OhForAGreavsie

Especially if they fail to qualify for the CL. My ordinary idea, coloured by what I consider to be the correct attitude toward Jose, would be for United to make the top four. If we are directly competing for players however, then let's hope they miss out. The worst outcome, the one I want to avoid for sure, is that they finish outside the top four and win the Europa League. That would mean five, not four, English teams in the Champions League next season. For me that's bad because 1) it means one more club who can offer CL football to our potential transfer targets, and, 2) the Champions League TV pool would be split five ways instead of four, a difference of millions of pounds.

If we got those two, I think Antonio would be tempted into trying to recreate Bergkamp and Henry. With hazard floating and the wingbacks providing the width.

May 27th.

I had exactly this in mind when I posted the other day that the continued selection of Diego, despite his poor form, is fascinating and that we could speculate about what might really be going on. We could even include China, Internazionale, the league table and Chelsea's fans in the mix. Perhaps Antonio wanted the China money to reinvest in the squad. Perhaps he feels empowered to take this stance by Chelsea's position, by his popularity with the fans and by the fact that Inter are waiting to give him a pay rise if thing's go sour with the management. Perhaps. Whatever the truth, I was really encouraged by Antonio's press conference yesterday. It was not anything he said, but something about his manner when he talked about us being just at the beginning of our rebuild. He sounded like a man with a clear plan in mind. Of course there's another interpretation of the comments, and the attitude, but enough with the guesswork for now. 😊

Yes, perhaps I did not express myself particularly clearly. I meant David is "normal" in the sense that his form fluctuates just like everyone else's does, and that he makes mistakes, just like everyone else.

I think people go overboard about David in both directions. His reviews tend to suggest that he's the best of the best, or the worst of the worst. He is not either of those things. He's a normal footballer whose performance level fluctuates from game to game but, like any defender, he looks really awful when he makes mistakes. Eight great games for the remainder of the season please David.

And they've already done all in their power to make it happen. We're playing on Saturday evening followed by the Southampton game on Tuesday that could quite easily have been played on Wednesday. On top of that we've now been scheduled to play play West Brom on Friday 12th May, followed by Watford on Monday 15th.

This is what fascinates me. Antonio watches every performance several times, and does so forensically. He sees what we see yet he continues to select Diego. There is a reason for it, and I'd love to be told the unfiltered truth about what it is. I say "unfiltered" because public statements by managers are just as likely to be evasions as anything else. The boss may be telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, when he says, "Diego is playing well. He is doing what I want him to do, so I am pleased with his performance.", but it's hard to believe that is anything more than a manager defending his player as he always must. In some ways it's easier to come up with a speculative explanation for Antonio's continued reliance on Diego. Many of us will have ideas about what's really going o. I certainly do but, in the end, I want to believe it's simply that the boss thinks the other options are worse. Unfortunately, that's not getting any easier to buy into.

And now the ladies lost their FA Cup semi-final on penalties to Birmingham. Turning out to be a very bad Easter programme for the club. The 18s better get a decent result in the first leg of the Youth Cup final away at City tomorrow.

Not all bad then.

I don't understand your reaction at all. It seems to have just as little to do with what I said, as you tell me mine had to do with yours. We are clearly talking at cross purposes.

I didn't see the interview but misunderstanding questions is a frequent situation for Antonio and there's nothing intentional about it. He often gives long answers to an entirely different question to the one he was asked. Throughout the season, reporters have been patient and polite while he does that, often accepting the answer he gave and moving on to another topic. Sometimes our press secretary restates the question to help Antonio, and on one occasion an Italian journalist translated for him. The pre match presser for the visit to ManU was the first time I heard a journo loose patience, tell Antonio that he didn't understand the question and ask for an answer to the question he did ask. (That was the one about which ManU players would get into his Chelsea team.) It's clear the press like Antonio and give him a lot of leeway, but the pressure will obviously move up a notch now.

