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He was brilliant at Chelsea. Debut at 17 and Captain at 18. But Chelsea were fairly rank in the seventies and I think he was relegated at least once during his Chelsea playing career.
Ironic that we got more out of him than his boyhood team did.
Man United did not get the best out of him.
Hard to believe now but he was nicknamed "The Crab" during his time at Old Trafford because he was always passing sideways.
Ray Wilkins didn't just play for Chelsea, he was Chelsea to his core.
So was Terry Venables.
Dave Sexton was arguably our most successful manager and he came to us from Chelsea.
Dave Webb who was at the heart of that '76 defence came to us from Chelsea.
Paul Furlong is still with us but he was previously at Chelsea - and we let him know what we thought about that when he joined us.
There has been a lot of overlap between us and Fulham Broadway FC.
Yes, there have been a few knobs along the way (Hughes, Bosingwa, etc). But some of the biggest names in our history worked for both clubs. And like it or not it has usually been us taking their sloppy seconds.
Off the top of my head the only player who started with us and went on to play for Chelsea was Clive Allen. And Clive seemed to be on some sort of mission to play for every club in London (Us, Arsenal, Palace, Spurs, Chelsea, West Ham, and Millwall)
EDIT -
If we stretch a point Raheem Sterling was with us before joining Chelsea late in his career. He never got to play for us, but he's not likely to be playing for them much either this season.
The fact it's an old story doesn't mean there isn't anything in it.
The risks of smoking and secondary smoking were known for decades before strict bans were introduced on smoking in public places.
The dangers of asbestos were known as far back as the 1890's but it was still being used in construction up until the 1960's.
In Italy there has been concern about the rates of ALS in former professional footballers whose rates of ALS are double the expected average and where the average age of onset is 45 compared to the national average of onset at 65:
There has been a lot of speculation about what is causing this. One theory suggested it was down to players being given banned performance substances, with or without their consent. Obviously the Italian clubs didn't like that idea and scratched around for other possible causes and came up with fertilisers as a potential cause:
Madsen's pass completion of 26/40 is 65%. Bit harsh to say "nearly half his attempts went to Charlton players", especially when he's knocking balls forward and not rehearsing Russell's Martin's "Strictly" routine.
Really good point you made on Hoops and Dreams about the model of training players to play out from the back and then selling them to the Premier League isn't going to work anymore because the PL has moved on and become a lot more physical with only Man City still trying to play out from the back.
So playing out from the back doesn't work for us and even if we did manage to get good at it there would be no market to sell the players in.
But while he was just a squad player with potential for us he was becoming a cult figure with the Ireland U-21's scoring seven goals in eleven appearances in 2023/24:
And RM himself said Saints might want to be more physical and athletic in future.
So it's easy to see why Edwards might now be on the fringes at Saints. But they'll still want their money back, and he's still a player who could develop into a top player at the right club.
But dreams cost nothing. If there's a chance of getting him on loan then why not!?
Have to hold my hand up and say I was one of those complaining about Williams phoning it in from Dubai whilst juggling other jobs across several time zones.
But now that he's back things seem worse than ever.
So you're right. Questions need to be answered about whether Williams has the right background for this job and why we are piling up injuries and looking completely off the pace.
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