OhForAGreavsie

As for Ruben, it's now more than ten years since I wrote of him as a youth team player that he had a ton of talent but that unless he learned to use it better he would be lucky to get a gig in League One.

Sometime last season someone here reminded me that, when Connor was in our U18 squad, I had said that he would not make it as a Chelsea player. I replied that Connor had done nothing at Chelsea yet but I promised that if and when he establishes himself here I would post an admission that I was wrong. That promise is still live, and I haven't forgotten it.

It's well known that KDB refused a) to go on loan again and b) to accept a binding buyback. Reports vary as to whether there was a sell on clause in the deal which took him to Wolfsburg .

One day the truth will come out. 🙂 I am not diminishing Marina's power. I just recognise the boundaries of her autonomy.

I arrived in the 9th minute so I haven't yet seen that part of the the game. In what I did see, Denis had his moments but he frequently wanted more time than he had and gave the ball away a few times. One square ball across our D in the second half was picked off and led to danger. I watched the game in the company of a young Australian coach of Irish decent whose Irish passport allows him to be here working for his B licence. We each raved about our memories of Denis at Gladbach, but we also agreed that yesterday was not a good outing for him. Well before he was subbed we knew it was coming even though we hoped it wouldn't. I really want GP to give Denis a run of games to get up to speed, because I still believe there is a player there.

I've only seen him twice and, so far, he looks to me like a tricks and flicks player. A type of player that I really don't like.

So did Denis Zakaria. I desperately want it to work for Denis here but yesterday was another setback for those of us with hopes for him.

One of us is. 🙂 🙂 In any case, read the material you linked. When all is said and done, even it does not support the headline being used to push it. Instead, we find phrases like, "They made the decision not to pursue the player." THEY. Even if Marina communicated the final decision, she was either channelling Roman, or giving cover for a different factor which was the true reason.

🙂 You should know by now that I do not, and will not, believe these reports. They are undoubtedly nonsense. I ask again for people to interrogate the following scenario: - Thomas Tuchel wanted the player, Petr Cech wanted the player, Roman Abramovich wanted the player, but he wasn't pursued because Marina was worried about his level? Do me a favour! It is simply not possible to believe such bollocks. Even for those of you with an agenda against our former director.

In any case Marina didn't say that Tchou was not ready 2 years ago.

I don't agree with all of your examples but I definitely agree with your point.

I would have, and I would have been right. Correct assessment of the available facts would have led to the correct answer. As for hindsight, @Vespersaid it at the time and said it first. I echoed her then and since. I also repeated it in summer '22. This approach is not radical, it is established football lore; let your players' legs go when they are playing for someone else. It's just a question of getting the timing right. The information was there to be seen that would have led to the right decision. All that was necessary was to see through the gleam of the Champions League trophy. Vesper did, others here did, and the club should have.

P.S. I don't know yet if it is a boy or a girl. They sent me a picture but didn't say. I've told them to just enjoy their moment and not to bother with any answering questions. Mum and dad look overjoyed.

Thank you. I bought the Chelsea branded bibs at the megastore after the Champions League game last Thursday. They're gonna look great. 🙂

Thank you. It's absolutely incredible. 🙂 🙂 🙂

I can't of course rule out that you are right, but I believe very strongly that you are wrong.

I have not listened to the podcast, and won't do so immediately but will respond when I have. Meanwhile, none of the above offer any evidence, or even imply, that Marina made the football decisions. They only show she was responsible for enacting them once they had been made, and this we already knew because it was public knowledge. There is always an executive with responsibility for signing the cheques, and negotiating the deals. Marina was that person in the latter part of Roma's era. Settling the business of a transfer is a long way from actually deciding who to target or who to sell. Matt Law has his work cut out to persuade me that Marina decided to buy player A because she, not the manager, not Roman, and not any of his advisors, thought that player was a better footballer than player B. Are people really asking me to believe that Roman, the Manager, and Petr liked Tchomeni, (SP?) but that Marina didn't buy him because she decided he wasn't good enough? Surely such a notion sounds just as ridiculous to everybody else, as it sounds to me. Marina enacted football decisions, she didn't make them.

Thank you for answering my question and with a reasonable response. I do not believe Matt Law however. I don't recall reading what he had to say on the subject but, if I had, I'm sure that I would have found him to be using careful language. Just as careful as the language Romario used in the last few days when he 'announced' that the N'kunku deal had been completed. Everyone will have noticed how he skilfully danced around saying when this had happened. I took that dance as a further indicator that N'kunku's deal was completed months ago. Meanwhile, I might believe Marina made the football decisions, i.e. deciding that player A was a better footballer than player B, when I hear Roman confirm it. In truth however, probably not even then. The notion that Roman would allow someone with no particular football knowledge to make a decision that he could otherwise have made himself, sounds as ludicrous to me as the idea that Chelsea would have carried out a medical on a player because they hoped to sign him 12 months later. Such a pointless, useless, waste of time and money, medical simply never made any sense. Nor does Matt Law's story about Marina playing Football manager with Roman's money. I won't accuse him of deliberately misleading people, but he may have been misled himself.

My younger daughter has just given birth to her first child. I just got back from spending Christmas with them but I'll now be heading back down. This means that I can't use my ticket for this match. Would anyone here like to buy it? West Lower, Block 3, £56 (Face value). Let me know. Edit: I'm now planning to be back in London in time to get to the game so the ticket is no longer available.

You were absolutely right about this at the time. NG should have been sold in summer '21.

Why do you persist in believing Marina made decisions on football grounds? If she made any 'football' pronouncement it can only have been channelling Roman. It's probable that she had opinions of course. After all, she watched far more live football than many of us and we all have opinions. Having, or even offering, an opinion is one thing, making decisions is another.

Tonight's final match in the group stage will determine whether Chelsea or PSG top Group A. Kick off is at 8pm, UK time (GMT/UTC), Tickets are available, https://www.chelseafc.com/en/tickets/womens-tickets, and the game can be watched live on DAZN's YouTube channel.

I'm not a chant starter, it's just not my personality, but I'm going to try to get Vialli, Vialli, Vialli going at The Bridge tonight. If you're there help me out if you can. If you're not there why not? 🙂 https://www.chelseafc.com/en/tickets/womens-tickets

And the highest energy prices on the planet. Oh the joys of Brexit. To be fair, the energy prices are more to do with the incompetence of the government than directly with Brexit but nobody reads the small print.

The whole truth.