“Pitch Owners Fancast (POF) – crazed sect who meet in a Putney bar back room every Monday.” – Those Pitch Owners Factions, A Cut-Out-And-Keep Group by Group Guide by Tim Rolls, Plains of Almeria blog, 18/01/12″

Over the past few years, there’s been an explosion in football fans getting their fix of the beautiful game through emerging media rather than traditional print and broadcast sources, a topic this column will be exploring further in the coming weeks.

A decent ip3 player is now relatively cheap, and a market that appears to be rapidly expanding is that of “podcasting”. Early podcasts were produced by the BBC (Fighting Talk and Mayo & Kermode’s cinema reviews are the ones which spring most rapidly to mind), but now it’s possible for anyone with a decent idea and determination to broadcast on a subject that interests them and gather in listeners via social media.

A handful of Chelsea Podcasts are available, including the club’s official offering, together with fan-based offerings such as “The Chels” and the beautifully titled “The Podding Shed”. However, with a cult following and weighing in at 200 episodes, the daddy of the podcast has to be “The Chelsea Fancast”.

Founded by producer David Chidgey (aka Stamford Chidge), the show is recorded in Putney on a Monday night with a cast of reprobates and ne’er do wells who follow Chelsea over land and sea, and this week I took the opportunity to join them to discuss the week’s victories over Benfica and Villa.

The joining instruction said “we meet at 7pm for a 7.30 ko”, but sadly Chidge got delayed in the rush hour, and by the time the incredibly-complicated equipment was set up, it was almost 8pm. Ah yes, the equipment. To the podcast listeners it might sound like a few blokes sitting round a table, but the section of the bar where the show is recorded is almost L-shaped, with a long padded bench (cell?) along a wall.

The usual co-presenters, of whom more shortly, sit alongside each other each with a microphone, with the casual visitors located in “the benches”, sharing one mike between them. As ringmaster, Chidge not only gets his own, very professional microphone, but is also poised over a laptop, wearing headphones and all the mikes are linked up into a mini-mixing desk so presumably he can fade up/down contributors/miscreants.

As for this week’s co-presenters, they’re names recognizable to most Chelsea fans as well as the podcast audience; Darren Mantle is well-known to many for his periodical media appearances and organizing the huge flags that roll across the ground on matchdays. Similarly, Ross Mooring is another noted blogger, who also did a huge amount of work in the Autumn with Say No CPO. They’re joined by Chris Norman, aka Celery Terrorist, Paul “Pablo” Jeffreys and “John Thomas”, better known as ChelTel.

At the Benches mike, are myself, Oskar the Swedish Blue, and Mike, who is visiting from the US and has dropped by to join in the show – I’m told a lot of listeners from abroad, particularly from the US, do this when they’re in town.

Chidge does a sound level test, and away we go. In spite of the free-wheeling feel the show gives to the listener, the presenters receive a script from Chidge in advance, and the show features a number of set-pieces, such as The Fannies, including the Celery and Guinness moments, and “You’re on CFFC!”

The presenters and benches get introduced, and I can’t help feeling slighly nervous as the microphone is turned to me. Chidge is remarkably kind throughout and I name-drop Old Mother Baby wherever I can, particularly attempting to blame her for talking me into going to the Villa game on Saturday when my initial reaction after the Albion disaster wasn’t to go. I’m also the only member of the panel who was at both Benfica and Villa, and point out in no uncertain terms that the only one to be at both games was “a girl”.

The Celery and Guinness awards are dished out to Torres for his goal, particularly the celebration which was deemed to be “proper Chels” and Branna’s double. The search for Chelsea’s all-time best XI continued with a look at the pick of our defensive midfielders (a choice between Ray Wilkins, Makalele, Stanic, Essien, Ballack and Spackman), and in the “Shall We Sing a Song for You?” segment, I bellow “Oh Dennis Wise,scored a f **c king great goal” so loudly that I nearly deafen Chidge through his cans.

Darren contributes to proceedings by causing what can only be described as a “gas incident”. Following on from the Best XI, Spackman is the subject of “Don’t Look Back in Anger”, with an especial mention in despatches for his giving Martin Keown, the original possessor of a monkey’s head, a slap. Whilst off-colour language is permitted, only Darren’s favourite “c” word is absolutely vetoed, and when he eventually can’t help himself, Chidge groans and puts his head in his hands.

There’s a fag/drink/loo break at about 9.15, but by the time proceedings are starting to wind up, it’s 10.30. I counter a suggestion of possibly discussing Chelsea Pitch Owners with “this show’s already gone on long enough”, and a paeon of praise for Mata “coming inside” results in the entire crew corpsing for getting on for five minutes in a style reminiscent of the late Brian Johnston.

