MrExcalibur100

True. The last collar jersey we had in 2008/09 was pretty horrid but the ones on the Atletico and Man United home kits this season are nice. So long as they are made well, and they generally are. I just don't want to see collars flapping about and our players looking like morons on a football pitch.

I was just about to come in and praise the very cool looking yellow kits. I prefer it when our second kit is yellow and not white or black. Then I saw the abomination that is our tracksuit. Light blue? Really? Like someone said, that makes zero sense and goes against the club's traditional royal blue. The tracksuits and super cool training jerseys of this past season were the best I've ever seen for Chelsea. I will literally wear these anywhere.

Serious?! Collars are awesome, dude. In fact, I was slightly ticked off the home jersey didn't have any collar.

I thought Samuel Eto'o and Jose were supposed to have this great relationship? Guess not.

Which is what I have now highlighted in the Milan video. I'm sure the 36 goals (more than any other CF in Europe's top 5 leagues except for maybe Zlatan) he has scored this season is one of the reasons we have done a deal to sign him Let's be realistic, strikers won't score goals in every game, so I was just showing the other qualities he brings in the Madrid video. I highlight this because some people judge him solely based on his goal-scoring highlight reel but not on the build up process and all round forward play.

Running through channels, leading the line like a pro then scoring a brace. The way he runs through the channels and gets himself into scoring positions is exactly what Torres has NOT done in his 4 years at Chelsea. After he lost a fair bit of his electric pace, he was never able to compensate due to a lack of footballing brain. I'm absolutely certain Fernando would not have gotten himself into goal-scoring positions to score those goals.

He is an absolute handful, even when he doesn't score, he tortures defenses, (in this case two beasts in Pepe and Ramos), with his incredible pace and power. One of the very few WC strikers that can lead a frontline single-handed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjp249A6O2s

Pawel Dawidowicz. 19 year old holding midfielder. Benfica just signed this guy, Dortmund wanted him too. Apparently he is a Chelsea fan as well. Everything about him is very similar to our own Nemanja Matic

I like Luke Shaw. I like the fact that he's a big time CFC fan but I'm glad we're missing out on him. Spending a sizeable portion of our budget on an 18 year old left back is Hari Kari. And he's good but he's not THAT good and there's no evidence that he will be. He could be Le Saux "good" or Roberto Carlos "great", but i comes at a price not worth finding out. I don't know what the bigger joke is. Man United bidding 27 million pounds (!) for him or Southampton turning it down. Absolute stupidity from both clubs. Seriously, PSG payed 15 million euros for Lucas Digne who is arguably a bigger talent than Shaw and a French home-grown player for them. Where's the logic in a slightly less proven English player costing more than twice as much? That can't be good for English football. But Man U have 200 million to spend and we don't. Ricardo Rodriguez, Bernat and Alberto Moreno. Just a list of LB's in and around the same age as Shaw that will be well into our budget. Will especially love Rodriguez.

19th of May seems like a day of announcements and disclosures. van Gaal announced. Luis Enrique returning to Barca as manager.Giggs retiring. Ash leaving us. Woooow.

One of my favourite ever CFC players. Wow, I actually thought he was going to stay for at least on more season, but I can't blame him for leaving now. When he first came in from Arsenal, I looked at him as a bit of a mercenary just here to do a job and get paid but over the years my opinion of him has changed drastically. The media (they do choose their victims, don't they?) loved to portray him as THE bad guy who dumped Cheryl, but instead I look at him as some Antihero, like Batman or even Michael Corleone. He was never the moral, upright, goody two-shoes professional others like Gerrard and Beckham pretended to be. Ash was just Ash. What you saw was what you got. As for his footballing ability, it was never in question. His many tussles with Ronaldo, even from his Arsenal days was stuff of legend. Which other full-back could completely neutralize the threat of the Portuguese, so much so that Ferguson played him permanently on a different wing in the CL final 08' to avoid crossing paths with Cole? His England career was brilliant. Him being England's best and most consistent performer for the best part of a decade. A fullback earning 107 caps for his country....no mean feat. This season hasn't been his best, admittedly. The rib injury didn't help matters, but he's still shown his class when it mattered most. I remember how he utterly shut out Robben in the Super Cup at the start of the season. That was mightily impressive to completely neutralize one of the best wingers in the world in such a manner. I still think he was treated fairly harshly by Jose. I never for a second thought he was "done", not as quick as before yes, but still more than good enough to be our starting LB. Azpilicueta should have been our RB this season not Ivanovic. But that's all in the past now. Proper CFC legend. The god of the "goal-line interception".

