OhForAGreavsie

Am I the only one who is seeing that damn annoying "Arsenal Forward" banner all over my screen when using the forum? I assume it it's appearing as an ad. Could someone please kill it if at all possible.

How do you know he doesn't see it? Or put it another way, how would you know if he did? Do you need him to hang a sign round his neck, or hold up a banner in the dugout?

OK, one more to put it to bed.

Now stop the suicidal crap at the back City. Well for this competition anyway. :-)

When we want them to lose the fact that they can't defend is a blessing. On a night when we need them to win however, it's too bad to even be funny.

Welcome to the crowd. Everybody in Europe likes this lad.

Monaco are a great side, with a lot of good footballers, but that doesn't change the fact that it's better for us if City progress.

It's better for us in every way if City go through.

I don't think the Cup game vs. United has been scheduled yet but we need to be reasonable here. A few seasons ago Spurs played an away fixture in the Europa League on a Thursday then came to Stamford Bridge for a lunchtime kick-off in the Premier League less than 48 hours later. They put in a world class standard of whining about it but the game went ahead. If the United match is listed for the Saturday they'll just have to get on with it. If, however, it is to played on the Sunday, or even the Monday, then that's not unreasonable. We just have to win the game whenever it happens. I don't know how the telly coverage will breakdown for round six but I'd guess it'll be two matches for BT and two for BBC. I think BBC will want either Chelsea v Man U or Arsenal v Lincoln but BT will get first pick. Whichever game the Beeb get will go in their Monday night slot for sure.

What a useless, waste of space video. It tells us absolutely nothing about the player. The video is over four minutes long yet, in total, we see fewer than a dozen touches from the young man. Half of these touches occur in the last piece of action featured, and one of them is pretty loose. The video serves no purpose but to make the viewer suspect that it is designed to hide something. The editor of the video might argue that it was not created to give an overall impression of the player, but merely to show the goals he scored. If that is so then why waste screen time on the lad celebrating his goals? Strip out celebrations and replays, and that video would be no more than 12 to 15 seconds long.

Every individual can decide to support, or to follow, whichever club they choose and do so for whatever reason they want. They can express that decision in whichever way they like and they'll get no criticism from me. I would however be very, very critical of this club if it was to share your point of view. I love Chelsea football club. I could not feel any other way even if I wanted to, but the attitude it has displayed throughout its history, an attitude which charges coaches and players with the duty to make maximum effort in every competition we enter, is something which makes me very proud. I have never felt it was my right to claim to be a better Chelsea fan than anyone else, or to prescribe for others what is the correct, or the incorrect, way to be a fan. Clearly I do not have that right, but I wouldn't use it even if I did. I must say however that I would take a very great deal less pride in my club if it shared your point of view about the Football Association Challenge Cup. Fortunately, for me anyway, I think the club sees the FA cup differently to the way you do. I expect Antonio to demonstrate that difference by fielding a full strength side and insisting that the players give everything in pursuit of victory against Manchester United in round six.

Duplicate - see post below

Duplicate.

Absolutely true. Unfortunately this is not news to any of us. I challenge everyone, myself most of all, to remain upbeat. If Victor only plays because no one else is better, then that is not his fault. We can't pretend that we don't see what we see, and if we see it then of course we will talk about it. Somewhere in there however, we have to keep our heads up. Let's maintain some positivity, especially in the stadium, and try to help the lads finish what they've started. I am the most pessimistic Chelsea fan imaginable. If you happen to find yourself feeling more grumpy than me then you're in trouble, I promise you. :-)

Hello Skipper, I see that you are also in favour of Mahmoud Dahoud as a potential partner for N'Golo. I have only seen his highlight videos. These show a lot of poise and quality in possession, but how is he on the other side of the ball? How is his tactical discipline and his work rate out of possession? Would he persuade Antonio to select him any more often than the manager selects Cesc? I can guess that you have positive views about him in this regard or else you probably would not be supporting the idea of pursuing him. Even so, I like your opinions on players so it would be good to hear from you explicitly on Dahoud. If you're able to reply, I'm guessing you'd prefer to do so in his dedicated thread so I'll check there. Thank you as always.

Interesting post. Thank you. I think our starting XI would be significantly improved if we made those four changes. What is more no one doubts that we do need serious improvements. I therefore hope that, not only will the club try to get comfortable with the necessary changes, but that they will try hard to make them happen. That said, I am the first to recognise that this number of changes are unlikely to be pulled off in a single window. Indeed I have posted on this point a number of times. From the moment that Marcos Alonso began to be linked with us, I was delighted and posted to say so. As I said in those posts, I was very excited about what he might do for us. I was confident that, despite his limitations, he would help our team become more fluid and, in so doing, improve us on both sides of the ball. I think events have vindicated the opinion I expressed then. Even so, I list Marcos as the fourth most important upgrade we should look for. In the same way that Marcos's marginal improvements have made a big impact, so too I think bringing in a player who adds further attributes will help us take another significant step forward. I have my heart set on Goulham. If that happens I will be one very, very happy bunny. If Nemanja is still starting for us in August I will be surprised, disappointed and frustrated. We all want to be in the Champions League next season and that means a higher level of competition. Game after game, opportunity after opportunity goes begging because of Nemanja's limitations. He just does not have the sureness of touch, agility of movement, or quality of body control to find ways of turning defence into attack. If his body shape happens to be correctly organised when the ball arrives at his feet he can pick a good pass just like all professionals can. When his body shape is not perfect however, he just does not have what it takes to turn a bad situation into a good one. Those times, which is to say almost all the time, he is forced to just drop the ball off backwards. This doesn't always cause immediate problems, but it does always rob us of the opportunity to spring forward with good momentum. Throw in the fact that Nemanja can't run past anyone, and that his problems are compounded by chronic one-footedness, and it is absolutely clear to me that replacing him is priority number one.

