I posted the other day that it was important to ignore all the press and media speculation on potential new signings until Jose Mourinho has had time to work with his players. As he said himself, he wanted to work with the group to see what he already has here and then if he needed to add to the squad and was able to, it would be fantastic.
We are all sitting here waiting for 3rd June when it is expected to be confirmed that Jose Mourinho will make his return as Chelsea manager on a four year contract. The question I want answered by Chelsea fans reading this is to tell me what your expectation of him and Chelsea is for the coming season!
Fernando Torres has been the focus of media attention over the last few days.
Firstly, because of his two goals in two games that played a big part in us winning the Europa League and in addition, his winner against Everton that sealed a third place finish in the Premier League and automatic qualification to the Champions League group stages.
After his best goal return for a season in a Chelsea shirt, scoring 22 goals, the future of Fernando Torres at the club remains unclear. In light of the speculation that will build right up to the beginning of next season, I want to ask YOU the Chelsea fan reading this no matter where in the world you are, just one question:
It's more or less certain now that Jose Mourinho will make a dramatic return to Stamford Bridge this summer. Personally, I cannot wait for that to happen. We look at our Chelsea team and see the fantastic quality we have. The current squad has won the Champions League and Europa League but has failed in the Premier League and we find ourselves a long way off challenging for the title.
Tomorrow night Chelsea take on Benfica in Amsterdam in the THIRD major European final in SIX years. After having injury doubts over Eden Hazard and John Terry, both have travelled today and a decision will be taken by Rafa Benitez after our training session tonight.
Hopefully both will make it through and will be available to bolster Rafa's options but ahead of the session tonight, I wanted to ask the Chelsea faithful their thoughts on who should start the game?
It's time to look back at Benitez's time at Chelsea and decide once and for all whether he has been a success. Let's put all the hate, tactical moves and all the Benayoun substitutions aside and think about this rationally. To being with, I'm not interested in whether you like him or agree with his tactics because that is not what determines whether or not he has been a success story.
Frank Lampard is in REAL danger of missing out on Bobby Tambling's record at Chelsea with just three games to go in our season. I personally believe that he WILL start against Aston Villa tomorrow but it could be his last start in a Chelsea shirt unless we get his contract situation sorted out.
There is no other way to describe the game against Tottenham tonight for Chelsea other than to call it a Cup Final and it's my opinion that we should treat the game as exactly that. The prize on offer is what this football club strives for and requires season in, season out and we have a chance to more or less confirm Champions League football next season.
Rafa Benitez is like Marmite isn't he. You either love it or loathe it and it's the same with him. He has his support amongst Chelsea fans and he doesn't amongst the majority of others. We all have an opinion that we are entitled to but I want to make something clear here - his objectives.
For example, Rafa has taken Chelsea on a good run and we now sit third in the Premier League and are through to the Europa League final and he's just won the Barclays Manager of the Month award for April.
Chelsea are no selling club, far from it as we all know but there is a saying that "everyone has their price" and the situation with David Luiz could become more than a worry this summer.
As reported this time last season, Barcelona were interested in signing David Luiz and a fee of around £35m was being talked about.
So after reaching our THIRD European final in SIX years, our focus now turns to Premier League Champions Manchester United and Old Trafford this Sunday. The question is, can Chelsea go there and re-produce their second half FA Cup performance and grab an all important three points?
The priority for our football club is the Premier League and we cannot afford to drop any points at Old Trafford.
If there's one thing most Chelsea fans complain about it's our link man. Someone who can sit deep in midfield and link defence to attack with a killer pass and quickly at that.
This season and under Rafa Benitez, Chelsea have managed to find that with David Luiz when he has been pushed further forward into one of the two deeper midfield positions.
A day after Jose Mourino took the stage at his press conference to more or less confirm he is leaving Madrid, Chelsea held their training session followed by their own press conference ahead of the Europa League semi final second leg against FC Basel at Stamford Bridge.
In light of the heightened speculation surround a possible return for "The Special One", it was clear questions would be asked of Benitez to his reaction.
After Jose Mourinho more or less announced his intention to come back to Chelsea last night in his press conference after Real Madrid's exit from the Champions League but without actually saying it, there has been two other stories doing the rounds today.
One of those stories is the apparent £100m summer transfer kitty that Jose Mourinho will be handed by Roman Abramovich and the three possible signings that he makes with that money.
Arsene Wenger held his normal press conference yesterday ahead of their fixture this weekend and everything was pretty much par for the course until he spoke of Chelsea and "our intentions" this summer and despite the rumour that Wenger has a huge amount of money at his disposal, he stated that he was worried about us.
Chelsea will take a 2-1 lead into next weeks second leg against FC Basel after David Luiz scored the winner on the night with literally the last kick of the game. Two away goals puts us in a commanding position and we are now favourites to progress to the final although, there is still work to do.
The result at Anfield yesterday in addition to the results at White Hart Lane and Craven Cottage went against Chelsea and we are now under extreme pressure for the remaining five Premier League games this season. It's now the case that any dropped points could see us slip out of the top four and as a football club, we cannot afford for that to happen!
