Not Everyone Can Do A Chelsea!

"England attempted to do a Chelsea"

If you have been surfing through the web, exploring football news (especially about Euro 2012) you would have probably come across phrases like “doing a Chelsea”, “pulling a Chelsea” or even “trying a Chelsea”. If a team tried their best not to concede goals, then they are being accused of “doing a Chelsea”. Well, if doing a Chelsea means fighting till the end, against all the odds, commitment, courage then its fine by me. But let me remind you one thing. Not everyone can do a Chelsea.

Chelsea rule at the Camp Nou

It wasn’t a piece of cake for Chelsea to become the European Champions. We beat Valencia, Napoli, Benfica, Barcelona and Bayern Munich to be finally called as European champions. We overturned a 3-1 deficit against Napoli. John Terry played with broken ribs. Two of our center backs (Luiz and Cahill) got injured, had to use right backs as centers; but still we scored two goals with 10 men at Camp Nou in front of 90+ thousand fans. Everything was against us. But still, our manager, players and fans wouldn’t just give up so easily. Because, we are Chelsea. Not everyone can fight like we do.

Yes, we defended a lot. But no, it wasn’t boring and it definitely wasn’t anti-football. We took our chances, moved forward and took our shots. Considering the main objective of a football game is to score goals; then passing passing passing in the midfield looks more boring and anti-football to me. In the case of Chelsea, it was a well-organized plan by our manager and flawlessly actuated protocols by our players. This is isn’t as easy as it sounds. I mean over turning a 3-1 deficit, leveling with Barcelona at their magnificent Camp Nou and beating Bayern Munich at their own Allianz Arena isn’t a weak man’s job. It requires legends. Legends like Frank Lampard, John Terry and Didier Drogba who have an unbelievable fighting spirit.

Neuer unable to react to Drogba's bullet

After beating Chelsea 3-1 in the first leg, Napoli thought they won it. But then stepped Drogba, Terry, Lampard and Ivanovic to prove them wrong. In the semifinal first leg at Stamford Bridge, Barcelona were bossing around. But Lampard, Ramires and Drogba didn’t like it. They stepped up and shut the mouths of all the haters. In the second leg John Terry was sent off (rightly so), Barcelona scored two goals and they thought they won it. But Lampard, Ramires and Torres didn’t agree with them. In the final when Bayern Munich took the lead in the 82^nd minute. They took Muller off, thinking that these defending Chelsea players cannot do anything now. But then stepped up a legend with a newsflash: WE SCORE WHEN WE WANT. Didier Drogba came with a thunderous bullet and that over confident Neuer didn’t even know when the ball hit the net. Shortly after that, we were called the European champions.

Well not everyone has legends like Drogba, Terry and Lampard etc. Not every team has a Roberto Di Matteo. That’s why not everyone can pull a Chelsea. So people should stop comparing Chelsea with teams who just parks the bus. Because at Chelsea, we park the bus and then score when we want to.

By #LimCFC

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Why Roberto Di Matteo Is The Next Pep Guardiola?

The next Guardiola in the making.....

Irrespective of what happens in RDM's tenure over the next two years, RDM will go down in our history books as one of our most successful managers.And that is simply because he was the first Chelsea manager ever to win the Champions League.The fact that he is a Chelsea legend as a player makes it all the more special. So how does RDM qualify as the next Pep Guardoila ?What I write henceforth is just a hypothesis, it may be proved wrong but it has more chances of being correct than wrong.

The world knows what Guardiola did at Barcelona...

When Pep took over Barcelona, he had inherited a de-moralised team which was being utterly dominated by Real Madrid. The team was always finishing second best to Madrid.And it looked like Barca would never be able to turn the tables on Madrid. Enter Pep. Pep was a Barca legend. And he was a midfielder too. The board trusted him.Why ? Simple because he knew the club inside out and understood what the club wanted and what it stands for. The next 3-4 years, we all know what happened.Barcelona today are widely considered to be the best team in the world and Madrid struggle against them. Yes, Madrid won the league, but that was after a gap of 4 years.
And unless Madrid continue it, it'll be just a flash in the pan and Barca will dominate again.

