Middlesbrough 1 Chelsea 0

[Bert19]

14 minutes ago, paulw66 said:

Interesting one. I thought under Gullit and Vialli in the late 90s we played some beautiful football, but had a soft underbelly. 

I think that sort of 96-98 period was the most exciting for me.  I was 9-11 years old, we had Gullit and then he brought Vialli, RdM and old CD Head in at centre half.  

Then when that little genius Gianfranco arrived, my perception of football just completely expanded.  I look back on it now and think about just how lucky we were to see our team morph like that. 

[Mark Kelly]

Personally my favourite was the Ranieri side , we were very unlucky not to win the league too.

[CarefreeMuratcan]

21 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

Personally my favourite was the Ranieri side , we were very unlucky not to win the league too.

Ranieri's whole reign were my formative years of watching football, it was in 2000-2001 that I started following the results weekly. 

So many great memories, but my favourite will be beating Spurs 4-0 in a row (one on a Sunday then on the following Wednesday) and attending the 2nd one and seeing JFH score a perfect hatrick with 2 long distance outside the box shots. 

And that was our response to Spurs beating us 5-1 and ending our unbeaten run against them which had been as long as my life up to that point. 

God I hate Spurs. 

[Blue Moon]

Totally agree - I think Ranieri's contribution has been understated for a long time. He built the bedrock that allowed Jose to shine - a great team builder.  And a real nice guy, too.

[Miguelito07]

27 minutes ago, Blue Moon said:

Totally agree - I think Ranieri's contribution has been understated for a long time. He built the bedrock that allowed Jose to shine - a great team builder.  And a real nice guy, too.

I would often see him and his wife on the No.14 bus - he had a house by Eel Brook Common and my mum would occasionally see him in the Catholic Church on the fulham road attending the Spanish service.

Tinkered a little too much against Monaco away in the CL Semi-Final though (Champions League nights - oh how i miss thee). Aside from that, he was definitely a lovely guy.

Apologies - going off topic.

 

Edited January 11 by Miguelito07

[Leo]

Are we going down memory lane ? This talk of Ranieri side made me remember that dreadful game in the Uefa Cup to Hapoel Tel Aviv away we lost 2-0. A lot of the talk pre match was how many of the first XI starters were going to travel, just a very depressing and dreary game which featured Melchiot getting sent off.  Sorry for the random thought!

[Sciatika]

For me, it is hard to look past the 2004-6 side. I loved the players of the 70s to 90s, or Ancelloti's or Tuchel's sides, but the JM teams were something else. In those days we were surprised to lose.

[patThenevin]

On 10/01/2024 at 09:28, martin1905 said:

You are right but I've been watching football long enough from my boys being involved in grass routes football for the past 11 years to watching us win 2 European cups so literally every level from the very bottom all the way to the absolute pinnacle of the sport and I have very rarely, if ever, seen such a poorly coached team. The only one that compares is us under Potter.

I got a lot of abuse for calling it early but the signs were there from the very beginning and we now have a big enough sample that shows just how inept the manager and his coaching team are and we have seen absolutely nothing to show they can turn this around.

We can rip the club to pieces, the owners, the scouting team, the money spent, the culling of the old guard, the purchase of far too many young players, the sacking of Tuchel, the appointments of three awful managers. There has been a long, long list of terrible decisions since the club was sold. None of that matters though when you break it down to the very basics of setting a team team up to play, compete and hopefully win football matches. 

Yes we would be better with a striker. Yes we would be better with some more experience. Yes we would be better without so many injury prone players but all that aside its not too much to ask to expect the manager to coach a squad on a daily basis and them get them ready to compete on the football pitch.

It's really not all that difficult. A manager, any half competent one, should have a philosophy. A style. A way of playing football that he drills into them on the training ground and it doesn't matter who is playing. It doesn't matter if players are injured. It doesn't matter if you are Man City or a team of 7 year olds playing grass routes football on a Sunday morning.

They train and train and train and take what they are taught during training into games. It doesn't matter if you are a high pressing, high intensity, possession based team playing on the front foot or a team that plays a low block,  with everyone behind the ball and looks to counter. The important thing is having a manager that understands the game and how he wants it to be played. A manager that is able to coach a team in a system that regardless of who is playing they play the same. Best example of that is Tottenham right now. Doesn't matter who plays, they all know their roles and how to play them and play the same, even with all their key players missing.

