I have to say Roman Abramovich and the Chelsea board have surprised me this week, they really have!.
Now I know with Euro 2012 coming up, the Top European clubs will be looking to get their summer signings done and dusted before the competition starts or shortly after if deals are already in place, but the fact that Chelsea have acted quickly has surprised me.

Pep Guardiola led not only a dominant era of football for Barcelona, but also a revolution of the 'total football' that was preached by his mentor, Johan Cruyff.
As he steps away from his post at Barcelona at the ripe age of 41, Rob Hughes of the New York Times writes of how Guardiola had transformed Barca into the gold standard in world football.

Johan Cruijff: "Chelsea winning the CL final is a defeat for proper football. I'd rather not win it than to have to play this way."

Recently, I have been extremely grumpy and needed a bit of time to reflect on a bad week for honest, beautiful football, which started with the Northern Oilers succeeding in buying the title, and finished six days later, with the London Oilers getting their greasy hands on the ‘Cup with the big ears'.

Johan Cruijff: "Chelsea winning the CL final is a defeat for proper football. I'd rather not win it than to have to play this way."

Recently, I have been extremely grumpy and needed a bit of time to reflect on a bad week for honest, beautiful football, which started with the Northern Oilers succeeding in buying the title, and finished six days later, with the London Oilers getting their greasy hands on the ‘Cup with the big ears'.

There are few sicker sights I've seen in football than that of Chelsea's Champions League celebrations last night. They are the first London team to bring home the European Cup.

It should have been us. We are London's biggest club. Chelsea were nothing before 2005 when Roman Abramovich's millions and Jose Mourinho's dull, defensive football won them only their second ever title.

Dear Ashley,

Wise words, my friend. You're right, so right, I shouldn't get worked up.

I paid proper attention to that comment in my last piece, because it was all getting out of hand, what with the tension of the last day of the season. I ate lunch during half-time of the Villa game and as the minutes passed, I felt like I'd be physically sick, such was my frustration at not scoring and fear that we would come away with nothing.

07.05.2012 - Londres era una fiesta. En 1996, el pop británico, con Oasis, Blur, Pulp, Supergrass y The Verve, agitaba el sonido mundial; Damien Hirst, con su vaca partida por la mitad, sacudía al universo del arte; Tony Blair pretendía cambiar cierta imagen, y en el barrio de Chelsea -al oeste, dónde habían surgido los Rolling Stones (1962) y se había consagrado el movimiento punk (´70s) - comenzaba a brillar con luz propia un equipo que parecía encarnar todo eso tan "nuevo" que sucedía en Londres y que The Guardian resumió con un certero: "London swinging again".

It's the weekend of the FA Cup Final between Liverpool and Chelsea, one that will be closely watched by Roy Hodgson over a plate of premium hot cross buns. Naturally, Wembley will be the setting for this glorious game, which you're all expected to believe is the real test of Di Matteo's resilience and determine his future in a few weeks.

It looks like Chelsea have finally given up on signing Luka Modric as they have now completed the signing of 23 year old Marko Marin from Werder Bremen. Chelsea have settled for an undisclosed fee for the German midfielder and he will be joining the champions league finalists in the summer.

We all know that Abramovich and by association, Di Matteo, will have one eye on the Champions League game against Barcelona. After all, it's the one thing that has eluded him at Chelsea. But perhaps a little bit more surprising is that browsing the Chelsea forums you'll find a 50/50 split of fans who think they should play the strongest possible team against us and those who think players should be rested for this game with the Champions League semi and top four fight taking priority.

Now it's my personal opinion that people have under estimated the job that "Bobby Di Matteo" has done so far at Chelsea. Think about it for a second, in arguably (if you believe what the press are saying) the most ego filled dressing room in the Premier League, with masses of experience and big personalities that have reportedly seen off previous managers, he has gone in there done fantastic.

Some very interesting remarks from Chelsea's Champions League hero on Tuesday. Salomon Kalou has for the first spoken on his icy relationship with former Blues manager Andre Villas- Boas.

