Jonty

Was cursing Oscar passing that and then SFL gets a goal, even better! 1 closer to the record

Dunno how anyone can think this has been nipped in the bud when the FA are inevitably gonna extend his ban and we're going to appeal it and the sh*t is going to hit the fan a second time.

Was extremely pessimistic when I saw the team sheet, but I guess poor little old Ashley Cole needs Bertrand on the overlap against the big bad Kebe. In all seriousness though it took us 45 minutes to get a shot on target, I wonder when the last time we've been that bad is, the goal was good, good pass by Torres and good shot by Mata, slightly soured by the fact that it will probably justify Torres starting another game. Benayoun or Marin on for Bertrand ASAP, which for Rafa is about the 80th minute, and Ba on for Torres once we've made sure our full backs are getting their rest.

excellent

yes i'm guessing that was the boards logic, unfortunately buying players to put it on a plate for him didn't even work. Now that we have Ba, we should try play more directly again.

The majority of those players will never make it here, the ones we've actually spent money on haven't been cast aside, they're getting valuable experience so that when we need them they're actually ready as opposed to spending 2 years warming a bench. I hear a lot of people talking about KDB and Lukaku coming back, but no mention of Hazard the 2nd? His team that has never finished higher than 5th in the Belgian league is coming 2nd and he has started nearly every game, and Eden said when we signed him that Thorgan was even better than him. Anyone else fancy a Hazard-Hazard combo with Mata as the 3, with Oscar and KDB playing the 2 deeper roles? Now there's a pretty picture.

United play a lot more direct than us or City, they don't actually have any playmaking or class players in their midfield, so they just hoof it up the wing early or to Rooney, who then gets it to RVP as soon as possible. It's the kind of thing we did for most of the last decade by getting the ball to eg. Anelka quickly and then either hitting Drogba or waiting for Frank to make a late run. But our genius board decided after watching what we did against Barca, that their method was clearly superior to the way that the majority of EPL teams play, and now we're trying to pass our way through 10 people.

Essien would have made sense, from what I hear Piazon isn't even starting at Malaga so he may as well have stayed here to sit on the bench too. Really we should have recalled a CM as soon as Romeu got put out for the season.

If Turnbull starts, i'm sure I won't be the only one getting extremely anxious whenever the ball is within 40 yards of our goal, regardless of which team is in possession. People saying if we lose this Rafa is out, who the hell is going to come here on a 2-3 month contract? Maybe he could get a national team coach on a temporary contract like he did with Hiddink but that seems pretty unlikely (if so it would be amazing to get Capello for the rest of this season).

1) Wenger 2) AVB 3) Rodgers 4) Jol 5) Moyes 6) Laudrup 7) Redknapp 8) Mancini 9) O'Neil 10) Martinez 11) Clarke 12) Pardew 13) Hughton 14) Pochettino 15) Big Sam 16) Lambert 17) McDermott 18) Pulis 19) FSW 20) Bacon Face Anyone below the top 6 though would be a ridiculous appointment though, and i'd be disappointed with anyone below that top 3. Despite what a lot of people think, I still think Wenger is one of the world's top managers, it's not his fault his club is more interested in profit than winning. When he was able to splash the cash when he first came he built arguably the best side this country has ever seen. I actually hope he replaces TSO at Madrid next season so he can shove it in the ungrateful gooners faces, and because I think he'd actually be able to displace Barca, and finally get the CL trophy his career deserves. AVB came along two years too early, I think with Frank and Dider gone, and JT and Ash on possibly their final season's, and with all the young talent, next season would be perfect for AVB, unfortunately I think he's going to go on to have a brilliant managerial career with Spurs and then possibly Madrid, and we'll never get him back. Rodgers is slowly turning the hilarious mess Dalglish and the board left for him into a decent squad, and the fact he worked here before, would make him not a bad candidate.

As much as Meireles frustrated me to no end last season with his barrage of misplaced passes and poor decisions, I think we've been missing his grit this season in midfield, particularly while Frank was injured. On topic: Has anyone been watching KDB play on a regular basis at Bremen and could tell me how he's doing? Is he looking top class over there? Is he standing out?

I think I read somewhere that Mata's goal/assist total's at the midway stage of this season are already better than the total he had last season, and the total that silva had last season. Hazard and Oscar are a few years younger than Mata too, so expect them to keep improving rapidly, obviously having a top class striker in front of them will make their job a lot easier.

