OhForAGreavsie

Sounds like someone has decided never to run out of LBs again! 🙂 Sosa is the right profile of player I think and most importantly would come in to challenge for the starter's role. I'm not interested in seeing the club focus only on a replacement for Marcos Alonso. Indeed, I suspect Sosa would only consider Chelsea if the first choice function was on the table.

The one thing I do not want to see is TT come under any kind of pressure.

Fully agree. Of the list you give I can pick Morata as the odd one out because I was OK with signing him but was against signing all of the others.

I've stated previously that if I had had Roman's money I would absolutely have tried to buy Chelsea and, if successful, would now be making all of the transfer decisions myself. Certainly I'd give the manager every opportunity to sell me on his preferred targets but, in the end, I would watch the player myself and decide myself. When it comes to the potential return of Eden Hazard however I would probably have to recuse myself. I'm too emotionally attached.

Thanks LAM, I don't agree here and certainly not with these examples. The failures of Torres and Shevchenko were exactly as I predicted. After watching Sheva at world Cup 2006 I distinctly remember commenting (elsewhere) that, "He had nothing to offer us." I saw it so anybody could have seen it and I believe that everybody in the game did see it. I don't think anyone with money to spend but Roman saw Andraiy as a top player in the summer of 2006. As for Torres, check out Jamie Carragher's comments about how he and his fellow Liverpool squad members couldn't believe the money the club had received for Nando, or Danny Murphy's about how his ex Liverpool teammates only ever spoke about all the things Torres couldn't do on a football pitch. They both knew Liverpool were taking Chelsea to the cleaners. Ballack was a different proposition in that he had reached the stage where he was looking for the best pay packet, not the best "project" as continental footballers like to say. Had he been perceived as a top player still a more attractive club would have matched our contract offer and taken him. I'm sure you have in mind many other players who you would cite as examples but, with the possible exception of Eden Hazard, I would argue that we were able to sign those players because no other 'big' club wanted them as much as we did. With Eden the stars aligned in our favour and we pulled off arguably the greatest transfer in our history. Only the capture of Frank Lampard compares but I can only say that with hindsight. At the time no one foresaw what Frank would become. I believe that Eden is very much the exception which proves the rule. You and I have both heard of players claiming to have turned down better offers from Chelsea in order to join their preferred club instead. On the other hand, I can't remember any examples of big name players claiming to have turned down better offers from big name clubs to join Chelsea instead. There is a pecking order and, for the very best players, we are not at the top of it.

Depends on the definition of 'top' I suppose but I don't think we ever have been.

I said at the time that I hoped Pulli's marketability was just seen as a fringe benefit, not actually a reason to sign him. I still hope that was true. Saying there is zero footballing identity at the club sounds harsh to my ears but, if you are wrong, you are not wrong by much.

Was he? I don't know. Even if Rom was the best available, that still does not mean he is good enough. There must be a quality threshold and all players must meet it in order to justify a significant transfer fee. If, after watching Rom across eleven seasons of top level football, our decision makers still can't realise that he is short of the required quality then they have no business making those decisions in the first place. For nearly nineteen years now I have posted, here and elsewhere, to say that we tend to buy players with qualities rather than players of quality. I hope one year from now this will have changed. Every penny drops in the end.

Something that really has to go is the recruitment approach which means that generation after generation we underperform in the transfer market and collect players with a flair for the spectacular but lacking in the final stamp of quality.

Was coming even when we were top.

I would imagine any 'big' player going there would want to include a relegation release clause in their contract

Fair point.

This is the key. We spend enough money to be better than we are.

That would leave us playing with ten men.

To be fair that was the indication before he even made his debut but after the Southampton cup game there was no more room for doubt. He's not the answer.

This is the reality.

If there is to be any hope for Spurs they have to be doing better against a side playing as poorly as we did for long spells last night.

Probably more than a couple. 🙂 🙂 Corrected.

It's not the outright poor games like tonight. They happen to everyone. It's the number of times he has an opportunity to do something decisive but fails to. Just misses the pass, over hits the cross, miss times a strike so there's no power behind it.

A keeper springing an offside trap. Love it. 🙂

Keep your eyes on the prize Armando Broja.

I'm sorry to say that my long term view of Mase is not moving in a positive direction. He doesn't maximise opportunities anything like often enough. Someone was speculating yesterday about who Conor G might replace if he returns next season. I didn't post it but my answer to that question was, "Mason."

Check Keppa's position

We flatter to deceive. Offside or not.

We are not playing well now.