My god what a goal by Ramires. Damn.

1 win away.

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My god what a goal by Ramires. Damn.

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So the Liverpool match should be fun...

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So the Liverpool match should be fun...

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Please god let Liverpool make a guard of honor and the fans chant the Steven Gerrard Gerrard song the whole game.

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This article is a bit dated, but it sums up my thouhts pretty well.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/premier-league-feeder-clubs-spains-2288091

The Netherlands has always been great at player dvelopment, but the Eredivisie is night and day different than the EPL. Top EPL clubs are packed with high priced foreign talent with massive expectations to win in Europe. The Erediviesie is basically a youth setup where successful players graduate on to the better leagues. The Dutch model is better suited to someplace like the U.S. or Scotland than England.

Whether you agree with "B" sides or not, the current system clearing isn't working. What ideas would you propose to develop world class footballers in England?

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I don't care if England develops world class footballers ornot. I'm not English, and in my opinion, if there is an obvious advantage with the set up in Spain, its that their national teams are effectively comprised of players from 2 clubs. As a German fan, as much I dislike Bayern Munich and their talent hoarding, Germany has benefited greatly at the national level as our national team is effectively Bayern Munich in different jerseys.

In short, there is no learning how to play witheach other when the German and Spanish teams play each other. With the English, they always look disjointed and I have no doubt part of that is they only play together a few weeks a year.

Brazil has the same issue. They have no idea howto play with each other.

(By the way, yes, Germany has "B teams", although they are severely truncated and play in the regional leagues)

As for the article, its easy to say "do itlike the Spanish do!" whenever they've had a golden era. Will we be
shouting their graces if they return to mediocrity, or, worse, again fall completely flat on their faces like they did in Brazil last summer?

The article didn't really clearly say why it thought the Spanish B team system worked- the author just wants young players to stay at their clubs mostly, and more competition- and I get that, but I don't see any reason why English teams would keep young English players on Spanish-like B-teams at a rate any different than they did with the English Reserve League and what they do now with the U-21 league.

I think there may be bigger problems than the name/nature of the league in which the English equivalent of B-teams play in. One of them, and this is perhaps more prevalent at the big clubs, they're not run by Englishmen or any sense of duty to the English national side. So, you have a lot more foreigners in the EPL than you see in La Liga, and other leagues.

You sing the praises of all the money the EPL has, but spending massive amounts of cash on foreign players does not help English nationals get coaching attention and playing time.

I think making the reserve league, the u-21 league, or whatever league the "B team" plays in more competitive would be a good idea, I really do, but I think its a drop in the bucket and far from the solution to England's woes.

10 years ago today!

Okay, one more:

Lord knows I hate Rio Ferdinand, but let us all say a prayer for him and his family. His wife lost her battle with cancer earlier today.

Here.

Cancer sucks.

Bro. Record the game for me I'm not going to ge home.

^^^What. A. Poosy!

All you f*ckers better wake up!

Team to face Palace: Courtois; Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry (c), Azpilicueta; Ramires, Matic; Willian, Fabregas, Hazard; Drogba.

Today's subs: Cech, Filipe Luis, Zouma, Mikel, Loftus-Cheek, Cuadrado, Rem

Hopefully we wrap it up today so Jose can experiment with the lineup and let some of the youth play in the last few games.

Change to Chelsea starting line-up: Ramires is ill and has been replaced by Juan Cuadrado. Nathan Ake is now one of our substitutes

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All you f*ckers better wake up!

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In.

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All you f*ckers better wake up!

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In.

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I was about to revoke your man card

Palace playing rough today.

Whiff

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All you f*ckers better wake up!

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In.

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I was about to revoke your man card

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PK everyday of the week plus Sunday

Penalty!

That's a straight red.

1-0

Blues

What the **** was that?

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That's a straight red.

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Lol, no way dude. #gougler

Terrible penalty kick but fine header on the rebound.

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What the **** was that?

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Don't care, chalk it.

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What the **** was that?

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Don't care, chalk it.

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45 more minutes!

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45 more minutes!

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