Paddy

Luxury , luxury !!!!!!!  it’s not a given that you get selected to play just because you exist, you have to earn the place and that’s what Mount and James have done and continue to do.
It’s vexing that some people put cho and other youth team products on a pedestal and believe that because they are “ home grown” that they have a divine right to get picked regardless.
He’s had opportunity upon opportunity to put his marker down in competitive matches, sometimes as a starter, and he consistently fails to do so - presumably he doesn’t impress in training too and that’s why he doesn’t get picked to start - it’s got f**k all to do with ‘luxury’ - imo.
NB - It’s interesting that TT said recently that there is no where for Callum to hide this season ? 

Luxury , luxury !!!!!!!  it’s not a given that you get selected to play just because you exist, you have to earn the place and that’s what Mount and James have done and continue to do.
It’s vexing that some people put cho and other youth team products on a pedestal and believe that because they are “ home grown” that they have a divine right to get picked regardless.
He’s had opportunity upon opportunity to put his marker down in competitive matches, sometimes as a starter, and he consistently fails to do so - presumably he doesn’t impress in training too and that’s why he doesn’t get picked to start - it’s got f**k all to do with ‘luxury’ - imo.
NB - It’s interesting that TT said recently that there is no where for Callum to hide this season ? 

Luxury , luxury !!!!!!!  it’s not a given that you get selected to play just because you exist, you have to earn the place and that’s what Mount and James have done and continue to do.
It’s vexing that some people put cho and other youth team products on a pedestal and believe that because they are “ home grown” that they have a divine right to get picked regardless.
He’s had opportunity upon opportunity to put his marker down in competitive matches, sometimes as a starter, and he consistently fails to do so - presumably he doesn’t impress in training too and that’s why he doesn’t get picked to start - it’s got f**k all to do with ‘luxury’ - imo.
NB - It’s interesting that TT said recently that there is no where for Callum to hide this season ? 

Luxury , luxury !!!!!!!  it’s not a given that you get selected to play just because you exist, you have to earn the place and that’s what Mount and James have done and continue to do.
It’s vexing that some people put cho and other youth team products on a pedestal and believe that because they are “ home grown” that they have a divine right to get picked regardless.
He’s had opportunity upon opportunity to put his marker down in competitive matches, sometimes as a starter, and he consistently fails to do so - presumably he doesn’t impress in training too and that’s why he doesn’t get picked to start - it’s got f**k all to do with ‘luxury’ - imo.
NB - It’s interesting that TT said recently that there is no where for Callum to hide this season ? 

If Roman really wants this guy, then do a deal now - add his release clause money to the fictional €150m and divide in half , so 150+75=225 , so half is €110 ish , and then loan him back.
If Dortmund are out of the running for the league at Christmas, he comes then, if they still, realistically,  have a shot at winning the league he stays and joins us in summer 2022? 
f**k knows if he will make it in the PL but sometimes you just gotta back ya sell and take a punt, albeit a very expensive punt, but faint heart never won fair maiden! 
God knows, we’ve bought some f**king pups in our time !!!! Besides, if we wait until next season we may not be as attractive and there will surely be lots of competition ? 

Sell Tammy for whatever the south London arsewipes will give and get Lewandowski for £50m as the 2/3 year stop gap and mentor (and what a stop gap he would be by the way !!!) then, bob’s ya uncle, fanny’s ya aunt, lulu’s ya cousin and the jobs a goodun 
Does that work for you ? 
Btw - Would love to get Chiesa too 

If Roman really wants this guy, then do a deal now - add his release clause money to the fictional €150m and divide in half , so 150+75=225 , so half is €110 ish , and then loan him back.
If Dortmund are out of the running for the league at Christmas, he comes then, if they still, realistically,  have a shot at winning the league he stays and joins us in summer 2022? 
f**k knows if he will make it in the PL but sometimes you just gotta back ya sell and take a punt, albeit a very expensive punt, but faint heart never won fair maiden! 
God knows, we’ve bought some f**king pups in our time !!!! Besides, if we wait until next season we may not be as attractive and there will surely be lots of competition ? 

Sell Tammy for whatever the south London arsewipes will give and get Lewandowski for £50m as the 2/3 year stop gap and mentor (and what a stop gap he would be by the way !!!) then, bob’s ya uncle, fanny’s ya aunt, lulu’s ya cousin and the jobs a goodun 
Does that work for you ? 
Btw - Would love to get Chiesa too 

DO. NOT. DO. THAT. EVER. AGAIN!

Oh I don’t say it will happen , what I say is stop f**king about trying to be a clever clogs and do everything you can to make it possible and if it doesn’t happen then you live without regrets and any ‘if only’s !’
Unlike some, I don’t get hung up spending Romans money !

Tbh I don’t think Calvert Lewin is any better than Abraham, you put Tammy in Everton team and he’ll probably get similar figures to Calvert Lewin.
Having just won the champions league and wanting to compete for the premier league title, I’m afraid Abraham isn’t good enough to push us to a title charge. We need someone like Drogba or Costa. Haaland seems to be the obvious answer, I wouldn’t turn my nose up at Lewandowski either.

