Moneyball won't win the Premiership 2012-13

as a squad player it would be worth keeping lampy wamps around, the finality of this decision does suggest abramovich feels slighted and the avb mutiny is a likely reason

abramovich allowed lampard to spend his honeymoon on one of his yachts, apart from shevchenko he is the only chelsea player that seemed to have that personal relationship with him

countinho had his breakthrough in rafa's strangely cavalier inter side

also biabany, now of parma iirc

Lampard probably isn't starting quality but he's still scoring regularly. Cole's head tends to go down for months at a time and he isn't the player he was - left backs don't exert that much influence on the team and even ones of Cole's quality are replaceable if you have Chelsea's kind of money.

yeah, Leighton Baines probly isn't that dear

yeah anyone can pick up an elite level fullback for a few quid, which is why chelsea have spent about £70m on ferreira, johnson, bouhlarouz, bosingwa, ivanovic, azpilicueta, wallace etc

baines is 28 and not that fast, he will decline within a couple of years and isn't as good a defender as cole

they will probably go in for coentrao

also whatever shitty music ashley cole likes and skintight d&g james dean t-shirts >>>>>>> whatever shitty clothes leighton baines wears and miles kane

Ivanovic is a pretty great right-back I think, good enough at least.

Wonder whether Ashley Cole visibly lying through his teeth at the JT enquiry might have something to do with it as well, but I doubt Abramovich is a man to worry about such trifling concerns, it's possibly that he's a poisonous presence in the squad.

yeah i rate ivanovic at rb but he and cahill are probably their most reliable cb partnership

Baines was a joke mostly, I'd still argue he's the better English left back at this point in their respective careers but obv not really a Chelsea target

someone is going to buy baines

could see ferguson dripping poison until he gets him for a bit over £10m

'yis cunts got darron gibson, a TWENTY MILLION POUND PLAYER, for nothing'

bae is the obvious choice

Who actually decides transfer targets in the current interregnum?

yeah anyone can pick up an elite level fullback for a few quid, which is why chelsea have spent about £70m on ferreira, johnson, bouhlarouz, bosingwa, ivanovic, azpilicueta, wallace etc

Otm. Full back surely the toughest position to fill.

there's also this dude, £8m

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrlR1JrN8qA

i think FB has the biggest gap between 'looks like a player' types like figueroa, pranjic, gebreselasie, mathieu and actually reliably great players

in the latter group there are seldom more than half a dozen split between left and right backs, and even someone like maicon who i would have rated highest circa 2008, had a fairly short shelf life at the top

part of that is due to it being the most athletically demanding position (speed and stamina necessary, power a huge asset) but also a sort of confidence trick too

so someone like kyle walker looks like an incredibly athletic prototypical modern fullback last season, but a few instances of his iffy positioning being exposed and it's clear that, at least for the time being, he isn't quite there

problem for a lot of full backs is that that ability to surge forward relies on having somebody in front of you who can cover the gap, positioning is less of an issue if the wide mids have some defensive nous

in the extended clip does del horno mouth 'played the ball' and do the ( ) hands

tbf, and as a spurs fan i don't underestimate a good'un, but chelsea overspending on a chute of dross isn't a discussion ender

I dunno, we're conflating right backs and left backs here and they're treated differently by clubs, will explain more when I'm not on a phone.

clubs generally have better right-sided midfield options therefore right back is generally a more defensive role than left back?

i feel like most of the great attacking full backs of the last decade have been left backs, anyway

The other way round surely? I always get the feeling that left-backs are valued more highly as defenders by clubs than right-backs because there are more good right-sided attacking players.

There's a general sense (and not just in English football) that right-back is the easiest position on the pitch to play - Philip Lahm is the one genuinely world-class right back I can think of when it comes to both attacking and defending over a sustained and consistent period of time, and he can play on either side anyway. People like Maicon and Dani Alves tend to great attackers first and foremost, the position isn't valued as highly because there are fewer great left-sided attacking players.

