MrExcalibur100

Hazard actually. He apparently earns around 185k and there are talks that we plan on renewing his contract. I'm not sure if Cesc is supposed to be our highest paid player now or something.

Yep. It's true his technique is not great like a van Persie, Ibra or a Benzema but it's more than good enough to link up to our attacking midfielders, Hazard especially who loves those one-two's with the striker. It's Certainly better than Lukaku's, Torres and Drogba when he first joined in 2005. Like you accurately said, he is incredibly fast (contrary to the cluless rubbish Danny Murphy was saying in the Spain vs Chile game) and pretty powerful. I can't think of any top class striker right now that quite combines power and pace as he does.

This is my favourite Diego Costa video on youtube. Shows how very ambidextrous he is. A quality (along with many others tbf) we haven't seen in our strikers since Drogba. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7sHp8jJsmw

Looks like he is for sale afterall. Some news sources saying he is off to City. Very good signing for them if true.

Neymar is not Hazard (for Chelsea) level and that's all that matters for us as Chelsea fans. His performances have been greatly overstated anyway, a couple of goals against a disspirited Cameroon, one of the worst teams in the tournament, but average against Chile and running into brick walls against Mexico. Unfortunately, he is pumped up to look better than he actually is thanks to the enormous marketing campaigns his camp does and his huge "political entourage" (to use a Mourinho term) that is bigger than even those of Ronaldo and Messi. Surely, the quality of players is measured mostly by what they do for their clubs, not how many goals they score in friendlies in the Brazil World Tour against teams like China and Panama. The World Cup, at least the way I see it should be a crowning jewel for players who are looking to cement their legacy (Ronaldo de Lima / Messi) or players enhancing their reputation (James Rodriguez / Ozil and Muller in 2010). Can Hazard win ballon d'or? Why not. He is already better than Zizou, Kaka and Ronaldinho were at his age when they won that award later in their careers. I'm not sure why you're discounting him from winning that award. The question is whether he can win it at Chelsea, an English club. They didn't even give it Henry when he was clearly the best player in the world in his prime.

Wow, just wow.

Just woke up (lazy I know) to the good news: YESSS!!!!!!! :blue scalf:

In a 4-3-3 though? as a "CM". Mourinho mostly played 4-2-31 at Madrid not 4-3-3 and when he did it was a trivote of real CM's/DM's. Maybe he did play Di Maria there sometimes because he tended to go 4-3-3 in the big games. Can't remember all the details. As for his time in Benfica, didn't he play on the right wing a lot? Yeah, Ancelotti's tactical maneuvering of his pieces last season was very brave and the football a joy to behold. It takes some doing to accommodate Ronaldo, Bale, Di Maria and Modric all into the same line-up without making big compromises defensively.

Di Maria was Real's best player last season and he wasn't even playing his natural position. Guy is a beast. From what i'm reading, it seems it's the player that wants to leave not the other way around. You could be right and that's deeply unfortunate. If he isn't, I hope he won't live to regret that decision. We will easily be favorites in the race to sign Di Maria because of the Mendes connection. Any Mendes (Gestifute) player Mourinho wants, he gets. If Di Maria is available, we should be involved.

The question is whether or not a guy like Willian is good enough. He's hardly young at 25, and he neither scores or assists. He has been like that throughout his career, I checked his record, so I'm not very confident he is going to become this productive player. Selling Oscar is a huge no no and shouldn't even be considered at all. Personally, I'll sell Willian right now. It was a mistake signing him in the first place for the amount we did. He'll be nothing more than a squad player in other top European sides. Use money from the sale plus additional funds to sign Di Maria or Sanchez. We can't just assume that all of a sudden Oscar, Willian and Schurrle are going to improve dramatically next season and I'm guessing Jose HAS to deliver a big trophy next season to avoid the sack.

He knows better not to join Chelsea? His job was to defend and run? What are you on about. I kind of understand what you're getting at, but this is pure hyperbole.

I personally feel that it's necessary we spend big on either a Sanchez or Di Maria quality winger to make "sure" of a big trophy because i'm not very confident in the quality of Willian and inconsistency of Oscar. We need real quality on the right wing. Oscar/Willian can slug out the 10 role.

I will sell Willian instantly if Di Maria was available. He is world class.

Thank you I need to spell-check sometimes though

Good luck, son!

I seriously doubt that. He is a good player in the prime of his career. He has won it all at Chelsea and has been a great servant for the club, regardless of the bull*** lobbed his way. I read somewhere he's 8th all time in Premier League appearances for Chelsea. Out of respect, I think it's best if both parties parted ways. Many Nigerians are already complaining and suggesting he leave Chelsea.

https://vine.co/v/MFtwe1aThd7 Tekkers! Even though we were robbed, it's nice to see that.

Mourinho again signing players who share the same agent as him.

And is it just me or are Chelsea fans in particular overly critical of their players? We've become like Barcelona fans. Our star player does not perform to the absurd standard of some and every little (supposed) defect in his game is compared to the supposed "defect-less" "other" , in this case, Bale and Neymar. I think that's insulting to Hazard. The guy is 23, and is already an established international, not some teenage prospect as some here seem to treat him. If we want to discuss weaknesses in his game, let's do it. Like Mourinho said, every player has weaknesses. Ronaldo's weakness is that he's not a very efficient shooter. He takes too many shots per game and when he's having a poor shooting night, Madrid tend to suffer. Robben has weaknesses. Even Messi does. Luis Suarez goes around biting people when his weaknesses are exposed. This is Hazard's thread, so let's discuss his weaknesses. He has very, very few weaknesses to his game and his game is very complete. I can't say this about many young players. I've seen him play a 100 plus times for us and the one that stands out is that his shooting technique is not that great. Thankfully, it's something he can improve on and learn, not something innate, like his close control. If he can do that, he can score the 40+ whatever goals he wants to, because his close control gets him into positions on the pitch very, very, very few players can. (Like that moment vs Galatasaray). Messi is like Hazard with much better shooting/finishing technique. The younger Messi didn't always have that. It's a consequence of the player Eden has always been. He has always had it in his brain to go for the beautiful pass rather than shoot. It's not just about taking more shots as is suggested here but about improving his shooting technique first.

