OhForAGreavsie

CTV say 4-4-2.

Ou est Loic?

I hate the use of that word out of context. It is not a word that should be normalised through repeated inappropriate use by decent people. Sexual offences are significantly up year after year. Avoiding that word is a tiny thing but I urge all males reading this to do everything we can to make the atmosphere they live in better, and safer, for the women in our lives. Anyway, when did we ever sign the elite?

He has been and of course he went to Austria and the USA. Disappointing that he didn't get a lookin during either of those tours so we have to assume Antonio doesn't think he's ready yet. That suspicion is only added to by the fact that Fikayo almost certainly won't be involved in this game, having played for the 23s last night .

That pub will be a pretty lonely place tonight. :-) Fikayo played last night so I doubt he'll be involved this evening. With or without him I think the team you listed is a lot stronger than the one we'll probably see.

Spot-on. Of course. Psychologists say that it is an important developmental stage when very young human beings begin to realise that things still happen even when they can't see them going on. All of us here are obviously many years beyond that stage and are well aware of this simple reality. Not all of the posts on the forum seem to take that knowledge into account however.

I don't really blame the newspapers on this occasion. They don't want to be left behind in the race for readers and clicks so they can't afford to be too choosy about the detail of the story. As long as they can stand it up, as they say, then they will always be tempted to publish anything. If some agent, working for the player or his club, drops them a story, no matter how stupid, it will see the light of day. We have to accept that the transfer rumour market for media outlets, is every bit as competitive as the transfer market is for clubs. Publishers and broadcasters need advertisers to survive. Advertisers buy clicks and readership numbers.

Everton were one year further down the line with a player making it clear he wanted to leave. Had they continued to dig their heels in, they were looking at rapidly diminishing returns both in terms of the player's commitment, and of his market value. That was an entirely different negotiating situation to the one that existed last summer. Even so, the deal was only completed a few days more than a week ago. Obviously we know next to nothing about the offer which was made for Pogba last summer, the reasons it was turned down, or whether the player himself would have had any interest in the move. We do know that at that time he was talking very much about Real Madrid or Barcelona only. If the current club don't want to sell, and player concerned doesn't want to move, there really isn't much wriggle room for potential buyers. In that circumstance the only weapon which can be used is an even larger amount of money than the already obscene numbers being offered to club and player. If it turns out that Manchester United and Manchester City have the power to spend more in the transfer market that we do then that's not a surprise to anyone. Nor is it news that we are not able to attract all of the players we would wish to. It was always that way, even when we had the biggest transfer budget in the world.

It remains to be seen if Andreas turns out to be as good in the Premier League as he reportedly has been in the Bundesliga. Even if he does, and let's hope it is so, few would have guessed that a two year term would become a problem when his loan was arranged. I'm sure that some did but I certainly wasn't one of them despite the fact that I watch more youth football than most. I can see the logic which says make it a one year deal, regardless, because that gives you the opportunity to reassess 12 months down the line. There is some sense in that, but it has to be set against the necessity to negotiate worthwhile deals with clubs who are great loan destimations for our players. I can imagine Gladbach arguing that if it were a one year deal they could not justify putting development time into the player. With a two year arrangement however, it would be more likely they could pick him even if his form fell away because there would be some payback for them down the line. It's an argument that has some merit and I don't blame our decision makers if they weighed the options and decided to go with it.

I agree with you that wages are not the sole factor, but they must be an important consideration in this affair. I say that because it's not hard to imagine that the desire to increase his earnings is one of Koulibali's motivations in wanting to leave Napoli, if indeed he does want to leave. Neither you nor I have the first clue what most players are paid when first joining Chelsea. It is clear however that all contracts are negotiated on an individual basis. The economics of the Premier League, and the value of Roman's support, if he chooses to give it, mean that Chelsea can make an offer which Napoli can't match. €2 million per year, net, earned in Italy, is a good deal less than €100,000 per week. In fact, it's less than €90,000 per week. We can be sure that Koulibaly would demand a significant increase over and above Napoli's offer, to join The Blues. Napoli hold the player's registration, and that is always an ace but it is certainly not the only card in the deck. If Koulibaly does not blink, if he refuses to sign a new contract, then Napoli have a serious decision to make. Do they hold onto the player and risk his value being damaged by the vagaries of form, and a potential loss of interest from buying clubs who may very well have filled their needs elsewhere by then? It's easy to say that they don't need the money currently, but it's less easy for them to face the prospect of having to sell the player next summer anyway but potentially for a great deal less money. It's a game all sides have to play and an ace, even the ace of trumps, does not always guarantee that you will win.

