OhForAGreavsie

I foresee no Chelsea future for any of the last three on that list. Especially not the two Bs.

The should be a fine and suspension. Hope the DFB are looking at this. It's not on.

Shop window? Ditto? The z and the a are reversed. I'd have liked that but following Guus's press conferrence, when he said that youngsters were more likely to get chances after the international break, I didn't expect it. It's clear from his pre & post match comments that Guus is very proud of the record, and rightly so. Let's see how things go after the break.

That's an interesting question. Charly has started every game since he's been at Betis; one wide right and seven wide left. The problem is that Los Beticos are not that good a side. Stationed out wide, there have been long passages where Charly has been starved of the ball, passages when Betis simply haven't been able to set him up with good possession in good areas. As a result, in several games their manager has shifted Charly to the centre in an effort to get him more involved in the action. This, for example, is exactly what happened at half time last night against Malaga. Here's the thing however, that switch hasn't always worked. Speaking just from memory, many of Charly's most impressive moments for Betis have come when he picked up possession in a wide area. There is no question that Charly is at his best when he has the chance to carry the ball but in the centre he has found himself relying more on his passing than his dribbling. That has, in my opinion, robbed him of something. Certainly against Malaga he gave the ball away a number of times and he found himself playing a few of those first touch pop it back to the defender passes that are necessary but are not what we want to see from Charly. Two of the three best displays I've seen from Charly were in the Modric position for our 21s, and one from the left for Betis. As I type this however, I don't remember seeing an outstanding display from him when he started in the ten.

Well let's hope the day will come when you will be proud to have said this.

I hope and I pray that everyone in the decision making chain is as aware of this as we need them to be. I don't blame the club for their supposed statement that no major restructuring of the squad is necessary. It's the right thing to say for public consumption. As long as they didn't mean it...

I simply do not agree. At all. He was young, mega fit and capable of it. If not the metrics would have shown him in the red-zone and he's have been rested. In any case, if you can't outpace someone that might be because you're tired, but if you can't control the football on the dribble because your technique is too poor then that has nothing to do with tiredness. Oscar never suffered a deficit of energy, he suffers a deficit of talent.

Those stats can be affected by too many external factors to be a reliable indicator of anything. When I see him play, I see the same footballer that I stoped believing in a very, very long time ago. I'm not obsessed by Oscar. I'm just bemused as to why there are still people wiling to hold out hope for a miracle.

A bit self-serving, but fair enough. Oscar is still only 24, so I feel that despite his lack of progress, it may be premature to proclaim he's done for. Only one of us can be 100% wrong on this one. Players do not improve in the fundamentals; in the things which are related to their natural talent level. Oscar was never, ever going to improve the things which make him unsuitable for Chelsea. As some of us were saying three years ago. I don't agree that he's regressed. People have just given up on the he's tired excuse and are no longer prepared to deny the evidence of their own eyes. If he's coming in for severe stick these days I'd say it's because people feel let down after they stuck with him and gave him so many chances over such a long period of time. When I jumped ship before Christmas 2012, I was told but he's only 20. I predicted then that people would still be offering that excuse when he was 23. Can't remember if I said anything about 24. It is just an excuse though. Oscar simply isn't good enough and even if he manages to stay super fit till he's 50, he still isn't going to be good enough. Practice and experience just allow players to make better use of what they've got but if they ain't got it, they ain't got it.

Just be kind enough not to remember I said that when Cuadrado notches up his 100th appearance for the club.

No but I'll wager a hundred quid that, if he does, he'll soon send him away again.

iseah100 speaking his own language works for him but gives a good example of how the world works. Of course people growing up in America should have their own version of the language we share. Of course they should have their own vocabulary and their own idioms. No problem with that so when someone who naturally speaks American English says anyways it sounds perfectly correct or even cool. When a Brit says it however, it sounds to my ears like chalk squeaking on a blackboard and I find myself having to suppress violent feelings. Now, I am not a violent man you understand. I haven't hit anybody since my early years at school but I fear that if I ever hear a Brit saying, "Anyways, I could care less so you do the math.", I am going to loose that proud record.

Thanks. I wasn't aware of that. This does sound promising. Very promising even. On the other hand Rennes are currently in a Champions League spot and, if Dembele stays fit, might even hang on to it. If Dembele then leaves at the end of the season, as is possible, maybe more starting opportunities will open up for Jed where he is. Either way, I think you are right, France is the place for him next season. Of course we then have to deal with the underlying problem inherent in these loans. If their loans fail then no progress is made but, if they succeed, which club, or even which country, do these kids identify with? Already, reading between the lines, Charly seems to be hinting that, given the chance, he'll prefer to stay in Spain and ditto Andreas in Germany. If Jed starts to shine in France* how will he feel? How does Thibaut? We might be able to exercise our contractual rights and bring these lads back to Cobham but where are their hearts? I know the club must be aware of this issue and must also be giving it plenty of thought. *Granted French football does not currently have the same allure as Spanish or German.

My ratings for Charly's games with Betis so far are; OK given that it was a debut, decent, good, outstanding, decent, quiet, very quiet. I don't think we should get carried away about what Charly has achieved, or encourage any complacent thoughts to creep into his head. His time will come for the Red Devil's I'm sure. If I shared your nationality perhaps I'd see it differently but, speaking purely from a Chelsea point of view, I'm quite content with his U21 call up. I know Wilmots was in the ground when Charly produced that outstanding performance but he must have seen coverage of the others too and it looks to me like he's taken a balanced decision.