As I have said, I've been involed with my boys grass routes football now for 11 years, from 4 years old up until under 16's and have seen far better organised, far better coached teams at that level than what we are currently seeing. Since I gave my season ticket up I've been following Aldershot, as they are my local team, home and away and again have seen teams set up, far better than us, more organised than us, more disciplined than us, more motivated than us,  playing non league football.

It's embarrassing and no matter that we have too many young players, too many injuries, no striker and whatever other excuses people have made all season. Break the game down to its most simple form and nobody will be able to convince me anything other than the manager is inept.

I've said all season that it has never been about results but about performances. If we were 10th in the league but seeing something, anything to suggest we are building something I'd have no problem. All we have seen, all season is a manager with no philosophy who has never achieved anything in the game and has no idea how to implement a system, a style, an identity to a team. He can't organise them. He can't motivate them. He can't do his job.

He lives on his reputation for what he did at Tottenham but when you look at  what he actually achieved there, nothing, and look at the players he had during his time there he was put on a pedestal for failing. He was there with a team that was more than good enough to win trophies. Before Pep and Kloop made their machines, when Leicester won the league, when Conte won the league in his first season after we finished 10th the season before, during a time when there was no stand out team and he completely and utterly failed. Just imagine Pep had gone there and not City, with that squad he'd have walked the league, more than once.

Apparently he improves players? That was his main selling point when we hired him but has he ever actually done that? I can't think of one player he's improved here, but plenty that aren't as good. Much like how players performed under Tuchel and then Potter. Does he or did he just have a group of players at Tottenham, all together at the right time, that were always going to be good? Is Harry Kane the best striker in the world because of Pochettino or in spite of him? Did Vertonghen and Alderweireld become one of the best centre back pairings in the league because of him? Is Son the played he is today because of him? Or was it just the perfect group of players that made him look good but when they really needed him, he failed?

He relies, solely,  on individual brilliance from his players which is what made his Tottenham team. Kane, Son, Eriksen,  Delle,  Dembele,  Walker,  Vertonghen, Alderweireld all playing at their very best at a low point, in terms of quality teams, across the rest of the league. When it really mattered. When the team needed their manager to step up. To have a plan B. To motivate them. To manage a game of football and not just rely on the 11 players you pick to play well. To do something different in a final when the opposition scores inside 2 minutes and then change their gameplan from trying to win to not loosing. To have a system in place, after years, so when individuals aren't at their best someone steps in and does the same job. To push them on to actually achieve something. He couldn't.  He failed.  He's always failed and unsurprisingly he's failing again but this time he hasn't got the individual brilliance of players to make him look good so he is being shown up for exactly what he is.

We have seen first hand over the past, nearly 5 years now, since Frank's first time what difference a proper manager makes. We are literally the best placed fan base in the world to know how important the manager is. How much of a difference someone like Tuchel can make compared to Frank before him  or Potter after him, with same group of players!!!!  We've seen it with our own eyes for quite a while now, it's what amazes me when people don't see it. 

 

 

Great points and context.  Yeah an idea of identity and tactical approach should be the minimum by now and we still don't have that. 

We seem to be on an ever quickening treadmill of players giving up and downing tools....let's not forget the last few months of tuchel despite what came before. 

Perhaps it is my inate desire to cling on two at least one fundamental....I've we have a good person and manager at helm.  We sure as well haven't got that sat upstairs and the players, with the exception of a handful, seem cut from a so very modern cloth of pay and cost far beyond output. There's not much to like at present. As for Stamford bridge.... tourists and costly tickets. All my original lot scattered around, hassle getting us all away tickets.

Good on you regarding non League. Have watched one of my favourite ever games ware Vs north Leigh two years ago, seen my boy turn from youth player to senior and with our local team.  Just find myself being pushed further away from it at a rate I wouldn't have imagined five years ago.

Yo-yo club and we get funded by some limited but nonetheless Brit owners. Take me there. 

Thanks for giving me your perspective, you've done something unusual on the internet....shifted a view. 

Cheers and hope you enjoyed Swindon away!

 

[patThenevin]

On 10/01/2024 at 09:28, martin1905 said:

You are right but I've been watching football long enough from my boys being involved in grass routes football for the past 11 years to watching us win 2 European cups so literally every level from the very bottom all the way to the absolute pinnacle of the sport and I have very rarely, if ever, seen such a poorly coached team. The only one that compares is us under Potter.