Eventually, almost three hours after the recording began, Chidge asks us for our Twitter addresses and in thanking me for appearing praises TheChels, particularly Chelsea Youth who is hailed by the rest of the team as a “legend”. Finally, Chidge ends with the traditional “keep it blue, keep it carefree” and we all join in with “UP THE CHELS!”

The boys start packing away the equipment, and the recording ends for another week. I finally get home at midnight from a long but hugely enjoyable evening.

I’ve obviously not revealed all from this week’s broadcast in the hope that you’ll listen for yourselves. You can download The Chelsea Fancast free from iTunes, (Download or Subscribe) and visit the fansite at chelseafancast.com, where you can also join the forum.

You can follow the fancast team on Twitter:-

David Chidgey -@DavidChidgey
Darren Mantle -@DarrenMantle
Ross Mooring – @RossMooring
Chris Norman – @CeleryTerrorist
Paul Jeffrey – @pauljeffrey87
John Thomas – @ChelTel

Many thanks to the team for letting me join them this week, and hopefully if I didn’t make too big an idiot of myself they’ll have me back.

Over the coming weeks we’ll be taking a further look at the ways in which emerging media is making life easier for football fans, and in the meantime you can access my random thoughts on Twitter @BlueBaby67.

Yesterday’s goalless draw at home to Tottenham put a serious, perhaps fatal dent in Chelsea’s aspirations of a top four finish and a Champions League place for the 2012-13 season.

With the Blues facing a five-point deficit and a much harder run-in to the end of the season, questions must now be asked as to what the club’s approach to the remaining eight weeks of the campaign is.

The first leg of a very winnable Champions League Quarter Final tie is next on the agenda, whilst the FA Cup will prove more than just a pleasing distraction as it too carries the guarantee of European football, which is far from being secured in the league.

Roberto Di Matteo stopped short of completely writing off catching either Arsenal or Tottenham yesterday but admitted that qualifying for UEFA’s elite competition is a tough ask at this stage, and so attention now turns to Tuesday’s trip to Lisbon.

Winning the Champions League might well be the most realistic route into next season’s competition, but Benfica are a capable outfit whilst Barcelona or AC Milan await in the Semi Finals.

Does Di Matteo now have to put all of his eggs in that particular basket and do little more than attempt to get by in the league and hold onto fifth place, attempting to stave off the advances of Newcastle United?

Saturday’s starting eleven offered little insight into the Italian’s mindset as he picked a very strong team for such a decisive match. However, there was no place for David Luiz or for John Obi Mikel, two players who have performed exceptionally well of late, nor was Branislav Ivanovic risked after a muscle injury sustained at Manchester City on Wednesday.

The trio are all likely to play in Lisbon, with Fernando Torres also likely to return ahead of Didier Drogba.

Should the game not go to plan and leave Chelsea requiring another second-leg turnaround, look for Di Matteo to rotate his squad for the league matches against Aston Villa and Wigan either side of it. The Wigan game in particular should see opportunities for the likes of Salomon Kalou, Raul Meireles and maybe even the likes of Oriol Romeu and Romelu Lukaku as the first of two games in three days during the Easter Weekend.

Successful progress past Benfica will leave the Blues facing a potential four games in eleven days against Tottenham or Bolton, Barcelona or Milan and then a trip to the Emirates Stadium to face Arsenal before jetting back off to Europe for the second away leg of a European Semi-Final.

How Di Matteo rotates his squad for these four fixtures will undoubtedly reveal the club’s aims. Will key players be rested in the cup and in the league to allow for a full-on assault on the Champions League or will a balanced approach be taken in the (probably ill-advised) belief that the club can still fight on all fronts?

Failure on all fronts will leave a spartan May fixture list away to Liverpool and at home to Blackburn when the best anyone can hope for would be to see some of the younger generation given minutes in meaningless fixtures. This being Chelsea, of course, makes that a fairly unlikely proposition in the first place.

Those eleven days will make or break this season and shape the future for the club. Potential new managers will be enamoured with a place at Europe’s top table and not the Europa League, but the reality is that they may well have to settle for second best.

David Luiz is undeniably a cult hero around Stamford Bridge.

His flair-filled performances have won many admirers, who leap to defend him in the face of what is often unwarranted criticism in the media.

Sure, he’s a little unconventional and has made mistakes, but equally, he’s put in some very good performances, none of which get the credit they’ve deserved.

However, over the last few matches, there’s been a noticeable change in how the Brazilian deals with particular situations. Simply put, he is playing under the old idiom ‘if in doubt, get it out’.

Now, since putting together a series of clips takes time and will likely be taken down for copyright infringement anyway, we’ll have to make do with statistical and anecdotal evidence, but it’s certainly been noticed by many a Chelsea fan.

Last night against Napoli, for example, Luiz made nine clearances, of which seven were successful and the majority of them were simply put into touch to allow time to regroup, as well as minimise potential mistakes.

There was more of the same in the second half against Stoke, and it was most evident against Birmingham on a shocking pitch.

