🇫🇷 N'Golo Kante

[NikkiCFC 8,324]

BACK IN FULL TRAINING!

[Vesper 30,182]

Huge Kante boost, wonderkid involved and Pedro - What we learned from Chelsea's match vs Reading

The Blues played a behind-closed-doors friendly with the Royals as preparation for the Premier League return

https://www.football.london/chelsea-fc/fixtures-results/ngolo-kante-chelsea-loftus-cheek-18398006

Chelsea sealed a 1-0 win over Reading this afternoon in a behind closed doors friendly.

The Blues took on the Royals at Cobham as part of their preparations for the Premier League's return, with Pedro grabbing the winner.

Frank Lampard's side are getting ready for their opening game against Aston Villa next week, and will take on QPR in another friendly this weekend.

But what did we learn from the match?

Huge N'Golo Kante boost

N'Golo Kante has handed Lampard a massive boost ahead of Chelsea's Premier League return next week.

The World Cup winner has had his doubts over coming back to training, having not been part of the squad due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The 29-year-old suffered a health scare himself last season and was granted compassionate leave from Chelsea and was allowed to train on his own.

However, earlier in the week he returned to contact training and today (Wednesday) he took part in the pre-restart friendly with Reading.

It's not a guarantee that he will be willing to feature against Aston Villa for the first game back, but it was another boost for Lampard.

Pedro on target

There is still a doubt over whether or not Pedro will be part of the matchday squad for the Blues with the Spaniard yet to have signed a contract extension.

The winger had a good few matches before football was suspended, and he scored in the friendly to show that he could still have a part to play.

Pedro is expected to make the move on a free this summer, and he might not want to jeopardise a move with an injury.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek stepping up

There was another boost for Lampard to have Ruben Loftus-Cheek get more game time and match fitness.

The 24-year-old was close to a full-time return when football was suspended and now the England international is expected to play a big part towards the end of the campaign.

Lampard will be hoping to give him more minutes at the weekend and hope that he is ready to play a key role.

Matt Miazga returns

The match with Reading saw the return of Matt Miazga to Cobham, with the American on loan with the Royals.

Miazga is not expected to have much of a future with the Blues and is set to a permanent exit in the near future.

However, he had a catch up with Christian Pulisic after the game and was back in Surrey for the first time in a while.

 

[NikkiCFC 8,324]

 

[Vesper 30,182]

16 hours ago, NikkiCFC said:

 

swap him for Varane

buy one (Tonali doesn't want to leave Italy (FUCK he is a huge piece to my puzzle) and I have seen zero links between us and Camavinga)

[Jase 43,479]

16 hours ago, NikkiCFC said:

 

Good luck trying to get that price reduced with Marina in charge. 

[Vesper 30,182]

5 minutes ago, Jason said:

Good luck trying to get that price reduced with Marina in charge. 

I do not blame her at all for the shit buys (although I do blame her for paying Drinkwater a crazy amount of salary and for 5 fucking years)

she has no control (or very little) over that

BUT

she has cocked up an insane amount of timely sales, turned down sales, price-jacking to the point we lose the sales, and she deffo has mismanaged contract situs

plus she gets lead around by  the nose by Italian clubs like those Juve cunts

pathetic

[OhForAGreavsie 6,075]

2 hours ago, Vesper said:

I do not blame her at all for the shit buys (although I do blame her for paying Drinkwater a crazy amount of salary and for 5 fucking years)

she has no control (or very little) over that

BUT

she has cocked up an insane amount of timely sales, turned down sales, price-jacking to the point we lose the sales, and she deffo has mismanaged contract situs

plus she gets lead around by  the nose by Italian clubs like those Juve cunts

pathetic

I just don't have the same confidence you do in the reporting you use to inform these opinions. The only vaguely convincing confirmation I have seen for the claim that Barca bid for Willian came in a quote attributed to Willian himself. No fee was mentioned in that quote.

Before condemning Marina for refusing £65m for Willian, for example. I would need a few things: -

 

Oops, I forgot that bullet points don't work so my list has not been published. No time to redo now, I have a tuition to give.. update later.

 

[Vesper 30,182]

6 hours ago, OhForAGreavsie said:

I just don't have the same confidence you do in the reporting you use to inform these opinions. The only vaguely convincing confirmation I have seen for the claim that Barca bid for Willian came in a quote attributed to Willian himself. No fee was mentioned in that quote.

