OhForAGreavsie

Sometimes you get the feeling when you see the lineup that it's going to be one of those scrappy disjointed starts. Often it stays bad till half time then gets better after the break. Let's hope.

I feel for Danny and the crappy turn his professional life has taken. When recruiting him, Chelsea must have made a convincing case that there was a role for him as an active member of our squad. There clearly isn't, and never really was. We've let him down and I hope that we'll help him find a move in summer whether permanent or temporary. But, but but.. There is no excise whatsoever for drink driving and putting other people at risk. None. How would you feel if anyone who, "thought they were OK" caused harm to a young kid you know? It's totally irresponsible to endager other people. Danny, mate, irrespective of the bad situation at the moment, you still have a dream job with lots of benefits for your health, and a salary which is equivillent to winning the lottery, year after year. You can afford an Uber even if you're travelling from one end of the country to the other. So what if there's a risk of emabarrasment if it comes out that you might have been drinking when you shouldn't? The article I've read doesn't say if this is a first offence or not. Hopefully it is and it will also be the last. At the very least there's likely to be a big fine. However much it is Danny, I hope you'll publically make a matching donation to a group working on drink drive awareness. I know this post sounds preachy. It is preachy, I can't deny it. I did this foolish thing once, when i was probably a lot more over the limit than you were. Very, very, luckily, I got home without hurting anyone or myself. Everytime I think about how I might have ruined someone's life that night, I feel like an absolute w*****. I was probably about your age when it happened. I had a partner and a young baby who depended on me. I should have known better and so should you.

I sometimes feel that Chelsea fans do not deserve success. It isn't. Last night we saw again what Ruben could be, not what he is. There were numerous examples of Ruben not imposing himself on the game as much as he should. Numerous times when he could have supported the ball but he hung back, times when he could have pushed himself into the box but didn't. I do agree though with people who have said that Maurizio seems to have helped RLC improve in this regard. I've been complaining about this flaw in Ruben's make up for half a dozen years but this manager seems to be helping him find a solution. Good work Rubes, and good work boss. still more to do though. He definitely isn't. He's hearing a lot of honeymoon judgments on his displays at the moment. Ordinarilly I'd be confident that his manager would help him ignore the noise and make an honest assessment of his output, but people, mainly, but not exclusively, fans, are saying that the manager is wrong. The manager is not wrong. The whole of our attack was pretty inefficient around the box last night and that includes Callum. Five minutes from the end West Ham could have equallised. It would have been horrible to surrender 2 points but we might almost have deserved it. Callum is not exempt from that criticism.

Fair enough and you may very well be right. I like Keppa but I don't yet feel that the question I asked last summer has been resolved. Back then I was not convinced that Keppa was worth £71m more of Chelsea's money than Marcin. If there is any truth to this rumour, then the question now seems to be whether or not Keppa is worth £80 plus millions more of Real's money than Marcin or Jamie Cummings? That's a question I'd have a hard time answering yes to. Keeper's are important of course but, as long as they reach a certain level of competence, an OK goalie will do better in a good team, than a great one will do in an OK team. No one here doubts that we have major needs all over the pitch while also having a book balancing requirement it seems. I know @Vesper has laid out a serious cash raising scheme we could adopt but that solution has been available to the club for a long time and they've shown no inclination to try it. In the circumstances, if the opportunity comes to trade Keppa for an equally good, if less experienced, stopper plus a sizable down payment on a much needed outfield player, I would take it.

If the profit is big enough, cash in and promote a kid. We've got some good keepers in development and out on loan. My choice would be Marcin but I'm worried that the relationship with him has already broken down. He was offered a contract extension which he didn't sign for the usual concern about progression pathway reasons. No one can blame him when the club splashed a record fee on a goalkeeper who is only three and a half years older. Since then however, Marcin has been nowhere to be seen in game day squads at any level. Such a shame. He's a brilliant shop stopper and has the makings of a truly outstanding keeper in my opinion. If we've effectively lost Marcin, then go with Jamie. A lot of informed opinion thinks I've got it wrong and that he's a better keeper than Marcin anyway.

