1 hour ago, bluedave said:

Don't be silly, this is the only thing keeping me going until 5pm.

Ha ha, maybe you need a hobby, being a misogynist can a hobby...just saying....

9 minutes ago, Valerie said:

Come on Dicky, et tu in the way of what aboutisms?

But I'd be happy to explain (also to Evissy) how the Carlo thing works: football is still very much perceived to be "a man's thing". You don't want to know how many times men said to me: I didn't expect a woman to like football. I've given up on telling them why I like football, instead I tease them (although they don't realise that, which makes that more funny somehow) that I'm just in it for the bare legs. Inevitably the question is asked who I think is the best looking footballer, so I say Carlo. That has become very much a running gag in the several incarnations of this forum.

And about the Granovaskaia comments not being derogatory, "certainly not compared to many other things that have been said about women" is rather disingenious. It's in the category "Can't I pay a compliment anymore these days". Again: when is the last time you complimented a man on his looks, when looks were not the subject at all? And when "other people say worse things" makes a solid defence of sexist language? Do you use that when it concerns a racist remark? As in: very racist is bad, a bit racist is therefore okay?

In fact I`ll take this to personal message, not really wanting to do this no an open forum.

Edited June 19, 20206 yr by dkw

33 minutes ago, dkw said:

In fact I`ll take this to personal message, not really wanting to do this no an open forum.

Thanks Dicky, you're right, I've replied to your message.

In addition: I'm absolutely not accusing anybody in this thread of racism. I used the comparison with racism to show how to try and change a mindset: for instance ask people to substitute 'woman' for 'black' or 'jew', they see the argument from a different angle, and hopefully understand a bit better why I resent certain language. Well, that's the theory anyway 

 

Anyway, about selling Bakayoko....

Edited June 19, 20206 yr by Valerie

On thin ice Dicky!

2 minutes ago, yorkleyblue said:

On thin ice Dicky!

Dicky and I are big friends and hugged it out via pm!

4 minutes ago, Valerie said:

Dicky and I are big friends and hugged it out via pm!

He knows what's good for him.  Did he get you to do that Nanny Whiplash thing for him?

Just now, yorkleyblue said:

He knows what's good for him.  Did he get you to do that Nanny Whiplash thing for him?

I had to google that 😁 We didn't have a whip long enough for today's social distancing rules, either the Dutch (you know it as Belgium) ones, or the UK ones. We've decided to wait til the next piss-up.

I think we can all agree she's hot. Not as hot as Ruben though. 

What gets me out of bed though is someone who does a bloody good job and I'd fight anyone who says we don't have one of the top 3 or 4 Chief Execs in world football (essentially that is what she is).

 

What sets her apart from Ed Woodward. Is that she has actively sought to reduce her role in the football decision part. She's clearly sought to bring Cech into the fold as a future DoF whilst Ed Woodward has done f**k all. Same with Daniel Levy. She knows her own strengths and knows what her strengths are not. Something those two twats haven't got a clue about and why they aren't going to be fighting for the PL for a long time. 

Edited June 19, 20206 yr by bisright1

1 hour ago, Valerie said:

Come on Dicky, et tu in the way of what aboutisms?

But I'd be happy to explain (also to Evissy) how the Carlo thing works: football is still very much perceived to be "a man's thing". You don't want to know how many times men said to me: I didn't expect a woman to like football. I've given up on telling them why I like football, instead I tease them (although they don't realise that, which makes that more funny somehow) that I'm just in it for the bare legs. Inevitably the question is asked who I think is the best looking footballer, so I say Carlo. That has become very much a running gag in the several incarnations of this forum.

And about the Granovaskaia comments not being derogatory, "certainly not compared to many other things that have been said about women" is rather disingenious. It's in the category "Can't I pay a compliment anymore these days". Again: when is the last time you complimented a man on his looks, when looks were not the subject at all? And when "other people say worse things" makes a solid defence of sexist language? Do you use that when it concerns a racist remark? As in: very racist is bad, a bit racist is therefore okay?

Just to chime in here, but im a straight man so its a bit odd for me to be complimenting other men on their looks. If there is a gay fan however, I'm sure they would compliment a lot of different players on their looks.

And to add further to this, I have watched football with several women before, and a lot of them do make comments on how attractive some footballers are like Ruben, Giroud, Beckham etc.. Wouldn't call them sexist for it though.

Edited June 19, 20206 yr by driller97

4 minutes ago, bisright1 said:

I think we can all agree she's hot. Not as hot as Ruben though. 

