OhForAGreavsie

You are the one who described my post as bullshit so don't go all coy now I've struggled to get the right quotation organised in the board thread so I'll ask my question here. What point is it you think I have been making? You simply do not seem to have understood it at all.

Now you're sounding daft. I'll reply fully in the board thread.

On this we are agreed.

11D may very well be right in everything he said other than that he seems not to have understood the very narrow point I have been making. I said he may be right, but in fact I think he is overly critical of ME. I think he simplifies the areas of responsibilities and seems to me to blame ME for everything he, 11D, did not agree with. I don't believe we fans have enough information to be so definitive in apportioning blame. The same goes for the criticism people now level at Marina. They have not the first clue what her real responsibilities and parameters are, yet they comment as if they know all of that, and have read her brief from the board and the owner as well. Whether what I say in this paragraph is right or wrong, it has nothing to do with the original point. I'll take your advice here and post anything else I want to say on ME/MG in the right thread.

I have no idea who is responsible - I don't watch Monaco or follow their squad building activity. I just know that your post implied exactly what you say here that you did not say there. Well, ok, thank you for the clarification. I also know that people who say our problem is that we don't have a DoF are not fully expressing their point of view. Their point of view can't be that just waving the magic wand of appointing a director of football will solve the problem. Look at Monaco. They appointed a DoF yet you say their problem is not solved. Again, what you say simply proves my point.

OK then.

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.