OhForAGreavsie

I like Kessie but I don't think he's the perfect signing for us. For me, Kessie & Kante is not enough quality in the engine room. I'm not at all convinced about Semedo and have no interest in Chelsea signing him. Of the two, I'd stick with Victor.

I was in favour of signing Alonso in the summer because I believed his atributes could help our team. I think that has worked out well but this lad is an Alonso upgrade for sure. Ghoulam offers the good continuity skills which are vital for a wing back, but he brings more pace and more power than Marcos which makes his defensive game more solid too.

I agree that Sidibe is a terrific player but he does not make it to number one in my wish list. That place is reserved for a Matic upgrade because I think an improvement in that position will make a bigger impact on our team than any other upgrade we might contemplate. I say a 'Matic upgrade', but actually I think I mean a Fabregas upgrade. A player who can deliver the quality Cesc can, while also providing the pace, power and energy that will persuade Antonio to select him ahead of Nemanja. That said, you have to sign the players you need when they are available. If Sidibe is gettable in the summer, then we should try.

No visible involvement but I wouldn't expect there to be any. Two reasons: - We know from Antonio himself that he wants signings and that he has talked to the club about his targets. It's reasonable to assume that the club is investigating these but doing so quietly, as every club would like to. Selling clubs have an incentive to hold out to the end of the window. Only at the last minute, of the last day, can they be absolutely sure that they've wrung the highest possible bid out of prospective buyers. They will try hard not to blink before then, even if they actually want to sell. Will we get anything done? Who knows. Lots of good players out there but few available and many potential buyers in a brutally competitive market. Edit: These reasons probably explain why none of our rivals have got anything done either.

Interesting. Maybe I need to see more of him. Based on the video above, I'd say he looks rather ordinary. What we see there does not motivate me to seek out all touches videos and certainly not to watch full game coverage. He shows some competent things in the highlights package, but nothing I would not also expect Victor Moses to be able to deliver. If the club go into the market, we'd all like it to be for a clear upgrade, not a like-for-like alternative. That package does not suggest to me that this bloke is even as good as we have already, never mind better.

Self evident nonsense since I am a real, very real, Chelsea fan and I do want Jose to win the EFL Cup. Perhaps you imagine all Chelsea fans are small minded fat-heads? Another self-evident error I'm afraid. I'm not going to engage with you on this any longer. If I have any comment to make on any of your football opinions, I'll post them.

What an extraordinarily stupid comment, even for you. Other clubs will win trophies whether fat heads like it or not. Real Chelsea fans, the kind with no question marks, want Chelsea to win everything. Anything Chelsea cannot win, like the League Cup for example, I'm content that Jose should win it. I'll be pleased for him if he does. Or you think proper Chels fans want Liverpool to win it?

Well, as you know, your hope is going to be disappointed. You'll no doubt get a lot of sympathy from like minded people the next time Jose wins a trophy. I hope that sympathy will make you feel better although I suppose there's a chance that this hope will be disappointed too.

Then why do Hazard, Pedro, Neymar, Messi, Rose, Walker, Reus, Dembele, and everybody else in the world including Adama not dribble every time they get the ball?

Well that's the question. I can't say I'm planning to watch him anytime soon but if & when I do I'll form an opinion on it.

Why? I'm capable of simultaneously admiring Jose and wanting United to loose when it suits Chelsea.

And that implies what? That those with an affection for the man must sit quiet while others pour out their bile? I won't do any posts extolling my admiration for his achievements with Chelsea, if those who dub him Moanrinho, those who are in fact themselves the true, and repetitive, moaners, will refrain from dumping their ire on the rest of us. Deal? It'll be easy for me since I don't make any of those posts. How the other lot will cope without their seemingly daily purge, is harder to guess. Count the number of times I mention Jose and compare that figure to the number of mentions in the moaners posts. I'll be surprised if mine amount to 1 in 20. What's more you'll find that almost all, if not actually all, my mentions come in response to others posting about Jose. I don't bring the subject up as a rule. I wonder just who it is that needs to get get over Jose.

Your hatred for a Chelsea legend is a joke.

#all lies and jest Still a man hears what he wants to hear And disregards the rest#

More experience will always help a player to make better use of his qualities so this could be true. I haven't seen enough of him to have an opinion on that.

