Kerry

Hope this wasn't a trap again ;)

Not everyone is a grown man ;)

Ahhh ... losing the league title is much much much more painful to me! I can live camly with Real, Barca, Inter (yes even Jose Mourinho) winning the CL. But if WE are NOT winning the league most probably it will be caught by Mancs, scum and the gooners and this makes me MAD!

I thought he doesn't want the Spurs

Given the heat this thread has created I'm more surprised reading geezer's not posted a more fierce comment on it ;)

Well I can't figure out myself if the reports of Scolari commanding an "organizer" is really true (is it a SUN source?) but as Kaka is definitively not coming (haha if Grant had stayed he would've come!) Arshavin is a decent option imho as he could be really effective upfront and he is a sort of player probably suiting Scolari's style. I have my own stomache ache about this but I'd rather see a 28-year-old arriving and helping us winning the league instead of seeing this trophy going on loan again.

I agree fully with you that compared to those others we are not that bad off. On the downside this would mean we just have luck this season. I would not go that far to say we have a crisis at the Bridge though not everything is working perfect; if Scolari leaves now and we stand there empty-handed without a substitution than yes we have a real crisis but the current situation is not comparable to that. Though this would suggest we have damn luck till now. It could relatively have gone otherway; one of the other clubs (even ManCity!) could have taken the lead. We're a bit lucky that everyone else has been f*cked up so far. But that's not to our merit. What worries me more is that I have the impression there is nobody there to take the lesson. It's human to fail; nobody is infallible and we have no godly right to win everything. Errors are made to learn of them, but I have the impression nobody seems to be able or willing to react what has happened during this season so far. We've seen and heard a lot of promises to improve, but we haven't seen or heard any real measures for this. Maybe it's still too far, so we shall come back to this later in January, that's for sure, just what we've seen so far isn't very promising. Be it Scolari's tactical enigmas. Be it rumours of unrest in the dressing room. Be it Kenyon's pleading over and over again that we won't spend. Be it Drogba's seesaw "I will stay" and "I hate you all". I understand we don't need a radical change. All my impression is solely there's done nothing, and that's too less.

If this is not going to trouble his job for the Spurs - excellent! Down the league table but beating scum there's nearly nothing more I could wish for Spurs!

Which option do we have at the moment now when we drop JT? Playing Alex and Ivanovic together? OMG. And just reading the rumours that Big Phil is losing authority over his players where are we going when JT is dropped? I thought stability is what we need

Hope then you survive in this bloody business :D

Depending on what you wanna do ;)

If they can't get the money for Alex, Malouda or Kalou I can't see where the money shall come from as Scolari has to sell before buying. Ah and I forgot Ivanovic may leave, too.

There have been several pages/sites saying Scolari has lost the authority. Well there is no quote so it seems so there's more speculation than truth behind it as always when tablods and backpages go talking. They're merely mentioning what has been discussed in the match threads here, too: Deco, Scolari's lack of influence, motivational skills, substitution policies, etc. etc. So nothing we didn't know already. On the downside it makes me a bit nervous that the Brazilian FA may have an eye on Phil before they're going to sack Dunga. He is a decent subsitution for Dunga who enjoys less success than Phil at Chelsea and if Phil feels himself uncomfortable on the Chelsea seat this would be no surprise though he is denying pressure on the current situation. And Kenyon on his way claiming no spendung but great improvement must be made is not going to help in the situation. Scolari has made clear that he needs improvements otherwise results won't get much better that way and we don't need our crystal globe to believe at least this is the truth unveiled. Though just a mere suspicion it doesn't sound promising.

Now according to the tabloids Big Phil has even lost the authority over the dressing room. I believe they're just writing what we all have thought about Deco and substitutions ourselves but I'm desperate to believe not a piece of it is true. It's not going to help us during the Christmas period.

