OhForAGreavsie

First, I have to be clear that I have not read the laws myself and so don't know what they actually say currently. I used to be a referee many years ago but I read other things for fun these days. That said, the laws of football are universal. They are the same on hackney marshes as they are in the Maracana. They cannot be different from country to country. Only where the situation is purely a matter of judgement for the referee can there be different interpretations from league to league. For example, premier League referees have the reputation for allowing more physical challenge van is allowed by The continental counterparts. Whether it's a foul or not is a matter of opinion but whether the ball hit a players hand is not. perhaps the officials don't see it as they should but if they do see it they must follow the guidance of the law.

Very enjoyable, encouraging, half.

Don't know. Don't watch 'em. 🙂

Set your recorders lads and lasses. Kova is going to score!

I hope that the club has learnt all of the lessons from the Eva Carneiro episode. I hope that everyone has full confidence in the current club doctor and that the doctor fully deserves that confidence. I hope too that the doc is firmly in charge of clearing players to return to action and that his authority cannot be challenged by anyone up to, and including, Roman. Such a doctor should have the experience, and the integrity, to overrule over enthusiastic players and coaches alike. If that's the situation, then all is as it should be and we don't need to second guess these decisions. If the doctor is not in charge, then our club is in such a state that it is almost beyond worrying about.

Agreed. You can obviously control the game when you have the ball but, as Jose often said, you can also control it when you don't. Something we once excelled at. I think my all time favourite football statistic was the season where JT and Billy Gallas started 22 matches as our centre-back pairing. In those 22 games we conceded 1 goal. (one!) Chelsea Women's fans celebrate one of our players with the simple chant, Ji So-Yun is unbelievable, but that stat is something truly unbelievable. Opposing managers must have spent the whole week ahead of Chelsea games wondering how on Earth they were going to break us down.

I bloody well missed that game because we had family Christmas diner that day. Gutted.

I would go with Reece at right back because Andreas and, perhaps Azpi, are better alternative CBs than anyone is as an alternative RB if Reece is played in the middle. I don't think any of us had many complaints with Dave's performance at CB in a three. How he'd fare in a four is open for debate however. Maybe we need a Jose solution. Dave at RB with orders to stay home, and Reece at CB. Dave isn't a premium attacking full back anyway, and by staying home he gives protection against the counterattack which we've been struggling with since the start of preseason. Meanwhile Reece at CB looks like a swings and roundabouts situation to me. We gain from his range of passing but lose because he won't often get into high positions where he can deliver crosses. A significant loss because he's the best crosser of the ball in the club. Even I realise that I may be going a bit overboard about an untried 19-year-old. If anyone leveled that accusation at me I'd have to say it's a reasonable point of view. All I can offer in my defence is that I genuinely believe what I'm saying about the lad.

This reminds me of the fate of Dujon Sterling. When Dujon broke into the U18 side as a right back he was an immediate success. Great pace and power allied to solid defending translated into goals, assists and many MoM displays. Sadly, for Dujon, a better RB soon emerged at that level and quickly claimed the first choice label. There was a silver lining for Dujon however, because that RB also turned out to be the best CB in the 18's. This meant Duge sometimes* got games at RB anyway because Reece James was used at CB instead. Our best CB pairing is Rudi and Reece. The problem for Frank is that Reece is also our best RB. SFL will have to find a short term solution, but the long term answer probably lays with the market. *Only sometimes because the tricky, and lighting fast, Tariq Lamptey also saw action at RB for that U18 generation.

At the age of eight I taught myself to use my left foot simply by deciding not to use my right foot in playground football. It took me about a week, and for the rest of my life I could do everything but dribble equally well with both feet. I will never understand why any professional footballer should be as horribly one footed as Emerson is. This causes us to loose momentum in a lot of possessions because he plays backwards with his left foot and just ignores his right. Other than that, Kurt being Kurt, and the sloppiness in our own third continuing from preseason, we're doing OK.

Oh well. Best of Luck to Rom. He's the right question to a quiz answer, but will he be the right answer to Inter's question? Only partially I'd say. With his attributes, ROM will always contribute in his own way, but I continue to believe that any top club which installs him as their primary striker will soon be on the hunt for an upgrade.

Top post. I don't know if it amounts to anything much, but members of the women's squad have spoken very highly of David Luiz. They said he's a great team mate who does more than most to bring the 'one club' ethic to life. If David has lost his place as an automatic starter, and wants to join a club where he can play, then I have no problem with it. I've never felt that signing for Chelsea Football Club should be a jail sentence, although of course we must negotiate hard to ensure Arsenal pay a premium price. Naturally, David can no longer command the kind of fee he's moved for in the past, but Arsenal's negotiators know they have to pay over the odds to recruit from a direct rival. If they try to pretend that they've forgotten this, I'm sure Marina will remind them.

Hands up anyone who expected this rumour? If it's real I'd love to know the true reason(s) behind it for once. Length and terms of Arsenal contract offer too good to turn down? Doesn't feel he can play under a former teammate? Has fallen out with Frank or Marina? Doesn't believe in SFL and/or his inexperienced coaching staff? Doesn't believe in the Chelsea project anymore (thinks we're drifting with an ordinary squad)?

