Nibs

To be honest though, the only time I've seen him really dive was the Del Horno incident. I don't think he is a serial diver like Robben or Ronaldo or (now it seems) Saha I might be wrong. But his talent is certainly not in question. The lad is awesome.

That just defies all reason.

And has done for some time IMO. But of course if we do happen to raid Barca and get one of their players it will be the one that's passed his best with the big goofy teeth

Looked like Bridgey and Joe linked up well for that fourth goal. They are the two I would like to see on the left for the rest of the season.

Great Post Pauly. I find myself agreeing with more & more of your posts of late - you must be learning from your past mistakes!!! Maybe overall it's a bit too idealistic, but I like the names you have listed - players I'd wished we'd hung onto and those I wish we'd never signed. What a great back 5 we had - there was never any need for Cole or Carvalho and now Alex. Essien and Drogba are now great favourites with many, but I long for the type of football we played before they arrived. And I don't even need to go into the Ballack & Sheva signings as I've done them to death in the past. Of course you have to take into account players loss of form - Duff & Eidur. The fact that Crespo never realy settled, Forsell's injury nightmare and the fact that Johnno didn't develop how we hoped. But I would love a more balanced squad and by balanced I mean in both terms of ability and youth and experience - international "stars" and up and coming hungry players - hopefully stars of tomorrow.

Classic G4!!

I would agree that he needs to retain a bit more discipline in his game but then again on the other hand we do not need another robot. We have far too many of those already. How did the words to the song go? Express yourself..............................

I disagree. On the whole Hansen knows what he's talking about. He thought we looked a bit of a shambles. He wasn't wrong.

Anyone else watch MOTD last night? Sorry if this has been posted elsewhere, but Marcel Desailly? What was he on about??? Hansen & Big Ears had to surpress their laughter. It was quite bizarre!!!! Don't think he'll be invited back in a hurry.

So mixed at the moment. On the one hand I was getting fed up with Mourinho's reign and duller than dull football, but on the other hand I didn't want us to lose our most successful manager ever. And now we have Grant I bloody know who I'd prefer to be in charge. And what about Roman? Is he really tinkering as much as we are being led to believe? If so what is the answer? Do we have demonstrations telling him to f**k right off? ( and I do think that if enough supporters voiced their anger over a period of time, he would take his money and go). But then what? Will we be the next Leeds and become the complete laughing stock (we're already getting laughed at, but that will be nothing if we carry on going down hill at the rate we are going). So put up with Roman and his cronies and just hope for the best or hope we get lucky? I really don't know.

I think the bloke might need a bit more than one game. How things turn so quickly - we got used to being near invincible under Mourinho - the players, the fans - everyone. But that was going back a while. For a fair bit of last season and since the start of this, the special one appeared to have lost his touch. As I say, Grant should really be given a bit more time before we start making judgements but I for one don't feel like giving him time. Already can't stand the bloke and have no confidence in him whatsoever. It's a nightmare.

That is becomming a worrying trend. Essien has been poor of late - giving the ball away far too often.

I voted no, because I think the only manager who could perhaps do that would be Wenger and we ain't gonna get him. The home record will go down in history - no-one will ever be able to equal or better that. But can another manager win us some trophies and get us playing much better football, then the answer has to be a definite yes.

I bloody hope that is nothing like the line up Sunday - looks far too light weight IMO. To go into a huge match at OT with Paulo - great player but hasn't played in ages Pairing of JT & Alex. Not sure that's a pairing that will ever work - they're too similar. Midfield including SWP / Mikel / Malouda - as I say too light weight - nowhere near enough bottle. Sheva & Kalou? Can't see Ferdinand and Vidic losing too much sleep over having to face that attack. I know we are lacking options, but that side looks like lambs to the slaughter.

Very good analogy Mike - and I'm not even a Dr Who fan (though if I had to pick, I too would go for Pertwee!!) As I've said elesewhere, if Jose's replacement was a guy we all had some confidence in and had a great track record then I'd have no real problem. But we are about to enter pretty much unknown territory and it could be a bit of an uncomfortable ride..............

Us longer term Chelsea supporters probably do come across as a bit "I prefer the old days when we were sh*te". But it's not that. I think we certainly don't mind sharing "our Chelsea" as long as those we share our club with are like minded, passionate supporters and are willing to take the bad times with the few successful ones. I think the old cliche of you have to have been through the bad times to really enjoy the good is so, so true. I want us to remain the best club in England and certainly stay in the top 4 for ever more but in a way, it would almost be interesting to see what would happen if we do go through a really bad run. We've lost Mourinho and say we now lost a few big name players and ended up with a less than superstar squad of players. I wonder how many of the JCL's would stick around? Could make all that talk about a move to a 60-70,000 seater stadium pretty redundant.

