Thursday 30 January 2014

The Blues are still blue

Heissenberg: Chris Scull respected my anonymity but did share this artist's impression

Much ado right now about Jose Mourinho’s reaction to Wednesday’s 0-0 draw at Stamford Bridge. I have taken his comments about timewasting and negative football as a compliment but, judging by the reaction of others, I may have misunderstood.

Sam Allardyce’s response was worthy of his Twitter parody. When asked about his reaction to Mourinho’s comments he replied: “I really don’t give a shite.” After years of nice-but-not-very-effective managers, I still find Allardyce’s abrupt manner refreshing. A far cry from Gianfranco Zola smiling throughout an interview following yet another defeat.

Allardici will be hoping that a big impact from new signings Marco Borriello and Antonio Nocerino will reaffirm his credentials as a big player on the European stage. My fear is that they will take time to acclimatise to the Premier League. Time is something we don’t have. There are four winnable matches in February before a final run-in featuring Man City, Arsenal, Man Utd, Everton, Spurs, amongst others.

Tony Cottee has argued that the signing of a homegrown player who could hit the ground running, such as Ross McCormack, should have been prioritised. I know this because I had the pleasure of taking part in this week's Knees Up Mother Brown podcast, as did TC. Many thanks to Chris Scull and James Longman for having me. Chris and James are really talented and if you don’t already listen to the show I recommend that you do.

I am sorry that I couldn’t offer more positive predictions during the pod. I hope to be proved wrong. 

Negativity, eh? What would Jose say.

Song of the week: Belle and Sebastian



1 comment:

  1. It's strange that no one has pointed out that we went to Manchester City with the exact same plan in the Cup Game.
    We wanted a result (draw), or to limit the spanking so we had a chance in the return leg.

    While they both have large bankrolls, unlike Chelsea it was Man City that had the tactics and talent to "break the wall" without having to resort to "Black and Decker" equipment.

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