I got a lot of abuse for calling it early but the signs were there from the very beginning and we now have a big enough sample that shows just how inept the manager and his coaching team are and we have seen absolutely nothing to show they can turn this around.

We can rip the club to pieces, the owners, the scouting team, the money spent, the culling of the old guard, the purchase of far too many young players, the sacking of Tuchel, the appointments of three awful managers. There has been a long, long list of terrible decisions since the club was sold. None of that matters though when you break it down to the very basics of setting a team team up to play, compete and hopefully win football matches. 

Yes we would be better with a striker. Yes we would be better with some more experience. Yes we would be better without so many injury prone players but all that aside its not too much to ask to expect the manager to coach a squad on a daily basis and them get them ready to compete on the football pitch.

It's really not all that difficult. A manager, any half competent one, should have a philosophy. A style. A way of playing football that he drills into them on the training ground and it doesn't matter who is playing. It doesn't matter if players are injured. It doesn't matter if you are Man City or a team of 7 year olds playing grass routes football on a Sunday morning.

They train and train and train and take what they are taught during training into games. It doesn't matter if you are a high pressing, high intensity, possession based team playing on the front foot or a team that plays a low block,  with everyone behind the ball and looks to counter. The important thing is having a manager that understands the game and how he wants it to be played. A manager that is able to coach a team in a system that regardless of who is playing they play the same. Best example of that is Tottenham right now. Doesn't matter who plays, they all know their roles and how to play them and play the same, even with all their key players missing.

As I have said, I've been involed with my boys grass routes football now for 11 years, from 4 years old up until under 16's and have seen far better organised, far better coached teams at that level than what we are currently seeing. Since I gave my season ticket up I've been following Aldershot, as they are my local team, home and away and again have seen teams set up, far better than us, more organised than us, more disciplined than us, more motivated than us,  playing non league football.

It's embarrassing and no matter that we have too many young players, too many injuries, no striker and whatever other excuses people have made all season. Break the game down to its most simple form and nobody will be able to convince me anything other than the manager is inept.

I've said all season that it has never been about results but about performances. If we were 10th in the league but seeing something, anything to suggest we are building something I'd have no problem. All we have seen, all season is a manager with no philosophy who has never achieved anything in the game and has no idea how to implement a system, a style, an identity to a team. He can't organise them. He can't motivate them. He can't do his job.

He lives on his reputation for what he did at Tottenham but when you look at  what he actually achieved there, nothing, and look at the players he had during his time there he was put on a pedestal for failing. He was there with a team that was more than good enough to win trophies. Before Pep and Kloop made their machines, when Leicester won the league, when Conte won the league in his first season after we finished 10th the season before, during a time when there was no stand out team and he completely and utterly failed. Just imagine Pep had gone there and not City, with that squad he'd have walked the league, more than once.

Apparently he improves players? That was his main selling point when we hired him but has he ever actually done that? I can't think of one player he's improved here, but plenty that aren't as good. Much like how players performed under Tuchel and then Potter. Does he or did he just have a group of players at Tottenham, all together at the right time, that were always going to be good? Is Harry Kane the best striker in the world because of Pochettino or in spite of him? Did Vertonghen and Alderweireld become one of the best centre back pairings in the league because of him? Is Son the played he is today because of him? Or was it just the perfect group of players that made him look good but when they really needed him, he failed?

He relies, solely,  on individual brilliance from his players which is what made his Tottenham team. Kane, Son, Eriksen,  Delle,  Dembele,  Walker,  Vertonghen, Alderweireld all playing at their very best at a low point, in terms of quality teams, across the rest of the league. When it really mattered. When the team needed their manager to step up. To have a plan B. To motivate them. To manage a game of football and not just rely on the 11 players you pick to play well. To do something different in a final when the opposition scores inside 2 minutes and then change their gameplan from trying to win to not loosing. To have a system in place, after years, so when individuals aren't at their best someone steps in and does the same job. To push them on to actually achieve something. He couldn't.  He failed.  He's always failed and unsurprisingly he's failing again but this time he hasn't got the individual brilliance of players to make him look good so he is being shown up for exactly what he is.

