OhForAGreavsie

I was describing Torres as a very ordinary player before he joined Liverpool as well as while he was there. I say this to make it clear that I'm no apologist for the man but he has been unfairly criticised for missing that chance. The ball was played slightly behind his run and with so much pace that he had no time to adjust his shape. He gets a free pass on that one from me.

None of the existing stands are 1905 originals but it's still Stamford Bridge. As for rejections, I've no idea of course but it must be reasonable to guess that, since the stadium does not have a sponsor, no potential partners have been interested. At least not at a price acceptable to Chelsea. Personally, I don't have a problem with naming rights, I hope it happens and the sooner the better. New stadium or no new stadium.

It's not about the age in and of itself. It's more about the fact that the existing name is too well established. Had Emirates Airlines bought naming rights to Highbury, everyone would have ignored it and gone right on calling the ground by its traditional name. The value of the arrangement, from the sponsors point of view, would therefore have been much reduced. On the other hand it's hard to imagine anyone calling the new ground anything other than Emirates Stadium. Indeed, if and when Arsenal need to attract a new sponsor, they may find companies reluctant to spend big because the place is so strongly associated with The Emirates. It'll be interesting to see how it goes with us if we do put up a new stadium at The Bridge. It'll be a new building for sure but it'll also be at the old ground and with, I suppose, a section of the fan base insisting on continuing to use the old name. In fact Chelsea may well want to sell a name like The XYZ Stadium at Stamford Bridge but I'd expect buyers to want to use their brand name only. If and when the time comes, I hope we manage to square that circle and get a good deal.

Irrespective of FFP changes the club will want to sell naming rights where possible. What's more I hope they succeed and that the deals are very lucrative.

Political necessity. Think of the fixture list they would face in their local federation against teams representing nations whose governments and religious authorities believe that Israel should not exist? FIFA always consider political realities as, for example, the recent policy that Russia and Ukraine should be kept apart wherever possible.

I only saw the last 25 minutes but during that time I certainly agree. Barring a couple of Harry Kane touches, all the moments of quality England produced while I watched, came from Ruben. I thought the performance was typical of him actually. Lot's of precise manipulation of the ball to get it out of his feet to create opportunities for runs, or angles for passes and always something effective on the end of it, albeit usually simple. It was an enjoyable display but, overall, it was still more of what I've been commenting on ever since Ruben came to our attention over 2 years ago. Jose talked about Ruben not working hard enough when Chelsea didn't have the ball. That comment was not wrong, but nor did it cover everything RLC needs to hear. For me Ruben doesn't work hard enough when Ruben doesn't have the ball. Virtually all of his involvements that I saw were positive but there just weren't enough of them. Granted, he no longer seems to stroll around as I used to complain about him doing but he isn't busting a gut to get into possession either. There were spells during which he occupied the '10' area, with his back to goal, drifting from one position where his teammates didn't have an angle to get the ball to him, into another position where his teammates didn't have an angle to get the ball to him. Does this add up to the lad needing to work harder, or work smarter? I suppose it's a bit of both, as usual, but I remain upbeat about Ruben. He has the talent, everything else can be learned. Two plus years ago I said Ruben needed a kick up the backside. Well, he may have had a few privately but hopefully the public one administered last week will provide the spark he needs. P.S. The post match panel were raving about him.

No that quote just says he was aware of him. Managers of big clubs are aware of everyone and run the rule over everybody. Jose has admitted that he tried to sign old slippy three times. (Good decision in my opinion.) I'd be surprised to learn that he tried to sign Cuadrado even once.

I'm aware of those quotes but, as I say, I'm taking my cue from JM's behaviour while the deal was in the offing and immediately after it was completed, not from statements made 5 months later. I'm speculating about what the manager thought at the time, not what he thinks now. As for these comments: - They may be true. They may be the efforts of a manager to be supportive of a bloke he likes. They may be the efforts of a manager to be supportive of whoever it was within the club system that instigated this deal. They may be the efforts of a manager who recognises that whoever it was that instigated the deal, wants Cuadrado persevered with. They may be a negotiation tactic; talk up the player's quality, talk down your willingness to allow him to leave. It may be all of those, some of those or none of those. I don't know, I'm only guessing but it remains my guess that Jose did not ask for this player.

Hello Fernando, I've had this conversation with someone already. I can't remember who and I'm too lazy to check. Apologies if it was you and this post is just a repeat. However... I do not believe that Cuadrado was a Mourinho signing. I say this because of the stark contrast in the way Jose spoke about his acknowleged signings during and immediately after the transfer process and the virtual silence from him while the Cuadrado deal was underway as well as when it was completed. There was no list of reasons why he wanted the player, no descriptions of conversations he'd had with the player trying to persuade him to join and no obvious delight in his body language when the deal was completed. There had been all of those with other arrivals. Compare even what Jose is now saying about Falcao with his silence over Cuadrado. Who ever it was I had the earlier exchange with wouldn't have it. He insisted I was just making excuses for Jose. Not so. I'm talking about JM's behaviour before any of those players had kicked a ball for Chelsea. Indeed, in Falcao's case before he's even signed as far as we know. Until I see contradictory evidence I'm going to continue to suspect that Cuadrado was a club signing.

