OhForAGreavsie

That's the problem with the if game; everybody else has their ifs too.

He was really good at points vs Forrest, particularly early. The way he knitted play together with those cross field runs, and multiple one-twos, was very impressive. Callum got some praise in this game, but I felt Pedro was probably better.

Everybody needs to read the post to which I'm replying and, if they find that they can't agree with it, then read it again. This particularly applies to people who don't follow Chelsea closely, and who are therefore at risk of being influenced by ill informed media assessments. As it happens Reece is the only one of our youngsters on whom I am fully sold. With the rest of them, as far as I'm concerned, the jury is either still out, or it's in and the verdict is not good.

Exactly, so no heads are in any danger at all. The club's heart was in the right place, it was for a good cause, but a bit of pragmatism was required.

This is all true. Mason's best contributions come when we are out of possession. In moments where we need precision or finesse on the ball, Mason almost always almost gets it right. It's harsh but, in world where people get paid multi-millions for getting it done, almost is not the answer.

The one really good performance I've seen from Tino so far this season was his cameo against Grimsby. When he's good, he's breath-taking but ever since April 2018, when I predicted he'd be the next big thing to come out of the academy, I've more often been disappointed by him than I've been impressed. Far, far too much upside to give up on him however. I don't know his contractual situation but, hopefully the club can get that sorted and then only consider loan offers from Napoli, or anyone else.

There is only so much football you can watch but these kids have really rewarded everyone who has been able to watch them in recent years. Tariq as much as any of 'em.

I confess I've been at the Southern Comfort but I am totally enjoying this vid. Those tackles are a lot of fun to watch.

That's beautiful.

Phew.

He broke his leg in '66 I believe. People who saw him then said he was never the same afterward. It may be so but I've seen many, many, many examples of people blaming their initial overrating of a player on a convenient injury rather than face up to their own misjudgement, so it might also be that. There were only two Chelsea players in the 1970 squad so I'm 100% sure Ossie was out there. (Now checked and he played twice in Mexico, both times as a sub.) A glimpse of The King before the leg break.

Ossie played in the 1970 World Cup. From memory it was only one or two substitute appearances but he definitely played. The 1970-71 Cup Winners Cup was too early for Butch Wilkins. He made his debut in the mid 70's.

Unfortunately, I have no sympathy for Huddy either. I know his situation made him desperate but he spent a lot of time criticising Chelsea for not helping him when he was in dire straights; behaving almost as if the club owed him and never showing any gratitude for what help they did give him. Like that hospitality work for example. I loved Huddy as a player and could perhaps have forgiven him all of that, but for the 2002 Cup Final. He was doing punditry and said that he hoped Arsenal would win. It would have been fair enough if he had said that he thought Arsenal would come out on top, we all thought that. Indeed he did say that, but went too far by going on to say he actually wanted Chelsea to loose. How dare he consider himself a part of the Chelsea family after that, and return to complaining through the media, and in a book, that the club should help him more. P.S. Marvin was a real good player who was badly underrated because getting the ball down and playing wasn't what people wanted from defenders in those days.

No 2-1 I guarantee you. After we took the lead I was waving my 'silk' Chelsea scarf in the faces of all those Arsenal urchins until one said, "That's enough now mate." My brilliant mathematical skills enabled me to work out that, not only was he bigger than 12 year old me, but there were a hell of a lot of 'em and nowhere to run. I stopped waving the scarf and shut my gob. Don't remember the detail of their second goal but their equaliser was from a penalty.

In fact we lost 2-1 after taking the lead. There were 63,000 at Highbury with, according to police figures, about 40,000 locked out so you were in pleanty of company, including my dad. We had pretty much given up hope of getting in when we saw the queue for what they called the boys section. I managed to get in there but he missed out of course. I often bore people with the tale of how the queue to get into the ground started in the tube carriage. It continued all along the platform, all the way up the escalator, which had been turned off, and on out into the street. It was mayhem.

It was a wonderful goal. The real ball playing defender in that side was Marvin Hinton. I say 'in that side' but he often found himself on the bench. These days I think he'd be the first, and possibly only, one of that group to make the side. Not a lot of actual football required from defenders in England then.

Was a few years before I started going to football. My first game the 1973 FA Cup quarter final replay, away at Arsenal. That was a few days after The King had scored this volley, which turned out to be BBC goal of the season. This was the first goal in the original game at The Bridge.

Did he deserve it?

I have that album and the one featuring commentary of the Cup Winners Cup Replay in 1971. Got them mail order, as far as I remember they were never available over the counter.

Was great seeing them yesterday and nice hearing from Chopper. Might have liked to hear from one or two of the others and would certainly have liked Lee to ask more interesting questions. Had it in mind to try to get Born is the King going but I had been at Kingsmeadow all morning for Sam Kerr's debut, left there at half time, rushed to the Bridge, was starving so was stuffing my face at the time. Anyway, I'm not the kind of personality that can easily get chants going, especially not in West Upper.

Never more so than when watching Ross yesterday. That's not to say I think Rubz has proved himself. Far from it in my opinion.

Which, if the club is prudent, will cause them immediately to ask why. Many of us we're not fans of Chelsea's attempt to resign Romelu Lukaku. As far as I know Inter arr very happy with Rom but they're looking to dump Barbosa. Again, it would be prudent to wonder why.

From the published pictures I didn't think I was going to like it. From the moment I saw it on the lads however I was completely sold. Looked fantastic. The only slight bugbear is the yellow tab at the back of the collar but I suppose that is about giving the shirt a unique characteristic which can be copyrighted. Apart from that, A1. Massive credit to all the sponsors for allowing this to happen.

Agree with your general thinking but not about the dates. 2009/10 turned out remarkably, but it didn't start that way. For most of the first half of the season we were very ordinary. Few of us thought we'd stay in the title race, never mind finish with a double. The second half of that season became a perfect storm when all of our big players hit their best form at the same time. I've never seen anything to compare with it. It was as if the football in front of us was a collective dream we were sharing. Didier, SFL, AC3, etc were on fire and even Kalou came to the party. Florent was a part of that magical moment in our history. A 'moment' which continued into the first few weeks of the following season, before we all woke from the dream and our form reverted to where it had been pre Christmas in 09/10. So in a nutshell, I agree that FM had a consistent spell of form for us, I just believe that it amounted to the back half of one season, and the early part of the next rather than the whole of a single season.

Thanks DDA. First, I have to reiterate that I have not watched Gabigol since he returned home. Maybe if I did, I'd completely agree with what you say and the conversation would be over. I confess I'm not really motivated to take that trouble though. I'm guessing you probably agree that goal counts don't always tell the whole story. Tammy is doing well in that regard yet my opinion, right or wrong, is that he is not the answer for us. I was already at odds with general impressions of Gabigol's ability when I watched him previously so it's not all that surprising to read that people still see him differently to the way I do. While others saw his obvious strengths, I could only really see what looked to me like terminal flaws. If the links get stronger I'll watch him and see if my opinion needs updating. For now, I can't believe we're interested in this bloke. By the way, the last time I said that was when we were being linked with resigning Nemanja Matic from Benfica. I said I could not believe the club were interested in him at all, and certainly not at the rumoured £25m. Shows how much I knew.