[madsteve]

I think with Baker its just as easy to assume that once we signed McGugan, which as Kev said was after the takeover went through, that we informed Chelsea that Baker would not be starting most games, at which point Chelsea decided to recall him and put him somewhere where he would get quality game time!!  The key is whether they recalled him because we were not playing him or because we told them we wouldn't be playing him.

But I also completely agree that we need to stay in the good books of the big teams who are looking to loan a lot of their players or else we will not get chances at loaning them, and that could hurt us in any sort of promotion push.  It would be great to challenge with a squad full of our own players but the reality is we will need to use the loan system to get where we want to be.

Promotion is so often decided by who gets the best loan signings so it absolutely crucial to keep good relationships with the biggest PL clubs, particularly the ones who appear to have long term managers - Wenger, Mourinho & Rogers. We have pissed off Wenger & Mourinho.

I would presume that Chelsea unilaterally recalled him because of the wording of the statements. If we had been involved at least the statements from our end yould have said something to that effect.

So much is about relationships and pissing off Mourinho is a dangerous game because Mourinho is the kind of person to bear a grudge & might use his influence in the future to derail a possible promotion for us or assist us to get relegated.