Obviously this is changing in the era of yer modern wide forwards who play tucked inside a bit, but if anything that means full-backs are expected to get forward even more to compensate for that. It also explains how Gareth Bale can become one of the most sought-after players in Europe pretty much overnight after making a player as highly-rated as Maicon look like a clown.

There always seem to be more elite left-backs around (although maybe fewer left-backs generally), I get the feeling managers and chairmen take more care to have LB covered and to really develop players in that position. Chelsea have spent a lot of money on right-backs but mostly of the flakey attacking variety - that's why most Chelsea fans I know seem to rate Ivanovic so highly.

i think we're arguing more or less the same thing, except as to whether full back is valued primarily as a defensive or attacking position.

i suppose the bias toward right-footedness in the UK - not sure about abroad, better technical ability blah blah - means that it's common to convert a centre back who can run a bit into a right back whereas the left back position seems more specialised? if you've got a left-footed defender you're gonna automatically push him towards full back. i guess this accounts for why any left back who shows promise is immediately touted as being a candidate for left winger/left-sided mid

and duh stupid me left backs' defensive duties valued more highly precisely because of the plethora of pacey right wings (most of whom can't cross tbf) they'll be confronted with in a season

Yeah RB is the position across the back four where ability to actually defend is valued least.

but then you'd think there'd be more really good attacking right backs

there aren't any really good players

pace twp, obv

The other way round surely? I always get the feeling that left-backs are valued more highly as defenders by clubs than right-backs because there are more good right-sided attacking players.

There's a general sense (and not just in English football) that right-back is the easiest position on the pitch to play - Philip Lahm is the one genuinely world-class right back I can think of when it comes to both attacking and defending over a sustained and consistent period of time, and he can play on either side anyway. People like Maicon and Dani Alves tend to great attackers first and foremost, the position isn't valued as highly because there are fewer great left-sided attacking players.

Obviously this is changing in the era of yer modern wide forwards who play tucked inside a bit, but if anything that means full-backs are expected to get forward even more to compensate for that. It also explains how Gareth Bale can become one of the most sought-after players in Europe pretty much overnight after making a player as highly-rated as Maicon look like a clown.

There always seem to be more elite left-backs around (although maybe fewer left-backs generally), I get the feeling managers and chairmen take more care to have LB covered and to really develop players in that position. Chelsea have spent a lot of money on right-backs but mostly of the flakey attacking variety - that's why most Chelsea fans I know seem to rate Ivanovic so highly.

― Matt DC, Wednesday, 16 January 2013 10:01 (25 minutes ago)

this is kind of all wrong

more dangerous right sided attackers = the most dangerous players attacking from the wing these days are ronaldo (by a long way) then neymar then probably bale, all from the left primarily

right-back is the easiest position on the pitch to play = this is just full-back as a residual category for reasonably talented athletic players with no real sense of how to play football, like richards, phil jones, carl jenkinson, kyle walker to some extent, john o' shea when he was young, they play rb because most of whom will naturally be right-footed

always seem to be more elite left-backs around = evra and cole distort this, outside of the epl and in a longer trend it doesn't really hold

and the notion of 'conflating' rbs/lbs is also fairly EPL-centric, in more technical places ambidextrosity is fairlycommon -- lahm, zanetti, zambrotta, adriano correia bought as an lb but first choice rb for the best team in the world for much of this season, even maicon and alves have deputized reasonably well at left-back

the increased specialization of fbs means than hybrid or at least somewhat versatile l/r sided fbs are more common than fb/cb hybrids like ivanovic

There's a general sense (and not just in English football) that right-back is the easiest position on the pitch to play

my career attests to this

more dangerous right sided attackers = the most dangerous players attacking from the wing these days are ronaldo (by a long way) then neymar then probably bale, all from the left primarily

It's a bit early for anyone to have developed players to counter these players though - and C-Ron is largely attacking from the left because he can do more damage there.

this is just full-back as a residual category for reasonably talented athletic players with no real sense of how to play football, like richards, phil jones, carl jenkinson, kyle walker to some extent, john o' shea

That's why they end up at right-back, because it's an undervalued and under-appreciated position, especially in England.

