ruggedknot

Every team vying for the title will be saying exactly that . Things may be looking nice and glossy as they find themselves as one of the contenders for the title but its open season as far as the title goes .

If Jody Morris is to be believed ( who wouldn't take his word for it ? ) , Essien has ruptured his ligaments during training today . Unknown if its the same dodgy knee , but its the cruciate ligaments . http://twitter.com/#!/morriskid Jody Morris on his twitter If true , that's another 8 months atleast , not to mention the impact it has on prolonged fitness throughout one's career and the season hasn't even begun yet . Good times a'rollin.

If I remember correctly and I do remember these things usually , the club sent a scout to watch Coentraro over a period of time while he was at Benefica. Presumably the same scout/s that had the assignment on Ramires and Luiz as well . Sky Sports are one of the few news outlets that actually take pride in the credibility of their reports , by general opinion after looking at all the dross scattered through the rest of the media . Whatever they get from other sources they clearly quote..and its not naive to assume the biggest private media conglomerate in the UK don't have certain suits who know the inner whispers of clubs in the league . Not saying they always get it right of course .

What a load of bull . The news just broke barely half an hour ago and he along with everyone else found out just after . Complete speculation , he makes it sound like he had AVB on speed-dial to find out what his plans for Nasri and Modric were .

Its on Sky Sports News - the tv channel . Just broke not 10 minutes ago . Should be a print article soon

Happy to see Kalou used as the makeweight if it were to happen . A double whammy with Sturridge to get the step up if he leaves.

News just breaking on SSN : Chelsea have made an enquiry to Arsanal about Samir Nasri.

Won't be slating him like much of the tide goes as not a lot of people outside the club actually know how good he is at what he is given to do . That said , would like to think an influential position such as 'director' of the club would be more suited for someone who has a certain clout and more importantly , relevance in the European and general football stage . This doesn't inspire confidence for the general supporter and probably in extension - with other clubs when player deals/events like the CL Draw or any UEFA/FA official meetups happen .

Insightful interview with Cech , talking about AVB among other things : http://www.beyondthepitch.net/podcasts/edition/index.cfm/beyond-the-pitch/2011/07/02/petr-cech/

Posted on his twitter http://twitter.com/#!/Skalhuno : I'm ready Least he didn't go all commando . AVB is shaking his head if he saw this with that caption .

What a finish too , good volley and fantastic technique . A lot more clubs than just Juve should be after him .

Jose Mario Rocha, Roberto Di Matteo, Andre Villas Boas, Steve Holland and Daniel Sousa

If you run into any problems with a time limit on youtube , would be great if you could upload the entire video on here , for our benefit : http://www.mediafire.com/ Very simple and there are no bandwidth limits so any number of us can download . Thanks for the effort either way

Cheers , that conference went on for nearly or just over an hour ...and I missed half of it because ChelseaFC.com wasn't loading grr . Would be great if you could post the whole thing :tophat:

Must be just me then. Makes no sense ugh , its only the official website that isn't loading for me . :mellow:

Looks like the official site is down Here is another stream playing SSN right now , but will switch over to Chelsea TV when the conf begins : http://www.veetle.com/index.php/channel/view#4dfd05e29e75b

Indeed . Would be fantastic if Villas-Boas himself announced it in about 7 hours time Posted the original message a while ago on the twitter rumours thread , a while before it was being discussed in the AVB tactics thread . Its deserving of its own thread either-way , we'll just rename it if and when Di-Matteo is confirmed as the assistant to the manager

This story broke on twitter from a Sky Journo from Italy first and carried over quickly , just in time before AVB's first press outing as manager with the club where there will be plenty of talk , for certain . http://www.guardian.co.uk/p/3v7mv/tw A sign of good things to come ? If the recent reports in the media are to be believed , AVB has sitting through a few interviews , looking fo an able Number 2 . Very very chuffed to see Di-Matteo come back to the Bridge and be involved with the club again . Always has been one of my favourite Chels players and kudos to Villas-Boas to have picked a guy who will be respected by the players and adored by the fans , not to mention bringing some good vibes ( If there weren't enough already ) with the appointment of a former crowd favourite back in . That crop of players in particular : WIse , Poyet , Vialli , Di Matteo , Zola , all tremendous personalities whom one would've expected to have made a foray into the managerial dugouts of football . Nice touch André ! :blue scalf:

Happy that the club airs the pre-match press interchange every week for free , including this one . They do get things right from time to time

Press conferences as always aired on here : http://www.chelseafc.com/page/LivePressConferences/0,,10268,00.html including AVB's first outing at the press-room confirmed here : http://www.chelseafc.com/page/LatestNews/0,,10268~2383222,00.html Excited ! :blue scalf:

http://www.chelseafc.com/page/LatestNews/0,,10268~2383222,00.html The stream : I'd advise to bookmark this , all the press conferences are aired by the club prior to matchday weekend , usually on Fridays : http://www.chelseafc.com/page/LivePressConferences/0,,10268,00.html

Sky Correspondent Bailey : http://twitter.com/SkyGraemeBailey Roberto Di Matteo is being linked with return to Chelsea as Andre Villas Boas's assistant . Early stages of even a rumour as it stands right now but would be delighted if it were true . One synonymous with the faithful and its interesting that AVB is doing what Mourinho did at every club he went to - get an ex pro into the backroom who has an endearing history with the club.

Exactly this for me too. I'll be blindly and hopefully looking forward for a bright beginning going forward from this season . Every thing he'll do has the credibility of years of meticulous planning from doing a job behind the scenes without any compromise with detailed due diligence . As a young manager in the best league in the world at a club with the demand for silverware , he'll be doing everything he can to get things right to put his name down in the record books . I've got complete confidence in Villas-Boas , naive as that sounds .