terraloon

When it comes to your opposition at this point in the season till the last game, the teams that personally I hate playing are those that are in a relegation fight.Looking at WHU over their two last games they clearly were in a bit of form. The plan obviously yesterday was to rest players what with the better players in the squad playing on Wednesday and them not getting back to Cobham till 5.00am on Thursday which was what 60 hours before the WHU game kicked off and another game in 72 hours the players need some sort of respite

What happens if you don’t get an early lead ?

I am not sure that a chunk of his fee won’t have been written off by way of impairment in 24/25. We will need to see what is reflected in the accounts that will be placed in the public domain in a few weeks. It’s being suggested by others that the likelihood is that a departure will follow and yes I suspect that will be the case. Like others I think it will be George which if is the case will fund the loss The reference to compensation isn’t in the favour of the player. When a player terminates his contract other than the balance due in respect of any “ signing on fee “ I am reliably informed that is it in terms of money payable to the player.

Not me. My knowledge of him is based on others opinions and the suggestion is that he will be a top top player

In 1996 I was hit by a drunk driver. My Femur was shattered and I suffered what they called a corkscrew fracture. The operation to repair involved stabilisation by way of a dynamic hip screw. The repair was so fragile that I was not able to weigh bear for six months. About 3 months in I slipped whilst going up the stairs grounding my foot sent a shock up through my leg and ultimately resulted in further corrective surgery. Ok it’s not quite what is being talked about but repairing by way of surgery does leave you open to further injuries and sometimes it’s impossible to not expose the original injury to further trauma. I had to give away my 1997 because I was still on crutches( well sell it) Cup final ticket the only saving grace I had a double bet to win 2-0 and Robbi to score . !

What surprises me is that despite the lack of top quality of our existing CDs we have the 4th joint best defensive record in the PL and 5th in the CL.

I was told at the game on Saturday something similar although the rumour wasn’t just about him going to Strasbourg but one coming the other way. Bear in mind we are restricted to 6 international loans , not including academy products who fulfil certain requirements. Aren’t we still at the limit ? Although there seems to be chatter around DD Fofana going to Celtic

Not wanting to be pedantic but my point was that a test proves if a substance is in your blood. Of course some substances are as you say are not naturally produced in the body but the fact remains the tests , unless proven to be contaminated or that the test wasn’t conducted correctly, produce evidence that is fact and not based on opinion. The subjective view as to what the levels are etc only comes into play after a blood or urine test flags up levels be they zero or acceptance up to a certain level have been exceeded

Save the odd one or two the vast bulk that sit near us didn’t notice the demonstration. Your comment on Maresca is interesting as most of course wanted him to succeed ( not all because some I genuinely feel wanted failure) but not one of our group are sad to see him go for the reasons you state. My Dad , God bless him, is now dead but he used to wax lyrical about the good old days and as my Mum used to remind him the days he was talking about was a time of two World Wars, extreme poverty, illness like Polio being rampant and a bunch of Germans lobbing bombs at the UK!

It is well known on here that I hold different views on the owners to some but let me ask one simple question to those that want them gone. The question is what do you want next if they agreed to exit? As you say Scott a few banners isn’t going to cut it

What you mean players like Sterling & Dissasi.

I deliberately haven’t passed too much of opinion about his appointment because I simply can’t make my mind up as to if this appointment is a master stroke or a major error. But sorry your comment regarding qualification I just couldn’t let go without responding. Not all great player make good coaches/ managers. Indeed perhaps the 3 best 21st century managers in top flight football in England SAF, Jose and Wenger had little to no playing time at the top level. Ironically in England probably the best English players such Bobby Moore& Bobby Charlton had miserable times when they went into management. I suppose it depends what you mean when you say about qualification but I would argue that Grant, AVB and possibly Roberto had far less qualifications to manage in the PL before they were appointed by RA none had managed in one of the top 5 European league before they were appointed . Then you have numerous examples of Then if you look back into those 50 years you mention in terms of qualification as a coach ( and not a player) we have appointed numerous individuals who may have decent to excellent playing time but likewise never managed in the top leagues anywhere .Players like Hollins, Porterfield, Webb, Hoddle, Rudd, Lampard , Vialli and yes Meresca So it’s back to his appointment at this time we simply don’t know enough about him. Of course it may be just PR but there have been some very positive comments about him and his skill set but time to judge probably is at earliest end of season .

