Clockwork

Obviously a glitch or error, no chance the premier league site would confirm it first.

I would welcome that very much. He would compliment Jorginho and Kante a lot. A good balance between Cesc and Barkley. If we do not sign another CM(i would argue 2 CM and sell Drink/Baka), we might as well switch to 4-2-3-1. Because Barkley is not a CM, he is not a presence in midfield. Cesc is too old. Might as well place another attacker.

Hazard wants to see the same thing every Chelsea fans should, a stronger and ambitious side. Veratti was demanding a move to Barca, PSG bought Mbappe and Neymar to show their ambition and to appease him.

Only 5 sub choices; not sure of either but can assume he is behind Drinkwater in the pecking order.

LOL at the people who didn't think we needed Golovin. Cesc has no legs, Barkley is completely useless all he can do is run with the ball in open space. Amazing reading this thread not one criticism of him.

He could or wai until next year. If he goes to Real on a free he would get a much better contact. He is in a good spot, unless he really wants to leave immediately

imo he is improvement over our strikers. Over the last 10 years he has averaged 21 league goals. I don't know if he is a top striker depending on your definition, but he is consistent. Cant say about our current ones. It is not a good market for strikers, even Real are desperately looking for an improvement over Benzema.

I don't see the point, why not just play CHO on the RW. Zaha is also right footed and primary plays on the left. He is not a natural fit for the right side. This is a hard pass for me. smh this is another Bakayoko, Drinkwater, Alonso, etc type signing.

Things seem quite, especially now that the whole Higuain-Caldara-Rugani saga is over.

Honestly i don't think he does enough and people are happy he is not garbage. For me the only thing he does well is carry the ball in space and decent movement off the ball. His passing is not sharp enough in the build up. Can't really beat anyone in tight space with feet/dribbling, doesn't really have the vision or passing to create in the final third. Not really providing anything meaningful from a defensive standpoint. Does anyone here think he warrants a starting position? For me absolutely no, but it is nice to see him in shape.

Got a lot of hype after the Perth Glory game, but for me he doesn't do enough. What are others thought on him after a few preseason games?

Also from a defensive standpoint he is quite reactive, i think this system would benefit from a RB that would be more aggressive to stop the runner instead of him mostly backpedaling. Beside the striker situation, the FB situation is a worry.

Azpi does not overlap like Zappocosta.

I am calm about Alonso starting, he has been the number 1 choice for the past two seasons. Sarri is going to give him an opportunity, it won't be long before he realizes what we all know about Alonso.

According to Globo Esporte, he didn't have any blank spaces on the passport.

That is the thing your opinion is probably is a huge contrast from the club. If Sarri wants to keep him, they probably see him as a guy who could succeed. Unlike Morata, Bats actually has successfully led a team line. Morata has never done that, he was a SS and bench player at Juve. At Real he was primary the backup to Benzmea. Conte always wanted to sign Morata, he was his guy. So he was bought in by a guy who had complete confidence in him and gave him every chance to succed, and he still had mediocre season. Bats on the other hand was never really given an opportunity, he was immediately in the doghouse from the get go and tbf he was also backing Diego Costa one of the best in the world. So i think Bats could be one who would really benefit from the new manager, and unlike Conte, Sarri actually prefers poachers. Personally i don't have high confidence of Morata or Batshuayi coming good. I think Morata has Torres esque mentality, while Bats lack the skills. But here is hoping Sarri can do his magic, imo he is one of the best at improving players.

It is really not puzzling, the striker position is up for grab and Sarri wants to see if any of them can make the position their own. it is a new system and a new manager, everyone gets a reset.

We finished 30 points off from 1st place, and we have only made one significant signing. That is terrible, you are significantly overrating our current squad. I am not sure how you think we will be okay. Plus we are changing our style, the transition will not be easily and there will be growing pains. Added quality could mask some of it.

You can be AWOL without purposeful intent. All world cup players were given 3 weeks of vacation, and Brazil played their last game on the 6th. So yeah he is Awol.

Lol if you think we are a smart club. We paid 45m for Bakayoko, 40m for Drinkwater, and we paid over 60m for Alvero Morata. They were terrible transfers, i am not saying this in hindsight. I said this a year ago. All these players are significant downgrade to the players they replaced, and should be binned this summer. We are not a smart club, there just maybe a lot more stupid clubs in the PL though. I don't think there is a single club in the PL i would call smart.

I guess we will see what happens, but if nothing changes we are really setting Sarri for failure. We are coming off a year when we didn't finish in the top 4, and we are embarking on a radical challenge changing our playing style from suffering ball to possession football. The only significant signing we made was Jorginho, that is not good enough for the challenge that lays ahead this season.

He is back to training, good for him to cut his vacation short to return to training. He is an immense talent, just needs to stay healthy so he can continue to improve.

Is he back to training? It seems like Chelsea are giving the world cup players 3 week brakes. Brazil last game was July 6th, so he should have been back on Friday.

I guess you could bait Dortmund for a swap deal by including Bathuayi.