OhForAGreavsie

In that case I'm pining my hopes on that Guardian journalist who claims to have been told that Chelsea have not in fact bid for Rom.

They are looking after the interests of their club, as they see them. What's wrong with that? When our board is reported to have told Atleti that Diego is not for sale most cheered. Can we then have a problem with Everton for doing the same to us? Everton are entitled to sell, or not sell, as they choose and, if they do choose to sell, they are entitled to seek any price they want. I just hope we won't pay it.

Everyone who regularly takes free kicks does that.

I'll believe that when I see it. Even if Gabigol goes to Juve I can't imagine he'll get much game time.

Agreed, of course, but it was last year's team (well about half of it anyway) and we know that team was, and is, bad. I like the signs of improvement already lined up for next season's squad and we all have hopes of more. We won't all agree on the merits of every rumoured target but every linked name gives reason for optimism that the club is working to fill in the gaps. There are many gaps, perhaps too many to fix in one window, but surely we'd all be satisfied if significant progress is made and the club is clearly trying.

There is too much smoke for there not to be fire here but these flames leave me cold. Not pleased about this at all.

i) I said I'd be fine with Costa leaving before it became public that we were interested in Batshuayi. ii) I said Bats looked the better technician even before we signed him. iii) My opinion is my opinion. It is right or it is wrong but it has nothing to do with hype.

I'm tempted to predict that even if Costa stays Michy will force Antonio to regard him, not the Spaniard, as our top striker. Only tempted mind because the last time I made such a prediction Studge never did oust Torres, despite it being blindingly obvious that the youngster was the better player. Instead of becoming our starter within two months, Danny was gone within six. So, although I know what I think will happen with Bats, I'll hold off on the prediction.:)

I have long held the opinion that Nate wasn't going to make it here and have said so often enough but his Toulon form was an eye opener for me. It is great to see that he has brought that form into the preseason. If Antonio is now considering him seriously as a first choice option then Nate would be the answer to a long standing question in another thread: The Next Chelsea Captain. If Nate is good enough to hold down a place then he'll be an almost automatic choice to inherit the armband; he's an outstanding skipper. When his confidence is high, he walks onto a footbball pitch like he owns the place. He captained every age group side through the academy and as far as could be told from watching the games his teammates respected him as their natural leader.

I didn't even like him going forward!

And you liked Celestine? I ask because I didn't. I thought him very limited.

And what a loss!

I don't disagree with any of this. I don't think anyone could. The point is that none of it is news. We already knew that we are in a tough spot, that we lack both breadth and depth of quality, and that unlike Jose the new manager is not a magic wand. He isn't going to win the league with this shower. What we might have hoped to gain from yesterday was information about how the quest for solutions is going. It is in the way you have assessed that quest that I think your response is pessimistic. Only two players have arrived so far to help strengthen the squad. Neither of them started. Far from being strengthened, the back four has in fact been weakened. Their frailties were visible but they were by no means as bad as they have been characterised. Take any back four, put them behind a better front six and their defending will immediately improve. We need to distinguish between a team's defenders and its defence. Last night our defenders started the game behind a horrible front six and as a result our deence was worse than it might have been. Look for example at the way Nemanja's inability to play a simple pass with his right foot caused him to play a less sound one with his left, that led eventually to Ola being dispossessed and the second goal being conceded. On the other hand Bats was okay when he came on, Hazard was okay when he came on, and Nate continued his better-than-expected form. I felt there was evidence that once Antonio decides to put his top 11 onto the pitch it will perform better than our top 11 did last season. Our best 11 is nowhere near the quality we would like but when you start from when we did the journey back is always going to be a long one.

Hello Jay, First of all, I think you are right to caution everybody not to get carried away simply because we have appointed a new manager and have shown promise against two very weak Austrian sides. On the other hand, I think you are being overly pessimistic here. I tend to agree with the points @Belgiannutt made in his reply but I'd like to add something to what he said. It concerns your fourth point. I don't know how you would describe the lineups with which the two sides finished the game. C/D for Real and A/B for Chelsea perhaps? If that was so, what should we expect to happen in that situation? Surely we would think Chelsea would have much the better of the game. Well that is exactly what happened. We cut through them at will and if our finishing had been better we'd have won. This doesn't mean the players who were on the pitch at the time are world beaters but at least they lived up to expectations and that's a start. We are not as good as Real, nor as good as we should be, but I'm confident that we are better than we looked yesterday. It's self evident that we can put out a stronger 11 then we had on the pitch at any stage last night. That 11 would still loose to Madrid but only because they're a great team and we are not. Our focus should be on whether or not we are better than we were, on the manager figuring out which players can help him, and which cannot, and on further successes in the transfer market.

I saw his debut. Being old does that to you. Graig is not usually fair, he is usually extremely critical. That is something I don't like but can accept. He is often under-prepared however because he hasn't done his homework and that is unforgiveable.

No.

Yes, I realise that is the general expectation. I just expressed myself in that way so as to imply my own opinion which is that Bats is the better player.

Nothing to see here folks. We have a much better XI we can put out than the one which struggled in the first half. Players win matches; ours lost that one. We can, and will, be better. We are not yet good enough but nor are we as grim as we seemed for spells here. I also feel it's a deliberate plan by Antonio to obscure his real thinking about the team. Just a guess of course.

So what do we do with Costa then? Sit him or sell him?

Lots of free kicks from gullable refs for a start.

Is there anyone left who thinks Lukaku is better than he is and how long will it be till everyone realises that Michy is our first choice striker?

If the front six played better then that would already improve our defence.

We already know you like to say idiotic things so, although further evidence is welcome, it's not compulsory. How exactly do you have even the slightest idea what Dave does, or does not, have the confidence to say? Does this nonsense sound sensible inside your own head before you type it out? By the way, Jose won the league and did it with a much less capable squad than we have this season.

Let's be fair and factor in the front six they are defending behind. That makes a difference. A big one.

If Baba is the answer then I don't want to know the question.