Thiago97

I didn’t see the game last night. Blown his cover a little more after reading about it this morning…..bad timing as that makes it harder to get him out of there, or adds much more competition if it is possible!

I can’t see the need for a new left back. I’d be tempted to sell Chilwell if we got the right offer. Gusto looked very useful when he was thrown into left back in a couple of game too. If we can keep James fit, then I can see Gusto filling in on the left at times too, without wanting to physically drain him. As for GK’s , I’m not fussed about signing one personally. If we are looking for one, I would be trying to get Ortega out of City. He’s looked very good when called upon. You would think Ederson will remain N01, and with Ortega being early 30s, maybe that promise of 1st team football could tempt him. He’s surprised me how good he has looked, as I was not familiar with him before he joined them.

I respect your opinion on this, but I’m really surprised that you think this is a top 3 squad with a better coach. I have no doubts over the quality in the squad, but I just can’t see any situation where they are a top3 squad ( of what we have had available) right now. Too inexperienced, too inconsistent, too many players thrown together to form any type of team mentality. These are the things that grind out results , they turn draws into wins and losses into draws. I think @Sciatika called it well at the start of the season when he said we would start slow and progress through the season. It’s turned out as he predicted. I’m still doubtful Poch will be here next season, but 3 quality additions and it’s all on him then. 10-15 games in needs to return 18- 28 pts , otherwise he is underachieving and we need to consider alternative options.

24-25 average age is still a young squad. Whilst I did say young, you are focusing purely on age. The likes of Palmer, Lavia, Mudryk, Jackson to name a few, they might not be young as in they are still in their teens, but they are young in terms of first team experience. They barely have 100 first team games each to their name. The lack of playing experience offers more scope for progress than their age in isolation.

I can't say I listen every week, just now and then really. It comes across as pretty fair and balanced to me. The guys on there have openly criticised the recruitment process during the last 12-18 months. They have certainly questioned the current and last manager on a number of occasions, without jumping in two footed I would say. It does not come across as a pro TBSD outlet to me.

I agree here. I have also been keen to stress this run of games are quite nice on paper, when you take into account the situation of the clubs involved and time of year. This run does not mean a corner has been turned, but I would say we look more like a team in this little run of games. The Cucurella inverted role does seem to provide a nice balance across the team, but these things often get worked out over a run of 3-6 months. The young players are being exposed to a manager who has a track record of working well with young players. I would much rather they are exposed to this right now, as opposed to constantly having to train themselves to death to understand rigid tactical structures and live in fear of making a mistake or having an off day.........all that can come from the next manager within the next 2 years or so, when they should be at the stage of their careers where they have a greater understanding of the game, and then need the guidance of a manager who will take them and the club to the next level. This club should know far better than most what happens when young players come under serial winners, there is 2 living PL legends who couldn't really live with those demands, at that stage of their career. They went elsewhere to continue their development under less demanding scrutiny, before coming back to England show they were more than good enough, and it was to our rivals benefit for about 7-8 seasons !

That poll must have been a good while back. There was one on Straight outta Cobham podcast recently which had 84% Chelsea want him to stay ( I don’t really believe it’s that high either) So you are right and this knee jerk game by game reaction this season, is something I have found unbearable !

I’m not sure that’s strictly true Mark. You have been consistent with what you have said though, and I think some of the observations you have made do certainly have merit. The main thing why I would question no agenda is because I remember how supportive you were of the team under Potter. You turned on Poch far far quicker than you did Potter ( we all turned on Potter in the end ), yet despite people match games/points of Poch Vs Potter 3-4 months back and them vehemently claiming we were no better (not saying you did this, some did though)…….it’s been clear since August we are and have been far better this season. The patience you had for Potter 4-5 months in (despite virtually no positives) has not been there for Poch after about 1 month of his tenure .

The last bit in brackets really is the key to all this. No problem with people not regarding Poch as a top level manager, but that ain’t the situation we are in right now! Nor will it be next season, unless we are about to invest £400 million on 3-4 proven level signings (unlikely) To be fair to east lower, he is actually someone who has straight up admitted it’s personal with Poch. He’s about the only one really. Some of the criticism thrown his way throughout the season has just been so far wide of the mark, and some of it bordering delusional propaganda to be honest. I don’t remember who it was now, but someone posted within the last 2-3 weeks that it’s clear over 90% of our fan base want Poch gone! Just made up bollox to try and drive some sort of agenda and narrative, they can’t seriously be that far detached from the feeling around the club/fans, so it has to be agenda driven motives.

I don’t think Mourinho , Conte improves our points with the squad either. Ancelotti I would say probably on par with what we have done this season. Tuchel as a manager I would say does improve on Poch, but with the history with the owners, I’m doubtful improvement would happen 2nd time around. Things would get too tetchy too soon. Amorim I also don’t know enough. Anyhow, we can revisit soon enough if changes happen. I stand by my comment Poch convenient scapegoat. No way does a manager come in and make this squad ball park 63-70pts next season , unless 3-4 top quality players added .

I don’t really disagree on the PL managers, just thought it was interesting. Not having Zidane though. Had one job , at a club he knows inside out who are one of the biggest clubs on the world, and with great players. He deserves respect for what he did, but that wouldn’t translate to him being a successful manager elsewhere. Which is probably why no club has moved heaven and earth to appoint him since, and probably why he hasn’t jumped back in too. Zidane would be Scolari MKII, fans would be picking Poch back up from the airport to replace him.

Interesting that the three who are PL managers you said no to all three. You can’t seriously think Zidane would do better than Poch !? Anyway, slightly pointless excercise really. If/when the new manager does come in, then is the time to answer the question really.

