Out of the Red into the...

[Yeti01]

Some solid signings that. Hopefully do a job for you. This story is keeping me entertained at work, more updates please.

Thanks Sean. Whilst there's no doubt they are freebies for a reason I am hopeful they will help me get the points I need to stay up this season. I'm expecting the club (in-game) to go into administration sometime in February/March with the way things are going so it will be interesting to see what happens then.

 

[Yeti01]

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8 November 2014


The result really wasn’t bad today but I must admit that the performance was below par. Leicester started the game by scoring a wonder goal through Mahrez that Cech had no chance in the world of stopping. Things got better from there but time and time again we fluffed our chances.
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At the second half started Leicester began to get back on the ascendancy. Only a great save from Cech kept us in it when Kramaric ran through clear on goal after Terry missed a header. Some harsh words from the sideline and a few changes thankfully got us back on track and we got a goal to secure a deserved draw when Cuadrado went on a mazy run before slotting home. A lone spot of quality in an otherwise forgettable day.
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I am starting to get a little concerned that these draws may come back to bite us in the second half of the season as I expect our team to be considerably weaker then so we really need to be maximizing our points haul now.
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[SaintMotbot]

Loving this! some good signings! very strange to see such players in Chelsea shirts but you are working wonders with that squad! keep up the good work, I'm enjoying following this.

 

[Yeti01]

Loving this! some good signings! very strange to see such players in Chelsea shirts but you are working wonders with that squad! keep up the good work, I'm enjoying following this.

Thanks mate! I've been trying to keep an eye on your Rickie Lambert story also!

 

[Yeti01]

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25 November 2014



An up and down week.


First the up as we welcomed Swansea City to Stamford Bridge. We tried to play out the game in a 442 but it really just wasn’t working for us. Despite possession being pretty even Swansea were creating all the chances and it was really against the run of play when we took the lead just before the break. Cuadrado went on another one of his trademark runs and fired in at the near post. Fabianski seemed disappointed to have been beaten at his near stick but in truth he had little chance of keeping it out.
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We dropped back into our usual 4-1-2-2-1 shape after the break and got back into the match. We couldn’t find the goal to help us seal the deal but thankfully neither could Swansea find a way back into the match despite some very good opportunities.
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We now find ourselves in a decent position on the table. We have to keep building on this though as January looms large.
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Then came the down. We visited Galatasary knowing a win would virtually assure us progression to the knockout stages of the Champions League whilst a loss would relegate us to 3rd​ spot and the far less lucrative Europa League. The Swansea match had come of the back of a tough International break where a number of our players saw significant action and, this being a very important match, we asked a number of them to back up.


The problem was that fatigue, coupled with the extra travel showed in our performance from the first whistle. We were never in this one but once Felipe Luis saw red for his second bookable offense you knew it was going to be a long day. Still we held out until Gala were awarded a soft penalty 12 minutes after the restart. Selcuk Inan stepped up and sent Cech the wrong way to give the Turks the lead.
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From there I asked the guys to play a very attacking formation but it just left us even more vulnerable to the counter attack against our 10 men. The 2nd​ Galatasary goal came in comical fashion as Olcan Adin twisted and turned on the byline, fashioning himself enough room to squeeze across in that appeared to be easy enough for Cech to handle, but the Chelsea legend had a moment of misery as he deflected the cross into our goal. Not great when you are a man down and chasing the game.
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Unfortunately that is the way it finished and it is Galatasaray who will now beheading into the knockout stages as we prepare for life in the Europa League. As I have no concerns about being knocked out early in the Europa I will be playing youth squads in those matches.
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[PatrickLFC]

Painful loss there mate, but overall doing very well!

 

[JamesScott2908]

Just read this start to finish, Missed it starting up! The concept is brilliant and the detail of the updates in 2nd to none! Masonda is playing very well by the looks of things too!

 

[Yeti01]

Painful loss there mate, but overall doing very well!

Thanks Pat!!

 

[Yeti01]

Just read this start to finish, Missed it starting up! The concept is brilliant and the detail of the updates in 2nd to none! Masonda is playing very well by the looks of things too!

