Michael

What did it taste like?

You can't be praising him for bad performances either. If you put in some good, consistent performances and then have a bad game then yeah, I agree, don't come down on a player like a ton of bricks but if you're consistently bad you should get called out for it. I'm the type of person that gives people second, third and even fourth chances, and I'm willing to that to any player that comes back to Chelsea, but you also gotta put the effort in.

Harsh on female footballers who would have done a better job than him towards the end as well.

I think Dave is the best choice because there's really nobody else that's ready. RLC may be a good choice in the future but we don't need to be adding that pressure to him at this stage of his career.

Carlo Godicini has a nice ring to it!

I'd definitely rather keep him than not. Good players adapt, and if Frank can get the best out of him and Kante in the middle then it has the potential to be the best midfield duo in the league.

Even if it is a matter of millimeters it's still going to technically be the right call. The problem is that's not what it's designed for, but that's what it's going to come down to. I'm not sure if you can account for human error by having something similar to the cricket where it can be "ref's call" if the offside decision is within a certain range. It's a tough one to sort out, but I just hope it's not going to come down to literal millimeters, whether it's technically correct or not.

If he can reach close to Van Dijk levels then not only should he be out first choice CB he should be our captain.

I think that's about the best Drinkwater could have hoped for. A clean slate to give him a chance to prove he's worthy of getting a few games this year. It's up to him at this stage. If he can put in a good pre-season then there's every chance he can push for a bench spot and some starts in a few cup matches, but even then we have enough central midfielders in the team already that it's going to be hard for him.

Exactly. I mean, to be fair, I spend way too much time in football games sorting out my squad numbers but in reality it doesn't make a player any better or worse. As long as he does well for us I don't care if he wears number 10 or number 73.

Let's go one better. Super Frankieball! We can't lose playing that style of football.

I would prefer CHO to get it as well. I was going to say give Pulisic 17, which was Hazard's first number, but then remembered Kovacic already has that. The number 9 is free, but we haven't had the best of luck with our number 9's in our recent history. Honestly don't care too much what number he gets, as long as he plays well in it!

That sounds impressive, but let's face it, he only needs like 2 goals and 2 assists to eclipse Willian.

Whether you think it's too early for him to be our manager or not, you can't deny how good it feels to have Frank home again. This is going to give anyone involved with Chelsea in any way, shape or form a massive lift. Welcome back, Super Frank!

I give up if CHO follows Sarri.

As an Australian I can 100% confirm this.

Mate, there are so many factors involved in this, way more than you and I will ever know. Everyone here has stated multiple times that these things can take time. You literally have no clue what's going on with these negotiations, and as others have also mentioned we have most likely already completed the deal but are waiting for Derby to sort out their new manager first. At no point have we been disrespectful during these talks. That said, I know I've wasted my time making this post because apparently we're the ones "living in a dream world". If all Derby fans like this then I hope to god I don't come across any more of you.

Ahh yeah, I felt there was another one but I just couldn't think off the top of my head. That goal against Wigan is still one of my favourite goals to watch.

It is weird that we can't pick them. Drobga is obviously the stand out but other than that I'd argue only Costa and Anelka can hold their heads high for us in the last 15 years.

This has been the longest 48 hours of all time.

Yes, and you gave us permission. I can't remember seeing we had to have a deal wrapped up in a certain amount of time. Negotiating a contract isn't exactly as simple as saying "yeah, we want you as manager, sign here" and it's all sorted in a day. I'm really not sure what you're trying to achieve here. =/

Finally a positive outlook!

Phillip Cocu. I'm also not sure we could have done much more. You're forgetting that we would also prefer to go into out pre-season with a manager. We're not delaying it for the fun of it.

I have no idea what's going on in this thread but I like it.