OhForAGreavsie

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.)

or: - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/46561167 Chelsea say fans who sang an anti-Semitic chant in the Europa League game with MOL Vidi have "shamed the club". A vocal minority chanted offensive songs about Tottenham fans early in Thursday's 2-2 draw in Hungary. That came days after four fans were suspended for allegedly racially abusing Raheem Sterling. "Anti-Semitism and any kind of racial or religious hatred is abhorrent to this club and the overwhelming majority of our fans," a spokesman said. "It has no place at Chelsea or in any of our communities." Uefa said it will await the referee's report before deciding on whether any action will be taken. Willian and Olivier Giroud scored free-kicks for Chelsea, who had already qualified for the knockout stages, in their draw in Budapest. "Any individuals that can't summon the brainpower to comprehend this simple message and are found to have shamed the club by used using anti-Semitic or racist words or actions will face the strongest possible action from the club," the spokesman added. On Wednesday, manager Maurizio Sarri condemned "discrimination in any form" following the alleged racist abuse of Manchester City's Sterling. Chelsea and the Metropolitan Police are investigating the allegations which occurred during the Blues' 2-0 win on Sunday. What is the matter with these brain dead morons? This crap has been going on for decades. Do these prats really think players are motivated to play for people behaving like this? Do they expect our squad to be proud of them? You can't shoot these idiots, so absolute zero tolerance must be applied. Ban any offender for life and let's get MPs to play their part too. Let's create a law under which anyone convicted of racist behaviour in controlled spaces gets added to a register akin to the one for sex offenders. Make this nonsense behaviour start to affect their job prospects. Either that or require season ticket holders and members to pass an IQ test. That'd get rid of most of 'em. I say in controlled spaces because freedom of speech must be maintained, as long as it is within the law. We just have to accept that there must be a place where idiots are free to say idiotic things. If you enter a football stadium however, you agree to be bound by its regulations. Let's start giving those regulations some teeth. Just completely fed up with these people.

I'd go really radical and play: - Marcin Davide, Andreas, Ethan, Emerson George, Ruben, Ross Willian, Olivier, Callum Then I'd look to use Callum, Ethan & George for no more than 70 minutes to rest them for the big 18s game on Monday night. I know not everyone would see it that way, and probably won't see the point of Callum or Ethan playing in that game, but I really enjoy the youth cup and really want to get that record. United are quite probably the best U18s side in the country this year and of course they've got a big motivation to stop us taking away their record. All in all, away to United is the toughest draw we could get for our first game in this year's competition.

Cheap. If anyone took you seriously, and if you had enough cash to make it worth bothering, you'd be sued for publishing an accusation which has been shown, legally, to be inaccurate.

We don't have to pay a penny for Wilson. He does what he does well but, dodgy knees or not, he isn't the calibre of player we should be looking at.

Can't like this post because I don't agree with describing any Chelsea player the way you've described Marcos. Saying a player is not the final answer or that he's outright not good enough is legitimate commentary, but insults, or insulting similes, are not my style and I wish they weren't anyone else's either. Leaving aside the way you've said it however, I agree with what you've said.

Well said. I've often described myself as a world class pessimist when it comes to my football team, or teams now since I'm a big fan of Chelsea Women too these days, but for humanity as a whole I'm an optimist. There are big wrong turns all over the place and so much wrong doing it can't help but make you angry, yet when you see where we are, vs where we were, there has been progress. Progress gives us hope.

The media will do what they do. Implying deep criticism of a club while being careful to use language which allows them to avoid any charge of pre judging an incident themselves. Media is not in the business of publishing news. They are in the business of getting you to pay, one way or another, for what they publish. Sensationalism sells and, as much as individual journalists may hate it, they are forced to accept that they need to sell to survive. From that point of view they must cover the story before it is judged. After the Chelsea fan is found innocent, or at least not guilty, they'd have missed their chance. For now the story works for them no matter what the eventual outcome.They don't like to miss their chance so dish it out to any target they can. Fans of all clubs believe that the media hates them and loves their rivals. This is clear from the opinions on any fan forum. We here are free to complain as we see fit but the club has to understand how the media game is played. They will sensationalise and if they have a hook like Paris to hang that sensationalism on, they will gleefully plop it there. The club must stick to its policies, establish the facts, and act accordingly. If they find wrong doing then, because of our history whether deserved or not, they must act decisively and I'm afraid harshly. If they do not find wrong doing then they need to get that out as quickly as possible.

A fantastic half I would say but the Sterling issue is far, far more important and so, quite rightly, makes news in both sports and non-sports media. There will always be racists. It's certain that more than one of them attended that game on Saturday and that they wore blue scarves of both shades. Football can't rid the world of racist thinking, and nor can it hope to control how fans see people of different ethnicities. What football can, and must, do however is make clear that letting your racism show is utterly unacceptable in and around football occasions. Find heavy book. Raise high. Throw hard.

Well at least now no one can say that De Laurentiis has never done anything for Chelsea. Grazie Aurelio. Grazie mille. Forget this bloke. Reece James is younger, and better.

