Re: I come in peace
1) From a Blues perspective - we have lacked cohesion because of so many changes in the squad. Those changes needed to happen, but they happened late. The Leeds game was pretty much the first time we were able to keep possession for any decent amount of time and pose any kind of threat. I'm not sure if we need to play with two up top to offer a decent threat of scoring, but for now it's a huge step in the right direction compared to last Saturday. We got better in the second half - a few more hours and we could have scored ;-) To be honest, if we had played anything like we have recently I would have expected to get punished because clearly your lot have got it together despite losing Wood. The new man has filled his boots immediately.
2) I don't consider him to be a technically gifted tactical manager, but considering where we were at I was delighted that we got him at that point. He is the opposite of Zola - he has experience of gaining promotion and tons of experience at this level and the one above, which is what we needed after trying a rookie.
3) My jury was still out on him and his assistants the last ten days before the transfer window closed. During those ten days he won my trust with the players that were brought in. My jury is still out on his ability to achieve the primary goal - to get us promoted, but the signs are starting to be encouraging.
4) Bedding in, injuries, problems getting players in has left us behind teams who are settled. This team is good enough on paper to challenge.
5) No, in hindsight it wasn't a mistake. That's history now and the owners have redeemed themselves in my eyes.
6) Yes, it didn't work out for him here and wouldn't have, however long he was given. Nice bloke though, no hard feelings.
7) They're the best owners in the world, I have the utmost respect for them and hope that they stay forever to enjoy the success we're set to have. Once they get us up, I hope they finish the stadium and make it a cauldron of noise and manage to get us back to being a permanent premier league club.
8) Unbelievably excited, it was a fantastic day on deadline day that I'll never forget. It's exactly what you expect with Harry in charge.
9) I think he has the potential to become a key player and an icon to the fans, but he hasn't really had the chance to show us what he's got yet. In fairness, I thought Jota caused you more problems. Boga needs to improve on his end product, but he certainly has the ability to cause panic in the opposition every time he has the ball, he's quick, strong, tricky - just what I would want. He made a lovely run at the end of the first half to the byline and along it, but his shot was poor. I was delighted when we managed to get him on loan, I think he's going to be giving Conte a selection dilemma next season.
10) Some have shone and some haven't yet, but it's early days and there's been a general lack of cohesion in the squad. I thought Dean was excellent last night (not everyone agrees on this one) and I like Stockdale a lot. I want to see end product from Gallagher and Roberts needs to show a lot more, he has struggled to settle and has looked uncomfortable and prone to costly errors. But I believe he's a good player who just needs to settle in.
11) Anything can happen from here but I definitely think that if it comes together and we get the cohesion in the squad then we can be challenging, but we need to start winning and keep winning in order for this squad to function properly and build belief in themselves.
12) Too early to call, but I think Boro will be in the mix and I think that Brentford losing some key players will make it hard for them.