Lord Zola,
I guess that as a Chelsea fan you can only empathize with Whitehawk's financial position and believe that it is all wonderful.
And by the way, this era in Chelsea's history will always be remembered as the time the Russian money bought success. Sorry but that's the way it is.

Any managers have to prove their worth realisticly over a period of time.
Darren and George havent done that yet, they have won nothing yet... !!
Money doesnt always give you automatic success as a lot of clubs have learned over the years including us not that we had that much in the first place !
Yes loads of cash helps of course it does but again as Man City are proving it doesnt always mean it will give you instant success even with proven managers.
It will take the shine off Darren and George if they do win a few things simply for money reasons alone.

No doubt all of us are looking forward to the Whitehawk match tomorrow, with the emphasis on comparing ourselves (having a good season so far) against the very best.

We are expecting and no doubt will get a tough 90 min workout but it will be interesting to 'size' ourselves up against such formidable opposition.

Personally I like George and Darren a lot.
Darren started out at Whitehawk under Sammy Donnely,which I was waiting for someone to mention,but it sort of shows how little grasp of the club's history some of the new supporters have.
George didn't do too well at Shoreham where he had a good budget but a good number two is often something that can give you a lift as a manager.
I was lucky enough to have Alan Head as mine,who is probably still involved at the club.
Please someone tell him I still haven't grown into the Levis he gave me.
Maybe they will be a combination who will take the club onto Conference football.
I doubt we will ever see them operating on a small budget.Then again Alan Pook never had to, and I reckon the two of these could be better than him.
He certainly never won the Vase which was his Holy Grail.
George and I had our biggest managerial coming together about ten years ago, when he was helping St Margarets School in Rottingdean,and I was helping the Saltdean Primary School.While I was still manager at Whitehawk.
Heavyweight stuff,but what proper football people do.
Money isn't everything.

I have no idea who you support and I am sorry to take this away from the Whitehawk question, even though the two are tied up by money in their respective leagues.

This will not be seen as the era where a Russian pumped millions into Chelsea, you are so very wrong. Chelsea were mismanaged by the Mears in the early to mid seventies, resurrected and consequently badly managed by Bates until the time of his sell out. The Mears had great plans for a new Stamford Bridge and no money to back it, therefore the East Stand was built, was way over time and budget and basically bankrupted the club. The whole ground was going to be built in the same way as the East Stand, be all seater and a model for the rest of the world to follow. 65,000 capacity and a seamless bowl style stadium. At the time we were doing very well, FA Cup behind us, Cup Wiinners Cup won at the expense of Real Madrid, three or four other cup finals in those halcyon years as runners up and a great squad, the likes of whom only Liverpool, Arsenal and Leeds could compete against at that time, the big four of the time possibly.

The only people that will remember this as the Russian years will not be the Chelsea fans, or indeed thos that find us their arch enemies, it'll be remembered by jealous supporters whose clubs either never lift a trophy or have had their party gatecrashed by a quality side that has shown that money buys a good team but the structure has to be correct to. As Chelsea supporters we have heard year in and year out since Abramovich took over how our club is going to go bankrupt, etc. Let me tell you guys, it ain't gonna happen and allow yourselves to be enraged with bitterness, because us Chelsea supporters actually enjoy seeing you squirm. Chelsea is built on the richest land in the Premier league, and some of the richest land in the world.

Fact one, we own a huge lump of money on that land.
Fact two, the assets of the club are worth over £800 million and are a huge proporsition for anyones investment.
Fact three, Abramovich has spent the sum total of Chelsea's assets and will spend very little more, as has become apparent in the recent past. Why? Because he isn't stupid and he will not lose a penny on his investment.

So all you bitter Chelsea haters best get used to the fact that we are going nowhere very soon (unlike Liverpool), we don't have the debts of Man Utd and the only team that can realistically challenge our partial dominance are another London team that also have long term stability (Arsenal).

As has been said, you can have a bottomless pit, Real madrid being the biggest attraction towards this point, but it doesn't buy you success. Shrewd planning and management (board down) does. I'd be bored of the Chelsea knockers if I didn't feel a little sad for them.

I love Chelsea.
They are so insignificant.

Prem champs, League and FA cup winners numerously, European Cup finalists, Cup Winners Cup champions, all in the space of 13 years, and the Russian has only owned us for 8 of them... terribly insignificant!

Geoff like trying to stop a tusanmi with a wet wipe

Name me one quality manager who's had no money in any league

It is nice to see Whitehawk doing well & playing good & attractive football. Yes they may have the financial clout but a team has to gel together to win, no matter how good the players.
Are Freeman & Parris good managers, well they attracted the players & formed them into a good winning team. Being a Bexhill supporter l am pleased to see Wes Tate doing well as he is a Bexhill lad & helped us out last year.
Nice to see the Vase match being played on a sunday as that will allow a few of us to travel over & support them.
Geoff & Lord Zola 'Chelski Billions' will be a saying for years to come. Yes you were in dire straits under Mears & Bates, would have been interesting to see what Mathew Harding could have done without the constraints of Bates. Your best signing was Mourinho as manager, very much the special one ask any Inter Milan fan.
Jealousy though! As a lifetime Everton supporter no. We beat you 2 - 1 at home & drew 3 - 3 with you away, so honours to us. Would we have liked your billions YES, do we begrudge you it NO. We do not winge like Arsenal & Liverpool we just get on with it and our record speaks for itself on a very small budget.
European Cup Winners Cup once, Division One winners 9 times, runners up 7 times, FA cup winners 5 times, runners up 8 times, Youth Cup winners 3 times.
As we say 'If you know your history'

Your point being ??

Surely the opposite is also true. ie. Name one poor manager who's had an abundance of money!

Shevva

Sven Goran Eriksson, £5m I would say is quite an abundance of the FA's money, with Steve McLaren helping himself to a further £3m shortly afterwards ..

By the way Brian Dennis won the double last year without an abundance of Money at EBUnited

But I do know where you are coming from...

Plenty of managers who have done a blinding job without much dosh, Owen judas Coyle at Burnley, John Coleman at Accy Stanley - smallest budget in league to name but two. There must be quite a few in the non league game nationally who have/are doing a good job with a small budget. It's just the focus on good/poor managers are usually on those with a big budget (Newcastle, Leeds) etc etc.

John Coleman is by the way a UEFA A qualified coach (shame he supports Liverpool, though). Great manager, great coach (still has a great touch) and very nice lad.

Remembered you knew him Tony, maybe you can put in a good word and tell him to get to Turd Moor!