It’s too soon to suggest that the change in how Luiz deals with these situations is down to Roberto Di Matteo, but it is possible to suggest that he was advised to adopt a different approach after the first leg in Naples.

Then, as you’ll remember, what could have been a simple clearance into touch became a loss of possession in his own box and led to Ezequiel Lavezzi making it 3-1 to the home side.

Of course, it is very much the Chelsea philosophy to attempt to retain possession under pressure in defensive areas and play out where possible, and this extends all the way down the age groups in the academy.

However, there comes a time where the ball simply has to be cleared. Whether it came from his own particular playing background, or instructions from the manager, or any number of other possibilities is unclear, but Luiz more than any other Chelsea defender was less inclined to do so.

As we’ve seen of late, he is now doing so, and in those three matches just one goal has been conceded.

Whether it’s a long-term change or just a brief one to steady a stricken ship and boost confidence remains to be seen. At the very least, it’s something to watch out for in the coming days and weeks.

I hope nobody ever doubts my loyalty to the club I have followed since the late 1950s when I was taken as a young boy to watch my team, Chelsea FC, play.

In those days I stood on a grass terrace where the West Stand is now. So when I criticise some aspects of the modern day club do not take that as the sulkiness of a new fan. Nothing could be further from the truth on that score.

There are three components to this season’s debacle and all three should take a proportion of the blame. In no particular order they are The Manager, The Board and The Players.

The Manager

I am a home and an away Season Ticket holder so have seen most games this year from within the stadiums and for anybody who would listen I have been saying that Boas should go since October when I could see a pattern repeating itself from last season when we had a blip and lost confidence and spiralled down and down.

Last season we had an experienced manager who rallied the players, just, and we made a push, albeit too little too late, on the title. This season it was clear to me that the players were not up for this repeat scenario and the manager was not capable of dealing with the overinflated egos in the dressing room.

Give him time to rebuild I hear some fans saying. To which, my answer was he has had two transfer windows already to get rid of the deadwood and install players who understand what he is trying to do and has not done so.

He has consistently identified his own and the players shortcomings because after every game he comes out with the same old excuses why they did not perform and or win. But then he does nothing about it and we see the same old names appearing on the team sheet the next game.

Bosingwa, Malouda, Mikel and Kalou are just four examples of players that are a liability. We were told we were going to play fast attacking football but the players were not either interested or capable and those players should have been unceremoniously dumped in the reserves or out of the club in January.

One other important aspect of the manager’s job he got wrong as well. He could not change a game when it was going wrong and that is vital in today’s football.

Members of the various Chelsea Forums I am on had their own lists of players from last season that should have been replaced before this season started because of their ability and their attitude. Some players, like Mikel, Bosingwa, Malouda and Kalou, were constant on all lists.

As well as those players my own list included Lampard and Terry who I thought were now well into the autumn of their usefulness and their influence in dressing room needed to be removed for the good of the Club. Not for any incoming manager but the Club.

Boas may have been a good manager in Portugal but the English Premiership is completely different and he was not up to the task this early in his career.

Before you all yell I know Lampard and Terry have been good servants to the club in the past but we don’t live in the past, only the scousers do that, but Lampard has been getting slower and slower and now his attitude is bad as well it was time to say thanks and goodbye last summer. We should have sold Terry and all his baggage to City a few seasons ago when the decline was just starting and we could have got good money for him then.

The Players

Some senior players should be ashamed of themselves for their behaviour this season. Whinging and moaning to the media after playing and leaking to the press when they don’t get picked is not what I pay nearly 25% of my pension on following them.

Player power has no place at Chelsea, although when Grant was put in charge after Jose, it may have saved that season. But overall the egos are too big and they make hundreds of thousands per week and perform abysmally. Coming over to clap at the end of another shocking display does not wash any more with this fan.

If Roman laid into the players earlier this week then I will be pleased and I will expect major improvements from all players for the last few months of this season with no running off to their pet hacks on the papers and certainly not to TalkShite radio. If the attitude does not change then I hope Di Matteo drops them and tells them to start looking for a new club come the summer.

The Board

Jesus, where do I start? Like every club and authority in football the suits that run the club have never been, and do not know what it is like to be a fan. Buck may point out his ST credentials but sitting in the posh seats does not constitute being a fan.

Getting rained on, trampled on, hassled by the police, poor food and equally poor beer, dirty cramped trains and endless traffic jams after the game and the ribbing from opposition fans in the workplace next day and paying money for it and not, like Buck, being paid for it. That is what it is like being a football fan.

So when these suits continue to get it wrong time after time it does annoy me. This Board got rid of Jose. Why? We will never know and since then they have made a series of bad decisions trying to find somebody as good as Jose. Grant (ugh), Scolari, Hiddink (should have stayed like we sang to him), Ancelotti and recently Boas.