I had high hopes for Abraham but he went backwards last season. He has always had a knack for goals but you do wonder if he has enough about him to be a player who can perform at the top level (Arsenal & West Ham NOT being the top level obviously!)
Last season, he should have been kicking on, but at times he looks far too lightweight, no good up holding up the ball, poor in the air, and spent too much time falling over. Shame, as I would have loved an academy player to become our main striker but just don't see it with Tammy and can see why DCL is thought of as the better players as he does have a more complete striker look about him.
 
 

Well here’s a conundrum to contemplate , if TA was available to buy from another club, would Chelsea be interested in pursuing him ? 
I doubt it ? 
 

I read today that we have offered £135m source ESPN, the comment being why are you effing around, if serious offer the big money as by haggling you are risking them losing patience and giving yourself less time for getting other players to support Haaland.

It is not just Tuchel though. It is very strange for such talented player to be doubted by three different managers. 
 

He might ‘offer’ but he doesn’t do it - he doesn’t deliver the goods. Time and time again he either passes the ball back to someone else or puts in a cross without taking on the full back - he’s very predictable he doesn’t scare defenders, unlike Werner, who for all his shortcomings, scares the crap out of defences with his willingness to take them on in a foot race.
He ought to be winning double figure penalties each season like Sterling does or Ashley Young used to but he doesn’t take the defender on and get himself in front and ahead in the penalty area to draw the contact.
There is a reason why successive managers don’t play him , they don’t see enough from him to warrant his selection as anything other than a rarely used substitute.
I don’t believe he has the mental fortitude to effect a game in the way that you suggest, I’d argue that he doesn’t have the ability either, Mount does, Havertz does.
I honestly believe that he’s settled for his 5 year x 120k / week contract - I don’t see any fire in his belly tbh? 
 

About three weeks ago we reached a point in the season when every man and his blog was giving their rankings, best XIs and players of the season. Naturally a lot of those featured players from other teams, so could be dismissed as irrelevant. We at The Shed End like to take a little time to ruminate on such things, so finally, after a liquor-fuelled hiatus of a few years, I can bring you the Shed End's Player of the Season Awards.
Any newbies may be unaware that in addition to being the forum's most hilarious, second-most handsome and eighteenth-drunkest poster, I also maintain an Excel spreadsheet which tallies all votes cast in our per-match MOTM threads. All the punch cards have now been processed, and I now finally have the numbers from this most topsy-turvy of seasons.
Even with a dataset as small as ours, a season with a change in management (and a range of contrasts from 'quite good but flawed', to 'totally inept', to 'still kind of inept but solid', to 'apparently the best team in Europe') offers us an opportunity for introspection. One useful factor is the comparability in fixture quantity - Lampard managed 29 games, and Tuchel 30. Pleasingly enough, each of the 28 players who featured for us this season picked up at least 1 vote, with the exception of poor Loftus-Cheek's unfortunate cameo vs Brighton in the season opener.
 
Some introductory stats:
Total number of games: 59
Total number of votes cast: 1772
Average number of votes per game: 30.03 (23.59 under Lampard, 32.27 under Tuchel... bunch of glory hunters.)
Game with highest number of votes cast: Man City (N CL): 61
Game with lowest number of votes cast: Tottenham (A LC); Rennes (A CL): 12
 
As a result of the average vote numbers being higher than during previous seasons, I've opted for only two measuring sticks: total number of MOTM awards, followed by the overall number of individual votes as a tie-breaker. The largely vestigial 'points' system has been discarded as a result of players no longer being able to win awards when only picking up two or three votes. The lowest individual winning total was Zouma with 4 (vs Tottenham in the League Cup), however this was really an anomaly. It also meant that joke/tactical votes had less of an effect, although I did notice that Jorginho's eight votes under Lampard came in seven separate matches. No comment...
I don't think anyone will be too surprised by individual players performing drastically better or worse following the switch between managers. Even the perenially underappreciated (in MOTM threads at least) Azpilicueta picked up a bit:

So here's what the table looked like under Lampard:

And here's what it looked like under Tuchel:

 
You will probably note, as a result of his finishing first in both halves of the season that:
 

Mason Mount is The Shed End's 2020/21 Player of the Season.
 
While I agree with the result (which is quite possibly a first for this), I did feel a little bad for Kanté, who only missed out by 16 votes and also strolled the awards for both CL semi-finals as well as the final.
 
So via most MOTM awards:
1) Mount (8 awards)
1) Kanté (8 awards)
3) James (5 awards)
4) Mendy (4 awards)
 
Via total votes:
1) Mount (257 votes)
2) Kanté (241 votes)
3) Havertz (120 votes)
4) James (111 votes)
 
Other stats (feel free to stop reading at any point):
 
Premier League:
Mount leads the way with 6 awards, followed by Kanté with 4, then James, Mendy, Pulisic and Chilwell all with 3. Interestingly we only won 2 of the games Mount won the award for - including the capitulation at the King Power and the ludicrous 3-3 against West Brom.
Champions League:
Unsurprisingly Kanté was ahead in this one with 4 (all of them knockout games including both semis and the final). Mount won 2 (also both knockouts), then 1 each for James, Mendy, Ziyech, Silva, Jorginho, Gilmour and Giroud. I'm sure you can guess which game Giroud won his award for...
FA/Cup League Cup:
I'm throwing these two together as our League Cup campaign was only two games long. Zouma and Abraham got 2 each; Havertz, James, Hudson-Odoi and Azpilicueta (the semi against Man City) all got one each.
 