Cheers James. I haven't been very prolific with the updates for this one so I will expect it to have flown under the radar for most

Musonda has been great mate. Depending on how long the story goes for he could develop very nicely!

 

[Pieface1790]

been following this since it first started up and love the idea of it, doing well with the kids so far shame about the champions league could have brought in some much needed cash

 

[Yeti01]

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2 December 2014



Much better.


We made the short trip across town to the Boleyn Ground (whatever – it will always be Upton Park to me) for the game against rivals West Ham. The game was a bit of an arm wrestle with West Ham, although content to conceded possession to us, played a very high line that resulted in a lot of offside decisions going against us.


Onetime we got it right though was in the 56th​ minute. A slick run to the edge of the box by Willian looked to cause the West Ham defence some headaches. As their defensive line moved up and out to meet him Willian spotted Cuardrado as the back post who had drifted off his marker. He looped his cross over and Cuadrado did amazingly well to control his first time volleyed finish which he slammed home.
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From there we were never really threatened although West Ham did have the majority of their shots after our goal that were predominately from range and no trouble for Cech.
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On only 4 days turnaround we then welcomed Manchester United to Stamford Bridge for one of the biggest games of the year. In the days leading up to this one the media’s focus was all on our departures and how we wouldn’t be able to handle the United onslaught, particularly with former Chelsea man Matic patrolling their midfield.


I took the opportunity to give Mahamadou Diarra his full debut in at defensive midfield and move Mikel slightly further forward in an attempt to get a little more steel in there. It seemed to be working pretty well but a Man U long ball found us out in the 26th​ minute. Wilson evaded the attentions of Terry and raced through, his shot was well saved by Petr Cech however he couldn’t corral there bound, it fell to Adnan Januzaj and he made no mistake from inside the 6 yard box to give the red devils the lead.
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This prompted me to ask Mikel to push on a little higher and the move paid immediate dividends as we came right back into the game. 5 minutes after Januzaj’s goal we were level. A flowing move through the middle of the park lead to the ball being played out to Cuadrado. He noticed Drogba taking up a position in front of his defender and rolled the ball into his feet. What followed next was vintage Didier– using his upper body strength he held off Evans and rolled to his left. He took one touch to clear his body before unleashing a low drive that hit the net before De Gea even had time to move – glorious finish.
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At half time I told the guys I was happy with how things were going and asked for more of the same. The second began with both teams having chances before settling into an even struggle. Late in the game I was looking up and down my bench for someone to introduce and spotted a glint in Jeremie Boga’s eye. I asked him to start warming up with a view to bringing him on for Musonda before the roar of the crowd dragged my attention back to the game.


We had earned ourselves a corner that Lewis Baker was jogging over to take. The Man U fans in the corner where the East Stand meets the Shed End were going mental as he stepped up and swung the corner in with only minutes remaining. What happened next was one of those moments when a youngster, playing with the freedom afforded by youth, does something incredible. As the ball made its way into the box at around waist height it appeared that this would be an easy clearance for the Man U defence. Charly Musonda though had other ideas. Attacking the goal at a 45 degree angle he leapt and scissored a volley in first time. De Gea made a desperate leap to his right but he had no chance of stopping the bullet.
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The scenes around Stamford Bridge were ones of utter delirium. For fans who had suffered quite a bit with the guts of their team being ripped out over the previous few months this was a rare chance to celebrate and celebrate they did. They stood and cheered the last few minutes until referee Roger East blew for full time. At the end the we all did a lap to thank them for their support – the joy on their faces was a sight to see and is something we are hoping to see more of over the coming months.
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[Yeti01]

been following this since it first started up and love the idea of it, doing well with the kids so far shame about the champions league could have brought in some much needed cash

Cheers mate - The CL would have brought in some nice money so I am disappointed there, not going to lie. More important though with the current TV money is staying in the Premiership so that has been my no 1 goal.

 

[Yeti01]

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10 December 2014



Continued Improvement.



