EskWeston

So, is anyone confident of who our new manager is going to be yet? Because i certainly am not It does appear that the man has been decided upon with the departure of Ten Cate, but there is nothing yet to indicate who that man is. Mancini, Hughes and Scolari still the frontrunners. It is going to be an interesting weekend thats for sure...

Deciding to sack Ten Cate after not doing so straight away when sacking Grant does seem to point at a decision being made on the new manager and them deciding they don't want him...

Sounds to me like old Avram wrote it himself, sounds like the sort of thing he would come out with.

Not really a suprise considering a new man will be comming in and bringing his own backroom staff with him. The only way Ten Cate would have stayed would have been if the new manager had been pre-arranged and Ten Cate was planned to stay as number 2 - this would most likely have been the case if it was Rijkaard comming.

Why would Mancini and Sven work toegether, both would feel that they are good enough to manage a top club independantly.....

Sven would be bottom of the pile of potential managers for me! I think they will go for who they feel is the best available, obviously depending on what their criteria is.

Oh please not Sven..... really don't want to see Sven in charge!!! It's interesting that there is nothing comming out of the Hughes camp. Yesterday when someone randomly mentioned Keane, Quinn was all over the press gobbing off! But nothing out of Blackburn or Hughes. Could mean there is nothing at all there or it could mean talks are on and they are being ultra confidential.

Even the spammers would only have about 90% - 95% of their youth team making it through i would have thought. It is right that everyone is pushing for academies to be run better in the future, all clubs should be working harder to produce their own talent, and especially English talent. Yup, you would get decent odds on anyone at the moment, no-one has a f**king clue who the next boss will be. Hopefully the board do though!

Lol, are we playing with Rush keeper or goalie when needed?

4 v 11? I like those odds, would be a piece of cake!!!

Isn't that what all academies do? Give all the players hopefully a carear in football and if good enough their first team. 99% of every clubs academy players will leave for another club, with that elusive 1% making it into the first team. No more moves on the new manager today it seems after the news that Scolari and Ancelotti are now targets for us. Hughes and Mancini still being the favorites, even though nothing has been confirmed on Mancini from Inter yet!

I would be interested for sure, but i doubt we would be able to get a team together from here, let alone before 5th June.....

Lol, not down with the academy are you FB? Only time will how good it is, now is not the right time to judge. I am very suprised an announcement hasn't already been made to be honest, but because it is all being kept well under wraps we have zero idea what is going on! I would hope we will know something by the end of the weekend.

I think pretty much everyone knows the time is right for him to move on. Replacing him is going to be the biggest signing we will make this summer. Shaun has had a good go put has *excuse the pun* come up short. His best performances have been playing in the middle and we have more than enough talent in that department.

Well i am sure we will see our academy players having more chances from now on, but we will have to wait and see! All this waiting about for the new man to be announced is very frustrating.

Lol, very good

The vast Majority of all of our youth players won't make it with us no matter what we do, same for every club. We are on the right course now and all our youth teamers are highly talented players. We have been told that the club and Roman want us to start using the academy, this is seemingly a requirement for the club and i would imagine a point of discussion when interviewing prospective managers. I am sure this is the case and hopefully the new man will take a good look at what we have available.

It takes time unfortunately, Mancienne, Cork, Smith ect.. are all from the old set up who are the ones really of the right age to break though. Sinclair is the first of the new regime to have made an impact, over the next couple of years we will see plenty more pushing for a place.

Absolutely, take the £10m and let us all move on. Nice enough bloke, but never going to cut at the very highest level on a regular basis.

It is possible, and we could only bring 1 new winger in and let 1 go. It all depends on what the new manager sees us needing to progress i suppose.

Yup certainly will. There will be more money comming in from these player sales, which there could be quite a lot, that will top up the transfer budget for the new manager which is already aparently around the £80m mark!

Yes he has done a brilliant job. Head of youth develoment and has made the academy top top class. Signed some quality players - Kakuta, Stoch, Tejera, Van Aanholt, Bruma ect... his work is not something that you will see every day. Once we see these players come through it will be easier to appreciate what he does, but it is already clear looking at the youth team.

Lets have a look at where things stand at the moment then: Jose Mourninho - Has ruled himself out of the running and seemingly on the verge of being appointed as manager of Inter Milan - Never going to happen Frank Rijkaard - Early favorite even before he had left Barcelona and Grant had been sacked. Since then it has gone very very quiet to his name hardly being mentioned, still one of the favorites but has dropped out the picture somewhat - Possible Guus Hiddink - Ruled himself out early on in the race and is seemingly not interested in a move to Chelsea even if we are interested. Again, now more stories since then. - Highly Unlikely Didier Dechamps - Bit of a fanfare about him when he annouced he was on the shortlist. Since then he has dropped out the picture as other names come into the frame. Not completely out of the picture yet though. - Possible Mark Hughes - Aparently the fans favorite for the job and is being tipped to succeed by some in the Chelsea management. One of the names that is staying in the picture at the moment. - Very Possible Marcello Lippi - Today has ruled himself out of the job saying that he wouldn't want the job because he can't speak any English and he must be able to communicate with the team. - Highly unlikely Roberto Mancini - Not fancied by many fans but is the current favorite for the job with his departure from Inter. Although that seems to be the ONLY reason for him being linked, his agent saying no approach has been made by Chelsea, but virtually begging us to do so. - Very Possible Big Phil Scolari - Odds on him dropped massively today after the Portugese FA confirmed we have made an approach which means that we want to be able to talk to him about the position. Before that was just a name mentioned in passing withuout much seriousness, today he is the big news. - Possible Sven Goren Eriksson - One name that will not go away but one that most people wish would. Aparently will take over as manager of Mexico but still being mentioned in most reports of potential managers. - Unlikely Carlo Ancelotti - Another new name in the hat, aparently Roman has had talks with him about the job. No clearer if he is a REAL potential candidate, Milan sayign we can have him for 40 million euros or we can swap him for Drogba. - Possible Well thats cleared that up then

Absolutely, that is one thing the new man must be able to do. We have a splendid youth set up and we need to start using that, and that can only happen by giving these players the chance. Ideally we would like someone who can last a long while for us and create something special.... Right now i wouldn't want to guess who it is as it could be anyone. But we need to start preparing for next season NOW, the in's and outs of the squad have to be gotten under way so we are ready for the start of the new season....

I would be suprised if we can use him as a makeweight in any deal, we are seemingly looking at big names from big clubs and i doubt Boularouz would interest most of them. But i am sure that we will be able to sell him on, i think there was a German club intereted in him, can't remember who now though.