OhForAGreavsie

I followed a link yesterday, from this site possibly, to an article which confidently stated that Milan were paying Torres's "£3.1m a season wages." Clearly, Torres is on a lot more than that so I wonder if we have a first glimpse under the bonnet of the deal that took our record signing to Milan? Is £3.1m the slice of Torres's salary that The Rossoneri have agreed to pay? Sounds plausible. As for Torres being a useful option for us in any position. We must aim to have a squad filled with players of a higher standard than Torres or we will betray the ambitions we've established over the last 11 years.

Wow, I'm going to have to watch the game again to try to understand how our impressions of Cesc's performance on Wednesday can be so different.

Can't believe what I'm reading about Cesc's performance yesterday. For me he absolutely confirmed that he is an option to play at 10. I was one of the 6 people (at time of posting) who selected Cesc as man of the match. His pass completion percentage was down a bit but there were a number of key passes that either put people in, or set up good situations for us. Liked what I saw from Cesc last night.

He was also hopeless at Newcastle. We have to expect this. High level technical proficiency is not his thing. Without that, there is bound to be a wider than usual spread of performance levels.

Yes got it, I see that now. My misunderstanding came from the fact that the first line of the post by LDN Blue that you replied to, talked about us having lost 2/2 of them. That clearly was a reference to the Super Cup and my first reading of your reply was that it was this trophy you were referring to. As I say, I see that I got that wrong.

Believe me, the most impressive play leading to that goal comes before the action shown in the vine.

We have won it. 1998.

Neil is doing the touchline reporting for the UEFA Youth League game at Cobham. By the way, we're 3 up and playing beautifully. If you get the chance, watch the 3rd goal. It's magical but don't only watch the end of the move. Start from when our keeper has the ball, put your feet up and enjoy. 4-0 now. Ever since Jose told us about RLC's involvement in tonight's game I've had a big smile on my face but watching Boga, Colket and Musonda playing together in the midfield is going to improve the happiness level of any Chelsea fan. It's a pure pleasure. On this form it won't be long till Boga earns a chance at first team level. He has two goals himself and his contribution to the fourth was simple, brilliant and devastating.

In case you're still looking: - One or two really interesting things in there, including a repeat of his previous comment that we won't be active during the January window.

I like the weekend review and also find Jody Morris's contributions interesting, His tone is not especially upbeat but what he says shows a lot more insight than most on the channel I find. Friday Night Live should be destroyed and airbrushed out of CTV history. Embarrassing. As for Neil, I know what people mean about his 'cringe worthy' presentation but I find I can put up with it. I sort of file it under 'so bad it's good'. 'Bad' isn't really the right word though. Maybe 'idiosyncratic' is the way to describe his style. Two things definitely worth mentioning in Neil's favour are: I think he really excels at the recall of club history. Obviously you'd guess that he bones up before specific interviews but the way he instantly pulls facts out of the air during off the cuff moments is very impressive.I love his love for the club. That's something we can all relate to.If Neil really is on his way out then thanks for everything Spy. Hope the next chapter is even better than the last.

I'm sad to say that I don't agree with the first two of the quoted tweets from @chelseayouth. Chalobah had some good games at Championship level but, in my opinion, never quite lived up to the praise @cy gives him above. Chalobah's time at Watford was probably his best spell but in the games I watched he was poor more often than he was good. Indeed in the play-off final, with Jose in the stands, his level sank well below poor. I was therefore pretty surprised when Chalobah was preferred to Ake for a spot on that summer's tour and mildly shocked when, at the end of the tour, Jose more or less promised Chalobah a place in the 2014-2015 squad. I'm afraid I was never optimistic that Chalobah's performances would cause Jose to make good on that 'promise' and remember being tarred with the usual, "So you think you know better than Jose do you?", sort of Jibe for saying so. Well of course I didn't think that, I simply felt the boss was only aiming to give the young man a boost and that his words just overshot the mark a little bit. There is a lot to like about Chalobah, in fact there are some things about him which I love, but, sadly, I don't see him as a future Chelsea player.

Surely arranging those six letters in the way it's been done by zolayes in the quoted post is an automatic banning offence? If you don't get banned for that then what's the use of the rule book?

