OhForAGreavsie

What? Also, if the team ISN’T going nowhere, then where is it going?

Second best. James Peter Greaves.

I would say: - You should of course never, never, never judge a player based on a highlight but, wow, what a sumptuous bit of play in this gif.

You should of course never, never, never judge a player based on a highlight but, wow, what a sumptuous bit of play in this gif.

Thanks Skipper. Its not often that I find my point of view so different to yours. I wonder if you share my take that those voting for awards are not always particularly diligent in the way they approach the task. There would be an awful lot of football to watch in order to fully validate the vote they cast. Whether or not anyone actually watches all that football is doubtful but it can’t be doubted that these ‘voted’ awards are very susceptible to hype, profile and ‘flavour of the monthism. I can’t, and won’t, attempt to dismiss Sanches’s Golden Boy award because I didn’t do the due diligence either. I did watch the Euros however and posted at the time to offer the opinion that his displays there were being overrated. Someone has to win Young Player of The Tournament but the fact it was Sanches reflected his being a part of the Portugal squad, and having been expensively signed by Bayern earlier that summer, as much as it did his actual displays. Sometimes a player underperforms because he’s at the wrong club, at the wrong time and sometimes it’s because he’s not up to it. If this player is as good as he was initially assessed to be, then I’ve failed to spot it. Let’s hope for the young man’s sake that I am in error.

No, it was a great decision by Sanches. HIs limited ability means he was always going to be found out because people were going to see past the hype sooner or later. He was very wise to cash in while he could. Had he stayed in Portugal, he would have ended up at a mid table side, with a lot less money in the bank. The mistake was Bayern's. They offered him the equivalent of a guaranteed winning ticket on the lottery, and he took it. Well played son.

Only those impressed by a few flashy touches and/or Bayern's transfer policy, ever thought anything of this smoke and mirrors player. His selection as young player of the last Euros was ridiculous; watch the all touches videos. Some people assessed his preseason display against us as outstanding. That was ridiculous as well; watch that video too. I can't believe professional football people, with access to hundreds of hours of video, and hundreds of pages of scouting reports, could have been taken in to the same degree. In other words, I hope rumours of our interest in this player was all paper talk. I hope too that we've heard the last of the, "Why didn't we sign Sanches?", talk.

I haven’t watched Mason at all during his loan. Can anyone who has fill out the reports a bit?

I think that’s his problem, or rather our problem. We needed a starter, but we bought a back up.

Simply don't agree with you. In fact I'd go so far as to say this is nonsense. We see the same performances by the same players but we clearly assess them differently. We'll get nowhere arguing the point therefore. I have never subscribed to the idea that football professionals automatically know the game better than non-professionals do. When several multi-trophy winning coaches/managers ALL disagree with you however, it might be sensible to examine your ideas and consider whether you want to revise them.

Definitely worth a try. Glad people are staying open minded about Drinky. As I said previously, I think those who are not yet convinced about Danny D will be pleasantly surprised once he's over the injury and into his stride.

I agree with most people about the positions we need to strengthen but I also believe you have to take good players whenever they are available. With that in mind I hope the club is throwing its hat in the ring for Goretzka and Malcolm. Our problem of course is that we’ve manoeuvred ourselves into a place where good players have little or no interest in joining Chelsea. Goretzka is a tremendous footballer, and therefore unfortunately an impossible target. Malcolm’s reputation might not yet be as firmly established so let’s go all in before he too moves beyond our reach. (Assuming he hasn’t already that is.)

Thank you. I have always thought of Draxler as having a bigger reputation than he is capable of delivering on. Because of that ‘fixed’ opinion I haven’t really watched him with an open mind for a while. Maybe I should reevaluate him.

I've never been a Draxler fan. What am I not seeing OMS?

As far as I know that provision only applies to transfers between leagues. Premier League teams are not permitted to contact each other’s players without the permission of the player’s existing club until contracts are fully expired. That certainly is how the rule used to be, and I am not aware that it has changed.

Just watched the all touches vid. 8 chances created is an extremely generous assessment by whoever compiled the stats.

Sorry my fault. For precisely the reason you gave, I haven’t bothered with this thread for a while but I read a post about United fans recalibrating their opinions of Rom and that made me wonder how their faith in Nemanja was holding up. I therefore came here to post a question about that, saw OMS’s comment from two months ago and replied to it.

Proven to be severely limited. I suppose I'd better add, in my opinion, for complete correctness but it's there to be seen. That's not my reading of the runes at all. It may be that Antonio did not want to sell Nemanja to a perceived rival but it does not look to me like he was desperate to keep him. The boss commented that he had a conversation with Matic and our ex player decided to leave. Sounds like Nemanja didn't hear what he wanted to hear during that exchange. Also, if Antonio wanted to hang on to the Serbian, he's not likely to have banished him to train with the stiffs as he did from preseason until the move was completed. The sale did not, and does not, bother me in the slightest. If anything baffles me it is why anyone would be upset that we sold Nemanja to a top six club. Win/win if you ask me.

And what are they saying about Nemanja? Are they still raving about him or is that delusion crumbling too?

Some also trotted out the usual cliches when I said he wasn't very good and that he shouldn't be at Chelsea after watching his debut back in 2011. "He's young", they said, "you're being too harsh", "he'll improve". There are many things a footballer can improve but his talent level is not one of them. Rom has indeed improved those areas which can be affected by coaching, experience and practice but, If you lack talent, you lack it and no matter how old you get, how much you practice, or how long you play, you're stuck that way. I stand by the prediction I made in 2012. No manager of a top team will ever be satisfied to have Rom as his first choice striker. Any such manager who takes a chance on Rom, will soon be looking for an upgrade.

Calum is seventeen years and two weeks old, Charlie is showing few signs and there is plenty of room in the squad for Duje plus a young signing or two. If you feel the jury is still out on Richarlison then that’s a fair enough opinion, but I wouldn’t say we shouldn’t sign young players per se. It’s just a matter of exercising good judgement and picking the right ones. I say ‘just’, but of course you’re right that it’s tough to identify the genuine prospects. We do have to try though, not least because we are struggling to attract the established stars.

Not all of us. I've seen exactly what I expected to see from Kenney.

That's wonderful!

Phew. We don't need any more injuries that's for sure.

Then you can't have been watching very closely, or more likely your memory has gone into highly selective mode. Sorry to be so definite about this but it's the only way to express how strongly I disagree on this point. Think we'll have to leave this in the agree to differ pile. But... Check the action at around 4:15 in the video below. Anyone who has been watching Chelsea since 2004 has seen hundreds of such examples, and I do not exaggerate. It is worth watching the whole video if you're so inclined because it includes more positive contributions from The Drog. I'm not saying he didn't find ways to be effective. He did. Sometimes devastatingly so. He just wasn't the ultra smooth technician I'm reading your comments to be suggesting he was/is. That video wasn't selected to make my point. It was the first listed when I searched YouTube for "Drogba Vs".