OhForAGreavsie

Pete, You never read that Vesper described herself as a man. You just assumed that because she said she has a wife. I hope you’ve now had enough clues to get it sorted to your satisfaction.

You’re still not engaging the brain Pete. Another example may help. Viggy Lindahl plays in goal for Chelsea Women. She was voted best female keeper in the world last year. Viggy is married. She and her wife are very happy. Hope this helps you to join the dots.

You need to broaden your horizons a bit fella. That, or think a bit harder before you post on this subject. For example, I know someone who was born male but identifies as a gay woman. The world is a beautiful place but a lot of its subtleties are missed if viewed only in black and white.

Now you're talking. If I were related to Sir Gary I'd probably mention it in every post I make. Cricket is the only thing in the entire universe which gives me even a hint of a smidge of a ghost of a reason to think that a god might possibly exist. When I watch test cricket the thought comes to me that if there was a god, this is the game he'd have invented for his own pleasure. P.S. As a boy I supported Notts because Sobers played for them but then Lancashire signed Clive Lloyd, a distant relative of mine, so I switched allegiance and remain a fan of the red rose county's cricket team to this day. I only ever watch them at Lord's or The Oval however.

The man in charge is well aware of the fact that we need to improve both in terms of team performance and individual squad members' qualities. We know this because he has said so. Maybe your problem is with Maurizio, not with those of us who agree with him.

Absolute non-starter. Not technically good enough. He's a good solid striker but we need an outstanding one. We want to be the best and that takes the best players. I like Callum as a player but he does not qualify.

I agree but, as fans, you and I have the luxury of thinking like this. As the man with the responsibility of delivering on his employer's instructions I believe Maurizio will ensure the right result against PAOK before granting himself the freedom to make selections for purely developmental reasons. My bet is he will pick experience again to start and will continue with experience until top spot is guaranteed.

Not only that, I suspect Maurizio has been asked to ensure progress in this competition without fail so, regardless of the strength of the opposition, he will go strong until the group is won.

Morning SJ, Have to disagree with you on RLC and consistency. He is pretty consistent I'm afraid. His inconsistency comes when he plays up to the level we'd like him to. It's those performances which are the exceptions. The ones where Ruben isn't getting it done the way he and we would like him to come along all too consistently. In short Ruben is consistently underperforming not just our hopes, but his own hopes too.

You can argue whether individual observations are correct or not, but it's not at all ridiculous for people to have criticisms to make. If I offered you a bet that Maurizio himself is critical of some aspects and is thinking about how to correct them, you wouldn't take it. Indeed you'd be a fool to take that bet, since we all know from his public statements that the manager does see problems in both performances and personnel. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'd guess that you have criticised the club in the past for failing to strengthen after title winning seasons. We all have, so I doubt you're an exception. Just because you win doesn't mean there is nothing which needs fixing. Whenever there are critical comments following a win it's fairly certain some will suggest that people should stop 'moaning' and just celebrate the result. On the other hand, when there are criticisms after a defeat, there will be suggestions that people just need to get behind the team and show some support instead of 'moaning'. What's the answer to this conundrum, that we all become mindless support bots who see no evil and speak no evil, or that we save the criticisms for when Chelsea draw?

I recognise that N'Golo is playing a different role because he is better able to adapt to it than either of his most frequent midfield partners. It is simply not in the nature of Jorgi and Matt to want to get ahead of the ball. They both instinctively move the ball forward and then support it from behind the play. I recognise that being asked to sacrifice his natural position in favour of this more advanced role is a compliment to N'Golo's football intelligence, but this compromise means he operates less frequently in the areas where he is probably the world's best, and more frequently in areas where he certainly is not. I recognise that RCB in a three allowed Azpi to perform to his highest efficiency by making the most of his strengths and limiting the number of times the weaker parts of his game needed to be brought into play. I recognise that this is no longer true when Azpi plays as a pure right back in a four. Perhaps I recognise all this because, like you, I've been watching football for a very long time. For longer in fact than most members of this forum have been alive. In the case of younger members, perhaps longer than one or both of their parents have been alive. I ask you to recognise that I don't want to ditch either Dave or the wee man but, as I've put it more than once in previous posts, there are hard decisions which Maurizio faces as he seeks to drive the team on to greater achievements.

Well now, this video raises a question that it must be unwise to ignore, but I'll come to that in a minute. I reckon the video contains two or three instances of poor decision making, and one of poor execution but many, many examples of high skill, great choices and effective execution. Based on what can be seen, I'd definitely follow up to watch more of the player because he looks very impressive here. Love the touch, the body control, the low centre of gravity, the clean strikes, the tidy finishes and mostly the incisive passing. Have you watched him 11Drogba? If so can you tell us anything about his work rate and tactical discipline? Does he have the energy and diligence to be a factor when his team is out of possession? In short would he get in a Sarri team? What about his confidence. It's clear that the player we see in the vid is playing with maximum confidence level but that level may be easier to attain in the MLS than it would be in the Premier League. Does he seem to you to have the character to cope with the greater pressure of a more heavily scrutinised league? Lastly, but maybe most importantly, that question which started nagging me from about 40 seconds into the video. What's he doing in America? If Almiron is anywhere near as good as he looks in that video, and I'm talking about the qualities he displays not just the outcome of what he does, then there is no way he would be playing MLS at the age of 24. Yet there he is. It's hard to escape the conclusion that he can't be as effective as he looks capable of being and/or that he must be a liability out of possession. Otherwise he simply would not be in the US. Does anyone have any of these answers?