Tried to pick a balanced and mixed selection of young and older. Conte , Howe , Mourinho , Tuchel , Kompany, Zidane , Gary O’Neill , Ancelotti , Amorim

Does it really matter who I name? If he is that average, if it is mostly the players ability that has been the overriding factor for us being where we are, in a positive sense, if he is a bad coach and not a winning coach……then surely it doesn’t really matter does it. If we do appoint a new manager, it’s going to be someone who has achieved something positive in his most recent job, or someone with a positive track record for some success. So surely it’s easy to say that any new manager has to be judged on what Poch achieved as a minimum ?

I think we both know it’s not as simple as described here. I suppose all I’m really looking for from anyone who thinks Poch is a bad manager , coward , clown etc, to own it that any new manager HAS to do better than the points Poch has achieved this season. If it’s more the manager than the players, if we take into account another season of progress for young players, take into account that we are unlikely to have such bad injuries agin, and take into account we will be improving the team in some capacity………all those things mean that any new manager has to improve from where we are now. Yet every time I hint at this to the Poch knockers, no-one seems to want to commit to saying that any new manager needs to improve on what Poch has done! Which leads me to think that deep down they are not that convinced a new man does better, but happy to use Poch as the scapegoat for why things are not as good as they should be.

Feel sorry for the new guy already. If this supposed bang average manager could have us 20pts better off by having us more organised, it means any half decent coach should be on for 77pts minimum next season 😳 Some lofty expectations being set for any new manager

Sometimes you just need to save yourself from the agony of the situation and row back. This really is one of those times. The problem with where your argument on Jackson collapses is that absolutely zero people on here have built him up to be something he is not. The vast majority all agree he can be frustrating, he is far from the finished article, he is not at the level to spearhead a title challenge in the next 1-2 seasons (he may never end up that player either) The main reason you have taken some stick on this is because you had a complete guess up based on the clubs who liked Jackson. That was your metric for judging the player. It's easy to disguise things however you want and claim he is not Chelsea level, we haven't won anything, we will be looking for another striker in the summer....all as some sort of justification for Jackson not cutting the mustard here. The reality is that you had a guess up and got it wrong. In many ways , its not actually as bad as praising/criticising a signing based on your judgement of watching them. That's getting it completley wrong. You just took a wild stab in the dark and got it wrong, nothing that bad really. At least just own it though and hold your hands up to it. He may never become a top class striker, but I don't see anyone saying he will. However, to sign a young inexperienced striker for £30m and to have to throw him in nearly every week to lead the line with little to no senior guidance around him, and he returns some positive numbers for his first season at this level.......well its just bizarre to not recognise and praise this. It's an excellent achievement , even more so when you take the whole context of the last 18 months at Chelsea into account. The moral of all this is don't have a guess up unless you actually know the player in question.

I thought Trev dealt with CHO well. The goal then came from when Gusto was playing RB and that was when CHO had more joy, probably down to lack of knowledge of CHO from Gusto. It was a nice goal, but overall I thought CHO didn’t look too different to the player who was at Chelsea. In the first half, there still seemed a reluctance to actually commit and run at players .

Football is much more fun in the summer 😊

Winners do win things, same goes for quality players surrounded by other quality players, with the right mix of youth and experience. I got no problem with people believing this squad is full of quality winners. I just hope they maintain that same position for the new manager ……doubtful this happens ! Winners do win things, this current group of players as they are now, are only capable of winning cups. Which is why I’m not really bothered about having a ‘winner’ manager right now, cos they would be wasted at present, as the players are not currently ready for anything more than a potential cup win right now . This may change in the next 18-24 months though.

Looking forward to this game as I think it will be a good test of where we are at currently. I quite like this Forest squad of players (except that rat Yates who just winds me up) and can see them causing us problems with quick direct players, so I am expecting a sterner test here than both West Ham and Spurs games recently. Can we stand up defensively in what will be a hostile game away from home ? Personally, I’m hoping Luton get the result at West Ham to keep the jeopardy high in this game. I’m keen to understand if we have been slightly flattered recently, against teams who are in a bad run of form , or have we turned a corner where we are functioning well as a team. I expect we will have a better idea after this game at what is quite a hostile and difficult ground to win at .

If he goes, let’s hope you have been right all along. We certainly don’t want , nor can afford, sideways/ backwards steps next season!

Those who think we should have been doing better with this squad are setting incredibly high expectations for any new manager. It’s hard to think we will have a repeat of the same injuries next season, added to some new players to be added to the squad. So if Poch should have been doing better, well any new guy is going to have very few excuses from next season. The club and some fans should really be care what it wishes for !

Yes , I agree. I’m saying stability in terms of not ripping things up and starting again. If Poch gets a quality spine of new experienced signings , then he needs to be getting top 4 .

I think this is a perfectly reasonable assessment. Whilst I have been supportive of his reign in this first season, I also harbour severe doubts he will be up to the task of challenging for a title here. I said a while back that I feel we will look back on his reign with a degree of appreciation, damned with faint praise if you like. Though I don’t think I this will become apparent until 18-24 months after he leaves the club. He feels like our Ranieri MKII in the current times. A safe pair of hands who the players enjoy playing under for 2 years, before the next coach arrives and looks to take the club back to the top here in England. Who knows what shape Pep and City will be in by then. The same goes for Arsenal , Liverpool and Utd. Cycles are starting and ending amongst our competitors right now, with progress from the manager and players next season, we could be timing our run well for 2025/2026 onwards. Another season of stability can help achieve this.