Seems like getting their bum bums paddled by their cross-city rivals in the Premier League last season has put a rocket up Manchester City, with the club already chucking £51 million at the problem to bring in former (we're assured) chronic homesickness-sufferer Jesus Navas from Sevilla and the man they call Fernandinho from Shakhtar Donetsk.
Things are up in the air with Benteke at the moment
It seemed like he was all but vowing to stay on a further year at Villa Park to prove himself to be more than a one-season wonder not so very long ago, but today Christian Benteke has apparently told Dutch newspaperNieuwsblad that "if Villaforce me to stay, I won't necessarily accept that.
We appreciate that you've probably already heard by now unless you spent last night sleeping in a skip, but after a season of runner-uppery, Man City sacked Roberto Mancini after three-and-a-half years in charge at The Etihad.
In fact, Mancini was canned exactly a one year to the very day after winning the Premier League in the final second of last season.
Thanks to the "jobs for the boys" policy that seems to be in operation at every single sport broadcasting department in the country, an inordinate number of former professional footballers are now employed to chat about football before, during and after games with a shocking number of them appearing to have absolutely no understanding of the game that once provided their principle stream of income.
Here's our semi-drunken conclusions from last night's Champions League Final...
1.Dortmund went with "wing and a prayer" approach to defending. Indeed, their back four was so slap-dash that Klopp's men were lucky not to be out of the game by the hour mark.
We know these composite XI things are largely pointless, but, hey, so's football. With the Champions League Final in mind, we've cobbled together the best of Bayern and the best of Dortmund together into what we think is the best composite team available between the two squads.
I am referring to rumour and speculation of course this week but in the past few days, in addition all the speculation about players coming into the club, it's seems that there is one particular player that could suffer as a consequence of Jose Mourinho's impending return to our football club!
After a day of drama at Old Trafford as Sir Alex Ferguson announced he will retire at the end of the season, the rumour mill has gone into overdrive late last night. Shortly after Chelsea had drawn at home to Tottenham, reports had surfaced that Wayne Rooney had asked for a transfer for a second time from Manchester United and it had been rejected by Fergie two weeks ago.
This is one of the hardest posts I have had to write on my blog and being honest I was undecided on posting it. I have not been your biggest fan since you came to the club and ask anyone on here, they will tell you the same! I want to start by telling you where I WAS at when you were appointed as Interim Manager to a couple of months ago.
Demba Ba is heavily featured in an interview with the London Evening Standard and has championed the idea of Rafa Benitez starting him alongside Fernando Torres against Liverpool.
He said:
"When he came on the pitch against City he helped me a lot. We caused them problems so I think we could play together.
PPL Park expansion talk is back in the news. Conor O'Grady hopes talk of more suites, club seats, and a restaurant takes means the Union doesn't forget the populism that was behind the founding of the club.
As the season draws to a close the voting opens to decide who the club's player and player's player of the year is, as well as who scored the goal of the season. These are official awards presented by Chelsea, but what I'm interested in today is who our (unofficial) most improved player is. I'm going to put forward 5 nominations and let you make you choice between them.
As you would have all seen by now, David Luiz is taking huge amounts of stick because of this image above. Some people are moaning about the fact that he is smiling and because he stayed on the floor which people believe influenced Howard Webb's decision to send Rafael off!
Last night saw David Luiz take up the role of defensive midfielder again, something that he has not been asked to do for quite a while. I thought he had a mixed game; we saw the best and the worst from him. Some very strong tackles were made, but then he was also outsmarted on more than one occasion.
A few days before New England's football team put paid to a hapless Toronto FC in conditions that might have made Andy Dorman pine for a January nighttime fixture at Inverness County during a North Sea howler, the smart money at a Dunkin Donuts chat session held that wunderkind Diego Fagundez might one day fetch a cool five million to eclipse Clint Dempsey for the highest transfer fee fetched by a Rev player.
Look at that face. That is the face of a man who knows he's made a huge ruddy mistake somewhere down the line.
After scoring 80-odd goals in two seasons at Atletico Madrid, it's fair to say that Radamel Falcao could pretty much have his pick of who to join next Barca, Real, Milan, Bayern, Forest yet still he finds himself on the verge of signing a five-year deal at AS Monaco.
Another year, another lesson in shaming by the MLS Players' Union. It's no secret that MLS salaries are lower than other pro sports in North American and pale in comparison to top European leagues. The bigger secret is how MLS salaries reflect the sad reality of the US workforce at large: for the last two decades, we've all worked harder and earned less.
As more and more stories and speculation appear from day to day about the future of Frank Lampard at Chelsea, one ex-player has had his say and is spot on.
Graeme Le Saux spent two spells at Chelsea and it was in his second spell at the club he played next to Frank Lampard who had only just joined the club.
There are some excellent scribes who write about Argentine Soccer. Sam Kelly. Dan Colasimone. Ed Malyon. Most of them live in Buenos Aires, whereas my own tenure there was an all too brief six months (several years ago). However, there's just one problem: none of the aforementioned writers are pricks.
There is plenty that will talked about when this season finishes as we look back at a season that promised so much but delivered so little. From the change of manager to results, performances and the positives we can take from it. One other thing has been constant and hasn't done us any favours and that's the uncertainty that has surrounded the club and plagued our season.
