Vesper

That spin reminds me of this

LOLOL Oki, yes, sure, lololol Wanna buy a bridge? I got a couple for sale, cheap. lets do a head to head comparison GK Oblak v Kepa Oblak by 10,000 miles CB José Giménez v Rudiger Giménez CB Stefan Savic v AC AC (so so close atm, AC has higher upside, Savic is a really good CB, absolutely could play for Chelsea, would trade Luiz for him in a flash) CB Diego Godín v David Luiz Godin not even close (overall their CB's are better than ours) RB Santiago Arias v Azpi Azpi ( this was close to a draw before they loaned out Sime Vrsaljko, as he is far better in a back 4 offensively than Azpi) RB Juanfran v Zappacosta a draw, I would obviously swap Zappacost atm for Juanfran, as Juanfran is 33, but Juanfran has been a better player over the years, and has massive big game experience LB Lucas Hernández v Alonso Hernández by a massive amount LB Filipe Luís v Emerson atm Luis, who knows in future, Luis was not handled right here, he has been superb for AM over the years DMF Thomas v Kante Kante, not even close, but Thomas is hardly a weakness DMF Rodri v Drinkwater Rodri, not even remotely close, he is on track to be the next Busquets Drinkwater is dogshit, 60m down the shitter CMF Koke v Jorginho I give this a draw, many would pick one over the other AMF Saúl Ñíguez v Kovavcic Saul, not close (comparing the pair, I would so so take Saul/Koke over Jorginho/Kovacic) MF Depth In Celsea favour with RLC and Barkely and Fabragas ALTHOUGH absolutely TOSS all that IF AM uses Thomas Lemar as an AMF, then the gap in AMF is massive, so I leave this a draw RW Gelson Martins v Willian hard to call this one, Martins is 7 years younger, has massive upside, I dont rate Williqan, but want to see what Martins does, I call this a draw, RW Ángel Correa v Pedro Correa, not close LW Thomas Lemar v Eden Eden, not close LW Vitolo v CHO another hard one to call, obviously CHO will be a vastly superior player over his career, but Vitolo is a veteran with big game experience, I go slight edge to CHO, which will explode in time, but this is about now CF Griezman v Morata Griezman <<<<< on this alone they win!! CF Costa v Giroud Costa <<< here too!! (thanks Conte!!!) CF Nikola Kalinic v Abraham Kalinic atm, but down the road Tammy 11 wins for AM 5 for Chelsea 4 draws Striker and GK alone are a massive massive advantage for them, they have no weak spots and more quality depth Simeone over Sarri too, as manager They also can still add MORE players, as their window is open for 17 more days Its not even close in terms of who is the better side atm

He absolutely made the bid, we met his RC, but he is on a far better team and didn't want to leave.

They were not the only source, it was all over Spain. And Atletico Mardid acknowledged it and is giving him a new contract, with an increased RC. here are Spanish sources (no, not the tosh from Don Balon, etc) https://www.mundodeportivo.com/futbol/atletico-madrid/20180807/451239482145/oblak-fichaje-chelsea.html https://okdiario.com/deportes/atletico-madrid/2018/08/12/oblak-rechazo-chelsea-que-estaba-dispuesto-pagar-100-millones-clausula-2969056 https://as.com/futbol/2018/08/12/primera/1534063219_361844.html http://www.marca.com/futbol/atletico/2018/08/12/5b6fffb0e2704ef5668b4640.html 250m euro RC increase http://ecodiario.eleconomista.es/futbol/noticias/9322411/08/18/El-Atletico-de-Madrid-le-ofrece-a-Oblak-el-doble-de-sueldo-y-250-millones-de-clausula.html https://www.msn.com/es-es/deportes/futbol/el-atlético-avanza-para-renovar-a-oblak-los-datos-de-la-operación/ar-BBLEQ0y

Oblak and Kepa are both better than Alisson. Who is a damn good keeper as well. We are in great shape at keeper for next 7 years plus.

