Sir Alex Ferguson - He continues to succeed where others fail.

I am as Chelsea as they come, have supported this club from as early as I can remember to where I am now (38 years old) and cannot stand Manchester United as much as they probably can't stand Chelsea, but putting all feelings to one side, we have to acknowledge not only what he has achieved in the game, but how he's done it.

As much as it pains me to write about it, now more than ever as we look at our squad and literally what's happened to our Double Winning club over the past two seasons, Sir Alex has set in stone the blueprint to regenerate and rejuvenate a team of winners into the conveyor belt of success, something Chelsea have struggled to do.

Looking back at the summer before last, the summer after we won the double, and thinking about it now, how on earth did we ever expect to maintain the levels we were at by letting so many established first team players go without replacing them properly? Joe Cole, Ricardo Carvalho, Deco, Michael Ballack and Juliano Belletti were five of the biggest names that left Stamford Bridge and were replaced with Yossi Benayoun and Ramires.

The focus was on the youth coming through which is all well and good in hindsight but as were suffered with injuries and suspensions, it was never enough and we suffered big time. Fernando Torres and David Luiz were brought into the club to bolster our ranks and as those big players came back we pushed United again to the final weeks of the season.

It was just a temporary stop gap really as the depth of our squad in addition to quality coming through just wasn't there.

This summer a change of direction from the club with once again investment in first team players became the priority with the likes of Romeu, Lukaku, Mata and Meireles were brought in as it was Only Zhirkov and Alex from the first team squad but mainly reserve and youth players leaving the club.

However once again, Chelsea are suffering the same problems. Our season so far has been stop start with plenty of problems documented here and in the press and media of course. Chelsea are still striving for success and have given AVB the mandate to rebuild this team and this club into the successful side we have been.

The signing of Gary Cahill brings quality into the defence for the next five years maybe looking at eventually replacing our Captain and the signing of the promising Kevin de Bruyne is yet another one looking to the future.

Meanwhile over at United, Sir Alex Ferguson, knowing he needed to freshen things up after Chelsea won the League and Cup double back in the summer of 2010/2011, wasted little time in rejuvenating his squad and his team.

Ben Foster and Tosic were notable names to have left the club along with reserve players who Fergie decided would never cut it here and were replaced with the likes of Smalling, Hernandez and Lindegaard. These players were added to the core of the side that finished second to Chelsea. Reserve and squad members replaced with two notable signings that proved to be instant successes at Old Trafford. United won the league.

This season Fergie has done it again. He has identified areas he believes needs immediate strengthening and cut his losses by taking no prisoners once again as established players who have played a part in United's recent success were sold. Players such as: O'Shea, Brown, Obertan and Gibson and have been replaced with Jones, De Gea and Ashley Young. Again, players brought straight into the first team.

The point I am making here is that Fergie identifies areas that need to be strengthened and goes out and gets younger players in to do so while maintaining a depth of the squad at his disposal to ensure he has a squad capable of challenging for the league title every single season.

That's what we're up against as once again we face a United side 12 points clear of us in the league.

It really is a simple equation for Fergie and should be the same for everyone else really when you think about it. You need at least two players of certain quality for every position your squad if you are to be successful over the demands of a season.

Have we got that here? - No we haven't and that's been our Achilles heel ever since the clear out of two summers ago. That's the task AVB has before him and it will take time. Time some Chelsea fans don't think he has.

Should we as a club, have replaced players sooner or quicker to maintain a level with the squad to keep us up there challenging with United, Yes we should have but like I said, it's something we haven't done and that's why we have suffered in the last two seasons.

That's the reason United under the management of Sir Alex Ferguson will always be challenging for the title as he continues to set the blueprint for everyone else in the game to follow.

KTBFFH