This is why I was so pleased when Barca took Arthur. He was, and is, the perfect recruit for Man City's squad so I was desperate that they did not get him.

That looks like you're enjoying some very comfortable REM sleep.

I like Callum Wilson. He's in more than one of my fantasy teams but this idea is an absolute non-starter. There is no doubt we need at least one new striker but Wilson won't fit the bill. I know a significant percentage of our net transfer outlay in the Roman era was crammed into his first two seasons but, even so, we have been a big budget team throughout this period. (Particularly when you add wages and agent's fees.) Unfortunately we've consistently failed to get maximum return for our expenditure and you don't need to spend much time reading these pages to understand that we fans are as fed up with this as Roman himself must be. We want, and need, to be better at this. What do we do to end these rinse and repeat failures? We ensure that our transfer targets have not just one or two, but all of the required attributes. Chief among these is technical excellence. It's a non-negotiable requirement for any player aspiring to be a top rank footballer. Wilson fails that test and must not be a Chelsea transfer target.

If it can be then let it be please. Although there were a lot of nay sayers when this bloke was first linked it looks like he's changed some minds and quite right too. The huge probable fee, combined with his age could be a problem, but I don't think anyone would have any other objection to this move.

Watched Sunday's Wigan vs Leeds game last night. Like quite a few, I pretty much expected Reece to go to Derby for the season, so was a little surprised when he rocked up at the DW. Having seen them play now, I'm disappointed too. Wigan are woeful. Still, here are some post game comments from Latics Speyk forum's match thread: - "Other than Reece James the rest ranged from mediocre to shite." "I feel so sorry for Reece James. He should have been playing in white today. Just a class above everyone else in a Blue and White shirt. He must be fuming that he picked us to join in the summer … Deserves better and will get what he deserves in the years to come no doubt. Might as well give him the player of the season award now and save us all the bother in May." Wigan's next game is against Boro. One lad thinks he's got the solution to his team's problems: - "My starting 11 for Middlesborough ----------James--------------- James James James Robinson -------James James------------ ----James James James------- ------------Burn---------------" I think it's fair to say they're impressed.

Divorced? No way she gets to keep that picture surely. The house? Pah, The bank account? Piff. The kids? Tough but if that's what's best for them then it has to be. The Blues of 1972? Over your solicitors dead body!

Ossie was my boyhood hero so for me he is, and always wil be, The King. A magnificent player at his best, he nevertheless was a long way behind Greavesie as a footballer. At his peak, Jimmy would have been in most people’s world XI, Ossie never approached that level. In truth, a comparison between the two is a no contest. I don’t keep up to date with these things so this may no longer be true but for decades Jimmy’s career goals per minute ratio was the best ever in Europe’s top five leagues. As a teenager his goals kept a relegation calibre Chelsea squad in the top devision. As soon as he left we were relegated. There are videos which show glimpses of Greavsie’s greatness but bear in mind that the vast majority of his games were not recorded. Most of Jimmy’s genius is lost forever and now can only be devined from his remarkable stats. Stats which were achieved in an era when conditions were much less favourable to attacking players. The offside rule, the back pass rule, tackling from behind, lenient refereeing and dodgy pitches all made life much harder for strikers than it is now.

A really good way to look at it.

Didn’t even think he looked good going forward. Just looks a rather ordinary player to me. People tell me Emerson was special before his injury. Well I can’t categorically deny that because I did not watch him enough pre injury to form a valid opinion. I have been watching football a very, very long time however and I’ve heard that excuse hundreds of times. Almost always I’ve felt it just means people overestimated a player during his honeymoon period and blaming an injury is more comfortable than admitting they were wrong.

Greaves on the bench? Chrlsea’s greatest ever player a substitute? The manager making that decision is headed for the sack. 😊

Reasonable but I don't know if Jody's managerial achievements at academy level are enough yet to win him a good job as a number 1. Frank's status as a big name player will get him a pass into his first couple of gigs but Jody's more modest playing career means he may have to settle for smaller steps. In any case, I'm hoping to see these two as manager and assistant at The Bridge one day. I've always felt that Frank has the attributes for the Chelsea job but I don't believe that JT does, for example.

Not going to this one and gutted about it. By the time I realised I might be sufficiently recovered to give it a try it was sold out. Let’s not overlook Jody’s influence on the Derby side. I was never a fan of Jody’s as a player, but from the moment he moved into the CTV studio as a pundit his knowledge, views and manner impressed me hugely. When he progressed into the dugout that good opinion just grew. Frank has the superstar status but he’s also got the brain. Choosing Jody shows excellent judgement and bodes well for SFL’s career.

That’s the trio which could be the right solution, and which certainly needs to be looked at. As I said when I commented on our midfield inbalance about six weeks ago, it involves thinking the unthinkable however. That’s hard to do, especially when it concerns the loveable wee man. To be fair to Maurizio, his public statements make it clear that he has this problem in mind. I think we can infer from his comments that he’s working on solutions at Cobham. This is another reason why Mason Mount should have spent pre-season with us. He is not as silky as Matt but he’s better than decent in possession, a much greater goal threat, and actually enjoys his defensive work. He’ll need to be considered before next summer’s decisions are made.