OhForAGreavsie

And I look forward to your wishes being dashed. We'll see.

Granted the hope of a return to Plough Lane, albeit down the road a bit from their original ground, is why AFC are selling but there is still Kingstonians isn't there? Aren't they likely to want to carry on using the ground and wouldn't that put moral pressure, if not legal requirement, on us to accept them as sitting tenants?

Spending the whole of his career to that date playing for a relegation calibre team I might add. Simply the best - by a mile.

I don't share the opinion that Ruben has been one of our better players whenever he has appeared but let's not argue about that, it'll get us nowhere and we'll end up agreeing to disagree anyway. Given that I've been complaining about Ruben's lack of industry, both in possession and out of it, since around the the time of the Di Matteo to Temp handover, any accusation of brainwashing would be silly. Back then I was asked to compare the chances of Ruben and Jeremie. I said that Jed was a 50-50 shot but that Ruben had virtually no chance unless he bucked his ideas up and that what he needed most of all was a kick up the backside. I was frustrated that last summer it was still necessary for Jose to administer that kick. Frustrated not so much with Ruben as with his coaches. I've acknowledged that Ruben may have had several kicks in private but they clearly hadn't worked. Hence the need for the public one. I like Ruben and I love his talent. I'm desperate that he should make it. I just wish we could inject him with some of Kennedy's hyperactivity. If we could Ruben would be the first name on the team sheet, but since we can't Ruben has to find it within himself. He has to stop waiting around for the game to come to him, as he did once again before being subbed for England's 21s the other night. He has to get more involved in play. When he does something good he has to bust a gut to get on the ball again and dominate, not drift like he often does.

I dislike talking about consistency in footballers. Every footballer's play is inconsistent. Come to that every human being is inconsistent, at everything. Players have a range of performance output which is dictated by their talent. The problem is, those whose general talent is below that required for the level they play at only appear good enough when they are at their very best. The rest of the time, which is most of the time, they struggle. Exactly. He'll be more experienced then, but his talent is what it is and he's stuck with it. I made the same point when he was 21. People told me to wait till he was 24. He has reached his mid 20s and I don't agree with you that there will be any significant change over the next four years. Even if you're right however, I don't see the point of waiting. We need a better contribution from that position, and we need it now. Sitting Oscar on the bench until he is able to be the one who delivers that contribution will be very expensive, will occupy a squad place, and will only slow his supposed progress in any case.

Quality.

I wish you hadn't said that.

Sometimes players look interesting in their highlight vids and sometimes they don't. For me, Grujic is one of those who does not. I'm not saying that it's possible to judge from the video posted above that Grujic is a poor player, but I see no evidence there that he has the potential to become one of the elite. His touch is not anything special and nothing in that video suggests that he has superior body control. Having seen the video my opinion is that these stories emanate from an agent trying to sell top clubs a bowl full of hope, rather than a vision of reality. If my assessment is correct then I suspect we will get him if we make a serious offer. I say this because our track record suggests that, of the big budget clubs, we are the one most likely to be mugged into paying elite level prices for sub-elite players.

The ghost goal was '05 and then in '07 we were eliminated at the semi-final stage on penalties.

Thanks Leif, I understood what you were getting at it's just that your examples operate in entirely different environments. In pop music it is of course possible to be both popular and good but it is just as possible to be popular but not good, or to be good but not popular. It does not work like that in football. In football you get nothing for popularity, everybody loves the way Bournemouth are playing this season. To succeed you have to be good. I know people claim that you can win with luck, as is said about our Champion's League triumph for example, but I'm not buying it. When the oppo don't do what they should it's not because we're lucky, it's because they didn't get the job done. We were not the best squad in the league last season but we had the best player and the best manager. That was enough and it was not luck. When you start talking about fashion I'm way out of my league but I do appreciate that brands need to renew and reinforce their credentials. Everyone knows how recently Jose won trophies and underlined his credentials.

Regardless of whether he's good or not in your opinion, Bieber sells music because he's popular. Regardless of whether or not he's popular with you, Jose wins trophies because he's good.

It certainly should be improving over the next four years. I'd like to see our mid-group sides start to demonstrate their growing strength by making a better showing in the Europa League. Sadly it will always be worth far more to them to simply avoid relegation than to win that competition, even when its golden ticket to the Champion's League is taken into account.

1. No. We are necessarily cautious. 2. I hope not. 3. I mind it very much but i) how many Barcelona players do we see standing about in front of the ball when they are out of possession and ii) take Pep back to Barca, give him the squad that Di Matteo took to the Nou Camp that night and see how he sets up. Mikel plays too slowly and crucially, his passes lack pace often forcing the receiver to stop to collect them, Oscar can't pass, Ramires can't pass, our full backs can't pass, Willam slows the game and misses almost every time he tries a decisive pass, Costa has heart but lacks the technique of a top quality striker. Only an idiot would send our full backs bombing forward knowing there is is high degree of certainty that, by the time they get there, the opposition will have the ball.

