OhForAGreavsie

Chelsea Women sign Bayern Munich captain https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2020/03/23/first-words--melanie-leupolz- Melanie's first club interview. She will join ahead of the 2020/21 season. (Whenever that might be.) https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2020/03/23/first-words--melanie-leupolz-

New signing for the women. https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2020/03/23/melanie-leupolz-transfer-agreed Melanie started against us in the Champions League a couple of seasons ago. Although we eventually knocked them out, she was part of a Bayern midfield which completely outplayed ours in the first leg at Kingsmeadow.

Luka Jovic to be offered to Tottenham and Chelsea after Real Madrid coronavirus row https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/luka-jovic-offered-tottenham-chelsea-21729204

True, but then there would probably be competition for his signature from teams higher up the food chain than we are, so we wouldn't get him anyway.

I was thinking of the owners but good on those two.

Not unlikely that Roman, and all of these uber sophisticated money people, actually make money out of this situation.

Well played Roman. I hope I'm not wrong in thinking that the other Premier League billionaires are probably doing their bit too.

The answers to all of the questions you ask are publicly available. Check them out.

I'm not sure what point you were making about masks in your original post, but one reading is that you're claiming there is some conspiracy to sell them. This can't be true of course since medical advice is that masks are not an effective defence against the virus. Official advice is don't bother with the mask. You claim that covid-19 deserves no more attention than influenza. This indicates that you have missed, misunderstood or ignored the relative morbidities of the two. Despite its indicated morbidity, and it is only an indication at this point, you are confident that the virus is not a genuine threat. No one can rule out the possibility that you are right, but on what do you base your opinion? You clearly don't have information which is unavailable to everyone else. What you have therefore is a guess. That's a risky basis for health related choices. You don't think those responsible for public health should base their decisions on guesses any more than I do. Particularly when the main driver for that guess seems to be a belief that there is some conspiracy to get us all to buy masks, or another equally silly plot. Virtually all of us will get this virus at some point. The key is to slow down its progress. The information about why this is important is all over the news. You should take it onboard. You may feel that you have understood this information, but I'm afraid none of your posts on this subject suggest that you have. It's one thing to say that you disagree with the explanations, but you don't seem to even know what they are.

I disagree slightly because I think Bayern's interest may not be quite as big an endorsement as it appears at first. That said, you must be right that they saw potential in Callum and he, quite rightly, used that to his advantage. We've all marvelled at the way Bayern's prestige and complete dominance of the Bundesliga mean that, for years now, an important chunk of their recruitment costs then nothing but signing on fees. Coupled with enormous wealth, this allows them the leeway to be more adventurous with youth transfers. Sometimes seriously speculative buys are the result. When I told people that Renato Sanches's election as young player of Euro 2016 was ridiculous, and that Bayern had bought a dud, someone on a different forum told me I was embarrassing myself with my lack of knowledge about football. For good measure, he added the classic, "So you think you know better than Bayern Munich do you?" From the outside, it looks to me like Bayern set aside a budget they can afford to blow, and tell their youth recruiters to be bold with it. If they unearth a diamond, it's party time. If they don't, the loss was planned for, and is a drop in the ocean anyway. They are gambling, but only with what they can afford to loose. Claiming to know better than Bayern would be stupid, but I do think my intuition of how they behave in the transfer market is better than that of the lad who accused me of knowing nothing. Just because they are prepared to spend big on a young player, does not necessarily mean he's the gold standard.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist myself so I don't agree with your assertion of some mal intentioned motive at play here. Frankly I think your take is silly and even potentially dangerous but I know we won't agree about that.

Then, this time, let's hope you are wrong. 🙂

Bad. Bellingham looks a really good player. I'm hoping that reports linking him with us are on the mark. Even though we may not get him, we should certainly be trying. If those reports are true, and if Frank is driving our interest, then this just reinforces my confidence in the judgement of the management team. Bellingham is a talented player who uses his ability to do simple things to a very high standard. The type of player I like.

