Hello All. My first post on the forum is my chelsea plan for 07/08 and i want to know what you all think of it. As all of us i have been terribly disappointed with the summer signings Mourinho made in Ballack, Boulahrouz, and most importantly Sheva, whom were all name in Norman Hubbard's Worst Signings of the Season article on Soccernet. We have had some bad luck with these guys and there is absolutely no reason to blame JM for their problems in the premierleague. I feel an overwhelming longing for Chelsea to perform like they did in 04/05. In that year they, along AC milan and Juventus, could have been said to be the best team in the world. Manchester United winning the title looked a long shot in the pre-season but they triumphed for two main reasons (very hard to put this without sounding like an arrogant Chelsea bandwagon supporter) : luck and the right mix of players. Talking about luck i am mainly speaking about injuries. Manchester United were very fortunate to not lose Christiano Ronaldo for more than 2 consecutive games this season. They were also fortunate that Chelsea, the other main title challenger, lost what could be regarded as the two best defensive players in England in John Terry and Petr Cech for the majority of the season. They were also very lucky that Ronaldo and Rooney solved their social problems after the world cup and that they formed a lethal duo in the attack. Playing alongside players like scholes and giggs they have found the perfect mix of young and old players and it has really payed off. I do believe next year will be a 4-team challenge for the premiership. Liverpool with their new cash injection will strengthen their squad heavily in order to mount a good title race. Arsenal's youth have gained another season of experience and you do not expect that they will have the same injury problems they did this season with Henry and Van Persie. Manchester United i believe will come 2nd or 3rd this coming season mainly becaise of the fact that Neville, Scholes, Giggs, Solskjaer and also Heinze have all grown a year older and their talents are not immortal but the two best youth aspects of the premierleague in Ronaldo and Rooney should keep their back-to-back title hopes alive. I do regard Chelsea as the favourite to win 2007/2008 but the key is not only mounds of money but also they need to find a right mix of players. Talking about Chelsea securing the services of Steve Sidwell, i do believe this would be a quality signing. He along with such players as essien, john obi mikel, and makelele could do a very good job complimenting Lampard in the central midfield. Another player who could do this job would be the likes of Jermaine Jenas or even Lee Cattermole. I reckon they should drop Ballack, Sheva and Boulahrouz to the reserve side to play the first 2 months of football of the season to try and gain some confidence. We obviously cannot drop Sheva to the reserve side without a decent replacement and i believe we should find a striker in the premierleague who is versatile and willing to come on loan for 6 months such as Defoe or even Viduka that can play a backup role for the time being. Finally the main problem we need to patch up is our defence. When Mourinho first came to the club he focused all of his attention towards the defence and we set new records like in 2005/2006 when we didnt concede for something like the first 11 games. We NEED a new CB and a new RB. Something like Ledley King would serve us good in the halves and also a right back like daniel alves or phillip lahm pr even Micah Richards. I am really looking forward to a close season next year, please voice your opinions. Mike
Lee Cattermole? Jermaine Jenas? No thanks. We didn't (don't?) need Sidwell to begin with. On the other hand, if you want to irreperably damage the club, playing Ballack and Sheva in the reserves would do it. Ukraine's captain and Germany's captain being told "they're not good enough"? Wow.
Sorry Mike but Im with Nice on this one. Sheva and Ballack might have had their problems adjusting to the league but you can't refute their contributions to the Champions League campaign. Notice how dire we were at Liverpool with both of them out. I'd also take Ballack over Jenas any day. I agree we need defenders but sending those 2 big names to the reserves would hurt more than build confidence. You could throw Boula to the wolves for all I care.
If you think Juventus were one of the best sides in the world in 2004/05 you obviously had you're eyes glued shut for most of that season!
'atta boy. I think we'd be better of as a team flogging Sheva than putting him in the reserves. I'd actually like to keep Ballack.
my feelings exactly....mickey B has always been the big fish so to speak at club and country level,cant be easy being a regular joe at Chelsea. hopefully he'll get back on song next season,getting to take a few more freekicks would'nt hurt either.
Nice post. I mostly agree with u. On a slightly different note, which trophy do u guys think will our prioirity be next year?
Agreed. I do think we'd need 2 more strikers if we sold Sheva though. Of course, if there's any truth of Lampard to Barca, I suppose we could be persuaded to sell Sheva back to Milan if they give us Kaka. Realistically, though, it all depends on whether or not Mourinho gets the control he wants over our summer purchases.
Its not just that though - its one thing to buy players who don't work out and then sell them (many great players have failed to play well for certain clubs; it can happen). But to stick national team captains and high profile players in the reserves? Yikes! What high profile player is going to want to come to Chelsea after that? For example, if we did that, imagine someone like Berbatov thinking "so, if I have a bad run of form, they'll drop me to the reserves? No thanks!" And I wouldn't be able to disagree with him. Its a bad idea all around. As for Boulah? Sell him, loan him, whatever. He's not good enough and was a panic buy likely influenced by Arnesen.
It should always be the league. There are too many elements involved in focusing on the CL. One freak goal, one unfortunate suspension, one awful penalty - all these things can send you crashing out of the competition, whereas you can weather those things in the league by winning the next game.
It should definitely be the league. What exactly does winning the CL do for you? Champions of Europe? ********ing joke... Liverpool are the Champions of absolutely nothing. The FA Cup final holds two of the five best teams in the Europe this season/currently. The Champions League Final features two teams that that have ONE league title between them this millenium.
well we all know the nature of cup competitions,and more often than not the best team in the tournement wont win due to any number of reasons. we're as the league is a clubs bread and butter,so to speak..... Chelsea will one day win the champions league,it could be next year.....or it could be so far down the road that we'll all be dead,either way it it's still nothing more than a cup competition. if the clubs board feel the same way is of course a differant matter altogether,as we saw durning last summers transfer window.
good first post michael, although I do not agree with all of your points, you have started an interesting thread just focus on one quick point; without fail the number one priority every season should be winning the League. Unfortunatley the CL follows second as the marketing power it is able to bring a club to a global audience. As much as I hate to say this, and will probably be burned at the stake, but the FA Cup will mostly take a back seat in the near future. I would love to make it a focal point of the season, but as we have witnessed this season, the Domestic cups do take a lot out of the teams. I can see the Cups being used to blood the youngsters as Arsenal do.
well a good effort ..... agree on most points .... man u had a gr8 season and they really did us in in the start .... this proves that nowadays consistency in the first part of the season is crucial .... well credit to them and c.ronaldo for maintaining his amazing form ..... the injection of sheva and ballack made us shift to the very narrow 4-1-2-1-2 diamond ..... As much as this gives us stability in the center, it doesnt work with teams with fast full backs/wingers ..... For this to work we needed really good rbs and lbs .....our rb let us down ...the constant rotation due to lack of performances, boulharouz's one wonder performance and then crap,etc contributed to the downfall ..... the priority for next season remains a very pacy cb backup, a top-class rb and a striker ..... sidwell has been brought in as mike and mikel will be out for 2 months ....after tht i doubt he will be getting regular starts .... micah richards is one of my choices or maybe miguel (valencia will squeeze us dry for him) .... as far as strikers go, tevez looks a real good prospect ...he has settled in the EPL and wont come at tht high a price .... wouldnt mind bent either .... for the back up cb, i say keep boulha for one more season (dont have go at me for this ) and maybe bring back alex from PSv...thts abt it .... personally abt glen johnson, i still dont feel he is chelsea material and let him continue at portsmouth And finally hope we win the FA this time and from next year only concentrate on EPL and CL Sidenote : how do u put the image under ur name? .... i am just getting a tiny image ......