OhForAGreavsie

Agreed.

I think people know my thoughts on this so it will surprise no one that I would go for such a deal. I'm less certain that Marcin would however. The fact that he was given zero minutes, at any level, in the season before he left suggests a big falling out with the club. Maybe he threw his toys out of the pram after the signing of Kepa, maybe the club quarantined him because he refused an offer of an extension and a loan*. Either way, seventy-one million unnecessarily spent pounds later, there would be some repair work to be done before a return can happen. *I don't know that such a deal was offered but it's a more than reasonable guess that it was.

This implies that Marina makes football decisions. I have never believed that, and never will unless I see undeniable evidence. The charge that she picks the players makes absolutely zero sense to me.

I really wish that the fanbase as a whole would wake up to the danger of our stadium situation and the threat hanging over us if we fail to remedy it. The fans have got to stop being so selfish in insisting that the club must remain at Stamford Bridge. Misplaced nostalgia for a location is, in my unsentimental opinion, just stupid. You may like the house you live in, but you still move when you need to, and even sometimes when you just want to. Home is where your family is, not where the bricks stand. Wherever Chelsea fans turnup, that's where Chelsea are. Blues fans without Stamford Bridge still equals Chelsea, but Stamford Bridge without Chelsea fans can never be anything more than a pointless shell. What matters is getting the right stadium, with the right facilities to serve the future of the club. Rebuilding in Fulham Broadway will be the most expensive option, the most disruptive option, and the one which will result in the worst, most compromised stadium. Ok, it proved tough to find a good location within the radius the fans might have accepted, so spread the net wider. Stamford Bridge can only be the option of last resort, not the cling-on-to-at-all-costs obsession. As I say, it is plain selfish of people like me, a percentage of whom will be dead inside the next ten years, to demand that the club throws away all of the better alternatives for securing its future just to satisfy their misplaced feelings.

How many around here are old enough to remember one time Wimbledon owner Sam Hammam? He injected a little cash into the team, and a lot of PR into selling the idea that The Dons would move to Dublin, capture the huge fanbase there, perform week after week in a packed 70,000 seater, and become a superpower. In reality Hammam knew that resistance to the scheme in Ireland, at The FA and among fans made it a non-starter. He also knew however that the wealthy Nordic crew he was wooing as potential buyers for his club were not as clued up as he was. He sold them the dream and collected his unrealistically inflated cheque. Naturally, I have no idea if its true but the rumour is out there that Roman was pulling the same stunt. That the planning permission was only ever intended to be used to aid his negotiating position for a profitable sale. Football fans, myself included, always want things to be better than they are but, on the whole, Roman has done well for the club. He has almost always acted honourably and sought to do the right thing, so I choose to believe Bruce Buck when he says Roman does not intend to sell. Either way that additional revenue you talk about is now a long, long way off.

When I first watched Dembele at Rennes he annoyed me because I would tune in to watch Boga and he was keeping our loan man out of the side. I quickly became a fan however and was really disappointed when his agent stated than Dembele had already turned Chelsea down the previous summer. I understand the fitness and attitude concerns but, if he is signed, it would be reasonable to assume that the club had looked into those and decided they were not obstacles. I like Pulli, but if we get Dembele too I think it makes us stronger.

My own view is not that he's finished, but that he never actually was what he is widely considered to have been. I watched a lot of German football in the season KDB was at Bremen, and of course that meant a lot of BVB, Gotze always looked less than special to me.

Never rated him I must say, but whatever he may once have been, I agree with you that he's not one to consider these days.

Thank you. Maybe we should now delete the original comment, along with your replies and mine. Feels like we need to disinfect the place.

FB, Has the person who posted the ignorant, inhuman and offensive comment to which you replied above been banned? He should be.

There's only one appropriate response to this; wait for full and accurate information before forming any opinion(s).

I can't say that I agree because I don't know what all the others have, or have not, done. I am proud though of how our club has behaved, and without any unnecessary virtue signalling either. As to the players I'm a bit less sure. The full details of their discussions with the club are not public so maybe there is a positive slant that I'm unaware of. On the face of it however, their actions are capable of being interpreted as meaning that they have no sympathy for the club and are not willing to help it. They don't have to help if they don't want to, but It'd be a positive sign if they demonstrated some feeling for the club. Contrast that with Charlie Webster's interview where he was beaming about how much he and his teammates care about the Chelsea academy. Again, I know first teamers don't have to love the club they work for, but it would still be nice to know that they do. Taken with the stories of the cold welcome given to Christian, the situation at Cobham is not coming across well.

Were you at the preseason game against Wimbledon where Spackers, Speedo and Kerry made their debuts? At least I think it was their debuts. There might have been an earlier game outside London but I can't be sure. Then, as now, I only went to games in the capital. I think we might have beaten the Dons 3-0 that day, but I do remember for sure that there was a feeling of a new start and that Uncle Ken was claiming the credit. Of course.

Surely there is no debate. Jose is number one. There isn't even another contender. Let's hope that, ten years from now, the conversation about Jose will have been relegated to wondering if he is our second best manager ever, after Frank.

Welcome Mike. Looking forward to reading your take on all things Chelsea.

Yes, I tend to think that it was KDB's spell at Wolfsburg that opened the eyes of the world to the full range of his talent. It was undoubtedly his year at Bremen however which encouraged them to pounce for him when he decided to force his way out of Chelsea.

A chicken and egg situation. It could be argued that he struggled for consistency because he was used in various positions, or that he was used in various positions because he wasn't performing up to his potential often enough in any one of them. Either way, I regret the loss of KDB far more than that of Moh Salah. We are where we are.

I met my younger daughter's then boyfriend for the first time in summer 2012. A while later we met again and talked football when he asked what I thought of Eden. I told him that we had sent the best player we signed that year out on loan to Germany. I had watched a lot of KDB when he finished the season with Genk after joining us in the January window and fell in love with his game. Full disclosure, I watched virtually every game KDB played at Bremen but was sometimes less than impressed with his displays there, often posting to say that I thought his performances were attracting more praise than they deserved. That's not to say I thought he was always bad; the quality he possesses will eventually shine through, but he did have a few bad games for Werder.

Yep I'm sold. Who wouldn't be? 🙂

I received an email saying I had received a personal message from a member called @erty11Perhaps foolishly I clicked the link in the email to see the message. It brought me to the site but no message existed here. I searched for the name and found that the member had joined just moments before the email was sent. There has been no other activity from that user. Of course the name, using four consecutive letters from the top row of the keyboard, seems unusual. I'm guessing that if the message is genuine erty11 will try to get in touch again. If so, I do know the answer to the enquiry you made but please get in touch by posting a reply to this message.

All around the world Liverpool fans breathe out and relax just a little bit.

I'm thinking we should reject the Mertens deal for tactical reasons if nothing else. Once before we've had the reputation of being a retirement club. If players believe they can still get a good contract out of Chelsea aged 33 they'll prioritise going elsewhere first, then come here at a time when they know the super competitive clubs won't touch them. It's just common sense; extend your playing years and maximise your career earnings. The retirement club reputation is hard to shake off so, no thanks to 33 year olds. (Unless it's for a very specific, short term need.) It's hard, and getting harder, but we must compete for quality footballers at, or in advance of, their peak years.

I really want Bellingham so I won't give up hope till we see him holding up a United shirt.

The lad looks very ordinary to me. Can't believe, or perhaps just don't want to believe, we are considering this.