OhForAGreavsie

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,

Yet another video of Christian which asks more questions than it answers. I agree with one of the comments above however, the time to assess what CP brings is when he settles.

The call up is premature but Southgate has a policy of integrating youngsters. Seems to me that, so far, the England manager has handled youngsters well so no criticism from me. Just hope Callum will understand how to take this, and that he won't be tempted to think it means more than it really does.

Really hope you are right Tomo but I can't say I think I've seen it yet. If he fulfils the potential you and others have seen, then I think I'll enjoy it more than most because, at the moment, I'm not expecting it.

Finish was good but nothing else impressive. In truth, all of the rest which wasn't ordinary, was actually unimpressive. It's not easy coming off the bench and getting up to game speed I suppose.

At what time did you type this post? The draws did all work out exactly as we might have wanted I thought. We even got the home tag, if we should reach the final.

Not sure how extensive the highlights you saw were. Hopefully they gave a fair impression of the game. I thought that, over the ninety, Ruben's display qualified as great but that Callum's didn't. Ruben had a very good first half but was quieter in the second, whereas Callum's second half was better than his first. Don't think he managed as big an impact as Ruben did this time though. I'd say Callum was solid with some highlights, rather than great

Kenyon originally said that Roman's plan was for the transfer to happen in 'ten years'. I can't see how he could have meant that literally but I've long believed that Arkadiy is involved in transfer decisions. In that first summer of heady spending, Bruce Buck made what could have been taken as a throwaway comment but which I think gave a good clue about the owner. Bruce, in an effort to talk Roman up, stated that the owner had a huge database and an encyclopaedic knowledge of players. He claimed that no matter who you mentioned from around the world, Roman could tell you something about that player. Roman certainly had the money to employ people to put together such a database if he wished, but why would he have bothered? The database was obviously Football Manager and a strong knowledge of its contents must mean that Roman enjoyed the game and spent some time playing it. How many of us could have resisted the temptation to play the game for real if we had the dosh? Not me, that's for sure. Also, why not bond with your lad and play your favourite game together? Complete guesswork I accept, but I do think Arkadiy is involved. One thing which I will never be persuaded to accept, outside of absolute evidence, is the notion that Marina plays any part whatsoever in selecting transfer targets. Giving an opinion on how much can be afforded as a recruitment cost, for sure; making a football decision on player x is better for the squad than player y, never in a million years. As for the stadium, we have been prisoners of our location and of the granite like conservatism of football fans. The best thing for the club was, and still is, a move away from Stamford Bridge but the range of options for that move is too small to allow any suitable site to be found. If we fans were more far-sighted the club may be able to widen the search and find that elusive site. CFC's inability to get this done is something our successors as Blues' fans may well live to regret in coming decades.

That, according to Peter Kenyon, is what Roman said would eventually happen when he bought the club in 2003.

We don't know what the club is, or isn't, offering Callum though do we?

To be fair to the club, every former manager, bar one, has said he suffered no interference with team selection. The sole exception was Bobby Di Matteo who accidently let slip at a presser that he was not able to select Daniel Sturridge in the weeks leading up to his move to Liverpool. I put that exception down to special circumstances and reckon that the club has often sacked managers but has never picked their teams.

I was up until 3:45am this morning so watched the game. Interesting comments relating to Christian. The commentary team mentioned his lack of game time but excused it by reminding us all that he's only twenty. Then, in the studio, Glen Hoddle was bemoaning the fact that, at eighteen, Callum should be getting more minutes, particularly at times when the result is still on the line. Seems consistency is something we only talk about in relation to pasta sauce these days. Also, Hargreaves was on pundit duty. Among a lot else, he said there is not a chance that Christian is as good as Callum.

Incidentally, Hargreaves doesn't rate Christian much.

Missed, or passed?

Never one to pass up the chance to see something bad happen to Tottenham, I'm watching their game in Germany. I confess I tuned in mainly hoping to watch Christian but the game is going well so far. By that I mean of course that Dortmund are doing well. If Spurs concede sometime soon at the Westfalenstadion they'll be in big trouble.

I don't have any respect for fifa, although I disrespect them just a little less since the crook was booted out. I don't believe however that fifa are stupid enough, or brave enough if you prefer, to impose a ban before the appeal has been heard. Given the multiple millions involved, how are fifa going to compensate Chelsea if they have already suffered a banning period, despite the punishment eventually being overturned? Granted, fifa is loaded but the people in charge are also greedy freeloading types who would hate to have to cutback and use mere 5 Star hotels because their organisation had to pay out a shed load of cash to The Blues. Even if the executives are 100% certain that the judgement will stand, I just don't think their lawyers would allow them to take that risk.

Can't blame you. That's a logical outlook, but I bought a ticket a long time ago and the T's & C's make it clear that there are no refunds.

The club coach for the quarter-final trip to Durham, on Sunday 17th March, leaves Stanford Bridge at 4:30am! Guess I'm the only one here who'll be on it. Still room for more the last time I checked.

Still, and always, standing for the special one.

Don't ask me for evidence, I don't have any, but my reading of the runes is that Roma were used by Barca and Malcolm's representatives as a stalking horse for their move.