I heard him say that we need to sign some players but I didn't pick up on him saying that we 'will'.

I don't think there is a single one of us does not believe that we need to improve our group of defenders. I also think all of us would agree that a full-back as well as a centre back is what is needed. I do think though that this squad needs more help than just upgraded defenders.

Good news thank you. Good news because I think you could be right. I certainly hope that you are. This makes perfect sense because the word argument has the same additional meaning in English, given the right context.

When asked in today's press conference to comment on Koulibaly and Eduardo, Antonio thought for a moment. You could almost see him composing his reply in Italian and then doing his best to translate it into English before speaking. When he did speak he said, " it is difficult to speak to the press about the arguments I am having with the club.", before correcting himself and saying "conversations". It is, of course, possible that conversations is the word Antonio meant, but that is not the feeling I had while listening to him. It seemed to me that there might be disagreement between the club and the manager about whether these huge fees should be paid. Antonio was asked several more times through the course of the conference to give his thoughts on the strength and readiness of the squad. It's clear from his answers that he is not happy with the group he has. Certainly not with the numbers and, I'm presuming, not with the quality either. He specifically mentioned the shortage of defensive players. It can't be a surprise to any of us that Antonio has doubts about the squad; he has eyes after all. That there might be internal disagreement about how to proceed is news though. If that's true then it's a shame that the disagreement exists and a bigger shame that Antonio let it slip. As I said in my earlier post, I think this was unintended and not a deliberate tactic on Antonio's part. If it's true however, it doesn't matter whether he meant to leak or not. The implications are still significant.

What a load of absolute crap. The idiot that wrote this cares more about clicks than financial understanding. Either he has none or is deliberately misleading people just so that he can publish a story. The raw facts about the drop in the share price might be true but The conclusion he draws from that fact has nothing to do with the realities of the way financial markets work. I wish journalists would spend more time trying to educate we the public rather than trying to exploit any ignorance we might have.

Wow! Potentially huge unintended leak from Antonio in his press conference which is happening as I post this.

^^Those were the days. It was great to see Riccy on Monday night. If he's not working at the moment it would be brilliant to see him around the club a lot more.

It's only agents doing their work. Good luck to 'em, they have a job to do.

How much of your own money would you bet that the people working on these things for Chelsea will not have thought of that? Personally I'd bet fortune of your money, but not a single penny of my own. ? Of course they've thought of it. Unlike you and me; they also probably know whether it's a viable possibility, which if any players might be of interest to Napoli, which if any of those players might be interested in going and which if any of them Chelsea would be willing to part with. We, on the other hand, know absolutely none of these things but that doesn't ever seem to stop us believing that we know far better than the club does about everything.

Every manager we have had during the Roman era as stated, categorically, that there has been no interference in team affairs from Roman or from anyone else. The only near exception to that was when Bobby DiMatteo let it be known that he had been asked not to select Studge in the last couple of months before the striker's move to Liverpool. Something had obviously gone on between Daniel and the club which meant that the relationship had come to an end. Other than that however the managers claim that the record is perfect. I know that, owing to a certain agenda, many people will believe that all of the managers have lied. I don't. It's possible to imagine that they might have signed confidentiality clauses which prevented any disclosure of internal matters but such a clause, if it exists, could only prevent them speaking their mind. It could not force them to say things were good if they really thought they were bad.

There are long, dull stretches but I have to say, your post was worth sticking with right to the end. :-)

The very, very end.

!! Been that way for years.

Yes, I agree with all of this.We do need to be looking for that type of player though.

Two strikers for about 8 minutes plus injury time. We've seen that a zillion times haven't we?