OhForAGreavsie

Exactly, this can only be news for non-Chelsea fans. That said I think the report is probably inaccurate to say Roman won't sanction big money signings. It's more likely true to say that he won't sanction unfunded spending and that's pretty much been the case for a while. Years in fact.

I would have hated that goal celebration so maybe it's not all bad.

Looking at the league table a few weeks ago almost made me wish there was a God and that he owed me a favour. Everybody other than City, Liverpool and Spurs being out of contention was enough to make any self-respecting Chelsea fan get out the prayer mat and beg for help. O Lord, I'll throw away my Dawkins, Hitchens and Pinker books. I'll delete and wipe my Carl Sagan audiobooks with military grade security software; please, please let City win the league. Bloody Benitez. What did I ever do to him? Well alright, I wasn't very nice to him, but you can overlook that can't you? Come on you light blues! Amen.

Funny you should say this. There are always people with different opinions and, when I argued against buying Sheva, someone countered with his Milan statistics. I answered that by saying that I preferred the evidence of my own eyes over the stats. To which the other person replied with even more stats. More interstingly though, what you say has a bearing on probably my strangest football opinion. Without the merest speck of evidence to support it, I believe that Arkaidy Abramovich plays a part in selecting transfer targets. In fact it was what I saw as the immaturity of one our signings which first gave me the idea that Arkaidy might be involved. Signing Marko Marin was so ridiculous that even Bremen fans laughed when we bought him. I can see how Marko's talent could have looked impressive to a young mind which was able to recognise ability, but was not yet mature enough to take proper account of the negatives.

Sadly, I have to agree with this. When Mason is scoring, and he hasn't been since the early part of the season, the goals round out his game and give it a gloss. Underneath that gloss however he isn't yet giving enough to be considered ready. Again, I fully agree. Spot on once more. Haven't watched the player so can't offer an opinion but, assuming you are right about him, your analysis about how he can help us paints a very encouraging picture. In that regard, I wonder what you think of Ola Aina who I notice you excluded from your most recent squad list suggestion/speculation? Ola isn't ambipedal, but contributes equally well on both flanks. Might this, plus his superior physicality and greater technical prowess compared to Marcos, make him a candidate to replace Chilwell or Emerson in your list?

After watching him at the 2006 World Cup I was certain Andriy had nothing to offer us and should not be signed. I posted, elsewhere, to say so but included another opinion. I felt then, and still feel now, that because signing a player he loved was a part of Roman's motivation for being here in the first place, that transfer should be acceptable to all Chelsea fans, even if it didn't work out. To be fair to Roman he seems more wiling to back others judgement than I would have been. I make no bones about the fact that, in his position, I would have made all of the transfer decisions myself, every one of them. That isn't to say that a manager might not have persuaded me to back his judgement if I felt he was right, but I don't think anyone would have sold me on Andriy. If that seems like I'm being a bit boastful with the benefit of hindsight, then let me balance the record by saying that I also doubt anyone would have convinced me to sign Didier Drogba. Even I'm not perfect.

Been reminded that bullet points don't work here. Everything I put into those points has disappeared and can't be bothered to type it out again so deleted for now.

Most times I watch Griezmann, he disappoints.

Who are you and why have you hacked Vesper's account?

Sound approach as long as we're prepared to walk away when they say "нет".

Zenit have nothing to loose, and perhaps a lot to gain, by dragging this out so, if he does move this window, it's likely to be late in the month.

I don't know if the blue and whites of Sheffield have ever played Abergavenny but it would be fun to say, "I'm going to see Wednesday play Thursday on Saturday."

Thanks for the vid. Love watching the old boy play, even if that collection could have done without the goal against Chelsea. The precision in Greavsie's finishing was just outrageous. Definitely one of the extra terrestrials. Greaves tells a great story about the free kick at 1:25. He says two of his teammates were arguing about who should take it, so he decided to just put it in the net and let them worry about if afterwards.

I know. That's a real compliment. Thank you.

This all sounds encouraging. In fact, I'd like to add a fourth wide player of quality. Let's be able to cover absences, and to rotate freely as the manager wishes. That's the kind of power we all want. Some might worry that such a setup would limit opportunities for Callum but actually a more powerful squad could encourage the manager to play youth more often, secure in the knowledge that the team can handle the situation. As long as the manager worries that his team can only compete when it features all of his top players, performing at the top of their game, he will always avoid using other members of his squad. As counter intuitive as it seems, a more powerful squad is better for fringe players than a weak one. Also, we all loved it once upon a time when our squad had that kind of depth. This is encouraging too. Hope Christian is equally confident when he arrives. It'll help him and that can only help you to be saying, "I told you so.", a few months from now. I'm all for that. If Christian is doing the business this time next year then lay it on thick.

No one, well not me anyway, ever said that stories were not published. Stories are published on the basis of information offered, but that information is offered for specific reasons. Reasons which are almost never a desire to make the true facts of a transfer negotiation public. Indeed, it is almost always in the interests of everyone in the know about transfer deals to keep the details secret. Virtually every time those in the know leak information about a pending deal it is to influence the market, not to make it. Until, and unless, it is confirmed by an official of either club, I will place the £65m bid for Willian firmly in the realm of fantasy. I recommend everyone else does the same.

Maurizio is the one with the work to do. If everyone can be a leader then what have we all been doing going on about the outstanding leadership of people like JT, DD, SFL & PC? If Eden is not a leader, he can still be a difference maker for our team. Maurizio's job is to put in a system that allows Eden to do what he's good at, and then surround him with a supporting cast to make the most of it.

Until, and unless, we dramatically change the status of our club, we won't attract, never mind hold on to, players at the level of Messi or Ronaldo. Eden is the peak level we can realistically aim for. If the traits you state above are accurate, then they are also the things which have allowed us to hold on to him for so long. We should be grateful for them.

The first opinion I'm going to give in a moment is controversial although I have no idea why. The second probably isn't. To me they both seem like statements of the obvious. - Players of Eden's age don't improve. - All players are inconsistent.

Check.

Good luck Vic. Hope it goes well.,

I'm going to watch Chelsea Women on Sunday afternoon, and wasn't sure I wanted to go to the Wednesday game too. Of course, because I'm an addict, I did buy a ticket in the end and I'm glad that I'll be there to see Gonzo's debut. By the way, tickets were still on sale for both games the last time I checked. Women play in Kingston at 2:00pm, the men in Stamford Bridge at 6:00pm.

Butch outright said it so I see no room to call it a rumour. In fact he also specifically mentioned that people thought it was Roman but it was really Carlo.

I've mentioned this before but repeating it is better than getting annoyed about the window. Moussa Dembele (late of Spurs) was making news and I liked what I saw of him so I watched an Ajax vs AZ game to get a better look. In fact Dembele had a poor game that day, but a bloke called Suarez won the game for Ajax. He was obviously a player who Chelsea should target. The fact that the same manager who had already turned down Aguero when he was offered him, now chose Torres over Suarez was the final nail in the coffin for Ancelotti as far as I was concerned. At the time I thought Roman had made the decision, but I see no reason to think Butch Wilkins was lying when he revealed that in fact it was all Carlo.

No, not all of us. I was depressed and the knowledge that all the people who had questioned my sanity, when I told them the truth about Nando, would soon be apologising to me didn't help at all.