Helpless, helpless, helpless*

Football managers will always say that once the players cross the white line there is little they can (the managers) do to influence things. If that is the case then why pay somebody in excess of a million pounds a year just to take training sessions and set out the tactics?

Gianfranco Zola might be a nice person, he might be the best player ever to wear a Chelsea shirt but when it comes to managing he is clearly out of his depth. I can't say I didn't see this coming as I pointed out on the 15th September 2008 when he was appointed: My one big reservation is that he lacks experience of managing at any level.

Watching the defeat at home to Wolves on Tuesday night was like watching the slow death of an ageing relative, with each Wolves attack the life was slowly fading from the patient. Once again the team were set-up with a left footed player on the right and a right footed player on the left. Now you might just get away with it if the two players involved are Lionel Messi and Pedro Rodriquez but not when their surnames are Stanislaus and Diamante. The back four, whichever four happen to be picked, look shell shocked and Rob Green permanently wears the face of somebody who has had the plastic toy nicked from his box of cereal.

We don't have a particularly difficult run in, the problem is when you've lost four games in a row every game starts to look difficult. This weekend it's the visit of the Premierships awkward brigade:Stoke City. Can't wait!

*Apologies to the great Neil Young