OhForAGreavsie

You have not read enough of the thread. If you do you will see the point I'm making.

And yet I've just read a post implying very strongly that Emenalo is to blame for their difficulties.

That's not my point 11D. Indeed your continued criticism of ME is further proof that my original point was, and is, correct.

I'm not as confident that I know the details, or the timeline, of what happened and why. I thought ME did a good job and consistently defended him against the regular attacks. It is nevertheless true that there were hundreds of posts criticising him, claiming that he was not qualified and calling for him to be sacked. His critics blamed him for everything they felt went wrong. I say again, ME's tenure is good evidence that it's not the mere fact of having a DoF which will make people happy. It's having one who agrees with them.

Well we had a DoF of course and most people gave him constant stick. Pretty good evidence that it's not just having a DoF, it's having one whose decisions they agree with. Or, put it another way, one who agrees with them.

Presumably you mean one that agrees with you. That's usually what people mean when the say we need a DoF.

Yes, it is definitely about buying the best. The thing is, you have to be able to tell the difference between the best and the shiniest.

If, after all this time, anyone gets excited on the basis of transfer speculation then it's nobody's fault but their own when they're disappointed.

This will make it easier to wish him to do well if he takes another job in football. Still standing for the special one.

This sounds like good sense to me. Look at Matt. Lovely skills, good attitude but the right solution for Chelsea? The jury's out. Years ago I argued we should stay away from Robinho because there was a reason he was surplus to requirement in Madrid. Well Alvaro, and then Matt were also deemed sellable by Real. Three lessons should be enough. The one good thing about this procession is that at least we'd be moving in the right direction. Matt is closer to being the right player than Alvaro is and perhaps Isco would be closer again than Matt is. Are steps in the right direction enough though?

Rinse....

That'd be more fun to watch.

Is it NBA season in London maybe? (As you'll guess from the question, I'm not an NBA fan.)

Lot's of nice, high end, Christmas shopping in London.

The match was a tough watch because, although we had spells of supremacy, 4-3 probably makes it look closer than it was as late goals brought us back from 4-1 down. We lost through being pretty sketchy at crucial times with loose touches or poor passes costing us three of United's goals. Ultimately however, the decision rested on the fact that their impact players carried more threat than ours did. I'm pretty sure that Callum would have tipped the balance in our favour but without him, even when we had the upper hand, it always felt that their danger men up front were more likely to make something happen. Lastly, our biggest potential difference maker on the night, Tino Anjorin, had a difficult game. His goal cannot disguise the fact that he had numerous poor touches and many misplaced passes. It's a shame for the lad. He's a good player but it wasn't his night, and it wasn't ours. The under 18s have had a fantastic, history making run. Indeed, given that they won not just five in a row but six out of the last seven, and were beaten finalists in the one they didn't win, you could argue that their achievement is better than the five in a row won by the Busby Babes in the 1950's. What remains to be seen now if whether any of the players who have lifted the trophy for Chelsea during this run can go on to write their names in the history books of the senior game as some of 'The Babes' did. Many congratulations to all the players involved. Thank you all for the exciting and very enjoyable football over the course of this magnificent run.

Good to read such sense. I lost count of the number of times I was told I was talking rubbish for explaining that the teenage Rom was never going to develop silky technique. Oh but he's so young they said. There are many things a footballer can improve through practice but talent isn't one of them. To those tempted to disagree now, I'd say the same thing I've said to others in the past. If experience, coaching and practice are all it takes then why isn't everyone as good as Lionel Messi?

So does that mean his goals make the difference between winning and not winning, or that he only scores in games where we're going to win anyway? Just from memory I'd say Pedro tends to score important goals but that's not what I'm getting at. The points I want to make on this are, i) statistics smatistics and ii) it would be a more impressive smatistic if Perdo scored more goals.

Bayern will probably pull their usual; tap the player up, talk him into running down his contract, then get him on a Bosman. All perfectly legal in Germany of course but it has a knock-on impact. Everyone in Germany knows that's how it goes so, if Bayern make a low looking offer for a player clubs pretty much know the will eventually loose him for nothing so they face an added pressure to accept those low offers.