From a fan’s view they are more interested in the brand, the business, how many fans can we get in Malaysia, where can we send the players next to make more shirt sales. They have been more wrapped up in trying to get the freehold back from the fans than sorting out the season and it slipped from one disaster to another.

That is not good enough. I know Roman has had his problems this year with his court case but he supposedly has professional people there to run the club when he is occupied elsewhere and they have failed again and again. Gourlay offers nothing to this club other than trying to screw the fans for more money.

So what now? The senior players need to be moved on, see the players listed above, younger hungrier players who want to play for the shirt and will put a proper shift in. The Board need to wake up and spend a season on football matters. Find a proper manager, ie eat humble pie and bring Jose back and give him control of all football matters including picking and buying the players he wants and dumping the players he does not.

The real fans will still be there because it is our club. We put the money in, buy the crappy shirts and other merchandise, suffer in all weathers so it is not too much to ask those who run the club and those that play for the club to do their jobs properly.

Shortly before Christmas, off the back of a poor run but following qualification for the last 16 of the CL, this column wondered if the season could turn out to be something special (see Special Ones Too). And it certainly has, but not in a good way. A slew of defeats, players who don’t seem to be bothered about putting in a shift but are only too happy to collect their 000s of Ks every week, and continued reports in the media of problems in the dressing room culminated in yesterday’s abject performance at West Bromwich Albion, resulting in the dismissal today of Andreas Villas Boas, less than 9 months after his appointment as Chelsea manager.

As someone who has never received football coaching in their life, it is difficult for me to comment on the mechanics of a performance. All I see is players passing the ball. Whilst I’m au fait with systems and styles, like a typical woman, I prefer incidents to statistics. In spite of being there, I couldn’t tell you who scored our goals in the 3-2 defeat at Man Utd in September, but I remember Ian Marshall of Leicester pulling a hammy whilst trying to nutmeg Albert Ferrer in front of the still unroofed West Stand and getting celery chucked at him in about 1999. So I’m not really the one to say whether AVB didn’t know what he was doing on the tactics front. All I know that he failed to pull on a shirt in any of our games recently. Whilst the buck stops with the manager, our players have to look at themselves in the mirror and ask themselves how much they have contributed to letting the fans down.

It is not the first time player power has hastened the demise of a manager at Chelsea. As long ago as 2000, Gianluca Vialli lost the dressing room, and at the time when a revised Bosman ruling was being threatened resulting in contracts no longer being worth the paper they were written on, Ken Bates and Colin Hutchinson were presented with a “him or us” ultimatum by a number of players (this was confirmed to me by the respected Italian journalist Giancarlo Galivotti several years ago). Whilst Franck Leboeuf attracted most of the opprobrium directed at the players on this occasion, he was certainly not the only one involved and even tried to offload the blame on Gianfranco Zola – in a radio interview on the day of his last game at Chelsea, he commented “Gianfranco has much more power at Chelsea than me”. Indeed, Vialli’s own comments on Twitter today hint at a frosty relationship with the club’s new caretaker manager, Roberto di Matteo.

Stories about player unrest have abounded in the press recently, usually attributed to a “senior player”. I hope whoever he is, he will now expend his energies for the rest of the season in galvanising his team-mates to get their fingers out. The decision to appoint di Matteo as caretaker manager until the end of the season is an indication that Chelsea have a clear target in mind but need to wait until the end of the season. Were that not the case, either Benitez or Capello, both free agents, would have been appointed today. Given Jose Mourinho’s very public visit to London last week, combined with news of a further alleged visit on Monday, and information provided by a source to this column that Mourinho and Abramovich had dinner at a top London hotel last week, last week’s article “Return of the Special One” may yet prove to have been barking up the right tree.

As usual, the ones suffering most at this time are the fans. I know people who set off for Albion at 6am and reckoned they weren’t going to get home till midnight. Approximately 1600 hardy souls travelled to Napoli two weeks ago. As I write, Chelsea lie fifth in the premiership and no doubt there are those amongst the inter-continental support (and possibly one or two in the UK) who have decided that the club are so last decade, and transferred their support elsewhere. These are the very people that our CEO is keen on cultivating at the expense of those who invest their time and emotion, not to mention maxing out their credit cards, on supporting CFC in the flesh and not through the medium of their television.

I think the last time I felt so low about a manager was, surprisingly, the day Ruudi was sacked (when Jose left I was in an emotional maelstrom, and when Luca was sacked I was so ill that if Ken Bates had turned up to announce the news in person I probably wouldn’t have turned a hair). However, we Chels are a resillient lot. Whilst I’d be surprised if we sell out Birmingham away, the faithful will be out in force and giving 100% of their passion to the cause. Let’s hope the players can do the same.

