OhForAGreavsie

If you think that then it's clear that you do not know what I'm talking about, or at any rate that you do not share my impression of the player. Kante falls into the category of footballer we have typically signed. The category which, once we bought enough of them, eventually brought us where we are now. Kante is a player with qualities rather than a player of quality. I say again, we are poor and Kante would improve us. My ambition however is that we sign a player who has Kante's qualities but who is better on the ball. That should be, and I hope is, Antonio's ambition too.

Kante is not the answer for us. He is better than we have currently and so would make our squad stronger but he would not contribute to making our squad great. If we cannot find, or cannot attract, a great player then Kante would serve as a stepping stone but we should not start the summer trying to buy an expensive stepping stone. We still have the ambition to be a great team not merely a good one.

Heard about the pen of course. That should ratchet up the tension a bit. I'm trying to take a look at Rodriguez who has been linked. Nothing to see from him yet.

How's he doing? (I'm watching Madrid/Wolfsburg.)

I'm sure I saw the same question not long ago. The stadium will be razed to the ground and rebuilt from scratch.

It was not Tony Gale.

Couldn't agree more. Been really excited about this since it broke last night that Charlie had travelled. Just get him on Guus!

I think he's always been poor. Another member of the generally overrated players group. Ok, poor is harsh but not special isn't.

How do you know that this is what should be deduced from the different titles? What on Earth has the name of the job got to do with anything? How, for example, do we know that Conte does not simply prefer the title, coach, which is more widely used everywhere outside of the UK? Putting such emphasis on a mere title sounds to me to be as mistaken as the opinion which objects to the name of Europe's premier club competition. How, the opinion goes, can it be called The Champions League when many entrants are not in fact domestic champions? That, rather silly, opinion completely ignores the fact that English is not the only language in the world and that in many other languages the word champion has a much wider meaning. A meaning akin to top quality. In any case, we already know that Jose instigated some transfers but not some others. That's no news and nor, I imagine, would it surprise anyone if that was to be the same situation with Antonio.

And I hope it always will be. Certainly deserves to be. At least partly responsible for every trophy we've won since Roman arrived at the club, apart from the last two. He was entirely responsible for those.

I'll remember to sing the special one's name even louder than usual a week on Saturday. Just for you.

Or perhaps they both just know what they're doing? That's easy for me to say given that I don't see Kennedy as the full package at AM but it can't be so hard to believe that a pair of multi-trophy winners might just have the odd clue about football. It isn't is it?

Sounds sensible but I hope Conte will be taking an interest in this. I know that for public consumption Antonio must say, has said indeed, that he will be focusing on Italy until the Euros are done. I hope however that, in reality, he will be letting Guus know if there are any players he'd like to look at. Not everyone will agree I suppose, but it seems to me that Guus's delay in playing Pato means that the caretaker boss does not really fancy our latest loan signing. If Conte is curious about Pato however then he needs to ask Guus to give the Brazillian starts up top as well as in his more natural position. There remains a hope of Europa League qualification but Guus's line up at Villa Park suggests that it isn't important enough to cause any further delay to the experimentation. The remainder of this season should be all about next season and beyond. I hope that means Antonio will be allowed to describe which experiments he wants carried out.

I don't have an opinion on Foster as a potential Chelsea keeper but I'd like to ask those who are in favour of this move if they like Foster because they rate him more highly than Asmir, or if they think the two keepers are of similar level but this would be a good opportunity to add a home grown starter to the squad.

All the greatest attacking players have high levels of technical ability, but not all footballers with great technical ability are high level players. If I were in charge I'd already be searching hard for a Costa replacement so that I'd be ready to cash in on him if a suitable offer arrives in summer. In my opinion what Diego brings is not worth the hassle which comes with it, or the motivation he gives opposing fans.