Duplicate.

I completely agree with you that we need starters, not squad fillers. Ideally the players who would be replaced by new signings could be persuaded to stay on as squad members. Alonso and Moses as reserve wingbacks would be impressive squad depth. In terms of goals and targets mine are always the same; The Premier League, the FA Cup and the Champions League. In that order. Transfer priorities:- 1. Matic upgrade 2. Moses upgrade 3. Pedro upgrade 4. Alonso upgrade Beyond that, just replacements for anyone who wants to go, or opportunistic buying. For example, if Belotti is moving this summer then we have to try to get him because his next club will be one of the big boys and we'll never prise him away from them. I would proceed with the transfer even if it means agreeing to Diego's departure. I know many people would say that a move for Belotti would be premature but we have to strike while we can. We are not at the top of the food chain so we cannot afford to wait untill players prove themselves. If we try that, the best players will always be wanted by the biggest clubs, and we will always lose out. In any case, "it's too soon", or, "he hasn't had enough good seasons yet", is what some of us were told when we suggested moves for Paulo Dybala and Ousmane Dembele over the last couple of summers. Clubs in our situation, clubs wanting to compete with the very best, but unable to go head-to-head with them in transfer tussles, have to beat them to the punch by making good judgements, and making them early.

That may be true but we have seen too few performances from City featuring Jesus to be confident that it is. The comment I made was based on my opinion that, in terms of individual talents, Aguero is the better of the two strikers. Whether Jesús will turn out to be the more effective contributor for Pep's gameplan, time will tell.

There are statistics which suggest that the opposite is in fact true. The statistics show that the points gap between the top and bottom clubs of the two leagues is consistently greater in the Premier League than it is in La Liga. Further, the points gap between fourth place and the relegation zone is also greater in England, on average, than it is in Spain. I should add that I have not seen these statistics myself. I am just repeating something I heard Guilem Balligue say. I'm sure it must be true though, or he would not have said it.

Desperately sad, but true.

How did Andreas do?

It's a fair question and one which reminds me of a truth about myself. When it comes to my football team, I am very definitely a glass half empty man. Where some see the flaws in our squad but give more weight to the eight point lead, I see the lead but worry all the time about the flaws. In my world view the eight points are not enough and in no way compensate me for the weekly trauma of watching Nemanja play. There must be hope but we are not going to be able to go into the market and cherry pick the talent we want. That is the privilege of Spain's mighty duo. We have to approach the market with the understanding that many of the players we want will simply not be available to us, and given that we do not have Chinese sized budgets, we won't be able to fix that by chucking more money at it. Attempting to do that is more likely to push up the cost of our squad, than its quality. The entire Premier League is in the same tough spot we are. The only way out is for our clubs to learn patience and restraint but I do not think that is very likely any time soon. It will take a major jolt for them to wake up to the urgency, a jolt like a loss of a CL place for example. That loss will arrive sooner or later unless we wake up. It is entirely understandable that our clubs would struggle to keep pace with the Spanish giants given the many advantages enjoyed by those two clubs, but what possible excuse can there be for Paris Saint Germain having moved ahead of our top sides? Look at what has happened to our league as a result of the pay top money for less than top talent attitude. Tottenham are long gone from the CL, Arsenal have joined them, no one has any hope that Leicester will progress and City face an almighty challenge over the next 20 days or so. Things may not be quite as bad as the pessimist in my feels they are, but we have problems for sure.

Well I was, and am, in favour of signing Koulibally but I stopped backing the chase when the reported fee reached £50m. Napoli claimed boasted that the final bid they rejected was €60m, so the club pushed the boat out further than I would have done in an effort to complete that particular deal. Meanwhile, I agree with your general idea of paying top prices as long as it is for top players, but I'm afraid that I believe it's a non-starter in reality. Firstly, there is a very limited pool of high quality players who will be available to Premier League clubs and an even smaller subset who will be candidates to join Chelsea. Secondly, competition is fierce, with oceans of money sloshing around. We all know what does to prices. Thirdly, overseas clubs have learned that they can sell their second tier talent to the Premier League for top tier prices and they have become addicted to it. They say no, and keep saying no, when you bid for elites like Bonucci or Dybala, then they slap a €100m price tag on sub-elites like Pogba. (Yes he is, who else wanted him at the price united paid? In any case he made it clear that he preferred Spain but Barca & Real weren't interested.) I would pay big fees for Ghoulam, Silva or Belotti and would be prepared to go quite high for one of a number of Matic or Moses replacements but there is a low probability of getting any of them. Even with ridiculously high offers.

We did go for him, as has been confirmed by a boastful Napoli president. What we did not do is offer to pay the amount of money that many, many users of this forum were demanding that we should.