 “They seek him here/they seek him there/those Frenchies seek him everywhere/Is he in heaven?/Or is he in hell?/The demn’d elusive Pimpernel”
The Scarlet Pimpernel – Baroness Emma Orczy

The arrival of The Special One in London this week on a not so secret visit has sparked a frenzy of speculation amongst the media, who are linking him with not only every post at the top end of English club management but also the national team job.  We at The Chels aren’t averse to a good speculate ourselves, and if you look behind the pictures, a pattern is starting to emerge.

1. Other than the widely circulated pictures of fans he bumped into on his visit, it emerged on Twitter yesterday (I know, I know, but it’s amazing how much useful stuff gets in to the public domain via that particular medium) that the man pictured with Mourinho is called Mark Foley.  Mr Foley is allegedly employed by Chelsea FC in a role which assists club staff in sourcing accommodation.

2. Chelsea TV showed a “Best of Jose” compilation last night.

3. The club yesterday announced that they would be touring the US next summer.  Jose’s pre-season tour of choice.

Coincidence?  Possibly. 

Today’s stories in the media have reported that Jose told fans on Tuesday that he wasn’t returning to Chelsea.  However, when Sir Percy Blakeney was quizzed as to whether he was Scarlet Pimpernel, he denied it.  Of course Jose isn’t going to cough up that sort of information.

This week’s events have further ramped up speculation as to where his Specialness will be plying his trade next season.  One thing pretty certain is that it’s unlikely to be Madrid.

Derek McGovern of the Mirror, a man whose “tips” are usually so wide of the market he really should be had up under the Trades Description Act, says William Hill are offering 3-1 for the Bridge to be Jose’s next stop.  For once, he might be on to something.

Follow me on Twitter @BlueBaby67

Chelsea’s 2012 summer excursions will take them to the United States as they prepare for the 2012-13 season.

The Blues return stateside for the first time since 2009, having remained in central Europe during 2010 and touring Asia last summer.

Early reports indicate that matches will be played in Washington (D.C.), New York and Seattle during the second half of July. It remains to be seen exactly how many of the first team squad make the trip as Euro 2012 commitments will see many only begin their holidays in the earlier part of the month.

It may, in turn, open up opportunities for younger players, as was the case last year when Billy Clifford and Jamal Blackman joined the senior team in Thailand and Hong Kong.

Opposition is yet to be lined up but Liverpool are believed to also be heading to the USA for the first time under their American owners, whilst Arsenal, Manchester United and Manchester City are all believed to be in Asia.

In 2009, Chelsea took on the MLS’ Seattle Sounders as well as Italian duo Inter and Milan and Mexican outfit America, and a similarly eclectic set of teams are likely to make up the agenda once again.

Seattle has been a regular stop for the Blues in America, as they beat Celtic 4-2 at what was then called Qwest Field in 2004, but they have also spread their wings across the breadth of the country, playing matches in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Pasadena, Baltimore and Texas, and will now add at least two new cities to that list.

Keep your eyes on Chelsea In America for all the latest news on the tour as information becomes available over the coming weeks and months.

Ian Ridley’s “There’s A Golden Sky” is about as wide ranging and comprehensive a look at the state of football today as it is possible to cram into 260 odd pages. Ridley writes extensively on football with a style that is fluent, lucid and very easy to read and this, his latest book, is both fascinating and informative.

Ridley’s first book, “Seasons In The Cold” written all of twenty years ago, examined the state of a game then considered to be both a reviled pariah and the unacceptable face of sporting culture.

“There’s A Golden Sky” more or less revisits this arena: it re-examines football by looking at the Premier League and the effect of its (quite phenomenal) growth on the rest of football: from the top of the Premiership down to Hackney Marshes on a Sunday morning.

The book initially looks at the state of the game in the 80’s as it explains the emergence of the Premier League. How the sport then had become vilified, the unacceptably ugly face of English culture, primarily as a result of the violence that went hand in hand with English football. (Strangely, despite well documented instances of hooliganism in other countries, it suited many people to refer to football violence as “the English disease”.)

At the time it seemed that everyone, including the British media, took up this concept as an extra weapon to batter football with – such a contrast to today, isn’t it, when football is the darling of the media – but in all honesty it was difficult to argue against it.

Put glibly, the 80’s was the Decade of the Disaster as far as soccer was concerned: not only was there organised violence on a not insignificant scale, but we had Heysel, Hillsborough, and Bradford – names that will stay always in the memory because of the harrowing and traumatic situations that, with hindsight, could perhaps have been avoided.

From my own experience, if you loved football during the 80’s most people considered that you were likely to be a football hooligan. They believed some fans were decent, law-abiding citizens, of course; but these were a minority. As a rule, it was generally advisable to avoid football fans.

Out of this the Premiership was born. And “There’s A Golden Sky” traces Ridley’s journey up and down the country as he investigates the situations at many Premiership clubs.