Before condemning Marina for refusing £65m for Willian, for example. I would need a few things: -

 

Oops, I forgot that bullet points don't work so my list has not been published. No time to redo now, I have a tuition to give.. update later.

 

the £65m offer came right when we were leaving Australia, I (and a multiplicity of others) have documented this for ages

it happened, it was a legit offer

even if she has turned down 10m quid less (as the final offer, and I only am using £55m as an example, the figure at the end was the full £65m) if still was a massive cock-up

I so do not understand why people are still trying to push FUD posts on this subject

it's done and dusted and we are just going to suffer the full loss (unless we somehow renew him (IF we add no more upfront players) and sell him NEXT summer, at which point we would be so lucky to get £10m or so (as he turns 33yo in August 2021)

[Atomiswave 6,117]

11 minutes ago, Vesper said:

the £65m offer came right when we were leaving Australia, I (and a multiplicity of others) have documented this for ages

it happened, it was a legit offer

even if she has turned down 10m quid less (as the final offer, and I only am using £55m as an example, the figure at the end was the full £65m) if still was a massive cock-up

I so do not understand why people are still trying to push FUD posts on this subject

it's done and dusted and we are just going to suffer the full loss (unless we somehow renew him (IF we add no more upfront players) and sell him NEXT summer, at which point we would be so lucky to get £10m or so (as he turns 33yo in August 2021)

They also came around with a second bid a year later no?

[Vesper 30,182]

51 minutes ago, Atomiswave said:

They also came around with a second bid a year later no?

that was the 2nd or third (and final) bid

I (and so many others) have posted on this for what will be two full years later on this summer

it is so tiresome for me to have to keep retreading the same ground over and over

a search of the site proves this to be the case

at some point, giving the (literally) dozens of cock-ups involving so many players, all in a myriad numbers of ways that almost always end up costings us incredible amounts of wasted money

my huge post that took into account even Marina's so called 'wonder deals' failing to lower the ultimate number under £400m down the shitter when every single book is closed shows that the onus is not upon me or any other poster here to prove that we are in the wrong when we blast her

I do NOT blame her for the bad buys, that is on the scouting department, etc overall

but at some point, the sheer numbers overwhelm in our favour (in terms of criticising)

hopefully we have turned the corner now, as I have little to complain about as of late, but I am no latecomer to this criticism game, I have consistently laid out a lack of future-forward thought by the board and Marina as a whole

it is now up to Lampard and the team to clinch a CL spot and up to Marina to get Werner over the line

[Atomiswave 6,117]

9 minutes ago, Vesper said:

that was the 2nd or third (and final) bid

I (and so many others) have posted on this for what will be two full years later on this summer

it is so tiresome for me to have to keep retreading the same ground over and over

a search of the site proves this to be the case

at some point, giving the (literally) dozens of cock-ups involving so many players, all in a myriad numbers of ways that almost always end up costings us incredible amounts of wasted money

my huge post that took into account even Marina's so called 'wonder deals' failing to lower the ultimate number under £400m down the shitter when every single book is closed shows that the onus is not upon me or any other poster here to prove that we are in the wrong when we blast her

I do NOT blame her for the bad buys, that is on the scouting department, etc overall

but at some point, the sheer numbers overwhelm in our favour (in terms of criticising)

hopefully we have turned the corner now, as I have little to complain about as of late, but I am no latecomer to this criticism game, I have consistently laid out a lack of future-forward thought by the board and Marina as a whole

it is now up to Lampard and the team to clinch a CL spot and up to Marina to get Werner over the line

I feel you sister, I cant diss her atm if things pan out as expected. But overall we indeed have pissed away so much money under her. Lets hope it pans out in the end.

[OhForAGreavsie 6,075]

1 hour ago, Vesper said:

the £65m offer came right when we were leaving Australia, I (and a multiplicity of others) have documented this for ages

it happened, it was a legit offer

even if she has turned down 10m quid less (as the final offer, and I only am using £55m as an example, the figure at the end was the full £65m) if still was a massive cock-up

I so do not understand why people are still trying to push FUD posts on this subject

it's done and dusted and we are just going to suffer the full loss (unless we somehow renew him (IF we add no more upfront players) and sell him NEXT summer, at which point we would be so lucky to get £10m or so (as he turns 33yo in August 2021)

Thanks Vesper,

I've read many, though not all, of your posts on the topic I've not seen anything which I consider to be conclusive. Even if I'm being dense, and failing to see the obvious, that still deals with only one of my points which failed to survive the editor. Others include: -

Did Marina have freedom to act, or, for example, had the full board/Roman set parameters which constrained her?

