OhForAGreavsie

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.

Nothing technical about it. Plain fact. Be nice to keep it that way.

I’d say impossible. I’m afraid we’ve manoeuvred ourselves into a place where some players would even accept lesser contracts to play elsewhere rather than join us. It was always like that but billions of pounds of spending later things could, and should, have been better. Instead, if anything, it is worse than ever. So what do you do? Stay patient, accept that it will take time to change our image and set off on a long term plan to establish a new perception of our club. It’ll take a commitment to positive football of quality. Stability would be nice too, but it’s less important than erasing the perception people have of CFC.

As is often the case, Sheva’s stats were misleading. Anyone who watched him at the 2006 World Cup knew he had nothing to offer Chelsea. There were special circumstances involved in his capture, one of which was that no club with a sensible recruitment policy would have spent big-money and big wages on him at that stage of his career. Not a difficult signing to complete. Inter were prepared to let Crespo go. Contrast their attitude on that deal with their absolute refusal to do business on Vieri at more than twice the price. Look at Hernan’s career and you’ll see evidence that clubs were always more enthusiastic about buying him, than they were about keeping him once he was on the books. Not a difficult signing to complete. Nando’s output in the first part of his Liverpool contract was the only high performing period of his career. I never believed in him even while he was scoring heavily for the scousers. The day we bought Nando I was deeply depressed at our stupidity. As you imply that was not a difficult signing to complete. Maka himself said he came to Chelsea because no club he preferred to join was prepared to pay his fee or his wages. Not a difficult signing to complete. We never had the pulling power to attract genuinely high status players. The ones we were able to sign were those whose status was not as high as it might have seemed. Even then we were forced to overcome the reluctance of even that level of player by wildly overpaying fees and wages. Now that we are no longer doing that we are bound to suffer at the top end of the market but our record of recruiting young talent is not so bad.

Yes, it was definitely fun. The departing players were leaving anyway. It was a nice occasion to share the ending of their time at the club with them. Was an especially nice touch when Claire came on to the supporters coach to thank us for the silver salver we had presented to her, and to say a last goodbye. She definitely enjoyed the day. If you count Crystal that would make five departures. The name you've missed out from the list of first team departures is Becky Spencer but others not quite in the top squad have also left. Worse, three players' contracts are running out. The club is certain to pull out all the stops to keep Maren and Gilly but there are fears that Gemma will move in search or more playing time. A busy summer ahead for the club. To be more competitive in the CL we need to significantly upgrade the squad, not just replace the departing players like for like. Wolfsburg were a pleasure to watch at Kingsmeadow. Some of their fans were generous enough to recognise that we are now closer to them than we have been in previous seasons but the truth is we are still miles behind them. They are the standard for me. We have our work cut out to catch up with them. P.S. Good luck to VFL in today's Champions League Final.

I was there. Was great and we made up more than 25% of the crowd. Was a lot of fun celebrating with the team after the game. Our published attendances have been the highest in the league which is great but hopefully we'll be able to push them up further still. Before then however there's a lot to look forward in the summer with at least 4 players moving on and desperately needing to be replaced. Should be fun watching the comings and goings.

It may be a bit early to include Martel in that list but we should definitely add Callum and Reece to it.

Grealish looked twice the player over both legs And goodness knows Grealish is no great shakes.

I don't want to believe that we are looking at him.

You weren’t up from Southampton with your girlfriend that you had just got engaged to were you? We were in North Stand because we were late so we dived in there rather than walk round to The Shed. That meant it was a bunch of new people around us that we didn’t know. Got chatting to those two and made a nice afternoon of it. By the way, we were three down when Walker came on to spark the miracle come back. I remember we had been singing for him to come on the whole second half. The place went wild when was finally brought on with less than 20 minutes to go. The rest is history. The ref said afterward that, despite having reffed in front of 100,000 at Wembley, that was the loudest noice he ever heard in a football ground.

The only game I ever watched from the North Stand was the famous Clive Walker game vs Bolton. No problem that day because we were top right (facing the pitch) and the Bolton fan were way over to the left and there were only 17,000 there that day, hardly any of them Bolton.

