OhForAGreavsie

Thank you.

Not as good technically I hope, and believe, that isn't true. Ess was not good technically. The ball regularly bounced off his shins.

1. There are many issues in our society which need policing. 2. Our police and other security services do stop terrorist plots. Just not all of them. That is trajic but it's a reality of the world currently. 3. What is an SJW? 4. You appear to be defending stupidity. I regret that.

There are some wrong headed people who support our club. Of course there are wrong headed supporters of other clubs too, but they don't bother me even half as much.

Did someone actually say that?

Hello Rekin, What is that stat all about? I've never heard of it.

He has to earn them first. Unfortunately the Qarabag game is badly timed for Charly. Later in the group we might have expected him to start but, with it being first up, Antonio will probably want to go maximum strength and try to put those 3 points in the bank. If Charly does not start against Forest however, it will be a bad sign. A sign that he is not training well and failing to impress Antonio. Let's hope to see him out there on the 20th.

Your rationale is sound if your premise is sound. I don't think that your premise is sound however. I don't think it will be long before you are posting to recognise that Danny D is in fact a better player than Nemanja. I believe that he is better in every aspect of the game. More sound and more agile in possession, not locked out of half a pitch worth of options by chronic one footedness, sharper into the challenge, better stamina. Not a world beater but a Matic beater for sure. One of us has this wrong. Let's face it, we should both be hoping that it's you. Me being right is good for Chelsea, you being right teaches me a lesson but Chelsea fans everywhere pay the price.

Two or three really nice contributions from him are shown in that video. If that was a man of the match display however the other players must have been pretty ordinary.

Even for David Beckham or Kevin De Bruyne, the truth is that a significant percentage of attempted crosses in open play fail to reach the penalty area. Of those which do make it into the box, a significant number are inaccurate and lead to lost possession. Of those which do reach a player of the same team, most come to nothing anyway because the chance is of low quality or is just missed. Every set of fans whose opinions I've heard, complain about the poor crossing of their players. This includes Man City who have KDB. Crosses are bad not because players are bad, but because crossing is itself bad. It is a very, very low percentage option. There are a whole host of factors which are much better indicators of how effective a player, or a team, will be than the quality of their crossing. Being good at crossing is better than being bad at it, but it still don't mean much.

I've said it before but this gives me the perfect excuse to say it again. People get carried away with this crossing nonsense. When judging any player, and most especially a wing back, his crossing ability is the rock bottom last and least attribute you should ever consider. If a wing back passes my tests on other criteria, the ones that really matter, then I couldn't care less if he's the worst crosser who ever played the game. And why is this graphic a perfect excuse for me to reiterate this point? How did the bottom two in that table do in the table they actually hand out prizes for? How did their centre forwards do in the scoring chart? Good sides don't cross the ball unless they have no better option. That's why the best two teams in the country are at the bottom of that meaningless list.

Of course they have. You've seen the same performances we all have so you must know this. Even so the real comparison is game after game, not pick out a highlight performance and use that as a yardstick. There were some genuinely excellent moments from Charly in that game. Still not enough to save him from an eventual, and I must admit deserved, benching at Betis. Let's remember that once Charly lost his place as a regular starter, he never got it back. We have to love the lad's talent, but we have also to avoid pretending that he is something more than in fact he is currently. We should give him space for more development. He needs it.

I think it will end up being more than half a billion, I don't think Roman is going to pay for any of it, and nor do I see why he should.

That's what I was being told about Charlie Musonda when he first arrived at Betis. I was telling people that it just wasn't true, barring one game in which he really did play very well. In the end, Charlie continued to play so well that he got dropped and never regained his regular place in the side. During that spell where there was a disparity between my assessment and those of others, I kept saying that more sober judgements about Charly's efforts would surface once they honeymoon period was over. I think the same is true of Rubes though I must say that, overall, I've liked what he's done at Palace better than I did was what I was seeing from Charly over that first Spell in Spain. I watched a display of Ruben's after which Kevin Day, a personality I really like, said that if Chelsea have better players than Ruben we will win the league by miles. Rubes was OK in the sense that he showed examples of his talent, but only as he sometimes did in his better displays here. I felt Day was honneymooned up. As I've been saying for five years now, I'm a big believer in Ruben's abilities but he has to influence games more. That means he has to get on the ball more than he does and that requires him to work harder when his team is in possession. The idea that he is defensively lazy is wrong in my view. Rubes is at his laziest when he's just done something good. Instead of getting on his bike again, he mentally switches off for an instant. When I first commented on this years ago he would literally stand around and walk during spells in junior team games. The penny is gradually sinking but it has taken far longer than it might have done. Hopefully the pressure to justify the expectations of Palace fans will help him solve this issue once and for all. Few things would give more pleasure than to see Ruben succeed in becoming the player his talent promises he might be, but it hasn't happened yet.

a player would be very badly advised to outright lie like that when so many people would know the truth. He'd just look ridiculous when it came out.

