Give Ramires a break .....for now!

As usual sitting here digesting our last game I have a look around the stories that appear on the Internet and have to say was taken a back by this ridiculous article in The Mirror written by Martin Lipton. Ok granted everyone is entitled to their opinion but I cannot agree with him at all.

He says of Ramires:

"He shares a surname with Pele. Sadly, Ramires Santos do Nascimento has shown little to prove he is Brazilian since his arrival at Stamford Bridge. For £18million, the Chelsea fans are entitled to expect a little more than they had got from Ramires so far. And last night, when a team of kids needed leadership from the experienced men, the man from Rio de Janeiro went missing more than ever before.

Ramires came to London with the reputation of being the "Blue Kenyan", a superhuman running machine. There has been no evidence to support that nickname in his first three months at SW6 and his staggeringly inept part in the Babotounde Bello goal that left Chelsea staring at humiliation at the hands of the Champions League minnows summed up his spell at the club to date.

Bello ran at least 20 yards to get on the end of Robert Jez' return ball and find the back of the Chelsea net, with Ramires doing absolutely nothing to either stop the initial pass, cut out the next ball or track the run.

Scandalous, really, explaining why he has become the focus for much of the unhappiness of the Chelsea supporters, who cheered his replacement against Sunderland 10 days ago. But that was just part of a miserable display in which Ramires allowed 17-year-old Josh McEachran to take on all the midfield responsibility.

Poor passing, non-existent tackling and a laughable fall in the box in a pathetic bid to claim a penalty when he simply lost the ball were unacceptable by any standards.

Carlo Ancelotti, whether he wanted him or not, has every reason to demand more and Ramires - aside from that performance against Arsenal - is simply not delivering.

It is hard to believe there can possibly be a place for Ramires in Ancelotti's first team when he gets Frank Lampard and Michael Essien back to play alongside John Obi Mikel.

In fact, you might not be surprised to see him part of any transfer dealings in January, if Ancelotti gets the green light to shake things up.

One thing is certain. In today's inflated transfer market, you don't get much for £18m any more, do you?

First of all I would like to point out Zilina's goal last night here..



Look again, take the clip to 23 seconds in at the first replay, you see Ramires pushed forward to close their deep midfielder down. The ball is played around him so he makes his way back towards our goal. The player who scores plays the ball round McEachran and he gets caught ball watching and doesn't follow the run. Not Ramires.

He talks about having the same surname as Pele'!. What on earth has that got to do with anything?. Does that mean anyone with that surname has to be as good as the great Pele' of course not, he is just being ridiculous.

He talks about his nickname being the "Blue Kenyan" and not seeing any evidence of it since he has come to Chelsea but he needs to remember. Ramires has come from the Portuguese League and I mean no disrespect to that League but it's not the English Premier League.

A foreign player needs time to adapt to a new country, a new way of life, new surroundings and his new club. To get used to being part of the Chelsea squad, to get used to training, the Manager, the players the staff and everyone. You would have imagined Ancelotti would have wanted to introduce him to the pace and power of the Premier League slowly and in time but he has been thrown in at the deep end with the injuries to Lampard, Benayoun and Essien.

Yes I agree £18m is a lot of money that Chelsea have paid out for the player but cannot in this instance agree that we are demanding to seeing a full on performance from the bloke week in week out as he is still coming to terms with Chelsea.

We all know Lampard, Mikel and Essien will be selected in front of him and the player himself probably realises that, but we haven't had the option to play those three together since the third league game of our season at home to Stoke. That was the game Lampard was injured.

So for now, lay off Ramires. You can see the guy is trying to do the best he can so give him a break after taking everything into consideration. I am not saying he has been fantastic and yes he has gone missing in some games and has been overrun, but it wasn't just him against Liverpool and Sunderland!.

If he has scored with that shot from 25 yards last night we wouldn't even be reading this article this morning. However, that's football for you. It curled wide and we have to put up with someone's opinion seemingly based on the fact that they have nothing else to write about now Carlo has said he is happy at Chelsea and wants to stay. Ramires for some reason has become a scapegoat.

For me it's next season we will want and need to see the improvement from Ramires. Only then can we judge and read articles such as these.

KTBFFH.