Do you remember the old shack (that’s the only way to describe it) that doubled as a ticket office and merchandise shop? I turned up there one day to buy some tickets (a very rare event in those days of pay on the turnstile) and Duncan was in there, new fag on, old one still hot in the ashtray, chatting up the girls in the office. He looked totally disgusted that they had to take their attention off him for a minute to sell me three tickets and a mug. Even back then I thought to myself, chain smoker, that explains a lot!

I didn't miss a thing. Not even the intended slur. Oh dear. I know you know what discernible means so you’ll forgive me for avoiding further comment on the statement about whether I know who is, or isn’t, interested in Traore. You’ve responded to many of my posts so I assume you’ve read them. You perhaps don’t remember any of their content, which is fair enough, but if you did you’d be aware that my opinion of a player is not informed by where he plays his football. Traore being outside the Premier League doesn’t create my opinion of his abilities, it just supports it. In fact I formed that opinion, and posted about it, while Traore was playing in the top flight. Zaha was taken from a Championship side to a club with world status. Although that move did not work for him, he remains a Premier League player. What, in comparison has been Traore’s history to date? Somewhat the opposite, I think you’ll agree. I accept that this proves nothing, but it is evidence that, so far, higher level clubs have passed on Traore and he has slid down the ranks. It would be illogical to draw conclusions from the level at which Traore plays, but not illogical to take his trajectory into account. Zaha climbed up the ladder and, although he slipped, is clinging on to a higher rung than the one to which Traore has fallen. This comparison suggests that Zaha is a more highly regarded footballer than Traore, however, my own view is not based on any of the above. It’s based on the fact that I’ve seen Traore play and I don’t believe he’s effective enough for any role at Chelsea.

Bear with this, I do get to Mason in the end. A few years ago someone on a different Chelsea site (WAGNH) asked for opinions about which of our then current youth squad had the best chance of a Chelsea future. My answer was Jay Da Silva. If I answered the same question now I'd say Callum is second most likely, and that Reece James is currently our top prospect. He's tremendous. I'm also pretty excited about sixteen year old Tino Anjorin who I think looks likely to be our next U18 level 'star'. I love Mason's game but I put him behind all these names. Mason will surely make it as a professional but watching him in youth games I felt he got away with many things, mainly his dribbles, that would fail in senior football. I couldn't wait for him to go on loan and get the experience that would help him make better decisions about when to carry the ball. However I've gotten into the Chelsea Ladies team, bought a season ticket and watched them a lot. For that reason I've seen much less televised football than I have in the past so I have not been able to assess what Mason might have learned, or how well he's learned it. P.S. Randomly, we are rumoured to have agreed to sign a young striker to join us from PSV's academy next summer. The deal has been posted by @ChelseaYouth, who seems only to report from authoritative sources, and is also listed on Transfermarkt as having been completed. Although I've read other statements which contradict that and say the player is not coming to Chelsea, I really hope that we have won the race to sign him. Jayden Braaf is an impressive youngster who will immediately become the best development level striker on our books if he arrives.

Bamford I wrote off the first time I saw him play for one of our development sides. When people moaned about Charly being dropped for some 'big' academy games, I posted in support of those decisions. When he was being praised to the hilt for his performances in Spain I was posting to say that in fact, barring one outstanding display, he was not playing well and would be dropped unless he improved. Five years ago I posted (elsewhere) to say that Ruben was a terrific prospect but that he needed a kick up the backside so that he'd learn to get more involved in games and make an impact. He's always shown flashes of brilliance which excites us all but then he strolls around or makes blind runs so that his effective contribution is close to zero. I watched one England age group game where he touched the ball only three times in a twenty minute spell. Maybe he has cured that now. We'll see. Baker I never believed in and said so. Abraham I said I like the way he makes the most of his attributes but that I didn't see him as a player who is good enough for the team we want Chelsea to be. You may read this as me trying to boast about getting things right but in fact I'm trying to suggest that I'm not susceptible to hype. About Callum I confidently say he is a terrific player who will make it somewhere. Possibly here.

Nor should they. CL11 is right as often as most of us in his player judgements but I think he's got this one wrong.

I was calling for Dybala's signature before he left the lot with the pink shirts. Traore on the other hand is a Championship player.