Vesper

this game has shown once again how rubbish Bats and Barkley are

good VAR to the rescue for once

looks offsides though

FFS stupid pen!!

wooooooooooooooooooooooooot CHOOOOOOOOO who has looked sharp now a goal

looooooooooooooove the kit!! come on Blues!!!

carrying a knock I think, but a slight one soft-tissue injury

Chels v Tricky Trees HD Streams http://www.sportnews.to/sports/2020/fa-cup-chelsea-vs-nottingham-forest-s1/ https://www.totalsportek.com/chelsea-live-stream/ https://www.ronaldo7.net/video/sports-live/sport-live-stream.html

lol at young (in terms of what is young for an EPL winger) smdh and we must have been watching different Palaces in parallel universes over the past 5 plus years given how much you slather Zaha with praise

Alaba, regardless of what the Bundesliga punters think, would be an insane upgrade over what we have now I rate the hell out of him for years and years Bayern fans are some of the worst frontrunners on the planet only topped by Real Madrid's tens of millions of cunts I am resigning myself to Chilwell-in-the-summer or bust time I would give Bayern £50m for Alphonso Davies, but they would never do it we really need to exercise Ake's option and see if he can help fill in at LB as well great left-footed players are SO hard to buy look at our struggles to find a left-footed RWer ever since Robben left

I am just sick of talking about left back! we need to sort it out or will continue to pay the price at least half the board or so thinks Telles is dog shit many think that if we just wait till summer Chilwell is in the bag I think both are not the case at all I have offered many solutions Alaba, whilst more than likely a pipe dream is a very much to my liking, I just do not think it will happen I have no clue if we are the mystery EPL team that offered Angers 30m euros for Rayan Aït Nouri, but the lad is only 18 Luca Pellegrini turns 21yo in a few months and seems to have a shedload of potential, but Juve own him (he is on loan at Cagliari now), and if he is all that, why are they sniffing around for either Emerson or Alonso? We will never dump 100m euro on Gaya (nor should we) I think 60m euro for Grimaldi is also madness, but I could see this being a desperation default buy I am not convinced on the soon 22yo Jamal Lewis from Norwich same for 21yo Lloyd Kelly on Bournemouth, although his size and pace intrigue me, but he seems injury-prone so far Maatsen is a dwarf, so not sold on him yet, not even close Alex Sandro is 29yo in a few days so nope nope I do not see Real Madrid parting with either Sergio Reguilón or Ferland Mendy (Mendy would be great here, the damn ban fucked us there) Lucas Digne might be an option, BUT Everton will demand crazy money (could see them wanting close to what Grimaldo would cost) I think IF we can convince him to leave AC Milan, Theo Hernández might be a great buy, but I do not see him wanting to leave, he already turned down a lot of big clubs to sign last summer with Milan and now I can Milan REALLY refusing to sell him as he has been the best LB in Serie A probably the first half of the season truly looks to me like it is Chilwell or bust (bust meaning next season we will still have a now (turns in 11 months) 30yo Alonso and an uber inconsistent Emerson Telles is the simple solution at least for 3 years or so, but we do not do simple We should really talk to Real, feel them out on Mendy or Reguilón unless we were the one who are trying to buy the 18yo Nouri here he is against Arse

I feel justified in what I said other posters can agree or not it is all just opinion anyway I simply refuse to accept Azpi at LB for our team of the decade

everyone is obviously entitled to their own opinions but I am not moved in the slightest from mine I also am not shorting out Azpi, just putting him in his correct slot I remember the struggles Azpi had as a wrong footed fullback back pre Conte on the offensive end, that simply cannot be overlooked and I remember many superb games from Ivanovic at CB we also could make a back 3 team with same players plus Cahill added at CB with Azpi and Terry, Branislav at RWB (or fli Azpi there) and Cole at LWB as Cole maintained his offensive prowess long than his defensive, as he aged out and to say that is just silly IMHO he was our internal Player's Player of the Year after that and also.... PFA Team of the Year (2010/11 Premier League) https://www.fifa.com/photos/galleries/pfa-team-the-year-2010-premier-league-1439472#ashley-cole-chelsea-1390226 Ashley Cole of Chelsea for the calendar year 2010 he was on the UEFA first team as well (the 2nd time he made it) He was also the winner of the FA England player of the year for calendar year 2010 and 3rd place in 2012 and as late as calendar year 2013 (announced in 2014) made FIFA FIFPro Men's World XI 4th team https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/fifpro-announces-reserve-teams-of-the-year-but-luis-suarez-and-arjen-robben-wont-be-laughing-while-9062047.html#gallery