Now take RDM's situation. I am sure you all would have started seeing  the similarities already.
RDM took over Chelsea at a time when we were lost. We had no direction, we had no formation. We had lost the will to play. We had lost the will to fight.Pride was lost and the season was heading for dooms-day. AVB resembled a harrassed person. One who had lost all control and respect of the dressing room. And his philosophy wasn't working.After endless poor results, and that 3-1 defeat in Napoli, It was clear that something had to be done and so AVB left.Enter RDM. THe club legend. The guy who understood the club ideals. The guy who knew exactly what the club wanted. Oh, not to mention, he was a midfielder too (*wink*).

Cool,calm and composed that's how he did things.

He identified the areas where the club faced problems. There have been endless articles on what RDM has done, so I won't repeat them. You already know that.So, he identified the problems and solved them. Her didn't do anything extra-ordinary. He kept it simple.Here's one proof. This one's from King Drogba yesterday only :


" When we were about to play against Barcelona, we watched a lot of video. We knew we were playing the best team in the world.So for us playing this game, especially when we came from Napoli and we should have been out a long time ago, we were lucky to be there but we played hard as well.  So when we watched the video, the manager wasn't showing Messi. At the end, you could see the important players. The ones who scored and created assists, the most consistent guys. With Messi, he just said that he had 61 goals. We all started laughing. We knew we were in for a difficult night but we did our best."

See ? RDM understands the basics of football. He knows how to strike a chord with the players. He won't take drastic measures. He'll just keep it simple. And that's why the players love him.

One more plus point about RDM is that he's highly intelligent. He and Hiddink have been the only two managers post-Roman era who have been sane enough not to challenge Roman's authority.
A GOOD manager is the one who cries for the resources he REQUIRES annd gets the job done, like he should.


A GREAT manager is the one who UTILIZES the resources AVALILABLE with him, however insufficient they may be and still gets the job done.RDM falls in the second bracket manager. So does Pep.If you look at Pep's signings, they have been terrible. Ibramovich, Hleb, Afellay and many others have been duds. But then how has he been successful ?He's used the talent the club already possessed and brought out the best in them.And that's exactly what RDM is doing. I am sure everyone is understanding what I am trying to point out.

Let's hope Robbie takes Chelsea to a whole new level and stays with us for years to come....

RDM has got a contract for 2 years now. So lets see what all can he do in the next 2 years.
One thing is for certain, the old players like Terry, Cech and Lampard will continue to give 200% for RDM and Chelsea. RDM himself is a legend and he knows how to treat legends.So when he has the senior player's support, he'll have control over the dressing room.Players already respect him. The new players will respect him too not only because that he's a UCL winning manager but because also as a manager he's extremely humble and as we all know he's a master of man management.

Everything is in place for RDM to do at Chelsea what Pep did at Barca. We have financial resources. He's inherited a great team and more players are enroute.We got awesome youth. We got a great owner. We got great fans. We all love RDM. The players love RDM.All in all, without repeating what has alreadly been said in many articles, I think RDM could be our Pep Gaurdiola. I hope he is.

#KTBFFH

-RR2 (Chelsea360)

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The Chelsea Way: The only way Chelsea can play?

This is a trend that’s been around ever since after the first leg match Chelsea won against Barcelona in the Champions league semi-finals and much was emphasized since our Champions League glory. It’s a trend where people everywhere say, that Chelsea can only play the boring and defensive football style. If what they’re saying were just to highlight that we can play well defensively, I’d have no problems with that. But in this case, the majority of people are saying this to degrade the qualities we possess as a football club.

