BloodIsBlue

Being linked with Hulk again (if its a ll a crock) has be thinking we shouldn't go for any of these high profile targets. It's a trap.

So Bertrand cannot play against us this weekend?

He was injured.

I like the over 30 rule for contracts, it shouldn't be broken. If the rule is going to be broken for anyone it will be Terry.

How I got to would probably give you a good ideIt was Mourinho's first year ten years ago and at the time I was a kid. I played football with my friends but until then I had not really been someone who enjoyed watching it professionally. I'm 14 at the time Most if not all of my football influence was due to my dad and he is very passionate about it, watched it all day every weekend and even to this day (at over 50 years old) he plays in a league every single week here in Toronto. It was pretty much all Benfica when it came to him I went to games when we were on vaca in Portugal and sometimes I'd watch them with my paps. But I'm not sure I was old enough to really have done anything consciously, I always liked playing football but it was a game to me back then not a sport. I was playing to have fun and knew nothing about professional football. Had I given club football more attention maybe I would have not liked Mourinho back in 04' (coming from a Benfica house). I didn't really give much attention to club football until about high school. The upcoming Euro cup was likely the driving factor that eventually had me more aware of club football. There was nothing here, TorontoFC was around until 2007, so all signs pointed to the premier league. Honestly (and embarrassingly) one of the first things that turned me on to Chelsea was a video about the headhunters I watched, I was young and I thought they were badass. I think it was after that week that I was more deliberate in watching football and I was watching Chelsea matches, it may have been 3 or 4 games and the season was up. Its been so easy to be a fan since then as I doubt any club had been as entertaining (in the last 10 years) in a holistic way not just the football itself.

Nah guys. Lukaku is going to take all of Torres' games worst case scenario. Mourinho is just building the foundations of the team, and the best thing for Lukaku was to play in the premier league. Mou didn't want to take the risk and sent him somewhere he could get games. Mourinho wanted Lukaku as a backup but it was Lukaku who pushed for a transfer, Mou saw that at least for Lukaku's sake it was very positive.

Appearances incoming.

I've been saying where did the Bale money go? Since when AVB was making a big stink about Levy not letting him sign Moutinho and Hulk I figured something was up. Levy was trying to keep the money going in a profit cycle, now they'll be lucky to get starting players out of those schmucks let alone make their money back. They squandered a massive opportunity and Levy tried to make AVB the scapegoat.

What Atletico player?

How would you answer to someone saying 'Chelsea don't need a leftback they have Azpi' (besides laughter)?

When it comes to agents and transfers, every transfer probably had a moment of illegality. If it's all verbal there isn't much to prosecute. If the story was the real thing, nothing else would make me happier than to have him on the bench or playing the championship.

Not if threaten to trade him to Atletico

I'm still amazed at how many supporters of our rivals have no idea he's really a right-back.

Once his contract is up with us, it will completely up to him to uphold a verbal contract there is nothing we can do.

If this is true then we shouldn't wait until the contract is up, see if Madrid want him NOW in some deal for Varane. Courtois has always seemed unhappy with Chelsea so I don't doubt it. I want Courtois long term, but if he is set on not signing a new contract with us we're screwed and he'd be more valuable as bait to fatten a deal for a player we can keep long term. If we keep Cech until his last possible year we will be fine. There's not much anyone but Thibaut can do in terms of making up his mind, I do think the club should find out what this agreement is. If its real and serious we should negotiate some deal with real, if they don't want to do a deal now we sell Courtoid to Atletico as a big symbolic middle-finger to spite Real.

Luca Modric is amazing keep dreaming if you think we have a shot at signing him.

With our current system I don't see Kroos getting many games against top teams and that's probably why he would dread coming here. He might not be used against teams who have good possession and long fast breaks, games where it doesn' take a fortune teller to figure out we'll have a midfield full of grinders.

