CurlyHairLikeLuiz

Can I just ask the question: What makes you believe that you have a better knowledge that the last 3 consecutive coaches that have picked the players they've picked? You don't know what's going on behind the scenes. I suspect the board are just refusing to budge, likely due to the impending building of our new stadium. Arsenal lost their spending power in a similar fashion when the Emirates got the go ahead. Ivanovic is the best we have at our disposal right now. As sad as that is, there isn't really much free talent in the market that was on Ivanovic's level when he was good, that is also attainable. Carvajal? Expensive, and not exactly setting the world on fire. I can't think of anybody else. Danny Simpson? The only way out I see is trusting Aina and growing him into the role. The spending you're seeing with City is only possible for them because of the way they have cheated FFP, and because their owners are both richer than Roman and also not about to demolish a stadium and do an expensive rebuild of it and the adjacent tube station. I hope to God we get Koulibaly, because otherwise we'll either end up with nothing or mediocre players like Baba. I also hope that Koulibaly is as good as people think - the General Transfer Talk page jumped to an early (Jan 2012 ish) page and the fact that Gary Cahill was on many people's wish lists goes to show how much desperation can blind people. We should have brought Clyne when he was available, it's too late now.

Yes, I think they key is that I wish him to succeed *as long as* he doesn't out succeed us. He is Chelsea, and despite what those that don't like him say, he wasn't going to walk away. He would have got us out of this mess. Oh well, flogging a dead horse I think. I must have had this exact conversation a good 50 times around the time of that Sunderland match.

Then what are you saying? Damned if you do, damned if you don't. I want Koulibaly, I do, but banishing JT will be a big mistake, he is not the problem.

the whole football world was mocking City's defenders last season because they look awful when Kompany's not there; none of Otamendi or Mangala had any clue what they were doing and now I should sit here and congratulate them for wasting their money on a defender who was poor last season? What is the insistence on pissing away Roman's money needlessly? It's because you want to see quick results. Sit the fuck down and be patient. The same thing will happen if we banish JT from the team as what happened when Kompany got injured: Nobody had a clue what to do. You must have banished the memory of Cahill-Zouma from your memory because if you didn't you'd recall that the whole back line, including Azpilicueta, didn't have a fucking clue what they were doing. You need a leader, and JT's all we got.

I don't think we can use Cahill and JT together, too slow. But JT and Zouma were good last season, he is still a good defender with a bit of speed next to him. Personally I would sell Cahill because we'd get some good money for him. But that's never gonna happen, so I won't dwell on it.

So they have a disappointment, a gimp, a disappointment and and overrated Englishman for CBs? The converse side of the coin is that if we get that Koulibaly geezer we will have the best bunch of CBs in the league when Zouma's fit - JT, Zouma, KK, and Cahill (who is still not bad for a backup).

Wow. Don't get me wrong, I firmly disagreed with the decision to sack Mourinho, but what's done is done and I have to say it is nice not having to defend both him and the club after every press conference. I hope he's happy at United (and I think he's not), but now we have to relegate him to the past and move on as one club - despite the same people trying to recreate the same rift by slagging off John Terry and trying to pretend he's not the best CB we have. Cheering on another club is one (or, rather 5 or 6) steps too far.

I really do hate the internet sometimes. I completely agree I do tend to find the opinions of this forum are far detached from those of fans I see at matches. But let's not go there.

The last few posts in this thread makes me cringe. A slow RB, and 2 slow CBs is always going to be a mess. But if you have to pick one of the 3 Terry starts every time. When Happy is back (or indeed if we bring in Koulibaly) along with a little pace we'll look much better. I really hope Conte lets Aina grow into RB; I can't watch Ivanovic any longer.

Fabregas might tuck in behind the striker, like he does for Spain.

I can't say I agree. Terry is not the problem. The only person who has exposed him this pre season was Mane. Cahill and his RB have stuggled no matter the opposition to be honest. I think you undervalue our defence - Terry and Zouma as a pair work very well and before he was injured our defensive record recovered. It's all well and good blaming the CBs but the fact is that Azpilicueta is better on the left flank, where he can be a proper fullback. On the right his defending worsens and he's still crap going forward - not much better at hitting a cross than Ivanovic imo. Terry is good with the ball, he often plays the ball out of defence, it is a myth that he is not. The reality is that Terry is still the best of our defenders (yes, and Zouma) and letting him go would have been an incredible error of judgment not to mention being politically impossible with regard to the board's position with the fans. The RB position is a question which is a hard one to answer; there is not much available talent going around right now and probably breaking Aina in is our best option. I stand by my prediction that the club will hold onto Terry until the 17/18 season concludes. Cahill, on the other hand is not good enough to start for this club. The grass is always greener philosophy here is at times unbelievably frustrating - Just now I saw someone suggest we should buy Lukaku to replace Costa because the latter's form has been erratic, disregarding the fact that he stopped scoring after the game against us back in Febuary! Our defence will be fine, though I will not deny our backup options could be improved. That's our weakest link. Not to mention that our goalkeeper had the worst season of his professional career, all at the same time.

You gotta trust em some time. The way I figure it, we might as well do it while we have no international football. Don't forget, he looks (at his worst) no worse than Ivanovic, and when Zouma returns the whole defence will look more stable. If we keep Kenedy knocking around then we can always rotate the two depending on the match situation.

Just as I said last season, I am definitely in favour of throwing him in this season as opposed to buying elsewhere. None of the alternatives seem compelling. Azpilicueta is better on the left flank anyway. He's crap going forward on both sides.

CB* Cahill has looked vulnerable a lot so far; Terry (aside from the raw pace of Mane) has been just fine. Zouma can't come back soon enough.

That means Bats playing second fiddle, and I think he's better than that.

No thanks. Costa is better than he is and we will certainly lose money overall on swapping them out. Costa has been loyal to the club since he joined; and these exit rumours simply exist to destabilise him. Lukaku on the other hand...

At least the lions are back on the socks. Such a shame the kits are awful, another year of the 14/15 home shirt it is.

Sorry but there are many reasons why this won't happen: Costa is better than Morata any day of the week, and Batshuayi looks like hot shit too Morata won't be willing to sit on the bench, much less for a club that isn't even in Europe We're about to build a new stadium, Roman isn't going to blow the budget like he used to. The money would be better spent in other areas. I expect one more striker as cover for those two. Maybe Pelle will do it, along with Bertrand Traore.

The benefit here at Chelsea is that we have a nearly as good keeper in Begovic to substitute if he ever bitches about Chelsea again. Conte won't take any shit.

I bet you he has said no such thing and will stay here.

Looks like I wasn't far off

The only thing I can see this loan being useful for is re-accustoming himself to central midfield. It's the place where he's most likely to ever get game time here.

Well to be honest, before the club basically blew my ideas out of the water, I would have put Baker/Ake, more energetic midfielders in place of Matic. You don't need to play football with a holding midfielder in traditional style. Nainggolan would work. Think of RLC being Alli, Cesc being a much better version of Rooney, and Nainggolan being Dier but more B2B, if that helps. However to get Hazard in the team I think we will have to use a more traditional system. 4-3-3 is probably most likely. Something like Cesc-Matic-RLC/Nainggolan or whomever Willian/Pedro-Costa-Hazard for example

I guess he takes priority over the new guy. What profile of player is he? A natural second striker? I only put him there because it looks like we're going to buy him.

Fabregas is not the DM. That's just a symptom of the way the formation is shown. He will sit deep. He has 3 CB's and one defnsive minded mid behind him. I want Hazard as the second striker. We'll see who we actually buy.