Did the manger successfully lobby Roman to keep the player because he did not like any of the alternatives available to Chelsea?

Before I would decide to blame any individual I would want to establish that there is actually some blame there in the first place. I remain unconvinced that there is, but if there is, we still need more information before we can decide where it lies.

 

[Vesper 30,182]

28 minutes ago, OhForAGreavsie said:

Thanks Vesper,

I've read many, though not all, of your posts on the topic I've not seen anything which I consider to be conclusive. Even if I'm being dense, and failing to see the obvious, that still deals with only one of my points which failed to survive the editor. Others include: -

Did Marina have freedom to act, or, for example, had the full board/Roman set parameters which constrained her?

Did the manger successfully lobby Roman to keep the player because he did not like any of the alternatives available to Chelsea?

Before I would decide to blame any individual I would want to establish that there is actually some blame there in the first place. I remain unconvinced that there is, but if there is, we still need more information before we can decide where it lies.

 

I will give you the point that she quite possibly did not make the call herself, entirely on her own. But at some point she surely must have SOME power, some responsibility. If not, she is truly a complete Roman puppet. 

If she is an actual true puppet, basically powerless, then that opens up a nasty can of worms as to the end game blame-wise. I suppose we will never actually know, unless another board member spills the beans on the whole age of Roman (which is massively doubtful) power dynamics.

[OhForAGreavsie 6,075]

1 hour ago, Vesper said:

I will give you the point that she quite possibly did not make the call herself, entirely on her own. But at some point she surely must have SOME power, some responsibility. If not, she is truly a complete Roman puppet. 

If she is an actual true puppet, basically powerless, then that opens up a nasty can of worms as to the end game blame-wise. I suppose we will never actually know, unless another board member spills the beans on the whole age of Roman (which is massively doubtful) power dynamics.

Yes. she's a senior executive at a billion pound company. You'd say that she must be a person able, wiling, authorised and ready to take decisions on her own initiative. Nevertheless board responsibility will be in place for any multi million pound transaction. Before the responsible individual heads off to negotiate deals she will have board agreed strategy and parameters in her briefcase. Metaphorically speaking.

Now, if we were to re-read the accusations and substitute 'board/Roman' for 'Marina', then perhaps there's a discussion to be had. Those accusations are not being shared around however. The are aimed squarely at Marina and, if true, they add up to gross incompetence. Yet Marina has not been sacked. Instead, since coming to our attention, she has been promoted at least twice. What is it you know about her job performance that Roman, Eugene and Bruce don't?

Would you concede that that the reverse is at least possibly true, and that they may know something you and I don't? Like the real history of the transactions on Marina's wrap sheet perhaps?

[Vesper 30,182]

2 minutes ago, OhForAGreavsie said:

Yes. she's a senior executive at a billion pound company. You'd say that she must be a person able, wiling, authorised and ready to take decisions on her own initiative. Nevertheless board responsibility will be in place for any multi million pound transaction. Before the responsible individual heads off to negotiate deals she will have a board agreed strategy in her briefcase. Metaphorically speaking.

Now, if we were to re-read the accusations and substitute 'board/Roman' for 'Marina', then perhaps there's a discussion to be had. Those accusations are not being shared around however. The are aimed squarely at Marina and, if true, they add up to gross incompetence. Yet Marina has not been sacked. Instead, since coming to our attention, she has been promoted at least twice. What is it you know about her job performance that Roman, Eugene and Bruce don't?

Would you concede that it is at least possible that the reverse is true, and that they may know something you and I don't? Like the real history of the transactions on Marina's wrap sheet perhaps?

someone is to blame, that is for damn sure

if I see remote proof that she is just a complete puppet, then I shall level full blame at the relevant  parts of the rest of the board and Roman

the totality of the cock-ups is mind-blowing

[communicate 2,703]

On 6/13/2020 at 6:29 PM, OhForAGreavsie said:

I just don't have the same confidence you do in the reporting you use to inform these opinions. The only vaguely convincing confirmation I have seen for the claim that Barca bid for Willian came in a quote attributed to Willian himself. No fee was mentioned in that quote.

