OhForAGreavsie

Agree with this though Hutchinson is impressing and is possibly above Lewis now in my reckoning. Casadei will have to deal with another suspension after his second 'two yellows equals red' of the season last weekend.

I made this point last season to which someone replied that the idea was nonsense. Well not using that word but they definitely saw it differently. Guessing it wasn't you. 🙂

For me, Bellingham is the type of player that you automatically take if you can and set things up around him. That said, it's all moot anyway. He isn't coming here.

According to an earlier post in the forum the comment you are referring to came from a fake account and not from Kounde himself.

I was dead set against us signing Juan Veron despite the fact that I thought he was the best player in the world in the mid 90s. My reasoning then was similar to yours here; if SAF couldn't make it work for him at Utd, how were we going to make it happen for him at Chelsea?

Yes it was. Just the usual excuse. Never good enough. Purple patch at Liverpool was the exception not the rule.

Ehm, ehm.

I remember very well that you did.

I'd like us to try again for that Lavia kid from Southampton. Mega difficult negotiation given City's buyback clause, but we should definitely try.

One more time for the record, NG should have been sold during the 2021 summer window. Failing that then definitely in the last window.

The League Cup can't come quickly enough for me. I want to see Zakaria in Blue at least once before he leaves. 😞

I still think Nkunku is already done. I also still think Gvardiol would be a great alternative LB/LWB though that would imply selling Ben or Marc. My main hope though is that Shakhtar will take second spot in group F and eliminate Leipzig so the German side might be willing to discuss completing the moves in January. A big 'might', I know.

Listening to Fikayo's press conference it certainly sounded that way. He made it seem that they feel they let themselves down at The Bridge, that they are angry, and that they are very motivated.

As you guessed, I had in mind that Fikyo fits into group 3, "Was given a chance to impress over many games but the manager eventually decided they were not for him." Remember my post is aimed at rebutting the myth that first team capable Cobham graduates were not given chances by Chelsea because of the club's culture. 'Fik' benefitted from a good loan, was brought back and given a place in the first team squad. Further, he was relied upon and picked numerous times. Eventually however the manager decided he preferred other options. That decision by Frank may, or may not, have been the right one but that's not the point here. The point is that Fik absolutely was given a chance. That he did not establish himself was nothing to do with club culture and everything to do with the manager's preference.

That is not why Jamal left. Once he decided that his life would be in Germany, and that he would play internationally for Germany not for England, the move to Bayern was always on the cards. I thought the myth of us denying opportunities to deserving young players had died. It just isn't true. Marc Guehi perhaps but he's the only candidate. All of the others fit into one of four categories: - Never good enough in the first place Near miss but ultimately still not good enough Was given a chance to impress over many games but the manager eventually decided they were not for him. Play right back, grew up with Reece James and are not idiots. The only players showing signs of top-flight careers fall into the last two categories.

Maybe I was happier with that nice run he had to the edge of their box than was really warranted, but he looked way better in that one moment than he did at any point when I saw him against City U21s earlier in the season. Another potential positive from a good day.

I wasn't happy with Reece coming in either. I didn't see what we had to gain from it.

Am I the only idiot who didn't know that the District Line was not running between Wimbledon and Fulham Broadway today? Turned up at Wimbledon about 2:25pm as usual for a 3 o'clock start. An hour and a half later, after negotiating train strike (more power to the RMT), TFL misinformation, and chaos on the roads, I arrived at The Bridge so I only saw the second half today. I was though able to see Mando's composed finish and now I'm looking forward to seeing what that does for him going forward. As I said to the lad from Cleveland, Ohio who was enjoying his first visit to The Bridge for 9 years, that could prove an important goal for our season.

According to a chart I saw last night only Kjaer has any chance and even he is unlikely to make it.

Accor Sssshh! Don't tell Clearlake.

Did they catch the bastards who did it?

I'm with you most of the way on this but I'd say that we don't lack investment capital. What we lack is football capital. Established top players, with dreams of the mega clubs, and realistic hopes of achieving those dreams, don't fancy playing for Chelsea. I think that Timo is an example of this. If I remember correctly there was an authoritative report that we paid £47m for him. At that price, or even substantially above it, Liverpool could have afforded him if they wanted to. I believed from the start that their claim to be unable to afford Timo was just a more acceptable thing to say than that they didn't rate him at anything like this amount. At a lower cost they might have been willing to place a 'bet', but at £47m they were out, so we were able to get him. Our lack of football capital can be fixed but it will take time and a lot of astute recruitment of the kind you are talking about.

For once I've been reading this thread forward, rather than backward from the most recent post, so I came across your comment about how highly you rate Nkunku after I had already posted the comment you replied to here. It's encouraging to read an assessment from someone who watches more than just highlight vids.

I have to confess that I'm having a Kai Havertz moment here in that I really liked what I saw of Kai but, as soon as I realised that we might actually get him, I felt certain that I must have been overrating him. (On the basis that if he was as good as I thought one of the usual suspects who take him.) To an extent I feel similarly about Nkunku who I rate a lot, though not as highly as I briefly rated Kai.

No doubt we'd have to agree a 'better than clause' fee to get him in January but perhaps Leipzig would rather just keep him an extra five months. Above and beyond that however I still feel that the only way to make sense of the medical having been done already is that the deal has also already been done.