I have been, and remain, critical of RLC's level of activity. That criticism relates to the way Ruben operates when we have the ball however, not when we don't. I first posted this opinion early in 2013 when I said I felt that, for all his talent, Ruben needed a kick up the backside and that if he didn't buck his ideas up he'd be lucky to get a career in the lower leagues. The point about the date is that I doubt Jose had formed an opinion about Ruben by then and, even if he had, I certainly had never heard it. I wasn't able to watch the Villa match live and have only caught up with the first hour of the recording so far. I'll see the rest later but, based on those sixty minutes, I'd say most of the opinions I've read rate RLC's performance yesterday rather more highly than I do. There were two moments which I regard as high level; the dribble which led to the penalty and an earlier carry of not more than 10 yards but during which he took a couple of opponents out of the game. These runs, featuring quick, accurate movement of the ball using both feet and a power surge are Ruben's USP. Of the things he has in the locker, this is the one that can make him an outstanding contributor. To be fair to Ruben he was well enough involved during the period of yesterday's game that I've seen. In general however it has been a recurring theme of his career; development, first team and international, that he does not get into the action often enough to give himself enough chances to do what he can do. I hope to see him working harder to find space and good angles so his teammates can set him up with good possession and good opportunities.

Oh my word!

Of what? I think Le Tissier (sp?) had a 100% record and, for all I know, a few others may have too but they are very, very much the exception not the rule. As near as makes no difference, statistically speaking, all players who take penalties regularly, will eventually miss some. Pato would too.

Managers want to win. They survive by winning. Any manager in the world is going to use any player if he considers that player to be good enough and able to contribute to the improvement of his side. I agree with you here to an extent. For at least some, and perhaps most, of the 63 days, Guus has been covering for Pato with the fitness talk. I suggest we should decode it to mean, I don't think all that much of this player. I couldn't disagree with you more. In fact I'd go so far as to say that even you disagree with this. To illustrate, you have an opinion on Pato and had it before you ever saw him play for Chelsea. You have opinions about which new players Chelsea ought to sign, but you've never seen any of them play for Chelsea. You formed those opinions while watching these players perform for other teams. Well, Guus has seen players, including Pato, doing that too. What's more he's seen Pato in training everyday for a couple of months. That's more information than you have so surely you must agree that Guus is at least as well placed as you are to make a judgement on Pato. It may not be a judgement you agree with but if the roles were reversed, you'd make your own choices too. People would be bound to disagree with some of your ideas but that's the job of a football manager, and the responsibility which goes with it. I happen to agree with you that clubs are entitled to sign players. In fact I've admitted that if I had Roman's money, and succeeded in buying Chelsea, I would be taking the final decision on all signings. People who have read my opinions on certain footballers might well be horrified with that idea but I'm just being honest. That is what I would do. The only thing that could persuade me to change my mind, and put someone else in charge, would be if proved to be rubbish at it.

I'm with you on this. People have resisted the idea since I raised it before he joined, but Kennedy's technique makes playing at AM a challenge for him. It's fine for situations where there is space to push the ball and power past his man. Where sides drop and deny that space however, Kennedy's frequently loose first touch, and lack of tight control on the dribble, is going to hold him back. Many sides set up deep from the outset but even the pressing teams, once you establish good possession against them, will drop back and fill in the space. AMs are going to need tight possession skills if they want to sustain success. By the way, I don't think the Double season is a good example of anything. I maintain we were simply the beneficiaries of an amazing coincidence where, for a few months, all of our big players, as well as Malouda, hit the form of their lives at the same time. That great form gave us barely enough acceleration to overcome our weak start and push us over the finish line. Just. That wave of form continued into August but began to peter out in September and by October it was gone. At the end of 10/11 so too was Carlo, having presided over mediocre performance levels before the wave of form, as well as after it. People tell me that Carlo was a great Chelsea manager who was shamefully sacked. I didn't buy it then, and I don't buy it now. He was happy enough when the players were walking on air and making him look good, but he appeared a helpless passenger when 09/10 looked to be going nowhere before Christmas, and when 10/11 crumbled around us. Long before the end came he seemed to be waiting for the axe to fall. Me and him both.

Lord that sounds like a total nightmare. Stan Collymore and Steve Claridge running things? Their meetings would last a while. They'd probably end up having to shorten the season just to fit 'em in!

Some people, not me, but some people are just naturally witty. This example cracked me up. I'm now going to copy it and post it somewhere else. Maybe someone will think it's as clever as I do and, of course, I'll let them think it was all my own work.

Impressive.

No it was for a gesture he made to Everton fans. I didn't see it but he's admitted it so that's that.

Ash was a far better LB at 21 than Baba is now. The question is what can we take from that since Ash was better at that age than most fullbacks were, even those of the highest quality. @Cosmin is right to say that Baba is coming up short at the moment. He may need time, but has he done enough to convince the new manager to give that to him? Not for me he hasn't but new boss, new chance for the kid. Let's wish him well.