OhForAGreavsie

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

This does not tell the whole story. Just because you can, is never a reason for delay. If you want to delay for fiscal reasons, and the clause gives you the time to do that, then fine but the delay would be for fiscal reasons, not because there's a clause. The clause may allow you to do what you want to do, but it doesn't cause you to want to do it. If the July date is correct (and perhaps that's a revised date as a result of negotiations) then it seems to me that the most plausible reason for waiting is that Werner would like a bit more information about our Champions League prospects for next season. He'll have a better idea about our chances on 15th July, and about how Leipzig's have gone too.

I never take much account of stats in assessing a player. I'm not suggesting that stats mean nothing, that is absolutely not true. Nor would I expect to convince anyone that ignoring stats leads to better decisions. I'm just honestly reporting how I do it. What I attempt to do instead is make an independent assessment of the player's quality; does he do the basics to an exceptionally high standard, is his decision making good, in any given piece of action do I believe he has handled the situation as well as I would expect any professional to do, or has he produced a superior outcome. Only if players pass these tests do I then start to take an interest in their stats. As to the early comments in this thread, you'll notice there isn't much from me. That's because I believed this player is not obtainable by Chelsea. If we do sign Havertz then I'll feel that I must have overrated him, but I'll be happy all the same.

Because the name Havertz kept occurring in Vesper's recommendations, I had checked him out and I can say for sure that my thoughts now are only slightly different from what I would have said then. What I'd have said then is that I can't believe we'll snatch a player of that quality away from the bigger, more attractive, clubs. What I'm thinking now is that we're all wasting our time engaging in this pointless speculation. He's never coming here.

That's because few of them are as naturally inclined toward helpfulness as I am. In any case, observing not objecting. 🙂 Quid is always used with a numerical qualifier. That qualifier is either a simple number, or it's a phrase indicating a quantity, e.g. 'a few quid.' I don't suppose there's anything inherently wrong with it, but I've never come across a native speaker of UK English using quid as you did above. It's a bit like that scene in Inglorious Bastards where the Englishman gives himself away by indicating a number using his fingers, but doing so in a way that no German ever would.

Just for info Vesper, Native speakers wouldn't use 'quid' in that way. Some slang terms which would be used in that context are; 'dosh', 'dough', 'lucre', or 'moolah'. There are others but those'll keep you going.

It is possible Frank has spoken to Mando to reassure him that he still has a path to the first team after Werner's arrival. If I'm honest however I doubt Mando knows anything more about it than we do. I suspect he's based his, "Good signing", comment on the same media reports we've read.

An interview with leading scorer Beth England.

Continuing the club's great response to the pandemic.

Eventually probably but Emma was offered the job previously and turned it down. She has also made it clear that she is not interested in replacing Phil Neville when he leaves at the end of next season.

This will be a really interesting story as it develops. For one thing, while I understand that you're not claiming Rice is a Mikel Jon Obi clone, I'd be in even less of a hurry to sign him if he were. For another, my suspicion is that Frank is not a fan of the out-and-out DM. We'll discover if that guess is right as Frank gradually puts his own stamp on the squad. I did though mean it when I said that I need to watch more of Rice. You are one of a number of regulars who like him

I have to watch more of Declan Rice because I'm clearly missing something.

^^lol. If you like Mason, don't show that table to Marina.