The games are coming thick and fast now. On only 3 days rest we faced a 2nd huge challenge when we had to travel to Anfield to take on the top of the table and unbeaten Liverpool. What occurred was a match the will forever be played in any ‘Best Games of the Premiership’ montage.


13th Minute – Liverpool started by far the brighter of the two sides. My concerns that we were still feeling the effects of our mammoth effort against United weren’t unfounded when Ibe got Liverpool on the board. It was Moreno who picked out a diagonal ball to Ibe and he took one touch to wriggle away from Felipe Luis before smashing in a low drive that evaded both Petr Cech and Kurt Zouma who was collapsing on goal. Top strike.
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46th Minute – I told the boys they had been unlucky at the break as I felt we had some good passages of play towards the end of the first. The confidence boost seemed to do them the world of good as Boga evened things up a minute in. Cutting inside he ran straight at goal. As he prepared to shoot Mignolet took up a very weird angle and exposed his near post which Boga accepted with glee. Bad mistake from the Liverpool custodian there.
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80th Minute – The second half then became an arm wrestle – we had slightly more of the ball but Liverpool were creating more chances. With 10 minutes to go though it appeared that Liverpool had scored a knockout blow when Sturridge tucked home a rebound from a Ibe shot that Cech will be disappointed he didn’t control at the first attempt.
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87th Minute – With time winding down we were hoping for a miracle and one came in the form of Juan Cuadrado. Remy had been brought on for Drogba up front and he turned and shot from the edge of the area. Mignolet managed to palm it away at full stretch but the ball fell kindly to Cuadrado to tuck home from an acute angle. At this point you could hear a pin drop around Anfield.
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90 (+1) Minute – Not for long though. A short corner was taken to Sturridge in injury time and he embarked on a dazzling run straight at the heart of our defence. Just as it appeared he would shoot he laid the ball across to Sterling who had the relatively easy job of tucking home into an almost empty net after Cech and the rest of our defence had been dragged out by Sturridge. Cue delirium around Anfield.
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90 (+3) Minute – I’ve had some extremely proud moments in my life. Predominately personal things like the birth of my two children, getting married, hearing Alexia say ‘Daddy’ for the first time, but also professionally - being made a Manager as Begbies and also the Tooting and Mitcham triumph but I don’t think anything professionally has made me as proud at what happened here. It was apparent from the mood of the Liverpool players that they expected us to roll over after the Sterling goal, their fans were already in party mode and the referee looked like he was already thinking about dinner so it seemed that everyone was ready for the game to end, everyone that is, except the 11 guys in blue on the field.

As Mikel surged forward through the midfield in the final of the 3 appointed extra minutes I saw referee Michael Oliver raise the whistle to his mouth, prepared to blow for full time at the culmination of that attack. Mikel though threaded the ball through to Cuardrado, zipping through on the right, and he hit a drive that sailed into the bottom left corner of the goal.
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I might never get the chance to win a Premiership, or anything else at this level for that matter, in my managerial but I will forever remember the sense of satisfaction I felt at the end of this game.
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Next we welcomed Anderlecht to town for our final Champions League group match. As this was essentially a dead rubber we rang up the changes and fielded a very young side. It was 2 of our youth prospects that got us underway too early when Colkett picked out Boga surging into the box and he swiveled and struck his shot back across Proto in goal for the Belgians to make it 1 nil.
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Anderlecht were playing for pride too though and quickly got things level. Gohi rose highest to flick a long ball on to Sylla and he made no mistake from close range firing under Blackman.
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We were absolutely dominating both in terms of possession and chances created and it was only a matter of time before we were back ahead. It was Remy who scored, turning in at the front post just after the half hour mark from a Nathan Ake cross who had, in turn, been played in by Colkett.
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We continued to do it easy and went further ahead just after the hour. This time Colkett turned scorer, Remy had drifter wide to pick up a short corner and he cross found the young Englishman who had made a nice, late run into the box. Colkett’s first time volley finish was impeccable leaving Proto no chance.
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The rest of the game was a story of us dominating but not creating any real clear chances. Still a 3-1 win is nothing to be complaining about and was invaluable experience for my younger brigade.
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[Yeti01]

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13 December 2014



Dang.