Well with the ball noticeably compressed would be even better timing, but near perfect for sure. The sharpness is incredible, even down to the reflection of the ball on the crossbar.

What a fantastic photograph. Hope it's not 'shopped'.

That's not true.

Everton reportedly paid £28m for Romelu Lukaku but in truth we must have picked up more than that for him. In the previous season, the one he spent on loan with the Toffees, Rom was a much sought after loan target. He would therefore certainly have commanded a significant loan fee over and above having his wages covered. Even in the season before that, it's likely that we got a fee from WBA for the time Lulu spent with them. To get a true reflection of Lukaku's transfer value you have really got to add all of those fees up. If Petr does go to Paris surely we'll get a fee for his loan too.

They say you can only truly hate what you once loved so perhaps it's because I never loved Frank that I don't feel any bitterness towards him now. Forget the loan, Frank is at City because his contract at Chelsea ran out. If Chelsea had wanted Frank enough to offer him a new deal he found acceptable, he'd still be here. Since we didn't do that, he left. That's all fine in my book. City or no City, Frank would never have ranked among my favourite players but nothing he does for Man City will sully his Chelsea legacy as far as I'm concerned. Frank is entitled to pursue his career and, be honest, it would be remarkable if he was not at least a little bit motivated by wanting to show Chelsea that that'd made a mistake. Personally, I don't think we made a mistake but that's irrelevant, it's what the man himself thinks that counts. While he was here, that man did what he did, and we won what we won. His legacy is in the book. Let's all just say amen and leave it at that.

It is not a mockery of FFP. It is only a mockery of what we think FFP should be. FFP is not, not, not what we think it should be. As you have pointed out, it is formulated in such a way as to benefit the old money clubs. When United use a system that is designed to help them, in a way that does actually help them, how can that be a mockery? We need to avoid the trap of judging FFP by what we hope it is, rather than by what it really is. FFP is not, was not, and was never intended to be, fair. If we don't like the way United have behaved, blame the people who wrote the regulations, not the club. The club did nothing wrong. I didn't say Jose was wrong to point out that Financial Fair Play is a misnomer*, of course it is misleadingly named, it should really be called Financial Unfair Play. What I said Jose got wrong was the claim that FFP was ever intended to be fair, it was not. Indeed, if FFP was intended to be fair, our club would probably have voted against it, instead of supporting it enthusiastically as we have done. *Steve Claridge and other idiot footballers please note; the word "misnomer" is correctly used in the sentence above. It would be nice if, just once, you used it correctly too!

Jose is not spot on at all. He is entirely wrong to claim that FFP was ever intended to be fair. It was no such thing. It was introduced at the behest of the big clubs (MP has said this) to protect their positions and stuff everybody else*. ManU have not made a mockery of FFP. Their spending was utterly and completely within the rules. What they have done is fine, it is the regulations that are wrong but everybody has known that for a long time. * To be clear, Platini said the clubs asked for FFP, he did not admit that it was set up to protect the big clubs. That part is just obvious from the way the regulations are designed.

If he isn't then maybe he should be.

Must win. Non-negotiable. Win the FA Cup? Win the Champions League? Stuff those: - Beat These!!!!

Really I'm completely calm about this performance and result. Jose and the team have surpassed our expectations so far and have more than earned our continued support when they turn in a sub-par performance. This isn't our first uninspiring outing but then are we perfect? I don't think anyone here ever thought that we were. Do any of our players need to be told that they didn't do it today? Every single one of them knows it already. Honestly, I've never felt less like giving anyone any stick about a display. My message to the Boss and his squad is dust yourselves down, get your feet up and we'll see you Wednesday.

I think they've had their fair share of criticism this season so I don't begrudge them a single syllable of the praise they're getting. As for Gus, his game plan was very effective so well played to him too.

Very, very pleased to have gotten out of there with a point in the end. The force was simply not with us today. This has been a nice reminder for the squad and fans that we are not the unstoppable machine that the media want to cast us as. When we are at something less than our best, other sides can, and do, cause us problems. Even the enforced benching for Diego on Wednesday night looks like it might do us good. Obviously disappointed that we underperformed but genuinely happy with the point given the circumstances.

Spot on. Is it getting to the point though where you'd take a point and go home? I'm nearly there I must say.