OhForAGreavsie

Hello TW, I really don't think we need to fret about this. Unlike us, the club knows the facts of the financial arrangements involved with these deals including what offers for permanent or temporary moves have been made. They also know the wishes of the player, the manager and other squad builders in regard to the individual's future. We know none of these things. I realise it pleases some people to imagine the club is run by a collection of men and women who couldn't pass a Key Stage 1 SAT, who don't know their left from their right, and who can't spell their own names. The reality of course is very different. If any of these people got talking about the business of football with you, me, or, I suspect, virtually anyone else here, they'd soon make our lack of knowledge look pretty foolish. I believe the key thing you and I have to focus on is that these are not exclusively footballing decisions. I very much doubt, for example, that anyone at Chelsea believes Lucas Piazon has strong chances of a future with the club but there are enormous financial implications in play. My argument is that you, I, and everyone else here should let the people who know what those implications are, and how to deal with them, get on with their work.

I've made this point a number of times before but I think it needs to be made again. What Diego Costa brings to the team is not worth the amount of motivation he gives to opposing fans and players alike. That was true last season and is even more true now when you consider the quality of the alternative we have sitting on the bench.

I'd say Diego is a better finisher than Michy but, apart from that, the Belgian gets all the ticks.

I used to say that if I woke up and found myself owner of Chelsea, the bid for Diaby would go in that same day. Of course Arsenal wouldn't have sold, and he probably wouldn't have accepted anyway. After all, there were stories at the time that we had offered a bigger fee and a better wage package but that Diaby had chosen the Gunners. It even crossed my mind that we should take the risk of offering Diaby a deal when he was released by Arsenal. As it turned out he went back to France and - promptly got injured again. Poor bloke.

Thanks for the response. Lots of stuff to get into here. All managers are under pressure not just the ones here. Lots of managers lose their jobs all over the place season after season. When the results don't matter managers might give themselves a little more license but, when things are on the line, they select the players they believe are best able to get the result. We do not have the best youth in the world. We have, recently, had the most successful youth team in England and arguably in Europe. That's not quite the same thing. I say 'arguably' in Europe because, although we retained the UEFA youth league last season, our victory in the final against PSG had some good fortune about it . We started that game very brightly and should perhaps have been further ahead than we were by the time Paris came into the match. Once they did get a foothold in the game, they were much the better side. PSG should have levelled, and probably even won. They certainly created enough chances to have done so. The best youth footballer in England currently plays for Manchester City, not for Chelsea. In any case look at how our players generally fare when they go out on loan. Many of them, most of them in fact, struggle to get minutes. Jed Boga went to France and found himself kept out of the team by a younger, and clearly superior, player. Charlie Musonda went to Spain where he received rave reviews. Reviews which were, as I posted at the time, generally speaking a big over reaction to what he was actually producing on the pitch. I'll grant you that there was one outstanding display, the one with Wilmots watching from the stands, but other than that his efforts were goodish at best. On more than one occasion Charlie was just plain poor. It was not a huge surprise that, by the end of the season, he had played himself out of the Bettis starting lineup. Ahead of tomorrow night's game it is still true to say that Charlie has not yet played himself back into it. I watched Andreas two seasons ago. I certainly didn't feel he was ready so I'm in no position to criticise anyone else who thought the same. Jose did select him by the way and he was poor. My point is, that I don't think any youth player has made a compelling case for himself.

Let me ask you a question please. How many managers not selecting a player will it take before you accept that there might be a good reason for it? I completely agree with you, Nathaniel was outstanding in pre-season, when he played. What this says to me is that Antonio must be seeing stuff in training that he really doesn't like or else the lad must surely have had some minutes by now.

Abou Diaby - Captain.

We were poor against West Ham but they were utterly, utterly useless.

Sorry for coming to this conversation a bit late but I've been down, and off football, since the David Luiz deal. I'm not over it yet but I'm doing my best. :-) I think you are drawing conclusions too soon. For example, West Ham tried very hard to allow us to play very, very well against them, but we still failed. Against Watford, we were horrible for all but a few minutes. We won comprehensively against Burnley but only after Bristol Rovers had exposed the criminal lack of depth in our squad. There are improvements, and I am very optimistic about the help Alonso can give us, but we mustn't read too much into what we've seen so far. For the most part it's been very disappointing. Goodness only knows how things would have gone had Eden not been on his game. Let's keep in mind that journalist who, at the start of the season before last, was describing our team as the best Premier League side ever. Swallows and summers and all that.

In my opinion, and as far as I can judge from interviews and other public interactions, Cesc is the classiest individual in our squad. He has integrity, bravery, discretion and intelligence. These don't necessarily add up to a leader, but they are great ingredients all the same. The big problem of course is that it's hard to see Cesc winning a place in the team. In fact it's easier to see him leaving during the next 12 months than it is to imagine him being installed as captain. If our votes mattered at all, Cesc would have mine but he isn't going to get the job.

Verrati is a genuinely world-class player who is actually worth splashing a lot of cash on. I agree with you that the time must be coming when he will want to leave Paris. Whether we can put ourselves at the top of his list of destinations when the time comes is very doubtful however.

