Subs: Turnbull, Cole, Torres, Kalou, Lampard, Mikel, Essien.

If you’re reading this there’s a high probably you support Chelsea and an even higher probably you’re a decent sort with a bit of compassion and a few quid. Ok, I’m buttering you up a bit now but I’m after a favour – a little favour really because all I ask is you have a read of this post and appreciate what these people are doing:

Last summer Ossie decided to participate in the Three Peaks Challenge to raise money for the charity Save the Children.  His challenge was to climb three peaks, Scafell Pike (England), Ben Nevis (Scotland) and Snowdon (Wales) in 24 hours. The total distance was 40Km (25 miles) with total ascents of 10K feet and descents to match.

During the 3 Peaks Challenge Ossie raised the blue flag at the top of each mountain and raised £2500 for Save the Children, with a significant amount of money donated by Chelsea supporters around the world.

This is when the connection between Ossie and Amanda was made.  Through Miss SW6, a blog  she co-founded  and her personal accounts, she was able to help raise even more money for Ossie’s charity climb.

In London at the end of 2011 she met up with Ossie and he expressed his desire to continue to complete these challenges and that his next goal was to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.  She couldn’t think of anything better than raising money for charity and being able to climb the highest peak in Africa. The rest is history and now both are currently training to climb in July.

Amanda’s Inspiration

“My inspiration to climb came on 8 July 2011 when I found out that my brother had passed away.  It was hard enough to deal with losing such a close family member but knowing it was because he took his own life made it even harder for my family and myself.  Soon after finding out I left for London where I met up with Ossie and he told me of his aspirations to climb Kilimanjaro in the summer of 2012.  I immediately thought that it would be the perfect opportunity to climb for a cause, my brother and the memory of his life.  I decided that the climb would be for him and my family so I decided that the funds I raised for the climb would be put toward the International Association for Suicide Prevention.  This climb combined quite a few loves of mine so it was a perfect opportunity to raise awareness about such a difficult subject like suicide.  I want to raise awareness for the signs of suicide as well as remember, not only my brother, but also all of the people that have been affected by suicide.

The climb also allowed me the opportunity to mark Kilimanjaro as Chelsea territory.  My brother and I went to our local pub here in Southern California to cheer on the Blues a few times and he loved it.  This climb is the perfect combination of Chelsea and family inspiration.

We will be summiting on the 8th of July 2012, the one-year anniversary of my brother’s death.  I want to celebrate his life and how full of life he truly was when he was here with us.

My brother Christopher is my inspiration to climb and as a Chelsea supporter I could see no better way”

A worthy cause you have to agree, so get yourself over to the site here.  All donations can be made on the site under the ‘Donate’ tab.

You can follow on twitter @KTBFFH_2012

Venue: Stadio San Paolo, Naples

Date: Tuesday, 21 February

Kick-off: 1945 GMT

When we can’t buy ourselves a win in the Premier League – or even in the cup against Birmingham – an away tie against Napoli is just what we need, right? Ok, so we’d probably prefer Northampton but then it wouldn’t be the Champions League.

As it stands though, it is the last 16 of the Champions League and it is Napoli – a side that came out of a group with City, Villareal and Bayern in it and a side whose last game in Serie A saw them dispense with Fiorentina 3-0.  No pressure then.

MANAGERS’ VIEWS

Napoli boss Walter Mazzarri, who serves a touchline ban tonight, is unsurprisingly confident of his own side’s ability to take us on tonight, saying “We are in better shape than Chelsea going into this game, but they have champions who are accustomed to playing a certain level of game.  On Tuesday they know that they cannot make a mistake, so will become unified and I doubt we’ll be facing a team in crisis.”

The slightly less confident Andre Villas-Boas meanwhile, says of our opponents “They have a strong front three with (Marek) Hamsik, (Edinson) Cavani and (Ezequiel) Lavezzi.  Cavani is an amazing player. They are a danger. Their strength is in the collective spirit. They have an inner belief in each other. It will be a massive challenge. Everyone saw what Napoli did in a group which put Manchester City out.”

SQUAD NEWS

Well, Napoli apparently have a full strength squad at their disposal, which unfortunately for us means their  ‘Big Three’ of Marek Hamsik, Edinson Cavani and Ezequiel Lavezzi are all expected to start.  Defender Hugo Campagnaro is doubtful though.

For Chelsea, Terry (knee) is still a doubt and faces a late decision although Ashley Cole (calf) could make it back.

TEAM

From: Cech, Bosingwa, Terry, Ivanovic, Luiz, Cahill, Cole, Bertrand, Romeu, Mikel, Essien, Ramires, Lampard, Mata, Malouda, Meireles, Drogba, Torres, Sturridge, Kalou, Turnbull.

