SW you are missing my point i'm not saying they didn't have knowledge of

[Dorset Gooner]

decent players but I do think they trusted Wengers judgment & might have thought if nothing else it stops a compeitor getting them. Cech & Drogba to name two btw.

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

Either way you have absolutely no knowledge whatsoevr to suggest Chelsea were ignorant of said players.

It's incredibly arrogant to assume that clubs just buy a player because we are interested in them. I saw it in the summer when Spurs apparently only signed Vertonghen because we had been linked to him.

[Dorset Gooner]

because they could. You live in a dreamland if you think all those players joined Chelsea for anything other than huge wages, later on when they started winning stuff you could possibly argue it was for glory but even then that argument is on thin ice. See Man city also.

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

I just can't be bothered going round pointing the finger at others in an effort to explain where we are.

Most of the problems we have are probably of our own making, little to do with Chelsea. They inflated the market as City did afterwards but they cannot and do not buy every footballer on the planet.

[Ashberto]

Chelsea and Man Utd trumped our offers.

[7evens]

[Bergkamp's Brain]

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

I have seen that we looked at Drogba but already had players at the club and decided not.

As for Ronaldo I think there was more to it than simply being out trumped.

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

We had the deal but did not close it off, our decision.

Chelsea only came in after the event. He was ours, or not as it eventually turned out.

[Deleted Account]

and then argues his corner interminably. :-))