Henrique

No. There is a reason why this squad is shit at the moment, because Mourinho had the same mentality: not good enough to be in starting XI, then just sell the player. This squad is so weak and small, that I don't understand why people keep wishing more players are sold. Oscar should not be starting every game, but he still is a useful player. About the penalty, Costa should the one taking penalties.

They might be reliable, but I really doubt they have a clue about who is going to be the next manager.

Pedro, and after Luiz we had Mata.

I still don't understand why you believe its going to e Conte, actually I don't even believe Conte is a candidate at all. For me its just like this: Conte seems to be willing to leave Italy after Euro 16, Chelsea is looking for a manager. Humm, lets make some news about Chelsea and Conte. Conte is really a very unChelsea move, so its easier to see Sampaoli getting the job than Conte.

"Never parks the bus and never looks for a draw against big teams. He always tries to win". Doesn't sound like Mourinho 2003/2007.

Hazard for Cavani+Thiago Silva+another PSG player is a fine deal.

Doesn't make any sense to compare Mata and Hazard in this aspect. Mata left because it was clear Mourinho saw him as an useless player, to other side Hazard has the status of the team's most important player. Mata's poor form came from the fact Mourinho was asking him to do the things that just don't fit his playing style (Mata is a typical #10, while Mourinho wanted a Willian kid of winger), while Hazard's poor performance come from lack of desire.

It seems Hazard's fitness level has been low for the whole season. Less than 3 months of competitive football, and I really doubt at this point people really believe Hazard's problem is his fitness level.

Hazard needs to leave the club ASAP because its clear he lost his desire to be a Chelsea player. He wasn't great in the 1st half, you might say he was okay, great is not the right word here. Hazard is fit, his injury was decades ago and wasn't even a huge injury, and he has been involved in games for weeks, its not like he is a player that just came out from a 6 months injury and is playing his 1st or 2nd game. People are not talking about Costa because Costa has been our best player since Mourinho left, while Hazard has been shit for the whole season. His head is elsewhere and he is definetely leaving next transfer window.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA. WHAT A LEGEND.

He wasn't, but he isn't the role model for a young player like Traore.

Good teams are supposed to smash awful sides. Actually there are some reasons to believe more in this team than in the previous season: 1- The team showed tactical variations. We can park the bus and play ugly and boring football to get a safe 0-0 result, or can put some intensity and score 5. Matic, Mikel; Oscar, Willian, Fabregas; Costa will give you a different animal than Matic, Fabregas; Willian, Hazard, Pedro; Costa. Very different from the rigid 4-2-3-1 Mourinho adopted, that was so fucking predictable. We know that the only variation to the "classic" Matic; Fabregas; William, Oscar; Hazard; Oscar formation, was introducing Ramires in Fabregas position, and moving Fabregas to Oscar position. 2- This team showed fighting spirit since Mourinho left. During Mourinho's days when the team conceded a goal you actually knew we were going to lose, at the moment the guys are fighting until last minute, and Everton and United games showed this team can really fight back, very different from a team that would play a heartless football at home in two UCL in a row (against Atletico and PSG). 3- The team has some great individual quality. 4- The team is improving, so its the perfect moment to start a the UCL knockout stage. Many teams actually already reached their best moments this season and now are in decline, just like our team last season, that played a good football for the 1st half of the season, but was playing a shit football for the 2nd half, and this season we are doing the opposite way. 5- For the past seasons we have limited teams reaching the finals: Chelsea in 2012, Borussia in 2013, Atletico in 2014 and Juventus in 2015. We might be the limited team of the current season.

