evissy

I like your optimism Chippy. It just might be an key element to some success this season. If the chemistry between the players and manager gets better we just might win CL or EPL, who knows. I have accepted that we probably don't have anything to put in the trophy cabinet this season since the two more probable trophy's are behind us now. Thinking about your optimism brings to mind the fact that we have the most quality side in the league and top 3 in europe. We have at least 2 star players on every spot on the pitch and to underline the quality of our squad we have Shevchenko playing for reserves(coming back from injury but still). Then again massive squad with full of stars have underachieved in the past. Real Madrid is an good example. Barcelona has a tough task catching RM this year and didn't they just drop our from the spanish cup. ManU was cr*p two seasons ago when they only managed to finish third and lost to us almost 20 points. There are examples... I can openly say that I don't like Avram Grants face. He looks like he don't have the passion needed to lead the team to championships, he doesn't look sharp. It is all about his exterior. If someone who doesn't look like a toad had Avram's record we would give him the benifit of the doubt. I'm sure Avram is passionate and sharp and a good coach but I just haven't had that expression of him through the TV screen. He surely don't enjoy giving the interviews and the language wall leaves his intellect into question.

So it's 50-50 at the moment in the shed end forum

signed

"New school" coach. From those choices Rijkaard is the only one fitting that mould. Jose is also one of them. Laudrup's name came up in this forum as well. If we want a long time coach we need a 40-45 yr old man with a vision. If we'd get Jose back he would certainly be treated better but I just don't believe Kenyon and Roman would bend their knees and kiss his ar*e to bring him back. If they still get along well and all have grown from that sacking incident everything is possible. I'm just not believeing the hype. And I don't think we will get silverware this season.

But Qaz, can you not see that Grant has LOST the dressing room ???? The players rate him about as highly as we do on CSR. They know he is a fuc*ing imposter anf I truly believe they are voting the only way they know how. with poor performances I truly don't think that the players hate him or not rate him, they just dont who he is and where he is coming from. If that doesn't get clear to the players they might as well hate him then. We will see that in the results, as we do at the moment.

I'm pondering between two solutions, or have been for a while now. 1. Let Grant do his job according to his 4year deal. We will slowly become Grant's team more with his players and playing style that he created. Slowly the Jose starts to wear off and after that we will se the Grant's Chelsea. Great future? Hard to say.. 2. Get a new innovative coach in the summer with new ideas and start from scratch. Shuffle the deck so to say. It takes time to become the best again but if it happens we just might have a long time coach. Future seems brighter than in the first. Also it's risky to have a young maybe unexperienced coach and it might just go totally wrong. At the moment number two is my choice..

I think we are not going to win anything this season. There just isn't any unifying factor or winning element in our team. Jose is wearing off day by day. I think we are going close to CL final but lose in the end, I think we will catch Arse and Manu in the league but lose in the end. Our quality hides the fact that our team is clueless, this really is the post-jose dog day morning. I really hope that players like Terry and Ballack can kick the winning habit back to our team with their example. After all the players on the pitch play the game, not the management. At the moment I want Grant out and I think it will happen in the summer but the players should realise the season isn't over yet and they should shut all the irrelevant stuff to the background and concentrate on making the team better. I would think that losing to Barnsley makes players think. If you think of it someone like Sheva is making 130k a week and he plays for the reserves. Don't know the salaries in Championship sides but I guess their whole team doesn't make that in a week, maybe month. And still they show better football than our rich boys.

I agree.

Very interesting rumour. Always liked the Laudrups. His achievments with getafe seem good too.. I prefer a new generation coach over Hitzfelts and Ancelottis. VanBasten, Klinsmann, Gullit, Rijkaard etc..

Jose ruined Sheva for us! He wanted have attack around Drogs. He tried to be nice to Roman for a while with his gift(sheva) but he turned sour when felt his territory is intruded, rightly so.

True. Olympiacos should have started with that Belluschi guy form the start and they would have been okay. They weren't that bad at second half.

Is Amauri the only striker we can find? He seems okay, but again he is 27 already and made his name in Italy. The positive fact is that he is Brazilian. We already have two brazilians who would guide him etc. I hope we try to get Huntelaar... If Drogs leaves we are not in that big trouble now that we have Anelka. We could get a younger guy like Huntelaar to pair up with Nic. We still got Pizza and Sheva. Sheva could still be good for us and he showed some signs of it before that injury. Pizza? Don't really know..

With our squad we should always go for at least a double. This has been troublesome season but with our material we should expect silverware.

He is the coach and he is responsible for the result. If players with these salaries don't want to win hard enough, manager is to blame. If Grant isn't the sort of guy players rely and respect then he is in the wrong place.

I totally agree, no matter you are in Liverpool .

As Tim says, and rightly so. Olympiacos are the weakest side left in the competition and apparently will have two of their best players missing tonight. Lua Lua and Galletti. Lomana Lua Lua one of their best players!!!!!! Says it all really. If Grant loses tonight, he's as good as gone. Worst case scenario is that we lose and Grant still gets the backing from Abramovic and remains our head coach according to the 4 year deal. Even thinking of it makes me wanna myself. I mean if a 52 year old coach doesn't know how to win big games at that age he wont know how to do it at the age of 53...

...................cech................... bell....carvo.........terry.....cole ................mikel/ess.............. ....ballack................lamps..... cole..............................kalou .................drogs...................

I agree that he is really injury prone and he is no good injured but he would have been cheap to keep I recon and we wouldn't had to buy Pizarro.

strangely, he didnt even know what a perfect hat-trick was in the interview after the game. Selling Forss to Brum was one of JM's biggest mistakes...BTW he wore black armband in the Arse*al game as he grieved the injury that probably ended his biggest idol's Ronaldo's career...

hahahahaaa... the commentator is best in this. After Robben scores he goes "gol gol gol gol gol gol gol!!!" and seconds after that same thing in the other end. gol gol gol gol gol

Grant is going to play Drogs, I'm pretty sure about that. He has probably already promised him this Olympiacos game. Is it sensible, maybe not. He's probably still trying to make friends with Drogs so he can't fail him. Joey, Ballack and Lamps are the ones we should play with no questions asked. Joey has been really good the whole season and he deserves to play.

i knew someone would say that. we lose - grants fault. we win - players won it. wonderful. That tell's just how lovable character Grant is.. He is not relatable, lovable, funny, angry, intelligent...he is just Avram. He sticks on you like teflon. He needs to win us something before he is forgiven and that is a fact. If he doesn't win anything this season he gets the boot and rightly so.

Maybe he don't mind..

Everyone should look at themselves and what they did wrong but it is the managers job to make the players play. I can understand the mutiny inside the team after Jose left and it is an unfair situation for Grant as well. He can't be expected to be Jose and the players bloody well should understand it. I wish more players would be like J.Cole. He has realized that manager is always the boss whoever it is. I think his attitude has been really good from the beginning. Terry and Lamps should realize that too. I think Jose was too much of a buddy of those guys and now they think they run the show post Jose. Grants charisma and authority isn't enough at the moment to some of our high flying stars. It's a shame really.