Gee Bee

Was proud to have met some of the guys in a Legends Tournament last year and had a Chelsea shirt signed. Hope to do the same on this weekend again. Met players such as Frank (The Beef) Leboeuf, Gianfranco (Franco) Zola, Roberto (Champions League Champion Manager) Di Matteo, J.F. Hasselbaink, Gus Poyet, Scott Minto, Ken Monkou. These lads are really friendly and came over freely and had a chat and snapped a few photos. Never in my life would I have thought of chatting to a future Champions League Manager. Robbie comes over as a really great but humble guy. Hope he comes again this weekend and I am sure he will be a massive crowd puller.

To all those turkeys (and you all know who you are) who lambasted me during pre season for my opinions, I wish you luck. My words concerning AVB have not fallen to the ground. Some "fans" deal more with emotion than foresight and can only see their point of view. I saw the sack coming from long time ago and never thought AVB could last for the season. Now it has happened and it's nothing I'm proud about but he was clearly out of his depth to start with. He did some things right but majority would not have seen the club going forward. We have gone from a club which would secure Champions League by December to a club which now embarrisingly hoping to play in the Europa League. Roman is the owner and knows what's best for his club. As I said during the pre season the club is bigger than fans, players, managers or even the owner. We will all go and club will still be there. If Ancelotti who had more experience and did fantastic during his first season in charge was sacked after his second season by the same line of logic AVB had to go regardless of whether or not he was young, if he had won four or six trophies somewhere else or what promises he made to inject youth. Clearly, he failed and had to face the consequences. We became the laughing stock of many of the supporters of other clubs. Whoever takes over now (after Roberto) faces an uphill task to rebuild what was destroyed. Again, I wish those "know it alls" luck and wish they will start to see matters in a clearer perspective and learn to respect divergent opinions. That's what the world is all about.

In addition, when Anelka was withdrawn from the starting lineup of the Champions League team he was one of the top scorers with seven goals to his credit. It was really unfortunate that who he was dropped for did not produce anything of note neither was the one who dropped him justified in making such a decision. Anelka has been the fall guy/scapegoat on too many occasions when persons find it difficult to understand his personality.

I know all the other Premiership must be licking their lips and jumping with glee now they won't have to face this "hulk" week in and week out. Imagine having Rajkovic and Lakaku as your opponents each week.

Excellent post as always. I think Gourlay has to step up to the plate to be a top level CEO. One of the tasks of a very good CEO would be to sell the club to a player who is wavering with a decision to join your club and another. Last summer there were no other brand name clubs in at the time for Neymar. A matter of another three to five million quid was the matter (as reported) to decide the Neymar deal. Too much time was allowed to pass and other factors then came into the picture. Now if we are to get him we must pay an additional ten to fifteen more. Not a sensible decision, I would say. The three names mentioned would indeed give us a much stronger hand in all competitions. Beside needing players for the future we need to strike a happy balance with players who can go into contention now and yet have sufficient time on their side to be at the club for another eight years. For example, Ramires and David Luis are names that come immediately to mind. They fit in immediately and have a great future. To my mind it is less of a good investment to buy players (like how we did with Kakuta) and then having to weigh the situation of whether we would keep him or not. To be frank (no pun intended) I don't see much of a future for him if we bring in a winger who is versatile on either flank. I hope we can get in at least two excellent players within the next two weeks to strengthen our season or we may find ourselves fighting only to win the Carling Cup. There are so many other clubs who had good pre season campaigns that will be there or there about this season. Names which immediately come to mind are Barcelona, Real Madrid, AC Milan and Bayern Munich to name a few. I don't know how many of these we will be able to beat over two legs with our current form and squad. We need to improve our squad with players who can fit in immediately and give the current players a push.

I thought we would have followed up on Aguero after he had two beautiful games against us in the Champions League two seasons ago. He had loads of good qualities although he was not a permanent fixture for Argentina. He will be though in the not too distant future. He is strong, a prolific scorer of goals and has the determination to win. I even thought that linking him again with Torres would have been marvellous. The splendid thing is that he has youth on his side and I think he may return to make our lives miserable in the EPL. He may have commanded high wages but since when do good players come on the cheap now. He is not as highly prone to injury as some other strikers I know but has a great production rate. He can be another Franco Zola in the EPL. I am sorry we let this one slip but all that is now his-story.

Your first paragraph is my point.

Totally agree we shouldn't put all the emphasis on "very" young players . Why should we follow the tried and failed "Wenger method"? A mixture of youth and experience is always good. Monsieur Wenger has won absolutely nowt by signing up a clutch of untried youngsters. They are very stylish in their approach to the game but produce nothing of substance at the end of the season. Now that bunch are skating out from that club in haste. At Chelsea we need to have a useful blend because the end is drawing nigh for Drogba, Lampard, Anelka and a few others. At the same time Mr. AVB does not have the next six years to bring trophies to the club.

The biggest thing we could possibly get now is Neymar. We missed the bus with Aguero. I can't see any other world class players out now that have not been taken by other top European clubs.

If he is so eager to play in England the cut may not be that huge. He will be in the top bracket with earners like Rio and Rooney etc. They saved a whole lot when they parted with Cristiano and have only raised Wayne's salary to that level in recent times. I think they may be able to accomodate one more [s

AVB has his decisions to make but something just tells me that Roman is going to throw in one more big bid one transfer deadline day for who else but Neymar.

Again you have made quite pertinent comments. Ole fergie has again outwitted us. There are comments about manure not being able to pay 200,000 per week but that it utter rubbish. The old trafford people did not extensively splash out when CR7 was sold. The report was that there was always money for fergie to spend. He strengthens at crucial times.

Well said and I agree entirely!

Give him a chance. Allow him the first season to assess the players in the squad. Then he can plan properly and buy players accordingly.

Brazil is definitely not the power house it once was. There is quite a lot of work to be done if they are to even make it to quarter final stage in the next World Cup. The Copa America has brought this into sharp focus. Three years is still time enough that with much fine tuning they could be near ready to step up to the plate. Thing is they usually don't peak too early but the Copa should give them an indication of what deficiencies there are.