Interweaved with this, we look at the situation at a number of non Premiership clubs and the effect the EPL had (and has) on them: amongst them, the debacle of ownership at Portsmouth, the longevity of the amazing ex-Chelsea man Dario Gradi at Crewe, Ipswich after the Cobbold legacy, plastic-pitched Luton Town, the rise and fall of Wimbledon… the list goes on.

Ridley’s book does not forget the players either. It opens and closes with Gazza, perhaps the archetypal – but certainly not the only – victim of the sport.

The pressures on players are sometimes quite extraordinary. In many cases these are ordinary young men suddenly thrust into the role of cult heroes, in many cases millionaire stars with a huge amount of free time on their hands and little or no guidance in how to cope with either the pressure or the money.

The toll is taken in alcohol and gambling and the tales told here are often distressing and moving.

There is a chapter dedicated to the grassroots of Hackney Marshes, to me the legendary bastion of Sunday morning soccer, including the unwelcome and perhaps unforeseen impact of the forthcoming Olympics.

Ridley looks at the rise of the women’s game, too, as well as giving us an insight into the referee’s point of view.

Of special interest to Blues fans will be the “What Roman Did For Us”, a chapter dedicated to Chelsea. Focussed mainly as it is on Bruce Buck’s interpretation of events, it concentrates mainly on the background to Roman’s takeover and the parade of managers thereafter.

It is certainly crammed full of information, but to be honest if you are an obsessive reader of all things Chelsea, there are probably a few snippets here you would not have already read, but not that many. I found that slightly disappointing, but I am perhaps demanding too much of a book that is so impressively comprehensive and wide-ranging.

Nevertheless, a good read and I found it highly enjoyable reading someone else’s perspective on the club since Roman’s arrival.

To me “There’s A Golden Sky” offers a real feel for the day-to-day workings and the behind-the-scenes activities of the modern game, and is a glorious insight into the game we, as fans, are part of.

Ridley asks the right questions of the right people and gets beneath the skin of his subjects in an entertaining and knowledgeable way. It is full of facts, anecdotes and interviews – and above all, evokes the atmosphere of the sport we all love.

If there is a better book about modern day football I have yet to read it. Highly recommended, then, both for content and readability.

Oh Fernando. You were, and quite possibly still are, one of the most talented strikers in football.

The performances shown for Atlítico Madrid, the Spanish national team and, to the greatest annoyance of all Chelsea supporters, Liverpool, have proven this point. But then why do you fail to replicate these performances for our beloved Chelsea?

Is it just a dramatic loss of confidence? Failing to settle in a new town? Don’t like a blue kit? Or maybe, as some highly educated tacticians say, your change in hair style/colour?

Obviously I will not be the first person, or the most qualified person to ask this question, but we can always hope I’m one of the last- otherwise a divorce may be necessary.

In my humble opinion, the relative failure of Mr Torres in the Royal Blue should be narrowed to two vital points; either he isn’t as good as we thought, and he can’t handle playing for a title challenging team (Liverpool annoyance intended). Or, the rest of the team isn’t playing well enough to induce your fantastic performances once seen across Europe.

Firstly, is he still the player ‘he used to be’? In the first half of last season, his performances for Liverpool were criticised even by the most die-hard Anfield followers for ‘lacking passion and desire’. Despite this, he still turned in the goals and assists- most poignantly, the curling effort that saw off Chelsea.

Then after various forms of transport been reported he turned up at the Bridge just in time to make the deadline on the 1st January. His first appearance, a very misguided decision, even stupid, was against Liverpool. The proceeding failure against 11 old friends was most certainly not the best confidence builder for ‘El Nino’, but then, it’s just one game isn’t it.

To make it worse, we, as Chelsea fans, sang his name in a tune to which the Liverpool fans had created and even copied their flag (leaving the Shankley gates on it); this did not help. The rest of the season showed a staggering, stuttering, passive pace to Fernando’s game, but still, we could justify this with ‘settling-in’ and ‘the pressure of his price-tag’.

This season, where he was declared to be a new man and back to his best, blonde locks and all, has still been disappointing; but maybe for different reasons. This season, his inconsistent appearances early on and now where he has taken the full weight of been the main striker on his shoulders in Drogba’s absence, have shown a different Fernando. He has regained some pace, a sharp turn, the ability to control the ball and, most importantly, some desire to get hold of the ball.

Despite this, although improving his performances and contributing to the team, as AVB would say, he has still not been prolific in front of goal. Is there something else stopping his progression?

The more and more I watch this Chelsea team, the more I think that the problem may be deeper than just one misfiring, highly rated and highly paid striker. Looking back a couple of years, when we went into every game full of confidence. You remember the days? A solid defence, dynamic midfield and most importantly for this point, a crushing forward threesome?

Well, the forward three in those days, involved two flying wingers and in Didier a striker with enough physical presence to outwit defenders when the crosses weren’t perfect and the though balls were over hit. This system does not suit Fernando Torres. Fernando has been used to, and requires, midfielders that will slip in a through ball to feet and create enough space in behind him to allow him to perfect his ‘touch, turn and shoot.’ This is the link between his success at previous teams, and his failure at Chelsea.

