Our 3-part series breaks down the 2012 Union roster by position. Today, the D. Tell us where we're wrong.

Death holds no favours, death does not discriminate between those who have wasted their lives drinking, taking drugs and smoking. Death comes but once and it is final. Death is unfair. It takes the best and the worst that mankind has to offer and does not discriminate between them. Death cannot distinguish the good from the bad.

Saturday is going to be a hard game, it always is at Goodison. Everton boosted by the signings of Donovan, Gibson and possibly Jelavic making his debut will be up for this one after we beat them earlier in the season at Stamford Bridge.
The big questions will be over AVB's team selection.

It's a pretty futile task to find any headlines other than those pertaining to the question of the England manager's job this morning but is it inevitable that Harry Redknapp is about to step into Fabio Capello's expensive Italian shoes?

Virtually every newspaper and sports website is covering this and there are so many different claims as to what, if anything, has already been decided.

By Chris Wright

You turn you're back for one second and what happens? Just three months and three friendly games before Euro 2012 gets under way in June, Fabio Capello resigned as England manager last night after spending the afternoon bickering with FA chairman David Bernstein and general secretary Alex Horne at Wembley over his comments made to the Italian media vis-a-vis the FA's premature decision to strip John Terry of the national captaincy.

Fabio Capello has stunned English football by quitting as England manager having fallen out with the FA after defender John Terry was stripped of the captaincy. The news rocked football journalists across the land as head coach Fabio Capello turned his back on the English national team and resigned with immediate effect.

Chelsea published their accounts yesterday and revealed that Chelsea had to pay £28m on "changes in the first team management structure" by sacking Carlo Ancelotti and hiring Andre Villas-Boas as his replacement which is just insane.
In addition to this, Football Finance Analyst Andy Green has calculated that Chelsea and Roman Abramovich have paid out around £64m in the last four years on managerial changes alone!

Capell0 has resigned. Everybody tosses rocks at the FA's glass house, yet we struggle to articulate our feelings. For sure, changing coaches on the cusp of a major tournament is never good. Remember the Ivory Coast drama before the 2010 World Cup? Yes, the FA could have better included Capello in the John Terry issue.

Outside of Harry's court case, the issues surrounding John Terry and the England captaincy have been firmly in the media spotlight this week and while the attention is currently on manager Fabio Capello, two of Tottenham's England internationals could be set to profit from the affair.

Scott Parker emerged last season to command a regular place in the England side and since his move to White Hart Lane, our outstanding midfielder must surely be one of the first names on Capello's team sheet.

By Chris Wright

"There's contact...juuuuust...hold on...wait a second...there."

Ne'er does a week go by without some dime-a-dozen pundit rolling it out. That sodding word. 'Contact'. A word which is quickly becoming the bane of my very existence.

In which one blogger's wife probes the relationship between players and fans.

by Adam Bate

What a return it has been for Kenny Dalglish. Only Cardiff City now stand in the way of Liverpool lifting the Carling Cup at Wembley later this month and thus securing the club's first trophy in six years. King Kenny has brought the buzz back to the city. And thankfully, whatever the dramas off the field, everyone at Anfield appears to be pulling in the same direction once again.

Sky TV were quick to give the champagne to Scott Parker last night and while it's hard to argue with that assessment, were there other, more worthy candidates at the heart of Spurs defence?
Speaking after the game, TV pundit Gary Neville pointed to a previous ‘soft centre' in the Tottenham side which would have seen us lose a match like that in the past and that's why he agreed with the Parker decision.

Gary Cahill made his long awaited debut for Chelsea against United last Sunday and I thought he did well and looked calm and composed. OK there is an argument that he was part of a defence that conceded three goals but two of them were penalties and you he is in no way at fault for the Hernandez header.

All had been quiet on the Luka Modric front until the end of last week when Spurs midfielder and Everton loanee Steven Pienaar made comments to the press suggesting that Tottenham would have difficulty in holding on to their Croatian genius once the season comes to an end.

It's worth looking at the South African's quotes in full,

"Luka is a top player for Spurs and if he leaves it is hard to say what will happen there," Pienaar told the Sunday Mirror.

My first visit to White Hart Lane came in February 2001. It was an FA Cup Fifth Round tie against Stockport County. My uncle had driven up from Southampton on the morning of the game and surprised me with a ticket.

I fell in love with the stadium and the atmosphere. I loved being part of the crowd and watching Spurs easily dispose of the opposition as they won 4-0.

The rumour mill may continue incessantly as it always does, but, for the time being no players will be swapping kits. Instead, now is the time for coaches to start preparing their troops, both new and old, for the business part of the season. It is already February and that mad month of May is [...]

If it wasn't for TV scheduling many of us would be receiving the sad and shocking news of Nigel Doughty's death at the age of 54 as we left Pride Park or awaited the match reaction from our radios. But with no game today most of us would have been enjoying a Saturday afternoon with no football, maybe spending time with family or friends, or just getting odd jobs around the house done [.

AVB hasn't exactly had it easy since he has come to Chelsea has he?. He came into the club as a breath of fresh air speaking of motivation, fine tuning the team and with his technical staff getting the best out of everyone.
Chelsea sit fourth just ahead of the likes of Newcastle, Liverpool and Arsenal and a whopping 12 points behind United and Man City and more importantly seven points and four goals behind Spurs.