This was a huge result for us. The game started and we quickly got on the ascendency. Only some inspired keeping from Mannone kept Sunderland in the game. Soon though, our plans were thrown into disarray when Mahamadou Diarra picked up his second yellow in a 4 minute span and was marched. We hastily reconfigured into a 4-2-2-1 and expected the worst. What we got though, was some of our best.
Only one minute after the half time break and we were a goal up. Drogba found a breaking Willian who laid off for Musonda and he lashed home his first time effort with aplomb.
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Musonda though was at fault for their goal. He bundled over Defoe in the area and gave Sunderland a way back into the match. Danny Graham stepped up and scored with a really good penalty low and to Cech’s left.
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Only 10 minutes later Musonda redeemed himself. Remy rolled a nice ball through into his path and he curled his shot up and into the top right corner. No stopping that! 2-1.
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11 minutes from time and the points were sealed. Cuadrado swung in an inviting cross that Remy attacked at full pace. It bounced up very awkwardly in front of him however the cross has wrong footed Mannone and Remy was able to bundle the ball in with his stomach
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There was still time to inflict further pain on Sunderland. In the 86th minute Jeremie Boga was brought down in the area after a marauding run. Remy stepped up and smashed his penalty into the top corner.
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A really good performance (at least from everyone not named Mahamadou) and a good win.
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Interestingly the Sunderland Board were obviously very displeased with Poyet and sacked him immediately after the game.
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[Yeti01]

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21 December 2014



Ridiculousness.



This was complete and utter domination – yet all we walked away with was a point. With a team like we have I guess you can expect some ups and downs and, frankly, if this is as down as it gets then we are doing pretty good.



From the outset there was only one team in this. We were enjoying almost 2 thirds of the ball and were the only side creating chances. In the 42nd minute though – suckerpunch. Benteke was played through by Munir and finished calmly when one on one with Cech. Villa hadn’t even looked like threatening, let alone scoring to this point.

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After some harshish words at the break we came out firing. We had shot after shot after shot but were getting no luck hitting the post no less than three times. In the 75th minute Fabian Delph picked up his 2nd yellow after one too many professional fouls breaking up our attacks and was sent. That was the impetus for us to attack even more.


It was raining shots at the Villa goal yet Guzan was having a great day – pulling out some wonder saves. In fact it wasn’t until the 91st minute that we equalised when Kalas fed a ball into the middle that Mikel picked up. The Nigerian, not usually known for his scoring prowess, took aim and blasted past Guzan to rescue a point for us.
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I don’t think I’ll even be able to work out exactly how we didn’t pick up all three points here. It’s not as if all our chances were from range either – they were some great chances and really we had enough to win 4 or 5 matches. I think I’ll just chalk this one up to not being our day.
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[Yeti01]

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26 December 2014



Derby Day.



It is undeniable that, in terms of competitiveness at least, the main rivalry in London is between Chelsea and Arsenal. Chelsea Fulham is probably the most intense rivalry Chelsea has from a geographic standpoint but, in the premiership, a close second is the game against QPR.


This was one we really wanted to win and we started off that way. In charge from the first minute you could sense it was only a matter of time until we opened the scoring. It only ended up taking 21 minutes.
A Musonda long ball was lifted over to Remy and he left the QPR defence behind as he raced onto it. As he approached Green he opened his body and side footed it to Green’s left. Composed.

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Just after the hour mark Remy showed exactly what we will be missing when he first created, and then finished, our second goal. First he won a penalty when he turned Caulker and accelerated into the box. Caulker in an act born of frustration, attempted to slide in but got nothing of the ball and tripped up Remy, easy decision. Remy picked himself up and, again, picked out the top right corner from the spot. I sure hope we get a lot of money for Remy because, after his slow start, he has been great for us.
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Again we dominated possession and our defence was impervious, only allowing the single solitary shot for QPR, that wasn’t even close to being on target. It’s unfortunate the January window is just around the corner as this team has really gelled well over the past couple of weeks and it would have been exciting to see what they could have done with a bit more time together. Gotta pay the bills though.
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[JamesScott2908]

You have them playing some good football and doing well in the league bearing in mind the -10 deficit! KIU!

