OhForAGreavsie

Every club has their deeply one-eyed fans who can't see past their own my club good guys, your club bad guys filter.

Is he as good as Modric? I've not seen it yet. I'm not claiming it's not there, just that I haven't seen it.

I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you do not know that each of the statements I made relating to individual players is fact, not opinion. I made my assertions, then gave examples to back them up. If you don't recognise the reality, then I think you have not drawn the right conclusions from what's been going on in the transfer market for us over recent years. In which case, I think your screen name seems particularly well chosen.

Exactly the right comparison. Back in '09 almost all players would have chosen Chelsea over City so City only got the player because we, rightly, pulled out of the race. If we had wanted him enough to match Real's asking price, we'd have got him. In any case, as I was arguing at the time, we should never have been in for Robinho.

That's how to use power. They are in a position of strength, they have a powerful squad, they can afford to make such demands of players.

Stability vs Instability. Increasingly popular club vs One of the most unpopular clubs in world football. Reputation, deserved or not, for attractive football vs Reputation, deserved or not, for unappealing, unattractive football. Most highly regarded manager in the world vs Complete uncertainty. A club generally thought to be on the up vs A club widely thought to be in decline. A club, irrespective of their playing style, which is respected as being a good team vs A club, irrespective of their playing style, which is not respected as being a good team. Examples: - Monaco revealed that Mendy told them he would not have left for Chelsea but that he could not resist Pep & City Danilio revealed that he had been offered a better deal by Chelsea but chose City anyway despite Chelsea also being the team more likely to use him as a starter. Antonio confirmed that he wanted Walker but that the player was only interested in City. Stones talked about how glad he was that the move to Chelsea fell through. The comment I made, as opposed to your misrepresentation of it, is, I fear, a rather obvious statement of fact.

Can't agree with you. All other things being equal, almost every player would choose City over Chelsea these days. If we do loose him to City that really would not be a shock and certainly not an indication of the quality of our recruitment team.

Really like Malcolm. He'd be a great get.

I've seen more of Golovin (at the world cup) so my view might be a bit skewed but, if it were a choice of him or Jorginho, I'd go for the Russian. That said it seems more likely to be a case of both rather than either/or. A midfield compliment including Golovin, Jorginho, N Golo and Mason Mount sounds better than we've had for a while.

Thank you Gentlemen.

Maybe the Sarri factor is an additional attraction, but otherwise I simply don't believe that any player with equal prospects for playing time at city or at Chelsea, would choose us these days. I also don't believe that City would be outspent by us for a player they really set their heart on. I suspect that we've paid more for the player than City were willing to and that this is because Jorginho has a higher value to us because Sarri wants him. The question I'm about to ask may already have been answered above (I haven't checked yet) but I'll ask it anyway. Do you watch Jorginho? He seems to me to be a Cesc type player. If you agree, does he have the same strengths AND weaknesses?

Possibly but another version is that City don't rate him highly enough to match our offer.

Not so secret. I knew it and that means a lot of people knew it too because I don't have any inside information.

I used to play cricket with Brian's sons. (He was also a member but I never actually played with him.) Maybe football never came up with them but I don't remember getting the impression that they were a Chelsea family.

Reverted back is poor English. Just say he reverted to type.

Head coach Joe Gibbs used to do the same at Washington more than thirty-five years ago. With three Super Bowl wins, you’d have to say that worked out.

Transfer gossip gold.

Geography lesson for Il Mattino per favour.

What do I think of the Chelsea chances of the five players selected? Four no's and a maybe. Ruben has pushed his case but it's hard to see how we create the right environment for him to play given our current squad. The other four need to look for moves.

Before Brown arrived, Feruz was called Izzy by everyone.

Top players ‘play down’ at development level from time to time. Within a statistical margin of error, they never ‘destroy it completely’. Eden Hazard didn’t, CHO hasn’t and Martial wouldn’t. That’s not the way to judge. I had a discussion with someone about the younger Dembele at Celtic who I think is a terrific player. That person told me that you can’t judge players in youth football and gave the example of Izzy Feruz who, he said, had also looked great in Celtic’s age group sides. My reply was that Izzy may have scored a lot of goals for the Celts but there was no possibility on this Earth that he could ever have looked as good as junior Dembele. The latter has genius level ability, while I had dismissed Izzy’s Chelsea chances within 20 minutes of the first youth game I saw him play at Stamford Bridge. I acknowledge that you disagree with me about the comparison between Martial and CHO but please don’t tell me that I don’t understand what does, and does not, need to be taken into account when assessing a player. Tell me you think I’m wrong by all means, but let’s avoid any appearance of patronising each other.

The basis of my opinion is that I have seen both players play. I stick to my assessment that I believe Callum to be the better player. I first saw Martial play when he was linked to us before leaving France. I saw him play in both legs of a Champions League tie. He was outstanding in the first leg and poor in the second. Since arriving in England his efforts have not changed my mind about his having a hit and miss profile. As good as Callum is when carrying the ball and when finishing it is his choice, range and weight of passing which does most to persuade me that he is the real deal.

I'm not so worried about that. I think the most important voice in the academy is Neil Bath who any new boss will definitely be talking to and, in any case, Jody would certainly take a call and share his opinions with Chelsea's manager.

And Calum, who I believe is a better player than the United man anyway, also plays in that slot. I’ve no interest in Chelsea signing Anthony Martial.

I haven't watched Mason at Vitesse but this video makes me wish that I had. This is one of the most impressive highlight packages I've seen of a Chelsea youngster. It's not the number of spectacular things he does which are impressive, it's the number of ordinary things he does spectacularly well. When a player receives possession, nine times out of ten, the next thing he needs to do is something simple. Find a footballer who does those things exceptionally well on a consistent basis and you've got a player. Add the ability to do special things when the opportunity is there, and you have a player who is at the level where he can be considered for a place at Chelsea. Most of the action shows Mason doing what I think is the very best that could be done in the situation, and only twice do I think he's shown doing less well than should have been expected. Those two clips obviously shouldn't have made the cut.