Boston Blue

Barkley says that the sheet in the changing room has him on PK's with Jorginho 2nd. Willian has admitted to trying to take the PK off him. If the sheet in the dressing room has two (at least) PK takers on it ahead of Willian, what in the world is Willian doing anywhere near the spot in that situation?

And if true, why didn't Azpi intervene to get Willian out of there? Another selfish gesture by Willian. We play with 10 men when he is on the field.

Others were also trying to step up to take it.

He was spotted training with the 1st team group today, so this is likely.

I hear you......it took me 48 hours to get comfortable with the 48 hour jokes.

And should feature with CHO in the upcoming U23 match

The club announced an extension for a highly regarded youth player today: Billy Gilmour. I guess Hudson-Odoi will be announced in 48 hours then.

That approach was not used for Ruben Loftus-Cheek's extension.

Fair enough, but if they spend a significant amount of time angling for a move away, or acting like they have no passion or allegiance to the club, are they truly giving their all?

It will be about 48 hours away, after three more 48 hour periods.

There have been more than plenty PR opportunities given our start to the season. I think we can rebuff the PR theory at this point...…...

Perhaps. But there's no good reason not to announce it if it's been signed. In fact, one benefit of announcing is that Frank will no longer be asked about it every time he's in front a microphone.

With all the money out there, the blatant public tapping up of players, and all the members of their entourage telling them how much they could be getting elsewhere, payers heads are spinning as if they were in The Exorcist. Reasons he hasn't signed are nothing more than straw grasping. PR Reasons? No. Release of the 3rd kit? No. Waiting for him to come back? He's close enough where it could be announced. Hope I'm wrong, but it's more likely than ever that his brother/agent will steer him to Bayern once BM see that he has totally rehabbed. This will all kick up again as we get closer (and into) the January window.

Forget football, the man has some demons that need to be confronted. He needs help and I hope he gets it.

CHOEXIT

Well, Sarri kept saying publicly he hoped Hazard would stay, so I don't think Frank's comments is any sort or barometer. Nor would I assume it's true because media outlets reported it. If he's signed, there's no good reason to delay the announcement. All the speculated reasons for a delay aren't valid: Waiting for right time/PR reasons: It hasn't been a great start to the season, so that could have been done anytime in the last month Timing the announcement with the release of the 3rd kit: that has come and gone Waiting for him to return from injury: Ruben signed his extension with an announcement after suffering the same injury.

Exactly. If he's going to cut his teeth, ideal to do it here, with the young players and an assistant coach who knows them well. When the expectations (loss of Hazard & transfer ban) are as low as they have ever been under Roman's ownership,. One full year of experience together, learning and developing. Yes, maybe one step back in order to go two steps forward.

The longer we go without an official announcement, the more likely it is he'll leave. If he doesn't want to be here now, with the focus on young players, with the money he's been offered, then I'm more than happy to see him go. And we'll know that it really wasn't about the playing time.

Ah. Didn't realize it was the infinitely recurring 48 hours...….

This last 48 hours has lasted an eternity!

CHO's brother/agent needs Bayern's interest to get the biggest contract possible from Chelsea. And we know he has a good relationship with Bayern since he's already taken one prospect from Chelsea to go there.

So an announcement on the extension wasn't waiting for the right "PR" time...……. And so much for timing it to coincide with the official release of the third shirt...……. It looks increasingly as if he wants to leave. And if that's the case, I wouldn't play him before the January window opens. I would make sure he's fully re-habbed, I would make sure he does not re-injure the achilles or suffer a new injury, and I would sell him to Bayern for as much money as we can get. If being paid £100,000 a week for your boyhood club where you see proof that young players are being trusted more than ever and succeeding isn't enough of an incentive to sign, then he simply does not want to be a Chelsea player. Or maybe, the deal is close and will be confirmed in 48 hours...…..

If this takes anywhere near as long as CHO's contract, he'll be a 25 goal scorer by the time he signs.

That's what I originally thought too, but I think Frank wanted to hold him back as a Pulisic replacement if/when needed. Willian did look more engaged for this appearance though.

I'm not exactly sure where these expectations for our young players have come from. Tammy & Pulisic taking some heat on these forums. These are 20 and 21 year old players who have 3 games of Premier League experience under their belts, and some here are expecting them to be playing like they have been in the league for years and are at the peak of their careers. Allow them to develop. Enjoy watching them develop. Support them. We can't write them off after a game in which they don't score, then hail them as world class when they score in the next match. It was no secret there was going to need to be some development this season, yet some seem surprised we are going through it.