OhForAGreavsie

Understood ... I don't believe we've signed players who can be expected to become world superstars, but I do think we've signed good players who will produce for us. Whether we have bargains or not can't be judged yet. Twelve months ago Arsenal fans were jumping about Pepe and and how little they were reported to have paid for him. They completely overlooked the fact that, had he been as good as they wanted to imagine he is, they'd never have been able to sign him. Bigger, better sides would have wanted him. and one of them would have taken him. In our case, if Liverpool had really wanted Timo they'd have paid up and the message he posted earlier today would have been addressed to Liverpool fans. We have to be realistic, and temper our expectations. I'm pleased with our summer window so far, but I'm not judging the value for money of our signings yet.

Fair enough, I happen to think that there is little chance that these players will be complete busts. For me, they each have enough quality to be, at worst, decent contributors. It is possible though that they won't produce the stellar numbers they managed with their previous clubs, or that they won't improve us enough to dent the advantage in quality Liverpool and City have over us. A few things: - 1. Had we signed Pepe last summer we'd have been crowing how well we'd done. So... 2. Lets see what impact these two make on the pitch before we talk too much. Therefore... 3. Let's hope other fans don't have reason to boast about the quality their recruitment next summer, compared to ours now. Anyway... 4. People could play that game on us by naming some other big money signings of ours that did not work out.

I'm really sorry but my careless typing, and lack of proof reading, means that my 'correction' needs more help than the sentence it attempted to comment on. 🙁 I typed, 'This an old story.' I should have typed, 'This is an old story.' I'm going to delete the original post. It's served its purpose. Albeit very badly. 🙁🙁

OK. Thank you. If we can get him to happily play LB we'll all be delighted.

OK. I asked because a social media post, reproduced above, claimed that Alaba does not want to play LB anymore.

I always said that it was his injuries which kept Darren Anderton at the top level. Without them, his inconsistency would have seen him slide downwards. The next time Ruben gets a run in the side may well be decisive for his Chelsea future.

There is no debate; I agree with you. As I said, Ruben has excellent attributes. My argument is that he does do enough with them. We would be crazy to do that again. Any player worth £100m would have to be an automatic starter for us. If he wasn't good enough to be that in this squad, then we would have massively overpaid. Again?? Relatively speaking, we've previously signed players for amounts equivalent to £100m in today's market and used them in rotation. Our squad is not good for us to burn money like that now. If we dump that amount into a player, he has to be on the pitch. Is Havertz worth that kind of money? I haven't seen enough of him in 90-minute action to be certain. If, however, Frank is convinced that he wants to spend such a chunk of his budget on the player then, in the absence of information to form my own judgement, I'd have to defer to my belief in Frank and Jody. If too, Marina can make the deal fit within FFP, then I will have to defer to her also.

This is the frustrating bit, he so very obviously has it in him. I can almost imagine that his mum used to tell him to be fair to the other boys and not hog all the limelight himself. We'll, they're big boys now Rubes. You don't have to be fair to them anymore.

Ruben has excellent attributes, but he has never shown any hint of becoming a world class player. Throughout his Chelsea progression he has consistently failed to impact football matches. No one doubts that he has the qualities to be a big factor in any game but he virtually never delivers. Those fantastic attributes got him in the World Cup squad; injuries got him in the side, and what did he deliver? Nothing. I've championed Ruben since his U18 days, but I've always offered the opinion that he would not make it if he did not find a way to bring his talent to bear on matches more often. It hasn't happened yet.

What position would you be signing him to fill?

Position of strength and we bought Kezman. I know he produced great stats, but how any football person could watch Kezman for more than 15 minutes, and yet conclude that he was a man to spend money on is beyond me.