Selfish of me for sure but I'm hoping that Callum, and Ethan, will be playing in the Youth Cup tomorrow. If they do then they might not get used on Wednesday. We've been drawn away to probably the best U18s in the country so we'll need the strongest side we can muster to give ourselves a chance of progressing. If anyone wants to say that it's far more important for the players, and for the club, that they should be in the first team squad on Wednesday I could not argue with you. I'm pretty certain Maurizio will see it that way too, but I live in hope.

He obviously does see what we see. He just seems to assess it differently.

I think our evolving opinions come from a mix of managers improving their plans against him, and of us calibrating our assessments a bit better. I think we've agreed before that Matt's natural style means he's not likely to become a regular goal threat so if the goals do come it'll be a very welcome surprise.

I watch less football than I used to so not sure I'm qualified to make a definitive list of a 'top' three. What I do feel able to do is judge whether a potential target meets the quality threshold. My older daughter is currently applying for a big promotion at work. In her application she has to show, with documented, provable examples, that she has the competencies required. If she can't convince the selection panel about that then she won't even get an interview. I like Callum, he's in more than one of my fantasy teams but moving to Chelsea would be a promotion for him. I'm afraid however he that doesn't have the competencies. As for Jimmy, this takes some fantasy thinking because the 'real' Greavsie would not get in this side. In the modern world a footballer who smoked heavily, and was eventually revealed to be an alcoholic, could not make it at top level. If however we can fantasise that in modern times he would take care of himself, then the famous quote about selecting an all time Chelsea XI would apply. "When picking an all time Chelsea XI, you start with Jimmy Greaves then think about ten other names." If Greaves was on the books currently you'd think the same way and recognise that the best thing to do is shape the rest of the squad to get the most out of him. Jimmy currently lies second in the all time scoring charts of Europe's big leagues, nine goals behind Lionel Messi. In each case those figures were amassed over fourteen seasons but bear in mind that, while Messi has gone from strength to strength, Greavsie's lifestyle meant his powers were in decline from about half way through his career. Jimmy tells a story which gives a clue how things were in his later footballing years. "Chelsea fans say I was at my best when I played for Chelsea. Tottenham fans say I was at my best when I played for Tottenham. West Ham fans say I was at my best when I played for Chelsea or Tottenham."

Point taken.

We've only shipped five league goals all season. Unfortunately they all came in the one game against Arsenal! Apart from that it's been ten clean sheets, but our problem has been at the other end. We've dropped eight points in four scoreless draws and those have left us five points behind Arsenal and City, though The Gunners have a game in hand. Boss Emma Hayes conceded the title a few weeks ago but I think there was some psychology at play there. In recent weeks we've recovered our form, winning nine out of ten games while scoring thirty-three goals and conceding none. In that time we've climbed to third in the table, reached the quarter finals of the League Cup, and more importantly the quarters of The Champions League where we face PSG in March. Before then we begin the defence of The FA Cup we won in front of 45,000 at Wembley in May and have important league fixtures with Arsenal and City. Realistically we probably need to beat both of our title rivals to maintain any serious hope of defending our title or even achieving a top two finish to secure a place in next season's Champions League. We've made life hard for ourselves but there's still a lot for the women to play for. If anyone fancies getting down to Kingsmeadow to support our girls you'll be very welcome and will perhaps be surprised by the quality of the football. A reminder that tickets for the next home against Everton on Jan 6th are free but you'll need to go to the website and order them. Get down there if you can. Something to warm the heart on a cold winter's night: highlights of Chelsea beating Spurs 5-0 on Wednesday.

Chelsea Women's captain Karen Carney. By the way, the women's team are offering people a chance to get down to Kingston and check out a game when they get back to action in the new year. Tickets for their home game against Everton on Sunday January 6th are free. Just go to the club website and request them. (The men's team are playing Forrest on the Saturday.)