We have sold Cuadrado in all but name. We won't ever be told the detailed reasons for a three-year loan agreement but it seems almost certain that it's to do with manipulating the accounts of one or both clubs. If that works for the money men then they know their business, let them get on with it. Juan didn't want to play here, few of us wanted him to play here, Milan wanted him to play there, Juve got him. Almost everybody is happy. As for the other players, given that none of them has any prospect of a Chelsea career, there must be reasons why their latest move is another loan, not a sale. If the squad builders or money men say this is the best way to go, who am I to argue. They know all the facts and I know none of them.

I understand what you're saying about the value of strength and depth in the squad but the notion that we ever had two Premier League winning 11s in the same squad is a big fat myth. In those days, whenever we rotated, it invariably required the cavalry, in the form of two or even three rested starters, coming off the bench to save our bacon.

DL is ridiculously overrated as a midfielder.

Either that or they've seen Rodriguez play.

That would've been nice. It would have required three bags of popcorn and Arsenal fan TV. :-) Of course I doubt very much that Wenger would have allowed. Even if he would have, Wiltshire has always claimed to be a massive gooner so there's a fair chance he would have turned the move down.

How on Earth are any of us going to know? For what it's worth, I'd go with the Fiorentina sporting director. How about you?

Exactly the kind of player clubs want to sell to the Premier League. Clubs across the continent, particularly in the stronger leagues, see the financial strength of our league as a major problem. They are quite right to. Our league already has the popularity. If it were also to acquire the best players, it would be game over From the self-interest point of view, it makes perfect sense for European clubs to develop strategies for dealing with the Premier League's financial muscle. Judging by the prices Chelsea and other clubs are reportedly being quoted, the plan seems to be that one superior player, or two average ones, will cost a Premier League club its entire annual TV revenues (net). Given that the selling clubs can't expect the gravy train to go on forever, their back up plan anticipates desperate Premier League clubs spending tens of millions of pounds on the only players they can afford under this pricing regime, the ordinary ones. This then becomes a win-win for the sellers; they help themselves to Premier League money anyway and use it to pay their star players wages which come closer to those available in the Premier League. From our point of view this all feels very frustrating but in truth it's a great policy. The bigger clubs around the continent don't exist to feed our clubs need for player talent. They exist to follow their own ambitions and the way they're playing our clubs in the transfer market is high quality. I'm certain this situation must get discussed in the high circles of the Premier League. Hopefully our clubs will develop a strategy of their own, will realise they can't win the battle with the weapon of transfer fees. I hope that instead they will compete more heavily than ever on wages. Apart from the megaclubs our teams have more money than anybody. Let's throw it directly at the players rather than at the players' clubs. This won't mean we will attract all of the top players, there are plenty of reasons to play for some of the super teams around Europe, but at least if we pitch our tent in the money arena that's a place where we can win. Let's aim for a situation where more players than ever will refuse to renew contracts and will hold out for lucrative moves to the Premier League.

Good judges I'd say.

Only Antonio's opinion counts on this one. All the other Serie A watchers have to take a back seat. The one thing we know for sure is that the idea of signing Maksimovic would have occurred to Antonio, and everyone else in the squad building team come to that. If we are not pursuing him then there is a reason for it. Possibly we are not interested, perhaps we've reached an agreement to leave the coast clear for Napoli, maybe the player does not want to come here, or it could be some other reason all together.

How bad do you have to be, to be only a back up to Oscar? There are certain categories of player just not worth going to the market for. A backup for a player who is already not good enough to be a starter is surely among those.

If the part about his being a solid defender is true then I'm happy with this deal because the rest of his attributes look fine to me. The biggest negative I can see is his apparent one footedness. In an ideal world he'd have the confidence to use his right foot just enough to open up more passing angles when he is in possession. That failing, if it is a failing, is not terminal however. His ability on the ball can help him open up angles to play good passes with his left foot and in any case, no one is more one footed than Ashley Cole and he did okay.

I agree, it's an interesting question. It could be, as you speculate, that Italy is where the best available talent is. It might also be that agents of Italian based players are taking the opportunity to push/link their clients with Chelsea. If, however, it is simply that Antonio wants to target players with whom he is already familiar then I hope this will change soon. It's a statement of the obvious that the wider you spread your net, the better chance you have of making a good catch. It is also true though that clubs from other European leagues might be willing to sell their players at prices which represent better value; clubs which don't have the financial strength to drive as hard a bargain as those from Serie A. It is for example quite usual for Italian coaches to be very well informed about players from the former Yugoslav countries. There is often some outstanding talent to be found there. I hope that between now and January, Antonio will have time to get his head up and do some scouting.

I've never played FM myself. Is the 2012 version considered the classic?

Remember I was responding to the claim that Jose simply picked his favourites, and the implication that he made that decision on an irrational basis. My response just points out that where ever other managers have had the same options available to them, they have made the same choice Jose did. It's not possible therefore to support the favouritism claim. As to rotation, every manager in the world knows the pros and cons. They weigh those and make their choice. Whatever choices they make, they all have their reasons for it. We have heard fans complain about a lack of rotation, and we have heard other fans complain about too much rotation. It seems that, as with so much else in football, it just depends on whether you win or not. Well, Jose did win. He not only won the league with a squad which was at least as weak as the current one, he came damn close to winning it the year before with a squad that was even weaker than that one.