What, that we offered €100m for a keeper as in that's too much for him (it isn't), or are you saying it didn't happen because it did happen at all? Atletico Madrid said it did and now they reward Oblak with new contract and increase RC to quarter of a billion euros.

We did, we met his release clause, he declined, but I am so happy with Kepa. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-6052121/Jan-Oblak-rejected-Chelsea-club-met-89m-release-clause.html Oblak's release clause is now going to be increased from €100m to €250m in his new contract. https://www.intothecalderon.com/2018/8/12/17680376/report-oblaks-release-clause-to-be-increased-to-quarter-of-a-billion-chelsea-rejected-transfer

Yes, everyone knows Wright-Phillipe is French, Louis Philippe I's distant relation, lololol.

I missed this great pick up for them WOW what a window they had (for a Promoted clubs, Wolves did the same thing too, just not to this level) Zambo Anguissa, along with Diadie Samassékou of RB Salzburg, and Denis Zakaria from Borussia Mönchengladbach was one of my trio of great young DMF's out there I am still shocked Shitty didnt move for one of them or Steven Nzonzi or Danilo Pereira or Leandro Paredes, they are crazy to go into the season with the amount of games they play with only ONE DMF, (34-before-seasons-end Fernandinho) Maybe Pepe si doing away withe the position. Maybe he will use Fabian Delph there, who nows. Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa joins Fulham from Marseille https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/aug/09/fulham-andre-frank-zambo-anguissa-timothy-fosu-mensah-luciano-vietto Fulham break record with £30m Anguissa transfer on frantic last day • Fosu-Mensah and Vietto loan deals sealed after 5pm deadline • Sergio Rico and Joe Bryan also arrive at promoted club On a frantic last day of business Fulham broke their transfer record with the purchase of Marseille’s André Frank Zambo Anguissa, a deal which took their summer spending over £100m on their return to the Premier League. Southampton finally sign Danny Ings after Crystal Palace prefer Jordan Ayew Read more Fulham confirmed the arrival of Anguissa for around £30m having been granted permission by the Premier League to complete the formalities of the move after the 5pm cutoff. The 22-year-old Cameroon international had undertaken a medical in the south of France earlier in the day. The defensive midfielder agreed a four‑year deal worth £67,000 a week. Fulham had sought similar extra time to secure the loansignings of Timothy Fosu-Mensah, a versatile defender who spent last season at Crystal Palace, and Luciano Vietto from Manchester United and Atlético Madrid respectively. Vietto, an Argentinian striker, had cost Atlético £14m in the summer of 2015 but will now provide competition for Aleksandar Mitrovic. He has spent time on loan at Sevilla and Valencia in recent years. Deals for Sergio Rico and Joe Bryan were completed before the cut-off. Chelsea had considered Rico, 24, as a replacement for Thibaut Courtois, after the Spain international fell out of favour at Sevilla. “Sergio is a world-class goalkeeper, and his services have been in great demand,” the Fulham’s director of football operations, Tony Khan, said. “Sergio answers our mandate of making our squad the strongest and deepest it can be as we face top Premier League opposition.” Bryan arrived from Bristol City having pulled out of a prospective transfer to Aston Villa on Wednesday evening. The left-back cost £6m and has signed a four-year deal, with an option for a further season. “Fulham’s style of play has really stood out to me and it will suit me,” the 24-year-old said. “The opportunity to play in the Premier League is one you can’t turn down as you may never get it again in your lifetime.” Jean Michael Seri, André Schürrle, Calum Chambers, Alfie Mawson, Maxime le Marchand and Fabri had joined earlier in the summer. Slavisa Jokanovic’s side are at home to Palace, coached by the former Fulham manager Roy Hodgson, on Saturday.

