OhForAGreavsie

Ike is on loan in Holland.

Frank wasn't asked for injury updates about them and didn't volunteer any.

If every fan was like me, and presumably you too, it wouldn't be a problem but I know that plenty of fans get agitated about this. I've seen Chelsea fans do it and many footballers criticised for doing it.. Tain't worth it Mason. Leave it out. Don't know where this number came from. I didn't mention a number but if I had, it would have been bigger. You're kidding. Footballers know it's controversial. They often do it in an understated way because they know not to be too brash about it. I said there were a number reasons to avoid this celebration and this is another of them. Getting the home fans wound up is not helpful. And for what? Get out of the habit Mason. Cartwheels fine, a gesture which is seen as a direct comment towards opposing fans is something footballers are trained to avoid. I expect Frank has already spoken to Mason about this. He is not a fan anymore. He is a part of the most highly scrutinised profession in our society. Unjustifiably so I'll grant you, but undeniably so all the same. Idiots surround this game. If Mason had sparked an incident he may have faced an FA charge. Nope. They are not. There are norms, expectations, and regulations. If he wants to sod off to the park and play with his mates on a Sunday morning, he'd have more leeway but he doesn't want to do that. Moderating his behaviour is a part of the price he has to pay for having the third best job in the world.

I mean the cupped ears. It's not how Mason means it, but to opposing fans it is provocative. I'd advise him not to invite the hassle. Celebrate of course but there's no sense in agitating the hard of thinking. If fans are giving him stick, and he's motivated to reply, then the goal has already done that loud and clear.

Also one, but only one, of the reasons why Mason should cut out goal celebrations like that one.

We'd all be stunned, and bitterly disappointed, if this is not true.

Only one of your examples chose Chelsea over City. Walker chose them over us. Once City's interest was known, Stones talked about how lucky he was that Everton refused to sell to us. Danilo claimed that he turned down a better contract with us in order to join them. I think those numbers bear out my claim that Chillwell would almost certainly.prefer City, but hang the numbers. Which club would you bet on in that transfer tug-of-war?

If City do want him after all he'll almost certainly choose them over us. If that's how it turns out then I say we stay out of the race and try to take Angelino from them on the cheap instead.

There is a good argument to be made for this. Indeed the entire, league wide, academy structure could be questioned. There is a fundamental disconnect between the aims of a football club and those of a school, and make no mistake a football club's academy is exactly that, a school. The centre of interest for the club it to meet its own requirements. The centre of interest for a school is the pupil. The promise a school must make to each and every one of its pupils is to help them become the very best they can be. The school has no expectation that the pupil will ever become a teacher. To be fair, I think Chelsea fulfil this role brilliantly. There are a lot of people across the country, and across the continent, who are holding down great jobs and forging good lives because of the grounding they received at Cobham. That's the real measure of an educational establishment and Cobham is simply outstanding. So huge is the gap between what a school must do, and what people expect of a football club that, instead of winning widespread acclaim for its tremendous results, Cobham has been judged by almost everyone to be failing. I don't feel that failing judgement has ever been justified, and have often said so. There are plenty here who disagree with me however. Can I look any of them in the eye and say that they are wrong? They'd be entitled to ask if Chelsea is a trophy chasing football club, or a school. They might point out that BP employ engineers, chemists, accountants, lawyers but they don't attempt to educate them all. I'm proud of our academy. I take pride in watching our lads play good football and win. For me, the five straight Youth Cups is right up there with the best achievements of this club that I would want to boast about. I do think however that it would serve the English game better if the education of young footballers, and the funding required to make it work, were taken away from top level clubs. The NFL have this right. They recruit the top footballers, they don't teach them the game. They concentrate on what they're good at and leave the training, or apprenticeships if you prefer, to the experts Our system, our culture, means it is very hard to see training left to lower division clubs. There would be enormous resistance but it could be done. The key would be to put age limits on who can play in Leagues one and two, as well as the national league. With the most youngsters required, and the fewest over age players allowed, in the National League. The balance would shift as clubs move up or down the league, until the Championship which would be without restriction. The bulk of the playing squad for junior clubs would be made up of youngsters. The better ones would graduate into Leagues One & Two and the best will rise to the top. Just like in the real world. The economics of this would be an issue but it could be solved. That's for another long post however. My point is that whoever the manager was, he was not a million miles away from being in the right.