This has spread everywhere, every social media and every news media. I have read so many times in social medias where people say, well basically, Chelsea is a team that can only play defensively. Here’s a conclusion I made on all the tweets and comments that are having a say on this:

Both Marin and Hazard were signed to bolster our attacking qualities

“Chelsea have signed Hazard and Marin, and now are going after Hulk, Ben Arfa, Schurrle etc. Why are they trying to sign all these attacking players when they’re just going to turn them into defenders?”

Now this is insulting. By my understanding, what all these tweets and comments are trying to say is 

this: Chelsea can and only knows how to play defensively. Before I start rumbling on how this nonsense is outrageous; now that the Euros are under way, a new term has emerged, The Chelsea way or some say, “doing the Chelsea”. Oh how thoughtful. The Chelsea way is basically a term used for a team using the similar tactic Chelsea used in the Champions League Semis and Final. Here’s an example; as we all know, Trapattoni, the Irish national team manager said they were going to use “the Chelsea way” to face Spain, and we all saw how that ended. Another example is France. They are to face Europe and World Champion, Spain. Reports from Bleacher report and other medias are suggesting that Laurent Blanc’s men will play “the Chelsea way” to face Spain.

Now some are complimenting Chelsea as they mean Chelsea exceeds others in defending, whilst others are just sore fans that for many reasons dislike Chelsea’s success last season. And for whatever reasons they’re saying all this, I finally feel irritated. How is it a team that played using a certain tactic for three matches considered that they could only play that way? So, what people everywhere out there are trying to say is that a team can only play one certain style of play in every match? Heck no. I’m not trying to say that playing defensively is a crime; we’ve had an article before about the beautiful attacking style vs. the boring defensive style, my main point is a team can’t be labeled a defensive team just because they played that way for a few matches. And that also includes Chelsea. We aren’t a defensive team, we exceed in defending, yes. But that’s not the only style we know how. Here’s my answer to those who keep on claiming we are a team that can only play boring defensive football-

1. It was a Tactic that Di Matteo used to perfection

Spot on tactics used against Barcelona and Munich

The three matches that got us the “boring” defensive team was the three matches we played against Barcelona and Bayern Munich. Yes we played defensively. But we did that because we had too. Last season saw us possess the worst attacking quality since the Roman era. Our only quality attackers were Mata, Torres and Drogba. While Malouda, Kalou and Sturridge were under performers. And Lukaku is still to young and inexperienced to be played in these important matches. Compare our atackers to rivals City, United and Arsenal? And we looked ordinary. Heck I sometimes thought Tottenham and Newcastle had better options upfront than us. So what Di Matteo had to do was to apply the best tactic he could. First, I’ll give a definition to what tactic means. Tactic has a definition of a procedure or set of maneuvers engaged in to achieve an end, an aim, or a goal/purpose. In football, I would put tactical aim is to get the best by calculating what you got and your opponents weaknesses and strength. And that’s exactly what Di Matteo did; he got the best out of our quality and took advantage of it. At that time our primary strength was clear: defense. Hence the defensive play against both Barcelona and Munich. Did we play defensively in the Premier League? NO. Did we play defensively against both Tottenham and Liverpool in the FA semis and final? NO. Fact is, Chelsea scored 19 goals since Di Matteo took over on March 4^th. And Chelsea also beat Tottenham with a staggering 5-1 win and a 2-1 win over Liverpool.

Who could forget that season when we broke all kinds of goal scoring records....

2. Stats say otherwise

Here are some stats to back me up. Chelsea until now holds the most goals scored in a season with 103 in 2009-2010 in the Premier League era. Another fact is that Chelsea is placed third among all teams that has participated in the Premier League since 1992-1993 with 1282 goals, only beaten by United and Arsenal with 1541 and 1345 respectively. Chelsea also scored 112 goals in all competitions last season, only 6 below United and 11 below City.