If this means that Liverpool will be kept out of the top 4 next season, then good.

I just can't wait for the CL final to end and for us to announce this deal. It will signal our intent to the rest of Europe that we are no longer fucking around. All these Josh Stones, Mangala's, Firmino's, Paulinho's (wtf?) won't cut it. We should only try for world class players to add to this team. No more 21-22 year old's or mediocre players. Signing young players is good, but you have to be careful not to over-saturate the squad with them. I don't want us to be the new "old" Arsenal. Next after Costa should (Must) be CM's like Rakitic or Pjanic. I also won't mind a top quality right winger or AM and the possibility of Mandzukic coming.. The only player we should sign that should be a young promising player is the LB, as he can steadily learn from Ash (if he's staying). If we fuck up this transfer window, we have little to no chance of winning the premier league. It's that important.

I hope we actually start getting linked to players we need. Once the market is officially opened, we have to do our business as swiftly as possible for a world-class CM and a good, young LB. I also wouldn't mind another winger or number 10 as I'm yet to be convinced by the quality of Schurrle, Willan or Salah. It's good that the Costa deal already seems sorted, so that's a +1 for our board. BUT if we start dragging our feet, another 3rd place finish is on the cards. The summer is the most important part of next season.

I dunno, its difficult to build around a holding midfielder. I don't think Jose is going to try to build around anybody but if he is then Eden is the obvious choice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KAMxP6f7hw Pretty brilliant performances from the big lad in his short spell so far. I'm certain if he played the full season, he would have been in the team of the year.

"Eden Hazard. Class act!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt9tDLsZtDE

http://www.goal.com/en/news/11/transfer-zone/2014/05/18/4826454/breaking-news-drogba-leaves-galatasaray?ICID=HP_BN_1 So our legend has left Galatasaray. Is he coming back to The Bridge in a coaching capacity?

A hamstring is not a grave injury. It's one of the most common injuries in pro sport and he didn't even tear it, he just pulled it. Recovery time is about two weeks tops. It's exactly the same injury he had last time that he aggravated because he was rushed back. This has less to do with Costa and more to do with Atleti's desperation for him to play. His injury record in the last 2 years is 3 injuries, including these 2 hamstrings injuries that are related to each other. As for big money moves, well no big money transfer is risk free, it's normal. Besides, Sheva and Torres already had their problems before we (stupidly) signed them.

JT (ok, already signed up), Lamps and Cole all should stay. Apart from the undoubted experience they provide to the rest of the squad, they are still top quality players. Jose has already said he wants them to stay, so I guess it's all about agreeing on the wages.

The weird criticisms of this player continues. It seems opinion changes on him everyday. Newsflash, whether you like him or not, rate him or not, hate him or not, it all doesn't matter because this deal has already been completed a few months ago and will be announced in the period after the CL and before the World cup. It's interesting to see the double standards some judge players by. On one hand, De Bruyne was over-hyped to high heaven despite doing nothing of note prior to this season. One would have thought he was the second coming of Brian Laudrup. Because of this, some even were against the signing of Schurrle at the time. Then you see a guy like Diego Costa who is no doubt the best striker in the best league in the world and has shown consistent improvement in his goal scoring record in the last 3 years still getting his ability questioned. When a striker scores 20 goals the season before as a winger more or less and scores 36 this season, his ability can't be questioned. If it was so simple to score, then all strikers will be scoring 30+ goals as well. We should be lucky that none of the other top clubs are desperate for a WC striker and the transaction has been more or less straightforward with a reasonable price to boot (judging by market prices today) . Also, Mourinho sharing an agent with Costa might have helped smooth out proceedings.The people still moaning about Costa, who do you reckon we sign instead of him? Please give suggestions. It's easy to criticize but it's empty barrels making the loudest noise if you can't suggest solutions.

Messi is not PL proven. I don't want him!

I agree. To complete this squad, we need a WC striker and a WC central midfielder. The LB can be a young player. We've signed too many young players in the last 3 years. There's no point in over-saturating the team with 21-22 year old's, especially as we have a very promising group of talent coming through our youth teams. As much as I appreciate the talents of the Firmino's and Calhonglu's, we need more Costa's, Manduzkvic's and Rakitic's. That is if we are serious of winning the league and/or CL.