!Hazard!

25m pounds is 35 million euros. I believe it is the usual case of British papers not understanding the difference between different currencies just like with David Luiz transfer. 35 fucking million for a neverheard left-back? I think Jose and the board would have already found another left-back if Augsburg had the balls to ask for such money.

People are forgetting the euro-pound exchange rate here. 25m euros would be only £17m at the current rate. That isn't too bad although I have never seen the lad play but I trust Jose on this one. Just get a midfielder too and we are set!

This would save our transfer window though... Koke in and Ramires/Mikel out. Shame it ain't gonna happen.

The difference in opinions about Oscar is bizarre. In my opinion he has been very good during the pre-season and is definitely a first XI player at the moment.

Terry has been in disappointing form this pre-season. He might be the great captain but Mourinho has to play the team that gets the best result. And this season might be the first season (apart from Benitez era) when the best team does not include Terry But its only pre-season so let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet...

Imagine if Cuadrado becomes a revelation at RB

Transfer window purely based on hilarious names? Kennedy, Godfred....next up Danny Drinkwater.

Or with Matic and Willian while having Cesc on the bench. In the big games that would be so so much better than Matic-Cesc-Ramires in every way possible.

He hardly ever tries to score by chips unlike other players at his level. Too many times he just tries a clean finish and ends up placing the directly at the goalkeeper. What he did today was something else and a really bizarre try really. You don't see Messi messing up such a chance like that.

Well Pep has a tendency to put players all over the place. And left-back position in Pep's team is something else than in other teams and he might play a midfield role in many other teams like Real Madrid for example. And I thought he actually started his career as a midfielder but it was Heynckes who put him into that left-back role? He can obviously handle both positions but I just have a feeling he will end up in the midfield sooner or later and according (bullshit) media reports he would rather play in midfield and have the ball more in his legs. But yeah, this had nothing do with the fact that Verratti is one hell of a midfielder these days and only keeps getting better.

The best midfield prospect in the world. Him, Pogba and Alaba are going to rule the midfields for the next decade. Imagine them in the same team...

They sure do but Cuadrado is nevertheless a big international name and would surely start ahead of all players mentioned above. They could even sell one of those lads and if we would offer like Cuadrado + £5-£10m (there is no way we could get back the 30mil for him anymore) with all that cash they could buy another defender. Just speculating though haha...

Give them Cuadrado. He might be a better fit at Everton anyways. This saga has a Modric-case written all over it. Luckily no Levy on the opposite side this time.

Oscar - Fabregas - Matic - Willian - Hazard in midfield is just fantastic and at their best they can challenge any team in the world really with their workrate, creativity, composure and flair. But it is really devastating that there is literally nobody in the squad who can even replicate these players in any way! No replacement for Fabregas, Matic, Hazard, Oscar's only true replacement is Willian and Willian's backups in Cuadrado, Moses, Traore (+ Kennedy?) are decent and have potential to be great next season but that is hardly enough considering the lack of backups in other positions. Ramires and Mikel are not good enough for the style of football Chelsea showed in the first half, RLC is not ready and he lacks that creativeness that many other youth in our academy possess and he also seems to have issues with the workrate demanded by Mourinho. Aranguiz, Witsel, Moutinho, Gundogan, Marchisio.....these are the players our squad is really in the need of. Chelsea can still protect the title for sure and definitely has a change of winning it again but I have really hard time believing that the squad is good enough to challenge for ALL the trophies available. We were really lucky last season as there were literally no major injuries besides Costa and it will be nothing short of a miracle if the same luckiness continues this season as well. OUT: Ramires or Mikel IN: Creative defensive midfielder Left-back Where is that Colkett kid we saw in Sydney or Bangkok? Far more impressive than Mikel has ever been. Even Nathan Ake could be good enough as a squad player in midfield but Mourinho doesn't seem think so probably due to his size which is a shame really cause he is a classy player.

Pre-season or not but Kenedy has already achieved more in a Chelsea shirt than Cuadrado.

Very excited to see him this season and beyond! The evolution he has made since Christmas has been fantastic. IMO he is perfect in 4-3-3 as the third midfielder as are Oscar, Cesc and Ramires for that matter. So I am amazed we don't seem to be willing to play that formation more often. If Oscar can make the next step in his evolution as we are all hoping, I can really see why Jose has decided not to sign new midfielders this season. The bigger question is that if Oscar and Willian are in top form before a big game, does Jose have the balls to drop Cesc to the bench instead of playing Obi Wan?

Costa Falcao Hazard Oscar Willian Matic Azpilicueta Ivanovic Terry Zouma Courtois 2nd half: Remy for Costa, Cesc for Hazard and Ramires for Oscar.

I have never seen this kid play. How is his attacking ability? Worse than Luis but better than Azpi I assume and therefore it makes sense as then both fullback positions would have defensive and more attacking options available.

I think Mikel will leave if Witsel comes. Having Matic, Cesc, Witsel, Ramires, Mikel whilst giving Loftus-Cheek some real playing time doesn't seem like a realistic scenario. Jose usually wants 2 players for each position and without Mikel we would have Matic-Witsel, Cesc-Ramires and Loftus-Cheek playing in the pivot as well as no.10 together with Oscar, Cesc and Willian. There is literally no need for Obi there when we remember that Zouma will also be there in case of an emergency. But yeah, I am all for signing Witsel and offloading Mikel.

Which is exactly what we need. Everything else is a bonus.

I love the renders and the look of the new Bridge! But I wish the open roof-circle will be bigger as it seems it will be blocking out most of the sunlight regardless of the time.

Well yeah I kinda agree with you. I would prefer signing Robben or Bale over Pedro but that lad also is quality and the personification of consistency. He is like Azpilicueta of right wingers But I do think that set of players would offer plenty of different combinations and remember that we also have Costa, Falcao and possibly clinical Remy upfront so it really doesn't look that bad! IMO it all depends whether we are able to sign a classy box-to-box midfielder. But since this is Traore topic, lets see what the lad can do during the pre-season! He is special kid and could become our Kane this season.

I would really like to see this lad make it here and even play a decent role next season. LW: Hazard, Cuadrado CAM: Oscar, Willian, Cesc, Loftus-Cheek RW: Pedro, Traore For me that would seem like a very balanced AM-department. Quality-wise it would still lose out on few clubs in Europe but it is enough to win the PL and CL imo.

Pedro and Willian would compliment each other majestically. Falcao, Pedro, Aranguiz, Begovic and Baba (if Filipe leaves) and we are set.

So according to the rumours, Juve want Oscar and they want Ramires. But somehow we are unable to make out a deal which would make Vidal a Blue. Is it because Mourinho doesn't like him or because Arturo prefers Madrid instead?