We have seen first hand over the past, nearly 5 years now, since Frank's first time what difference a proper manager makes. We are literally the best placed fan base in the world to know how important the manager is. How much of a difference someone like Tuchel can make compared to Frank before him  or Potter after him, with same group of players!!!!  We've seen it with our own eyes for quite a while now, it's what amazes me when people don't see it. 

 

 

Great points and context.  Yeah an idea of identity and tactical approach should be the minimum by now and we still don't have that. 

We seem to be on an ever quickening treadmill of players giving up and downing tools....let's not forget the last few months of tuchel despite what came before. 

Perhaps it is my inate desire to cling on two at least one fundamental....I've we have a good person and manager at helm.  We sure as well haven't got that sat upstairs and the players, with the exception of a handful, seem cut from a so very modern cloth of pay and cost far beyond output. There's not much to like at present. As for Stamford bridge.... tourists and costly tickets. All my original lot scattered around, hassle getting us all away tickets.

Good on you regarding non League. Have watched one of my favourite ever games ware Vs north Leigh two years ago, seen my boy turn from youth player to senior and with our local team.  Just find myself being pushed further away from it at a rate I wouldn't have imagined five years ago.

Yo-yo club and we get funded by some limited but nonetheless Brit owners. Take me there. 

Thanks for giving me your perspective, you've done something unusual on the internet....shifted a view. 

Cheers and hope you enjoyed Swindon away!

 

[Ham]

10 hours ago, Bert19 said:

I think that sort of 96-98 period was the most exciting for me.  I was 9-11 years old, we had Gullit and then he brought Vialli, RdM and old CD Head in at centre half.  

Then when that little genius Gianfranco arrived, my perception of football just completely expanded.  I look back on it now and think about just how lucky we were to see our team morph like that. 

Is it just me who had someone with the moniker "Bert" as one of the old codgers?

[CarefreeMuratcan]

7 hours ago, Leo said:

Are we going down memory lane ? This talk of Ranieri side made me remember that dreadful game in the Uefa Cup to Hapoel Tel Aviv away we lost 2-0. A lot of the talk pre match was how many of the first XI starters were going to travel, just a very depressing and dreary game which featured Melchiot getting sent off.  Sorry for the random thought!

We must have been cursed in the UEFA Cup. Completely opposite to the Europa League. 

[Dwmh]

All this game proves is that if you take a good finish and the oppo misses a few anyone can beat anyone.
Or as with the Luton game, if you take 3 good finishes out of 3 half chances you can beat teams that are a lot better than you.
Mean reversion, we finished as usual and lost.

Of course PNE showed that a Championship  can collapse against a PL team, so reversing a 1-0 deficit should not be too hard.  The difficulty is just getting us to play well.

 

 

 

On 09/01/2024 at 22:33, paulw66 said:

Colwill at left back is a problem for me. He's a CB

Got caught out a bit for their goal and offers no threat. 

He seems to be playing LCB.  What Poch wants him to play  who knows?  But that is where he stands.

On 10/01/2024 at 09:28, martin1905 said:

You are right but I've been watching football long enough from my boys being involved in grass routes football for the past 11 years to watching us win 2 European cups so literally every level from the very bottom all the way to the absolute pinnacle of the sport and I have very rarely, if ever, seen such a poorly coached team. The only one that compares is us under Potter.

I got a lot of abuse for calling it early but the signs were there from the very beginning and we now have a big enough sample that shows just how inept the manager and his coaching team are and we have seen absolutely nothing to show they can turn this around.

We can rip the club to pieces, the owners, the scouting team, the money spent, the culling of the old guard, the purchase of far too many young players, the sacking of Tuchel, the appointments of three awful managers. There has been a long, long list of terrible decisions since the club was sold. None of that matters though when you break it down to the very basics of setting a team team up to play, compete and hopefully win football matches. 

Yes we would be better with a striker. Yes we would be better with some more experience. Yes we would be better without so many injury prone players but all that aside its not too much to ask to expect the manager to coach a squad on a daily basis and them get them ready to compete on the football pitch.

It's really not all that difficult. A manager, any half competent one, should have a philosophy. A style. A way of playing football that he drills into them on the training ground and it doesn't matter who is playing. It doesn't matter if players are injured. It doesn't matter if you are Man City or a team of 7 year olds playing grass routes football on a Sunday morning.

