OhForAGreavsie

Rom never delivered for Chelsea, did not deliver to a satisfactory standard for ManU, and would not have delivered for us if we had been unfortunate enough to re-sign him from Everton. He has never shown anything to contradict my autumn 2011 prediction that he would never be good enough for Chelsea. I made that prediction based on my assessment of his technical level and my conviction that a player's output will, ultimately, be tethered to his technical level. Form fluctuates, but it fluctuates around a footballer's basic level. This conviction also allowed me to correctly predict that, sooner or later, Torres would fail at Liverpool and, of course, that he would fail at Chelsea. As I argued since before he joined Liverpool, Nando was an ordinary footballer whose purple patch must ultimately collapse to its true level as set by his talent, or lack of it. You are 100% correct to caution against overestimating DDF, a player few of us know anything about. The one thing I feel able to assess is that his technical level is higher than Rom's and so he at least has a chance, which I maintain Rom never did. I do want us to sign DDF if it's for the fee reported. That's the kind of money which should be paid for a player who is no more than a prospect. If we get him one of his biggest challenges will be in his head. Moving to a stronger league he will obviously find it harder to produce but, where he is now, he knows where he stands in the pecking order. Once in England however, he will find himself lower down and that will affect his confidence. Confidence plays a big part in what a player tries to do, never mind what he actually can do. If he arrives we'll see how he copes with that knock.

Don't see we have any choice but to hope that the injury won't be terminal, as you fear. The real problem of course is that we should never have paid anything even remotely close to £80m for him.

Would have been fine if he was up to it as a footballer. It wasn't his talk that was the problem. 🙂 DDF is streets ahead of Rom technically so he already looks to me like someone who should be able to walk his talk better than Rom ever could. I like DDF, and will be delighted if we bring him in. Adding the Russian lad would make it a pleasing, and very encouraging, window. Encouraging in that we'd be getting the right level of prospect, at the right end of the market. The end of the market where some instances of failure must be expected, but where failures are not financially ruinous, and where success is automatically a jackpot.

Many other clubs can compete for Leao, if they want to. If they don't want to then there is a reason for that. By all means take the risk of buying him if we think our recruitment team have got their assessment of Leao right, while all the non-competing teams have underestimated him. Just be sure to pay a risk price. Time and again we have allowed ourselves to bid over the odds when there didn't seam to be anybody competing for the player's signature. Most recently with Cucu for example.

I wonder which choice Kounde would have made had Chelsea wanted to play him at centre-back, and Barcelona at wing-back? I know what I think, and I bet I'm not alone in thinking as I do. 🙂

@Artandur Interesting thank you ML. How would you say he [Moukoko] shapes up against Adeyemi now that they have both had time to settle? I ask because I really liked Adeyemi's technical level ahead of his move.

Ah, ok. I have not watched but I did catch a glimpse of Morocco Vs Portugal this afternoon and saw him on the pitch. That reminded me that there have not been many comments about him recently. Now I know why.

Raphael Leao, stock up or stock down after the World Cup?

Frustratingly conservative and sloppy performance. Need tactical changes at the very least for the second half. Perhaps personnel changes too. Real Madrid 1-0 Chelsea at halftime. Goal game from Scottish international, and ex-Man City player, Caroline Weir. She finished well after our keeper, Ann-Katrin Berger, passed the ball straight to her in the D. A goal that sums up The Blues first half display. Edit: Game finished 1-1, own goal by their keeper after a Guro Reiten penalty came back off the post, hit her, and rebounded in.

Tonight the girls are in Madrid for the return fixture with Real. Having taken nine points out of nine so far, The Blues can qualify for the knock out stage with a win tonight. The game will be streamed live on The 5th Stand app as well as on DAZN's YouTube channel.

Two weeks ago the women beat Real Madrid to put themselves in a strong position at the top of their Champions League grpoup.

Then, depending on how you feel about Chilly & Cucu, hop onboard the Gvardiol for LB/LWB train. I'm convinced he has the attributes and that the roll suits him.🙂

Except in that we hope the new crew learn from it. The new leadership are high calibre people. They can't help but see what went before and I at least will be stunned if they don't take lessons from it.

Yep, let's hope that, for once, I'm right and you're wrong. 🙂 As you know, my guess is based on the fact that a medical has been completed. Clubs don't do medicals on players they are merely interested in. Medicals only occur when agreements have been reached, and legally binding paperwork has to be signed. There is no doubt that Chelsea are very interested in signing a number of players in the next two windows. None of those, other than Nkunku, is known to have completed a CFC medical. What's more, any medical completed in summer 2022 would no longer be valid for a transfer to be sealed in 2023 so a new one would have to be done anyway. The whole exercise of a 2022 medical would have been a waste of effort and money unless the deal was signed at the time. I therefore believe that, if a medical was completed in September it can only mean the player joined us in September.

While I feel we've had him signed and sealed since September. 🙂

And all tied up with the decision to make his life in Germany. Last I saw he still lives with his mum.

We need to use Bellingham as motivation. All of us, including Todd B, have known, all along, that Bellingham would not consider Chelsea. The club must set itself the mission of ensuring that, six years from now, Chelsea will be considered by the next Jude Bellingham.

Although i understand why it didn't happen , I wish Roman had had the same idea as @Vesper two summers ago and sold NG. We would have lost very little in terms of on pitch contribution, because there really hasn't been any, but would have gained a substantial transfer fee to reinvest. It would have been the correct move in a serious squad building environment, but, under Roman, that was never the environment. It was about him and his football manager moves. Every one of us is grateful for Roman's unbelievable impact on Chelsea Football club. Every one of us realises however that there is plenty of room for things to be done even better than they were by our favourite oligarch. I for one am willing to forgive TB and his team for what looks to have been a panicky first transfer window but it has to be a down to business attitude from now. That attitude has to include a recognition that NG should have been moved on before now.

Ture, but the gravity of Real is what it is and everybody has to work around it. The implications of a medical having been carried out means that, rightly or wrongly, I believe the Nkunku deal is done and has been since summer. For less convincing reasons I am hopeful that Gvardiol may also have already been wrapped up. If so then, worst case scenario, we have him for a few seasons.

Our favourite theory about GP not playing Zakaria because the club wants shot of him in January and therefore wanted to preserve the possibility of him going on a new loan after Christmas hasn't panned out, but I still feel there must be some non-football factors influencing the manager's decisions re Denis's. Hard to make sense of it otherwise.

He has and leaving cost him billions of his personal wealth.

Didn't see Rom today (not watching the tournament) but a bad performance from him does us no good at all of course.

I like the strategy too, so let's hope those making the call get the individual player decisions right.

Oddly enough I was hoping CFC Dev would draw Plymouth. Would be nice to watch them down there.