OhForAGreavsie

Very tough ask I think I believe city and Arsenal are certainties for the top four, while Spurs and Liverpool have both looked significantly better than we have so far. Obviously United and Leicester must count as candidates but, fortunately, West Ham have continued to look as appalling as they did at Stamford Bridge. Maybe thier status as outsiders will be taken by Everton. If there is a glimmer of hope for us, then it is no more than a glimmer.

I have to admit that in the, "Who do you want as the next Chelsea manager", poll Allegri got my vote. Nothing against Antonio, I like him a lot. I like the intelligence he shows in interviews and I even like the fact that his press conferences are the most boring things known to man. He is here now so he has my support and I'm sure he has yours too. it is more difficult every day for the club to afford, and to attract, the quality of player necessary to improve our prospects. Antonio has a very tough job on his hands. Let's wish him well.

I'm optimistic that Alonso can help us but I'm disillusioned about the re-signing of David Luiz. Your main point about the deficiencies of our squad is absolutely correct. There is a group of members who refuse to accept the limitations placed on our tactical options by those deficiencies. It doesn't matter how many managers come in and find themselves forced to adopt the same approach, this group continue to blame the managers. Over the weekend I read yet another post pleading for us to adopt a more attacking approach. Players hurtling up the pitch, waiting for a ball that's never going to arrive because your team can't string five positive passes together, isn't atacking. It is, as you say, suicide. Every team defends when they don't have possession. The difference between Chelsea and other sides that we admire is what they can do with the ball when they get it. Any squad of professional footballers can put together beautiful passages of play. Over the course of a season however the shortcomings of our squad are going to continue to restrict our ambitions until, and unless, we improve their general quality.

I have been posting on fan forums since 2003. I will give you £20 million for every post you find where I've called anyone an attention whore. You on the other hand, while freely commenting on another team's manager criticised him for commenting on another team's player. That is hypocrisy and your response to me is just silly.

Like you you mean?

Well said. People are commenting as if they don't realise the problems in the squad yet we all know that's just not true. Everyone here, and I mean everyone, knows only too well that there are many more questions than answers in this group. Those who yearn for, and call for, a more aggressive style of play have their hearts in the right place but this group of players are not able to deliver that dream. Instead of continuing to blame Jose, or starting to blame Antonio, I hope people will be more understanding about the tough place our club is in. The situation reminds me of that old joke where a motorist is lost on the way to the Irish capital and stops to ask directions. "If you want to get to Dublin", came the reply, "you really shouldn't start from here". Well, we are here and we have to get on with it. Off the pitch, we need to up our game in terms of identifying genuine quality. On the pitch we need to get Alonso into this side as soon as possible. He is not a perfect footballer but getting him into the lineup will, in my opinion, make more of an improvement then any other single change from within the current squad. That's my prescription anyway. He will certainly start on Tuesday night. After that, we shall see.

Good response. I'm about to get off the bus and try to make it in in time to collect my free beer. Wish me luck :-)

You do see though, don't you, how this may cast doubt on your assessment of Nathan's qualities?

I won't be blaming Klop too much for that. He obviously meant it as a compliment, and not as a slight.These people are required to produce an output of several million words a season in press conferences, interviews, program notes, in-house TV, radio, goodness knows what else. If they sometimes make a misstep, who can really blame them? In any case, Antonio clearly took it in the spirit it was meant and tried to come up with a reciprocal complement of his own. Fair enough I thought.

By whom? Everybody thinks he's brilliant. :-)

Hello TW, I really don't think we need to fret about this. Unlike us, the club knows the facts of the financial arrangements involved with these deals including what offers for permanent or temporary moves have been made. They also know the wishes of the player, the manager and other squad builders in regard to the individual's future. We know none of these things. I realise it pleases some people to imagine the club is run by a collection of men and women who couldn't pass a Key Stage 1 SAT, who don't know their left from their right, and who can't spell their own names. The reality of course is very different. If any of these people got talking about the business of football with you, me, or, I suspect, virtually anyone else here, they'd soon make our lack of knowledge look pretty foolish. I believe the key thing you and I have to focus on is that these are not exclusively footballing decisions. I very much doubt, for example, that anyone at Chelsea believes Lucas Piazon has strong chances of a future with the club but there are enormous financial implications in play. My argument is that you, I, and everyone else here should let the people who know what those implications are, and how to deal with them, get on with their work.

I've made this point a number of times before but I think it needs to be made again. What Diego Costa brings to the team is not worth the amount of motivation he gives to opposing fans and players alike. That was true last season and is even more true now when you consider the quality of the alternative we have sitting on the bench.

I'd say Diego is a better finisher than Michy but, apart from that, the Belgian gets all the ticks.

