MrExcalibur100

Unsurprisingly the best player on the pitch again. We will do well to sign him and discard some of the overrated players we have occupying similar positions.

Sick bastard.

If Barcelona are going to be stupid enough to sell Sanchez, then we should be looking to sign him. 25-30 million is the price being quoted and it represents great value. We keep talking only about strikers, central mids and left backs, but I'm not (fully) convinced by the quality of Willian, Schurrle and Salah going forward. Will they improve, yes, but we need more top class quality in that area.

First of all "2nd most talented player in the world" is a very subjective term and it's moot even trying to discuss it. Second, no weaknesses? Have you even watched him for Barcelona this past season. Easily brushed off the ball, pointless dribbles to no man's land, surprisingly poor shooting technique, marked out of games by average defenders etc and he doesn't even get double-marked like Hazard does for Chelsea. He was easily outperformed by Pedro and most especially Alexis last season. Saying he has no weaknesses is not subjective at all, it's just plain wrong. Read the barca forum and see the bull*** they gave Neymar last season for his poor performances. . I don't think anybody hates him. He is just slighlty disliked for his petulant diving and the fact that he gets insanely overhyped by the media and you, in this case.

I was just talking about wide players alone though. Anyway, this entire conversation is becoming boring and it all stemmed from the "usual suspect" poster or two spouting their usual nonsense disguised as an opinion.

I consider Hazard, Reus, Robben, Bale, Ribery (ok the guy has been poor recently) Di Maria and Alexis Sanchez to be the only true world class players (wingers). I don't consider guys like Neymar or Gotze to be on the same level (yet) as these players. I also don't see any of those guys being able to carry Chelsea the way Hazard did this past season. Maybe Bale, because he's done it before in the PL with Spurs. I just don't see a guy like Neymar being able to do that. He scores a couple of goals for Brazil and all of a sudden he's the best. As if club performances are not the bread and butter of evaluating a player's true level. Fickle, fickle, fickle.

Nah, of course not. But's it's just irritating how goals scored has become a barometer for a player's greatness, even when said player is not a striker. Hazard has scored 21, 14, and 17 goals respectively in the last 3 seasons and he's more of a creative winger than a goal-scoring, shoot on site winger. These are great goalscoring numbers for a winger. That's not even taking into account the creative output he brings, which is far greater than some of the names being banded about. It's a consequence of the Ronaldo-Messi era. And of course 1 or 2 posters with their personal agendas against some of our players. (no point mentioning any names)

If a player doesn't score 30 goals a season, he is not one of the world's best players, says the guys who just started watching football in the Ronaldo-Messi era. SMH at some of the comments in the last 2 pages. So predictable (from the usual suspects). Pure hilarity.

Players like him play all attacking mid roles. LW, RW and AM (number 10)

Yep, he is easily more technically gifted than Oscar, and dare I say it, more talented. He is also built more robustly than Oscar.

He says his best position is as a 10. As for price, I imagine he will stay there till his contract runs till it's final year and leaves at a fairly cheap price. He will just be entering his prime around 25.

I've been a huge admirer of this kid. A bit underrated because he plays in Monaco. Has been the best player in the WC alongside Robben. He will be one of the top 10 players in the world.

I just woke up to the news that this animal bit another human being again. I hope he gets banned for the remainder of the competition. https://mtc.cdn.vine.co/r/videos/73C146A6191093276080053587968_231e28dbf88.0.4.5356795300810016351.mp4?versionId=9gUVS4gH4rW66rWn_8mtxlFBSFLRar5U I also hope he gets DRUG TESTED too. He has become so much bigger in the last two years and those veins on his neck are a sight to behold. He is the dirtiest player in the world. Won't be surprised if he cheats too.

We wouldn't even be contemplating selling him were it not for his attitude and big mouth. Still think he's the best striker in the world 21 and under though.

You play FM, skip? I thought it was weird his FM had Mata. Is it not 2014?

I remember when at the tipping point of their professional relationship and Jose's final few months at Madrid when Pepe said Mourinho should "respect" Casillas as he's an institution to Real Madrid. And Mourinho cooly replied in a press conference the next day : "It's very easy to analyse the thing with Pepe. His problem has a name, and that name is Raphael Varane. That's the whole story. I only said something about Pepe because you asked me to talk about him. You don't need to be particularly clever – it's enough to be a normal guy like me - to understand that this is a case of frustration. It isn't easy for a man aged 31 with a lot of experience behind him to be blown out of the water by a kid of 19. And he's a great kid. I've been brave enough to play the kid. It's very simple. The problem is very simple. Pepe's life has changed"

Spot on!!! I wish I could kiss you right now, lol.

Of course. I don't know any Chelsea fan, on this board or elsewhere that has watched him play regularly and says we shouldn't sign him. Some here base their opinions on a handful of games (his 4th appearance for a team in decline who play a very rigid system completely different from ours) and youtube videos. http://livefootballvideo.com/teams/atletico-madrid These are full match replays of Costa for Atletico Madrid. In my spare time, I've watched some of them in addition to the live games. Barring extra-ordinary circumstances, I don't see how this player will be a flop at Chelsea. This is how you FAIRLY form an opinion of a player.

Thank god this guy didn't play tonight. This page would have been a cesspot of fuckery.

http://www.chelseafc.com/news-article/article/3913732/title/blues-travel-to-burnley-to-kick-off-campaign

That's the thing really. One day, Robben is a god, next minute, he's not that good. Same thing with Hazard. When guys like "Toli" watch a football match, they don't analyze the game for what it is, instead they look to make unfair criticisms. Belgium were basically playing with 5 attacking players v 10 defensive players all game. The Belgian's lack quality in the fullback areas, so they have to play centerback's as their fullbacks. This creates massive problems for their attacking midfielders as the "fullbacks" lack attacking intent and can't overlap properly. Ironically, a similar problem to what we had last season. Combined with the very slow ball movements of Belgium's pivot (Witsel and the very poor Dembele) and the awful ball retention of Lukaku, it made for a difficult game for Hazard. Analyze games for what they are. In the first half, I don't think he was poor at all. He was the best out of a very bad bunch. He played Chadli (who was awful) clean through on goal but he fluffed it and blew past Algeria's rightback, cutting the ball across goal but Lukaku was nowhere to be seen. He started slow, yes, but was much better in the first half from what I remember. I can say he's done more in his 1st game than both Ronaldo and Messi did in theirs. If De Bruyne did exactly what Hazard did in that match, he will be hailed at MOTM by some here. I'm just slightly fed up by "he needs to do this and that attitude" when Hazard apparently doesn't live up to the ridiculous standard some have put on him, even when he's not wearing a Chelsea shirt. This thread was infested with this sort of attitude in his first season here. The guy wasn't even given a chance to breath. When Hazard reaches his prime, he will be the player he wants to be, not the imaginery one some of our selfish (for lack of a better term) fans want him to be. p.s : and even though this was a response to your post, this is a very general comment, Skip.

He really, really wasnt. The only player that got behind the parked Algerian bus in the 1st half and his intelligence made the 2nd goal. Enough with this outrageous double standard this guy gets held to! It's getting tedious and boring. PATHETIC.