I think this is why he wasn't tempted, for even a moment, to turn his back on Madrid once they had come knocking, but his transfer had to be at least as much about joining Real, as it was about quitting Chelsea. Yes, I agree. As for his contract, I continue to hope that the rumoured figure was a ridiculous exaggeration. A good contract for a player of his age and profile; fair enough. A monster £9m a year; utter madness if true.

He wasn't being serious. Then again maybe you aren't either.

The sky is green, the moon really is cheese and Vesper will return to normal tomorrow or we're going to see Brexit knocked off the front pages!!

Not till it's mathematically certain I won't. Not seen today's game of course but, from what I have seen, City have been playing better than Liverpool despite the fact that they are the ones dropping points.

Bugger

Wow! I better take a look at the lad. You might put some of the early season comments down to honeymoon assessments but this is a couple of months into the season now and you'd expect fans to be getting a bit more demaning about what they want from a player, yet the reviews seem to be getting better not more balanced.

Congratulations to Connor, he's started really well. I haven't watched him play for Charlton yet. In part, I confess, because I've never really believed in his Chelsea chances. If he makes the grade it will be a very pleasant surprise for me.

Disagree with almost all of this killer in as much as I am yet to be convinced by these two. I've also watched Ruben ever since he broke into the 18s. For most of that time, actually all of that time bar a few games last season, he's frustrated the heck out of me. The frustration was caused by his inability to get involved in the game and make a difference. He would often do something really, really nice and then stand around watching the game pass him by. I saw an England age group game where Rubes managed just three touches in twenty minutes. It definitely was not a case of others not passing to him he just wasn't making angles for his teammates to find him. What is more, his three touches were all just simple drop offs. Horrible performance and, I'm afraid, all too typical. Look at Ruben's efforts in the World Cup last year. How often did he really impact a game? Spent most of his time on the periphery. Even his most famous (televised) moment in the 18s was more evidence of his basic problem. In a UEFA Youth League game against a Schalke side including Sane, Ruben broke up an attack in his own box, beat a couple of opponents with some magic touches, surged past another few with more great feet, chose the right pass to serve the ball out wide left to Musonda who delivered it into their box and a beautiful team goal was scored. What's the problem? After Ruben laid the ball off he adopted his usual, I've done my bit, I'm a spectator now' attitude. No busting a gut to get into the box, no following his pass to back up Charlie if required. It was a bad habit and it has taken him a long time to even convince people that he might be shaking it off. No one but Ruben, kept Ruben out of the Chelsea side. At the back end of the 17/18 season, I posted to say that I thought Tino looked like becoming the next big thing in the 18s. Unfortunately he had a pretty lacklustre, injury affected, season last term. I've seen him several times so far this year and his cameo against a defeated, demoralised and knackered Grimsby was by far his best display in those games. Don't get me wrong, I loved what I saw from Tino that night. It reminded me why I said, what I said, in 2018. He's still a baby; more of what we saw against the Mariners and we'll all be very, very happy.

Very good point and, importantly, each was able to cover multiple positions so they weren't relying on a specific player being injured/rested/rotated to get game time. This meant they got plenty of minutes so stayed involved and happy.

How's your heart?

He-he-he, he-he-he

...absolve of....

Yess!!

Good stop Keppa

It's the manager's choice to make. We're entitled to judge him on the outcome of his decisions, but we can't demand he picks the team we want. After all, none of us would be picking the team Frank wanted if we happened to be the person in charge.

He's on the bench isn't he?