3. Other teams also played defensively

Yes, other teams also played defensively last season. To all Manchester United fans, remember the trip to Etihad? You basically parked the bus too, and worse, you had 0 shots on goal. And to top that, you still lost. Manchester City also played defensively at some occasions. They played defensively when they visited Stamford Bridge, and also when they played Arsenal at both Etihad and Emirates. And to top that, before this season, City was the most defense oriented team. We all know that as a fact.

So with all these, how is it just by playing those three matches, we are labeled defensive and boring? We can play fantastic attacking football and we showed it before. I know this article won’t instantly wipe all the nonsense people are saying out there, but I for one am certainly irritated and sick of all those talks. Roman certainly is showing he means business with all the transfers going on, so with all the signing that has already come, and the signings that will, I hope Chelsea next season will shut the mouths of those degrading and insulting our attack force once and for all.

How do you fellow Blues see it? Well, till then, Keep The Blue Flag Flying High as always....

#HWCFC (CFC360)

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The Challenge Ahead: Chelsea's Transition Into An Attacking Side

The 2011-12 season was one of mixed fortunes for Chelsea. We managed to win the Champions League & the FA Cup, which is an outstanding achievement given the state we were in when Andre Villas-Boas was sacked. However, we only managed a 6th place finish in the Premier League, a clear indication that this Chelsea squad isn't as strong as it appears.

Ever since Roman Abramovich bought the club, 2 things have remained constant: High expectations & a strong squad. However, the squad that Roberto Di Matteo had at his disposal was one of the weaker Chelsea squads in recent memory (expectations still being as high as before). Credit must go to him for how he brought the squad together & made them play as a team. The one criticism of RDM: his style of play was considered defensive, even described as boring to watch.

Defending was a key part of Chelsea's game under RDM

One can understand that criticism. A lot of Chelsea fans felt the same way. But RDM didn't possess a squad that was full to the brim with attack-minded players. Besides Juan Mata, there was no real creative spark in the midfield. Our strikers were not in the best of form. And our defence was struggling to keep a clean-sheet. Keeping all that in mind, RDM made changes to our style of play. 


He changed the formation from the patented 4-3-3 to a 4-2-3-1, inserting 2 defensive midfielders whilst giving Juan Mata's creativity free reign. The change worked. Our defence became reliable, and our strikers (most notably Fernando Torres) began to find the back of the net. Whilst I'll admit it wasn't at all fun to watch (I'm pretty sure I nearly had 4 heart attacks during the matches against Barcelona ) I knew this was the only way we would actually stand a chance of winning anything. 

Marko Marin

Eden Hazard

However, I don't think Chelsea fans need to worry about the team playing attacking football. The signing of Marko Marin & Eden Hazard means that Chelsea's style of play will undergo drastic changes. Don't believe me? Read on.



When Manchester City first appointed Roberto Mancini, the team would often come under fire for being extremely defensive (despite having large resources that meant they could buy any player in the world). However, the purchase of players like David Silva, Samir Nasri & Sergio Aguero changed the look of the team entirely. Even though City were still hard to break down, the inclusion of such players in the starting XI meant that City were always a threat going forward. 

I expect Chelsea to go the same way. Include Hazard & Marin in our playing XI, & we can expect plenty of flare in attack. Just imagine this Chelsea XI: Cech; Ivanovic, Luiz, Terry, Cole; Ramires, Lampard, Marin, Mata, Hazard; Torres. (Formation 4-2-3-1). This is a line-up good enough to take on & beat the best of teams in Europe.

So expect plenty of attacking flair from Chelsea next season. We played "ugly football" & have 2 trophies to show for it. I can only imagine what will happen if we play football that's a little easier on the eyes (& the heart).

Till then fellow Blues KTBFFH as always!

                         

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6 Reasons the Blues Will Win the EPL in 2013

CHAMPIONS 09-10 

With RDM now appointed and some exciting signings already done and hopefully some more to follow things are really looking good for the Blues. The future of the club is secured with Champions League football guaranteed next season. The Blues had a morbid season in the domestic department. 