They train and train and train and take what they are taught during training into games. It doesn't matter if you are a high pressing, high intensity, possession based team playing on the front foot or a team that plays a low block,  with everyone behind the ball and looks to counter. The important thing is having a manager that understands the game and how he wants it to be played. A manager that is able to coach a team in a system that regardless of who is playing they play the same. Best example of that is Tottenham right now. Doesn't matter who plays, they all know their roles and how to play them and play the same, even with all their key players missing.

As I have said, I've been involed with my boys grass routes football now for 11 years, from 4 years old up until under 16's and have seen far better organised, far better coached teams at that level than what we are currently seeing. Since I gave my season ticket up I've been following Aldershot, as they are my local team, home and away and again have seen teams set up, far better than us, more organised than us, more disciplined than us, more motivated than us,  playing non league football.

It's embarrassing and no matter that we have too many young players, too many injuries, no striker and whatever other excuses people have made all season. Break the game down to its most simple form and nobody will be able to convince me anything other than the manager is inept.

I've said all season that it has never been about results but about performances. If we were 10th in the league but seeing something, anything to suggest we are building something I'd have no problem. All we have seen, all season is a manager with no philosophy who has never achieved anything in the game and has no idea how to implement a system, a style, an identity to a team. He can't organise them. He can't motivate them. He can't do his job.

He lives on his reputation for what he did at Tottenham but when you look at  what he actually achieved there, nothing, and look at the players he had during his time there he was put on a pedestal for failing. He was there with a team that was more than good enough to win trophies. Before Pep and Kloop made their machines, when Leicester won the league, when Conte won the league in his first season after we finished 10th the season before, during a time when there was no stand out team and he completely and utterly failed. Just imagine Pep had gone there and not City, with that squad he'd have walked the league, more than once.

Apparently he improves players? That was his main selling point when we hired him but has he ever actually done that? I can't think of one player he's improved here, but plenty that aren't as good. Much like how players performed under Tuchel and then Potter. Does he or did he just have a group of players at Tottenham, all together at the right time, that were always going to be good? Is Harry Kane the best striker in the world because of Pochettino or in spite of him? Did Vertonghen and Alderweireld become one of the best centre back pairings in the league because of him? Is Son the played he is today because of him? Or was it just the perfect group of players that made him look good but when they really needed him, he failed?

He relies, solely,  on individual brilliance from his players which is what made his Tottenham team. Kane, Son, Eriksen,  Delle,  Dembele,  Walker,  Vertonghen, Alderweireld all playing at their very best at a low point, in terms of quality teams, across the rest of the league. When it really mattered. When the team needed their manager to step up. To have a plan B. To motivate them. To manage a game of football and not just rely on the 11 players you pick to play well. To do something different in a final when the opposition scores inside 2 minutes and then change their gameplan from trying to win to not loosing. To have a system in place, after years, so when individuals aren't at their best someone steps in and does the same job. To push them on to actually achieve something. He couldn't.  He failed.  He's always failed and unsurprisingly he's failing again but this time he hasn't got the individual brilliance of players to make him look good so he is being shown up for exactly what he is.

We have seen first hand over the past, nearly 5 years now, since Frank's first time what difference a proper manager makes. We are literally the best placed fan base in the world to know how important the manager is. How much of a difference someone like Tuchel can make compared to Frank before him  or Potter after him, with same group of players!!!!  We've seen it with our own eyes for quite a while now, it's what amazes me when people don't see it. 

 

A golden post.
There are general club problems, many of which I guess we are not aware of.  Contracts seem an issue.  I strongly suspect James and Chilwell would be off if they could show some fitness.  Maybe even Chalobah and Gallagher (who made his debut post RA).
Pretty soon the likes of Fernandez and Caicedo (I rate both in theory if not right now) will want to be gone too.  Internal issues will get worse not better.

On the manager - Sterling must have played a dozen different patterns at Liverpool, City and England.  It shouldn't take more than a sentence to set him up for the game or change his role at h/t.  Even without a manager he would probably make sensible choices on his own.  Then there is Silva - ditto.  Then there is .....  well a bunch of players who get by on energy or athleticism or tricky wing skills rather than  pattern play and are just 21/22.  They need cowboys on motorbikes to herd them into place.
So the challenge for any Chelsea manager is substantial, this season more than last (though expectations are much lower).

