OhForAGreavsie

He was there alright. Just not on loan.

All of a sudden Monaco have a few really good players. When they beat Spurs I was amused but surprised. Now that I've watched them a bit (because their players keep being linked with us) I'm no longer surprised at all. It's not really 'all of a sudden' of course. It's just that I wasn't aware of their quality.

I agree. If it's a choice between a largely ineffective player we'd have to buy, or one we already own, then let's stick with the one we've got.

Turns out City didn't do that.

Best of luck Pat. Do well.

Madrid won't sign Dom, and no one will pay him £2.5m pa.

That sounds sensible but it depends on a PL side wanting him and having a high degree of confidence that he'll start for them. If those conditions aren't met, then club and player alike have to look for a better option.

I'm not so sure about that. As I said the first time I saw Kennedy on YouTube, he is not good enough technically to be an AM at the level Chelsea aspire to. His later try out at LB may have raised hopes but was always going to be a very long shot. This loan may not quite be the end of Kennedy's Chelsea adventure but it's probably looming. If everyone is now ready to accept that it won't happen here for Kennedy, then this a step in the right direction because we can focus on finding a different solution.

Why on Earth would Dortmund sell just six months after signing him?

Do people really underate him? I have been following this football club for a long while but I don't remember a time when we were consistently linked with such good players. This has not yet been reflected in the players we've been able to sign but it's a start I suppose. Bonaventura strikes me as the type of footballer you sign first then worry where you play him later. He seems to me to have the versatility to perform various roles in our current shape, but personally I would be tempted to play him as a Six. Every time I watch Dembele play against us my frustration grows. Someone of that technical excellence in the core of our team would improve us enormously. To those tempted to say that Bonaventura lacks the defensive quality for this role, I would suggest they consider the dramatic contribution Marcos Alonso has made to our defensive solidity. I can't repeat often enough that if you improve your ability to maintain possession and distribute the ball you automatically also improve your defence. Bonaventura excels at manipulating the football in tight spaces to earn himself room to play. Boy, could we use someone like that in the middle of the park. My overall belief however is that, even if the experiment of using him at Six failed, Bonaventura is still a player you'd want in your squad to use in a more forward situation.

Just don't agree with you. And yes, of course I do watch Rom. Not good enough for Chelsea. Does what he does well enough but lack of technical quality condemns him to a status permanently below elite level.

Way better player than Torres.

Why blame him for your misjudgement? Or are you saying that you are the fraud? :-)

Yes, I really did. :-)

For exactly the same reason that no Champions League club wanted Lukaku enough to make an offer for him when he was being hawked around this summer.

The injury simply serves as an excuse. The sad, but unavoidable, reality is that Marko has never displayed anything even approaching the quality we need. He is not to blame for that, he has never done anything less than his best. Let's wish him well and allow him to move on to the next permanent stop in his career, and let's do that as soon as his contractual situation permits.

Better than recently but not back to his best.

I suppose it's possible that this bloke, who ever he is, knows something. On the other hand, it seems more likely that this is just a ridiculous extrapolation from Antonio!s post match press conference. In that conference he said, a number of times, that the players are training again on Tuesday so we'll see. Taken in context, that simply meant Tuesday would be his earliest opportunity to see how Diego's "injury" is progressing.

He is a far better player than Torres. And yes, I was saying Nando was an extremely average footballer before he arrived at Stamford Bridge. (Before he arrived at Liverpool actually.) Of course mine was a pretty lonely voice back then.

Assuming the sentiment attributed to Roman is accurate, it's hard to conclude anything from it. On the one hand, if Roman does not wish to sell, then that is exactly the stance he would take. On the other hand, if he is willing to sell then that is exactly the stance he would take for negotiation purposes.

Interesting player. Worthy of serious consideration I think. Under the circumstance Torino would hold out for his clause, said to be £100 million if I am remembering the figure correctly from one of the posts in his transfer talk thread. That really is a lot to consider.

Not for me.

Absolute, total nonsense. A complete stupidity of a statistic.

I like this lad but I think he is someone to consider if, and when, we need to replace Diego. Belotti does not look like he could play with DC and I can't believe he would accept the role of backup. In any case, his transfer fee and wage requirements would make him far too expensive to park on the bench.

I think it's reasonable to believe that they are seriously evaluating Kennedy and Charly. After all, what else would they be doing? Even if like me, and probably you too, Antonio has a preformed expectation about what the lads can do, they are here and they are training. Unless the coach shuts his eyes he can hardly avoid forming an opinion about what he sees. No, the evaluation is definitely happening, with the youngsters being put through their paces in various roles. What we wait to find out is the outcome of that evaluation. As far as that goes, the unknown element here is what options Antonio has. If he keeps our two returning loanees will that be because he likes them, or because no better alternatives are available to him over the next 20 days?