A dissapointing 6^th place finish which was our worst ever finish in the Roman era which is the only blot on our PERFECT season. We even finished below the Magpies and Spurs who parted company with Harry Redknapp yesterday. RDM did help us out in the league and we did beat teams well but much of the damage was done in the infamous AVB era.Anyways moving on from all that, the guys from BLEACHER REPORT UK recently published 6 reasons why they think that Chelsea can be crowned England’s champions again .These reasons are very apt and gives every Chelsea fan  a reason to be excited and ecstatic. We highly recommend our readers to read them-

HERE IS WHAT THE GUYS FROM BLEACHER REPORT posted-

All in all, last season will go down as one of the most memorable in Chelsea's history, if not the most memorable.With an FA Cup victory and the all-important Champions League trophy now at Stamford Bridge, it was a successful campaign.But Chelsea's league position was quite the opposite, with the dramatic win over Bayern Munich being the only reason Chelsea are competing in next year's Champions League competition at all.The Blues will want to be be far more competitive in the league in the 2012-13 season, and with Roberto Di Matteo locking up a permanent manager's role, can the Blues regain some domestic dominance to add to their European title?

      1.   REIGINING EUROPEAN CHAMPIONS TAG

Saying that Chelsea's spending power will be a factor in a league that has Manchester City might seem a bit ridiculous.But Chelsea's European triumph may be a key factor in attracting the biggest names to Stamford Bridge.Chelsea have already been active in the transfer market, signing German Marko Marin and highly-rated Belgian winger Eden Hazard.These players may be what Chelsea need to add some youth and pace to the side. Add to them players like Hulk and Gregory van der Wiel, who have been long-term targets for the Blues, and you have some real quality to start off next season.

The Pressure is on the two Manchester clubs...

2 . UNDERDOG STATUS WILL HELP

Most seasons, Chelsea expected to be one of the teams that will be competing to be the Premier League winners.But since the emergence of Manchester City as big players in the English game, Manchester has looked like monopolising the title challenges.After Chelsea's below-par league performance last season, they aren't very fancied to lift the trophy in 2013, but this slight underdog status had been working in Chelsea's favour in the last few months. With most eyes on the two Manchester clubs to be battling for the title, the pressure is off Chelsea somewhat, and they can go about their business throughout the season and perform well.

The lads are all together and full of confidence...

3. PLAYERS FULL OF CONFIDENCE

Chelsea are understandably on cloud nine right now. Who wouldn't be?They are the newly crowned champions of Europe and have finally gotten their hands on the Holy Grail they wanted so badly.This will obviously give all the players a massive confidence boost, knowing that they are capable of beating the best teams in the continent, even when the odds are stacked heavily against them.Hopefully, under the guidance of Roberto Di Matteo, the players can take this confidence and use it to their advantage in the way they approach league games.

Any team can beat any team in the Premier League

4 . PREMIER LEAGUE HAS BECOME VERY OPEN

There is no doubt about it; the Premier League has become a far more open league in recent seasons.Points were being dropped all over the place by all teams, and that includes the bigger sides in the league.Arsenal had one of the worst starts to the Premier League imaginable but managed to battle back to gain third place, and the driving seat for the title changed hands many times.For Chelsea, it started well and got progressively worse under Andre Villas-Boas, but then fortunes changed when Roberto Di Matteo took over.If Chelsea could have kept up their form during the latter stages of the season for the entire campaign, they could have crashed the Manchester clubs' party.The open nature of the league could count against any club in the league, but on the other side of that, it gives any of the top clubs a shot at winning the league if they can keep up a good run of results.

ROB finally got the JOB  and everyone's really happy with  his appointment..

