OhForAGreavsie

Firstly, I need to remind people that I was calling for a Willian upgrade within months of his arrival. I'm aware of his shortcomings but I really don't like the level of vitriol being thrown at a Chelsea player. We can't ever factually settle the Kalou or Willian question, but I can tell you that were I given the opportunity, I would never select Salou over Willian. It's clear you don't agree but bear in mind please what I told you above. I'm not blinkered to Willian's output, or lack of it but, even so, I take him over Saloman every single time. P.S. Take this for what it's worth but, every time Salou was looking to renegotiate his deal there were rumours of interest, and a mega millions offer, from Arsenal. I always poo-pooed that claim because I never believed that Wenger would be interested. Sure enough, when Salomon became available on a free, there was not a peep of interest from Arsenal. Compare that with Willian's situation now. Remember too that when Salou left Chelsea he was in his prime, unlike Willian now.

I don't know how popular it is, but I certainly believe it is incorrect. Start by taking Salou out of his Chelsea team and placing him in Willian's, then do the reverse to Willian. Now compare.

Better nowhere than elsewhere.

Seems to be linked with everybody but us.

No links at all to a lad who is very high on my wish list at the moment; at least as high as Havertz. Still, there are stories about Jorgi and N'Golo moving on which would at least make room for him. Germany seems to be the place to go shopping at the moment.

Willian is a nice lad who, on his day, is utterly brilliant. There have rarely been enough of those days to keep the fans off his back, but he's given his best and, as well evidenced this year, he's worked hard. It's absolutely obvious why Frank likes him. Now it seems that he's off, he'll go with the thanks and best wishes of Chelsea fans. Speaking personally, I'm embarrassed by the level of vitriol in some of the comments posted here. People decide for themselves how they want to support the club and its players. I can only say that the people posting the comments I'm referring to are choosing to do it differently to the way I'd prefer. I'd find more quality in one Willian dribble, at pace, through the midfield than in one hundred thousand such posts. Just in case these comments lead anyone to misjudge my view of Willian. For many seasons I used to say that Willian is an OK footballer but that if we were to become the team we'd like to be, he would not get into the side. Once again therefore I find myself defending a player when I was previously among a minority criticising him. He's a Chelsea player, he's worn the shirt and made the best contribution he could to successful Chelsea sides. That will always earn him respect and affection from me. Just because I don't believe he's the player we need, does not mean I will react to him with an aggressively dismissive attitude. Never going to happen.

P.S. Quite apart from being in the dark regarding the facts of the failed Allison transfer, how can we know that his mistakes would not have been more regularly exposed behind Chelsea's defence? How can we know that Allison would not be coming under critical scrutiny right now if he had joined us?

I've read these allegations quite frequently on here. What I have not seen is any credible and convincing evidence to support them.

In fairness, every deal will involve these considerations. If media reports are correct, and Havertz has made up his mind to join Chelsea, then Marina will try to make this a card she can play. Say no all along and hold firm to it then concede it right at the end in exchange for some helpful concession by Bayer. She'll try no doubt, but whether it will work is another thing.

I'd forgotten that Brian Laudrup situation. In fact, whole years go by when I don't remember he played for us at all. 🙂 On this occasion I trust the commentator more than I trust the injury excuse. My speculation for the real reason may not be accurate but, until I hear something which convinces me to change my mind about the the injury claim, I'm afraid I simply don't believe it.

It's pretty certain that injury would be the cover story agreed upon by all parties but neither the commentator nor Danny Murphy are prone to hyperbole. The commentator would not have said what he said without reason, and no way at all would Murphy claim to have a good source if he did not. The injury tale is a good one because it could be true that Willian felt pain, without that pain being sufficient reason to miss the game. The comment could therefore be accurate, while still hiding the real reason for the player's absence. I do not believe that the commentator was mistaken or misinformed.

When I saw that Willian wasn't included my belief we might win fell a notch. Like all of us I thought it must be a fitness issue. When the commentator said that apparently he was not injured however, I immediately thought conflict of interest. This view was reinforced very shortly afterward when Danny Murphy said that he had heard from a very good source that Willian's future had been resolved and hinted he would be leaving for another Premier League team. The dots fell into line.. If he's moving to Arsenal then asking him to contribute to eliminating them from Europe is asking him to act against his own interests. No Europe next season would damage Willian's sporting interests, and as his earning power. If this is the reason he missed yesterday, I suppose we'll have to wait for someone to write a book before we know if it was Frank, the club or the player himself, who didn't want Willian involved under those circumstances.

