Bob Singleton

Sounds like the apocryphal story of the person hired by Harrods solely to be fired in front of upset customers in order to placate them.

Which is 'fastest'... a glacier or another glacier? Both were good servants of the club and helped us win titles and cups, but neither are here any more and both are over 30, so does it really matter?

So we might get a new "Technical Director" at some point. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/aug/15/chelsea-technical-director-priority https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2018/08/15/chelsea-step-search-new-technical-director-succeed-michael-emenalo/ Given how similarly worded both articles are, I suspect the club have briefed a select group of journalists

Until 23:00h on March 29th 2019... then who knows? 😉

As the Arsenal thread hasn't been set up yet (are you on your hols, Michael?) just wanted to mention that Martin Atkinson is the ref on Saturday... could have been worse, they could have made Arsene Wenger a ref and given him the game!

I really wouldn't worry about that. Looking at various posts and posters, the more analytical they are, the more that analysis is full of bull! I agree; during the pre-season games nobody who played the centre forward got any service. It'll take time (though probably not the 2 or so months Sarri has mentioned) for the players get used to the new system & style... only then can we really start castigating players for not being the demi-Gods we expect them to be!

Are we sure he's not an onanista? 😉 😳

‘There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.’ Sherlock Holmes -The Bascombe Valley Mystery

Not odd at all. Emenalo was obviously pissed off with Marina (and possibly Conte, too), and knowing he was off to Monaco a few months later organised it so that we bought the least effective of their players for a sum of money they could never have hoped to achieve even in the weird market that was last summer. 😉 😉 😉

Premier League: 3rd Europa League: Winners FA Cup: Semi-Final League Cup: Quarter-Final

I think you may well be right. Decent player, loved his enthusiasm, but not really good enough for where we want to be. His speed will only get him out of trouble so many times.

Been busy all day shooting at Africa Fashion Week London, but I've not seen any posts regarding Zouma... I gather his loan to Everton went through in the end?

Stop sitting on the fence, Nobbly... tell us how you really feel! 😉

One criticism often levelled at Courtois was how he "went down in stages"; the inference being that being so tall made him 'slower' to get down to lower shots. Maybe height actually does impact on how quickly a keeper can dive low, although it surely must be beneficial when trying to stop a ball heading for the top corner. From the YouTube video posted the other day, he certainly seems able to throw himself around and looks pretty agile. Maybe 6' 2" is the perfect height? Tall enough to get to crosses, reach the corners of the goal, etc., not so tall that he's not agile enough to get down quickly to low shots. We'll soon find out.

She's Madrid born & bred. All her family are in Madrid. She came to London with him and never settled (something he mentioned a few times in the early days... I seem to remember him even saying that she would regularly fly home to Madrid because she missed the weather, the food and the general way of life). I got the feeling they split up because she wanted to move back permanently (yes he did have an affair with KdB's then girlfriend, on whom KdB had just cheated with her best friend... complicated, eh?...but that was before he and his now ex got together) Obviously things change, but I suspect she'll be staying in Madrid.