Elliott

Well maybe Cudicini will have a little twilight to his career. I hope we stick with what we have, to give the reserve keepers a chance to develop.

You know us signing Michael Johnson could be very much like when we signed Frank Lampard.

Arteta can play on the wing, but I don't think he's the type of winger we need. We need real pace... like Sinclair and Stoch.

I doubt Mark Hughes had anything to do with the negotations for Kakás transfer.

He looks like a good player, but I think we've got enough young strikers at the moment and would be better to get a senior striker if we're going to get rid of Drogba.

Because they sense we might be one of the more vulnerable top 4 at the moment so depleting our squad would be a good way to undermine us further and then overtake us.

Carvalho maybe?

I'm inclined to go with the thread title at the moment any how. Looks it to me. I'd rather be playing Di Santo than Drogba to be honest.

Exactly what I think.

Well, no, I doubt the club would have printed his middle name as his shirt name on the programme (although apparently they spelled Jeffrey wrongly). I suspect he just uses both parents surnames and has decided to stick with Van Homoet professionally.

Aha right okay. My suspicion was confirmed then. Thanks!

If we got every game on TV, we'd have fewer people going to the games. That'd be really bad, better that it is the way it is. Well that was an exhilarating win. We battered them but a combination of Sorensen and poor finishing almost scuppered us. When Belletti scored all I could do was breathe a sigh of relief but when Lampard scored the winner I went fucking mental. We shouldn't be having monumentous wins against Stoke, we should be having comfortable wins, but nevermind, its three points and we can take great heart from that performance. And Di Santo and Stoch must have earned places in the game against Ipswich.

I'd rather he just went now. Drogba COULD still offer us so much, but he just isn't doing so and we're better off having players that want to play.

On the matchday programme squad lists for the Stoke game, there is a player numbered 46 called Jeffery Van Homoet. Who is he? I can only think he is Jeffrey Bruma, having a name change perhaps because of a parental divorce or something, but can anyone shed any light on this?

Well I think Stoch and Di Santo helped change the game. Stoch looked capable of putting in a decent cross, even if he does look like a dwarf, and Di Santo set up Belletti for the equaliser. I really hope both start against Ipswich. It'd be a great opportunity for Di Santo to grab a deserved goal and for Stoch to show the first team what he can do, especially now we've only got two wingers to choose from anyway. We should also think about bringing back Sinclair (should never have loaned him out in the first place).

Well we have Belletti as back-up and Mancienne and Hutchinson to come through. So I wouldn't be opposed to it.

We'll have to, as Joe Cole is injured. Sounds to me as if Scolari wants to play Malouda and Kalou, and bring on Kakuta or Stoch for Malouda when he runs out of gas.

I think I would, if I was already earning what he's earning at Milan. When you get to footballers wages, the wages are astronomical and to me that extra money would mean nothing on top of what I was already earning. It's money for money's sake, and if there's some other factor, like not wanting to uproot your family or feeling such a strong link for your current club that you aspire to captain them, then I think they are more important. But then I'm not Kaká. Maybe he's a greedy bastard.

I thought our corners against Southend were mostly good, but then I'm comparing them to the usual of hitting the first man.

I don't think sacking Scolari is the right move, I never said that. Scolari has to turn it around. And maybe he will do after watching it tonight, he managed to get them motivated anyway.

I'm agreeing with Esk here. It's getting rather clear now that our first team needs a good shaking, so lets give our youngins a go, so we can develop them instead of having to buy 10 new players instead.

Who the hell made the original of that. What is it, gay cartoon porn?

Grant did the best job he could have done considering he was seriously lacking in real football management skills by keeping the spirit that Jose had installed in the team and not changing anything. All he did was pick the players, the players knew what they had to do.

Why didn't Scolari notice the cracks before we fell through them?

I suppose you could say he is far too happy with his lot to try harder, but to be honest I can't criticise him for that. Being happy with your lot is exactly the best place to be.