The Skipper

Fabinho starting at RWB and providing midfield cover is actually not a bad shout.

Ship's sailed for this. If we truly wanted Sandro it would've been wrapped up weeks ago. Juve aren't selling now they've lost Alves and Bonucci.

Just seen he's the Standard's chief football correspondent so he's sort of Simon's boss. Fingers crossed...

Just seen he's the Standard's chief football correspondent so he's sort of Simon's boss. Fingers crossed...

How reliable is James Olley?

We have 5 CBs and Alonso can play there too. Doesn't make sense to me especially when we have other priorities to fix.

Excellent post man, needed back on the forum more often.

These guys seriously have their priorities mixed up. Why are we still looking for centre backs?

Preach. Pure incompetence, we literally didn't learn anything from 15/16. Even 16/17 window wasn't managed properly - had to panic buy Luiz and Alonso on the last few days. Can't believe it looks like we're doing the same thing 3 seasons in a row now. What is going on?

He's injured.

Bertrand would cost quite a bit imo. At least £30m.

Rose used to be a winger. He's definitely better on the ball than Ash. Ash was just an incredible defender and a competent attacker. Rose has more of the opposite going on for him. He's improved a lot defensively over the years though.

I'd like to see this: Boga Morata Willian Alonso Kante Luiz Moses(?) Rudiger Christensen Azpi Courtois

Is Moses back?

Fantastic second half performance. His passing was excellent.

Cojones. That's what I want from him. Absolutely loved his attitude when he was on. He's bought himself some massive massive credit with that performance.

I'm really impressed.

Well, I think we've found our best back three.

Rudiger's passing has been extremely sharp.

Wow. I'm speechless. Guess it's still unrealistic to want the team to improve greatly and we must be playing video games though, right guys?

Ah, what a signing he'd be. Ashley Cole 2.0? Not getting my hopes up though, just can't see us and Levy doing deals.

I'm really, really sorry people want Chelsea to compete with these super teams. Imagine wanting the champions of England to build a stronger, more competitive squad! How unrealistic and bad that people want that. Shame! People need to stop slagging people off for wanting the club to have more ambition and wanting the club to have a stronger team. There's literally a team in our league that we compete for titles with that has excellent midfield depth: Man City. They have KDB, Fernandinho, Gundogan, Toure, Silva, and then some good youngsters like Diaz and Foden competing for that CM spot. Why can't we aim for the same or something similar? How in the world does that make anyone unrealistic? What's so wrong with wanting the champions of England, one of the most successful teams in the last decade in England to be a bit more ambitious, smarter or imaginative in the transfer market? Our very own manager is literally complaining about the fact we sold Matic and how we've approached the market this season. He's clearly not too happy about it. For example, his idea was clearly to have a midfield core of Matic, Kante, Fabregas and Bakayoko. If that means he plays too many video games because he wants a strong midfield... how can you even say that? I genuinely don't see you criticising Conte for saying exactly the same things some people are saying on here. If Conte has been echoing similar thoughts it's you who isn't being realistic about the situation. Do you want us to properly compete for/win trophies or not? If so, do you feel like the squad is strong enough to challenge strongly on all fronts this season? If you can't clearly answer those questions with conviction, then you can't really criticise those for wanting us to do better in the transfer window.

My main point pretty much is that we obviously have a working relationship with them, especially now Jose is gone, with us selling them Cech they'll probably more inclined to do deals with us. Football isn't as black and white as "just business", as we know as Chelsea fans. Modric/Stones saga is a perfect example. We have soured our relations with both Spurs and Everton because of it. VVD saga this summer is another example.

If he could learn how to defend properly (he's not a cone like Cesc, he's a good athlete) he could possibly play in a two.

Honestly, we calmly gave them one of our club legends, they shouldn't be iffy about giving us AOC.