Lahm, Zanetti etc still have a natural side and a preferred side when they turn out for their national teams though, and those kinds of fullbacks generally speaking don't rock up in the Premiership, even at clubs like Chelsea.

they end up at rb or at defensive mid or if someone is feeling adventurous cb

it has nothing to do with the intrinsic differentiation of lb and rb though, simply that unlike skilled positions where left footed players are common, 'ordinary' players are left and right footed in roughly the same proportions as appear in the generally population

historically especially in italin football lb and rb were very different with lbs being much more attacking wing-backs and rbs dour defensive types as in the famous inter side with facchetti and burgnich, but these days the pattern is a lot less pronounced

i don't think real rbs as opposed to phil jones types are undervalued at all, even in england, see the amount of money chelsea have spent, or the fact that the most expensive english fullback was bought as an rb (glen johnson)

and of course as a fairly 'pure' modern fb, johnson can play well at lb anyway

Cole would have been more expensive than Johnson had Chelsea not chucked Gallas the other way as part of the deal. I can't think of anyone in the Premiership who's been as good at RB as Cole has been at LB.

Going back to Chelsea, it's hard but not impossible to replace Cole, he's probably got a season or two of growing inconsistency ahead of him, but I wouldn't think replacing him was an immediate priority compared to, say, sorting out their midfield, so he must have fucked Abramovich off in some way.

I quite like the theory that Abramovich has got Benitez in because there's nothing Rafa could do to make himself more unpopular so he's the perfect person to phase out the Chelsea ledgerrrnds.

£9m for alan hutton btw

900,000,000 shiny pennies paid by the usually sober daniel levy too, just cuz they found a scottish player who could run as well as kick shins

That was the same year we bought Bentley. £25m spunked on a right-side for the reserves.

he is back from rostov too

16m tbf

£25m is Bentley + Hutton.

was ultimately a case of hutton dressed as lahm

hutton was a terrible waste of money but he did at least look like an actual modern fullback with decent dribbling at pace and good recovery

he wasn't just a british residual rb

interesting comparison between naughton and walker -- i think the former might actually have a better fullback brain and conventional skillset but walker is such an incredible athlete capable of overmatching an entire left side

with walker it seems like he was an athlete first, then residual fullback, and with good coaching might actually become a real fullback for the long term

i'd like to see naughton at rb for a while to say for sure whether his rotten attitude and stupid passes aren't down to disgust and confusion at his sinister placement

Hutton never looked anything like a player for us, not from day one.

sightings of every skip hire firm's least favourite footballing chancer itt

favourite photo from fc rostov's livejournal page of their game vs dynamo moscow

How has Yann M'Vila's stock fallen to the extent that QPR can pick him up for £7m? Do Rennes have financial problems or is he nearing the end of his contract or something?

redknapp claiming they rejected £28m from an english club a while ago

that's more than any defensive midfielder has ever sold for so probably redknapp blather

m'vila still has two and half years but he is immature and a bit of a waster, nobody at the top table wants to go near him

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/01/16/article-0-16F83D64000005DC-309_964x366.jpg

Asked whether he had a message to Blues fans, who are disappointed that he did not fulfil his potential, Urmston-born Johnson, a product of the City academy, said: “I am more disappointed than anyone but that’s the way it goes.”

He initially declined to say any more but rang us back, revealing: “I have been attending the Priory Clinic for a number of years now with regard to my mental health and would be grateful if I could now be left alone to live the rest of my life.”

god that first line, what a shitty emotionally blackmailing question from the hack and devastating response from johnson