What gets me out of bed though is someone who does a bloody good job and I'd fight anyone who says we don't have one of the top 3 or 4 Chief Execs in world football (essentially that is what she is).

 

What sets her apart from Ed Woodward. Is that she has actively sought to reduce her role in the football decision part. She's clearly sought to bring Cech into the fold as a future DoF whilst Ed Woodward has done f**k all. Same with Daniel Levy. She knows her own strengths and knows what her strengths are not. Something those two twats haven't got a clue about and why they aren't going to be fighting for the PL for a long time. 

I think we can all agree that Ed Woodward is a clown and we must be so grateful we don't have someone like him who runs the club.

Even still, nobody comes close to Mike Ashley

6 minutes ago, driller97 said:

Just to chime in here, but im a straight man so its a bit odd for me to be complimenting other men on their looks.

Have you not seen Olivier Giroud? 

5 minutes ago, Munkworth said:

Have you not seen Olivier Giroud? 

Not denying hes a good looking man! But it's just a bit odd to just randomly come out with it, whereas complimenting the gender you are attracted to normally is well... Normal.

Thank god we've got a game again this weekend!

The business she has done in selling Morata for more than we paid for Werner is outstanding. It seems to me she is starting to be fully recognized for her business acumen, because she is sharp as a tack and the gets deals done. she rarely gets "played." I can't wait to see when Chelsea moves Barkley on, what fee she gets for him. Because 15M for him, I thought was incredibly cheap given his age, position and that he is English (which seems to add 15-20M onto the price tag).

1 hour ago, driller97 said:

Not denying hes a good looking man! But it's just a bit odd to just randomly come out with it, whereas complimenting the gender you are attracted to normally is well... Normal.

When I see Giroud it's almost like all around him there are big signs that say FrenchFrenchFrench he just comes across as this epic guy full of confidence, no wonder he stripped fully for some charity event and was a face of Hugo Boss perfume...

On reddit its common to talk about stupid sexy giroud. And hazards ass.

Oh My lord i used to purr over Franks legs......

For me I think it’s wise to have a football person in a football role and cech seems to be a perfect fit. 
 

Marina used to get a lot of stick and I think she sunk a good few deals in the past by over negotiating, and we had a poor few windows  with some questionable purchases, who was picking the players we still don’t know. 
 

She is certainly shrewd and never takes a deal that isn’t financially sound for the club and that’s her job, I think by sticking to that and letting cech deal with player negotiating and the manager chose who he actually wants is making a world of difference. 

 

I don’t think we sign Timo without cech in that role. 
 

Much better dynamic now, technical director and frank, old teammates lots of credibility and a joint vision, marina is a very good business woman and she is far better placed in that capacity than a hands on football role because it’s not her area of strength. 
 

I wonder who made the cech call, her or RA, either way it was a good one.

Marina is clearly a very intelligent and extremely competent operative. How she looks is of no matter but she is who she is. 
 

My wife made a very interesting comment the other day concerning the colour of players skins. She said that gone are the days when she even noticed what colour they were they are footballers and in a way that’s exactly how we should be looking at Marina.  No not as a footballers but someone who clearly is at the top of their game and their looks, their sex, etc etc is not relevant or something you should use to measure them.

 

Here ends the first lesson.

 

Amen 

 

 

Not much on the internet and so found this article in The Sun.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/8531932/marina-granovskaia-chelsea-abramovich/

She was at a dance school as the Soviet Union was collapsing and then studied languages at Moscow starting as a assistant at Sibneft RA's oil company.

While there she must have found something that made RA notice her and trust her, she is certainly one of the more intriguing behind the scenes football operators. 

 

On 18/06/2020 at 13:49, Munkworth said:

If she gets the money back for Bakayoko she’ll be a God. 

looking like something might be in the works with AC Milan

 

3 hours ago, robdog said:

looking like something might be in the works with AC Milan

 

Puts it into better perspective though. If she can move him on, fantastic, but let's not forget that she also would have been at the forefront of giving this clown €6.5m a year!!

Apparently Newcastle are also interested in Bakayoko! Lets hope this deal goes through, IIRC we bought him for about 40m, so if we can get anything above 25m we've done well

Ooh are they going to become the new QPR? In which case do you think they'd take Drinkwater as well?

Marina is hot. 

But then, in our house, we also refer to Giroud as "Handsome man" (including my 6 and 8 yr old), so I hope that balances out any negativity about us referring to Marina as a red hot cougar. ;)