Because I was such a huge KDB fan I watched as many of his performances at Bremen as I could. That amounted to no fewer than twenty games and Arnautovic played in many, if not most, of those. Was very unimpressed and have no interest in Chelsea signing him.

Have not been impressed by this bloke. We need bona fide top quality but he is not it. Now you compare him to Draxler another player I never believed in.

Or better still the interest, if there really is any, should drop. That's to say it should be dropped.

There was a thread on WAGNH a little while ago asking something along the lines of, "Can we stay in the title race?", to which I replied something along the lines of, "What title race?" City are a long way ahead of everybody else.

OH no we can't go round this argument again can we? I don't buy that version. I felt Nemanja did well in the half season after returning in January '14 and that this form continued, to an extent, into the first six weeks or so of the next season. After that I felt his form, with a few exceptions, reverted to its natural place. That's to say, pretty much the level Man U fans are now complaining about. What Nemanja was doing for us was a contentious issue while he was here, and would be again now if we let it I'm sure. I'm hoping though that we can agree that his form is not our problem anymore, and not burn the many trillions of photons it would take for the forum to dance this dance again.

Plenty of plastics everywhere. At least most reds who were raving about Nemanja when they signed him, had the excuse that they had not watched many 90 minute performances from him. Certainly not with the level of scrutiny that fans watch their own players. You'll remember, I'm sure, that those of us here who did not believe in Nemanja faced a lot of Chelsea people opposing our view. I recall being told that I had no clue about football on this very site when I criticised our ex-Serbian but I have an even better example than that. I watched video of Nemanja when he was rumoured to join us the first time around. He then lined up as a playmaker and I posted to say that he wanted far too long on the ball, that he liked the floated pass way too much, and that I didn't want him. I did not believe in Nemanja during his first spell, was not disappointed when he left and refused to believe it when he was rumoured to return but return he did. When that happened, almost everyone on several Chelsea forums was satisfied with what Nemanja was offering. There was however a poster on one of them who would not have it. He insisted that our then number 21 had the turning circle of a tanker and slowed our attacking movements horribly. Even I, who was never a Nemanja fan, criticised that forum member for being too harsh. I soon realised that he was not being harsh enough. It's no surprise that United fans have seen the truth. I'm certain they must have seen that they'd signed a dud over the same kind of timescale it took many Chelsea fans to reach the same conclusion.

Not interested in Chelsea making a permanent signing at right back. A loan perhaps, but not a multi year deal, and definitely not for big money. Why not? Reece James.

Firstly there was a typo in my last reply. I've since corrected it but you quoted me while the error was still there. As quoted, my comment says your criticisms were based on my assumptions. It should just say assumptions. Apologies for that. I've no idea if Marina is making money for Roman. I don't even know if she has been asked to. These are just examples of the kind of things she might have been asked to do, and which would make her priorities a little different to what you seem to have assumed them to be. That is not what you stated originally but your comment contains more assumptions. How do we know what, if any, decisions Marina is making? How do we know that her task is not simply to carry out the decisions others are making. For example, I'd be shocked if Marina is deciding which players to target in the transfer market. I don't know but I would be shocked. You say Roman's displeasure would only be detectable if things are not rosy come May. You may be right but I'd have thought if he was going to be unhappy, it would have been visible by now. After all, a lot of posters here think Marina should have been sacked long ago and Roman is not noticeably patient. Let's wait and see.

I don't know of course but I'd say that this line of criticism is more logical than blaming Marina when we don't know what her operating parameters are. Can't agree with you here. I think your criticisms have indeed been based on assumptions but the points I've made are an exact description of the situation. I said we don't know what instructions Marina has been given and we don't. I said it's logical to guess that Roman is satisfied with Marina's efforts and it is. After all, not only has she not been sacked, she's actually been given increased responsibility. Why would that happen if the boss wasn't satisfied?

How many managers has Roman sacked? How many CEOs or equivalent? You're welcome to think Roman is a patient man if that's how you see it but, first, you'll have to admit that you have not a scrap of evidence to support that idea. Roman looses faith in you, you go. This is exactly where you are going wrong. You are judging Marina by your criteria but that's an error. Roman gave her the job and he knows what instructions she has been given. He, not you or me, will judge Marina's performance in accordance with how well she does what he wants her to do. For example, he may have instructed Marina to breakeven on transfer deals over a three year period. He may have instructed her not to pay anything over 90% of the original asking price. He may have banned to signing of new starters in certain positions because he wants to leave the manager little choice but to select certain young players. We could keep guessing all day, but that's just it; we'd only be guessing. I have no idea what Marina's instructions are and nor do you. Until you know those you can't know how well she's been doing her actual job, as opposed to how well you think she's doing the job you imagine she has. If I hire a decorator to paint my kitchen black, it's no good you looking at the result, thinking the colour is ridiculous, and blaming the bloke with the brush in his hand. He only did the job he was asked to do. As I say, we don't know what Marina's instructions are but is it so hard to figure out, from the fact that she has, in effect, been promoted not sacked, that her boss is, up to now, happy with what she's doing? Bloody obvious if you ask me.