the continual shuffling of our managers worthwhile if we ended up with a Club legend behind the dugout.

To that end, and to offer words of encouragement, a whole troupe of CFCnet readers will be making our way to Fulham’s Craven Cottage this Sunday (29^th May) to see Franco Zola captain the Legends side against Spurs, Fulham and Arsenal at 3pm onwards. It’s a chance to see not only Gianfranco but also heroes like Hasselbaink, Tore Andre Flo, Pat Nevin and Mark Stein. You can get more details here and on Chelseafc.com.  See you there!

Currently, throughout the vote, the support for Ancelotti has hovered around the 66% mark.  It’s wavered only slightly and has remained there or thereabouts with two thirds of readers wanting our Reggiolo-born coach to remain at the helm for Season 2011/2012.

Privately, amongst the staff at CFCnet, we’re delighted at the show of support for our manager.  He clearly has the support of the players, is well liked by the media and many neutral fans, and has the eye for a good signing or two (Luiz and Ramires being two standout buys).  We also can’t forget that Carlo was the first manager in our history to win the Double with a record goal-scoring haul of 103 goals.

Yes, we’ll readily admit this season has been a disappointment with our mid-season collapse costing us the title.  We’ve lost many of our big games and in a few matches we’ve failed to turn up until we’ve conceded two easy goals (Man Utd away is agonisingly fresh in our memories). However, despite this, we feel that Carlo deserves the opportunity to see his contract through to the very end.

That’s not to say we don’t have any criticisms of Carlo’s management.  One national newspaper described his team tactics and selections as ‘uninspired’ and a single Google search of the phrase ‘Carlo Ancelotti uninspired’ will show that many others share the same view.  Indeed, CFCnet still remains unconvinced that Carlo knows how to change a game with his substitutions.  When he does manage the feat we often take the view that it was luck rather than shrewd management.  One thing is clear – Mourinho was the master at changing a game and once you’ve seen the best tactician in the game at close quarters, other managers are shown up by their failings.

Whilst there are some solid excuses for this season’s poor performances – Wilkins leaving, Drogba’s malaria, Lampard’s hernia operation to name but three – our mid-season collapse would have seen many managers in other teams being sacked.  We’re grateful that the Club showed patience in the face of a media barrage and we’re pleased that Carlo justified the Club’s faith by turning around our season in February, March and April.

Not everyone shares our view, in fact our poll shows that one third of CFCnet reader’s want Carlo to sling his hook back to Italy. Perhaps the most insightful anti-Ancelotti article we’ve published is from staunch Maltese fan (and Chelsea author) Richard Micallef.  He makes the telling point that “for all the stability at Arsenal, they have been without a trophy since their lucky FA Cup win in 2005. Their stability in the meantime has brought in zero trophies while our instability has brought us eight major trophies (ten if you count the Community Shield).”

Micallef also points out that in six knock out Champions League games under Carlo’s stewardship we have lost four, drawn one and won just one (failing to even score in any of our knock-out home games).  Has this one statistic sealed Carlo’s fate?  We don’t know but time will soon tell.

Please visit the forum to cast your vote

In saying that, it is important we gauge the views of our readers not least because we have to reflect these views in our official Chelseafc.com blog and also to the media in general when they ask us to comment.

The poll is a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’. We don’t need hundreds of reasons either way – we’ve heard them all countless times – but we do need to know whether CFCnet readers want our Italian double winner to stay or to sling his hook back to Reggiolo.

We’d like to add that one winning entry will get a free download of the Clash’s iconic song, “Should I stay or should I go?”, but that’s not going to happen.

The first point we’d like to make is how heartened we were when we read the latest issue of cfcuk, the print fanzine sold outside the ground by David Johnstone and cohorts.  The fans who write and contribute to this black & white fanzine comprise some of Chelsea’s most loyal supporters and the recent issue goes in-depth over our Champions League exit.

The fanzine’s findings?  We were beaten by the better team and we should have no complaints.  No gripes, no moaning, no hysterical ‘sack the manager’ rants.  Just a balanced view over our shortcomings and a reminder how far the Club has come since the dark days of the ‘80’s when all of us stood together on the Shed watching our beloved team get relegated.  When you’ve witnessed something as devastating as relegation, you tend to take games in their stride, particularly when our team is now regularly challenging for European Cups and League titles.

The patience shown by CFCUK and its contributors’ outstanding support for the team has been rewarded by a return visit to Old Trafford.  The prize? Top spot and a chance to retain our Premier League trophy.  It’s now in Chelsea’s hands, something we thought we’d never be able to say when just a few short months ago even 4^th spot looked in jeopardy.  It’s the sort of come back not seen since Lazarus poked his head round the kitchen door and asked for a croissant.