PREDICTION

What can we say? Compared to us right now, their attack is like Barcelona to our Barnet, whilst their defence makes ours look about as tight as a brass’ knickers on a work night. Since it’s football and not rocket science, need I say more?

I was watching some old Chelsea videos at the weekend – well let’s face it, it was preferable to our highlights against Birmingham wasn’t it?

With everything that’s going on at the club right now, particularly the pressure AVB is under and the (mis)reported chants for the return of Mourinho, there’s definitely a feel that some of us are harping after the past, so, true to that form I revisited our relegation back to the second division in ’88 (because I’m obviously sadistic) and ended the evening with some old favourites from 1997 through to 2005.

Needless to say, the Middlesbrough game didn’t do much to pull my mood out of my boots but it did serve as a reminder of how it felt to be really gutted over games. Mind you, talking of ‘gutted’ I’ve still never once watched any footage from Moscow because whilst I might have a minor sadistic streak running through me, in spite of what I may say during some games, that streak doesn’t stretch to genuinely suicidal. But then that’s clearly a mark of how things have changed in terms of expectations isn’t it? Why is it I can watch us being relegated but still can’t stomach seeing us play in the Champions League final? Did I catch the dreaded ‘spoilt brat syndrome’?

I guess it could just be a case of time healing? Although if that was really true, the videos I watched of Gianfranco Zola’s last game wouldn’t still reduce me to tears would they? But then there’s never been a player for me at Chelsea either before or since who will have quite the impact on me that Zola did. He had everything I’d expect from a Chelsea player – more than I’d expect probably – and it rubbed off.

Watching back the videos this weekend was pretty humbling really. Yet again, oppositional tweets told me Zola was “too good for the 4^th biggest club in London” but of course, that sort of thing just feeds the smugness that it was us he chose to play for. As for him being “a poor man’s Cantona”, they can keep Cantona and his karate kicks because I’d rather the little magician to Cantona’s arrogant brilliance (or brilliant arrogance) hands down.

Zola signalled a new era for us – an era where we were entertained by the likes of Vialli, Desailly, Di Matteo, Le Saux – great players, solid players, players unquestionably deserving of the shirt on their backs. Of course they didn’t win every game – we were still a way off titles then – but it wasn’t through lack of effort. Can you imagine Dennis Wise walking off the pitch after a 1-1 draw with such nonchalance if he’d played for us on Saturday? Of course he wouldn’t, he’d have been more likely to walk off bollocking everyone around him.  He loved everything about the club and could never have shrugged off letting himself or the supporters down even for 90 minutes, nevermind for weeks on end.

Yes, we had our critics even then for bringing in older players who’d end their careers with us but as long as they were playing, they were giving it their all. And when we needed to, we were bringing in the likes of Jimmy Floyd, Eidur Gudjohnsen and even (god forbid) bringing through John Terry because as brilliant as the players were, they couldn’t go on forever. And we reaped the rewards along the way, not just in terms of silverware but in the sheer pleasure of watching them earn it.

Of course, when players like Lampard, Makelele, Drogba, Essien, Cech, Duff, Robben, Terry et al graced our squad we inevitably moved up a step and along with some stunning football at times, came the titles – good times indeed. Ok, so it had taken Roman’s rubles to make the final step but we were furnished with the best footballing talent money could buy, they were out there wearing the shirt, winning for us week in week out and all was well with the world……until it stopped.

So what happened? Jose’s departure? I mean, if we’re going to hanker after the good times, he’s the reason they happened isn’t he? Well, considering us reaching our first ever Champions League final came after he’d left, that one remains debatable. Was it the final itself? Think about it, we might have won the double under Carlo Ancelotti (which could of course be used to negate this theory) but realistically, how much of our once trademark ‘fighing spirit’ have our players genuinely shown since Moscow?

In the season following Jose’s departure, our players rallied. They were full of that ‘us against the world’ spirit they’d acquired under Mourinho. Be it the injustice of his leaving or the even worse injustice of having Avram Grant ‘managing’ them, they worked their arses off as a team – particularly that night in Moscow (bloody word still makes me cringe). So did they run out of fight or just run out of steam?

My guess is the latter. You see, that time for me, would have been the perfect time for a manager to take a look at a squad that had fought its arse off season after season and realised, like our other squads before it, it couldn’t go on forever. We were never going to get the same value out of the squad after that – not because the game itself had devastated them (although mentally it won’t have helped) – but because physically, some of them had already given us the best we were going to get from them.

Of course, as I’ve said there’ll be those who would argue the 2009/10 double but realistically, we were probably fortunate not to have faced such tough opposition for that one as we had before and since – and given the opposition we have around us now, we won’t get that lucky again.

Looking back, during a ten year period from 1996 onwards, the one thing we did consistently as we became increasingly successful, is freshen up the squad. That’s not to say we didn’t slip back in the table here and there, but the team and our football was still making progress. That doesn’t seem to have happened in quite such a significant way since then – and yet some 5 years on, the current manager is taking the blame for Chelsea’s woes.

