OhForAGreavsie

@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.

Oddly enough me and another Chelsea obsessed long term fan were discussing Cesare during the CFCW Champions League tie with Real Madrid. This 'youngster' has been watching The Blues since 1964 which is longer than even me. 🙂 We watch Chelsea Academy & CFCW games together, but we've never sat together at a CFCM match. Unlike me he went to the EFL Trophy game at Peterborough. When I brought up Cesare and said that I didn't think he was ready, my friend immediately agreed. The young Italian is progressing but, for me, lacks finesse in some parts of his game. He works hard and fully commits to the physical side but I think he needs a loan to test and sharpen the way he manipulates and uses the ball. I think that a Premier League loan would be pointless, he wouldn't get minutes but, if a Championship or even League One team can offer him game time, that would be the next logical step.

I just watched the highlight video below of Andrey Santos. I really like what is shown there. Sometimes you can dismiss a player on his highlight videos alone but that's not the case with this lad. In fact, this video is very encouraging. I'd label it, "Talent Under Regulation". I hate flicks and tricks type players. On the evidence of this video Santos has high level technical ability, uses it when he needs it, then has the football brain to see the next simple but effective option. This video 100% encourages me to move on to phase two of the assessment process, all touches videos.

It's always going to be a question of judgement. Sign good players and all will be fine. Sign bad players and there will be trouble ahead. After watching a single youtube highlight video I felt, and said, that both Nathan and Kenedy were no hopers. In fact, with Kenedy I remember saying that it's sometimes difficult to judge a young player but that in his case it was easy to see that he lacked the quality required. Those decisions were obviously bad ones but that doesn't mean they all have to be. A few years ago my older daughter asked me why I watch videos of potential signings. I told her it was because I like to have an opinion. I'm looking forward to watching videos and forming an opinion about Santos.

Forgive me, but I've been having this conversation on various forums for nearly twenty years and I'm not sure I can raise the enthusiasm to rehearse the arguments once again. That's not to say that I would not be interested to read anything you have to say on the subject, I absolutely will be, but I may not reach for the keyboard to reply. Let me just confirm that I said a player cannot improve his basic talent level at twenty-three, although in fact I don't believe a player can do that much past the age of ten or eleven. The way I often illustrate my point is to ask, "If players can improve their talent level, why don't they all practice until they are Lionel Messi?" Of all my football opinions, this is the one of which I am most certain. I accept that my confidence is not an argument and so can't mean much to you, but I am 100% certain that I am right. Worse, from your point of view, I am 100% certain that you, and everyone else, will eventually agree with me. 🙂 That's if you don't already feel you can agree with me now that I've reemphasised that I'm talking about absolute talent level. Again, I accept that the strength of my conviction does not mean that you or anyone else will agree, but it does mean that my opinion on this is not biddable. I have this point of view and it can never be changed. It was my firmness of conviction on this which enabled me to predict in autumn 2011 that Romelu Lukaku would never be good enough for Chelsea. It is why, without watching him play a single minute for Inter, I was confidently able to dismiss the claims of those who told me he had improved in Italy. Indeed, when people explained that he had done extra training with Antonio and claimed that this had transformed him, I simply said that the fact he still needed remedial lessons at the age of 28 only proved that I had been right about him all along. I agree, of course, that players can learn how to make better use of the talent they have but the range of improvement is always linked to, and limited by, the basic level of ability. Modric always had the talent. He, and his coaches, learned how best to deploy it. It's a frequent experience that as children the high-level footballers play in forward positions simply because they are way more talented that the kids around them. As they rise up the ranks however some of them move lower and find their true home on a football pitch.

I have to admit that I am a Mason doubter but, for me, it's not about goal count or assist count. It's about opportunity conversion. In my opinion he too often nearly gets it right rather than actually gets it right. How many times have we seen Mason's grimace of frustration when he hasn't quite pulled off whatever it is he just tried to do? Frequently accompanied by a hands to face gesture. No one gets it right 100% of the time. No one even gets it right 75% of the time but based on my own impression when watching Mason, he does not get it right often enough.