OhForAGreavsie

OK, I accept that and apologise for this comment.

The statements I made are there if you wish to re-read them. If you then want to post again to acknowledge that you misunderstood that's up to you. Edit: That's a bit sharp. Let me help you out. I pointed out that I had made my assertion, that's a claim not a fact, but that all the statements I made relating to players were facts which I had given to support my assertion. I said this in response to you saying none of what I had said was factual. You were obviously wrong to say that so I clearly identified for you those parts of what I said which were facts. What more do you want from me?

Yes, that's what I just said. No need to repeat it. Interesting speculation. Unlike the facts I've been able to give in support of my claim, I don't think you'll find one example of a player choosing Chelsea over City recently, never mind one who then made any statement along the lines of the player statements I reported.

Gotcha. Thanks fellas.

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.