I thought Lampard was a crap manager, but very quickly the players (experienced players mostly) just decided to play Sarriball, because well, Jorginho and muscle memory.  I thought the Lampard team was poorer than Sarri's team and TT's team, but only some 5-10 points a season worse.  There was an existing pattern pre-Lampard mk 1.
Of course Lampard mk 2 followed Potter - it was a complete disaster.  There was nothing in place pre-mk 2 and it was even worse under Lampard.

So sure Poch isn't up to the job.  The job is super challenging.  But I don't imagine anyone is going to come and fix that

 

On 09/01/2024 at 22:09, Chelsea_Matt said:

On 09/01/2024 at 22:07, asvaberg said:

The Spanish Waiter says hello

We could do a lot, lot worse. I still don’t get the hate aimed at him.

I do get the hate.  But I agree with @asvabergthat he'd be a good temporary choice.  By the sounds of it a lot of old fans are not watching anyway!
But the job is too challenging for anyon IMO (above) and he won't want it either.
To be honest it is a bit of an insult to TSW to think he would want it (but I'm OK with that).

[kev61]

15 hours ago, Mark Kelly said:

Personally my favourite was the Ranieri side , we were very unlucky not to win the league too.

Yes. Ranieri's side was special.The 'not so special one' inherited the best team on paper we ever had.His svengali like personality at the time made us champions whilst playing awful football.

I've set myself up to ridicule and the 'but we won trophies at a stroll' brigade.

Ranieri put it on a plate for him.It's no coincidence that Ranieri won the premiership with bargain basement players.

How about we bring in Ranier?i.The expensive cotton wool players might have a laugh,but he knows how to set a team up.

[martin1905]

10 hours ago, patThenevin said:

 

Great points and context.  Yeah an idea of identity and tactical approach should be the minimum by now and we still don't have that. 

Which has been my whole point since day one. Many told me I was too quick to judge, that it would take time to see this. I would argue look at Villa, Newcastle, Everton, Tottenham and how quickly the new manages at those clubs turned it round. Literally overnight. 

I can't stress enough how little results mattered this season compared to performaces and building an identity. When that doesn't happen and you have terrible results then the inevitable happens.

10 hours ago, patThenevin said:

We seem to be on an ever quickening treadmill of players giving up and downing tools....let's not forget the last few months of tuchel despite what came before. 

I know most see it this way and I get it but I do like to remind people that yes results weren't as good as they were previously with him BUT.........

In our last 20 league games we averaged 1.85 PPG or 70 points a season.

Even when he was sacked we were 5th after 6 games, averaging 1.66PPG and looking at 63 points for that season.

There was so many people wanting him out but the reality is that the man was doing a phenomenal job considering the circumstances and despite performaces and results not being at the previous level under him the drop off was nowhere near as bad as some made out. It was actually pretty nominal.

Then you take into account what the club was going through, how well he handled it and still averaged 1.85 PPG during that period, the reason I use the last 20 games is because its literally when it all started with Abramovich, and the man now has God like status with me yet so many wanted him gone.

The aftermath of sacking him, which for some bizarre reason most people wanted is there for everyone to see. It's happening right before our eyes.

It's why I don't get on board with everyone else that is moaning about everything but the manager. Its the easiest fix and we are the perfect case in point, literally, to show how important a proper manager is.

10 hours ago, patThenevin said:

 

Cheers and hope you enjoyed Swindon away!

 

Swindon was great, West Brom even better but nothing beats Woking, especially as they play each other Boxing day and new years day, the news years day game was utterly epic.

[Blue Moon]

6 hours ago, kev61 said:

How about we bring in Ranier?i.The expensive cotton wool players might have a laugh,but he knows how to set a team up.

I can think of worse. Better than pottering about in the doldrums … 

[Floyd25]

22 hours ago, paulw66 said:

Interesting one. I thought under Gullit and Vialli in the late 90s we played some beautiful football, but had a soft underbelly. 

An exciting time, I remember the influx of talent coming in, felt like something special was happening. Some wonderful football and great goals, Zola, Vialli, Wise, etc…should’ve won the league in 99 but like you said, a bit too soft, still take me back to be honest. 
 

[Floyd25]

6 hours ago, kev61 said:

How about we bring in Ranier?i.The expensive cotton wool players might have a laugh,but he knows how to set a team up.

I warmed to the tinker man, but that Monaco game is etched in my brain sadly. 

