OhForAGreavsie

Never going to happen. Why? Because, I saw Antonio watching the game on Sunday. The boss may have described David's performance as "amazing" but he won't have been fooled by it. DL did really well in the defensive side of the midfield role. I hope he'll do equally well each time he plays there because he'd need to. Despite much hype to the contrary, DL is no midfield player. He was pretty horrible in possession. Instead of helping to solve our problem against the press, he just contributed to our troubles. With David in the middle of the park the ball will keep coming back at us. Just like it did on Sunday. Hence the opportunity for David to make tackles and interceptions a plenty. Just like on Sunday. Media types can say what they want. I don't care that their opinions so often bear little resemblance to reality, but I have more confidence in Antonio. Emergencies apart, David ain't becoming a midfield regular for Chelsea.

If you reward people for doing something, they will continue to do it. As consumers of media we lap this stuff up so, naturally, they keep pumping it out. Alderweirald's agent is almost certainly the source of this story as he chases an improved deal for his client. Good story, good source. Of course it's going to be published.

No that regulation has a size limitation. It does dot apply to the larger grounds, Old Trafford for example. Spurs have the same exemption at Wembley. For security reasons, the local council prohibited tickets for today's game going on General sale. That meant only season ticket holders and members could buy a seat. Hence the 'small' attendance. Apparently, Brent are not so worried about the possibility of trouble between Spurs and Burnley fans. Tickets have been on general sale for that game so it is expected to sell out. Still only 3,106 official tickets for Burnley, though their fans have probably bought a fair few general sale tickets.

Spurs policy decision to preserve home advantage.

DL mostly good defensively, mostly dire in possession.

I don't believe in David as a midfielder. Claims of his quality in that role are pure imagination in my view.

Yep, I've already had my usual thought 2 or 3 times. If he was playing for us we'd be comfortable favourites for any game against Spurs.

Thanks. Antonio has said this?

My guess? 3-5-2 with Rudi in midfield. Other ideas?

Exactly. It's an argument for losers to obsess about. United are indeed huge. The biggest of them all maybe but take a look above Ossie's statue at The Bridge over the next nine months. What's written there are the words winners obsess about. Home of The Champions. United can be as big as they like, we wear the crown.

So what? They are. People who get upset by the truth should work on getting over it, not blame those who speak it.

Nonsense. Why post drivel of this type? You are asking rational human beings to imagine you have a better understanding of the transfer market than professionals who work in it. You want us to believe that the most mundane ideas, ideas which any junior football fan could conceive, are beyond the grasp of every single member of the Chelsea FC board. What, are the board members all 8 years old or something? Sorry, but rational people won't be drawn into your fantasy nightmare. Surly people who are unhappy with what the board have done, or with what they have not done, can find a way to complain without requiring the rest of us to navigate around so much, frankly silly, content in order to find the good points they may be making.

Read the tweet again. 😊

Mixing up Conte and Sandro? 😊

I have to admit that I don't believe in tales of managers with magic wands. Personally I'd rather take my chances with Gandalf or Hermeone Granger. Next someone is going to tell me that Antonio has made Marcos & Victor better players. I hope no one will though because it irritates the heck out of me when people talk nonsense. Marcos is the same as he ever was and so is Victor. This time next year Ross Barkley will be the same player too. If people think Barkley already has what it takes to help us then fair enough. Anyone, however, who imagines he might fly into Cobham as just an Everton reject, and land in Oz wearing spangly red boots, has taken too many trips down the Yellow Brick Road themselves.

Or is it the rumour spreaders who have no clue?

A nonsense statement by Cruyff, surely? Are there two better team players, players whose passing is excellent, whose contribution makes their teammates more effective and improves their team? Everybody in their right mind would wonder what qualifies me to question Johan Cruyff's opinion on football, but can anyone really question that, on this subject at least, my description of what those two bring is without doubt more accurate than the late great Johan's?

Exactly. Those words do not support the headline. Nothing there talks about Pat tipping that we'll sign any players. He's just giving an opinion about what we need.

I don't know that we are not chasing this player, but how do you know that we are? Isn't it reasonable to at least acknowledge that the story might be a plant before launching into another criticism of the club based on a mere report?

The quotes do not support the headline.

Put the same group of people into our board room and you think they'd get the same results they've achieved at Milan? I don't. Transfer fees demanded of Premier League clubs in general, and of our club in particular, plus increased wage expectations of players in this league, make the task of our squad builders an entirely different one to that faced by Milan. Throw in the unhelpful reputations we've acquired, and you're just not comparing like for like.

I hope uefa's statement will shut the press up about this transfer being investigated under FFP. No individual move will, or can, be looked into. All that can be looked into is a club's financial results as a whole. In that light, it is not accurate to say UEFA will launch an investigation into that transfer. What they will do is investigate PSG's accounts for this season (probably to be published about January 2019) and assess the results under their three year rule. Nor will that investigation be specific to PSG. They will examine the books of all clubs which are subject to FFP regulations. In that regard it will be a routine check, not a special one. Of course we will be one of the clubs whose books are audited. It is not sufficient to list our revenues and announce our spending ability on the strength of them. It is our profitability which will be scrutinised, and that means revenues must be compared to costs. For example, our wage bill alone is way more than the Premier League TV money and the Nike deal combined. It even consumes most of the Yokohama cash too. I'm not suggesting that the amortised cost of this summer's spending puts us at risk of falling FFP, I don't think it does, I'm just making the point that we can't look at revenues in isolation.

I agree with you on two counts. I like Ox, and the right side is definitely in greater need of attention than the left.

Personally, I don't want competition. Competition is not enough. We should look for an upgrade; a player at least as good as Marcos technically but with more power and, very importantly, more pace. I'm a Marcos Alonso fan. In my view it would take a great player to dislodge him from the team but a great player is what we need.

Ash, partly due to technical limitations, and even more to his chronic one-footedness, was not great on the ball. He made up for this by being a defender par excellence; the best defensive left back around, bar none. Ash acquired a reputation as an attacking full back at Arsenal largely by getting on the end of their pretty passing patterns, not by being a great contributor to those moves. If Rose is worse on the ball then he absolutely, definitely is not the man for us.