I go along with all of that. I think the timing of Jose's exit left most of us in complete shock although upon reflection we all knew it would happen at some point - but the timing??? The situation wouldn't be quite so bad if we had someone taking over who we all had complete confidence in. I was sad when Raneiri left but excited about Mourinho taking over. This time around I'm probably not so sad about Jose leaving, but I am very nervous about Grant taking over. Mourinho will be a hard act to follow and only time will tell if Grant is anything like up to the task, but I have serious doubts.

We could have a bit of a Les Reid - Charlton situation. OH DEAR.

I really don't know Loz. I'm probably underestimating Roman - who really knows how involved he is on day to day matters or whether he just takes the advice of the likes of Kenyon. Can Roman speak English anyone know? All I know is that Kenyon is a slippery f**ker and I've never liked him and I don't like the way things are going since he became involved. That recent interview he gave was all about how we must win 2 CL within this 10 year period. He actually said we WILL win the CL, as though it was our divine right. Pretty disrespectful to the likes of Barca and Milan, Real Madrid and Liverpool etc. The bloke is a prize c**t.

That say it all for me. To be honest, I am not totally gutted about Jose going. He was always going to go sooner or later - he has admitted as much himself. He was never a long termer like Fergie or Wenger. But the timing is shocking and the way he has been undermined for a fair while now is also inexcusable. I hate Kenyon and all he stands for. He knows nothing about our club pre Abramovich and I wish he and his Global Vision would just f**k right off.

Wasn't going to bother to answer that, but I've taken the bait!!! It wasn't just one cross. He did a fair bit more than that. And I've said countless times that Joe didn't have a great game. He just wasn't anywhere near as bad as Loz was making out. Jeez.................... Maybe 1 was a bit harsh, but if you judge him honestly, against expectation, then you surely have to admit that he was one of the big disappointments last night. Against a team like Rosenborg I would have expected him to really shine. Instead I kept seeing him running down blind alleys before more or less disappearing altogether. When he wasn't playing he was going to make all the difference. Since he has been playing he hasn't made all the difference. So as not to seem like I'm down on Joe, I feel exactly the same about Essien. With Frank out now is the time for him to step up. So far he really hasn't. Again, he hasn't been desperately bad, but he hasn't been able to give us the control and distribution and goal threat that we need. So judged against expectation he was definitely a flop. Others, like Kalou didn't do well but then my expectations for him are much lower. The strangest decision last night was to play Maka - or at least to persist with him for the full 90 minutes. He didn't help keep our defense sound and he offered nothing going forward. Mikel would have been a much better choice. Have to agree with just about every word of that. The only thing I really took exception to was Loz's scandalous mark of 1 (since cleared this up with Loz). At times the team didn't play that badly last night, but as you rightly say, against opponents like Rosenborg, you would hope that the likes of Joe, Essien & even Malouda would really stand out but they clearly didn't. Maybe Rosenborg upped their game and they did their homework and they also rode their luck but a 1-1 is still nowhere near good enough, especially when you look back at the game and at 1-0 they actually had decent chances to increase the lead. I gave Belletti my MOTM but the defence as a whole was not good at all. I personally don't think JT and Alex works as a pairing. They were pulled all over the place last night and that was by Rosenborg. Alex might take time to settle so I'm not going to slag him off too much but I really don't like the idea of that same pairing at Old Trafford. Totally agree with your comments on Maka. Why the need for Maka in a home match against such opposition? That said, Mikel has not performed well when I've seen him this season either. Good option last night would have been Diarra. Oh no.............................. And Essien too. Lots of running - bags of energy. But way too many mis-placed passes and an afternoon on the training ground doing some shooting practice as opposed to running about might be a good idea. And Kalou is not first 11 material at the moment. Perhaps he will be one day (I hope so) but not now. He certainly would not get games for Liverpool, Man Utd or Arsenal.

Er, No!!! Not when we had Guddy, Robben & Joe.

Wasn't going to bother to answer that, but I've taken the bait!!! It wasn't just one cross. He did a fair bit more than that. And I've said countless times that Joe didn't have a great game. He just wasn't anywhere near as bad as Loz was making out. Jeez....................

That too is a grand generalisation, because I know a fair few didn't want us to sign them and I was one of them.