The purchase of Mata and Meireles and development of Sturridge seem to want to change this, but it seems that the squad is set in playing in their Mourinho-esque 4-3-3 style. The desire to change may have been too quick or, dare I say, against the wishes of some squad members.

The old guard are perfectly capable of playing in this way; Lampard for instance, is fully capable of setting Torres free with a quick through ball.

The other view would be that some players simply don’t want to change- Malouda, Mikel and Kalou, seem reluctant to change their ways and sometimes even reluctant to pass to Fernando, in what would seem like a playground style jealousy of falling from Mr Abramovich’s grace.

Whatever your view; whether you think Torres has simply ‘lost it’ or you think it’s more of a deeper crack within the team’s style and desire, all Chelsea fans should agree it’s a problem that needs to be resolved quickly. Fernando was an expensive purchase, but the cost of the relationship, if performances continue to stutter, or drop further, could be a lot more than expense of the divorce.

Chris Lackner
(@ChrisLackner03)

The next few months may well prove to be the most important of the Roman era.

There are grave concerns from the terraces that this may be the season where the continual mismanagement of the club finally backfires spectacularly. The squad is bereft of the quality needed to truly challenge for the title.

The robust presence of the old guard has all but faded with the likes of Cech, Terry, Cole, Lampard and Drogba performing well below their effervescent best. The team are hardwired to play to the power of Drogba and the goal scoring panache of Lampard.

With Lampard having less of an overall impact on play and Drogba seemingly turning it on when he feels like the side have struggled to adapt to the changes Boas wanted to implement. While many feel Boas himself is swimming miles out his depth.

For AVB this is no longer about implementing a change of philosophy (being honest there have been very few AVB hallmarks post-Arsenal) but about survival. Boas must swallow his pride and in doing so the senior players, so quick to run to the media with a quotation and “source”, need to buck their ideas up massively.

Whatever has happened needs to be put to bed: the next few months are bigger than any goal scoring record to be broken, any new contract to be offered and any ego willing to sulk.

The way forward must surely encompass a shift away from a grossly ineffective 433 shape that alienates our best player and causes pedestrian horizontal passes. A 433 is only successful in the Premier League if you can play with pace, width and movement.

Considering we are the antithesis of the archetypal 433, Boas must pick a new shape and personnel quickly. Without consulting the statistics I cannot remember a patch of form where we have drawn or lost so many games. I would also wager that our amount of effective passes in the final third is quite dire.

A 433 traditionally relies upon two wingers (inverted or not) of which we currently have none in the squad. Mata drifts infield far too often to offer any natural width and is ultimately isolated and ineffectual if he does remain out there. He is our most creative player without question, and it is painful to watch the attempts of a cumbersome front 5 to get him the ball in a position to hurt the opposition.

Play Mata centrally. Sturridge has also shown a huge decline in form post-injury. His decision making presently is hopeless at the best of times and his greed has been rewarded with a string of high profile scuffed shots. The dilemma being that when you look at their back-ups, who would play Malouda or Kalou ahead of them? (On a strange note, Kalou might be a better option to start games. Who knew?)

We no longer have the luxury of an in-form Florent Malouda and certainly no one with the game winning ability of Robben/Duff in their pomp.

Our midfield is where things become excruciating on the eye. The speed of which we circulate the ball is shocking. People love to blame players such as Mikel for slowing down the speed of the game but he has hardly featured this season and we are probably worse than ever in this respect.

The game becomes slow because we lack the players with the right movement to create the necessary angles for the man in possession. I always ask people to look at our holding midfielder in possession and then count the obvious attacking passes he has on. You will find that bar the favoured out ball to a full-back, there are very little central options to move the ball to ahead of play.

I would loosely classify Mikel, Romeu, Essien, Ramires and Meireles as ball winning midfielders; guys who are either athletic, good defensively or retain possession well. That leaves Lampard as our only midfielder with any true attacking intent. Hardly imbuing the opposition with terror?

The struggle to find Torres and Mata can really be taken back to our players in the middle of the park. Obviously having an exorbitant shadow of a £50m striker up front is not particularly useful, but I have my sympathies with Torres. Rightly or wrongly.

I am a firm believer in picking an established back four (or at the very worst two regular starting centre-backs). Due to a variety of reasons we have chopped and changed our central pairing and in reality this has not helped.

Cech looked ludicrously exposed when we played a high line earlier in the season. More known for his shot stopping ability rather than a great 1-on-1 goalkeeper (look at the Arsenal goals); he has been at fault for a few goals this season. I would estimate us being 3-6 points better off and when was the last time you ever thought of that?

David Luiz teeters from having games where he makes intercepting the ball look easy, to games where his swashbuckling style of play is suicidal. Terry and Cole look very much on the wrong side of 30 and the less said about playing Bosingwa the better.