Should get Drogba and Ash over to the u-18's to tell them how it's done

Are you seriously blaming the fans for this season being in the bin? I'd say it's more down to having the worst manager we've possibly ever had, our incompetent board failing to buy a striker until January and sacking a legendary manager for an idiot, and the players clearly not giving a sh*t.

Who we need to buy for next season depends on how many people we're intending on sending on loan again. If we intend on sending 22 players on loan again next year (seriously, 22) then we need more depth across the midfield, attacking players and strikers. Alternatively this can be solved by keeping the likes of Lukaku, KDB and Piazon around. Even then, if we get rid of Malouda and Benayoun it might make sense to replace them with 1 reasonably cheap but reliable alternative. Not a regular starter but someone who can make an impact if we need it from the bench, and can rotate in and do his job. Someone maybe like Sessegnon who is proven in the EPL but wouldn't cost an arm and a leg. Alternatively if Kakuta stays on next season he could fulfill this role. Also Thorgan Hazard turns 20 in March, the team he's on loan at is coming 2nd in the Belgian League, and before this season have never finished higher than 5th, and from what i've read he's having a big impact on their best ever season. He's old enough now to be playing regular EPL football and presumably his link up play with Eden will be better than any other player's on the planet, so surely he should be given a run. I don't think Torres will be sold before next season, but I also hope Lukaku will stay next season leaving us with 3 (4 if including Piazon) striking options. Ba and Lukaku may not be Aguero & Tevez or RVP & Rooney, but I think we could challenge for the title with the two of them up front. Wouldn't complain if we brought in Falcao but if we don't then i'll still have enough confidence in the striking pair we do have. As for the CM role i don't care if anyone says otherwise, but we need a general that can boss the midfield with physicality, solid tackling and positioning, and at least decent passing and shooting from deep skills. My honest opinion is that McEacheran is never going to make it here, he's too frail for the role we need and not THAT good at the things he tries to make up for it with. Chalobah should be loaned out again next season as he is still very young, and really Fellaini is the ideal player to fit that gap. I'm not trying to sound like a spoilt buy buy buy fan but i'd say he's the most important player to try and get next season.

Not including Jose, in no particular order; Klopp Capello Bielsa Mazzarri Lucescu Hiddink De Boer Simeone Conte Maybe Moyes as the #10 then, unless Heynckes decides to not retire, then i'd rather have him. But really anyone that isn't Jose will be 2nd tier.

Makes sense for us, the best young English goalkeeper at a bargain price to replace the ridiculously poor Turnbull. Doesn't make sense for him though, surely he should be looking to get first team football, sitting on the bench for 5 years here will really f**k up his England chances.

I wouldn't want him and I could easily name 10 others i'd rather have, but he's definitely an improvement on the idiot in charge right now.

Never mind, clearly a poor troll. Didn't think a troll would waste so much time writing a long topic though, mirin the dedication son.

So many things I disagree with in this post. The coach that took a team failing miserably on all fronts to an FA Cup and the first ever CL win for a London team wasn't good enough? You don't think Capello or Blanc would be better than the FSW? And you can't think of anyone outside that list that is better? That 13 point deficit wasn't the fault of Robbie, we were well behind the pace when he took over from AVB and after the comeback against Napoli and drawing Benfica in the QF's, I think that was always going to become the main priority. Chelsea were top for most of this season under Robbie, undone only by the scummy work of Clattenburg and the FA as per usual, and we were only 4 points behind the leaders when he came in. Now we're 13 points behind or something like that, lost the CWC to Corinthians, and lost in the COC semi-final's to Swansea, you really think he's doing a better job? It's already been posted he's had the worst record of any manager in the RA era. Just take that game from where that video is from as an example of how ridiculously bad he is as a manager. He starts a fairly full strength squad against a League 1 side in an early round FA cup game, Mata, Hazard and Ba the only names missing from our strongest 11. We get completely outplayed and are losing to a side a good 60 or so rungs down in the football league ladder. Rafa decides at halftime to take off one of our attacking players and bring on another attacking player, while we still have a defender playing as a winger (god knows why he even started that game). Still losing come the 80th minute so he does a straight right back for right back swap. Eventually saved by FT scoring a goal that he would only have scored one in every hundred opportunities. How can you think all of this is the mark of even a semi-competent manager?

I heard there was some sort of bust up a while back because Anelka was made player-manager and then was fired? Or something along those lines.

Can't believe I just scrolled through 3 pages of debate on whether Brazil's #10 is good enough for us.

Welcome mate.

I think if we go into another season with only 1 or 2 strikers then we're foolish as hell. Insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result.

why couldn't they have quoted one of the countless comments about rafa out instead