Yes, I thought it was a nice cameo from Jed last night. For the first time that I've seen (I haven't watched all of his games in France) I felt Jed's average level over his twenty-five minutes or so, was higher than Dembele's across the ninety. Dembele's uber quality still meant he delivered an outstanding goal and an outstanding assist but, in between, I felt he was quite poor. Many of the rising young star's contributions were spoiled by bad decisions or bad execution. Jed, on the other hand, produced a few trademark runs where he carried the ball from left to right across the defence looking to feed someone in with a little diagonal pass. Our loanee also popped off some very simple but nice first time passes rather than look for a third or fourth touch in search of a dribbling opportunity that just isn't there. (As he is sometimes guilty of doing.) More of the same please Jed.

I wasn't particularly impressed by last night's display. It took us a while to establish any control and when we did, it was not the kind that led to the creation of many clear cut chances. In fact there were hardly any chances at all which resulted in their keeper being worked. Even the goal, when it came, was from a set piece. Albeit a well worked one. I'm afraid though that it was really all downhill from there with the second half performance in particular becoming steadily more disjointed as time ticked on. A key reason for this patchy outing was the form of Kyle Scott in the centre of the park. He was energetic and calm in possession as usual but I felt sorry for the kid as he had a wretched night passing wise. A staggeringly high percentage of his deliveries were either misplaced and gave possession away or under hit meaning that they were intercepted, resulted in a tackle or set up very poor quality possession. There had been some pre-game complaints about the pitch so maybe the surface contributed to Kyle's troubles. Either way, when his substitution came midway through the second half, it felt like it was long overdue. Keep your head up son, there will be better days. More positively, I thought defenders Clarke-Salter and Tomori were our stand out performers on the night. Of the forward players, Sterling showed the best form but he struggled for an end product. For the most part Tammy Abraham was starved of decent possession but he wasn't able to make the most of what little he did get. This team has to work harder for their victories than their recent predecessors. They don't have the stand out brilliance of Boga, Colkett or Musonda to rely on and they were without Charlie Wakefield who has probably been their most penetrative player in recent months. I don't know when Charlie will be back but I think he'll make a difference if he's available for the second leg at The Bridge in three weeks time.

Not desperate that it should be as a replacement for JT but am very keen for Chelsea to try to make this happen.

Starting after the break he said about opportunities for youngsters. He also said this was not a promise and that they'd still have to earn it. Actually he said 'knock on the door' but I think earn it is what he meant.

He's been saying that for weeks. I'm no expert in Guusish but I would offer the following translation: - I peddled the "he's not fit" excuse for as long as I could, but now that that won't wash any more I'm having to find some other way to avoid speaking the truth." That truth of course is almost certainly that Guus just doesn't rate Pato.

Even in these terms the deal seems to make no sense. Indeed these arguments make it seem less sensible than ever. For all we know they may not be, but for argument's sake let's take all of the speculations you picked up on as accurate. Let's also accept the point about Bertie having not yet shown his quality. That would mean we needed a backup who was ready to contribute immediately. We are told however that Pato was nowhere near ready, that he was weeks and weeks away from fitness. If our needs were as urgent as the speculation suggests, then Pato could never have been the man we needed. Even though the the media speculation you mention would be entirely sensible if true, I still think it would be unwise to accept it all. I also think that Guus cannot have been unaware of Bertie's qualities and limitations. Whichever way we see all this, it's tough to make sense of the Pato deal.

Agreed, it must be true that Pato would not have been signed had we known that he would not be used. The question remains however, why didn't we know? I had an exchange in the transfer thread with @rmpr who, reacting to a very negative post I made about Pato, told me that Pato was fit and back to his best. @rmpr went on to say that he was fed up with people (he meant me) posting when they didn't know what they were talking about. Well what I was talking about is the opinion that, regardless of the state of his health or his form, Pato is not a good enough. He's the type of player who looks too good but achieves too little; the type for whom injuries are helpful because they provide an excuse behind which the truth can be hidden. This clearly is an opinion but the people who make our squad decisions are paid for opinions so theirs need to live up to their pay grade. Before it's possible to believe that Pato's loan could only be a win, it would first be necessary to believe he might show that he is able to make a contribution to our team. I never had that belief and, if the tweets copied above are true, our decision makers no longer do either.

I saw nothing from him that I did not feel many, many other players could do equally well, if not better. There were a couple of nice pieces of defensive work where he put his long stride to good effect but I remember no attacking contribution, not even the goal, that looked out of the ordinary. I'm not saying he looked a poor player, but he didn't look a special one to me.

Once again last night I was left unimpressed after watching Pogba.

1) How do you know what you'd need to know in order to substantiate the statement that our players can't stand each other? 2) This thing is overrated. We've all seen the way team spirit is thought to be high when a side believes it is doing well, and low when it believes it isn't. United are nine points ahead of Bournemouth but the Cherries are outperforming their expectations while LVG's mob are not. Consequently, we read that spirits are high on the south coast and low at Carrington. It's just the way it goes. 3) There is also PR component. If members of our squad were pictured larking about, having fun and enjoying each other's company, the media and this forum would be ablaze with comments like how dare they, they don't care enough, and Roy Keane would be coming in off his long run about the attitudes of the modern footballer. I'd be very surprised if players are not advised to keep a serious face toward the public when things are going badly on the pitch.

It's clear that Kennedy is not born to the position but I like him at LB. I think running from deep makes the most of his attributes. When circumstances allow, playing Kennedy at left back is a satisfyingly attacking choice.