MHL 47

A little better than was shown last night, I think. Team building and both individual and collective poor performances can be part of the 'forming' process and are understandable. Lack of drive, enthusiasm and effort are not acceptable, it looked to me as though there were people hiding in the second half yesterday. It's not a time to throw young Nathaniel in right now, it might do him more harm than good. I've watched him twice this season and he's not been performing as well as he did last. The lad Clifford and John Swift have outperformed him thus far. Now if this is due to him wanting a loan and letting his standards slip it doesn't bode well. Might be a blip in form though. The lad we took from West Brom - Isaiah Brown looks a prospect and he's a forward but far too green as yet, unfortunately. Benitez wasn't always wrong though, just as Jose isn't always right.

Serious question and forgetting tactically about why we performed badly. Where was the drive and leadership throughout the second-half. You didn't need to be a tactical genius to see that the 1-0 lead was fragile and you would have expected to see some rallying together, communication and an organiser. A job John Terry has performed admirably for 10 seasons. I saw nobody doing that, in my experience you can play badly/poorly, but as long as you have a leader on the pitch allied with quality footballers you can get away with most poor performances'. Lacked on field leadership and organisation last night, as well as width.

2 x Home and 2 x away ST's come to £3k plus travel, plus food/drink, plus Cup & CL Games etc Probably close to £4k+

It would seem that the answer to the first point is "not bad enough" and in reality he'd probably have to take a pay-cut to come here, as well as the lump sum loss he'd take by asking for the move. Curse of the modern day, so-called, superstar footballers I'm afraid, a lot of them are greedy b******s.

If it's simple, he'd have already done just as you'd said? I'd suggest that it's not as simple or straightforward as many believe. Maybe, however I remain firmly of the view that money will be the primary issue.This may drag onto the next window yet, there may be another chapter or two before there is a definitive end.

Possibly because he doesn't really want to..................................................................however he probably wants to lose £15-£20 million quid that little bit less! (Which he'll do by handing the transfer request in)

We played our reserve games there during 2004-2006, back then STH's got in for free. It's only a 20 minute drive for me and I used to regularly go and watch the ressies. There'd regularly be 1000 or so there and for the Arsenal and Spurs games 3 or 4 thousand at £5 per head. Big money for them, back then we let Aldershot keep all the gate money.Watched Mascerano and Tevez there playing for W/ham and sat two rows in front of Jose at another. Great place for autographs and photo's with players as well. Really pleased we helped them, they were/are in big financial difficulty. I know the former Club President and the year they were in the play-offs there was a big rumour they couldn't afford the additional costs of going up and stopped their two top scores playing in those games.

Club don't have to do it, so any assistance in getting to away games is appreciated. Mmm....... Sunderland away on a weeknight, thanks a lot PL!!

That's a Ruud Gullit formation!! Rumour abounds that in one game Rix had to remind Gullit that he'd named no defenders in the line up.

"Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people.” - Socrates (and not the Brazilian midfield version either, before anyone asks!)

The two least popular clubs being the most successful over the last 10 years - quelle surprise! Man City will be down there soon enough - if they win titles/cups consistently enough. The politics of envy personified, gives me a warm feeling and long may it last.

Calm down folks, I suspect that there are a few more hands to be dealt yet before this game is over and the winner announced.

They may have been the 'Grade 2 eggs' that Jose had to put into his omelette.I suspect that Jose will be back shopping at Waitrose again very shortly.

Bottle of fizz on ice right now, should be just right for the 8:30pm repeat of the interview. Wall-to-wall Jose right now on Sky Sports News

Wonderful, wonderful day! Broad smile since the news was announced, like most of us on here, I'd imagine. Just watched the interview with Jose on Chelsea TV. He is undoubtedly the most charismatic person in football. For those of you getting involved with that 'Sam' character, just remember you've a big smile and happiness, he's probably got a face like a dog licking piss from a stinging nettle.

We get it, you don't like him much. However there's many here that do. Don't feel for us, worry more about the timebomb you've got at Madrid and one that'll continue to explode with regularity because you've never got past the 'galatico' mentality you gave your players - more important than the club they believe. As a club you can hardly preach on about Jose being a short term manager, your mob's worse than us at getting shot of managers, methinks it's a convenient stick for you to try to beat him with. Players with direct access to the President, courting favours when they don't get their way. The players you'll be left will keep on doing this and you'll be left hanging chasing Barca around, wishing you were as successful as they are now. 'More than just a club' is their motto isn't it? Perhaps Madrid's should be 'we're the Galatico's, we're more than the club'. Meanwhile I sincerely hope we'll have a rejuvenated and motivated Jose, with fans who'll support him, players who appreciate him and an owner who'll back him and that Jose gets the opportunity asap to dump Madrid's backsides out of the CL and leave you waiting a few more years for the ever more elusive 10th CL title.

A few photo's taken by me on Wednesday night

I'm too much of a pessimist to predict we will, although it's completely in our hands. I think S***s might drop points at Stoke and L'Arse will win their two games. Both bits of 'big news' today will not help us in our last two games, namely Petrov retiring - this might galvanise an already, in better form Aston Villa and Moyes last Everton game being against us - they may well bust their bollocks, trying to get a result against us now. Might work the other way, but I don't think they've that mentality.

In the UK if a person is self-employed and the company they are working for doesn't make a 22% deduction or go through a proper payment process to ensure as far as is reasonably practicable that tax will be paid by the individual/company then the employing company can be liable for the tax. As with most things in law, what can have been done reasonably is the starting point. Buyer beware!

Tarnished goods and all that. Sometimes a 'freebie' doesn't quite turn out quite as free as you first believe it will or if the deal appears too good to be true, then generally it's too good to be true. I hope we get something back as both Mutu and the clubs have acted poorly in my opinion. The clubs could have said to Mutu pay your debt, then we'll take you on. They saw an opportunity and exploited it.

My understanding is (I'm in no way legally trained) that we went after Mutu personally and won, probably breach of contract, loss of future value, loss of the 'asset' after the original transfer fee. He hasn't/wouldn't pay up and we took him to court again and won again. In between these cases he signed for Juventus and Livorno for nothing. We tried to force sale of properties he owns in the USA, couldn't get at those apparently. Anyway now we are going after Juventus and Livorno as they gained the benefit of his services for nothing whereas normally (without the drugs issue) a fee would have been involved and as we can't get him to pay up, the lawyers representing Chelsea Fc believe they have a case to get the award out of the clubs he went to subsequently. Pity, as I thought he had a lot of promise when he first arrived. However the stories of what he was up to were astonishing, Jose supposedly gave him at least 4 opportunities to own up and get help but he wouldn't take the offers.

I think this might be a cagey old affair, they seem to like to hit teams on the break. Therefore and with TFSW's naturally cautious approach we may see a bit of a stand-off the first half. The first goal scored and which team scores it will be massive.

Being quite widely reported that he would like to shelve his retirement plans and manage in England or Spain.

The interesting manager not being touted around right for any club in particular is Jupp Heynckes.He has built a great squad at Bayern, been to two CL finals, won the Bundesliga by a distance from a good Dortmund side and leaves them stronger by far than they were when he began.

Psst - Jurgen, don't tell anyone cause it's a little bit of a secret. I'm going to Chelsea next season....................remember it's our little secret, rightSome newspapers want us to believe crap like that?