We shouldn't bother going for players who are impossible to have released, or require an extraordinary transfer fee or especially those that are injured. The one expected difficulty of the transfer should be a lot of competition for his signature, that's usually a decent indication of a high probability of satisfaction. Costa might be one of the more plausible targets as Atletico aren't afraid to sell and it might not require Courtois to be involved. But the truth is we don't really know exactly what the window will offer and we don't know what Mourinho will do with our players out on loan. At the moment there aren't too many players we should go in for 100%, Shaw is one of them but no other options mentioned here should really pressure us to go breaking the bank on a signing. We could gain a lot by taking a risk on our own boy Lukaku and some young competition like Alexandre Lacazette or Luis Muriel. If we keep going in the right tracks with a young talented team, and continue to get great young players than we could very well enter a new golden era in this club's progression.

I think our champions league value is increasing. There is a lot of buzz around the team and as long as we keep Hazard our CL TV numbers won't go anywhere but down. In the Champion's league its good to face tough teams like Real and Barca particularly as it will lead to a lot of TV money.

That's normal as the term adjust for the future, its very understandable to want to keep the player on loan as a good depth player. I mean he played in the friendly that could be a reason but I think it's more about working on tactics that will benefit their future, a future Zouma is no longer a part of.

The guy beside Matic whether its lamps or Rambo has so much dirty work to do. You buy one of those players who thinks he is the best in world to do that kind of role they instantly turn into pissy whiny brats. Despite all the scuff we give Rambo for his sloppy abilities nobody on the team could or would even want to fill in his shoes. So for the players you just suggest to make sense the way the pivot his played will change, which wouldn't be bad but we aren't the ones who get to choose the tactics. The more I think about the more I realize that a big name in that positions just isn't going to to work. It's always being criticized but I don't think having a players to play a Ramires type role is a bad thing at all, who cares if we do or don't have style moving up when we aren't picking up 3 points. Rambo is out team, if 1 players could summarize out team Chelsea is playing like Rambo and if it wins titles than don't fix it. So what do you guys think of Jordan Henderson? Not a massive upgrade but he's an English rambo who is progressing lighting fast this season.

Very risky when dealing with these massively valued players. Obviously +200m offers cannot be ignored for even Ronaldo and Messi but those teams can't evaluate how much they've upset their fans through those kind of deals. Cavani + Silva + 40m won't keep our as relevant as Hazard out there, the papers don;t care about Silva and Cavani like they do Hazard. I would be upset if we got anything under 150m for Hazard, money isn't worth a once in a decade player. Here is another thing about football markets, the window where people are spending a lot is a bad window to sell. If you sell a good player in a scared transfer window (without already having a replacement) good luck replacing the player, why do you think the other teams are offering so much? Because a player like that is not available anywhere else on the market. It's like the housing market, if you are getting a lot of bids/offers on your home that's nice but it means it will be hard to buy your new home so be prepared. You need to know what your future looks like when selling a unique player like that. Oscar is also in that category. Not as sought after as Hazard of course but not a player that has crossed my mind to transfer window business for us. If you think Oscar is the kind of player we would work to replace this upcoming window you are still stuck in our old ways and haven't been paying attention to what the club has been showing us with initiatives to be become less reliant on transfers window after window. In our 4231 any replacement for Oscar is either not are quick on their turns or decisions, can't dribble as well or lazier than Oscar. Those three criteria are incredibly important to that position, speed is important and most options I see don't have it. Our tree attacking midfielders need to all have speed and dribbling to that they can attack like a shotgun when they do.

I'd rather have city empty handed than Arsenal. If Arsenal have another empty season the fans are jaded to that emotion already and have excuses ready, City fans will be far more bitter.

Regardless City will have the pressure. Whether they were trying to win 3 more trophies or just the league each situation put a different set of pressures on their guys. If they drop out of all tournaments and focus on the league then the pressure to win that one trophy will be huge. I think either way City have a shit load of pressure on them and especially their fans who have been running their mouths all season about winning a quadruple. Teams like ours and City have a lot of inherent pressures to fill up trophy cases.

The rotation would be done in hopes of easing our chances in the following games not the Villa game.