Chelsea is demanding, ridiculous

Do not look directly into his eyes. You will turn to stone and your team will play a 4-3-3.

Being a footballer at Chelsea is hard these days. The car park's always full of Chelsea tractors [aka the mighty Range Rover], you're only making twice what you made at your last club, and the post-game spread in the players' lounge is always dominated by Asian-fusion cuisine.

The other tough thing is having to play under Avram Grant, a man seemingly devoid of emotion and love [fuck, just look at the spaced-out bastard to the left] and one whose tactics and managerial skills are limited at best.

Now, it's finally coming to a head, as several of their players are vocalizing their distaste.

It would appear that for Chelsea, losing the Carling Cup is apparently something too great to overcome.

Let's see what they have to say, shall we?

From the article in the Evening Standard:

Senior players are privately questioning Grant's approach on and off the pitch, and the faith earned by his good start in the job has been undermined in recent weeks. It was dealt a serious blow by the defeat by Spurs and some players are even hoping the club's owner, Roman Abramovich, or his powerbrokers at Stamford Bridge will pressure the Israeli into changing tack.

Glad that's not my club.

So let me get this straight: you're pissed and want a new manager because you lost the Carling Cup?

That game aside, Chelsea haven't lost in the league since December 16 [1-0 at Arsenal], you just got past the 5th round of the FA Cup, you made it to the Carling Cup final, and you're unbeaten in the Champions League this season. In fact, that December 16 loss is the last loss I can find before Sunday [please, correct me if I'm wrong. I'm lazy, and there were a lot of results to sift through].

I can understand some of their woes, namely that Grant is a sports psychologist and believes as firmly in the rotation as Rafa does, but honestly, isn't that more a problem of ownership for going crazy with signings and squad upgrades when you can only put 11 on the field at any one time?

The players are unhappy at his methodology, and their moaning only goes to show the difficulty of having a massive, expensive, talented squad. [Well, that's being a bit generous but you know what I'm getting at].

Florent Malouda, Joe Cole, Claude Makelele and Frank Lampard have also been among the surprise omissions in the last two games, and the unexplained selection choices have been a source of great frustration.

There were also suggestions today that Grant had been so worried about Spurs finding out what his side was that the first team did not practise their formation at all in training during the week.

Grant is a student of sports psychology and the feeling is that his squad rotation is designed to keep everyone happy, but it is backfiring badly when frustrated players are seeking a strong leader.

Understandable, but that's the players, not the coach. It's tough to argue with an almost 2-month unbeaten streak.

My advice to Chelsea: lighten the fuck up. Skeletor's no genius, but it could be worse. Much, much worse. [You could be Fulham]