Get in the queue Cesc.

I can't speak for they but in my case it has nothing to do with which competition is more attainable. This is a view I've held since 1968 and for most of that period neither trophy was attainable. I can accept the argument that the CL is possibly the best competition but the biggest? How do you measure biggest? Perhaps your personal definition of biggest would be such that the CL comes out on top, but no doubt there are other definitions too. It's clear that the PL has declined and is punching well below its weight. For too long clubs, particularly our own, have allowed themselves to be mugged off paying the highest average fees and highest average wages, for players who are not, on average, of the highest quality. We need to turn that around but it is tough because the super clubs on the continent can compete with ours financially and also benefit form the cultural factors we are all aware of. We were indeed outplayed by PSG but don't forget that we were also outplayed by many sides domestically. Paris managaed to get the result they deserved because they converted from set pieces. Many of the teams that outperformed us domestically didn't get the same breaks. I don't see how you can claim that we've lost our ambition. It's clear that we have not pursued them very effectively but I see no justification for your claim. Who knows what factors were considered at board level over the summer and which resulted in the squad building policy that was applied? Certainly not you or me. My own guess is that the club forgot who our manager is and perhaps believed that our squad was better than in fact it is. In my opinion the slump we are suffering now is long overdue. Throughout Roman's time we have tended to recruit players with qualities rather than players of quality. It is why for almost all of that time our side has been clunky and has never established a reputation for high quality football. Until we fix that it won't matter who the manger is. Until we are cured of watching Suarez but deciding to buy Torres instead, of being offered Aguero but deciding to pass, of thinking it helps our club to extend Ramires's* contract we will be stuck with trying to win in the only way such a group can win. Even then but for Jose and Eden dragging this sub-standard group over the line, we would never have won the league last season. *Unless of course this was done to secure a transfer fee.

But that also makes it easier to win. A bad day at the office by one of the better sides and they're out, so clearing the path for other teams.

I've seen the question of whether Chelsea fans would prefer to win the Premier League or the Champions League many times on various forums and have also heard it discussed during radio phone ins. To my recollection, on every single occasion, a comfortable majority has voted for the Premier League. The domestic title is certainly my preference, and the gap is huge. If we'd won the league 5 times in a row, I'd still take a 6th win over another Champions League. Of course I'd prefer both but if it has to be just one then Premier League every time. I do agree with you though about the CL being a great competition and about the fact that no one has retained it being evidence of how tough it is to win. I sometimes hear people of my generation yearning for the good old days of the Champion's cup. In my opinion their memory is playing tricks on them. For me, the old 4-and-a-half round*, straight knock-out, Champions Cup, with its entry padded out by the cannon-fodder domestic champions of weaker nations, was a Mickey Mouse competition compared to the Champion's League. In fact those that would like to bring back the knock out version have forgotten that, back then, it was a commonly held view that the old UEFA Cup was a harder competition to win because of its greater strength in depth of top quality sides. The early rounds of the Champions Cup were a joke. Although people often forget now, the draw was seeded so the good teams often battered their opponents in the first two rounds and the competition didn't really get going till the quarter-finals (3rd round) in March. On only twice during their dominant spell did Liverpool draw good sides before Christmas. They went out on both occasions. * I say 4-and-a-half rounds because, on the luck of the draw, some of the better clubs would get a bye into the second round, as Liverpool did in one of the seasons when they won the competition.

Thanks Simon. I watched live coverage of every Belgian international while KDB was a Chelsea player, and then at the World Cup too, but I haven't since so I've lost track with what is happening regarding the Red Devils. Based only on the video, because it's all I've seen of him, I'd agree that Batshuayi looks more technically gifted than Belgium's three leading strikers. Some times, most times in fact, a you tube video only serves to make me feel a player is not of the quality we need but occasionally one makes me want to see more of the featured player. That's the case with Batshuayi so I will definitely watch Belgium's games over the next few days.

We know this already. So what are you saying?

When did Kennedy start a game at LB? It is an old trick of Jose's to use more forward minded players in defensive positions when chasing a game. No news there. Of course if you know that, under certain circumstances, you might want to do this during a game then it makes sense to practice it during training. No news there. Some people are so desperate to criticise our manager that they enthusiastically get stuck into him for stuff he hasn't in fact done. I even read a post stating that Jose "is actively and deliberately destroying the future of [our] club". I'm a big believer in respecting each other's points of view but sometimes it's hard. No news there either.

Lol. Finished 1-2. Second leg next week.

1-2 Could be the killer blow and it came well against the run of play. Shame.

Ji is having a really poor game. Her passes are under hit, over hit of just plain off beam. Bit like watching the first team.

1-1. Another own goal but we're level. Great headed finish actually looping over the keeper and under the bar. Goal cam against the run of play. The start of the second half has been just like the first. we can't keep the ball and we're well on the back foot.

Ji, who isn't playing well, has just struck our first effort on target with 42 minutes gone. We have to get Gemma involved more. 0-1 HT.