OhForAGreavsie

I think if Arsenal had valued the player highly enough, and convinced him of that, then they'd have got him. If they did want him at all that is. The only way Villa beat Arsenal to a player if Arsenal weren't competing or the player does not believe he would get minutes with the Gunners.

Good info. Thank you.

Words too much to ask?

If this story is true, I'd have said that putting a price on the player can only be intended to encourage interest.

Seems I'm not the only one who is still enjoying last Saturday's result.

Interesting.

TT's new deal, and the feel good factor gives CFC a big opportunity to get the club back on track. The club has made it clear that it plans to recruit but it's more important than ever that we get it right. However many moves we make this summer they must all hit the target. Wasting the budget would be bad enough but we've done that before. Get this right and we can re-establish ourselves at the top table of European football. What is more do it with more good will flowing towards CFC than at any time in the last fifty years. In addition to getting the recruitment right, I hope TT will have the chance to work with Mando before any new loan is considered. In an ideal world he would also get a look at Lewis Bate and Tino Livramento before they go on loan though, if their loan clubs want the lads to spend preseason with them however that would be understandable. There also needs to be an important meeting involving Neil Bath, Joe Edwards and others concerning Tino Anjorin. Next season will be the last chance to set Tino back on an upward trajectory. At the moment he is following the RLC path; bags of talent, but too little impact. To be fair to Tino A he is producing more than Ruben did at this stage of his career but it isn't enough. I'm a little less worried about Tino than I was about RLC but I find myself facing the same concern. Namely that Tino will not make it here unless he finds a way to produce a more consistent impact on football matches. It tends to be the ridiculously brilliant or nothing with him. With far too much of the nothing.

I think a rounded view of Traore would require consideration of the implications of what you say here. There is a reason why he doesn't play play for a top side despite having the fantastic physical attributes you describe. Attributes which must be enormously attractive to any coach yet still there is virtually no interest from the better clubs when Traore becomes available. Any club which decides to spend money in order to discover that reason for themselves better not try to look surprised when they find out what everyone else knows already. Lastly, he has been on the books of a big club. They let him go.

Definitely did. Also, when Lineaker asked him what is was like hearing Chelsea fans chant his name again it was obvious that he absolutely loved it.

Have Joe Cole's fascinating comments during the CL final been discussed? Talking in praise of Roman, he said that it was the owner who bought Havertz and that Chelsea is, "A family run club." If anyone at Stamford Bridge noticed this admission Joe will probably get a reprimand but I take it as final confirmation that there is more than one Abramovich making decisions. The deal for the the left-sided German player we bought from Bremen launched my suspicion that Arkadiy was involved because it seemed to me that his skills would impress young football fans. I've forgotten the player's name but I don't criticise Arkadiy for being young at the time. He will be running the club one day so, if he did initiate that move, the experience of a failed transfer can only help him moving forward. Being experienced isn't about how old you are, it's about how much you've done.

Are we still officially in season 2020/21? Depending on whether we are or not this is either a late winner for sentence of the season, or an early contender that it's going to be very, very hard to beat. 🙂 Every one of the lad's professional coaches will have tried to teach him the basics of football. Tried and failed. Too late now for Adama to learn would be my take.

I think it's worth bearing in mind that when Traore arrives at a club everyone is initially impressed but before too long he's benched and not long after that his club is willing to listen to offers.

But those can't be the only alternatives.

Let's enjoy this while we can because come August it won't be true anymore.

His touch leading up to the goal was decisive. He likes those little touches and, in my opinion, is quite good at them. No matter who you are however they are going to miss a lot and will always be icing not bread and butter. Man City are made for Ben Chilwell. Playing them is always going to be more about defending than attacking and it is in the attacking phase that Ben frustrates most. Against them Ben isn't often receiving the ball with nine or ten opponents between him and the oppo's area, needing to make a positive pass or a positive carry. Odds are that our first opponents of next season will treat us the way Villa did last week and we're all going to spend the afternoon watching Ben pass to Jorgi or Rudi. I'd be willing to pay £60m, £70m or even £80m for a fullback but he must offer the full package; competent defender, high level technique, pace and TWO FOOTED. The evolution of the fullback has proceeded to a point where they are of critical importance. If such targets can't be identified, I'd be instructing the scouts to search among wide players for the characteristics we need.

How has Zakaria done this season?

I doubt it. Have some faith in Wonder Woman.

Well I've watched the whole match three times, including the live broadcast. Plus numerous versions of the highlights as well as reaction videos and interviews. Can't get enough. 🙂 Any advance on three?

Should have gone with crayon.

I can only hope this was a false flag operation perpetrated by fans of some other club. Sadly, we all know that our club suffers from enough supporters with moronic tendencies to make it at least probable that it was Chelsea fans who did this.

Roman is clearly as engaged as ever and TT says the board are aware of what he wants so incoming transfers seem inevitable. I just hope we apply a policy of absolute quality or nothing.

Plus now superseding Man City as the top ranked English club in next season's tournament and therefore claiming the 40% share of England's TV pool portion of the 21/22 CL prize money. A tidy night's work. Edit: As I was informed below by @King Kante, it is not the case that the European champions claim the top share of their domestic market pool.

SEVEN of the travelling squad have won FA Youth Cups with this club.

There's more than just that someone posted a whole list a few weeks ago. 🙂🙂🙂

5 out of 6. 1998. 🙂 Edit: Oops that's not 20 years. Maths is the first thing that goes when you're emotionally exhausted.