This is a classic example of being overly critical of our own and overrating or overhyping other players. This is normal. If Hazard was a Man Utd player, the wankfest on here would have been crazy. And that's not a criticism, Barbara. I expect a surgeon to know more about the human anatomy than a geologist for example. (1) You mention the Belgium matches, okay, let's talk about the Belgium gane and Hazard "fading". Let's take the Russia game for example. It's very common for us casual fans to overstate the importance of a player's individual efforts and understate the team effort. Will James look as good as he does if Colombia was playing poorly, no. Belgium have not been playing well. They have been playing, slow, ponderous, predictable football and have had the unfortunate ignominy of playing two defensive minded teams (at least in the games that Hazard started). This is obviously going to have a negative effect on individual performances, particularly of the forwards. Even more so for Hazard as he got double-marked on that left wing in both games vs Russia and Algeria. He is the only player on the Belgian team that gets this treatment. This is a big problem for him because as been discussed a 1000 times, Vetorghnen (sp?)/ Vermalean are CB's and simply do not support the winger in attack, so Hazard is left in a situation were he has to beat two players OR receives the ball with his back to goal and is closed down quickly. Back to ^^^^^^^ in a moment. (a) It was only in when Algeria came out to play a little and lost the ball in transition that Hazard had an opportunity to launch a counter and the result was a goal for Mertens. The Russia game was similar. The first half, stranded on the left side, facing the problems I discussed in (1). It was late in the 2nd half, when Wilmots became less defensive minded and focused on "shape" did he give Hazard a free role and he wrecked havoc on Russia's backline in a 10 minute cameo. He started drifting in to the centre where he was able to influence the game more. What happens next, Belgium win the ball in transition, Origi lays it to Hazard and he blows by a Russian defender, cutting it back on his "weaker" foot for Origi. Goal for Origi. So, two key actions when his team are not playing well, when the football is slow and predictable, in searing heat (both those games played at midday), when his coach is tactically inept, he still provides to match-winning moments. Very similar to Messi vs Iran and Bosnia. I dunno about you guys, but that is the mark of a world class player. (2) It's up to Wilmots to solve the problems in (1), that even we arm-chair experts and analysts can see. Give Hazard a free role. You play with 5 centre-halves for fuck's sake. If not, start him as a 10 where he has more breathing space. Also, stop playing Dembele all the time cos he's been shit for a year or so and start Origi ahead of Lukaku because the USA are coming to defend deep, frustrate and park the bus. It's a shame Vanden Borre got injured because he looks like the only decent fullback in the Belgian team (why didn't he start in 1st two games?) (3) You said Hazard is "lazy", no he's not. Check the facts. He covers an insane amount of kilometres per game for a winger. People also accused Messi of being lazy, calling him Walkessi and all that silliness. None of them highlighted how Barca's system was not as fluid as before. Iniesta, Xavi and Busquets triumvirate was not as good as before. Pressing game was not as good as before. Pep, the guy responsible for a fair share of the success of that GREAT Barcelona was no longer there. Then comes the "Messi is just walking". . "He's not calling for the ball" etc, without mentioning all the other subtleties. It's the same with Hazard. People, like you (no offense) criticize him for things that are beyond his control instead of looking at the broader picture. Then the Bale thing is wrong. This is what annoys me. Bale has been known to disappear from games at his time with Tottenham and Madrid. Watch him, he does those exact same things you say Hazard does. Bale does not demand the ball. He is quiet on the pitch. What you did there is what I call overrating the opposition player and underrating our own. I even read someone here put Bale in the same sentence as Messi and Ronaldo. Many players disappear from games for various reasons, Messi included. You can't deny that Hazard has not suffered from this problem this past season because he's under the best tactician in the world, Mourinho. Almost everything good about our attacking play came through Hazard. Maybe when we have a better team than the average one we saw last season, we can see Hazard in a more fluid system. It's amazing how many conclusions you come to from a bunch of games. Surely, most of what you said doesn't hold true for the Hazard that we all saw dazzle for Chelsea this past season, so I'm assuming it's mostly based on the World Cup. All the names thrown around. Reus, Bale, Neymar, Robben, Sanchez Ribery. I won't take any of these players ahead of Hazard. I don't consider any of these players to be better than Hazard, neither do I consider them to have his talent. The thing this guy is able to do with a football is beyond scary. The only winger I put above him is Ronaldo and that guy is not even a winger anymore. The only player I'll swap him for is Messi. And I say this as a football fan, not a Chelsea one.

I know this has been posted before, but: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJQ9AWwnA2Q Best young player in the world and does with a football what most footballers can only dream of doing.

Thing is most attacking players look better than they actually are when given free roles. It's not going to happen at Chelsea under Mourinho though. Not even Hazard has a free role.

Do you always type in 3rd person or is this your younger brother now?

Says the guy with 1 (!) reputation point!

Oh, but Dortmund is a HUGE club and had amazing players when Gotze was there. CL level club and Bundesliga champs. Very different from those 3 you mentioned, especially Hazard.