Bigger definitely but also better. The West stand middle isn't bad but the rest of it is a joke and that's supposed to be be our showpiece bit of architecture.

I love the ambition Everton are showing though.

We don't know who is responsible for compliance with transfer regulations. We therefore don't know who should be sacked if things go wrong and we don't know whether or not that person has been sacked. We have enough to be worried about on the pitch without allowing ourselves to get agitated about things we don't know. Morally speaking, I agree. Whatever arrangements we made were put in place to try to get around the regulations. Whether that has been formally proved is yet to be finally determined however so let's hold judgement. I've never believed that we could be so stupid as to mess this up again having come so close to a ban previously. If it turns out we have then you are absolutely right, heads must roll. As for screaming about it, the club's reaction so far is about as loud as they get these days. It makes no sense for the club to waste a seven figure sum on an appeal if they know it will be thrown out. I believe the reason given for not requesting that the band be temporarily suspended is bogus. Appeals are judged to be frivolous on their own merits, not on whether you request the punishments to be suspended. My guess is that the club didn't ask because it is perfectly happy to have a good excuse for not spending any money in the market this year. I'm afraid you've got your head in the sand about this. With their new stadium Tottenham's matchday income is going to dwarf ours, and they've just signed a new kit deal which matches the one we have. On top of that they'll have income from NFL games and linked sponsorships. Their stadium could also host concerts using the synthetic surface to avoid damaging the turf. I've said it before but it bears repeating; it is imperative that we get the new stadium done. I don't think I'm going too far overboard if I say it is a matter of life and death for our club. We are falling down the pecking order and somebody better open their eyes to it.

And yet a lot of Chelsea fans wanted us to sign Kolasinac. When I posted to say that he wasn't good enough someone told me I didn't know what I was talking about. It sounds patronising, and I apologise, but I do think some people are susceptible to YouTube clips of full backs delivering a few good crosses. All footballers deliver some good crosses and some bad ones. Delivering even a few good ones does not make a player fundamentally good at crossing, and it definitely does not make him a good full back.

This story is an obvious fake. Everybody knows that it's against the law for Arsenal to sign defenders. 🙂

In my fantasy team for that reason.

To be fair you can put a soft piece of bread through hot butter. 😀

Forgive me for not answering your question directly, although I have answered it indirectly, many times. I've done do in other posts in other threads, in which I've written about my theory regarding transfer decision-making. Just before I give my answer once again let me restate a few things I have also said before:- That Marina handles the financial aspects of our transfer business it is not disputed. What we are disagreeing about is whether she makes the football decision. That is to say, whether she decides if player A,bB, or C is good enough and should be signed. Just because I can't disprove the claim you are making, is no evidence for the truth of that claim. It is for the person making a claim to prove it. Until I see clear evidence that Marina is making football decisions I will not believe it because the very idea is nonsensical in my opinion. For me to believe that, I would have to believe that Roman is a complete idiot and he clearly isn't. My impression, and of course I can't prove this, is that the final decision makers on transfer business are Roman and Arkaidy Abramovich.

^^Kidding couldn't resist. It seems to me we are asked to believe some very silly things at times. Like Callum would leave the club over a shirt number or that Marina makes the football decisions about which players to sign. For what possible reason would Roman reject the footballing advice of his managers, coaches and technical staff preferring to allow a person with zero experience or knowledge to make those decisions instead? The very idea is utterly, utterly stupid. Now, listening to the advice of all those people and then making the decision yourself, that's something I can understand. I understand it because if I had Roman's money I would absolutely 100-percent have tried to buy Chelsea. If I had succeeded I would absolutely 100-percent have made all of the transfer decisions myself. I would have taken lots of advice, watched lots of games anf given people plenty of opportunity to persuade me one way or the other. In the end however, the buck would have stopped with me. People reading that can immediately see the potential for disaster. Putting those decisions in the hand of an amateur is an obvious risk. Once you've made up your mind to take that risk however, why on Earth give it away to someone with even less knowledge of the game than yourself? By all means give away the boring responsibilities. Pay someone else to manage the budget and the compliance with FFP regulations. Have someone tell you what can be afforded and have them negotiate the deals for sure but give away the fun part? No chance. Someone advised the signing of Danny, but it will take incontravertable evidence to convince me that Marina was that person.

Just checking, what does two and two make?

That's because the persons who I believe have the final say on football decisions can't be fired. The same person gets stupid money for someone with a year left on their contract, so they get a pass. Iv'e never seen any evidence that Marina handles anything other than the financial aspect of player recruitment. Until I do, I just can't buy the idea that she selects the targets. That notion makes zero sense to me.

I remember saying at some point during the season before last that unfortunately for Dujon, Reece James was not only the best centre-back in the academy, he was also the best right back. That undoubtedly cost Dujon some starts but it's a different right back he'll have to be in competition with now. The plan when Reece arrived at Wigan last summer was for him to provide back up to their existing RB. It's not unlikely that Dujon is slated for the same role. Unlike Reece however, Duge has not had the benefit of a preseason with his new club and so has not had the opportunity to stake a claim. As such, it's likely he will start the season as a backup up, and will have to hope he can make a good impression when his chance comes. Best of luck to the lad. He's a good footballer. If he gets a run in the side he'll be hard to dislodge.