I am asking the question to you the football fan reading this because I will be honest, I just don't know how to feel about the game tomorrow.
Being honest with you, this is the first time that I can remember in a long time that Chelsea are about to take on United and I don't feel confident at all!

The artist formerly known as England's Brave John Terry. Again.

Innocent or guilty, right or wrong the time has come for the Chelsea captain to leave the Three Lions, and the circus surrounding them, behind. Permanently.

An era passed

It's difficult to argue however much I disagree with the Football Association's decision to relieve Terry of the England captaincy in wake of the racist abuse trial he faces in July.

As you all know by now, John Terry has this morning been stripped of the England Captaincy once again. The "Official statement" from the FA reads as follows:

"Following the decision to adjourn the court case against John Terry to July, The Football Association confirm he will not captain the England team until the allegations against him are resolved.

You have to fill a 25 man squad with somebody and given the three major loan departures and one permanent sale earlier this week, perhaps it's no surprise at some of the names being included by Spurs this week.

In addition to those departures, Tom Carroll and John Bostock also went out to Derby and Sheffield Wednesday respectively so are David Bentley, Bongani Khumalo and Simon Dawkins literally there to ‘make up the numbers?

I am as Chelsea as they come, have supported this club from as early as I can remember to where I am now (38 years old) and cannot stand Manchester United as much as they probably can't stand Chelsea, but putting all feelings to one side, we have to acknowledge not only what he has achieved in the game, but how he's done it.

Of course with a headline like this, I just had to post about it. The article in today's SUN heaps more pressure on AVB at Chelsea when would you believe it, we are playing United on Sunday!.
That's not like the press to put pressure on a Chelsea manager before a big game is it?.
The quote taken from the article from a "top source" states the following:

"Jose would go back to Chelsea.

A few of the issues that gnaw at us, on the eve of season 3. How 'bout you?

By Chris Wright

"ANTON!!! I JUST WANT TO TELL YOU THAT YOU HAVE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL NECK!!!"

It can't have escaped your attention that John Terry is due to stand trial on charges of racial abuse for shouting 'you know what' at 'you know who' on July 9th, i.

By Chris Wright

Given the furore at Leeds yesterday, we thought it would be fairly timely to put together Pies' pick of the ten English-based football managers that, for one reason or another, are almost impossible to foster a begrudging respect for let alone take to your heart.

Javi reconsiders his defense of the front office following the infamous Seba interview.

It's a massive game on Sunday and two sides in contrasting situations. Chelsea are not playing as well as we would like to see them playing and are still struggling to create chances and feed Fernando Torres. We find ourselves 12 points behind United.
United, with plenty of injuries are still picking up vital wins and are now back on level par with City.

One thing I have noticed in recent weeks is the lack of real chances we are creating for ourselves. The thing is, because of this happening, the likes of Danny Sturridge (as he demonstrated yesterday) have taken a selfish approach to his game and is shooting whenever he gets the ball in or around the box rather then lift his head up and look for a killer pass or to create a chance for someone else.

By Chris Wright

After three years in charge, a promotion from League One and decent finish in the Championship last year, Leeds United have seen fit in their infinite wisdom to sack manager Simon Grayson with the club 'languishing' in tenth position after losing 4-1 at home to Birmingham last night.

Some time in December, a story emerged in the papers linking Spurs with a move for Manchester City's Carlos Tevez. In truth, nobody really believed it but at the time, a ‘source' stated that it would be the biggest deal since Klinsmann.

In the end, we got a transfer that was reminiscent of a deadline day deal that happened a few years ago.

Manchester City lost their 3 point advantage at the top of the Premier League after a 1-0 defeat at Everton with In The Stands' Rolly Pelovangu arguing that boss Roberto Mancini should bring back Carlos Tevez asap It is a well known fact that most people have very short memories not least where football is [.

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By Chris Wright

'Twas a bit of a slow one yesterday as anyone who spent 11-and-a-bit hours 'glued' to the live feed will tell you, with the total spending across the English leagues failing to surpass the £50 million that Chelsea spaffed on Fernando Torres this time last year let alone the ludicrous £225 million that was spent in total in January of 2011.

Today, everything changed. The Union traded Le Toux to the Vancouver Whitecaps, where he'll play alongside Eric Hassli. Eric FUCKING Hassli. Though also French, Hassli earned three red cards in his debut MLS season. Remember when Woody and Buzz ended up in Sid's hands?

As Chelsea fans and especially in recent seasons, we are always interested in seeing some of our promising youngsters come through into the first team squad. The likes of Betrand, McEachran, Van Aanholt and Bruma have featured last season but we haven't really seen much of the youngsters this term.

Tonight Chelsea travel to the Liberty Stadium to take on the impressive Swansea side under Brendan Rogers. We all saw how well they played when they beat Arsenal the other week and once again for Chelsea, this is no easy game.
Imagine a Chelsea side without three of the four players that have been part of the core of our side for the last five or six years.

By Chris Wright

Eng-lish Pre·mi·um/ing'liSH ˈprēmēəm/Noun: An amount to be paid on top of any given football transfer fee to recognise the paltry significance of said footballer hailing from these sceptred isles and will hopefully therefore play with 'bags of passion', etc.