The point we want to make is that real fans will keep supporting and encouraging our team, not taking banners to Cobham or booing Mikel when he misplaces a pass.  It’s about vocal support, patience and taking moans to the pub after the game, not during it.  All CFCnet can say to CFCUK is….’respect’.

The second point discussed during the long afternoon pre-Spurs was the non-advert for football that was Barcelona v Real Madrid (Champions league first leg).  To say CFCnet was disappointed would be an understatement and, from our view, it was a shameful exhibition of diving and play-acting.  We felt desperately sorry for Jose Mourinho who retains a special place in our hearts and to go down to ten men in that manner was shocking.

CFCnet’s bulletin boards have been busy with post match analysis and the general feeling is that the Champions League perpetually throws up mystifying referee decisions each and every season.  Barcelona only appear to beat Chelsea when we’re down to ten men and there are a few teams and managers who could say the same thing (Mourinho, Wenger et al).

What perplexes CFCnet is that when we took a straw poll of readers who can remember a bad Premier League referee decision go against us, no one could remember an incident quickly.  When the same question was asked about the Champions League, dozens of controversies came to mind immediately (Ramires penalty anyone?).  As a fans group we feel strongly that something needs to be done to retain the integrity of the Champions League because, amongst the fans, doubts are surfacing about the the competition.

The solution? We don’t know, but allowing a team to ‘question’ a key decision via video-replay three times during a game might put a stop to the shenanigans.  Three times would be enough to protect a team but not enough to break up play.  CFCnet feels it’s something to think about because, as it currently stands, we’re starting to lose faith in the Champions League and so are many of our 90,000 readers.



Having said that, and with immediate reactions carefully consigned to the World’s End Estate trash bin, we want it on record that we remain steadfastly behind both our manager and team.  Yes, there are disagreements within the CFCnet crew and both The Anglesea Arms and Kings Arms’ pubs saw some heated debate this week.  We’d be lying if we said some of our members didn’t want to see wholesale changes from the management down.

But, as a fans group, we have to ask what would wholesale changes achieve?  Football is one of the few sports where knee-jerk reactions often result in the very opposite of what they are intended to do.  With decades of standing (and sitting) on the terraces behind us, all we’ve known is loyalty and patience – 26 years of it by the time our 1997 FA Cup victory arrived.

People might disagree but wasn’t it less than seven years ago that our then manager, Claudio Ranieri, left Stamford Bridge with a standing ovation and a players’ guard of honour after four trophy-less seasons and the biggest Champions League capitulation of all time in Monaco?  If we can show that level of appreciation to Ranieri, how anybody can call for Carlo to go after winning the Double last year is beyond us.  CFCnet will always support the manager and, in this instance, particularly so.

In saying that, there is no question that we are now witnessing the final dying embers of Jose Mourinho’s great team.  At the very elite level of sport small details make a big difference and even a wafer-thin drop in performance levels can drop a team down a whole level or two.  From being regular Champions League semi-finalists we’re now struggling to even reach and come through the quarter final stages.  That’s a decline, pure and simple.

Given this article was written for the official Club website it doesn’t feel right for us to mercilessly pick out players and tell them they’re not wanted, neither would the Club let us for obvious reasons.  It’s also a delicate situation when any player who has given and contributed so much starts to drop a notch in performance terms – at what point do you say “enough’s enough, now sling your hook”?

For the above reason we’d recommend that any readers who’ve managed to endure the last 400 words take a short hyper-link to The Evening Standard’s analysis of our current team.  We’re not fans of The Evening Standard at CFCnet, we’ve had some run-ins with them over the years, but the article in question is an excellent analysis of our current squad and, to be blunt, is almost a carbon copy of what we’d write.  Whilst we don’t want to embarrass the reporter in question, we do know he is a season ticket holder in the MHL so we’d vouch for the fact that ‘he knows his Chelsea’.

It feels odd to finish off this piece with little optimism over our near future, but try as we might we’re a little deflated.  Perhaps the only bright note we can think of is that since 1966 our record at Old Trafford is 14 wins as against United’s 13 (and 16 draws).  We’re still better than them, even on their own patch.  That’ll do.

Don’t get us wrong.  CFCnet believes we are still very much in the Champions League tie and thousands of us will be travelling to Old Trafford next Tuesday with high hopes.  Our record at Old Trafford is better than any side in world football and Chelsea often rise to the occasion at the ghastly named ‘Theatre of Dreams’.

We make the journey in the knowledge that if we score first, United will be quaking in their boots – any subsequent Chelsea goals will as good as count double.  Chelsea are also a team with a cast-iron mentality and we play our best football when up against the odds, more so when it comes to a stadium packed with quiet Surrey day trippers (“you only live round the corner”).

