Without Anelka and Alex leaving, January would have been a useless period for us cos of our squad size. Now we have a younger home grown defender which also freed up a space for another foreign player meaning if our transfer team had worked well we could easily already have Cahill, Willian, Lucas and De Bruyne(age squad rules) and Hazard. I believe letting Anelka and Alex go was also aimed at weakening the player power in the dressing room and sending a message to all other players that AVB was going to revolutionise the team ruthlessly from top to bottom. Unfortunately, he didn't get the support he needed in January to further assert his authority at the club. He might not have done it perfectly but the sentiment was the right one. From his interviews, we can also see that he wanted to let Malouda and Kalou as well as Bosingwa go at the end of their contracts. He didn't want to throw everyone out at once so planned to do it subtly over a few transfer windows starting with the ones that were already disillusioned with their lack of playing time and who had reasonably young, talented replacements already (Luiz and Sturridge). AVB might have made a fair few mistakes out of inexperience and unsuitability for the job but I think letting Alex and Anelka go wasn't one of them.
posted on 19/3/12
Alex made too many errors in the last 6 months, infact he was actually quite prone to the odd brain fart or 2 imo.
posted on 19/3/12
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posted on 19/3/12
akfe -chelseaililic, look lads i cant see the point of letting such a player go mid season .
im not suggesting that we should keep untill he was 50, i do agree in fact he was at the end of his cfc career ,but to be discarded mid season by a manager who clearly was not at decided what the hell he was doing, is proof that the abuse issue was partly AVB doing.
posted on 19/3/12
Don't see the argument for keeping them even in hindsight. Anelka's departure has freed up space for Lukaku (he now gets the bench on occasion, as apposed to never). And Cahill has proven to be an upgrade so far. Both were also positive reinforcement in keeping with the age and nationality restrictions of the league.
posted on 19/3/12
freed up for lukaku ? look against the likes of Barce we need options which Anelka give us.
to have Alex in the squad in this period would do us no harm
posted on 19/3/12
Anelka sent a transfer request, the club didn't forve him out
AVB has left us in mess. Asking top4 finish is not a lot.
With the easiest set of fixtures he had, he messed up bug time
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The players let AVB down
posted on 19/3/12
Realistically can we get rid of Lampard at the end of the season if he scores 20goals in all competitions again?
posted on 19/3/12
His stats so far this season (13 goals 7 assists) are already marginally better than his stats for the whole of last season (13 goals 6 assists). I know he was injured for a period last season, but he's been rotated somewhat this season.
posted on 19/3/12
I would sell him but he'll probably go for a free in summer 2013
posted on 19/3/12
I think that his future at CFC is in his own hands. He could accept a phasing out over time (which has already begun). But if I were him, i'd be off to America, or PSG, or Italy... Big bucks, adulation, a few more years in the sun... And his Chelsea reputation is (mostly) untarnished.