Most of the players are now away on international duty for the WC qualifiers. So Jol won't have much time to get them to gel unfortunately.
Reports that Southampton may be trying to get Alessandro Del Piero who may be a free agent. Could we push the boat out for a season and get him. Has any one heard of any players who are free agents ? Hitzelsberger and Ballack are two I heard. Wonder if Anelka and Drogba are about to become free agents ?
I'd take Hammer Hitz but not any of the rest. We need a midfielder, not strikers, signing players purely because they're on a free transfer is very Football Manager-esque
Trying to look on the bright side after 24 hours of (gloomy) reflection Ive come to the conclusion that we have to write yesterday off as a transitional game in (another) transitional season. We were unlucky to come up against a very good and very "up for it" west ham team when 2 of our players hadn't even met the others before yesterday let alone played together and Rod and Reither are new boys too. The big positive is that Berbatov has clearly still got all his flair and skills and he just needs to sharpen up a bit. Hopefully he can pass on a few tips to Rod and I think they could combine together really well. I'm also looking forward to seeing them (or Petric) once Ruiz is back. In other words I don't think we should feel too depressed, easy though that would be!
I think Penguin is hitting the right tone, although I agree with what others have said about the lack of leadership. This is what I was getting at in pre-season when we were discussing the captaincy and I said I had reservations about Hangeland. We'll have to hope that a leader - him or someone else - can emerge in the coming weeks. If not, any January recruits will need to be based on character as much as position and ability. Ruiz is the big unknown. The two games without Dembele have been poor and lacking in creativity, but it's too soon to say whether Ruiz can shoulder the creative burden that he used to share with Moussa. I'm not slitting my wrists or anything, but my question is whether we've got the players to give him a platform.
Like me I doubt if you'll want to watch but if for no other reason than consistency, here are video highlights of Saturday's game - Ever the optimist, I predict this game will be the turning point of our season just as the one last December was.
