OhForAGreavsie

Maybe we can do another Eden/Thorgen type deal and beef up Richard Olise's contract a bit as a sweetener to Michael?

According to the BBC it was a free.

I think they were going for parody. I've been watching the women since 2015 and seriously following them since 2017. In that time, all but two players who left after a multi year stay were in tears when they left. I acknowledge that women are more open with their emotions but I think there is more to it than that. Players and staff do become genuinely attached to this team. That's partly because we win a lot and partly because the club treats its women's team spectacularly well. 'Spectacularly well' is the norm for male players in the top leagues but that's not been the case for women. CFCW get first class training facilities, first class coaching support, and first class contracts. Way better in most cases than they experienced previously. What's not to love.

This rumour has been around for the last couple of weeks. I don't believe it is credible. This kind of fee would not only make Bonmati the most expensive player in the world, it would make her more expensive than the last 10 world record transfers combined. Once upon a time spending on a club's women's team was excluded from FFP calculations but, beginning with the season just ended, such spending must fall within the financial calculations. This being the case, it simply makes no sense to pay this kind of fee in the women's game. The only conceivable justification for such a fee would be if the club believed Bonmati's arrival would drive a significant increase in average attendance for the women's matches at Stamford Bridge and raise the team's profile still further around the world. In short, if they saw this cost as being part of the promotional budget. The current world record transfer fee for a female player is reported to be €475,000 paid by us for Myra Ramirez in January. Myra was brought in after Sam Kerr and her deputy, Mia Fischel, both suffered season ending ACLs. Sadly Myra also missed the crucial month of the season during which we were eliminated from The Champions League by Bonmati's Barcelona despite having beaten them in the away leg. But for her absence and two horrendous decisions by the referee Bonmati would have one fewer Champions League winners medals than she does. 🙁

Phew! 🙂

I always boast that Guyanese people are basically bilingual. Speaking our regional version as well as the 'standard' version. What's more, most of us speak better standard English than many who are born here. There are obviously some exceptions I see. 🙂🙂

Agreed about the one-footedness. It's something I always think of as a weakness but for a striker, in the end, it's about what they can do with the tools they do have. Duran's lack of a right foot therefore isn't necessarily a fatal flaw.

We've already got a brilliant Colombian striker at the club. 🙁

In any case, what ever would we do with a right footed wide player? That would only confuse things surely. 🙂

Very few of those clips show him even in his own half, never mind actually defending. Once upon a time this would have been a crimson red flag. Now however; well we're not in Kansas anymore. Some of Lima's footwork reminds me of Clodoaldo's contribution to the CarlosAlberto goal in the 1970 world Cup final. Do I remember correctly that.Maresca likes to invert his left back, not his right back? This Lima kid looks a perfect the candidate to be inverted.

Did you mean to say flogging, instead of fleecing?

If Alvarez is determined to leave City then I think he may prefer a Champions League destination like PSG.

If we'd beaten Villa at home in October, we'd now be the ones making plans for the upcoming Champions League campaign. 😞

Excellent interview tactic. What with these owners love for numerical analysis.

At time of writing I still have more than 11 pages of this thread to read, but it's a fair guess that @vesper will have reminded everyone about her feelings on this subject by now. I know my vocabulary won't be up to it but let me try to summarise. She never wants to see that bleeping midget Cucurella play centre bleeping back for this bleeping club ever a-bleeping-gain. I think I got the gist of it.

I can't comment on the attitude but completely agree on the description of his play and the hard pass,

Not me! I wasn't talking about Eze last summer but I was very hopeful we would get Olise. Although it's hard to see why he would choose us now after rejecting us last summer I still can't shake the hope. Signing Olise would once again expose the real plan for many of the young left footed right winger prospects we have accumulated. They are tradable assets.

Tommy T won't become the second manager to take three different sides to the Champions League final. Shame, I d have liked him to complete that achievement. Meanwhile, Harry Kane will end yet another season without a major trophy. You can take the boy out of Spurs....

He does look good I grant you.

Unsurprisingly all I've seen of this lad and Kendry Paez are their YouTube highlights. Based on that glimpse I prefer the look of Estevao Willian, but it would be nice to know what the plan is. There is no way we can actually want so many inverted right wingers in our squad. Hard to argue against the accusation that it's just another trading players for profit setup

To use an old fashioned phrase he's a bit of a lump though isn't he? No outstanding attributes other than effort. I don't know but I suspect that this is his best PL season ever. If true, it's not much of a recommendation. This would turn out to be either a genius signing, or a frustrating bust.

Only way he gets sold is if there's a clause he can trigger. Surely? SURELY?

I believe in the US salary cap system. In the name of competition I want to see all clubs competing in the same tier allowed the same budget. Now, whether each club can afford the maximum spend is another matter but, if they have benefactors willing to front the money without encumbering the club with debt, they should be allowed to spend up to the tier maximum. Right across the globe, leagues are dominated by their richest clubs. Decade after decade it goes on. Occasionally we get an exception like Laverkausen but it never lasts. Soon enough Bayern will be off on another ten year winning streak. Granted defining the tiers would take some work but it can be done. Or so I believe at any rate.

I saw a report that Palace have put a £60m price on Michael Olise. Now, it has to be acknowledge that if he was interested in coming back here he'd have done so last summer. Worse, if he didn't fancy Chelsea last off-season, why on Earth would he do so this time around? Even so I'd be happy to see the club try again. Of the players linked last summer he was the one I wanted the most.

Massively in favour of this. Have been calling for it, here and elsewhere, for decades. Let's bury the Financial Unfair Play nonsense once and for all.