Subs: Hilario, Bosingwa, Essien, Lampard, Malouda, Kalou, Drogba

BIRMINGHAM: Doyle Carr Davies Caldwell Murphy, Gomis Fahey Mutch, Redmond Rooney Elliot

Subs: Butland, Caldwell, Burke, Spector, Asante, Reilly, Jarvis

Venue: Stamford Bridge

Date: Saturday 18 February

Kick-off: 1230 GMT

After so much doom and gloom surrounding us lately, I’d really like to be at least a little bit optimistic about today’s game – but since I’m neither drunk or on drugs, I’ll stick to realism.

In our last five games, the only win we’ve managed was in this competition against a piss poor QPR, we were worse than useless against Everton last weekend, the players apparently can’t stand AVB and of course the press will be wanking themselves silly at the thought of us playing ‘hunt the manager’ again.

Still, looking on the bright side (ok, so I’m mildly inebri intoxi pissed writing this) at least until mid-afternoon, we’re still in both the FA Cup and Champions League, so up yours Manchester.

MANAGERS’ VIEWS

In spite of what must have been his most challenging week at Chelsea to date, Andre Villas-Boas somehow still talks the positive talk, insisting “Full focus will be needed and full determination, which will be the exact opposite of what happened against Everton.  It will be extremely good for us if we win against Birmingham to put ourselves in the quarterfinals of the FA Cup.  But we need strong progression in the league and to show our strength for fourth place – as third is already 10 points ahead of us – so that we get Champions League qualification.”

Birmingham manager Chris Hughton meanwhile, clearly thinks his side can’t lose either way today, saying “This will be a massive test but, whichever way it goes, it is certainly one we will enjoy.  The plus for us is no-one expects us to win. They are the class Premier League side and we are a team doing very well in the Championship. It is important we go there and give a good account of ourselves but the pressure is certainly on Chelsea to win the game.”

SQUAD NEWS

For Chelsea, John Terry (knee) has recovered from his knee injury although is unlikely to be risked before our Champions League game. Drogba and Kalou are back, although unlikely to play today either. Ashley Cole (calf) faces a late fitness test but Ramires (knee) should be ok to return.

For Birmingham, Nikola Zigic (knee), Marlon King (groin) and Guirane N’Daw (hamstring) all miss out.

TEAM

CHELSEA (from): Cech, Bosingwa, Ivanovic, Luiz, Cahill, Hutchinson, Bertrand, Romeu, Mikel, Essien, Ramires, Lampard, Mata, Malouda, Meireles, Torres, Sturridge, Lukaku, Turnbull.

LAST MEETING

Chelsea 3-1 Birmingham 20^th April 2011

PREDICTION

This is the sort of game I hate when it comes to the stats. Why? Well because its been nearly 33 years since Birmingham have won at Stamford Bridge yet that is exactly the sort of record we’ve looked like we’re begging to break this season. Add to that the fact that today’s opponents are already on a 13 game unbeaten run and even the most optimistic amongst us must feel a bit edgy.

Still, I’m told this one is a banker to finish 2-1 after the obligatory early goal conceded by us of course. Really??

Either TheChelseaBlog was clearly right about our senior players having absolutely no respect for Andre Villas-Boas whatsoever, or someone’s still a little bitter about his departure.

Earlier in the week, TheChelseaBlog suggested the problems at Stamford Bridge don’t just come from a board who can’t keep their nose out of first team affairs but also with the lack of respect for our managers filtering down into the dressing room. The general view of the article was that Jose Mourinho is probably the last manager our players respected…..and even that was debatable with some of them at the end.

Mind you, if we’re to believe everything we read, that respect must have lasted beyond TSO’s Chelsea days for some of our players at least because according to Pinto da Costa, they’re still in contact with him.  At a time when his job is already being touted in the press and AVB probably needs to hear it least, the Porto president says “He will be successful with Chelsea because his contract isn’t just for one year.  He needs time to mould his own team and he can’t do that as long as there are players, as I’ve heard, who exchange text messages with Mourinho. And Abramovich knows this.”

Really?

Well ok, if he says so – although hang on a minute, isn’t this the president of the club Andre Villas-Boas just left behind? Of course I wouldn’t be so bold as to suggest he has an agenda, or that Pinto might be a tiny bit on the bitter side that not only did Mourinho leave the club on a high to come to Chelsea but AVB went and did exactly the same, but he goes on to say “He left thinking that Chelsea was a unique opportunity, but I believe that was a mistake because there would have been others.  The only thing that will topple Villas-Boas is if he fails to qualify for the Champions League.”

Like I said, I wouldn’t suggest there’s any sour grapes there…….