Released by Arsenal today. If we can get him on a realistic salary, one that reflects his history as well as the fact that insuring him will cost an absolute fortune, would anyone be interested? I certainly love this bloke's talent and I know we were interested before he joined Arsenal. If we get him I'll be happy, if we actually get some minutes out of him, I'll be delighted. On the other side of the coin, Arsenal would obviously have thought about a pay-per-game deal and since they haven't gone for it, that has to be a big, big warning sign. (As if any team considering buying this lad needs any more warnings!)

I too think Max is right. Of course we need strengthening and of course Jose knows it, regardless of what he feels constrained to say for public consumption. In fact I read his comments as a virtual admission that we need a raft of new recruits. Remember that in every transfer window we have been through with Jose in charge, every single one, we have signed more players than he originally said we would. This time he has spoken of us needing up to three signings and that's more than he's ever predicted before. Usually he says one, maybe two.

You seem like you're looking forward to it. Is that how you intend it to seem?

I've seen both of those and better, I saw the games. I don't need to see them again. What I saw led me to form a very negative opinion about Fernando Torres. This isn't hindsight talking, I was saying Torres is an extremely ordinary player while he was scoring those goals at Liverpool. I'm unsurprised about the emerging evidence that people in the game, like his Liverpool teammates, recognised the truth about Fernando's failings. I accept that your opinion differs, and of course you are right to challenge any point of view that you disagree with but I really think those Liverpool numbers were a blip, a blip which misled our club into making a disastrous commitment to Torres. Stats count, of course they do, but none of us believe that they tell the whole story. The rest of Nando's tale was accurately understood by Casillas, by Danny Murphy, and by the unnamed Liverpool players whose negative opinion of Torres Murphy has since told us about. I have no doubt that many others who have not yet chosen to make their opinion public understood it; I only wish that Carlo had too.

Harsh to label a man a rat for speaking the truth.

Andreas has played more than 12 minutes at first team level but this remains a valid point. Obviously if Andreas were able to claim, and hold, a place in the Gladbach side, it would be great but it's a bit unrealistic to expect him to. Too unrealistic I imagine to risk a loan there.

Alli is probably going to spend next season with Spurs isn't he?

Delighted about this. Delighted that he's leaving City and delighted too that he's not going to Arsenal. I'm a big fan of Milner's but I don't believe he'll do too much damage at Liverpool.

I was sure I remembered Ruben's contract being reportedly worth £1.7m over three years, i.e. £566,667 per year. This article from March 2013 reports it that way.

I thought it was worth £1.7m over three years. Either way it's a lot. I do actually think he has improved but the tendency to inactivity is still with him and unless he and his coaches remedy that he has, as I said in that post two years ago, virtually no chance here.

This is a fair point.

And about time too. I said two years ago that a kick up the backside is what Ruben needed and that if he didn't respond to it he would struggle to make a career even at League One level. I am however only giving Ruben some of the blame for the fact that things have not improved enough. What have his coaches been doing? I love the lad's talent so this hasn't been a great day.

Same, work to do.

And in Munich too.

I like Gaitan, I like his high level technical skills. In my opinion we don't have enough of that in the squad. I agree with those who think he can contribute in any of the roles across the three and do so well enough to play a big part for us . I hope this deal happens but I also agree with what's being said about the need for us to limit our expectations if he joins. Players who can be outstanding at the elite level will be spotted by the big teams before they are 27. All of the wealthier clubs will have been running the rule over Gaitan ever since he joined Benfica; the fact that they have all passed up to now must say something. For that reason I was surprised when Wenger signed Arshavin and Cazorla as 27 year-olds. I do think though that Gaitan's technical skills will allow him to perform more like the Spaniard than the Russian. Maybe a Santi Cazorla type impact will do us very nicely.

Well we seriously disagree about that then. After watching him in Germany I posted the opinion, elsewhere, that he was no longer as good as his reputation and that he couldn't help us. One responder told me that I didn't know what I was talking about and offered a load of Sheva's career stats to support his case. I told him that I preferred the evidence of my own eyes to which he replied with more stats. I guess you are saying it was mere coincidence that the conclusion I came to, based on my assessment of Sheva at that tournament, turned out to be correct. Perhaps, perhaps not. I use italics for emphasis in the hope they add to the clarity of what I'm trying to say. Clarity and persuasiveness are not the same thing.