[Floyd25]

19 hours ago, Leo said:

This talk of Ranieri side made me remember that dreadful game in the Uefa Cup to Hapoel Tel Aviv away we lost 2-0.

We also lost to Vikings, I think the game was on the history channel. 

[My Blood Is Blue]

6 hours ago, kev61 said:

How about we bring in Ranier?i.The expensive cotton wool players might have a laugh,but he knows how to set a team up.

I actually quite like the idea of this.

[east lower]

1 hour ago, martin1905 said:

 

Swindon was great, West Brom even better but nothing beats Woking, especially as they play each other Boxing day and new years day, the news years day game was utterly epic.

I'm from just down the road from both Aldershot and Woking and used to regularly go to the Rec when our youth teams played games there.

Played at both the Rec and Kingfield, but at the Rec for Surrey Schools vs Hampshire whereas used to play in the Surrey Senior Cup vs Woking (very early Conference years), when Clive Walker was finishing his career - he was still way too quick for me even at what must have been 40 ish.

Seems to have been a reversal of fortunes for the two clubs this season vs last. 

I knew the ex-Chairman/President or whatever he was at the time, very interesting story surrounding the time the 'Shots were in the Conference playoffs (last time I think they got that far) - when they lost in the final.

Happy to talk about via PM if you're interested.  He's dead now so can't hurt him.

[paulw66]

1 hour ago, martin1905 said:

 

Even when he was sacked we were 5th after 6 games, averaging 1.66PPG and looking at 63 points for that season.

 

whilst I agree overall with the sentiment on TT, who was brilliant for us, those 6 games did include 4 games against the teams that finished 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th 

[Chelsea_Matt]

31 minutes ago, east lower said:

I'm from just down the road from both Aldershot and Woking and used to regularly go to the Rec when our youth teams played games there.

Played at both the Rec and Kingfield, but at the Rec for Surrey Schools vs Hampshire whereas used to play in the Surrey Senior Cup vs Woking (very early Conference years), when Clive Walker was finishing his career - he was still way too quick for me even at what must have been 40 ish.

Seems to have been a reversal of fortunes for the two clubs this season vs last. 

I knew the ex-Chairman/President or whatever he was at the time, very interesting story surrounding the time the 'Shots were in the Conference playoffs (last time I think they got that far) - when they lost in the final.

Happy to talk about via PM if you're interested.  He's dead now so can't hurt him.

👀

[east lower]

20 hours ago, Sciatika said:

For me, it is hard to look past the 2004-6 side. I loved the players of the 70s to 90s, or Ancelloti's or Tuchel's sides, but the JM teams were something else. In those days we were surprised to lose.

That Jose side with Robben & Duff was a brilliant side and so adaptable  - If teams wanted to play football, we'd out-football them and if they wanted a battle we'd out fight them. Jose used to spend the first 15-20 minutes sussing out what the opposition were about on that day, he'd get-up off the bench, someone would go down injured and he'd get tactical messages out and then we'd beat them. We were dynamic too.

The Tuchel side that had fit Chilwell & James was some side too,  the one that smashed Juventus and then Leicester away, when it could have been 6 or 7 quite readily.

Ancellotti's side had that wonderful characteristic of scoring lots of goals, the season we scored 100+ goals was amazing, again if I recall correctly during that season we put 7 past Villa & Stoke and then 8 past Wigan on the last day of the season - we had to win that game to secure the PL title. That was the game Didier has a bit of a hissy fit as Frank wouldn't let him take waht turned out to the first penalty of the day.  Drogba was tied with Rooney going for the golden boot. Eventually he got a hat-trick in about 20 or so second-half minutes to win that. Might have been the only one to win in for Chelsea during Roman's time with us?

Edited January 12 by east lower

[Bert19]

13 hours ago, Ham said:

Is it just me who had someone with the moniker "Bert" as one of the old codgers?

Old codger? In the immortal words of Onslow "Oh Nice...!" 

[kev61]

17 hours ago, My Blood Is Blue said:

I actually quite like the idea of this.

At least he has a personality.It is no coincidence he brought us to the brink and won the premiership with a team that I think were 200/1 to win it.

If Leicester can sack him with his cv what are we doing hanging on to a manager that has won nothing, and currently lucky if we win two matches in a row!.

Edited January 13 by kev61