I used to say that if I woke up and found myself owner of Chelsea, the bid for Diaby would go in that same day. Of course Arsenal wouldn't have sold, and he probably wouldn't have accepted anyway. After all, there were stories at the time that we had offered a bigger fee and a better wage package but that Diaby had chosen the Gunners. It even crossed my mind that we should take the risk of offering Diaby a deal when he was released by Arsenal. As it turned out he went back to France and - promptly got injured again. Poor bloke.

Thanks for the response. Lots of stuff to get into here. All managers are under pressure not just the ones here. Lots of managers lose their jobs all over the place season after season. When the results don't matter managers might give themselves a little more license but, when things are on the line, they select the players they believe are best able to get the result. We do not have the best youth in the world. We have, recently, had the most successful youth team in England and arguably in Europe. That's not quite the same thing. I say 'arguably' in Europe because, although we retained the UEFA youth league last season, our victory in the final against PSG had some good fortune about it . We started that game very brightly and should perhaps have been further ahead than we were by the time Paris came into the match. Once they did get a foothold in the game, they were much the better side. PSG should have levelled, and probably even won. They certainly created enough chances to have done so. The best youth footballer in England currently plays for Manchester City, not for Chelsea. In any case look at how our players generally fare when they go out on loan. Many of them, most of them in fact, struggle to get minutes. Jed Boga went to France and found himself kept out of the team by a younger, and clearly superior, player. Charlie Musonda went to Spain where he received rave reviews. Reviews which were, as I posted at the time, generally speaking a big over reaction to what he was actually producing on the pitch. I'll grant you that there was one outstanding display, the one with Wilmots watching from the stands, but other than that his efforts were goodish at best. On more than one occasion Charlie was just plain poor. It was not a huge surprise that, by the end of the season, he had played himself out of the Bettis starting lineup. Ahead of tomorrow night's game it is still true to say that Charlie has not yet played himself back into it. I watched Andreas two seasons ago. I certainly didn't feel he was ready so I'm in no position to criticise anyone else who thought the same. Jose did select him by the way and he was poor. My point is, that I don't think any youth player has made a compelling case for himself.

Let me ask you a question please. How many managers not selecting a player will it take before you accept that there might be a good reason for it? I completely agree with you, Nathaniel was outstanding in pre-season, when he played. What this says to me is that Antonio must be seeing stuff in training that he really doesn't like or else the lad must surely have had some minutes by now.

Abou Diaby - Captain.

We were poor against West Ham but they were utterly, utterly useless.

Sorry for coming to this conversation a bit late but I've been down, and off football, since the David Luiz deal. I'm not over it yet but I'm doing my best. :-) I think you are drawing conclusions too soon. For example, West Ham tried very hard to allow us to play very, very well against them, but we still failed. Against Watford, we were horrible for all but a few minutes. We won comprehensively against Burnley but only after Bristol Rovers had exposed the criminal lack of depth in our squad. There are improvements, and I am very optimistic about the help Alonso can give us, but we mustn't read too much into what we've seen so far. For the most part it's been very disappointing. Goodness only knows how things would have gone had Eden not been on his game. Let's keep in mind that journalist who, at the start of the season before last, was describing our team as the best Premier League side ever. Swallows and summers and all that.

In my opinion, and as far as I can judge from interviews and other public interactions, Cesc is the classiest individual in our squad. He has integrity, bravery, discretion and intelligence. These don't necessarily add up to a leader, but they are great ingredients all the same. The big problem of course is that it's hard to see Cesc winning a place in the team. In fact it's easier to see him leaving during the next 12 months than it is to imagine him being installed as captain. If our votes mattered at all, Cesc would have mine but he isn't going to get the job.

Verrati is a genuinely world-class player who is actually worth splashing a lot of cash on. I agree with you that the time must be coming when he will want to leave Paris. Whether we can put ourselves at the top of his list of destinations when the time comes is very doubtful however.

We have sold Cuadrado in all but name. We won't ever be told the detailed reasons for a three-year loan agreement but it seems almost certain that it's to do with manipulating the accounts of one or both clubs. If that works for the money men then they know their business, let them get on with it. Juan didn't want to play here, few of us wanted him to play here, Milan wanted him to play there, Juve got him. Almost everybody is happy. As for the other players, given that none of them has any prospect of a Chelsea career, there must be reasons why their latest move is another loan, not a sale. If the squad builders or money men say this is the best way to go, who am I to argue. They know all the facts and I know none of them.

I understand what you're saying about the value of strength and depth in the squad but the notion that we ever had two Premier League winning 11s in the same squad is a big fat myth. In those days, whenever we rotated, it invariably required the cavalry, in the form of two or even three rested starters, coming off the bench to save our bacon.

DL is ridiculously overrated as a midfielder.

Either that or they've seen Rodriguez play.