We have young players to service, Di Santo (OK he's injured at the moment), Stoch, Mancienne (though defense is not that a problem of age), Sinclair ... once we used to have Sidwell as well before we got rid of him ... but will they turn the game when we bring them on? OK they're too young. Agree. But Kalou and Malouda as mentioned are nowhere near the age of a heartache but do they improve our game? Rarely they do. Or to take another example - Wenger's squad last season (don't know how it is this season it's out of my range) used to be very young in average. Na we know what fate did with it. Surely age will become a problem slowly. But in my opinion Scolari needs the right players for his style, fast-paced players with accurate passing abilities to make his game successful.

Agree. Exactly my thoughts. There was the question if our players are just not suited to playing the style Scolari demands, or if the players simply need more time to adapt to his style. Now 6 months passed and all I have observed is that the players generally have no problems playing his new style. When I've watched the first competitive game this season against Pompey all that came into my mind was "Hey the new system looks quite good on us". So actually they can play like that. What worries me more however is that they are simply not the right types of players to make it look perfect and competitive against any team. I appreciate Scolari trying to bring us on. But evolution instead of revolution maybe is more what we actually need. If he's not going to sack the whole squad. Another thought is that maybe this cross-passing isn't actually that what will bring success in the premier league. We see it of Arsenal; their short passes have been praised till hell but look what have they achieved with it? A fourth spot in the league! They couldn't manage to beat the scousers in the CL. Maybe we should learn a bit out of Wenger's destiny. I have the thought that Jose's defensive result-grinding style that AG has merely perfected looks ugly to some watcher's eyes but maybe is very effective for success in the league. Just a thought

Dear Mr. Abramovich, our squad is aging and Fergie and Tevez are laughing at us! Will you please be so kind and buy us a new squad. Because we lack everyone ... oh no we have enough defenders. Of course all Portuguese speaking. Thank you

I was hinting at it once in another match thread that I have the fear Scolari's system is fit for quick paces players rather than suiting our squad but I remember everybody disagreed with me so I shut up. Now reading you have similar thoughts I'm quite relieved.

geezer, as in my real life (meaning not internet communities) I'm surrounded by crazy scum and co, you're far away from insane, but this is just my personal judgement and as moi has issued I'm just too young and inexperienced I can't say anything concerning Monsieur W but at least our passing is much too imprecise to break through a tougher defense. West Spam didn't have such an impressive defense today and we looked so poor to crack it. We would have looked much better when we wouldn't lose that many passes nearing the box. Sometimes when Kalou neared the box and gave the ball so easily away I felt as if I could have jumped into my screen

But neither do we want to become Liverpool, don't we? So there's nothing to talk about beauty when we've lost ... As I've said, I'm too stupid to get it.

I'm just willing to understand at least a bit because we're on a discussion board and how could we discuss if we don't understand a tiny bit of what's going on in other people's heads? Well recently whenever someone comes to question Scolari's ability there are always other people coming up praising Scolari's beauty but I for me am still not able to understand the beauty behind a 0-0 draw against Newcastle, a 1-1 draw against Spam, not to say the beauty against the defeats. Can someone lose beautifully?

Beg my pardon geezer I forgot about it totally. :P I just wanted to express my growing annoyance about this "beauty-style" discussion. Overall I've never come to understand the sense behind it.

I have never been moaning about Jose's 1-0 results. I was one of those who had never understood the discussion about beauty and style and so on as long as we kept winning. Maybe I'm just too stupid for this, am reluctant to understand or I'm just a stupid foreigner I don't know.

As we've performed poorly against Roma, Cluj and Bordeaux away in the CL I have my concerns we will perform well against the teams you've mentioned. Even this even though our CL-villains in the group-stages weren't the greatest in European competition. It's just a hint what will come towards us. I see no chance for our team with their current situation; if they can't beat Roma I cannot imagine them beat either side above mentioned.

Indeed being manager at Stamford Bridge is a very tough job and so this is the reason why it should be handled to the right person. Yes I didn't see a reason why Ranieri was sacked yes I didn't see a reason why Mourinho was sacked yes I didn't see a reason why Grant was sacked but equally I don't wish to see a man at this position who hasn't got the ability to coach the team. I'd be pleased to see that all my doubts concerning Scolari's coaching skills are pointless, however all he's done so far isn't very convincing. Otherwise there wouldn't be so many threads and comments about it and I'm just one of those who have serious concerns about him.