OhForAGreavsie

Disappointed in what I've seen from him so far. He shows technical limitations and little, if any, football instinct. Based on these two displays I am extremely worried about this deal and the money paid.

I've obviously seen the score but I haven't watched any of the game from Wembley. Even without doing that however I was pretty certain that Palace will be a bigger test than we have faced against either of our opponents this weekend. Not too impressive a display from us today. Shows a real need for feet on the ground about the upcoming season.

Hated his performance today. All flash, no production. Thought he received far more praise than he deserved on Friday and today he showed nothing. If decisions are made on the basis of these two pre-season games, there is no way Gittens starts next weekend. I'm already very, very, doubtful about the wisdom of this transfer.

It is still my suspicion that Marc has told the club he does not want to return.

The interplay between Callum and Tino after Tino subbed on was fun to watch. I thought Saka's best moments in that final were in the first leg at The Bridge after coming on as a sub. In the second leg I felt he was petulant and ineffective. I especially enjoyed his sulking after his second half 'goal' was disallowed. Smith-Rowe was the star of the first half of the game at Chelsea, and Arsenal's best performer overall I felt.

That photo must be from the second leg of the 2018 FA Youth Cup Final. One of my favourite Chelsea performances ever. I sat behind one of the goals, as we totally outclassed them. Tino Anjorin's cameo as a second half substitute briefly had me believing that he could be a star.

Might be more to do with personality than performance. Given that Enso has silenced his critics, including the daily clamour from some here for him to be sacked, the club will require a complete climb down by Veiga before changing their stance. As far as can be judged from what we've seen play out, that doesn't seem likely. It's a fair guess that Veiga's idea about where he wants to play is at the heart of the problem because Maresca wants to impose a 'you'll play where I ask you to play' regime. If sacrificing Veiga is what it takes for the club to demonstrate its backing of the manager then that's what will happen.

Marc also has the advantage of being way more affordable than Murillo who would be my preference if money was no object. I think coughing up for the Brazilian might be unaffordable under uefa regulations.

We'd all agree though that such things play no part when assessing a player.

With circa £100m available to be won the club will; A) lobby fifa very hard for automatic qualification and, B) definitely participate if qualified. I absolutely want Chelsea to take part and attempt to successfully defend our crown.

They keep Isaak and we keep Jackson, or sell him elsewhere, is a good outcome for us. Isaak at Newcastle is dangerous, but not as dangerous as he would be at Liverpool.

Surprised it's taken this long for someone's interest in him to be made public. Brighton recruit so well.

For me there are two exceptions to that formula; centre forward, and goalkeeper. Keeper is non-negotiable, centre forward you could sneak by without a third if you have sufficient versatility within the squad. We tried that last season with people like Nkunku but it didn't work. Not convinced it would with current squad options either.

Trust me V, I wouldn't intentionally give you a wrong steer. The word 'quid' is not used in that way. I understand that you aren't aiming to present as a native English speaker, but if you were that subtle misuse would give you away. A bit like the strange, to German eyes, hand gesture which gives away one of the English characters in the film Inglorious Bastards.

Using quid in this sentence structure doesn't quite work in slang English. Go with, "IF a club dumped enough dosh...", instead. 🙂

We certainly will need a third specialist centre forward in the squad. If Nico's pride/ambition prevents him accepting that role, or the club prefers to transfer him because they don't want to allocate his level of salary to that role, then who is next up from the current squad? I'm not convinced that any of the younger players has looked ready.

...Michael Olise. 🙁

I don't know which person in the CFC organisation is responsible for adding the final authorising signature to player contracts. Whoever it is should keep framed portraits of these two on their desk.

After making my original post I saw a version of the question posted by Chelsea with a photograph of the 15 players. It included a lot of 'doh' moments of recognition for me I can tell you. Even then there was one face I recognised but could not id. Your post put me out of my misery on that name. 🙁

I received a notification from Chelsea challenging people to name the other 14 Dutchman who have played for Chelsea. (I'm assuming they're talking about the men's team.) I'm ashamed to say I've only come up with five so far. Including Hato! The other 4 are; a keeper, a midfielder who played centre back for us, a left footed right winger, and a left winger. L I'm guessing that most of you lot can do much better than me. Edit: Up to six now. A right back

I can certainly agree with this.

If I'm remembering correctly that we paid £30m for KDH then I'm guessing you mean a profit against remaining book value?

I saw a thing somewhere, maybe in here, claiming that we are looking for £100m a season. No doubt that's after City's record breaking deal.

I did see some stuff about the theory that we might be living inside a black hole but I decided not to look into it. 🙁

I've got a feeling I'll be busy that day but I'm looking forward to receiving a postcard from you. 🙂 I only chose the Planck time because it is comfortably within the range of time that human beings simply could not experience. In that length of time we couldn't even fire up the neurons required to conceive the thought, "Are we there yet?"