Good evening all you Blues fans
Hope you don't mind but Im a Bristol City fan visiting your forum as I thought I'd take the time to pass on some comments about ( your )Tammy Abraham
Im no starry eyed teenager but a a mid 50s , bit of a grumpy , Bristol City follower ,and someone who is losing love for the game I've lived and breathed for 50yrs
Ironically the Blues are a team I followed closely for a number of years after you signed my childhood Chris Garland in early 70s, I even have a slightly scratched prized 'Blue is the colour' 45' !!
I had a 10year spell scouting for a number of League Clubs and spend periods of games even now watching individual players rather than the game / following the ball so like to think I can provide a reasonable assessment of a player.
So Tammy Abraham...
First and foremost , alongside just about virtually every City fan I know , we are extremely grateful to Chelsea that have been fortunate enough to loan Tammy this season. If we avoid relegation it will be largely off the back of this lads young shoulders.
Without him we would have been dead and buried weeks ago
Im not a close follower of Premiership Football (Seems a million miles away from where we are) , particularly in respect of watching games in the flesh, and so I'm not in a educated position to say whether Tammy is likely to break through at his home club.
As a top four club , who sign players of the quality of Hazzard , Costa etc I fully understand how and why it's always going to be ridiculously tough to break into such a quality side
Ive seen all but two of our games this season and increasingly been watching Tammy and his development in his first taste of senior football.
Tammys goal return as a standalone stat is indeed impressive but I can assure you doesn't IMHO come close to reflecting his ability or contribution
The Championship , is a tough place to make an impact , especially at his age, and He has scored 22 goals this season in a very poor side in turmoil. He's scored those goals , in spite of extremely poor service and support , not because of decent or even reasonable service and support.
He has been deployed for virtually the whole of the season as a lone striker with an overweight and unfit Lee Tomlin deployed as a 10 to support him, which he doesn't , save for a single game in front of Sky Cameras !!!
As a result Tammy has been a isolated figure up top with poor support and a service normally thrown in his general direction and often somewhere around his throat.
Centre halves in the Championship tend to be physical, often with some premiership experience and I'd say are probably more physical (as they can get away with a bit more in Championship !) and this lad has in truth, been battered most of the season from two centre halves in opposition sides , as I said often in a losing cause with dreadful support and Service.
From the first minute he has appeared for us , does this lad lose faith or become demoralised - Not a bit , on a dozen or so occasions this season I've Sen him clattered and go or stay down in obvious pain but the lad gets treatment , gets up, and shakes himself down , time after time , game after game .... fantastic
Every single game the lad comes off the pitch having left absolutely everything on it - fantastic to see, noticed, and appreciated by suppporters - the standard response to our (regular) defeats has been 'Tammy , Tammy ....Abraham' ringing round the ground , just that , always that , which sort of says everything
Hes a talented lad no doubt, good first touch , with decent service can hold the ball up well and link play, and a willing runner in the channels.His finishing is pretty damned good, not perfect but he has the skill of finding space in the box and reading the game to be in the right place to poach goals - lovely to see a poacher, but he's a whole lot more than that and has shown when on the rare occasions he's clever enough and good enough to make the most of any decent service.
He's not the polished gem yet but has developed even with us and has got to grips with the physicality and pace of First Team football week by week
In my 50 years of following my club , as some of you will have , I've seen hundreds and hundreds of players and over a hundred loanees
In all those years Tammy comes a very close second to Andy Cole in the obvious and significant impact he's had at our club over all those years
As good as Andy Cole , close but not quite , but Cole was 21 when he came to us and Tammy has another two years before you could make a fair comparison - In two years time Tammy will be up there with a 21 yr old Andy Cole from what I have seen.
I won't try and tell you anymore about your player whose career I will follow closely - I have no doubt that he will go on to forge a good career in the Premier League , hopefully in a Chelsea shirt and I'm confident that he will represent his country, possibly as a mainstay in a few years time
So a massive Thankyou for the privilege of having this lad at Ashton Gate this season
And finally and most importantly
Ive started to fall out of love with the modern game and the modern footballer , full of ego and only interested in £££ , but this lad is a complete breath of fresh air in absolutely everything , about his commitment , humility , attitude , desire - truly awesome
The way he conducts himself both on and off the pitch has been a complete joy as has witnessing his obvious and deep desire to play well and to achieve results
His interaction with supporters is a joy and he has become admired and idolised amongst our fanabse and will walk our player and young player of the year and rightly so
Embarrassingly his desire , commitment and obvious pain when the final whistle blows and we have been beaten is far in excess of every single one of our own players ( At Brentford on Saturday he mouthed 'Sorry' to our away following !!!! as he left the pitch after another defeat, despite having played HIS heart out for 90 mins ploughing a lone furrow up front again - when do you ever see that from a modern player !!)
I have some connections at Bristol City and reports of this lad confirm everything I've witnessed, humble, extremely hard working, always has a smile on his face, eager to learn and improve ..... tick tick tick
This lad has Id suggest a World Class attitude , whatever his ability is eventually assessed to be and I , as a football fan hope the lad goes on to have a fantastic career at the highest level and reaps the rewards that would bring .... because you know what..... this kid deserves everything he gets
I thought you may like a third part view of the lad from someone whose seen lots of him this season and watched him closely in all aspects
If he gets the chance at Stamford Bridge please get behind this lad as he is a gem , certainly attitude wise and will give everything for the shirt , that I can promise you
He is a complete credit To Chelsea Football Club, to the academy and the staff that work there
Most of all he's a credit to his parents , and most of all to himself - So nice to say that about a young modern footballer
I will be really sad to see this lad go back to you in May as he's helped me keep some faith in modern day footballers
Good luck for the rest of the season - undoubtedly another title possibly a double is on its way :)
Love Conte - Think you are in for some years of sustained success !!!