OhForAGreavsie

Surly Guus doesn't have much choice does he? He maybe has a few exotic options like playing Kennedy at left back, Aina at right back or Miazga at CB and restoring Brana to the flank but none seem too likely. Hope not anyway. Huge match for us and I mean huge. I've seen nothing in the last five encounters which encourages me to believe that we'll beat Paris next month so this game could be our season. Of course I can conjure up reasons to hope we'll progress in Europe, but hope is not belief.

Just an example of the many factors. Here's another, which player wins this stat category is likely to be influenced by possession stats. And another, most sides have a preference for attacking on one flank or the other. A defensive player on the chosen flank is likely to have more chances to intercept. We've all seen how often it is that when a side gets thrashed, it is their goalkeeper who is their outstanding player. The more shots come at you, the more you might stop but does that mean the other keeper is not so good?.

How on Earth do you interpret that stat? It can be affected by so many things which are beyond the player's control that it is almost meaningless. For example, it would be interesting to look at the interception statistics of players who have faced a Chelsea side with Ramires in the line up. I think Baba was decent in Paris and that those who felt he was excellent are guilty of seeing what they wanted to see. They would not agree of course.

Perhaps they are seriously considering signing him permanently and believe that a two-and-a-half month trial is better than no trial at all. Perhaps too the loan fee arrangements take account of the fact that, while the rules required the signing to be completed by 1st February, the two clubs were aware that Pato would not be available for several weeks after that.

I won't be making many changes, hardly any. How can you not love Guus?

There are so many people here that hate him it must feel like pins in their eyes each time Stamford Bridge sings Jose's name. Sorry lads we're going to be singing that song for years to come and the more you moan about it, the louder we'll sing and the more we'll enjoy it. One of those who disrespect Jose posted recently to say that Guss has done ten times better with this squad than Jose did. I'm a Chelsea fan so I love Guss but I also passed a few maths exams and I'm not falling for nonsense like that. What is more, I know how to use Google so if I ever suffer amnesia like that lot do, I can quickly remind myself which team are the current champions of England. Still standing for The Special One.

Especially if Spurs finish fourth.

Matt gets a game if any member of the back four goes down, not just those two.

Last April, before he moved to Juve, I posted this: - And then this: -

That's still not buying them because they are superstars. It's buying them when they are superstars. There's a difference you'll agree. That behaviour is in furtherance of the club's philosophy and, in its own terms, makes sense. Real aim to exploit their position at the apex of the transfer market to minimise their risk, as they see it. Just as I say we should not shop for ready made superstars because we don't quite have the pull to attract the genuine article, Real reason that they are the big beasts in the market so they don't need to take punts. Where we must try to find the soon will be a star player, they choose to wait until the player is established and, in their view, proved. They calculate that they can afford that policy, that it will ultimately mean they waste less money than they otherwise might and that their spending will be offset by the extant commercial value of the players they acquire. You talk about shopping with a philosophy, that is their philosophy. What's more it works. They have for long periods been a better team than Barca. It's only Barca's unrepeatable crop of in house monsters who have tipped the balance. Those monsters are are already growing old.

But who does that though? Who looks at a player and thinks, he's completely wrong for us but he's a superstar so lets buy him? Chinese or MLS clubs maybe and what's more they are right because what they need from a player is different to the requirements of key clubs in Europe.

I'm talking about buying 'good' players regardless of whether they are superstars or not. My argument in that initial post is that if you buy quality then whether they are superstars or not isn't going to matter. Barca didn't buy Ibra because they thought he was a superstar, they bought him because they thought he was better than what they had. Just because they were not proved entirely correct does not mean their motives shoud be recategorised. They just got it right with Suarez and slightly wrong with Ibra. Exact same motives however.

Suarez? Neymar? Even Rakitic, Ter Stagen & Sanchez? Bear in mind too that they have been stuffed with a freakish number of home grown superstars. That won't happen again and to maintain their status they will shop even more prolifically than they already do now.

Don't tell Barcalona. Or Paris. Or Munich. Or Madrid. I'm guessing that you probably mean unsustainable for us which may be so of course. Personally I don't think our problem has been the category of player we have signed, our problem is the quality. It matters not if a new arrival if reputedly World class or regarded as a nobody. What matters is how good a player he is. Get that right and not much else is going to matter. As Real Madrid's bosses say, it's the expensive superstars that work out to be the best value for money. That said I have long held the view that we should not pay superstar fees for anyone. I say this because of the belief that such players would be wanted by one of the clubs higher up the food chain and they would always prefer joining one of those teams over Chelsea. If we get 'em it's because none of the dream clubs want them badly enough and if they are not wanted there's a reason for that. In terms of recruits for the first team, we seem to be addicted to names. Names are known quantities. They either have the requisite quality and the dream clubs will nab them or they don't and we'd be wasting our money anyway. We need to shop smarter and that means finding the superstar players before they have identified themselves as such. Easier said than done but we seem to be especially bad at it. Look at the scores of never had a hope of reaching Chelsea level players who have populated the loan army.

