bluedrake55

the thing that bothers me about the youngsters, is how so many people claim "he's not ready, he needs another loan" blah, blah. How many loans does one player need before he's "ready"? Seriously. How many assists and goals does a young player need to be considered "ready"? It is something that irks me. The perfect examples are Kane and Alli. They have been two of Spurs best players, yet Alli was at a league one side, and Kane had pretty average loan spells before returning to Spurs. Now look at them! I don't think we can keep saying certain youngsters "aren't ready" because they will never be with that attitude.
The talent is obvious for a handful of these kids, they just need trust shown to them. You have Ampadu, CHO, RLC, Mount, Da Silva, Reece James. I honestly don't know what they have to do anymore to be considered "ready" it's disappointing and makes me shake my head. Instead we would rather look around the continent and buy a 19/20 year old for €40-50m because his surname is "Fernandes" or "Lopez" who has just as much potential

I am gutted, Ray was Chelsea through and through for the younger ones him playing for Manchester Utd was not such a big deal for us back then it was a bigger club and we were div 2 .... he remained a Chelsea supporter his whole life and was such a gent 
when he was out of the game I used to stand next to him down at the old Harlington training ground he used shout encouragement to the lads training the speak Italian to Vialli, Robbie and Franco after the sessions he was such a gent and bring the fans into the discussion. Such passion for the game and the club despite his understated demeanour.
When he came back to the club as assistant manager  I waited out side The Bridge after a game to welcome him back and he was mobbed, he took his time to speak to everyone and had a tear in his eye about the reception he received 
RIP Butch Chelsea legend all thoughts to his family a lovely man 

Until it matters most that is. If you want an example of why Arsenal are where they are now, just look at players like Giroud. When it comes to the crunch, he has shat himself.
If i had a choice ? none of them. I would rather stick with what we have. I would rather give youth a chance over Carroll and Crouch. Sometimes i wonder if Carroll and Crouch were names leaked by the club to get us fans to settle on anything better 

Totally agree with this good post

I'd easily settle for him after some of the sh*t we've been linked with. 

He's actually good - comparable to Dzeko in terms of quality.
But surely this is a lost cause so late in the window. 
 

I think fans dislike Emanalo is because he came on the scene after Jose was sacked the first time & was promoted as first team coach when Grant was "in charge".
This for a man who at the time had no coaching badges or experience apart from being in charge of a girls U12 team.
Since then we've had success but also seen managers unfairly sacked, like Carlo.
None of us will ever know for sure what goes on behind the scenes, what i will say is though our transfer policy the last 6/7 years has been baffling at times, particularly with us selling & buying forwards. 
We bought Torres when he wasnt needed & sacrificed the PL title for 5 years while accommodating a non scoring forward, this after only a year of us winning the double while scoring goals for fun-103, with Drogba, Anelka, Kalou, Sturridge, as our forwards.
When Jose returned he also persevered with Torres with us missing out on another title, the following season Torres was sold & we won the title.
In recent years we've persevered with going in to campaigns very light up front & made some strange signings, Eto, Ba, Falco, Pato to name a few.
Now whether Emanalo is to blame for this no one knows but what i will say is someone behind the scenes is making these deceisions i cant be the only one to think that no experienced manager would be happy to have a squad so light up front? last season it was lucky Costa didnt get injured because if he had we'd have to have relied on Michy Batshuayi, a player who'd hardly played.
Here we are again another season going in to a campaign light up front, hopefully Morata will become a great goalscorer for us but should anything happen like he struggles for form or gets injured we're back to only having Michy Batshuayi to call upon, that isnt good enough for a club of our size & with also CL football this season.
Someone is calling the shots behind the scenes, maybe its only Roman? maybe i'm in a time warp but personally i'd like our managers to be allowed to manage with no interference from behind.

nice to see someone being appreciative. abramovich let sentiment get in the way and the board undermined JM by being complacent!

JT signs a new deal, Liverpool lose a final, great day

nice to see someone being appreciative. abramovich let sentiment get in the way and the board undermined JM by being complacent!

nice to see someone being appreciative. abramovich let sentiment get in the way and the board undermined JM by being complacent!

