OhForAGreavsie

"Toys out of the tram." I like it. 🙂

CFCW started their preseason last night with a 3-1 win against American champions NY/NJ Gotham in New Jersey. We started strongly and ended the game reasonably, but there was a disjointed spell either side of halftime. Johanna Rytting Kaneryd scored twice and Aggie Beever-Jones netted the other. The result was great but the performance is a little more difficult to judge. On the one hand we played against a strong team which is in the middle of their season, but on the other, half of their strongest XI, were not even in the match day squad. Positives: a win is a win, 22 players got minutes, there were moments when the new manager's style could be seen taking shape, ABJ was very sharp, new signings Kaptein and Bernabe looked comfortable and a competitive preseason fixture has to have been helpful. Negatives: we could barely complete a pass either side of halftime, our difficulties defending set pieces carried over from late last season, Lauren James was poor (though I think this may prove a blessing in disguise), Lucy Bronze was awful. Things can only get better for her. Very Bad: Erin Cuthbert picked up a worrying knee injury and left the stadium on crutches. https://www.chelseafc.com/en/video/rytting-kaneryds-post-match-reaction https://www.chelseafc.com/en/video/bompastors-post-match-reaction

We took seven points from these fixtures last season.

I agree with your summation of Napoli's situation. All the more reason not to allow ourselves to be exploited.

The question is not what his price was at any time in the past, the question is what is his value now. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder of course, but in my eye that value is a good deal less Lukaku + Casadei + £50m. For a player with a big salary and few, if any, other potential buyers, that's a ludicrous transfer fee to pay. Sooner or later we are going to have to break the cycle of putting ourselves in desperate situations, then allowing clubs to exploit our self-imposed difficulties. Ending that cycle might cost us a fortune in salaries paid, and transfer fees lost. Not ending it will cost us a heck of a lot more, financially and sportingly

If you run a large company some of your internal staff will be responsible for facilities maintenance. They will quite often be supplemented by external staff too. All of these people will have task specific expertise and their work will frequently require large capital expenditure. Such expenditure will have to be signed off by a senior executive. That executive will rely on the expertise of their technical staff as to whether the work being carried out is necessary and performed to the required standards and codes. That senior executive won't be required to make the technical decisions, but instead be tasked with ensuring suitably qualified people are in place. Sorry for spelling all of this out. I'm well aware that you know all of this. The reason for labouring this point is that Marina was in an even more removed situation than this. She was effectively an Avatar for Roman at the club. If she advised that a particular transfer could not be afforded, but Roman insisted that it must go through, it would go through. Marina's performance would be judged not only on her independent judgments, but also on her ability to be a fixer for the boss. Until, and unless, someone shows me irrefutable evidence that Marina was picking the players to be signed I will not believe it. I'm firmly fixed in this position because, if I had Roman's money, picking the players would be the fun part. I certainly would not delegate that away while forking out large chunks of my fortune for someone else to enjoy. Very early in Roman's ownership of the club Bruce Buck revealed that the oligarch used Football Manager to assess players. The CEO we brought in from Man United, whose name escapes me for a minute, confirmed that the manager did not make all of the transfer decisions. To me it is blindingly obvious that Roman was making them. He is, in my opinion, certainly the person who signed Lukaku the second time. I even believe that it was his son who signed Marco Marin; a player with eye catching attributes but zero effective contribution to team play. Let's blame Marina for things which were her fault but the players signed are not among them.

Of course Marina was the one signing off on deals. Football staff can't sign the cheques. That would be ridiculous. If you think I said that she didn't then you misread my comment, or are failing to pay enough attention to the varying responsibilities of of different roles in a large company.

Somebody show me evidence that Marina was making purchasing decisions. Then please show me evidence that she was deciding which players to sell. I have never seen any but it's never too late to learn if anyone knows of any. Responsibility for conducting the business side of the deals, yes. Culpability for illegal transfer activity, undoubtedly. Responsibility for actions which took place before she joined the board, no chance.

I wonder how it happened. I've never liked his tackling style. It always seemed like an injury waiting to happen. Whichever way it came about, let's hope the lad makes a full recovery and gets to continue his career without any loss of capability.

Given their ability to attract the players they want, Madrid often need only pick up the phone. In Felix's case however, I feel he would spend a lot of nights in waiting for a call that never comes.

I didn't say they didn't want him. Based on my own prejudice, I find it hard to believe that they did, but, in any event, they certainly didn't want him enough to make him a priority signing. Which is why I phrased my comment as I did.

Presumably there would be a headache resolution clause in his contract guaranteeing the manager free pain relief medication and regular lie downs in a darkened room. Where is he going to play? When's he going to play? We all know that if Felix joins he will look great, but what would he actually achieve? Same as usual? Same as makes Atleti keen to part with him, and prevents Barcelona having any interest in making him a priority?

Is it possible that should read 'are making' instead of 'made'?

Not sure what you mean by this.

I had never seen that stat. It's shocking.

Just to be clear I like Neto. 🙂

I've definitely seen him play left wing, albeit only on Match of The Day.

I sometimes ask people what makes a professional footballer and, when I do, I mean it as a trick question. The answer is that it takes a contract with a club which people are prepared to pay to watch play. That's it. We are the ones who make the people who work in football professionals. It's hard to imagine Lionel Messi playing on a random local authority park somewhere, but that's where he'd be without us.

Sadly no chance of a sell on for us but I read Liverpool will get a slice of the fee.

This has been a truth that somebody should write a book about.

I wouldn't say I've turned on Enzo. I'm waiting for him to impress me, but with reducing expectation that he will. For £106m you would hope for world class, but I'm not seeing that level of performance. Worse, I'm not recognising the potential for it either.

My memory wasn't up to it so I checked with Google and see that Enzo and Moises signed for 8.5 and 8 years respectively. Basing the calculation on those contract lengths*, £100m will more or less cover us for 4 years of their combined amortisation cost. Transfer fees for the other three names you mentioned would take care of most of the rest. That's a stark demonstration of the strategy being followed, though we're not going to be able to sell £200m worth of academy talent to get us out of trouble every summer. A reality which won't be helped by the now alarmingly regular loss of our best academy talents for little or no transfer/compensation fees. Although I have never seen either of the lads we have lost to City and Liverpool this summer play, it's disappointing to read that they are both regarded as extremely high level prospects. We have to work on solving that situation. *These 2 deals were done before the five-year amortisation cap was imposed.

I said to someone at a game last season, can't remember which one, that I doubted if Levi would be selected with everyone fit.

Sounds a little bit like visiting the Chelsea website these days.

I remember when we used to say that the only way to justify playing in the Europa League was to win it. Now, in these reduced circumstances, I think we have to say the same thing about the Conference League. Anyway it's a part of football now so we have to complete it again.