johnnythefirst

Well, it was only 45, but still: 8-) Fuck yeah.

See, this is the problem. Signing player after player just for the heck of it and then barely playing them. It's not good for the player and eventually it's not good for the team.

I'm gonna shut up in this topic until his first 90 minutes for Everton. I'll be back.

Seriously, he's been a good manager, but how can you back that up with facts. What makes him so much better than other top managers? He did two crazy things as a manager: he won the CL with Porto, and he won it again with Inter. -At Chelsea, he had the absolute best squad in the league. Only Man Utd came close, and they beat him in the final. -At inter, he had the absolute best squad in Italy, all the other major teams were recovering from the scandals. => Winning national titles with these teams is something nearly every decent manager would have been able to do. -At Real, he had a phenomenal squad. Just look at the bench they had, most of those players would have started in nearly every English team. Well, he made them play like shit most of the time. Sorry to say it, but it's true. Every time he played a good team, he made them play defensively, which didn't really matter against Barça for example, because I remember a sound 5-0 defeat. He just can't seem to come up with good tactics on how an offensive team should play. Once again, i'm not saying he's a bad manager, he's one of the best of his time, but a lot of the buzz of him being viewed as "the special one" was created and strengthened by himself, being the funny guy during interviews, always acting like he's confident, creating news, creating feuds... If you look through that, you'll see that he only won 1 or 2 decent trophies in a 3 year Real run (where he was able to buy almost every player he wanted), and that he was practically spit out by what's almost the entire team near the end...

Hmm, as far as these first few matches have been going, i'm seeing an actual decrease in quality since preseason... This team should have the quality to easily beat squads like Basel. But is it the players' fault, the manager's fault or a lack of cohesion. I'm starting to believe Mourinho has troubles playing with an offensive team. In his Real years he had the best squad in the world for most of the time, and the second best starting eleven after Barca. But he made them play like inter and depended on the individual talent of Ronaldo. What did he really win with all that offensive quality? One title, one cup and no Champions League finals. Granted, he was up against probably the best team ever, but did he ever play them full on and head to head? I think he's best managing big, powerful teams based on a strong defense like Inter and the old Chelsea. Not exactly the players he has now...

His voice seems to come from the very centre of the earth. So weird for a 20 year old kid.

You guys seriously underestimate the eagerness of both men to play and win prizes, and the value they already (or still, in Cech's case) have to other major clubs. Both at Chelsea will most likely not happen. Not next year, not the year after that.

Only the very best? Right now you have a 33 year old who used to be fantastic and might be still decent/good, a 29 year old who's been shit for 3 years now, and a spare who's average at best.

Sad.

Or we should all stop caring about these pointless little quotes. Seriously, who cares? Political manner..

I read fees in the € 35 million area for Courtois when they talked about Barça...

Apparently Barcelona is willing to give him a starting spot next year. This goes for both Cech and Courtois. ;-)

Well in any case, it's not gonna happen. Cech will be kept, Courtois will be sold. I'd bet a lot of money on that...

For god's sake, he's too good to play some FA and league cup matches. You're not talking about 'a promising youngster that might be make it in a couple of years' genre Lukaku. You're talking about a guy who right now is in the top ten/five goalkeepers worldwide. Of course it's not proof, but a good indicator none the less: in Fifa 14, he'll be the 4th best goalkeeper in the game. ;-)

Rotating keepers is always a horrible idea...

In my opinion there was no real clear choice until October 2012. Multiple players were used before that: Lukaku, Benteke, Mirallas, Vossen, Ogunjimi. Around 2 years ago, Lukaku was playing for Anderlecht and he was seen as the clear choice for the future. After that he lost a year on the Chelsea bench, while the other strikers all played regularly. Once he got fired up at WBA, Benteke already made some important goals for the national team. It'll be hard to get him out of the starting eleven by now. Benteke's immense progress last year was a real surprise for me. I always thought it was a player without character. England really did wonders for him... He played a really useful game against Scotland. Very pleasing to see.

Hmm, weird article, Benteke is first choice because he has rarely disappointed and there is only one spot for strikers. Lukaku is not seen as "a poor man's second choice". Maybe only by rivals of Anderlecht... There is some truth in the France criticism though. Van der Elst is a very annoying commentator btw. The kind of guy that makes you change the channel.

Chadli was superb as well. I wonder how he'll do in the PL this year...

Belgian and Spanish press now mentioning Courtois is Barca's main target to replace Valdez next year. Conclusion is simple: either he's Chelsea's first choice next year, or he walks for a record fee.

Uhu, and those who did play, kinda sucked most of the time.

On the field, bar Eto'o who we haven't seen yet.

Since Lukaku only played in the league, you should only count Fernando's league goals. Which means 17 goals for Lukaku compared to 8 for Torres. Please be honest in your comparisons. ;-)

I think you're absolutely right. And a year later, he'll play for either Barça or Madrid.

The only sure thing is you can't have both. Of the two, no one deserves to be benched, and no one will. Benching Cech would be dishonoring his Chelsea legacy, benching Courtois would frankly be a crime against football by now. One of them will go next year. Read my lips.

For the english speakers: "José Mourinho also agreed with the loan. We had a talk. He's the best trainer I've had so far. He believes in the tough approach and that suits me fine. After Everton I want to return to Chelsea a stronger man. Eto'o's arrival didn't matter much. Torres was already there. I know what competition means." And then there's this weird line: "His Chelsea future is not yet fixed, but Lukaku can live with that: "In footbal, you can expect everything. You know, I shared a dressing-room with Anelka, and he told me a story once I would have never believed if he didn't tell me himself." Now I want to know the story. Anyway, these words make me feel a tad less angry.