Kalou who scored the only goal of the night in Chelsea's win over Benfica claims that Villas-Boas froze him out of the first team because he refused to sign a new deal with the club.

Chelsea are keen on landing former Barcelona and Ajax coach Louis Van Gaal as a replacement for Andre Villas-Boas this is according to reports emerging from London.

The 60 year old Van Gaal has been out of contract since last April when he was sacked by Bayern Munich after a spell of unimpressive results.

Roberto Di Matteo Rather like Steve Kean at Blackburn earlier in the season, you rather feel for Di Matteo. Although he is woefully under-qualified for the position he currently holds, that is through no fault of his own. Mr Abramovich has trusted him in the hotseat at the Bridge, and there is nothing Bobby can [.

I think if there is one thing that every single one of us would want to hear this week it would have been just what was said by Roman Abramovich to the Chelsea players shortly after sacking AVB.
We can only imagine what was said. The press asked RDM after the Birmingham game and he remained silent and explained that "things said in house, should remain in house" which is fair enough.

Harry Redknapp spoke of the vacant Chelsea managers position after being linked with it yesterday and was quick to distance himself from it after calling it "The dream job - for someone!". Redknapp was quick to point out that he feels that there is only one man for the job and if Chelsea came calling, we would be the ONLY club that could tempt Jose to return.

What have Chelsea lost? Their minds? Yes. The respect of the footballing world? Absolutely. Their place among Europe's elite for next season? Quite possibly, but that's not what I mean.

How good is their now former manager Andre Villas-Boas? It feels like his time at the highly dysfunctional Chelsea will not serve as a good representation of his skills.

I have had my say on the sacking of AVB yesterday and stand by what I have said. AVB had to go because as a manager of our club he failed to deliver. He failed to motivate the players and to get the best out of them. Chelsea sit 20 points off the top of the Premier League and are in real danger of missing out on a top four finish and going out of the Champions League next week.

Well well well, I thought it might happen after reading AVB's full interview comments that have been heavily featured in the press this week. Now it's normally our foreign players who end up being quoted saying something about the club when they are away with their national teams but in this case it's our manager.

Well well well, I thought it might happen after reading AVB's full interview comments that have been heavily featured in the press this week. Now it's normally our foreign players who end up being quoted saying something about the club when they are away with their national teams but in this case it's our manager.

By Chris Wright

Chelsea lost a game of football last night, and a fairly high-profile one at that against Napoli in the last 16 of the Champions League. Their ropey, porous defence was breached three times by one of the most coveted forward lines in world football.

It says a lot that after only two first legs in the last 16 of the Champions League, it looks likely that for the first time since 1996, there will be no English teams in the quarter-finals of Europe's top club competition. It says even more that no one is really that surprised.

Chelsea's task might not be as mountainous as Arsenal's, but there is a glaring lack of confidence in Andre Villas-Boas' side.

It says a lot that after only two first legs in the last 16 of the Champions League, it looks likely that for the first time since 1996, there will be no English teams in the quarter-finals of Europe's top club competition. It says even more that no one is really that surprised.

Chelsea's task might not be as mountainous as Arsenal's, but there is a glaring lack of confidence in Andre Villas-Boas' side.

Why Chelsea Need To End Reign Of Player Power - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

When Andre Villas-Boas took over as Chelsea Manager in June 2011, he probably didn't envisage the club's dressing room being his biggest problem during his first season in English football. A dressing room filled with international footballers and seasoned professionals would surely have been an attraction for any potential Chelsea manager following the ruthless sacking of Carlo Ancelotti.

Well it's another week and another massive game coming up for our football club (Chelsea are 1.63 in Champions League betting to progress to the quarterfinals). As expected, the press are out for AVB's neck once again after another rubbish performance at the weekend but as yet it hasn't happened and he is still here.

Roman Abramovich has had an "interesting" few days being back at Cobham hasn't he. Being present for the most part last week and taking an interest in training, to then watch the performance we gave on Saturday at Goodison and to then hear the Manager speak of not preparing the team properly must have been a real eye opener.