Reply moved to player thread.

Yes, timing. For periods they make great stops and no mistakes then, for other periods, they make great saves and a noticeable number of mistakes. All of them.

I've noticed Gabriel on pretty much all of your CB option lists, albeit down the page a bit. I like a lot about him, but he seems painfully slow. Would you see that as a deal breaker?

Is Frank Khalid a professional football commentator?

One day football fans are going to stop being delusional about goalkeepers. They ALL make mistakes. Sometimes big and costly ones.

Never has an award been more deserved. I've previously posted my view that Neil is Chelsea's most valuable employee. I absolutely restate that opinion now.

No. Existing club retains the retired player's registration until the most recent contract expires.

I've posted several all touches videos in this thread. I've done so precisely to offer some contrary information to set against the hype. I like Havertz and hope we sign him but he's a human, not an 'extra-terrestrial'. I said in an earlier comment that if we do get him, that, in itself, would be good evidence that he is not as good as we, and specifically me, might have believed. If he were, the bigger beasts would want him and we would have no chance. I see this as a benefit however, not a drawback. If he was good enough to be wanted and bought by more attractive clubs, what good would that do us? It's a Catch-22 situation. We really want him because we think he's a generational talent, but if he was really a generational talent we would never get him. We would be wise therefore not to over estimate Havertz, or to over value him in transfer negotiations. He does still have very desirable attributes mind you. Attributes which make it worth taking our chance to grab him: - - He sees passes which others don't and these are often devastating when they come off. - For someone so strongly one-footed, he has a wider passing arc than we should expect. His good body control allows him to make passes with his left foot that you would think are more likely to be made with the right foot. Teams will obviously target his one-footedness however. - He scores goals including with his head.

N'Golo is definitely loved, and quite rightly, but it is still time to sell.

I think you must be right about this but I also think we should be selling N'Golo this summer. I have fully bought into @Vesper's reasoning on this. Trading N'Golo for someone like Partey or Zakaria makes sense to me, especially if we can do so at a profit.

It's odd that I'm defending Kepa when twenty-four months earlier I was pretty much a lone voice saying that we shouldn't buy him. Life is just great isn't it?

This is received wisdom, it could even be regarded as intuitively obvious, but how do we prove it statistically? How do we rerun the exact same season, with a different goalkeeper and establish the data? My counter case is that we have seen many, many, many keepers create a great reputation when playing for a top side, but look much less good playing for a worse one. The quality of the outfielders affects the impression of the keeper more than the quality of the keeper affects the standard of the team. Clearly there is a quality threshold, I'm not suggesting that anybody off Hackney Marshes would do. Once you have a shortlist of candidates who meet that quality standard however, there are diminishing returns for every extra £5m spent. If a squad's outfield group is stable and strong then yes, of course, go for the best keeper you can afford and add every extra tenth of a percent difference you can get. When you have multiple other needs, as we do, compromise on the keeper and bolster your outfield. The marginal difference between a £40m keeper and a Jan Oblak, for example, serves the team less well, than going with the lower price option and spending £60m-£80m extra on outfielders. This is an assertion. It simply can't be established as fact. There are so many other factors to consider. Starting with, but not limited to, their defenders and our defenders. This generally is my opinion. As an aside however, I do not regard shot stopping as a differentiator. Rather, I see it as an entry level skill. It's not that you get a good job because you're a good shot stopper, it's that you can't get any job at all if you're not. If you're not a good shot stopper you don't even get through the door. For me, the real differentiator is aerial command. Or has our defence shredded Kepa's confidence? It's too complex an interaction to make definitive statements. I'm not saying that managers and fans cannot look at two keepers and decide that they prefer one over another. Nor am I saying that a manager might not conclude that his first choice keeper isn't good enough and needs changing. I am saying don't spend £120m on a keeper if it means you can't attend to other pressing areas of need, I am saying we'll get a better result if we spend £30m on a keeper and £80m on a CB than we'll get sticking with our current CBs and buying Jan Oblak. Indeed, I'm saying we'll get a better result retaining Kepa and buying a top CB, than we'll get by holding on to our CBs and buying Jan Oblak.

it's clear from reading this that you perhaps have not had a chance to look at all of the comments I've made recently in this thread on this subject, or perhaps more likely that I have not explained my point very well. I say that because you're repeating back to me some of the points I've made as if I had not made them. Usually when this happens it is the latter case and I have not explained myself too well. I'll try to do do a wrap up but it's 2:22 a.m. at the moment I haven't got the enthusiasm for it right now. 🙂