5.RDM’s FULL TIME APPOINTMENT HAS MADE EVERYONE HAPPY

      Nobody is quite sure how he did it, but he changed Chelsea to a winning side in a matter of months.It could be a matter of luck, tactics or just that the players took to him, but something changed in the air at Stamford Bridge when Roberto Di Matteo stepped in to Andre Villas-Boas' shoes.Many of Chelsea's big players have expressed their admiration of Di Matteo and that they would be delighted if he was to be offered the job on a full-time basis.The players have finally gotten their wish. Di Matteohas been offered a contract and can be given an opportunity to build the Chelsea team in a a way he would like.

6.CHELSEA HAVE BEEN UP THERE BEFORE

This isn't an advantage that's exclusive to Chelsea, but it's an advantage all the same.During the end of a Premier League campaign, legs can get tired and minds run down, and concentration and focus can slip when the finishing line is in sight.Manchester City could have walked away with the league following their start, but as Manchester United crept up on them, their nerves jangled and they dropped points.Chelsea have won the Premier League three times, so the senior players will know what it takes to close out a season should they be in a position where they are fighting for the title as the campaign draws to a close.

A new era awaits for CHELSEA FC....

Well great stuff isn't it? Yes readers these reasons are pretty well thought off and well crafted. The guys from Bleacher report UK have highlighted some really good points. Yes we are the European Champions  and that way we can attract big names who will take the club to even further heights. The underdogs status  will help the Blues as they can perform without any extra pressure and play their game to the fullest.

The way the season turned around was phenomenal and the players now know they can beat any team be at Barcelona, Napoli, Bayern Munchen anyone the Blue players know anything is possible and will be very confident next season. The premier league is now even more open now any team can beat anyone, Wigan showed that so we can expect the Manchester Clubs to slip up as well as the league has become really very competitive. 

RDM did something at SW6 which no other manager has ever done. He's a fan's favorite the players adore him he loves the Club and his legacy with the club looks to continues as he has signed a new two year deal in Mr. Roman's quest to rehabilitate the team and start a new golden era at Chelsea Football Club with a string of new generation of players.

The Blues have been challenging for the title almost every season they are up there as they battle to be crowned England's top team. With the likes of JT,Lamps, Essien still there the new Chelsea team will not lack mettle and will have enough experience in them to battle it out with the other 19 teams with some fighting for the Championship, some for the European places and other battling out for their lives in order to be crowned Premier League Champions.

We hope you liked the article,the guys from Bleacher UK have pointed out some really eye opening and important points,we hope Chelsea are their with RDM's new and rejuvenated squad as they look to defend their European crown and fight for 5 other trophies in- UEFA Super Cup, FA Cup, FIFA Clubs World Cup, Carling Cup  and last but not the least for the Premier League Crown...

Till then readers KTBFFH as always!

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Agent: Lukaku Wants To Stay In England

The Agent of Romelu Lukaku has said that Lukaku would prefer to stay in England opening the doors for English Clubs to sign him on loan.

Lukaku's Agent,

For Romelu is very simple, first make the preseason and see if you have options to play or not. If things get complicated, then your priority will be to stay in England

Now almost all of us have been disappointed with the way Lukaku's first season has turned up to be at Chelsea. Romelu Lukaku is upbeat over what he can achieve next season.

The former Anderlecht starlet barely featured in his first year in England. Lukaku said,

"I go into the training camp in America and that is a better basis to start. Hopefully it will help me towards a better season. I look forward to it with anticipation. It may be my best season ever," smiled the striker.

The signing of Di Matteo will definetly pleasing music to the ears of Lukaku but no doubts it would be really very hard for Lukaku to break into the first team at Chelsea next season. He is definitely a young and confident lad and alot of English teams would be keen on his signature. The likes of Stoke City, West Ham and Sunderland would all be good options for him if given regular first team action.

So lets hope he prospers wherever he goes and hopefully scores ample amount of goals enough to prove to the management at Chelsea that he is more than ready to play regularly in the first team.

