ParNolio7

Given it a few days to sink in, and I think I'm over it. Frank should do what Frank thinks he should do. It's not as if Mourinho still had plans with him here, so Frank just should try and extend his fantastic career in whichever way he thinks is best. And we should be grateful for the 95% of that career that he's spent at Chelsea. Frank forever!

Here's a video where Kevin pronounches his own name at 0:06. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG4GOzoKEo8 He says: "Ik ben Kevin De Bruyne" which means "I am Kevin De Bruyne" (duh) So you can try to imitate the pronounciation from this vid

Okay, but if you're not getting any significant play time, especially the season before a WC, it's a logical consequence that a player will want to leave. So if I say "we let him go" I actually mean "we haven't given him enough play time". I know, we had other options, no need to name all the players. But still a shame if you look at how good he can be. That's of course the risk of signing talented players at such young age. By the time they are ripe to play first team, they are often fed up with the club for not having gotten their chance yet (I know there are exceptions), and another club benefits from it. It's good business money wise, but a shame in terms of football. Who knows, maybe he'll be back one day, like Matic.

Haha there's Fernando again with his mentality and attitude judgements :-) I wonder exactly where in the dressing room you have your seat?

Forever a shame we let him go ... http://metro.co.uk/2014/08/04/kevin-de-bruyne-shows-chelsea-what-theyre-missing-with-solo-screamer-against-cardiff-4820871/

Anyways, goodbye Frank, you'll be missed.

Can someone imagine Lampard scoring his first goal for City? What's he gonna do: run screaming towards City fans, kiss their embly?? Maybe he'll f*ck up deliberately to help us a hand?? Nah, too much of a professional for that. *Sigh*

No matter who'll come out on top, it's gonna be a shame for the other. Cech cause he's a Blue legend still at the top of his game (imo) and Courtois because he's simply too damn good to put on the bench. Maybe they can share halves every match?

Very true, but for me there's a clear difference between the vast majority of mercenaries, who switch clubs every couple of seasons and who no one really identifies with, and the true long-serving club icons like Lampard and Terry. You need a couple of those players to create a club identity. If they start switching as well, there's little left for a supporter to identify with. It quite simply doesn't feel right.

The whole "proper fan" discussion has imo become irrelevant to our current time. I can fully understand how local fans (which I think is a better term than "proper fans") can sometimes get annoyed by foreign supporters (like myself) who don't know/feel the history etc. as much as them. Who watch the matches on a screen instead of at the grounds (because of clear logistic and economical reasons of course but who cares), and so on. But that's just something you have to live with if you're a local fan of an international top team. It's because of the millions of supporters around the world that your club gets to buy all the greatest players in the world and so on. A club like Chelsea needs us foreign supporters. If that is too much for you to cope with - and I would respect that - you have no choice but to support some first, second or third division team. If you love Chelsea to much (I bet you do), you need to embrace the foreign supporters as well, there's no other way. Yes, supporting as a local fan or a foreign based fan is an entirely different thing, but everyone's entitled to an opinion. And I think everyone (locals and foreign) will hate to see Lampard play in sky blue this season, but some just express their disgust stronger than others. No one will forget though what Frank has meant for this club. ... still should've sticked to his word and not moved to another EPL club. Except if it were to be Sunderland or some other far away bottom half club no one cares about.

Zouma big talent but still very young. Ivanovic is an option of course, but him alone not enough I feel to cover our central defence area for a whole season at the highest level. Not sure if he'll fit our game, not a very good link-up player imo, but hope he'll prove me wrong if time comes.

Do you honestly think that I like ALL the Belgian players then? That I just adore them for the mere fact of having a Belgian passport? No, of course not. My opinion on Lukaku is based on what I've seen from him, his record, his history, his stats, and so on. I evaluate him like I'd evaluate any other player. The nationality issue only makes a difference in the level of commitment you are willing to make in defending those views. Not the other way around. There's so many Belgian players I think are crap, or hugely overrated, or whatever, but you won't catch me defending them.

I think we actually need two more players to get our team ready for this season: 1. centre-back: we hardly have any replacements for Cahill and Terry. And John is getting old. A solid, experienced central defender would be very welcome imo. Any suggestions? 2. centre-forward: after selling Lukaku, we only have Torres and Drogba left in case Costa gets injured, tired or loses form. Tricky, and simply not enough I'm afraid to compete at all levels this season. Suggestions? Personnally I think Graziano Pelle, who now joined Southampton, would've made an excellent sigining for us. he's big, strong, has great technique and scores goals like a mad man! only question is whether or not he can adapt from Dutch league to EPL, but I think he will.

Say what you will, but I find this unacceptable. True, Lampard will always remain a legend, but boy did he sell out! Not for all the millions in the word should he've accepted this 6-month loan deal. You'd think he made enough money by now to be able to refuse such an offer. Utterly dissappointed really, even if his legend cannot be broken.

