WOW. Avram Grant is sacked as Chelsea manager!!

[Pan]

What ARE they expecting from 8 months as a club in upheaval??

they've been going 104 years, and today was the first time they got to Wembley.

Sorry,I have monopolised this thread,back to the OP and Chelsea,who will be the new manager,d'you think??

(I think they'll indulge us tonight, WT )

wrinkly - monopolise away!!

Chelski manager? No idea, but Kenyon ( turncoat) and Abramovitch WILL know. They propb knew before Wednesday night.

sven?

squonk!

hahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahhahahahaha

anyway, did you see windass's goal! twas volley-tastic!

here it is

I think Fraizer Campbell needs a lot of credit for the neat litle jinky run and fab cross,too.

Marvellous.

blimey! a blinding volley. Goal of the season.

My dad told me that new manager will be Manicini (just won Seria A with Inter).
Mourinho will be new Inter manager.. interesting.
Doubt my dad made it up heis footie mad

did we know that Hull City is the only football club that you can't colour in??

we do now

that goal again

he's been treated terribly by chelsea after doing a good job. but then again what do you expect from a horrible football club that are epitomised by possibly the most vile player in english football (excluding barton of course) John Terry.

theBOD - I'm not sure I agree Terry IS the most vile, but DO take your point about him. He is really unpleasant and his pluadits either don't know about it, or blithely ignore it. Bit like Sol Campbell. Vaunted but nasty in a horrible petty way.

Barton gets the crown. Obv.

ok possibly a bit over the top, i think perhaps the most vile in contrast to the public image the press seem to allow him, also the fact that he captains his country and so is a leading role model, if i was engish i would not be happy with that.
having a man who parks in disabled spaces, appears to have spat on an opponnent during the CL final (most definitely called him an "facking argie c**t"), urinates on nightclub dance floors, continually harrasses referees to the nth degree and once got drunk and mocked grieving american tourists in the wake of 9/11.
not the man i'd want as the captain of my country.

have tried so hard not to post on this thread

john terry is a farking king at stamford bridge. A more dedicated footballer you could not want in the team.

Who would you rather have, Rio? The man that 'missed' a drugs test (yeah right) and regularly drink drives, let alone all the other stuff that doesn't get written?

I don't think there are many footballers whose private lives hold up to scrutiny.

Thinking about it, that's why Zola was so widely respected. A nicer man you could not meet.

Barton and probably half of the old Leeds team were about the worst you could find.

that makes me sound like I'm condoning his behaviour which I'm not

but believe me, I've seen and heard a lot worse at football. Ruud v N once pretended to pick out fans and shoot them (when he once scored at the bridge) and nearly caused a bloody riot which was never reported by the press and then another player did it in another game (cannot remember details) and there was an outcry. Press used to hate the Mancs, now it's turned on other teams (like Chelsea).

You cannot believe everything you read in the press. I know that so much of it is made up. They get away with SO much more in sports journalism than anywhere else because they qualify it with 'speculation'!

"The man that 'missed' a drugs test (yeah right)"

well seeing as he passed a drugs test a day later and was still banned for 8 months while a man city player was merely fined 2 grand for the same offence a month later i'd say he was harshly done by. and no he still wouldn't be my choice of captain. if gary neville was fit i would probably choose him, failing that perhaps gerrard or hargreaves.

"A more dedicated footballer you could not want in the team."

if walking around the pitch screaming and harrassing refs (to the point where he actually tried to take the card out of the refs hand against spurs, as "JT" was not happy with the decision) makes you dedicated then something is seriously wrong with football.

and i'd agree with you on the whole that players personal lives should not be taken into consideration when you are selecting a team on football merit.but when you pick a captain they are a representative of your team (be it club or country) and as such accept a higher responsibility.

john terry had to pull Rio off the ref in the manc game the other day and get him to calm down. He is a good leader. And it isn't only Chelsea that do that to the ref. The mancs are just as bloody guilty of it and if you think they aren't, then you haven't watched as much football as I have this season! There was a man game where the linesman was so badly harrassed, I was surprised he continued. I would have walked off if I was him.

I agree though - I think there needs to be more ref protection. I can't stand any team doing that. Just get on with the blardy game ffs. I think the FA should step in and say that anyone who surrounds the ref like that gets an automatic yellow card (like the shirt taking off celebrations...which I think is wrong to give a yellow card for...but everyone KNOWS it's the rule now iyswim).

They should restrict it to captain (as the ref often wants to talk to him) and person who committed the offence and that's it (and anyone else the ref calls).

I mean the FA could do this but they don't. They are spineless and need to find their teeth imo.

no i'd agree that the FA have left them out to dry and i don't deny United don't do this tot he refs but no one has gone to the same extent as john terry and actually physically tried to stop the ref from trying to give another player a card.Terry should have been sent off imediately and given a hefty ban similar to what happened to Petit about a decade ago.

Rio is just as bad at this. That Spurs game was quite something else. I think (if you're talking about the one I'm thinking about) both teams got done with failure to control their players. The chelsea players were pelted with missiles throughout that game and a fan ran onto the field and tried to assault one of our players! It was totally mad. (if you're thinking about the 2007 fa cup one, think it was that one. Was a total disgrace that game)

unless you're talking about the one this year, I think it was the one where A Cole did that tackle and wasn't sent off

you'r enot thinking of spurs, you're thinking of the derby game I think (where we were done for failure to control players)

there were at least 3 or 4 games last season where teams physically harrassed refs and the refs had to take a step backwards or have the linesman on the pitch (i.e. non chelsea games)

it is endemic and it most certainly isn't only jt