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BREAKING NEWS: RDM Signs 2-Year Deal with Chelsea FC

YES FELLOW BLUES ITS FINALLY OFFICIAL!

This was the statement on www.chelseafc.com-

Chelsea Football Club is delighted to announcethat Roberto Di Matteo has been appointed manager and first-team coach on apermanent basis.

The Italian returned to Stamford Bridge todayfollowing his holiday to finalise a two-year contract.Chief executive Ron Gourlay says: 'Roberto'squality was clear for all to see when he galvanised the squad last season andhelped the club make history, and the owner and board are very pleased he willbe continuing his good work.

'We all believed he was a young coach with much tooffer when we first asked him to take charge of team affairs in March and themanner in which he worked with us, the players and all the staff, and thesuccess that followed, made him the clear choice when it came to selecting theperson to take us forward in the seasons to come.

'We will be working closely with Roberto in theweeks ahead, some exciting signings have already been made and Roberto has hadinput into those.

'Although he has set the bar very high in theshort time he has been in charge, we know that Roberto is the right man to leadChelsea onto further success.'

Di Matteo, who turned 42 last month, was interimfirst-team coach for the final 11 weeks of last season, leading the club to anhistoric Champions League and FA Cup double triumph.

He stepped up to the role following the departureof Andre Villas-Boas during the first weekend in March and won the next fourmatches including a tricky FA Cup replay away to Birmingham City and thememorable second-leg turnaround against Napoli.

He said: 'I'm obviously delighted to have beenappointed as manager and first-team coach. We all achieved incredible successlast season that made history for this great club. Our aim is to continuebuilding on that and I'm already planning and looking forward to the squad's returnfor pre-season.'

We lost only three matches after he took charge.And although ultimately Chelsea finished outside the top-four places, oursuccess in Europe, that saw Benfica and Barcelona beaten before the victoryagainst Bayern Munich in their home stadium, meant that not only had Di Matteoguided the club to our first Champions League title, but we had also ensuredour place in the competition next season.

The Wembley win over Liverpool in early Maycontinued his already sparkling FA Cup history at Chelsea.

Di Matteo is the fourth Italian to manage Chelsea,continuing his association with the club that began in 1996 when he signed as aplayer from Lazio, the choice of Ruud Gullit.

An international midfielder, he ended his firstseason by scoring in the FA Cup Final as major silverware was brought back toStamford Bridge for the first time in 26 years. He also found the net in aLeague Cup Final win and another FA Cup Final before injury forced hisretirement at the age of 31 having played 175 games and scored 26 goals for theclub.

He returned to Chelsea as assistant first-teamcoach under Villas-Boas at the start of last season having become a manager forthe first time at League One MK Dons in 2008. A year later he moved up adivision to West Bromwich Albion whom he then took into the Premier League atthe first time of asking. He was named the top-flight manager of the month inSeptember 2010 but left The Hawthorns in February 2011.

Gourlay adds: 'We are already looking forward tothe 2012-13 season which kicks off when Roberto, his staff and players returnfor pre-season.'

Robbie deserved it!

Well all of us at CFC360 are extremely delighted with the news that the club have put faith in our Legendary interim manager Robbie and given him the full time role and shutting up all the rumors. RDM is the perfect man to lead us forward and rebuild the Chelsea team from a scratch. His appointment will not only delight the fans worldwide but most importantly the players. His calm,composed nature and the way he galvanised the team in the latter stages of the season were really commendable things.

And the naysayers will say he has an unoffensive footballing method and other ungodly things. RDM who has now a full preseason with the team can really implement his ideas to the grassroots level at the Football Club and plan his strategies well. He can look forward too a much exciting way of football next season with his current squad next season and with more players to follow in the transfer spree all is looking up for the reigning European Champions and an exciting season awaits for all the Blues faithful worldwide.


We at CFC360 wish RDM all the very best for his next 2 years at the Football Club and hopefully more years to follow!

Till then KTBFFH fellow Blues as always!

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