lionsden

Yer a couple of the youth might get 8 minutes each.

If the Youth are struggling to get games in the mickey mouse cup then there's zero chance we will see any youth involvement in the more prestigious competition, the FA cup. unless we suffer major injury crisis.

John Terry

Finally someone who gets it. Moments are singular event that standouts, some can be very iconic even and is usually highetened by the importance and context of the occassion. It's impossible for a whole game/performance to be a moment. it defeats the purpose and the very definition of moment.

There's a difference between performances/result and moments. Your examples fall into the former Do you want an example of moments? Ba's winner against PSG, Gerrard's slip, Jose's celebrations at anfield after Willian's goal etc etc from last season those are moments and we haven't produced any so far this season, not by my definition anyway. Jose and Wenger's fight is probably the only closest thing to a "moment" we have had so far. Now if the question had been best performance so far this season. . . . . . . . .

This is a dumb question and unfortunately I don't answer stupid and incoherent questions.

"The academy day" On a serious note I don't think we have had any standout moment so far.

Greatest player in Premier league history and was the face of the league for many years. One of my favourite strikers ever for sure.

Toughest team we could have drawn. I'm very worried mainly because our defense has declined this season and we haven't defended well even in games where we have parked the bus. But then again PSG are exactly like us in the sense that they struggle against teams that park the bus as well so this factor along with David the clown Luiz are the only obvious weakness we can exploit.

One thing is for sure, if we fuck this one up and mess him about he wouldn't be short of suitors due to combination of his incredible talent, reputation at int'l youth level and Jorge mendes. he doesn't need us in other to make a career for himself and not many youngsters can say that.

People fail to realise that a good link up and hold up play requires technical ability first and foremost amongst other things such as intelligence,tactical awareness and selflessness. Problem is diego isnt a technical striker, he has never been and as such lacks the ability to link up and hold up play effectively. We knew this (well some of us did) before buying him so should have little complaint that he's not what we want him to be. To me he's a taller version of falcao I.e excellent runs and good/great finishing in the box and not much else.I have said this all along and criticised for it when I pointed out that the signing of diego wouldn't solve our creativity issue against lesser teams. If good/great link up play was top of the expectation list from our striker then we should have signed a striker in the mould of aguero,rooney,benzema et al instead

Link ?

No you don't get it. Read the mak's quote that I was responding to again to understand the context and the point I was trying to make.

You think the poor journalists want to spend the next 2 hours listening to lectures about lemons, egg, chicken, yolk and little horses?.

And that's after saying this just a couple of days ago http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/545537/Chelsea-Jose-Mourinho-rest-players-December-football-news But then again his idea of strong side could just mean the squad players. I don't think anyone can defend him if he starts our key players in this match.

Where your argument regarding pressure fails is that it assumes the ability to deal with pressure comes with age, i disagree. It's an individual thing same with confidence, self esteem etc which are character traits that's embedded in ones DNA, you either have it or you don't hence the phrase winners are born not made. It only appears as though older players/people deal with pressure better because typically older players/people are put in pressurised situation and asisgned greater level of responsibility far more often than teenagers due to social engineering but there's absolutely no proof that establish senior players deal with pressure better as there are plenty of evidence to the contrary that disporves this myth. A teenager in Fabregas could deal with the pressure of being the main man and controlling the midfield of a big team like Arsenal , A young Messi was absolutely fantastic for barca, Ronaldo lima won the WPOTY at age 20, Maldini was leading the great Milan defence alongside baresi at age 20, pele was shining domestically and at the int'l stage at age 18 and so on. on the otherhand there have been plenty of experienced players who couldn't deal with the pressure of either leading a team to glory or justifying their transfer fee. pressure is an individual thing and has absolutely no link to age. so the chances are if a youngster is mentally fragile now, he will end up being an established and experienced fragile player with more refined skill but the tendency to choke under certain situations will still be there and no amount of loans, education and training will fix that. So wilfred zaha flopped even though some would argue that he wasn't given sufficient opportunities but even then how were you able to find out that he couldn't hack it at a top club? because he was given chances to proof it and failed now if our top rated youngsters haven't being given chances nor failed any test thrown at them then how can you oppose their selection in the first team, what are you basing their inability to rise to occassion on.? It's a cup game huh, so which games do you suggest we select the youngsters in then giving our overly cowardly and cautious approach?. In the league the argument is we are aiming for the title and under pressure, in cup competitions "no second chances, higher potential of risk" either way the youth are never getting any real chances. Plenty of teams have balanced success with youth integration before. again you are perpetuating a myth and using cliches that lack historical facts.

Can someone explain to me logically (without the use of unfounded and overused cliches) why the selection of "youngsters" automatically means we are at a disadvantage? If you haven't seen this youngsters start a competitive game for us, how can one be sure that they won't be as good or even better than the senior players performance wise. How many times have we seen youngsters come into a side and relegate established pros to the bench but let me guess those are just special talents which our youngsters are not. right? The likes of fabregas,sterling et al must have been walking on water and scoring hatricks every game at youth level

By your logic we aren't a title contender either because any neutral or casual fan who saw our games against Sunderland,Hull city,QPR and City wouldn't have guessed given how ordinary we looked. Getting result despite not playing well, some call it luck, is one the characteristics of league winners and title contenders.

Wenger tried to take the shine off our "academy day" but failed. Jose 1-0 Wenger

Gary absolutely hit the nail on the head here with a sledgehammer. here are the highlight from the article. "Loftus-Cheek was paraded like some kind of exotic creature. Look, an academy player in the first-team! We lined up in the Sky studio excited at the thought of seeing homegrown talent in a Chelsea side. When he played for eight minutes, we showed the highlights of it as a special segment. We were seeing a rare species." "The moment where the talking has to stop. Academies are not about infrastructure and how many pitches you have. How many gym bikes. It’s about how many players you produce for the first-team. Nothing will demoralise a youth team coach faster than feeling there is no pathway to the first-team squad because off-the-shelf signings are blocking the way." "We have now reached the time when those Manchester City and Chelsea youth team and academy coaches need the inspiration, the bragging rights. They need to know all their hard work is not in vain, that opportunities exist."

Also kalas-koln,chalobah-burnley, wallace-inter and swift-rotherham.

The randomness of it just screams PR stunt like you said. Boga just rolled off his tongue out of Nowhere. The interviewer must have been thinking where did that come from Jose.

Next week is Tammy Abraham's turn and the week after that will be Jay silva's "academy day".He might run out of academy players to use as PR excercise at this rate. jose is spreading the love, i tell ya

Means absolutely nothing.