OhForAGreavsie

I like Mason's strengths. Indeed if it wasn't for those strengths he wouldn't a point for discussion because he wouldn't get in the team. 🙂 I agree that TT, or any CFC manager, will want to pick Mason but I do get frustrated when he misses makeable opportunities to launch an attack, create a chance or score a goal. This is a fine judgement because all players fail to maximise situations. If they didn't we'd be watching 10 - 10 draws a lot of weeks. The game is fun because scoring goals is hard but TT's regular observation that we lack 'precision' shows he feels we should be doing better in some situations. I consider Mason to be a culprit in this. We all want our squad to improve continually. If Mason does not show the progression you are expecting from him then eventually there will be a new squad member who will give Mason a fight for his place. This is the nature of a footballers life.

Yes, it was the starting nine that had me worried about our chances. 🙂

I can almost guarantee this team would be beaten. A backs to the wall draw is the best we could hope for with that line up.

Generally I agree though it was better than I feared it might be. I had the feeling it would be a one - nil night but I expected one of those really clunky performances. I don't think we quite got that although there are still too many times when we did Zenit's work for them. The percentage of movements which ended due to poor execution or bad choices was too high once again.

Standing ovation. I used to dream of a return Concorde flight once a fortnight to watch the Washington football team but Concorde didn't last and I never got as rich as I was certain I was going to. 😀

I think this is an important point and the answer to all those accusations of where were you when you were crap. There were a lot of pitifully low attendances at The Bridge during the dark days. For example, I was in a crowd of just over 8,000 on a cold Wednesday night in 1976. I was in worse attendances than that too but that one stands out because I'd been among 56,000 at SB just four days earlier. People notice that our support collapsed but never think very hard about why it happened. No doubt our attendances fell because we were crap, but the environment of hooliganism and racism also played it's part. It's true to say that there was more often an atmosphere of violence than of actual violence, but a lot of people didn't want any part of it and definitely didn't want to be associated with it. My own dad refused to take me to Stamford Bridge which is why I didn't go to Chelsea until I could go on my own. All clubs were affected by this but we were among the worst hit. People were driven away from Stamford Bridge in their tens of thousands. They were still Chelsea families however. They supported the club from afar but they didn't go to matches. When the situation gradually improved the bigger numbers began to return but by then there was an entire generation of Chels fans who had never developed the match going habit. Roman's arrival was the spark that got more of them into that habit but the latent support was always there.

I haven't counted but it's over a thousand. It would have been a lot more but to this day I have never been to a Chelsea men's match outside of London. In fact since the introduction of ticket only entry and away members I've not been to many away games even in London. First ever game was away to Arsenal FA Cup quarter-final replay March(?) 1973. First home game was FA Cup 4th round vs Birmingham January 1975. First league game was Spurs away April 1975. First full season at The Bridge 1975/76. First season ticket 1976/77. By the way, those first three games were good preparation for life as a Chelsea fan. We lost them all.

Is there going to be a 2021/22 version of this thread?

Racism is discrimination and/or hatred based on race, sexism is discrimination and/or hatred based on gender and, strictly speaking, sectarianism is discrimination and/or hatred based on religious affiliation. I say 'strictly speaking' because a person's religion often impacts on cultural or even political identity too so the word can encompass all of those. Is it just that I'm a Chelsea fan so I'm more likely to hear about these incidents when they involve The Blues, or am I right that our club just attracts more people who think like this and don't have the brains to control themselves? Sick of these people. I'd swap any number of them for one Christopher Hitchens.

Hands up anyone who had forgotten this. 😀😀

I haven't watched Kessie since he was originally linked to us a few years ago. Although I was initially impressed by his power, I wasn't a fan of bringing him here. At that time I didn't see evidence of there being enough technical quality to his game. Until I do watch him some more there is no way for me to move away from that opinion. Jude Bellingham on the other hand is a player that I love. I desperately hoped we would get him from Birmingham even though I could see as clearly as everyone else could that we were not in the running. Worse, the feeling radiating through the ether now is that like Haaland, Bellingham has no real interest in Chelsea. These two will both be coveted by all the big clubs but, despite the assiduous PR efforts of his agents, I don't feel that would be the case with Kessie.

Surely the only clubs not monitoring Jude Bellingham are the ones who know they can't afford him.

I'm too old to be bothered by nonsense like this and I certainly won't engage with it. If it makes you happy knock yourself out.

Someone please replace Lee Parker on these player interviews. He's scripted, boring and stiff. He seems unable to interact with interviewees and just ploughs on with the next question. It's always the same questions too. Lee is a good stadium announcer but Ben Andrews totally outclasses him as an interviewer. Please somebody notice this and take action.

Man I wish I had a quid for every time I've heard the "He's not the same since the injury.", rationale. It's simply not true. Calum is every bit as good now as he ever was. As I and others stated at the time, giving him a big contract was ridiculous given he has achieved precisely nothing so far. He should have been sold instead. I still refuse to believe CFC have him on £6m a year by the way. No chance.

That is a point now that you come to mention it. Maybe we need to get agent Gianfranco on it.

Ah ha. Education is good. Thank you.

✔️✔️✔️

When did 'paperworks' become a word? I realise that language evolves but this particular piece of evolution makes my brain want to go on strike. 🙁 I understand that it is being used by people for whom English is not their first language, and I'm guessing that the equivalent word(s) in their native tongue(s) do/does have plural forms. Still hurts the eyes to read it though.

Exactly.

Is this a new usage I don't know or is it a typo?

The statue sounds a better prospect 🙂 In any case, if this published material accurately represents reality, then your main contention is proved wrong and mine proved right. You were, and are, furiously incredulous that CFC turned down the supposed offer but, since Willian did not want to move according to the above, there would have been no decision for Chelsea to make. In that scenario it's even possible to speculate that Chelsea did accept the offer but the move fell through because of the player's reluctance. Further, and I'm only working from memory, I thought a previous version of the tale suggested that Willian was disappointed at not being allowed to make the move? Those two versions don't immediately square up.

Ok, once we've got enough money for Marina's statue we'll get a little collection up for yours. ✔️

Who's we? Not me for sure. Who's people. Not me for sure. I found the game a very frustrating watch because we should have been over the hills and far away before the penalty incident. We do a lot of very good stuff but we lack precision in key moments. This is not a one off. It happens game after game. I'm not just referring to the incidents around their box in this game which have been highlighted elsewhere. We also had numerous opportunities to launch threatening attacks which were killed by lax passes. Thought Jorgi and N'Golo had poor days (or half days) on the ball. This was a game we should have won. Even with the red card.

Yes, Marcos is exactly the same player he ever was. A player who, if he were to be the squad's best option at LB/LWB, should trigger an incoming transfer to rectify the situation. That is exactly where we were 15 months ago. I made no comment about weather Marcos is the better option. I posted about the fact that he is currently keeping Ben out of the side. The reason, we hear, is that it's a question of Ben's match fitness. If so then it's as we were. If, however, Marcos continues to be selected ahead of Ben then there is a problem and that problem would be Ben. He was expensively acquired to fix a problem. If a problem remains then that would clearly mean the fix failed. My issue with Ben all along was based on the fact that I believe we here have a better take on the strengths and weaknesses of Chelsea players than non Chelsea fans generally do. If that's true for us then it will be true for each set of fans in respect of their own players. I think it is wise to respect the opinions of fans about their own team''s players. I was therefore concerned about what many Leicester fans said about Ben when his transfer was being negotiated. Many mentioned how frustrated they were with his contribution and how they preferred the transfer fee to the player. If TT has come to share their point of view then it would indeed be a problem.