Just as likely is that he will deploy 3-2-4-1

Very much doubt that will happen.

Emegha is said already to have agreed a deal

Based on what’s in the public domain he is still only provisionally banned That said It’s possible that the FA case was proven at an IC but we haven’t heard any more because any FA sanction needs to be confirmed by the World Doping Agency. Pogba went effectively through the same process.

Unlike many discipline breeches having a banned substance in your system is confirmed by science Of course there have been instances where sports men/ woman have been able to prove the testing process was compromised but in the vast majority of cases there is no doubt about a banned substance being present in a blood sample. As sports people are responsible for what’s in their blood then there doesn’t seem to be any doubt he is guilty. The question then being asked how did it get there and that seems to be the conundrum in this whole issue. We know that he is claiming that he didn’t knowingly take anything but the science suggests that it’s possible that contaminated food stuff, particularly dairy can transfer to humans. That it seems is his claim to mitigation. Following my post yesterday I have further reflected on this and my belief is that the FA report has been made available to player, to Chelsea and WDA and what is causing the delay know is confirmation that the WDA are happy with the ban and that time wise it will be circa a year which has already been served. We aren’t obliged to send an updated squad list for a couple of weeks and if we still haven’t heard anything more by the end of January it will be interesting to see if he is listed on that squad rota

It seems it’s his birthday and on the clubs X account he is being , unlike Sterling, wished a Happy Birthday In some quarters it being suggested that in January he will be reintroduced to the first team squad. I haven’t seen any updates from the FA but it seems the WDA were involved so that may account for there not having been any announcement. They, WDA, need to ratify the FAs decision and can appeal if they believe it’s either too harsh or too lenient It’s worth noting that he suggested on a rare social media post a couple of days ago he would “ see us all soon”

Interestingly the City fans are suggesting that they didn’t win today because Pep refuses to rotate and their belief is that in the modern era you have to rest players. To be fair football even in the last 15 years is faster and more technical than the days of Terry et al. January will take a massive toll on clubs no player at any club will be able to play 10 games in 31 days.

Well seems there was some legs in the info passed on.

It’s odd because as I said at the game during the week the views were generally positive . That said some of the lads that we travel with hate Maresca with a passion. Personally I am getting to the point where I don’t think there are any excuses left to enable him to get the benefit of doubt any longer he continues to pick players who simply aren’t up to it for instance Tosin when there are players who display greater potential.

The Executive that had responsibility was a chap called Casper Stylsvig. He was moved toward the end September https://insidersport.com/2025/09/19/chelsea-chief-revenue-casper-stylsvig/

Thinking about the claim and indeed factoring in your comments makes me think that may be there are indeed legs in the claim. We know that BlueCo have bought about changes in every department and with those changes it seems that there are clear lines of responsibility and accountability in the model that now is in place. There was a lot of chatter about how in the early days of his tenure that Maresca was a company man and bought into the project where his role clearly was under the management of the SD and not a true partnership with them. Those changes bought a complete re build of the medical team and I would imagine that they also are reporting to the SD and it is them that in all likelihood make the call around availability based on medical advice. Meresca is probably pushing back when he gets criticised add to the fact he probably thinks his hand has been strengthened following on from the 24/5 season. Players , when a team is doing well, will always want to play sometimes they have to be protected from themselves indeed most head coaches/ managers who will make the final call even when concern around the players welfare and the medical advice suggests that the player should be sidelined. Meresca won’t be in place for next season. I am pretty sure of that the question is who will be the next in line and I like Glasner who clearly has something and it seems buys into the HC role and knows how to develop players

Worth looking at Newcastles injuries they are steadily climbing in numerical terms indeed they currently have more out than us