Before condemning Marina for refusing £65m for Willian, for example. I would need a few things: -

 

Oops, I forgot that bullet points don't work so my list has not been published. No time to redo now, I have a tuition to give.. update later.

 

Willian wasn't for sale, the only time we had problem with willian was Conte 2nd season other than that all of our manager like willian. 

[Vesper 30,182]

48 minutes ago, communicate said:

Willian wasn't for sale, the only time we had problem with willian was Conte 2nd season other than that all of our manager like willian. 

not selling a 30yo (turned 30 August 9th) Willian for £65m in summer 2018 was a crazy stupid move

I will never give up saying that

now we get nothing for him just 2 years later

some people act like he is a football god

smdh

3 league goals that year

5 this year

226 EPL league games total 33 goals

if Pulisic averages 4 or 5 league goals over his first 4 or 5 years here do you think people will say he was a success?

Willian fanboys and fangirls find it to be acceptable

a player we sold for ONE FIFTH the price of that £65m scored the same amount of league goals basically in one season as Willian scored in his CAREER here

[King Kante 1,643]

2 hours ago, Vesper said:

not selling a 30yo (turned 30 August 9th) Willian for £65m in summer 2018 was a crazy stupid move

I will never give up saying that

now we get nothing for him just 2 years later

some people act like he is a football god

smdh

3 league goals that year

5 this year

226 EPL league games total 33 goals

if Pulisic averages 4 or 5 league goals over his first 4 or 5 years here do you think people will say he was a success?

Willian fanboys and fangirls find it to be acceptable

a player we sold for ONE FIFTH the price of that £65m scored the same amount of league goals basically in one season as Willian scored in his CAREER here

Not ever been 100% convinced that we did get a £65m bid. That said, any offer of over £40m for him should have been accepted as like you say he is too inefficient in the final third and considering he takes a lot of our set pieces it is quite frankly shocking. That said, the recruitment betwenn 2016-18 was hardly stellar. So, if we did sell him we may have been lumbered with a Sanchez or something which would've been even worse. 

[Vesper 30,182]

51 minutes ago, King Kante said:

Not ever been 100% convinced that we did get a £65m bid. That said, any offer of over £40m for him should have been accepted as like you say he is too inefficient in the final third and considering he takes a lot of our set pieces it is quite frankly shocking. That said, the recruitment betwenn 2016-18 was hardly stellar. So, if we did sell him we may have been lumbered with a Sanchez or something which would've been even worse. 

we did get the offer, I and many others have proved this beyond a shadow of a doubt with a myriad number of posts over the past almost 2 years

it is not my problem that people chose to ignore the myriad numbers of posts and engage in false positing

even the 2nd offer of £55m should have been taken, but to turn down £65m was just pure ineptitude

the £65m offer came right around July 21st, 2018, when we were in Perth Australia to play the Glory (we won nil 1 on July 23rd)

 

this is from the site where Matt Law is the Football Editor and Darren Plant the Sr Football writer (both of whom are extremely reputable)

Chelsea 'rejected £65m Willian bid'

https://ws.sportsmole.co.uk/football/chelsea/transfer-talk/news/chelsea-rejected-gbp65m-willian-bid_335931.html

Chelsea reportedly decided to turn down an offer in the region of £65m for Willian during the summer transfer window.
Willian grew frustrated at the Premier League outfit with Antonio Conte in charge of the Blues, and the playmaker has previously acknowledged that he may have looked to leave the club had the Italian remained in the dugout.

The 30-year-old is currently flourishing under new head coach Maurizio Sarri, but according to the Daily Star, the Brazilian was the subject of strong interest from Barcelona before the start of the new campaign.

The report claims that the Catalan giants made an offer of £65m, only for Chelsea to choose to reject the bid in favour of keeping Willian at Stamford Bridge.

