But when it comes to Chelsea, it really irritates me when someone who clearly doesn't have a scooby, starts running his mouth about us. In this case, Ron criticised the rotation policy- fair enough, Claudio's whole "tinkerman" thing is starting to wear a little thin. But Big Ron then went on to name what he thinks should be the core of the Chelsea team. Big mistake....
He starts off well enough with Carlo in goal- no arguments there. But, when naming his defence, he makes his first big mistake. The three defenders he thinks should be ever present are: William Gallas, John Terry and Wayne Bridge.
For starters, Wayne Bridge is extremely fortunate to even be getting a game at the moment. I am certain that is Baba was fully fit, he would be back in the team. You see, Wayne Bridge is a very good defender but he just hasn't shown that at Chelsea. Against City yesterday, most of their attacks came against Wayne Bridge. They ran him ragged!
As for Gallas and JT both being ever present- what a joke! Fact: Chelsea play better with Marcel Desailly in the team. Fact: Marcel Desailly is by far the best defender at Chelsea and will remain so until his retirement. So it should be a case of Desa being the first choice, with JT and Gallas fighting it out to play alongside him.
Now onto the midfield. This is one area where I have no concerns. Ron names Frank Lampard, Claude Makelele and Damien Duff as his "regulars". And I couldn't agree more. To a lesser extent, I think Juan Veron should be included in that list. For me, Seba is a confidence player. And, so far in his Chelsea career, he has played one game and then sat out the next- that cannot help your confidence. Give him a run in the team, on the right wing if needs be, and then take it from there.
And finally, Big Ron names Adrian Mutu as our main striker. This is an interesting one. I disagree with Ron, I don't think we have a main striker yet. If anyone deserves it, it's Jimmy, who is our top scorer this season. But I still think that Hernan Crespo and Eidur Gudjohnsen will have a big say in this.
Eidur is another interesting player, partly because he is now in his fourth season as a Chelsea player. This season is make or break for him. In his first two seasons at the club, he started the season much like he has this campaign- mainly out of the starting lineup. But he came back in those campaigns to end up as Jimmy's first choice striker partner. But it didn't work like that last season, with the immovable force in front of him (Franco Zola of course)!
This year, he has an even bigger challenge ahead of him- displacing over £45 million worth of talent! Not too much to ask then!
Nonetheless, Claudio is striving to achieve a first choice starting lineup. But, somehow, I don't think he'll be asking for Big Ron's advice...