That would be an astonishing thing for Barton to say unless he had heard it from someone. Might be a case of Chinese whispers, but might be true. If true then either Antonio thought it was all agreed and that his part in the deal was over or, more intriguingly, maybe he just didn't want Barkley and engaged in a bit of sabotage? If it had reached the stage where the coach flet he needed sabotage to get his own way then that does not auger well.

Can't just dismiss the impact of different positions on this comparison. Different position, different skill set required, different definition of quality called for. I know for example, that you would not simply state that Mahrez is a better player than Manuel Neuer without qualifying the statement, given their different roles in the team. Well, I think the same qualification is justified between the roles played by Danny D and Mahrez. In the sense that no one is worth £100m, no he is not but, if Neymar is 'worth' his fee, then Dembele is easily worth his.

To be fair, I don't think we've had the full story about The Ox yet. Certainly, champions or no, he would have to fight for a place in Liverpool's midfield, if that is indeed where he expects to line up. I don't think he will be going there thinking he's an automatic selection at CM for them. In that sense, he is showing a bit of fight with the decision he's made. I was really pleased when it looked for a few hours like we might get AOC, and really disappointed when it turned out not to be. I'd love to know the truth but I wouldn't be surprised if he just felt that Liverpool will be a better side side than us and would play more expansive football. I also think there could be milage in the idea that his life will be a bit easier without the hassle he might receive from Arsenal fans if he moved across the capital. As for Barkley. The conspiracy theory that he and Chelsea agreed to shelve the transfer until January since he can't play until November anyway, is at least plausible. Come January, the theory suggests, Chelsea will get a better deal on the fee and they can split that with Barkley in the form of a better signing on fee. Maybe, or maybe it's something more simple Like Barkley asking Antonio where he might play and the boss having no better answer than, "not really sure Ross." A lot of unanswered questions in both cases but I think it's a bit harsh to dig the two of them out for making their choice. Personally I prefer to say nothing. Plenty of time to watch them regret it if our lads have better seasons and win more than those two do.

Fair enough. Where we can definitely agree is in the hope that RLC goes from strength to strength. On Ravel Morrison; that may be what happened or maybe the hype was born out of more honeymoon assessments in the first place.

Costa's advisors can't be unintelligent people so they must know their client's behaviour is undermining his own situation. They know that staying away from Cobham is the worst thing Costa could possibly be doing. Where they are underperforming is in being unable to influence the player to stop being so stupid. The last thing Chelsea want is for Costa to turn up at Cobham. If he did they'd have to provide him training facilities and support. That support would have to be one to one because we clearly don't want him working with others. We'd have to manage the potentially toxic influence of an openly disaffected player. Worst of all we'd have to pay him. If Costa arrived for training Chelsea would want to get his future sorted even more quickly so they could get him out of there again. By continuing to stay away, Costa is taking a lot of that pressure off Chelsea. You can bet his advisors are telling him to book a flight to London asap. Edit: Atletico's advice to Costa that he should get back to training is designed to ensure that if Chelsea end up suing Costa, there is no way Chelsea's lawyers can make any kind of case that Atleti were colluding with the player. They want to make absolutely sure that they can't end up being sued too.

Ruben is playing no better at Palace than he's played here. Reports that he is derive from 'honeymoon' assessments. Let's hope that he keeps his place in the side, and that those increased number of minutes may, in time, help him to produce his best stuff more consistently. He isn't at that point yet however.

Very pleased with this deal. A firm upgrade over Matic & Mikel in my opinion. Fully expect his contributions to be a pleasant surprise for Chelsea fans who are not yet convinced about this transfer. Before Nemanja fell out of favour with a sizeable section of Chelsea fans, I made a critical comment about him, in response to which one poster challenged me to name a better player in that role anywhere in Europe. I replied that I could name a dozen just in England. Danny D was one of those I had in mind. Welcome and good luck Danny. Hope this move pays off for you; on and off the pitch.

Won't matter. The window will have been shut for 59 minutes.

Assuming this story is genuine and not just a cover for his real motives then, firstly, if he did turn down £9m a year because he wants to move, shouldn't we respect him for it? Secondly, what is wrong with preferring to play in one position rather than another? I don't understand your criticisms in this post at all.

It's possible that this whole story is just a cover. Perhaps he simply prefers Liverpool, their manager or their style of play. Or else, maybe he realises that he'll get a much harder time from Arsenal fans if he comes here instead of Liverpool and he thinks that he and his girlfriend just don't need it. Could even be a combination things. Could be that he's just decided this and it's less controversial to come out with the excuse than with the truth. It's even possible Chelsea are in on it since it's less embarrassing for us this way.