Listen, regular readers will know when it comes to Didier Drogba, his form is up and down and as a result my opinion of him has changed from a few seasons ago. Back then, Drogba was THE number one at our club, played well on a consistent basis and became the scourge of defences all over Europe.

I am asking the question to you all because he hasn't been sacked and it's as simple as that. I was expecting Roman to pull the trigger like many of you after watching Chelsea's decline once again this season but it hasn't happened and like I said, I will be honest I AM surprised.

Isn't this a case of two plus two equals six here?? Surely the press have something better to do than to carry on with the ridiculous articles about Roman turning up the heat on AVB by attending training every day this week!
The next ridiculous rumour is that AVB is to be replaced by Fabio Capello "sooner rather than later"!

It's the CDS and is new from me to you the Chelsea fans all over the world. It's simple, I talk about the Chelsea news of the day as featured on my blog!. Enjoy!
CD
Let me know what you all think!
United
Cahill
Roman Abramovich
AVB Furious
My Blog / Facebook: / Twitter: / My Blog on Chelseafc.

With matters outside of football keeping Roman Abramovich busy, it was great to hear that he was at Cobham to see the players train on Saturday, to see AVB for a chat about things and to attend the game on Sunday. Roman even popped in to chat with the players for 30 minutes after the 3-3 draw with United.

Andy Carroll who has come under intense fire from the Liverpool faithful the past few weeks for his inconsistent performances, responded to his critics by scoring in Liverpool's 3-0 win over Wolves yesterday.

The £35 million signing from Newcastle opened the scoring for the Reds, to take his tally for the club to 7.

Out of the blue this story came to light over the weekend. There are reports all over the place that Chelsea have made a bid that has been rejected, have been told that the player is not for sale at any price and that seems that.
In addition to all this, AVB has said at the weekend that "he is an interesting player" but wanted to sign players who are not cup-tied for European competition this season.

Let's be honest here, and I have said it before, the whole situation with the transfer saga of Gary Cahill has us all wondering what the hold up could be. I cannot remember Chelsea agreeing a fee with a club and then literally taking weeks to conclude the terms with the player. It's a sign that times are a changing at Chelsea, or have they already?

By Chris Wright

As I understand it, the salient bullet points are as follows: Chelsea want to buy Gary Cahill for £7 million; Bolton want to sell Gary Cahill for £7 million, Gary Cahill wants to join Chelsea; Gary Cahill's agent asked for £120,000-a-week wages (presumably on the basis he scores more often than Fernando Torres); Chelsea aren't stupid.

New year celebrations for Chelsea fans were cancelled after the Blues suffered a humiliating 3-1 home loss to Aston Villa yesterday. Not only has this loss pushed Chelsea down to 5th position in the league, but coach AVB has also conceded that his primary target now is to ensure Chelsea challenge for a top 4 finish.

The little Russian maestro Andrei Arshavin has not looked very happy playing for Arsenal every time he has appeared on the pitch this season, even though Arsene Wenger has given him numerous chances to make an impact off the bench, and according to the Metro he has dropped behind Yossi Benayoun and Thomas Rosicky in [.

On You Tube people are creating better and better videos all the time bearing in mind the copyright constraints imposed by the Premier League and clubs in general.
TheSpinFire on YouTube has created some of the best of them. I have posted up some of these videos on here before but yesterday the final part of The Roman Abramovich Era 2003-2011 was uploaded and I am featuring today.

I think we all agree that the Chelsea job isn't exactly a bed of roses based on the levels of expectation put on you as manager. You would imagine that only the most confident, determined and focused managers would even entertain the idea of taking the hot seat here and a task of taking the club out of the shadows of the Jose Mourinho era at the club.

• Kop That: Andre Marriner and Mike Jones to pay the penalty: Graham Poll http://t.co/IGhKBRn0 23:51:17, 2011-11-20
• Kop That: Liverpool are much sharper than a Kenny Dalglish one-liner http://t.co/Kfauj81D 23:51:14, 2011-11-20
• Kop That: Oliver Holt's Big Match Verdict: Young Reds step up as Chelsea's aging stars fade http://t.