Agreed. After the second leg of the 2018 Youth Cup Final, Callum was asked about the relationship among the lads. He made the same point you have and added that they were all hoping to represent the men's team together one day. Whatever temptation might have come along since, one super talented member of that team has already left the club, it was clear that Callum was accurately reporting the feeling among the group. Of course Reece was captain of that team.

YouTube vid of today's goal vs Bristol City: - The strike is neither here nor there, all players can score those or, more often, miss them. As @Vesper pointed out, it's the strength in the turn and run that's the thing to see here.

For now, I'm hoping it's the the same lawyer and that CAS will agree that they were right all along.

I prefer to work on the assumption that the club, knowing the facts, taking advice from lawyers, and having the ability to liaise with all concerned are far better placed to judge the right way to handle this than I am.

You're right, it could but I doubt it and I suspect you do too. If we hoped that would be so it would be like an electorate thinking that voting for the 'correct' party will solve all of their problems. A director of football is not a magic wand. We had one and plenty of people here were hurling insults at him and calling for his head.

Azpi should be weary of Wigan manager Paul Cook's comment about Reece's role in his squad, "Reece was brought in to provide defensive cover. After a couple of training sessions it was obvious he wasn't going to be defensive cover." As I said last summer, I think this lad is the best prospect to come out of Chelsea's academy since John Terry.

Wigan fan site, Latics Speyk, is conducting its Player of The Year poll. So far about 5.7% of voters have not voted for nineteen year old Reece James. That leaves 94.3% who have voted for him. Back in January one of the Latics Speyk members, bored of Reece winning player of the month, every month said the voting was a waste of time and that they might as well award Reece all the monthly trophies, and the POTY then and there. The only real argument against Reece came in this post, "Sam for me...Because hes ours not somebody else's." To which someone else replied, "That is a very good point and the thought had crossed my mind but Reece James is such an exceptional talent I could not vote for him." [By 'him' the poster means 'Sam Whoever', not Reece.] Meanwhile the local paper is putting forward the idea that Reece could be the finest player ever to play for Wigan. Either they are all getting carried away, or Reece is pretty decent. P.S. They're now debating closing the voting and opening another ballot for runner-up.

Signing a player is essentially a contract of employment between club and player. As long as that contract is legal under UK law, fifa can't dictate who Chelsea can or can't employ. What they can do is stipulate rules about who can take part in competitions which come under their umbrella. Perhaps the most central of all their stipulations is that only players registered with a club can represent it. A Transfer ban is a good shorthand but what's really being threatened is a registration ban.

I formed that opinion while Reece was still playing development football, never mind Championship stuff. I believe in the lad.

Callum has had some minutes and, in my opinion, Reece is the better prospect of the two.

Reece can also compete for a place at CB. In any case, if United, Liverpool, Spurs or City want Wan Bissaka, I doubt we'd get him. Ban or no ban.

The club posted this under the heading of 'That winning feeling'. Absolutely. https://www.chelseafc.com/en/videos/v/2019/03/27/that-winning-feeling--BtaW5paDE6c8GxQW5QxBtcND9JsTngux?cardIndex=0

Magical and I'm told Kaz says she absolutely meant it. I had my doubts.

Well, I have nothing against any young player and wish all of them well in pursuit of their dream. If Daishawn proves to be a top drawer striker I'll be delighted for him. In all honesty however, I can't say that I've yet seen that level of quality in him. If people do not have the quality as teenagers they don't acquire it later. There are no miracles, magic is not real. The only way for a Messi calibre player to emerge from an academy at the age of 18, is for a Messi calibre kid to walk into it some years before. Coaches can teach players what to do with their talent, but no one can teach the talent itself. For this reason, while players do develop as you've said, they do not, and can not, develop beyond their talent group. James Milner is a player I love. He makes the most of every ounce of quality he was born with. I shake my head in disbelief when people belittle his contributions but he is what he is, and no more. Most young men who like football become obsessed with it. No one has to tell them to go out and play more. It's more likely people have to tell them to play less. Milner will have practiced every hour he could as a boy. That undoubtedly helped him get where he is, but no one thinks he would have become Messi if he had practiced for an extra hour or two a day. As I say, he is what he is. I like Daishawn. I hope he will make a good living for himself in football and get the chance to chase his dreams. He too is what he is however so I do not believe that he will become an elite striker. I may of course be wrong but that's the way it is for any of us when we express an opinion. I challenge you to consider if you might not actually agree with me. Not about Daishawn in particular, but about the fact that judgements of young players can, and must, be made. If you were responsible for player recruitment at Cobham, you would not just sign every youngster who turned up for a trial on the basis that you can never tell. Instead, you would use your judgement to try to identify the ones worthy of a closer look. You'd get some wrong, but I bet you'd get far more right. We've all watched football and we've all seen thousands of footballers. We have some idea of what it takes.