So Mount and Kanté are both streets ahead of the rest of the squad. Even Kanté in second has more than double the number of votes of Havertz in third. The awards were more spread out than they normally would be: 20 different players won at least one MOTM award this season. Whether this is a result of us playing such a high number of games or as a result of the necessary rotation in such a compressed season I don't know.
This is the full table if anybody is interested:

 
Thanks for reading!

Yes Haaland was not interested by us yet then we won the CL and all the big clubs dropped their interest, so expect he has rethought it and decided perhaps we are not so bad after all.

I confess I'm a little out of touch with the Haaland situation - before we won the CL this year, didn’t he go on record with a list of clubs that he would be prepared to sign for ? From memory weren’t there 3 possibles in the PL , the manc pairing and dippers, Chelsea were definitely ‘civitas non grata’ as I recall - has that changed ?
I imagine that it may have done, but it must surely be linked into getting assurances as to who CFC/TT plans on bringing in this year and it must surely involve some dialogue with TT to convince Haaland of his vision for the future, I would imagine ?
When you see Roman at the end of the CL final he is a genuine football enthusiast and most importantly he’s a Chelsea fan through and through, so I would think that your estimate of RA’s transfer chest may well be correct .

Yes, Werner has had a poor season. Don't think anyone will debate that. Still, he has had far more goals and assists in important matches than CHO (Werner has played more of course).
When CHO begins to match Werner's off the ball work and movement, we can begin to compare their non-goal contributions. But sadly, CHO doesn't come close.
My point is that you do not need stats to understand the shortcomings that CHO has. And if you look at stats, there are layers.

We are paying massive wages for not much in return in my view.
Yes he's young but there's a heap of players in and around his age in the EPL alone who are performing better. 
Don't see it with him at all. 

A typical case of poor inference from statistics.
And when you are looking at goal contributions per minute, it's good to present this metric separately for starts and substitute appearances. We all know that this does not scale.
The 29 goal contributions in his Chelsea career include several against poor opposition in the early rounds of the Champions League, Fa Cup or Europa League. He has scored 1 goal (I think) in all his PL starts (admittedly hasn't started many). He has goals against Krasnodar, Grimsby, Nottingham Forest among others.
He has made a couple of incisive and important passes recently leading to people claiming he has 'extra'ordinary vision. But how many times has he not seen a run and passed the ball sideways or just along the channel. For someone who crosses the ball in so much (and has featured so often against not-so-good defenses), his assist tally is poor.
None of our managers have really trusted him to start and dominate important games. He's useful coming off the bench but not even then is there complete trust and faith. His shooting technique is extremely poor, I would trust Rudiger's ability to strike a ball over CHOs. Judging him on the basis of rumoured interest from Bayern is a bit weak.
Yes, he is younger than all the others but he has shown nothing spectacular so far. A good player in the making but technically too limited to become a starter for a top club.

Listen, I respect your right to your opinion and you can quote all the “facts and figures’ you like, the simple matter of fact for me is what I see and I don’t see the player that you describe and furthermore, I don't see him becoming the player that you hope he will become either - it’s not that I don’t want him to succeed, I simply don’t believe he has the quality, ability or mind set to play at the highest level.
He’s a player trading on his youth team reputation imo, right now I believe TT only sees him as a substitute and a rarely used one at that, I honestly don’t think he trusts him ?  - you can quote how many times he has played and for how many minutes, his age, his Achilles injury but I don’t think he will develop in the way that MM, RJ have - I see them desperate to succeed and not scared of the challenge, they aren’t frightened or intimidated by the opposition - I don’t see any of that from cho.
If he can be used in a deal to attract new players then I say do it .
 

Phew !
That was a painful afternoon for the most part. Thank f**k Bale wasn't playing golf today 🙂

Hope you are wrong ax, Werner, Havertz and Mount for me with pulisic coming off the bench, this worked so well v RM in the home semi final leg - think Kova drops out for Kante.
Also, think he will go with Christensen, Silva and Rudi with Dave at rwb.
Anyway, that’s next weeks problem, COYB !!!

I have to take issue with you because creating is not our problem , I feel we create plenty most games,  it’s the taking of the chances that are our problem, but I  really don’t understand how you can completely write us off against MC ? “Our only chance is to park the bus” - really?
We played them twice in recent weeks under TT and on both occasions were extremely combative, competitive and deserved winners imo - I’m certain that Pep will be very concerned about playing us.
I really do think that we need to grow some bollocks and stop being so afraid of the opposition, if another team beats us cause they are better, then fair play, but let’s not loose the game before it’s played - when we turn up, we are a match for anyone .

99.99% Jorginho's fault, but it's no coincidence that Kepa is the keeper caught out by it, did he need to go after the ball after scrambling back heroically to save it ? should of stayed on his line after that.