OhForAGreavsie

Is this new? Wasn't there an announcement a while back that he had left the club to pursue a managerial career?

Of course.

I could not disagree more. For me the attitude you've described, one where a returning legend would not be cheered, is the one that is ridiculous, shameful and disrespectful to our club and its current players. An honest difference of opinion then but I hope more people think like me than think like you. Time will tell I suppose.

Just a manner of expression Leif. I won't in fact be the only one, there will be tens of thousands of us so you're going to need a lot of those cups. Fortunately they are free.

The Lampard issue was with his lie not his move. If Petr wins 5 Premier League titles with Arsenal, it should make no difference to his status here.

This is depressing. Are Chelsea fans really so small minded and silly? I can promise everyone this, as long as I've got my ticket there will be at least one voice cheering Petr every time he returns to Stamford Bridge.

This too is easy to say. I can only repeat that I'll be sad and disappointed if you turn out to be right. Chelsea fans will go down in my estimation if you are.

Sore point. I was on the other side of the bus, in Wandsworth Bridge Road. Couldn't hear a thing. Meanwhile, I was proud of Stamford Bridge for standing by Frank and I look forward to seeing Petr get an even more rousing reception. Let the other clubs get the reputation for booing their ex players while we cheer ours and then listen to them lighting up the phone-ins to call us classless.

Lamps did damage his reputation as far as I'm concerned but because of the dishonesty, not because he joined City. Had he just moved to City openly then said I want to play and I'd love to win another Premier League title, that would have been fine with me.

You may be right but I'll be sad if you are. Petr certainly won't damage his legacy in my eyes, no matter who he joins. If and when he returns to The Bridge I'll cheer him at the top of my voice and I'd bet a lot of money that I'll be in the majority. The large majority.

Just saw the very end of the BTSport coverage and Ruben played no part in the goal which came from a 20 yard strike following a corner. They did not show the build up to the corner however so I don't know if Ruben was involved in that. The two studio pundits, as well as England U21 manager Gareth Southgate, were full of praise for him. The two lads in the studio both said they feel he should start against Italy in game 3.

:) Forgive me if I have this wrong but I'm used to being one of the oldest people here. I'm therefore assuming that you are younger than me so allow me to make the following observation: - The day will also come when you can't tell what bloody colour it is!

We all love Shankley's brilliant witticism. The great man's words encapsulated the attitude of football fans all over the world, but he certainly wouldn't have meant it literally. Football is not more important than life. Taking care of the interests of his wife and children is the very essence of what it is to be a man. My own guess was that Petr and his wife would have chosen to give their children a chance to experience a different culture. If, however, their decision is that London is the place for their family, then London it has to be. That narrows Petr's choice to staying or going to Arsenal. He's a footballer, he's in the prime of his career, he wants to start. Of course he wants to start. I love the man too. I also love my club and I love it even more for being classy enough to allow one of our heroes to make his own choice. By the way, I've heard the argument before that Petr took over when Carlo was injured. That's not what Carlo says, it's not what Jose says and it's not what the evidence says. Carlo's agent, whose job it is to spin as hard as he can for his client, is quoted in one place (that I know of) as having made that claim. It ain't so however, Carlo lost the jersey before he was injured.

Thanks UJ, useful info. That's one for the lawyers.

I agree with all of this but I'm still not in favour. On the atmosphere, it's been an issue for our club for decades. People used to say the reason The Bridge lacked passion was because the terracing was so far from the pitch. I never bought that argument and I don't believe that the hope of improving atmosphere is a good enough reason to bring standing back.

Was a White Waller myself. Loved it but, for me, standing ramps up the testosterone levels. Outright hooliganism, racism and other assorted misbehaviour blighted our game for more than two decades and I don't think we are completely out of the woods yet. I'm not especially worried about violence in the ground, I think modern systems could help clubs keep a lid on that, but I am concerned about people returning to the excitable days. The ugly atmosphere that often surrounded football in the bad old days was horrible to live through and it emptied grounds all over the country. Each and ever one of the measures which were introduced as counter measures were opposed by fan groups and football people but every one has worked well. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

It'll need a change in the law and I can't see Parliament getting around to it, even if a majority of MPs would be in favour, which is questionable. Personally I'm against it but I recognise that this puts me in the minority.

Well I need to acknowledge that I've taken the easy pick in that the odds are enormously against any young player making it at any top club. If you just predict that all young players will fail to make it, you are going to be right almost every time. Even so my judgement, for what it's worth, is that there are things lacking in Nate's game, things that suggest to me that his level is below the Premier League. As I said, I like the bloke. When he was captaining our development squads he would walk on to the pitch as if he owned the place. It was awesome to see but unfortunately only rarely does his game live up to the expectations created by that natural confidence. When he returned briefly and started for the 21s in an early season game, he was comfortably the worst Chelsea player on the pitch. I hope that Nate will succeed but it'll surprise me if he does.

On the rare occasions that I give opinions based on limited viewings, I'm honest enough to highlight that fact so people can decide if they want to take those opinions even less seriously than they otherwise might. It is not a rare occasion however when I am respectful of other people's points of view, and when I'm able to accept that someone disagrees with me without feeling the need to make ill informed guesses about how and why they think as they do. I've been describing what I see as Nate's flaws since before he went on loan to Watford. I watched him play many times for the Hornets and have reported here, and elsewhere, my view that the generally favourable reaction to his time there was over generous. I've stated a number of times that I think Nate put in more poor performances for Watford than he produced good ones. I was bitterly disappointed when Nate was selected ahead of Nathan Ake for the summer 2013 tour. I was told that I was a fool because I offered the opinion that Nathan is a far better prospect, an opinion which was mocked further when Jose made his comment about Nate becoming a part of our 2014-15 squad after benefiting from one more season on loan. I suggested that the poster should wait until that actually happened before mocking. We now know of course that it didn't. I've watched Nate play many, many times for our development sides, for two loan clubs and for England age group teams. Judging from your comments you have too but it doesn't matter if you haven't, your opinion is still valid and may even turn out to be right. I can't pretend to believe something I don't however, so I repeat my view, Nate is not good enough for this club and it's time for Chelsea to encourage him to move on with his career.

I like Nate as a lad but he clearly is not Chelsea standard and needs to sort himself out a new club. He was comprehensively outplayed by Carvalho last night. Not in the sense that they went one on one but Carvalho looked a potential player who calmly gave structure to his side, Nate did not. It was a poor selection by Southgate and a decision which contributed directly to the fact that we lost.

Agreed I'm afraid. Isn't it a perfect measure of football finances now that we illustrate how poor a player looks by saying that he is only worth £10m?

The club will put on a parade if we get a point at Newcastle! :)

Or 4 even.

Wow the two City games are brilliantly placed. Right at the beginning and then the return at the start of the run in and hopefully, hopefully, hopefully sandwiched between a Champions League quarter-final and an FA Cup semi-final.

I think unofficially will be the stumbling block. The HG rules talk about players being registered with a (qualifying) club but Bertrand wasn't registered with us until he signed officially in Jan 2014.