So what is the answer to the £28million question? (Estimated cost of sacking AVB)

Qn: What do we not have?

A: Wingers.

Qn: What do we have?

A: A lot of athletic and physically imposing midfielders

Conclusion: drop the wingers and play more midfielders. Before you think I am going mad ask yourself what we gain from playing with width at the moment? The truth is very little

Qn: Who is our most creative player?

A: Mata.

Qn: How do we get the best out of him?

A: Play him centrally.

Conclusion: pull Mata from the no fly zone and park him centrally behind a striker/strikers.

Solution: Solidify at the back; play a powerful/athletic midfield; deploy Mata centrally & play two strikers.

The premise behind the team is to accept that we simply are not that great at passing the ball to implement fluid and successful 433. What we do have, however, is two very fast and athletic midfielders who have success driving forward with the ball.

Romeu or Mikel (yes, we do not tend to concede as many with Obi Wan) can sit and we may finally see a full-back getting forward. I do not buy into the idea that Bosingwa should play because he offers a greater sense of attacking purpose. Ivanovic is far more solid and can do a job going forward.

The idea is to look to replicate a similar shape that we adopted against both Valencia and City. An emphasis on being solid at the back, adopting a more cautious outlook and using Ramires, Essien and Mata on the counter. Drogba offers us an excellent option long if necessary, but we have to pray he is having one of his days.

Many people talk about deploying Luiz as a holding midfielder, but I would go one further. Anyone who has watched him closely will probably have noticed he is a superb passer of the ball. Some of his long ball distribution is Leboeuf-esque and even more impressive are his slide rule passes that David Silva would be pleased to have played.

Purely as an experiment in putting a high risk, high reward player in the Ramires or Essien slot, I do wonder how he would cope He can tackle, he can shoot, he has good feet, he is aggressive, he is quick, he can pass. Yes, the argument is there that his own wonderful brand of insanity would be far too chaotic for the intricacies of a midfield battle, but given the alternative of playing Raul “mind Row Z” Meireles I would be willing to take a chance.

The shape may actually play to Torres’ new found strength as provider. It would allow him to pull into the channels, deliver crosses, find intricate passes and maybe have Mata pick him out with the occasional through ball. What we are lacking is a spearhead to our attacks. Someone to get on the end of crosses. What we need is Drogba to roll back the years (even 2 would do…) to rediscover that bulldozer of a centre forward that scored goals for fun against any opponent.

I would even like to see the currently ineffective Sturridge given a chance alongside Drogba as a front-two. Sturridge can finish, is exceptionally quick and playing in a two will take some of the pressure off of him that saw his performance level at Blackburn dip when deployed their earlier this season.

I think the use of Lampard is key for several reasons. There appears to be an obvious element of unrest in the dressing room. Frank, more than most, has the ability to unite the squad and put aside any of his differences with the manager for the greater good of the club. That I truly believe in. The reality remains that no one believes Lampard is an “untouchable”, but in the face of the continued selection of Meireles ahead of him I can see why he is miffed.

If we had a midfield trio who were moving the ball around the park in a stunning fashion then so be it — but we aren’t. The obvious issue needs to be addressed. Lampard is definitely not part of any long-term future at the club (in a playing capacity), but his goals may well determine the clubs long-term future. Kiss. Make up. This is bigger than the pair of you.

We need to move away from the endless sideways passing without any penetration We need to stop relying on individual moments of inspiration that are too sporadic in coming. We need to adopt a winning style again which sadly throws the rebuild project back another season. We can beat City, we can absolutely outplay Valencia, we should have beaten Spurs at White Hart Lane and we should have stuffed United recently. We need a consistent 90-minutes from every player.

Are we good enough to finish in the top four? Yes we are. In fact, call me deluded, I think we could pinch third if things go our way.

Ultimately AVB’s future will only be determined after the season. I cannot see Roman sacking his personal choice for the position mid-season after forking out a small fortune to secure him in the first place. If we secure a top four finish I would expect wholesale changes to be made, the type of changes that have been delayed for almost three-seasons now.

If we do not finish in the top four the prospect of attracting top quality players to an Europa League outfit is grim. I think Boas is an intelligent man, if very stubborn. What he needs more than ever are those senior players to stop skulking surreptitiously to the media every other day and to wind down their careers the right way. What he needs is compromise.

AVB — swallow your pride. Senior players — less posturing, more playing.

If AVB is here in the summer and we have qualified for the Champions League, then the structure of the club really needs assessing. What I see when I look at Boas is a very talented coach who lacks the experience or guidance to organise a squad who do not fit his philosophy into a cohesive side.

What I see when I look at Boas is someone who would benefit from a proper Director of Football. I would love to see Hiddink take up the role at the club and help nurture a very bright coaching talent to his potential.