OhForAGreavsie

I agree, the bar isn't set too high although I think I've always liked Marcos better than many here.

^^Firstly, I'm not offering my own opinion, just reporting what committed Leicester fans have said. For all I know, had I watched the performances they have, I would have disagreed with them. I'm not a big believer in stats. The 'metric' (in reality it's no such thing) I prefer is opportunity cost. When I'm trying to assess a player I'm constantly asking if I could reasonably have expected him to do better in that situation? How many players can I think of who I think would have done better there? I'm less interested in forward or back, than in good choice or bad choice. I don't care how often a player shoots, I only care whether or not the choice to shoot was a better option than any pass which might have been available.

Ben's choice of passing and his pass execution are aspects of his game which have received particular criticism on Foxestalk. For example, they say he chooses to go backwards too often when options to go forward are available. I give a lot of weight to fan opinion; how many pundits know the Chelsea squad better than we who watch every game they play? The same goes for team X, and fans of team X.

Me too. In fact, forgive me repeating myself, but I'd be more excited about getting Zakaria than Kai. He is great at turning defence into attack an absolutely key capability in the age of the two yard goal kick.

How do you rate Zakaria?

I don't believe that the FFP relaxation is as generous as some think it is. I think clubs will be allowed to spend in line with a reasonable projection of what their income would have been but for the pandemic.

He's not on the move is he? If he isn't coming here then I hope he stays at Gladbach. That way we might have a chance next summer.

That did seem a good option when i read the official announcement that he'd be going out on loan. As long as the deal with Bayer 04 is not overly skewed in their favour, and they will actually play him, then this would look like a win win.

Ben certainly has ability, and ability is the part of the equation which can't be taught or learned. Having it is therefore a very good starting point. This transfer hasn't yet generated any excitement for me but I'm hoping Ben will change that once he gets fit.

How would we find out if the were not happy?

Sounds like this might be a club signing rather than a move initiated by Frank. That's fine. As long as I) Frank has control over who actually joins his squad and II) the player knows the score, then this is very good work.

This is a decent one... Disappointing that he left but inevitable with the wages offered. He wasn't as good last season as he was in 2018/19 and perhaps not as good as fuchs defensively but still a big loss to us. A much bigger loss to us than Maguire. Edited 12 minutes ago by Blue ROI

No the comments don't come under that heading at all. Even the ones trying to be positive and encouraging are including comments like, 'not bothered at all that he's gone'. As I say, very discouraging but we can only hope that we'll see Ben prove them all wrong.

True, but fans' assessments are seldom so wrong as the Leicester fans posting this afternoon would need to be for us to be highly confident that we've signed a genuine £50m player. We're in the hoping phase now.

Frank got the player he wanted so that's a big plus. Reading Foxestalk over the last few minutes was very, very discouraging however. Still, Ben's here now. It's possible that our setup will suit him better and allow him to make the most of his attributes.

I don't believe for one moment that this is true.

For once I'm going to say something nice about Paul Merson... He grew up a Chelsea fan. That's nice as far as it goes but I've said it before and I'll probably say it again sooner or later. Before anyone accuses me of boring however they need to answer this question; can you think of anything else nice you can say about Paul Merson? No, thought not.

This is double accounting. If we spent that €35m on recruitment it would bring with it new wages to pay, and a new amortisation to be accounted.

Worked out OK for him in the end so, while I'm sure that was a lesson learned for his agent, it turned out to be a pretty painless one.

When I read the rumour today that we were willing to sell Tammy it just didn't sound like a decision Frank would make at this point. This story about a loan for Mando makes the Tammy rumour even less convincing,

Well played that man. I'd have been OK with Willian staying as a squad player on squad player wages but it's understandable if he wanted more than that, both on the pitch and in the bank. In the circumstances no one blames him for taking Arsenal's money and everyone would have been up in arms if Chelsea had offered him that kind of deal. All in all, the lad can go with our best wishes. He certainly has mine.

A dose of reality.

German is just a stonking blockbuster of a language. The vocabulary is out of this world. 🙂

When we blew it in the semi against Monaco and when even Morrientes admitted that what ultimately proved the winning goal should not have stood. It's arguable of course that Jose's Porto would have beaten us in the final anyway, but it's impossible to escape the feeling that we missed a big opportunity that year.