Are you saying you think Antonio was drunk after the game? Antonio selects and utilises the players he believes are best for each game. Second guessing the manager may be a favourite fan activity but we simply do not have as much information as he does. In the end, none of us can say for sure that we would not be making the same decisions if, like Antonio, we were watching training every day. I'm a non believer when it comes to Nemanja, and nor can I believe in Diego's recent contributions, but I do believe that Antonio wants to win as badly as we do. He will certainly have reasons for the choices he makes. Reasons which make complete sense to him.

Arsenal fan TV is a huge success. The lad who does it is pretty good and so deserves the success he's had. He is lucky though. If he had started his channel during a successful period for Arsenal he would not have done as well as he has. Of course football fans have more to say when things go wrong. You might as well ask why does water run downhill.

Once again there is no new information available today. We already knew the problems in the squad. We fans can do no more than hope improvements are made during the summer. For now however, away with the doom and gloom. Not withstanding Sky's blatant schedule-manipulating attempt to manufacture a nail-biting finish to the season for the benefit of their ratings, we have four very winnable home fixtures to play. Collect those points and Spurs are in big, big trouble.

To believe that money specifically will be wasted is to believe that all money will be wasted. In which case, three Thibauts ain't gonna help us.

Can't agree. There is a lot blue tinted optimism about the quality of our squad but in more sober moments I think we all recognise that there are gaps. Antonio has done brilliantly to get us into the home stretch with a lead.

Bats for Diego at halftime looks an attractive option.

I think he took the opportunity to cover the pace Jose selected up front. Indeed, given that Marcos's ailment was known about before the game, it's not impossible that his name on the team sheet was just a ruse for precisely that purpose.

All true but I hope it doesn't cost us £200,000 a week. I really don't want to see us spending £10 million a year on a goalie when we so clearly could benefit from spending big in other areas. I'd have no problem with £300,000 per week for Eden but I think the difference in game by game results between a £120,000 per week goalie and a £200,000 per week one, are too marginal to be worth paying for. I think we gain more by spending an extra £80,000 per week to secure the right outfield player, than we lose by not spending it on a goalkeeper. I like Thibaut. In terms of straight goalkeeping ability I fully supported the decision to choose him over Petr. Loosing him would be a major disappointment, but if that decision has to be made, it has to be made.

I just can't agree with this I'm afraid. For me, Gaz is exactly the same player he was last season when he was taking the blame for things which were not his fault. Scour the world, select the best centre back you can think of, partner him with a clearly past it John Terry to his left and Branna to his right, then play him behind our front six of last season. The result will be chaos. Antonio hasn't improved Gaz, he's improved the team and that seems to be allowing many people to get a better take on our number twenty-four's capabilities.

I think Kennedy has more chance to make it as a pure LB, rather than as an LWB. A vanishingly small chance, but more of a chance all the same. What people see as Kennedy's potential to bomb down the wing, causes them to get hopeful that he is a possibile LWB but I don't agree. It's a valuable trait for an LWB to be sure but he lacks possession skills which are far more important. In any case, his ability to pose a serious threat from the left hasn't yet moved beyond mere potential. The very reasons which made me believe all along that that Marcos could help us, make me feel that Kennedy cannot. As for Rodriguez, I've never understood what people see in him.

We'd all love to rail against this post and explain why we think it's wrong. My guess is that @BlueLion. would like that as much as any of us but, sadly, we can't because it isn't wrong. No one is complaining about a loss of form. A loss of form is a run of the mill occurance we all recognise when we see it. What people are suspicious is happening here is a lack of commitment and a lack of effort. That's an entirely different kettle of fish. Let's hope that facing Jose's team later today will motivate Diego to demonstrate his desire again.

Would be surprised by this. I don't really rate the lad. In any case, didn't his 'pluggers' already try to circulate a story that a move to Bayern was already signed and sealed? It's as if these people believe no one else watches football and is incapable of seeing through the hype.

I wouldn't use that expression but I was unimpressed with his dribbling when he played at Udinese and said so.