My Blood Is Blue

I think right back is going to be one of the hardest ones. Personally, I would be basing my votes on what they achieved and gave/are giving to the club as well as the ability of the player. So your Azpi vs Reece James example, would be Azpi for me, even though in full flow, James is arguably the better player. Some other very good right backs to consider as well though.

You've peaked a bit early

Completely agree, I would be leaving as many that are starting and likely to even be involved on Sunday at home for this one. So I'd be looking at a travelling squad of: 11 Academy players Jorgensen Bettinelli/Bergstrom Disasi Chilwell Veiga Chukwuemeka KDH Mudryk Guiu

Goalkeeper This will be a hard one for @chara, who I am sure will wish he could cast 2 votes. Carlo Cudicini A fan favourite, Cudicini was Chelsea’s first-choice goalkeeper between 1999 and 2004 before Čech’s arrival. Known for his acrobatic saves and reliability, he won Chelsea's Player of the Year award in 2002. Though he later became a backup, Cudicini’s professionalism and contributions during Chelsea's rise are fondly remembered. Petr Čech Čech was the backbone of the team during its most successful era. He won four Premier League titles, four FA Cups, and the 2012 Champions League, making vital saves, especially in the penalty shootout. Čech holds numerous club and league records, including 228 clean sheets in 494 appearances. Thibaut Courtois Courtois was crucial to Chelsea’s Premier League titles in 2015 and 2017. His height and shot-stopping ability made him one of the best goalkeepers in the league. He also won the Golden Glove in 2017 before leaving for Real Madrid, but his contributions during his time at Chelsea were significant. Ed de Goey De Goey was Chelsea’s goalkeeper during an exciting time in the late 1990s. Making 179 appearances, he helped the team to win the 1998 Cup Winners' Cup, FA Cup, and League Cup. De Goey was known for his leadership at the back and solid shot-stopping as Chelsea began establishing themselves among England’s top clubs. Peter Bonetti Known as "The Cat" for his agility, Bonetti is a Chelsea legend from the 1960s and 70s. He made 729 appearances (the second-most in the club’s history) and played a crucial role in winning Chelsea’s first FA Cup in 1970 and their first European trophy in 1971. His loyalty and reflexes made him one of the club’s all-time greats. Let the voting commence!

Ok, we have our formation and we will be building our greatest ever Chelsea team using 433. The positions we'll be selecting shown below and as I mentioned before, some players may appear in multiple lists when we vote.

It's taken the post from @Blue Moon to make me realise it's about time I added a 'Cold' Palmer reaction, the amount of times we have to talk about him in the matchday thread!

Hi all, just to let you know @ROTG hasn't vanished from the site due to our club's good form, he's away with work and is delayed again getting home, so won't be around for a little while longer, but he wanted to let you know he will be back and he's loving the form as much as anyone... so much so, he's made his donation relating to the ROTG Challenge early, which I'm sure you'll all agree, is very good of him. I hope his early donation doesn't put a hex on our form though!

We could do with JT in goal at the moment

Yeah, that’s what I had in my head

After the formation vote, I won’t vote for the players but will have a deciding vote should we have two players level when the vote closes.

Some players will appear in different votes if they played in multiple positions for us.

I'm going to do my best to cover as many decades as possible when giving the choices for each position, but some of which I can only go from highlights/what I've been told.

At the moment all 3 are in good enough form to be playing, but agree, getting all 3 on the pitch every match is far from straightforward. For me, it has to be Caicedo plus one other and rotate them as required for who is more suited to the match etc. Wonderful problem to have.

Over the past 18 months, many of us (including myself) have had our fair share of criticisms towards the sporting directors, and it's easy to see why. We struggled to find form, cleared out nearly an entire squad, and brought in a lot of young, unproven players. The decisions faced heavy scrutiny. But now, it seems like they may have known exactly what they were doing all along. Of course, we'll face setbacks and tough runs of results at some point, but what’s being built here is beginning to look very solid and capable of weathering those dips and emerging stronger. I kept stressing over the summer that we needed to be patient, to give time for the seeds the owners and sporting directors planted to bear fruit. Even then, I didn’t expect things to turn out this well so quickly. I thought a top-six finish was the goal, and while I optimistically predicted top four, that was more out of hope than confidence. Now, top four is looking more and more realistic each week, and who knows? Maybe we'll have a go in the title race as well...