so have other sites (not sure if all are just riffing off the Sun, some are not) it is going to fuck us about possibly with other wage/contract negotiations I fear we cannot handle a wage load of 12-15 players on £8-10m a year or so (on cumulative average) plus 10 or so more on £4m or 5m per annum average (obviously those numbers are not exact) we are not Real or Barca or Manure or Shitty, especially as we have SB as a revenue killer and are not a lock every year for CL

made me spit water it sounds like a line from an Italian soap opera

stuffing Azpi in at LB for TEAM OF THE DECADE is insanity on parade he is HORRID at LB whist I disagree with the boundaries of when the 'decade' started (it still is NOT over, as it did not start until January 1, 2011, not 2010, as there was no year zero, so decades begin with year 1 AD, 11 AD, 21 AD, etc) I will confine it to seasons ending in 2010 to ending in 2019 (that is 10 seasons) 5 of Ashley Cole's 8 season with us are thus in this all-'decade' team's purview Cole was the best LB in the world for years some of it in this decade in question therefore he goes in the team Azpi is and was pure dregs as a LB Branislav Ivanovic played a lot at CB for us, it is not artificial to put him at CB I rate him over Cahill and see no reason to omit him at all so it is simple then to have an 'all-decade' back 4 of CB Terry CB Ivanovic LB Cole RB Azpi

Chelsea finally close in on Eden Hazard’s long-term replacement (Zaha) https://playingfor90.com/2020/01/04/chelsea-finally-close-eden-hazards-long-term-replacement/

Alphonso Davies at LB has been the biggest shock in youth world football, he has been crazy good as a converted LB I NEVER saw that coming (not even sure if Bayern did) Bayern has (IMHO) 3 of the top 5 or 6 LB's in the world on their roster, plus the 2nd best RB (Kimmich) and another top 10 RB in Benjamin Pavard not only is that an insane overflow of talent, but ALL of them also play different positions on a regular basis they are weak in natural crunching DMF, and have massive winger issues due to injuries, no class CF if Lewa doesn't play, as well as injuries at CB (Hernandez included)

yes, they are obsessed top ten 21yo and under Brasilians sorted by age Reinier AMF 17 Real Madrid Rodrygo RW 18 Real Madrid João Pedro CF 18 Watford (Real is sniffing around) Gabriel Martinelli CF 18 Arsenal (Real is still sniffing around) Vinícius Júnior LW 19 Real Madrid Antony RW 19 São Paulo FC (Real is sniffing around) Tetê RW 19 Shakhtar Donetsk Emerson RB 20 Real Betis on loan (sort of, it is actual half ownership but Barca has option to outright own) from Barca Éder Militão CB 21 Real Madrid Renan Lodi LB 21 Atlético Madrid they own 4 and are looking at 3 others, lololol and the lowest rated overall two on that list are Tetê and Emerson (whom RM never really went for, and are still players of huge potential as well, they are not shite at all) so if RM did buy João Pedro and Antony and Martinelli, they would have 7 of the top 8 21yo and under Brasilian players (and they did try on Renan Lodi as well, who the ban KILLED us on, as he was my number one youth LB target) They are trying to corner the Brasilian marketing space (although they will need to grab Neymar to truly do that) as they also have Casemiro and Marcelo as well and are trying to grab Marquinhos from PSG in some monster Neymar package deal (wild rumours all over) if somehow they did pull that off, literally the only WC Brasilians they would not have would be the 3 Bindippers (Alisson, Fabinho and Firmino) then Ederson, Coutinho (I sill rate him WC, hell yes, and he was a fool for leaving Victimpool, I would not be shocked if they took him back somehow, Klopp said he is welcome back), and arguably Arthur (jury still out, a wee wee bit but he is probably there) and Alex Sandro it is crazy