Finnish striker Adelina Engmam has left Chelsea FCW today for French outfit Montpellier HSC. https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2020/06/16/engman-exits-chelsea-fc-women

After getting over the shock of watching my team being outclassed, I thoroughly enjoyed Bayern's performance at The Bridge this year. It was near perfect football of the type I like most. Breath taking display from an unbelievable football team. Total number of flicks and tricks: zero. Benrahama seems to be all about flicks and tricks. I'm hardly ever impressed by his type of player. Yes tricks look great when they work but, much more often than not, they come to nothing. Indeed, that is the case with most of the clips featured in the video above. The impressive bits are those when he uses his skills to create room for a pass and then executes it well. It worries me that there aren't enough moments of quality play to avoid the need to pad the video with party tricks. I believe in Frank and Jody. If they want this lad, and believe that they can focus him on delivering effective outcomes, then I'm on board. If it were up to me however, Benrahama would have a lot to prove before he earned a move Chelsea.

Oh well. What started with the promise of that first preseason has been heading toward a sad end for a long time now. Maybe, just maybe, he'll get a loan, perform well for six months, earn himself a contract with his loan club, and provide Chelsea with a way out of the dilemma.

There aren't many better ways to persuade a man than by telling him things he already wants to believe. By the way, that's just ridiculous by Eden. Some coach, somewhere, must have built that pass to self, with feint by the fake recipient, into a routine for their squad.

Yes. she's a senior executive at a billion pound company. You'd say that she must be a person able, wiling, authorised and ready to take decisions on her own initiative. Nevertheless board responsibility will be in place for any multi million pound transaction. Before the responsible individual heads off to negotiate deals she will have board agreed strategy and parameters in her briefcase. Metaphorically speaking. Now, if we were to re-read the accusations and substitute 'board/Roman' for 'Marina', then perhaps there's a discussion to be had. Those accusations are not being shared around however. The are aimed squarely at Marina and, if true, they add up to gross incompetence. Yet Marina has not been sacked. Instead, since coming to our attention, she has been promoted at least twice. What is it you know about her job performance that Roman, Eugene and Bruce don't? Would you concede that that the reverse is at least possibly true, and that they may know something you and I don't? Like the real history of the transactions on Marina's wrap sheet perhaps?

Thanks Vesper, I've read many, though not all, of your posts on the topic I've not seen anything which I consider to be conclusive. Even if I'm being dense, and failing to see the obvious, that still deals with only one of my points which failed to survive the editor. Others include: - Did Marina have freedom to act, or, for example, had the full board/Roman set parameters which constrained her? Did the manger successfully lobby Roman to keep the player because he did not like any of the alternatives available to Chelsea? Before I would decide to blame any individual I would want to establish that there is actually some blame there in the first place. I remain unconvinced that there is, but if there is, we still need more information before we can decide where it lies.

I just don't have the same confidence you do in the reporting you use to inform these opinions. The only vaguely convincing confirmation I have seen for the claim that Barca bid for Willian came in a quote attributed to Willian himself. No fee was mentioned in that quote. Before condemning Marina for refusing £65m for Willian, for example. I would need a few things: - Oops, I forgot that bullet points don't work so my list has not been published. No time to redo now, I have a tuition to give.. update later.

Curses. Such a good player. Real shame we seem not to have sold him on the idea of coming here.

I think Vesper has this one right. Clear-eyed squad planning called for.

It's not clubs but insurance companies who require medicals. I'm pretty certain that a medical carried out by a German doctor is equally acceptable to them as one performed by a UK medic. Something doesn't quite chime.

?? You could say let's not get ahead of ourselves, or you could say we might as well enjoy the speculation while we can.

Not necessarily a change in the agreement, just a change in what we think we know about it. Again, not saying I think this is true. Just proposing a way the new information might fit with the old. I've been writing too much about Kai Havertz today.

The extension of my attempt to make the 15th July story plausible would be that Timo has conditionally agreed to join subject either to Chelsea qualifying for the CL, or Leverkausen not doing so. Of course I have no idea what's actually going on. I'm just allowing the new date to be true and trying to create a scenario to make it fit with what we think we know already.

Remember when we signed Sam Kerr? Remember that we signed another player in that transfer window? Her name is Jamie-Lee Napier. Here's an interview she did with The Beeb: - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52951617