The player has maintained that he is happy in West London, with less than two years remaining on his contract

 

 

more

Simon Johnson of the Athletic (and the Standard)

Sky sports refers to it too, and confirms the previous bid of around £55m the previous week or so before

Jordi Gil (one of the top Barca journos in Spain)
  

Jordi Gil @jordigil
Editor of the Barça section

Jordi Gil
Jordi Gil Tarrés (Sabadell, 1975), graduated in Journalism at the UAB. SPORT editor since 1996, where he spent nine years in the National Football section, passing in 2005 to the Barça section. He covered the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, the 2012 European Championship and the 2009 and 2013 Confederations Cups. He wrote 'Discovering Cesc Fàbregas: 35 looks' (2012) and co-author of' Andrés Iniesta, 8 Grandes Historias' (2012) and ' The cracks of La Masia '(2011).

also refers to it here

https://www.sport.es/en/news/barca/barcelona-meet-with-willians-representatives-to-work-out-a-deal-6956143

 

this is the last time I am posting on this

other than if I chose to refer to turn-down in any future post

I am far from the only one who posted on this as well

it really gets tiresome having to go back and rehash old, long done shite

 

[King Kante 1,643]

2 hours ago, Vesper said:

we did get the offer, I and many others have proved this beyond a shadow of a doubt with a myriad number of posts over the past almost 2 years

it is not my problem that people chose to ignore the myriad numbers of posts and engage in false positing

even the 2nd offer of £55m should have been taken, but to turn down £65m was just pure ineptitude

the £65m offer came right around July 21st, 2018, when we were in Perth Australia to play the Glory (we won nil 1 on July 23rd)

 

this is from the site where Matt Law is the Football Editor and Darren Plant the Sr Football writer (both of whom are extremely reputable)

Chelsea 'rejected £65m Willian bid'

https://ws.sportsmole.co.uk/football/chelsea/transfer-talk/news/chelsea-rejected-gbp65m-willian-bid_335931.html

Chelsea reportedly decided to turn down an offer in the region of £65m for Willian during the summer transfer window.
Willian grew frustrated at the Premier League outfit with Antonio Conte in charge of the Blues, and the playmaker has previously acknowledged that he may have looked to leave the club had the Italian remained in the dugout.

The 30-year-old is currently flourishing under new head coach Maurizio Sarri, but according to the Daily Star, the Brazilian was the subject of strong interest from Barcelona before the start of the new campaign.

The report claims that the Catalan giants made an offer of £65m, only for Chelsea to choose to reject the bid in favour of keeping Willian at Stamford Bridge.

The player has maintained that he is happy in West London, with less than two years remaining on his contract

 

 

more

Simon Johnson of the Athletic (and the Standard)

Sky sports refers to it too, and confirms the previous bid of around £55m the previous week or so before

Jordi Gil (one of the top Barca journos in Spain)
  

Jordi Gil @jordigil
Editor of the Barça section

Jordi Gil
Jordi Gil Tarrés (Sabadell, 1975), graduated in Journalism at the UAB. SPORT editor since 1996, where he spent nine years in the National Football section, passing in 2005 to the Barça section. He covered the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, the 2012 European Championship and the 2009 and 2013 Confederations Cups. He wrote 'Discovering Cesc Fàbregas: 35 looks' (2012) and co-author of' Andrés Iniesta, 8 Grandes Historias' (2012) and ' The cracks of La Masia '(2011).

also refers to it here

https://www.sport.es/en/news/barca/barcelona-meet-with-willians-representatives-to-work-out-a-deal-6956143

 

this is the last time I am posting on this

other than if I chose to refer to turn-down in any future post

I am far from the only one who posted on this as well

it really gets tiresome having to go back and rehash old, long done shite

 

There is no need to quote all of those articles again. I am well aware of them, however I give them very little credence. My problem with reading any transfer story on us is that it has been proven time and again that the club give the jorno's very little to go on. An example of this is Werner, where up until the day the deal was agreed between the club and player, everyone was saying he was off to the Dippers. No one had a clue until it was done. 

Therefore, when I read articles on us signing/selling x, y, z I tend not to believe them unless their is something 100% concrete. As for this particular story I do believe that there was interest, however I am unsure Barca actually went as high as £65m as none of the articles are from reliable papers and the sources highlighted have been proven to either have little knowledge of what is going on, or no idea of what is going on (including Law who I think gets classed as very little.)

This is also why I am slightly relaxed about all the Chilwell noise as the way I see it, whilst the press is saying he is our no.1 target it is just as likely we are working on a deal for someone else.