Well, IF tonight's Inter v Atletico Madrid game is any type of portent of things to come, I may just get my wish! LOOK at this goal by Lautaro Martínez

That is a perfectly fair point, but I am not going to worry about it. Real Madrid wanted (still deep down does) Kepa over ALL others, even De Gea. Courtois (rightly so as he is a fucking beast, just a cunt of a person) is the ONLY other GK's they have gobbed on about for last 3,4,5 years. Kepa TURNED THEM DOWN. It was partially a political thing. The Basque region HATES HATES (even more than Barca and Catalonia do) Madrid and the central government. ETA, you have heard of them? Like IRA of northern Spain. Euskadi Ta Askatasuna. Real Madrid was THE team of the reactionary dictatorship under Franco, for decades. The rest of Spain HATES them, partially for this. It would be like a Yorkist King having an official footie clubs during the War of the Roses. The Lancastrians would HATE THEM. Why do you think Bilbao is called ATHLETIC Bilbao? NOT Atletico? Because they do not want to use use Castilian Spanish in their name. Franco banned all the other regional languages. Basque and Catalan especially. It is why Barca's Nou Camp is so so so big (besides football passion). It were they could all gather and speak Catalan. The same for Athletic and also (but to lesser extent) Real Sociedad, SD Eibar, Deportivo Alavés, and then in Catalonia, Barca, RCD Espanyol, Gimnàstic de Tarragona, UE Lleida, Girona FC Més que un club <<< Barca motto Bilbao ONLY takes in Basque players (Basques are also in Southwest France (like Aymeric Laporte, now on Manchester Shitty) Many (there are exceptions ) refuse to ever play for Real Madrid Con cantera y afición, no hace falta importación" <<< with talent and support from the home, you do not need imports (cantera means quarry, like a rock quarry, but in Basque it also means youth academy) Also they will sign Basque-born and raised players of another ethnicity (best example now is Iñaki Williams, who is half Ghanaian, half Liberian, but born and raised in Blibao.) Kepa is one of the Basques who refuses to go to the Capital clubs. Basque Flag Here is a Basque comedy show called Vaya Semanita where an Athletic Bilbao fan goes to Madrid and finds some neo-Nazis who are going to beat him for supporting a Basque team, but later slips out of the issue by saying that the Athletic, by only signing in Basque players, they are the only team made up entirely by Spaniards.

Do not forget that 6.2 feet is NOT the same as 6 feet 2 inches, lolol 189 is around 6 feet 2 and a half inches so many make that mistake (NOT saying you are) its why metric is best!! (divisible by 10 so only decimal point moves needed) I am 183cm, so a cunt hair (not mine, I wax!!) over 6 feet My older sister (I am baby of a TALL family by 20 years and byfar the shortets, thank dog, when you see their heights) is closest to me. She is 190cm and seems to tower over me (in my mind at least) as does all my nuclear family does. My mum is 192cm, My father is 199cm, and both my brother were around 2 metres tall (the passed on one was 1.99, same as Courtois and my dad) the yonger (but still 22 tears older than me, lol) is 200.5cm (and CLAIMS that extra 0.5 likes its a full 5 extra!!!!!, lolol) I live in stilettos (thus am boosted up to around 6 3 ie 190, 191cm easy), so I can tell you (if you are not close to 187 to 190ish in real life) that even without them, and especially when I am out of Sweden (as we are tall anyway, like the Dutch, and Dinaric Alps/Adriatic area people) I tend to also tower over people, especially other girls /women. Bottom line, 189cm or so is totally fine for a keeper, look at all the best in history, the VAST majority were 182cm to 189cm (Buffon is 191cm so very close), with only moderate level of exception. exceptions Kepa has really good vertical leap and has super quick reflexes. I repeat, if I had known I had the wrong release clause for him, I would have been banging the bell to grab him, once Oblak (the best in world IMHO) and Alisson (who Kepa should eventually be better than anyway) were no longer available. I was so pushing Alex Meret (190cm), but that cunt De Laurentiis got him for Nnapoli,and for only £19m!!) and then, of course, Thomas Strakosha (193cm). BUT I would take Kepa over BOTH, in a flash, by far. we got a really WORLD CLASS GK!! (AND only 23!!!!) We also got the 2nd best (after Busquets, who is 30 now and only has 2 or 3 years or so at the top left) Defensive combo deep playing MFs in the world, in Jorginho, TRULY superb players. And I REALLY rate Mateo Kovacic, he is going to be a BEAST. He is the poor mans version of SMS, and I think is better than Piotr Zielinski for napoli. To see how I rated him (and this is when I thought Real would never give him up, exact same mistake I made with Athletic Bilbao and Kepa) see here (one of my better posts, btw)