The application was submitted on 1st December last year and is presumably under consideration.

Very ordinary. He moves beautifully so he always looks good when carrying the ball but the goal was pretty much the only productive thing Charlay did all game. He struggled to get on the ball particularly in the first half when he was clearly under orders to hug the left touchline. When he did get into the game, there was nothing particularly noteworthy from him; a couple of nice runs maybe but they fizzled out as he ran into traffic. He was not outright bad however, there were no big opportunities lost because of him. The closest being when he might have ended one of his runs by feeding the runner through the inside right position but either didn't see it or else didn't feel he could organise his body shape to play the pass so didn't try. That run ended with Charlay running into traffic and being dispossessed and led to the only passage of play where Charlay might, I say might, be due some criticism. Having dispossessed Charlay, Deportivo moved the ball to a player who carried it about sixty yards from the edge of his own box to the edge of Betis's. Like so many players do when they are guilty of loosing possession, Charlay chased the ball carrier all the way and, though he was not able to get in front of the player to make a challenge, his pressure did cause his opponent to hurry and Depo's attack broke down. So far so good by our lad. From that breakdown Betis launched a counter that ultimately led to their second goal. As the counter developed there was a huge gap in the region that Charlay would have occupied if he'd joined the break. I kept expecting him to appear in the top corner of the screen but he never did. The attack ended with Betis winning the free kick from which they eventually scored. It did seem to me that there was enough time for Charlay to make up the ground and join the attack. Perhaps that's true and perhaps he just didn't have the legs for another lung busting run straight after his first but I can't be sure. The camera followed the ball, so exactly what Charlay was doing as the counter swept upfield, I can't say.

Ah that's what 03/02/2016 means. I was wondering. Sorry.

There's a 21s game on Wednesday. Maybe they'll get minutes there.

I might find that approach more appealing if we get past City but for now I prefer the standard Chelsea way, i.e. full speed ahead on all fronts. On second thoughts I prefer the Chelsea way full stop. Give maximum effort in every competition. OK, we know that this year maximum won't be enough but even so.

I've only seen him play once and to be fair I was really concentrating on Baker & Solanke in the Vitesse v Ajax game before Christmas. He caught my eye though and was a step above our lads. If we signed him he'd have a much better chance to start than say Lewis because, based on what I saw, the Ajax kid is a lot better than him. A lot.

No it absolutely would not happen. How often do Chelsea players get booed by Chelsea fans? A team performance, sometimes but an individual player? Except for the protests over the Mourinho sacking*, only twice that I remember and I go back very nearly 50 years. One of those was The Drog for rolling around too much after going down and that happened just once. The other was Butch Wilkins's older brother Graham. I was disgusted by it but The Bridge took against the lad. If Charlay played like he did in his Betis debut everyone would be delighted and heap praise on him. Look at the extravagantly positive reactions to some recent RLC and Baba Rahman displays. If, tweny matches later Charlay was still making the same bad decisions then he might expect some groans but by then they'd be justified. Chelsea's home fans, me included, are not the best at vocal support and great atmosphere building songs but in backing our players and standing by them, I put us second to none. *Since the protest was registered, Stamford Bridge has gone back to giving full vocal support to Cesc and Costa.

In that case you are going to be unhappy no matter who we appoint. Those three won't all be starters here next season, and nor should they be. One of the sharpest press conference comments Guus has made so far was concerning the youngsters although very little was made of it. "The less the youngsters play, the better they get.", he said. He meant better in the opinion of the people who want them all to be starting, not in his.

And he's off to a good start having already broken Diego Costa's nose in training! Jake can play. I like him a lot. He lacks physical stature and experience but he has plenty of tools. A good talent. Very brave, strong in the tackle, reads the game well and has a knack of getting in good blocks when required. He is also good on the ball. A lot of positive attributes for his coaches to work with. Edit: Press now reporting that it was Fikayo Tomori, not Jake, who broke Costa's nose which was my inference from Guus's press conference comments today.

It's not a rumour. Our squads for the second half of the season, inclining the Champions League list, were announced a week ago.

Fair chance that's exactly what will happen when season 2016/17 gets going in Spain.