I mention Robben cause I've seen you defend his aspired place among the world's best players with a passion, only last week I think on this very forum. And quite rightly so, don't get me wrong. Robben has proved enough in the past WC and past two seasons at Bayern. If I'm not mistaken, however, Robben has not been a Chelsea player for a couple of years now, so the fact that you're still defending him on this forum, can only mean - imo - you have some personal involvement with this player. Be it nationality based or not. Anyway, that doesn't even matter to me. The fact that you're a Chelsea fan doesn't mean that you can't support your own country anymore. Matter of fact, I think it would be quite odd if, being Dutch, you wouldn't support the Dutch team and it's players. An English Chelsea fan is also allowed to root for the English national team and likewise for a Belgian Chelsea fan, I think (hope). So isn't it completely normal that one gets more wound up about a player when this guy plays for his own country? But that doesn't mean that all your arguments concerning this player are unvalid, biased, whatever. You just defend him with more passion than somebody else would. Anyway, just asking to stop being hypocrytical about nationality. It's a baggage we all carry. We all root for our own country, and can still support any club team we like.

Haha mate you make it sound as if Lukaku's calling the papers to get some words out! Don't forget that these players get a couple of hundred interview requests, Phone calls, stalkings, etc. every day and week. Anyway, he's not insulting Chelsea at all, just talks good about Everton which I think is pretty logical since they just signed him and spent a ridiculous amount of money for him. Would be quite a shocker if the new Multi million signing speaks bad about the new club and pisses off the supporters! Don't pick a fight just for the sake of picking a fight is all!

Yeah, cause Mourinho never does that kind of thing right? Too bad it's not Robben, would like to've seen your defence then. Of course people were talking like that about Lukaku before Mou "confirmed it" (as you call it), his reputation was already dead last year when "he wasn't willing to fight for a spot and put in a loan request" (again according to Mourinho). Never forget that your vision on any player (Lukaku or other) is entirely formed by what has appeared in the media. And media for a fact (you guys like to use this word "fact") are not trustworthy. So since I was not there in the dressing room or whereever Romelu and Mourinho had there supposed talks, I am giving Big Rom benefit of the doubt. Because as I said a teenager who fights his way into EPL cannot have a loser attitude imo. Just doesn't make sense.

Yes, I know by now Azpi is God and Lukaku is Satan, but it's not all black & white. It turned out good for Azpi. He took his chance, showed great spirit, and so on, deserves every credit he gets. But you don't know (none of us does) if the circumstances where the same: you do not know if Mou said the same things to him as to Lukaku, you don't know if Azpi actually had any teams interested to sign him on loan. Just maybe Azpi didn't have another choice but to sit at Chelsea's bench until maybe one day he'd get a chance. Striker like Romelu who scored 15 goals in the previous season at WBA was Always going to have a lot of teams pulling for him. Different situation.

No, but we should at least be allowed to question his words from time to time. Mourinho has a bad reputation for this so it's not without reason. If you're going to blindly believe every single word Mou says you will end up getting cheated a lot.

Yes, I know this is key in the whole Lukaku saga. But I just don't believe it actually went the way it was put in the media by Mourinho. I know I said this multiple times before, but I just can't believe that a world class manager like Mourinho would allow a player to go out on loan if he had any significant plans with him. If he did, Mourinho would be absolutely incompetent, and that can't be true. So I think Mourinho was honest to Lukaku, told him that he wouldn't get a lot of opportunities and Lukaku put in the loan request. Then Mourinho said to the media that Lukaku dediced not to fight for a spot in the team and preferred a loan. It's actually not even lying, but just twisting the words in a manner that makes Mourinho looks good (cause he was willing to give the boy a chance) and Lukaku bad (he didn't want to take the chance). But no way in hell I believe Mourinho's version. Except from a winner and a brilliant coach he's also been a big manipulator throughout his career, so I won't give him the benefit of the doubt. That's my theory, that's why I still stand by Lukaku. Or at least have respect for him. Benefit of the doubt.

I like how you say "the fact" as if every single joke Mourinho drops in the press is the Truth Written In Stone. There's always two angles to it. Lukaku is a lifetime Chelsea supporter, he was crying when he signed here, a dream come true. So don't say "he didn't want to play here" when he would've given his life for it. And I'm quite sure "I absolutely need to be Chelsea's n° 1 striker" needs to be toned down to "I want a decent shot". Getting Costa made it clear to him that he was never gonna be first choice. I think he probably could've lived with that and might have fought to be a regular sub with a decent amount of play time. BUT, getting Drogba back that was a true insult. Lukaku was introduced to The Bridge as The Next Drogba, and now they get the old one back as a veteran? Honestly, can't blame Lukaku if he wanted to get out after that.

Haha, it's a figure of speech for the criticism and mockery basically that he got after his first couple of unsuccesful, clumsy debut appearances. Just check this forum as an example after his first couple of matches. But it was understandable, he totally didn't live up to the Chelsea level. But my point was that he shouldn't have been put in that position. Everybody in Belgium knew that he wasn't good enough back then, still so very rough, should've been loaned out straight away to return and have a proper go two or three years later. Alas!

It tries to objectivate (is that a word?) some of the points that I've been argueing. Anyway, one thing is for sure, an additional top striker should be signed now. We're one injury away from disaster, no one can deny that. Maybe try and take Joel Campbell away from the Arse? Looked top class to me in the WC!

Agreed and not agreed. Agreed on the numbers, but not on the fact that FFP would actually be on José's mind to decide about a player's future.

So you were there when Mourinho & Lukaku had their talk? Lucky you!