Lol at all the freaking out over Kepa's height. He is around 1.89m. For comparison...... ffs Iker Casillas 1.85m Oliver Kahn 1.88m Gianluigi Buffon 1.91m Lev Yashin 1.89m Gordon Banks 1.85m Neville Southall 1.85m Dino Zoff 1.82m Peter Shilton 1.83m Sepp Maier 1.85m RELAX!!!!!!!

They were in negotiations for weeks, it was no panic buy. He is the real deal, world class. I am over the moon we got him. Read all the Spanish fans sites for the national team, over half wanted him to start over De Gea. Athletic Bilbao is a wonderful club to learn football at. We are set for years at GK. De Gea btw, has not looked the same since spring, making really stupid errors. No clue what's up with him.

He is the basically same height as Oblak, De Gea, ter Stegen, Ederson, Perin, Alex Meret, and Lloris. They are all within a cm or 2 of each other in height or the same. He is 2 cms shorter than Alisson. Taller than Cillesson or Pickford. I often included him on my lists, but always said we had no chance as I had the wrong figure for his release clause (when he turned down Real Madrid and signed a 7 year contract). The articles all said it was €150m. Now I see it was corrected. Oh, btw, Wikipedia has fake height for him. He is 1.89m. Courtois is 1.99m, Donnarumma 1.96m, they are the only really good ones over 1.95m atm.

I was the first to vote. Kante all the way. Then Luiz. Then Jorginho. Jorginho did have a couple dodgy passes but recovered quickly. Zero chance he had a 100% completion rate.

Overall very very happy, even Alonso looked like he found some speed pills. Only poor performances I saw were Barkley and Morata (there is no shock there, and tbh, Morata was not horrid, just needs to pick it up further, at least he is moving in right direction, same for Barkley, I still have hope for both cuz I LOVE OUR TEAM) Kante and Luiz were the 2 best (Eden would have been had he played whole game) Pedro came out of his funk of last two games. So happy leaden footed Fabregas didn't play, RLC looked really lively. I rate over a 6.5 out of 10, and good start.

How Hazard could become Chelsea's ‘false 9’ under Sarri http://www.goal.com/en/news/how-eden-hazard-could-become-chelseas-false-9-under-sarri/thl0lkcd44ao1t19097jug9n5

I am thinking Eden as a false 9

Thread winna (unfortunately many at our expense)

I HAVE to be the lucky charm for us this year!! I am half Swedish, half Bajan (Barbados) Born a couple of miles from Stamford Bridge (the old Westminster Hospital, now the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital on Fulham Road) look at my ethnicity's colours/flags and then our kits this year

Here is the ultimate false 9 game (with Messi in the role) Ironically, Pedro played and scored in this match. Alex Ferguson said this squad was the best team he had ever faced or seen in his life. They almost won the Sextuple (they won La Liga, won the Champions League, won the Supercopa de España, won the UEFA Super Cup, and won the FIFA World Clup Championship. The only thing they missed was the Copa del Rey (they lost 1-nil to Real Madrid in the final). MASSIVE BONUS, you get the see that cunt Mou get his arse smashed like a window in one of the London Student Riots (pic below at bottom) that were going on at the same time as this game (oh memories!, I was in those lolol). Barca 5 Real Madrid 0 29-11-2010 Spaletti with Totti as a false nine in 2006-7 was the one who brought it back to the modern game. It was also Totti's all-time peak year for goals (32)

I meant as a number nine, our main striker?

What about Dybala (not that we could pry him away from Juve for less than £135 to more likely £150m range)?