dodojojo

Liverpool over AC Milan? What a jerk

I know that keeping Drogba around as a safety pin against Torres underperforming or being injured sounds like a good idea. In the ideal world, it would be. But come on, who is going to have the cajones to bench him throughout the season? And ask him to consistently come on as a sub for Torres? Week in, week out, Drogba happily comes on as sub...do you see that happening? If Chelsea wants to maximize that 50M investment, then the team and system has to change (somewhat to a lot, but it has to be tweaked somewhere) for Torres thrive. Who is going to do that and bench Drogba in 2011-12? It would be stupid to keep the same system and expect Torres to replicate his Liverpool form. If the same system is kept, then really, Drogba should just keep the starting job. It's his system, he SHOULD do well. Torres can be subbed or played out of position and then sold in 2012. This is why I think it's best that Drogba moves on.

That's what I've read too. And yes, Yossi speaks Spanish, though to what degree of fluency, I don't know. I bet he and Nando speak mostly in Spanish with some English thrown in.

Would love to have Guardiola but my word, why would anyone want to leave this Barca team. Wonderful display today.

If you listen to Balague, he'll allude to talking to Nando directly or at least "his people". If it's true, it would make sense most anything he says ABOUT Nando is pretty reliable. But I doubt Nando himself is getting updates from RA or Gourlay about the hiring situation. He would know as much as the next player I suppose but nothing more. So the question is if it's not Nando, who's his high level source at the club?

You got a point. God help you if Redknapp becomes manager of Chelsea. Just sayin'...

Means nothing. Bet lots of famous and wealthy people live in the area too. If you're in a city with two clubs, some of the footballers may end up being neighbors. In Liverpool, you have Liverpool players living in the same neighborhood as Everton players. You know what they have in common? They have enough money to afford to live in that area.

I'm giving out points to anyone denying Redknapp will be manager of Chelsea.

Isn't that the textbook example of why Hodgson isn't a big club coach? If his idea was right, if the bought the right players and if he used the right tactics, he would have been successful. Uhm..wouldn't that apply to most coaches who have failed? The ones who don't have to use these excuses are the ones who manage big clubs and who if they are available will be hired by other big clubs. Hodgson doesn't belong in this group and I don't think Redknapp does either. Perhaps. If Chelsea want to give Harry his first chance to manage a big club with a huge budget and expectations along with big name players, then it's going to happen. Personally, I wouldn't want to do this for a coach of Redknapp's accomplishment but then again I'm not a billionaire club owner.

If Redknapp is hired, it will truly be a case of the emperor of having no clothes. Abramovich is getting very bad advice or no one is willing to say no to him. And if it's to please a couple of the English players...well look to Carragher and Gerrard backing both Hodgson and Joe Cole to see why this is a bad, bad idea.

Torres will probably slit his wrists....Hodgson last summer. Redknapp this summer.

Perhaps West Ham and Portsmouth are where he belongs? Weren't they saying the same thing about Roy Hodgson last summer? Ah, he's only had a chance to work with small clubs (aside from Inter of course), given the chance he'll show he can win with a big club. Welcome to Liverpool. That didn't happen and he went to West Brom and did fantastic. Proving that some coaches have a certain ceiling. Roy's ceiling is to overachieve with small clubs. Harry's? I wouldn't be surprised if his ceiling is to hover around CL contention with mid-large clubs. Great for Tottenham. Great for Chelsea and a billionaire owner? He's been coaching for 28 years. If he was brilliant, he would have been snapped up at big club a long time ago.

Don't jokes usually result in laughs? I didn't laugh.

Virtual high-five

Any mention of Milan losing in the CL is always

Voted for Benetiz :champions:

Buzz off Completely and totally irrelevant... But seriously, Redknapp will play attacking football at Chelsea but over the full season and against top teams in the CL (not the slow/old shadow of itself Serie A teams), he'll fall short. And if Ancelotti was sacked for 2nd place and QT finals this year, that's failure for him. Second place and QT finals for Redknapp are probably going to be the highlights of his career.

Clinging to this... Henrique, break my heart, break your face...

If Chelsea replaces Ancelotti with Rednapp, the club will deservedly be the laughingstock of football. Seriously. If true, this is a major step back. I know he's English/British but if he was Ferguson, he would have demonstrated that by now. How long has he been in football and what has he won? People slate Benitez but the man has serious credentials compared to Rednapp. Is Frank Lampard appointing managers now? If Rednapp comes in, Lampard to play for Chelsea even when he's wearing cardigans, smoking a pipe and leaning on a cane.

Torres, 22 goals out of 32 games in 2009-10. Really poor form eh? Not his fault that when he couldn't play and I mean really couldn't play, as in groin strain and 2 knee surgeries, his backup was David Ngog. Yeah, Torres' fault for not being a better director of football and owner of Liverpool and bringing in better players. He finished that piss poor season with 9 goals in the final 7 games to at least get Liverpool to the EL semi-finals. Where they promptly did nothing without him. Yes, it was an awful season for Liverpool, but I wouldn't go blaming it on Torres' form. And how is he responsible for the injuries? Unless he fell drunkenly off a bar stool at a casino... By the way, that awful season? 63 points. King Kenny bringing Liverpool back to life? 58 points. If Roy had stayed, Liverpool would have been on course for 53 points. An improvement yes, but not quite the miraculous recovery portrayed in the press. And when a EL place was on the line? Two loses out of two.

Sacking Ancelotti and paying him off with 5M to bring in Harry Rednapp...

"This is a not a farewell but a see you later...at next season's derby!" If Kun Aguero was a troll. It must suck to be an Atletico fan. Your club is the 3rd biggest in Spain but has underperformed for years now mainly because of clownish owners. So your best players have to leave in order to play CL and win. This is 2007 all over again for Atletico but much worse because your best player may go to Real and Spain's potential next superstar GK is leaving at age 20 for Man U. See Chelsea, it could be worse.

I don't know Kun's motivations but that's not true. They were teammates for one season and Kun said Torres was a good captain and person and helped him settle in Madrid. But as far as I know, they're not close. If close friendship was a factor, Aguero would be joining Liverpool to be with his best buds, Maxi Rodriguez.

And yet he isn't. Torres is Atletico through and through. So is David De Gea. Aguero was bought at age 18. I don't doubt he cares for the fans and organizations but he's Argentinian and did not grow up in the Atletico system. If he doesn't end up at RM it's likely because Atletico won't sell to them. And I don't believe for a minute the talk from AM. They said the same thing about Torres and he was sold. Actually, Kun's statement on his site mirrors a lot of the talking points Torres had in his farewell press conference. And Kun's definitely going. There's no way he would have put that statement out if he could be convinced to stay. How do you step back from saying, "This is a not a farewell but a see you later"? (Exactly the same thing Torres said). At this point, AM are either trying to pry the highest bid from RM or hope they get a high enough bid from abroad so they don't have to sell him to RM. It's a dance.

It will blow my mind if Aguero goes to Liverpool. He's leaving AM who aren't in Europe so he can play with Liverpool, who also aren't in Europe? If that was the case, he must really be a Liverpool fan or something. Torres left AM for Liverpool who had just lost a CL final and offered more CL the following season. It was a gamble that ultimately that didn't pay off for him but you understood why he chose Liverpool. What's the reasoning for Aguero? Kun's in the same position Torres was in--he thinks he belongs in the CL. As it is, Sid Lowe tweeted that RM is his favored team, followed by Chelsea, and Spurs, Liverpool and Arsenal have no chance.