OhForAGreavsie

First we have to see him.

We know that WB suits Marcos better but we also know that 15 months ago SFL agreed with the vast majority of the fan base that we needed an upgrade irrespective of whether it was for LWB or LB. Marcos isn't the problem, the upgrade is. It may be fitness but it's also possible that TT is now agreeing with the Leicester City fans who, through their forum comments, made it clear that they didn't think Ben Chilwell was the right solution. If TT is now thinking this too then we are out £50m (reportedly) and back to square one anyway.

I think your post is one word too long. The last one.

Based on his own anti-Chelsea bias, the MP I referred to in my comment a couple of posts ago reacted irrationally and chose to believe inaccurate media coverage. We are all susceptible to believing what we want to believe sometimes. That's why it's always important to apply the smell test. An example which comes to mind for me is the rumoured Willian to Barcelona transfer of a few seasons ago. Many people believed, and still believe, that Barca had a £65m offer for the player rejected. They may be right, but I do not believe it and never will unless I see incontrovertible evidence. This is because no aspect of the story made any sense to me. Given the player's reputation at the time I simply do not believe Barcelona would have made such an offer nor that Chelsea would have rejected it if they had. Even if both of those things had happened I do not believe Willian would have accepted Chelsea's decision. Rather I think he would have agitated like crazy attempting to force the move. Smell test firmly failed in my opinion. My point is that just because a low offer and a high counter demand are rumoured is no reason for us to start planting flags in the ground because we think we know what in fact we do not, and cannot, truly know.

Are you stating your own opinion or suggesting that this is how how FC Sevilla sees the situation? Generally speaking Marina receives praise from her counterparts for the way she conducts business. It would be very unusual for a club to feel disrespected by Chelsea's chief negotiator. That is not her reputation at all. For example; when an MP tried to have Chelsea censored in the House of Commons over the way we conducted the signing Ross Barkley, Everton Football Club contradicted him and defended Chelsea's conduct. Their Chairman stated that CFC had behaved 'perfectly' throughout. This made the MP look rather stupid.

Two years is good. One less thing for Marina to do next summer.

This is the problem but they are not the only measures of a midfielder's contribution. A list of good displays without Mason won't advance the argument. I recognise the shortfall in offensive output and the manager must do too. Nevertheless, the manager consistently selects Mason and TT is not an idiot. There is a reason Mason plays all the big games when available. He is clearly giving the manager something he likes. For now. It can't go on like this however. Professionals like to talk about small margins and fine details. Well, we aren't getting enough of the details right in key moments. If Mason can't become a part of the solution he will definitely become a problem for TT to solve.

I'm not going to water this down. I don't like the way you speak about Chelsea players. I have question marks about many members of the squad but I never feel the need to insult them and I can't understand why any Chelsea fan would want to do that. I think Mason is rapidly becoming an enigma in this team. He most certainly does not possess zero talent and zero intelligence. He has plenty of both. Indeed, for the time being, I can't foresee any big game where TT would choose to leave him out. That is going to be the root of the dilemma however. With the current squad Mason is the player we can't live with and the player we can't live without. In the phrase I like to use, he nearly always nearly gets it right. In most situations where a key contribution is required Mason comes very close to getting it right but most of the time does not actually do so. Either Mason is going to figure this out and become a great footballer, or else TT is going to have to take a tough but vitally important decision about his squad.

I think the question of whether Romelu has a good game or a bad one comes down to the number of opportunities he has to do the things he's good at vs the number of times he's required to try to do things he is not good at. In other words we have to find ways to get the best out of him. Trying to pretend to ourselves that Rom can become something he is not would be foolishness. There will be many better days than today for Rom. I think it's important that people like you and I should not latch on to each and every piece of poor play and use it as a chance to demonstrate our confirmation bias. We gain nothing if Romelu fails. Every footballer has better days and less good days.

Yes, we were imprecise with key passes. A common failing in our game. Perhaps we were even worse than is often the case because Kante and Jorgi were both very poor in the passing game today. Beneath all of that however it is still possible to judge how Rom did individually. My own view is that more of his limitations were on show this week than had been the case last week. This changes nothing however. It's unrealistic to hope that Romelu can be at his best every week. I'm not a believer. I would not have signed Rom but I do believe he will score the goals to help us amass more points than last season and that is his primary function.

Some. There are always going to be situations where Rom being Rom will cost him, and us. Situations where a more technically competent player would succeed but where Rom would fail. That early run at VVD was a case in point. Van Dijk just jockeyed a metre or so off Rom so he could not push the ball and aim to power past the Liverpool man. Robbed of his strength he was forced to employ a part of his game which is not so strong. Eventually the ball got caught under him and the possession was lost. Focusing on his strengths is what Rom needs to do.

Rom did well. For him. I thought his limitations were also on show however. Heavy touches, poorly weighted passes and ball bobbling around as he tried to move with it. No player is perfect. Let's just try to put him in positions where he can exploit his strengths.

I felt Frank handled the media brilliantly so whether TT could do as well was something I was concerned about. I needn't have been. He's better. A wonderful asset for the club. I haven't seen his post game press conference but it would have been perfect as usual. His is pitch side interviews certainly were.

He's the best think we have. Our squad is not as good as our manager.

Not just the injury. Yes, the workload across the season is too big for just three players to handle but we need form options too. NG & Jorgi were awful in possession today. Kova improved it a bit when he entered the game but we need more in that area.

You are saying that Kaunde is a 'carthorse' in your opinion? (I don't really have a view on him.)

As long as they are winning Ronaldo will be happy to pretend he thinks Ole is the boss so they better keep winning. P.S. I'm glad that Ronaldo is back and I'm especially glad he didn't go to City. Everything I heard him say about United suggested that he was a Red at heart. It would have felt horribly mercenary if he'd crossed the city, and I mean mercenary in a sporting sense, not a financial one. I'm convinced it's glory, wins and trophies he's after, not money.

Also Tino A. has a lot still to prove. For me he is dangerously close to RLC trajectory in that his talent is off the scale but his contributions generally register as a few spectacular bits surrounded by a lot of mostly nothing. His challenge is the same as the one Ruben faced as an academy player; Tino A. must learn to impose his talent more consistently on football matches. Something which hasn't happened yet. Although I think Anjorin is better than Loftus-Cheek I have been more hopeful about the first team prospects of Bate and Livramento. So, yes, I'm unhappy that we've lost them. That said, I've been reading Saints' fans thoughts on Tino L. and they are very excited. A little too excited I think, but we'll see.

Still good though. 🙂

I'm afraid that this is a better take than the more positive/hopeful posts. My take: - - The injury is just a cover story. The underlying truth is that Ruben's career to date has been about manger's putting faith in his potential rather than selecting him because his performances demand it. - Years ago I predicted that unless Ruben learned how to better impose his ability on football matches he would be lucky to get a gig in league one. He has not been able to do that. - Ruben seems to be running out of people who have any remaining faith in his potential. If the Roma opportunity is real he should grab it with both hands. - I wish the lad well but I gave up on him as a Chelsea prospect long ago.

If there is to be club representation at the event then I hope it's an official not a player.

He's a Liverpool fan. It's not exactly an earthquake level shock if he thinks their players are better than ours. I don't have a problem with what he said. Including the bit you didn't paste into your post.

Nothing to get excited about. It's pretty normal. When I was a lad the tradition was for a new season to start with three fixtures in eight days, Saturday-Wednesday-Saturday. These would either go H-A-A or A-H-H. Nothing to see here.

Exactly. Arsenal wanted him out I'm sure. The rest is just messaging.

Good luck Zappa. Do well.