But not impossible. No he didn't. The first time I saw him play live, in a youth team game at Stamford Bridge, I posted to say that he was not good enough and would not make it at Chelsea. In fact I reached that conclusion within 20 minutes of kick-off. This will obviously sound like I'm boasting but I'm not. My point is that there is no reason why, if one person can see it, that everybody can not see it too. When scouting just don't start off determined to be pleased and avoid getting carried away by a good touch or good control. Those things are musts but they are no more than entry level requirements. Having them doesn't get you a contract at Chelsea, they get you noticed by the scouts. To be worthy of being recruited you need way more than that. Having those things does not make you a good player. Rather it is the case that not having them makes you an ordinary one. At best. An example of not being determined to be pleased by what you see? Callum was quite disappointing the other day. No he wasn't. Rather, Carlo was desperate for a Pirlo type, and the club was desperate for a breakthrough academy graduate. The experiment didn't last long. Josh, as he is proving in the Championship, is a decent pro but not Chelsea level. His little brother is a better player in my opinion. I like Daishawn. He's got some attributes but I don't rate him as a superstar prospect. He does eye catching things, and will grab headlines when he does, but he does not produce the consistent weight of value added contributions which sets the top level players apart. I prefer his development squad strike partner, Charlie Brown. Charlie looks to me like he's going to make a decent player. Will he get a gig with Chelsea? I doubt it.

The winning goal https://streamable.com/ycjxs

A large and loud home crowd, and a PSG side who were far better than the had been in the first leg, made it a tough night for Chelsea women. The girls were on the backfoot for long spells of the game and trailed 2-0 entering added time at the end of the ninety. Paris were good for that lead, but had managed to do no more than erase the two goal advantage we brought into the game from last week's first leg at Kingsmeadow. A goal from Norwegian international Maren Mjelde with less than two minutes of added time remaining sealed the tie. Next up for CFCW is a semi-final with defending European Champions Lyon. The French outfit is the best funded club in women's football who will be looking for their fourth straight European crown. They are a hell of a side and are the toughest opponent possible. They'll be heavy favourites but we're still there.

I hope this is true but it has to be admitted that things like this have been said about other managers over the last fifteen and a bit years.

I suspect that every top club in Europe had Arthur on their radar. Barca's advantages over us are insurmountable in such cases. I'm just glad City didn't get him, as I had feared that they might. We have tried in the South American market, but we've failed for a number of reasons. Robhino and Neymar are examples of players we've worked hard to sign but who were already coveted by teams higher up the food chain and so we lost out. (Not that I was keen on us signing Robinho from Real. I argued against it in many comments on the grounds that if he was worth the investment, a top club wouldn't be selling him in the first place.) I think such experiences have taught us to be speculative in trying to spot gems before the more attractive clubs do. That's fine in theory, but it's tough in practice. All top sides scout at least as widely as we do so we've had to fish in deeper and deeper water. This has made us overly speculative and our judgement seems to have been put aside. We seem to have decided to just roll the dice instead of targeting only those with genuine top level prospects. The first time I saw highlights of Wallace and Kennedy I knew, and posted to say, that they were not good enough. If their flaws are so obvious, how did they end up on our books? We Appear to have been beguiled by the flashy, and not paid enough attention to the whole of a player's game. It's an immature approach, and is one of the factors which has led me to speculate that Arkaidy had been 'cutting his teeth' in the transfer market. If that is so, then he has built up some experience which will be valuable going forward. Our chuck it at the wall, see if it sticks approach has damaged our standing in the transfer market but the policy you've outlined remains the rightly one if applied correctly. Many have bought in to it and @Vesper takes it to the next level by going beyond proposing the idea, and actually naming the potential targets,