Rumours this morning that we have offered the FA £60m for use of Wembley Stadium for four years (three for construction and one year as contingency) 
 
£15m a season from us.... but no doubt the FA will continue issuing petty fines to Jose to ensure they've got enough money for the Christmas party. 

^ Absolutely brilliant article, best of all that it came from someone who has always been as consistently even-handed and tactically competent as Michael Cox. Can't be accused of bias, can't be accused of not knowing his football.
 
And he still didn't mention that he's two-footed!
 
Also, this is mental:
 
 
Pure class.

It either makes you cringe or laugh hysterically when scousers even put Gerrard's captaincy skills remotely in the same level of Terry's.

Watched the Real Madrid-Atletico match and on both of the Atletico goals, Pepe and Sergio Ramos (World Cup winner, CL winner, Team of the Season defender) took turns in either diving in or backing off against Atletico attackers. Said at the time that if Cahill did that then he'd be crucified and it happened last night.
 
Skilful attacking players running at defenders are a nightmare to deal with and diving in leaves you at risk of being mugged off and your goal exposed whereas backing off gives them time, but also gives your midfielders a chance to get back. It seems as though Jose prefers the latter yet Cahill cops flack when he does it. 
 
Not saying that he's a world-class defender but some of the specific criticism is as unwarranted as it is predictable.

Cahill is a solid defender but JT makes him look better than he really is. The best thing that can happen to a CB is to be paired with JT.

and he takes no sh*t! especially from some fat kid trying to eat the ball!

Massive difference. Malouda still wanted to play and told he'll train with the youngsters instead. I think (as did others at the time) that he was quite ill treated at the end, after winning a lot with the club.
I'm not debating whether Torres is or will do that. Am just saying I didn't see Malouda trying to fleece the club as Bogarde did. Florent actually wanted to be included and was pissed that he wasn't.

The first game after the Wayne Bridge thing, against Burnley I think, JT getting dogs abuse, and he goes and scores...Brilliant

I don't really read the papers and I tend to disagree with most of the things the media say anyway.
Since Mikel came to Chelsea I have always been skeptical of his performances, I gave him the benefit of the doubt as he was young and could improve but he's at the age now where he should be at his peak level. He just doesn't fit in the system we are trying to build here, he's too slow and lethargic to play beside Matic while he lacks the discipline of quality defensive midfielder.
I'm baffled that he's still here and getting starts and yes of course the managers past and present know much more than me but I can only judge it on what I see and I'm not seeing very much from Mikel to think he's got a future here.

some people really need to think that in every winning team there is always going to be 'limited' players who will always play a part in their success. i am not mikel's greatest fan but he has my APPRECIATION for what he has done for our club like every 'limited' who has been a part of our success. 

some people really need to think that in every winning team there is always going to be 'limited' players who will always play a part in their success. i am not mikel's greatest fan but he has my APPRECIATION for what he has done for our club like every 'limited' who has been a part of our success. 

some people really need to think that in every winning team there is always going to be 'limited' players who will always play a part in their success. i am not mikel's greatest fan but he has my APPRECIATION for what he has done for our club like every 'limited' who has been a part of our success. 

I dont know what it is about Fernando but even though hes never produced his best i love the guy....Id be sad if he left....Especialy when he was being given sh*t by spuds on his way off the pitch and he turned to us as we sang his name and clapped

Balague raises some decent arguments on subject I think:
 
The idea that Mourinho’s decision is motivated by personal pique and by non-footballing calculations is too simple. In my opinion, what’s happening to Mata at the moment will, in the long term, be of benefit to both the player and his country.    While many armchair followers of "highlights" football cite him as Chelsea’s best player, in terms of goals and assists, Mourinho is seeing a bigger picture.   What Mou is seeing, and saying, is that in Eden Hazard he has a player who tackles more, wins more possession, more aerial battles and more 50-50 balls. All the defensive statistics put Hazard ahead of Mata.   Clearly on the offensive Mata was producing the goods last season but if those stats about the defensive contributions are true then clearly the reasoning Mourinho is offering about why Mata at present is not first choice hold weight.    As said previously, if Mata improves the defensive side of his game then he will find himself back in the starting XI and both he and the team will be the better for it. Let's not forget the season is still very much in its infancy at the moment.