Rich get richer Real Madrid agree €35m fee for Flamengo wonderkid Reinier https://www.goal.com/en-sa/news/real-madrid-agree-35m-fee-for-flamengo-wonderkid-reinier/eapdelkxryyu1m5pxpmegsd4p Los Blancos beat out several rivals in La Liga for the signature of the highly-rated teenager, who follows in the footsteps of Vinicius Junior Flamengo attacker Reinier will officially join Real Madrid later this month for a sum worth around €35 million (£29m/$39m), sources close to the situation can confirm. Los Blancos beat off competition from La Liga rivals Barcelona and Atletico Madrid to land the signature of the highly-rated teenager, who turns 18 later this month on January 19. Both Madrid and Flamengo will wait until that date in order to announce the deal, which will take the Brazil under-23 star to Spain on an unspecified, though likely lengthy contract. snip Real Madrid Have Offer Accepted For Flamengo Wonderkid Reinier And Again Top FC Barcelona https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomsanderson/2020/01/04/real-madrid-have-offer-accepted-for-flamengo-wonderkid-reinier-and-again-top-fc-barcelona/#243d8c5f18d6

Former Chelsea star Thibaut Courtois 'mocks lovechild's mum with Instagram snap' The Belgian shot-stopper posted a picture of himself with his other two children on New Year's Eve and has been criticised by his ex-flame https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/former-chelsea-star-thibaut-courtois-21216327 The mother of Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois' lovechild has hit out at the Belgian goalkeeper after he posted an Instagram picture which she believes was 'a dig at her.' Courtois - who played for Chelsea between 2014-2018 before moving to Spain - had a son named Enzo with his ex-neighbour Elsa Izac following a fling with the mother of four, revealed the Daily Star. The 27-year-old did not appear to acknowledge this with his New Year's Eve Instagram post, however, as he shared a picture of himself with his two other children along with the caption "Happy New Year everyone!" And mum Elsa reacted angrily to this post, and telling the paper: "To see that, it hurt me. I was shocked, but also sad and upset. "A good person would not do that. He has shown that photo to the world. He just came out with that, that these are the only children in his life he accepts. "But that is not being a good father. He should be kind - he needs to take care of Enzo." snip

Bernardo Silva (25yo) is streets ahead of Zaha (and is left-footed so a perfect RWer for us, and can play AMF too) you also forget a healthy Sane (24yo in a week) Martial (24yo) too (and he can play CF as well) Richarlison (22yo) too (another one who can play CF) is another (being 5 years younger than Zaha as well is a big positive difference as well) I rate Zaha 9th after those 8 (your 4 plus my 4) My issues are age and price and a career-long lack of production (plenty of players produce decent numbers on shit teams) plus his wage demands will be super high, we all know this, so a potential changing-room point of trouble with some of our lads in the middle of contractual negotiations I think all in all he is worth around £50m or so, especially due to age, as we only get 2 full sub 30yo seasons out of him, and as I have tirelessly documented dozens of times, there are so few over 30yo wingers n the EPL (and globally so few who are decent), and almost all in the EPL are shit) There are NO EPL LWers over 27yo except for one, the just turned 30yo dregs that is Junior Stanislas. Let that sink in. At RW, there are only 4 over 30yo (we have 2 and one is soon gone) Aaron Lennon, Pedro (soon gone) Willian and Robert Snodgrass (not a pure winger either), plus two 30yo olds, Theo Walcott and the just turned 30 Andrii Yarmolenko (who plays MF as well). £80m plus around £52m in salary (£200K PW for 5 years, £41.6m if a 4 year contract) is madness for a 28yo at 3 months into next season Zaha. His production at top flight is weak 38 goals in 219 games for top flight teams basically a goal every 6 games so 6 or 7 a year is that worth £132m? especially as he will be basically worthless at the end of his contract £3.5m PER GOAL based on his cumulative top-flight career production (granted he should score a bit more with us but still you get the point)

I agree overall but there are 2 no brainers 1. CB Ake whose buyback expires after January (who can play LB as well so surely we can dump BOTH Alonso and Emerson because of no-brainer #2) 2. LB Alex Telles, a steal at his £32m release clause. Those 2 combined net cost is only £12 to say £17m total in fees if we dump just Alonso and Emerson to Inter and Juve. Lampard is demanding a CF NOW. Seeing as Demebele looks surely not to be sold in January by Lyon, a £20m or so punt on Chalov or Gabigol is reasonable. We can get £5m for Giroud. Combined net spend for those 3 is a pisspot £27m to £32m, which goes to ZERO if we also dump the in-demand Bats. THAT would be smart business at basically no fee cost.

hell no but the dippers are 2nd worst to have this happen the 2 teams I hate the most on the planet