I didn’t open another bottle of wine the other day, but I did start in on a lovely bottle of grappa and while at the time it was lovely, it turned out to not be the best decision I had ever made. But it’s not often you win by five, so you should do special things when you do.
But that was then and it’s now all about Chelsea in the FA Cup tonight and this will be a tough game. It’s going to be tough because Poch is like a wounded animal and you never know what’s going to happen. He’s on the verge of getting sacked and every match is life or death for him at the moment and when things are like that, you just don’t know what you’re going to get.
We could get a Chelsea that have given up or we could get a Chelsea that are fired up. It all comes down to him tonight and if he says the right things to the right player or two, they could come to Villa Park and shine.
I still don’t think that will be enough for him to keep his job, but I do think that is why he is in the job.
Words can keep you in a job past when you should be getting sacked and I think he has those words down or maybe it’s the confidence to use them and the ability to believe them.
First and foremost you have to be an exceptional coach to manage in the Premier League to gain the players respect and if you’re not a great coach, they’ll figure that out quite quickly, like the players at Aston Villa did with Steven Gerrard. But words can mask ability, not just with the players but the media, the owner or owners and the supporters.
Players are usually the first to figure it out, because the spend most of the time with the manager and supporters usually last. I think Chelsea fans are starting to figure it out, but if Poch can get into the ear of one or two players tonight, he could get them fired up.
But it does feel like it’s gone too far and me, I’d not be surprised to see Mourinho take over until the end of the season and win them the League Cup. But that’s just me. And I should say, like I’ve written before, it’s not because of his time at Chelsea, it’s because of what he failed to do at PSG and Spurs and making Southampton worse, but still getting the Spurs job. None of it makes sense to me, but I could listen to him all day.
Right, that’s it from me but I will say it’s a big match for us and winning would bring back a little bit of that swagger we had that seems to be coming back, but we’re not really sure. Tonight is important because nobody was really surprised we beat Sheffield United.