That why the word 'if' is an important component of the sentence to which you replied. If stats mean anything. Yes, of course. I've written this comment a number of times before so apologies to all for another repetition but.. Full/wing backs are frequent targets for the 'out' ball. For that reason, most times your team establishes clear possession one, if not both, of your full/wing backs will touch the ball. Often they will each touch the ball more than once during that passage of play. This is why it is a major benefit to a team if its people in those roles are good continuity footballers. This means that; they can receive and retain the ball under pressure, they have good body control and ball manipulation skills to create angles to make positive passes, and it is vital that they have good passing accuracy. Being comfortable making short passes with both feet is a major benefit in this regard, since this opens more passing angles and increases the possibilities for positive passes which allow your team to move forward instead of having to go back and recyle posession without going anywhere. I am not saying that the eye catching dribbling and crossing skills do not also make a contribution, but minute-by-minute, game-by-game, it's the skills and attributes above which matter more. This is precisely why I correctly predicted that Marcos Alonso would have an impact on our team despite the fact that he is a far from elite defender. Putting better continuity players in the wide defensive positions improves your team going forward and this automatically improves your defence too. It's important to acknowledge here that Moses has also contributed to this improvement and for the same reason. Only some of the credit belongs to Marcos, not all of it. Having said that, I would like us to be on the hunt for better alternatives to our pair of wing backs. That means players who can do what they can, but offer better defensive fundamentals along with more pace and power, particularly on the left. It has to be along with, not instead of however. Poor passers need not apply. Is Adama a poor passer? I don't know, I haven't watched him enough to have a valid opinion. If stats mean anything then his don't look good, but then I'm not a big fan of stats. Dribbles can only happen when the circumstances allow; but almost every time a player receives the ball the next thing he needs to do with it is pass. Only misguided squad builders would pick the better dribbler over the better passer at wing back. If all other attributes are considered to be equal, then take the better passer 100% of the time.

If stats mean anything then those suggest that Moses completely outclasses Adama.

More silliness. Your comment to which I reacted has nothing to do with the finite quality of the teams playing in the division. What I described as wrong, disrespectful and plain silly is the idea that The Championship exits to serve any purpose of ours. That division, and those teams, exist to pursue their own ambitions without any reference to what is good for the Premier League, any individual Premier League club, or even me and you. We don't have them to serve our plans, we don't have them at all; they are independent entities. They may be good, they may be crap but they don't belong to me and they don't belong to you. Whatever the heck you thought you meant when you said, " Thats why we have the championship teams", you got that wrong.

When we signed KDB I watched him play for Genk and became a fan immediately. So big a fan indeed that I then watched every game he played for Bremen which didn't clash with a Chelsea match, and every game he played for Belgium whether it clashed with England or not. I remember posting a comment at the time which included the phrase "I love, love, love, the way KDB plays football." My assessment of Dom is very different. To borrow a quote from Senator Bensten; Dom Solanke is no KDB. Dom's age has nothing to do with it either. He ain't got top level talent and talent is something you can't manufacture no matter how long you spend on the practice ground, or how old you get. If Dom works hard he can make a career for himself but it's unlikely to be at the highest level. By the way, your idea of "why we have Championship teams", is wrong, disrespectful and plain silly.

You're right, I don't know the Spanish system but if it makes misbehaviour easier to fall into then, in the end, that is no excuse. Misbehaviour is still misbehaviour. Do the right thing; you'll feel better about yourself, you'll be more respected, you'll sleep better at night and you'll still live like a prince.

There have been reliable suggestions that, between loan fees and transfer revenues, the Cobham system pays for itself. Whether that is so or not, there is a great danger in Giving Dom a contract at such a level; the danger of trapping him here. He has done nothing at all to suggest he deserves £10m over four years. If he has a long term guaranteed contract for more than he's worth, how are we going to sell him? Who is going to want to take on that burden for a player who has shown nothing yet?

I just don't get why top players behave like this. The money they earn is equivalent to winning the lottery every year, for many years. It may show a lack of ambition on my part but, if I was in so fortunate a position, I'd make simple tax arrangements, pay what's due and sleep easy at night. Why, when you can give your family a great lifestyle with the best of everything, would you let stress and hassle in your door? I think we can guess why; it's the result of suggestions from advisers brought on board by their agents. If these young men would take advice from a different source, I'd say tell your agent to stop it. Bring your earnings on shore, look the world square in the eye and say, I know the money I'm paid is beyond ridiculous but that's not my fault. At least I behave properly about it and pay my dues. If these lads don't know it already, they need guidance to help them understand that integrity, peace of mind and the respect of the world, is worth more than a few extra quid to spend at the Burj Khalifa.

Terrible is a bit strong but Rom's technical limitations will always hold him back. The first time I saw him play for Chelsea I posted (elsewhere) to say that he shouldn't be here and that no manager of a top club would ever be satisfied with Romelu as his first choice striker. The idea that Rom shouldn't be at Chelsea turned out not to be completely correct in as much as we made a sizeable profit on his transfer. Sadly for the young man however, I think it is the truth as far as his on pitch contribution goes. My guess is that if Chelsea re-sign Lukaku, Antonio would be hoping for an upgrade fairly soon afterwards.

Think you are way off beam in your assessment and your suggestion is far too generous. No chance at all Madrid will be interested in Dom. That story was clearly born in the imagination of some agent. Often there is the merest grain of truth behind these claims in so far as all the top clubs watch ALL of the emerging talent. Watching is usually as far as any interest will go however. Dom is a really likeable bloke with sound attributes, but he is simply not good enough to capture the interest of Los Blancos. I don't know what variables Chelsea would pump into the equation to determine their contract offer to Dom, but any calculation which results in a salary of £2.5m p.a. needs to be checked and re-done.