What concerns CFCnet, however, is that our team is too one dimensional and United’s display on Wednesday shed a clear light on this deficiency.  Yes, we have an outstanding defence (the best in the Premier League), a brilliantly robust midfield and probably the strongest attack in Europe.  But what makes the side fail to gel is the lack of a midfield playmaker to unlock opposition defences and make the killer pass in the final third.

It’s all very well having strikers of the calibre of Drogba, Torres and Anelka but if they fail to get the service how can they score?   Sure, we came close on Wednesday night with two world class saves, a post, a goal line clearance and a clear penalty appeal all conspiring against us.  But it was still apparent to anyone inside the stadium that our play was too predictable and Carlo Ancelotti had no Plan B except to bring on Malouda and Anelka late in the game.

We’re certain our lack of creativity isn’t lost on the manager.  Carlo was fortunate to have had Zidane as a playmaker when he managed Juventus and then Kaka when he managed AC Milan.  In fact Carlo’s management success has been tactically down to his use of razor sharp strikers in front of a world-class playmaker.  Carlo himself played with one of the greatest playmakers of all time and, for younger readers, this classic clip of Carlo taking a pass from Ruud Gullit and scoring against Real Madrid in the European Cup semi-finals shows he personally knows where the goal is too.

Talking of Real Madrid, CFCnet couldn’t fail to raise a smile at the fortunes of London’s other Champions League quarter finalists, Spurs – one nil down after four minutes, ten men on fifteen and four nil down at the final whistle.  With that in mind, it hasn’t been a bad week and it’s still all to play for, although not for Tottenham .

Signed on deadline day, a source told CFCnet that the ex-Benfica defender was ‘like Ricardo Carvalho only better’.  Whilst that’s praise indeed – Riccy was, after all, a fantastic player– even we couldn’t begin to imagine the affect Luiz has had on both the team and the fans.

It’s therefore fitting that the chant commandeered by Zola has been passed onto the Brazilian international.  To the tune of ‘I Love You Baby’ the song that rose up on Sunday from the Matthew Harding Lower had everyone doubled up with laughter yet there’s no question it’s a classic:

“Oh David Luiz, you are the love of my life,

Oh David Luiz, you can sh** my wife,

Oh David Luiz, I want curly hair toooo.”

Just like his Barclays Man of the Match performance against Fulham, Luiz’s MOM display against Man City marks him out as a legend.  Not tomorrow, but today. Young, committed, passionate and outrageously skilful, he took the game by the scruff of the neck and capped it all with the opening, decisive goal. His occasional eccentricities simply endear him further – witness his shoulder barge on Milner. Priceless.

Talk in the pubs afterwards centred on Luiz and bets have already been placed that the Brazilian will be our future captain when JT and Lamps hang up their boots.  Perhaps that’s a bit early to call, but aged 23 one can only guess what Luiz is going to be like in four years’ time.  “Frightening” was how one CFCnet crew member described it.

Luiz’s display also capped the weekend for the Chelsea Bulgarian Supporters Club.  Over here for their annual pilgrimage, the supporters from Sofia were left open-mouthed by our new centre back. 

There are hundreds of overseas Chelsea fan clubs but the Bulgarian Supporters have a special place in CFCnet’s hearts.  When we played Levski Sofia a few years ago, the Bulgarian Chelsea Supporters Club put us up, fed and watered us, and then hosted a raucous party in downtown Sofia.  It was quite surreal to hear ‘Carefree’ boom around the city streets in such a heavy East European accent – “Caffreee, vair eva you villt bee”.

It’s not just us who have a soft spot for the Bulgarian crew. Dave Johnstone of CFCUK fame was also a guest of Dimitar Popov et al and one particular scene remains indelibly stamped in our minds.  The Bulgarian Supporters arranged an hour long radio slot on Bulgaria Talk Radio and expecting a rather passive morning, the interviewer asked Dave Johnstone what song he wanted to play.  His choice was ‘God Save the Queen’ by the Sex Pistols broadcast to millions of Bulgarians eating their breakfast.  Listening figures slumped in the days following the broadcast but Dave Johnstone had a grin as wide as the Thames.

The short clip below shows the Bulgarian Supporters outside the Anglesea Arms before Sunday’s game.  In no particular order are Dimitar Popov, Deyan Shipkov, Plamen Ivanov and Martin Todorov.

Finally, a quick word to the Stadium Screen producer who broadcast a clip of Roman Abramovich’s reaction to the substitution of Fernando Torres.  The feeling amongst fans was that it undermined the manager and we’d prefer any clips to be more carefully chosen in future.