54veteran

By what stretch of the imagination does shooting someone with an air gun become a "mistake"? The place is obviously out of control

That said, we dealt with Bale and Lennon ok, but I'm sure part of their gameplan will be Nani tormenting us on the edge of the box. We need to man mark him but I'm not sure any of our defenders has the discipline at the moment

I think we need a plan to deal with Nani or we'll be clocking up yellow cards

Drogba is still the man most likely to feed Torres in tight situations. He may be a yard slower now, but he still thinks faster than anyone else. I have high hopes that the Torres, Drogba, Anelka thing could be something magical if it's allowed to evolve naturally, but I can't see Carlo allowing that to happen

Nobody fires on all cylinders at minus ten.

Torres very unlucky not to score, and it looks like he'll pair up with Anelka or Drogba equally well. Still lacking the killer pass up front, and still losing focus at the back now and then, but a huge improvement in attitude.

www.vipcanals.net/ch2.html seems ok so far

We had better park the bus, and maybe stay inside it.

Drawn against Barca. Don't make it worse than it is I've got a feeling someone's going to step up and grab the headlines for us tonight. At minus 5 degs, Ivanovic or Zhirkov would be favourite.

So he's digging his heels in for the golden handshake then. Who's going to give way first, or will it be another "by mutual consent" parting of the waves? Sacking a manager who was never given the authority to manage anything much in the first place is a bit of a farce. Time for Roman to admit his mistakes and go back to his original vision. JM was all powerful but delivered the goods, and would have carried on doing so if Roman had just left him to get on with the job. If he isn't prepared to delegate power, the only applicants will be those prepared to be shat on for a year in exchange for a large cheque, e.g. ex-England managers.

Anyone can manage a happy club

Yes, I do, but you seem not to notice. In any case, it's my business what I post. I actually said we played quite well against Everton and, boy, was I in the minority there. From the torrent of negativity following that match, why single me out for personal abuse? You disagree with my point? Well, just ignore it, or say why. It's an online etiquette that most of us seem willing to accept. There's nothing snidey or negative about recognising that our club is run by a billionaire playboy who probably cares as much about his latest yacht or mansion as he does about a foreign football club he happens to own. That's the way the PL is going. Oligarchs and oil sheiks having fun with their spare cash. My point here is that their decisions don't necessarily make sense to normal people.

Don't forget that very rich people often like to brag about how much they've lost. He's probably trying to keep up with the bloke at City, who may be about to lose a whole lot more.

It's clear that we need a PR person to write Carlo's press comments. All managers' statements are essentially meaningless, but the media demands them, so they should at least not be downright embarrassing.

It was pretty obvious from day one that this team wouldn't be able to play twice a week, so we had a good start and then fell apart when the fixtures built up. 50 million on half a dozen squad players under 25 would have made sense, but Roman seems more interested in showing what a flash git he is than re-building the team.

"The Champions League is not easy" "We have to play against Copenhagen. We have 180 minutes to win this game." "I think we have the possibility to win against Copenhagen." IF you've got nothing to say, at least stop making these mind-numbingly stupid statements.

A bit bloody late for pep talks

And this is what it comes down to in the end. We're boring the pants off everybody

And who exactly is the assistant coach? Last I heard it was Emmenalo

Still not as bad as watching Liverpool a few weeks ago, and they recovered quickly enough when the senior players got the manager they wanted. The squad is plenty good enough for top 4, but clearly they won't play for Carlo so, rightly or wrongly, he has to go.

I think he should go right now if we're to stand a cat in hell's chance in the CL. I'd rather JT was made player manager for the rest of the season, starting Monday morning. Sod the tactics, let's try and get some good feeling back in the squad and take it from there. I'll go further than my previous post and say that, from what I saw on a stream, Carlo was blanked by JT and Frank during the extra time break. Maybe someone who watched it on proper tv can verify that, or otherwise

I was also worried when he said that Torres' arrival was "a bit of a surprise". And then there was the comment comparing this phase to the last days of Scolari. Not like Frank to play politics, so things must be getting fraught.

Michael Emmenalo is our Assistant First Team Coach. Let him take over.

I was almost on the point of thinking we'd played quite well. An exquisite piece of skill from Anelka for Frank's goal, and we'd hung on to the lead efficiently until the free kick. We just couldn't go the extra mile and keep the ball at the end. Ironically it was Anelka's bit of arrogance that cost us the match. Couldn't help noticing there was no eye contact at all between Carlo and either Frank or JT during the extra time break. Seemed like Carlo was invisible.

Looks like a case of take the money and run to me. Sailing into the sunset, with one of Berlusconi's friends pouring you another glass of bubbly, must be an enticing prospect, and probably not one that Roman, in all fairness, could disapprove of.