Halloa guys, hope your holidays all went well
Including for my fellow kabul cave dwellers
Great win today, but I think Lawreson's prediction was 0-2 for Chelsea
In any event, I still agree with the part about Hanson.
We left it a bit late today, but we got all three points thanks to the growing legend that is Joe Cole. I didnt see anything of the match, but im glad to see us win without Frank, albeit him losing the streak was a bit regretful. In any event, our closest chasers dropped points to (snicker) Brum, so I guess advantage Liverpool, but for the moment, 11 points clear having a laugh, eh?
The maniche signing I am really excited about. It doesnt take a genius to see that we will need cover with the african nations cup, despite this talk about Essien part timing club and country duties, and frankly if we had to put Guddy in as a third midfielder and Diarra was our only cover, I would be a bit worried. Maniche was brilliant for Porto and in EURO, and as the portugeezers here alluded to, its possible that Jose can bring him back to his best. On top of that, im sure he will be elated to be out of Moscow and hopefully he shows that out on the pitch by playing his heart out.
My only question is does anyone have an idea of a fee? Dinamo paid nearly 11 million quid for him, so I doubt he will come all that cheap, but getting him makes up for losing Tiago a bit, and if we sign him and recall Smertin I think we would be set in midfield for the second half (i.e. nothing against Jiri, but he can stay at Birmingham)
Oh, and here's a big :Bow: to Super Joey f*cking Goal! Can you believe this time last year people were talking about how he had no future at this club and Jose was dogging him in the press for not defending and playing all around ball. Now he is indispensible, scoring week in week out, and he has solidified his place in the starting 11. I think he stands a great chance at player of the month to boot
The fact that he, Robben and Crespo have been so exceedingly good in the past few weeks is brilliant. The only two left to get going this season will be SWP and Guddy. Still, bottom line is we are nicking results when we are far from our best and thats all that matters