adrian lord

Giggs has about the same level of charisma as Puel. None. FFS they even look the same-eyes too close together, swarthy complexions...

Boufal, Tadic, Gabba, Redmond...an abundance of pace and skill. We should be tearing opposition teams apart.

And look at Huth lumbering around like a prop forward at Twickenham....

££££ makers: VVD Bertrand Romeu Forster And dispose of 2-3 others from: Rodrigues Long Martina Austin Davis

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/competitions/premier-league/11469196/Premier-League-relegation-battle-how-many-points-do-you-need-to-stay-up.html Summary: 43 guaranteed safety 37 better than 50:50 chance of survival 33 guaranteed relegation

Can't disagree. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think the thing that will save us by the skin of our teeth is that the safety line may be well below 40 points this season. 37/38.

Davis: great servant, reliable, high-end journeyman. Forster: more tricky to analyse. When he was laid off with injury we leaked goals and points. We clamoured for his return and when he did we had one of the top 4 defences in Europe. We then cleverly sold first the defensive midfield screen and more recently the defence itself. Fraser is now woefully unprotected and is unhappy. Result - form and record in tatters.

Good points. Puel was a tick-box appointment. I've interviewed and appointed loads of people over the years, and once in a blue moon you offer the job to someone who's got a good CV and meets the person-spec, yet the split second afteryou offer and they accept , you get hit by that dreadful nagging doubt and what-have I-done feeling in the pit of your stomach. I'm sure if he's honest Les Reed had the same thing with Puel. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thank you.

Yes. Ron saw through Reed's Champions' League guff and all the cringey Mission Statement stuff.

Tend to agree. On a sentimental note, it would be nice to close the circle with him. I think most fans thought his sacking very harsh at the time. Granted, Poch is destined for great things, but the timing of Nigel's sacking was cruel.

Interested to know what the nature of his 'knock' is supposed to be...a case of the Diane Abbott Syndrome?

Can't agree with that. I know nothing about sculpting, and never done sculpting, but took one look at Ted Bates v1 and knew it was a ludicrous effort and laughed out loud for about a week. Seems we should have kept quiet and said it was great, like they do in North Korea?

That is the thing. It is infuriating. Good post.

He was a superb player, just looked ungainly. Underrated.

The evidence in the case against Puel is accumulating and becoming incontrovertible: 1. Craven capitulation in the Europa League 2. Shocking and inexorably deteriorating league form 3. impotent attacking threat 4. turgid, negative football 5. gratuitous rotations and puzzling selections, guaranteed to alienate and demotivate players 6. almost every player's game, intensity and overall form has worsened under his tenure 7. threw the FA Cup 8. players strongly rumoured to want to leave and some already have Mitigation: 1) League Cup Final. Beat a series of distracted reserve sides. It is a cinderella cup, the truth be told. 2) Reed screwed up the summer and Jan. But Puel could suck the life out of Ronaldo, Bale, Neymar and Messi. Verdict: Failure Sentence: Sack

excellent summary

I think we will scrape survival this season but the real worry will be next season, especially if we stick with Puel and an even more depleted squad. Les thought he was so cute and cool each summer with the rabbit out of a hat trick. Well guess what? This year they all got myxomatosis.

Les always says the black box has replacements readily lined up... [emoji6]

He needs to go and take Black with him.

It gives me little comfort or pleasure to note I saw the writing on the wall back in August...

Out of his depth.

It's clear that a few posters on here have gone to the Comical Ali School of propaganda!

Yeah. The thing is, you just know that if you parachuted Puel in to manage the Chelsea squad, that would all fall apart.