 

[Yeti01]

You have them playing some good football and doing well in the league bearing in mind the -10 deficit! KIU!

Cheers mate. I'm pretty happy that, despite starting Musonda and Baker almost every match, we have achieved results that I think would place us 4th without the points deduction.

Will be very interesting to see how we go though if we do sell the other guys in Jan.

 

[Yeti01]

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28 December 2014



Never Say Die.



We traveled to White Hart Lane next for another intense Derby match against Tottenham. The schedulemakers had done us no favors with this being our 2nd London derby in the space of 3 days. As a result we brought some fresh players in for what we expected would be a battle. Kalas in at right back for Ivanovic and De Jong in at left back for Felipe Luis were the main two and the uncertainty in the makeshift backline was evident early on as Tottenham got on the board after only 3 minutes.


A corner, that we had many chances to clear, eventually fell to Chiriches. He shot appeared to have been blocked on the line by a desperate Kalas but, and I’m actually not quite sure how, when he has gone to get to his feet the ball has been propelled over the line. Bizarre.
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We fought our way back into the match though and 20 minutes later were even. A short corner from Baker found Willian, our Brazilian maestro bamboozled his marker and laced in a shot that Lloris had no chance of saving. Big time play from a big time player.
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The game then became a bit or grind as both teams tried to find a winner. Tottenham appeared to have done so in the 82nd minute when Lamela collected his own rebound and fired past Cech who was just getting to his feet after the first save.
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This team just doesn’t know how to lose though. A corner was played into the middle by Baker – Tottenham got to the ball first but could only clear to Boga who worked himself a yard of space and smashed in the equalizer. William might be our best player at the present time but Boga is doing a wonderful job of giving our fans hope that there might be life in this side after January.
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Given all the circumstances I am quite happy with this performance and result. I know though that, with the window opening in just a few days, that this form wont last forever.
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[Yeti01]

View attachment 234073By Adam Bate Last Updated: 01/01/2015 6:54pm




CHELSEA OPEN WINDOW WITH TOOTHLESS DRAW AT HULL



In what may be a signal of things to come Chelsea was left to bemoan a lack of urgency in front of goal today drawing nil all with the host Hull despite outshooting their opponents 26 to 5. With the transfer window now open and established stars Willian, Juan Cuardrado, John Obi Mikel, Petr Cech and Loic Remy all available for sale scenes such as today might soon become commonplace for the men in blue.

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The club is hoping to raise in excess of 100 million pounds in player sales this window as they attempt to stem the hemorrhaging of funds out of Stamford Bridge. Manager Rob York was at his pragmatic best stating, “we can’t complain, we’ve put ourselves in a really good position with a results to date. In fact, should we not have suffered the minus ten point deduction I would almost declare ourselves safe. At the moment though we know that the 40 point barrier is our goal.”


He went on to discuss player sales saying, “the guys have been absolutely amazing. They aren’t idiots, they can see what the club is going through, yet all of them have done absolutely everything that could realistically be asked of them in getting this team to where it is now. The unfortunate reality is that our best names will be leaving over the coming weeks. Guys like Lewis and Charly have shown though that if you give the young guys a chance that might just surprise you!”


Club Captain John Terry also weighed in on the expected departures, “look this are me mates here. Me and Petr, we’ve been through it all… So if he has to leave then he can with his head held high, knowing he’s given his all for the club.”


Cech, almost with tears in his eyes, also fronted the media at the end of the match and addressed the possibility that this may have been his last ever game for Chelsea. “It’s been my honor to play for a club like Chelsea. If this is it then I want to take this opportunity to thanks the fans for their years of support.”
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Now starts the fun for York though as he attempts to navigate the 2nd half of the season with juggling his administerial responsibilities in trying to get top dollar for his players.