Saint Charlie

Clyne will have done 2 years out of 4 this summer.

Perez said yesterday we wouldnt be making any moves to replace Lovren and Gaston. Club could do with a lift at the moment. Agree no point spending a fortune but we wouldnt have to. Can't just lose the momentum we had built up.

Surely the players would be bothered by the CEO's ability, as in many cases they are directly linked to the fortunes of the club and its progress?

Boruc injured? Not in the training pics. Muscle strain at Sunderland?

Could we really blame any of our better players for taking a look at this last week or so and thinking its time for a change? Thinking of the likes of Morgan, Lallana, Shaw etc. Been with the club a while and have had a great time, but they must surely be thinking about their future, and career prospects, Intl ambitions etc? Season is almost fizzled out in January...uncertainty around the future of the club and what our actual goals are now? Not exactly what they all had in mind in the months since they signed new contracts in the spring/summer of 2013. Ditto almost for the Management team. Seems like a new era, and maybe its the end of one for some of the players - just feels different now, the optimism has gone. Wonder if they feel the same?

Oh, and Alex Crook confirms it was after an altercation with an "unnamed team-mate" so most likely no other player was involved.

Zero chance of a Lambert sale. Comes at the wrong time with the other injuries so must be serious for us to ban him, and basically since that Man City goal he won't have played a game for two months. Really poor.

This. If the likes of Guly, JWP, Fox etc can't beat Yeovil then what are they doing at the club. Still, expect we will have to bring on the odd big hitter to see us home.

Its a telling stat. Jos in particular has shown over a year and a half in the PL he isnt good enough so suprised we havent got another CB in. Wouldnt cost much to improve on him.

And even he is better than the hapless Dutchman!

Not good re Lovren. Will cost us a few points for certain.

West Ham are a shambles of a club. Owners up there with the Tan's and Allam's for me.

Being honest, I don't like the idea of downgrading expectations, although can see your view they werent ever realistic. The high expectations of the last few years has been one of the best aspects of it. What is bizarre is that people won't admit the expectations/ambitions will have been downsized.

Good post.

Loved watching his goals, seems like a great guy too. So many reasons that is a class goal.

Reactions to her holding statement include "****ing amazing, excellent, extremely impressed" etc. Actions speak louder than words. Its a week since he left and she hasnt even addressed the players yet.

Never usual agree with Barry but spot on to be honest. Nice statement but no real substance and otherwise nothing has happened to suggest we will be better off with Cortese. We clearly won't be. He was very successful and the momentum we have built up could very easily tail off by the end of the season. Wonder what MP thinks? Would doubt he will stay beyond the summer. Those who have gone OTT on it all saying how positive things are might be right in the future but putting statements out is easy. Lets see what the actions are. And whilst we know the family are quality business people, is she? Hard to find any real info.

But he is playing in the PL. Not sure what you mean? He has been superb this season. Need to extend his contract. Excellent modern forward. Same league goals as Giroud, Negredo, Lukaku, Hazard and Rooney and also does loads of tracking back.

Really? He is easily worth £15m in the current market. Since he joined us having never played PL football he has pushed himself towards the Eng squad and must be one of the highest scoring English players this season. Still got improvement in his game plus young, top injury record and great attitude. If people talk about a joker like Rhodes for 8m then Jay is easily worth double.

What do you mean "rubbish"? If Cortese had really been working notice since 3 months ago then surely a more clear plan would be in place. So far we have been linked to making the Board appointments of an Ice Hockey coach and an Austrian agent with 20 lower league players to his name. Of course the statement was great, and welcomed, and the parts about not selling players - completely welcome those things. But you arent telling me that those two above pieces sit right with you that they are clearly good moves? It doesn't seem to me like a huge recipe for success based on what is known so far. And I know you disliked Cortese, but nearly all football related decisions he made in 4 years were correct. Whoever comes in has a lot to live up to IF we want to keep being successful - which, as a supporter is what I would rather happened. I get the feeling that over the last 7 days people have began to dumb down what Cortese gave us, simply because he isnt here anymore.

Seeing as KL has been more involved recently etc, and Cortese leaving wasn't a huge suprise, I wonder why he didnt replace almost straight away? Obviously that Cortese notice stuff was wrong.

Would be loads of experienced CEOs that would fancy a go at a top half PL club, even on a temporary basis. Between now and the end of the season there are stacks of decisions to be made. New contracts for players like Jay Rod and Clyne who are nearly halfway through, Cork whose contract ends end of next season. Summer transfer plans (which were clearly put in place in spring of last year for the summer, hence early capture of Lovren). Would hope in this case interim means a couple of weeks, rather than anything longer.

"Nothing has changed operationally or strategically with Markus not being here. Nicola will drive the club forward and has every plan to do so."

This provides time which is good, and someone who knows how we operate. Also means there are no excuses for the next set of permanent appointments, which need to be bang on and replace some of the drive Cortese had. Right now, in terms of daily running of the club we are in a worse position than 10 days ago as Rogers (who may be great) has zero experience of running a substantial company.

So, what is the club aiming for?