Let's hope you are right

Following their international break the women are back in action on Sunday when they face a trip to Everton for an FA Cup quarter-final tie. The following Sunday, 22nd March, they host the same opposition in a vital Women's Super League game. Every match from now on is basically a must win for the girls as they seek to add the WSL title, and The FA Cup, to the League Cup they won at Notts Forrest's City Ground a week and a half ago. To celebrate that win, the club are putting the League Cup on show at Kingsmeadow before the home game with Everton, and offering a free glass of bubbly to over 18's who attend. Sounds like a good day to make your first trip to see Chelsea Women is you haven't yet. Meet fans in the bar before the game, pick up a glass of something sparkling, and support the girls in their quest for a historic treble. : - https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2020/03/10/chelsea-women-v-everton-women--conti-cup-on-display--free-drink-?fbclid=IwAR30xX7Rr_0tE_1maTeF0BsRQSkKQjUZEompHvTCNt7b7sdrIlzONXGpJIE Extended highlights of the League Cup Win: -

I understand that your comments are a general statement of your views, rather than a specific reaction to what I've said, but I'd like to respond to some of the things you've talked about. First, and absolutely foremost, I have no issue with people telling me I've got it wrong. Like all of us, I do get frustrated if people choose to be aggressive about their disagreement because that tends spiral into a slanging match and I'm no good at those. Obviously no insults in your post and I enjoyed reading it. On Mason: My view when he played youth football was that there were elements of his play which would not transfer to senior level. I thought he did well enough at Vitesse to earn a preseason with Mauricio so was disappointed it didn't happen. My view when he joined the squad was, and remains, that he has not yet proved himself. On Connor. I never believed I was watching a future first teamer when I saw him play development football so if/when he makes it here Connor will be one whose quality I failed to spot as a junior. For me, for now, he has it all to prove. On Billy and Lewis Bate. The first post I ever made about Billy (before we signed him) was to say that I thought we had more talented youth players already. I have however gone out of my way to reiterate the fact that more talented does not necessarily mean better. As for Lewis, I remain confident of my opinion about that comparison. His movements are crisper, his touch is tighter, his body control is sharper, and his manipulation of the ball when dribbling is more incisive. In addition, like Billy, his passing is forward looking and he likes putting his foot in. Where I disagree with you about Lewis is the idea that, if all this were true, it would put him ahead of Billy already. As I've taken trouble to state in several posts, talent is only one factor. SFL likes to remind people that he felt there were more talented scholars than him in the West Ham youth side. None of us have ever heard of any of them. I'm eager to see how Lewis progresses but he has more developing to do so, for now, he is rightly behind Billy. On Ethan. I've previously said I don't think he has top four quality so, since I hope we will restablish ourselves at that level, I think Ethan faces a tough road.

Top four from. 🙂

And while I'm at it, the goals from our 5th round demolition of Wolves: -

Very brief highlights of the 6th round win over Millwall. It wasn't our most convincing performance of the season but probably a little more solid than the score line might suggest.

That's fair enough, Tammy is entitled to negotiate the best deal he can get. I hope however that the club won't allow itself to overspend on the wages of our youngsters just because they are our youngsters. Pay them what they're worth for sure, but we still have to use the budget wisely.

I believe that Lewis Bate is more talented. That is NOT the same as saying he will be a better player. It takes more than just talent so, even if I'm right about the comparison, it's no guarantee that Lewis will even be as good as Billy. I'm very interested to see how Lewis develops however. Were I in a position to do so, I would take him into account when making squad decisions. A manager might veto it on grounds of size, because they are both small, but it is certainly possible that the two could play together. Everything has to go into the melting pot when squad building.

I agree it won't, and wouldn't, happen in either direction. I'm only offering a glimpse of an option I would consider.

I'd say unnecessarily high rather than too high, since it's only too high if he does not live up to it. Time will tell but, in the meantime, I do take your point. The attitude Chelsea people should adopt is that Billy's performance was encouraging, but nothing more than that. The press has a vested interest in seeing Billy become a story, our interest is in seeing him become a player. Hype helps the press, but it doesn't help Billy or us. He needs to keep his feet on the ground, and we do too.

Depends on the size of the offer. Large enough and...

Depends on the size of the offer. Large enough and I'd accept City's contribution to our rebuilding fund, go with Jorgi, Kova and other midfield options, while waiting for Lewis Bate to grow into Billy's boots.