1- Chelsea won in 2012, and that team was way weaker than the current side. 2- Atletico is not a real contender, 2014 season was a unusual season. Juve reached the final, but they never had a chance against Barcelona in the final, and both teams don't have enough resources to stay strong in the long term. Porto and Monaco were in 2004 UCL final, Inter was in 2010 and Borussia was in 2013. In all those it was clear those teams were not going to emulated the same performances in subsequente seasons, and its the same for Atletico and Juve. 3- Juve is not one of strongest contenders this season, sorry. What are you even talking about there? Juventus has no chance against Bayern. 4-Atletico squad against Barcelona: Oblak; Juanfran, Godin, Gimenez, Filipe Luis; Koke, Saul, Gabi, Augusto, Carrasco; Griezmann. Do you really believe this squad is better than Chelsea? Thats pretty laughable and speaks loud about Mourinho's ability to make other teams look better than they really are. 5- Juventus squad against Napoli: Buffon; Lichtsteiner, Bonucci, Barzagli, Evra; Cuadrado, Khedira, Marchisio, Pogba; Morata, Dybala. Well, thats better than Chelsea? You night say both Juventus and Atletico's squad are in the same level as Chelsea, but saying those line ups are "much better squads than ours" doesn't make ANY kind of sense. 6- When you just realize some of those stats: http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2015/05/06/real-madrid-tops-ranking-of-the-worlds-most-valuable-soccer-teams/#5d744edc3b36 http://www.forbes.com/sites/chrissmith/2015/05/06/soccers-richest-sponsorship-deals/#6944f0d23a75 http://www.forbes.com/soccer-valuations/list/ its really weird to imagines Juventus and specially Atletico "are more likely to be competing for the UCL than us". I will say again, anyone who look the bigger picture can easily realize that Chelsea is a step above for both Allegri and Simeone.

Well, pretty cheap to assume it will be a step backward just because Chelsea is not playing in UCL, its the same thing as saying a Basel's coach or Andre Villas Boas won't be interested in Chelsea job because Basel and Zenith are UCL team's and they are competing for the local leagues. Both Simeone and Allegri know they don't have realistic chances of winning the UCL in their current teams for the next 5 years considering the lack of financial support, and its easier to imagine Chelsea playing a UCL final in 2018 than Atletico or Juventus. Chelsea won't be finishing in the top 4 because of a unusual start of the season caused by a toxic environment created by Mourinho. Simeone also knows he will always face an unfair competition from Real and Barcelona, to the point that in a season that everything is perfect for Atletico, and Barcelona is in crisis, the catalan side still manage to fight for the trophy until the last game of the season. I really doubt Simeone or Allegri would drop the chance to join Chelsea because of "a step backwards", because its easy to understand Chelsea is an upgrade for them. The only reason that they might be less motivated is the fear of Big Roman's axe.

Mourinho never reached UCL final with Chelsea, despite facing Liverpool in 2 occasions, a team that in both occasions was a waker side. Mourinho was fired, Chelsea achieved a UCL final, beating the same Liverpool. I don't understand how people only think about the positive aspects of Mourinho's conservative tactics, or how some people act like its only a matter of taste. Sometimes you get the feeling that Mourinho is more afraid of losing than anything else. Bigger the occasion, more conservative his tactics get. I mean, back in 2005, Chelsea was waaay stronger than Liverpool, but somehow Jose came up with ultra conservative tactics, and could not even score a goal in 180 minutes. The gap was not that huge in 2007, but Chelsea was still some steps above Liverpool. In my opinion the rivalry between him and Rafa affected the outcome of those games, it seems he was so obsessed with not losing, that he made it pretty difficult to actually win. Think about 2008 semi-final. The first 15 minutes of extra-time was one of the most intense football I've ever seen from Chelsea. The team scored a goal that was off-side, then actually scored 2-1, then still pursued a 3rd goal. 3-1. Only in the last 15 minutes the team parked the bus, but I'm sure if Mourinho was in charge, probably the match would have been decided on penalties. Mourinho reached semi-finals 2 times with Real. He was fired, then Real actually won it. Problem with Mourinho tactics is he is ultra conservative even when its not really necessary, thats one of the reasons he is a UCL Semifinal specialist.

Common sense is Falcao never recovered from THAT injury. I don't think this explain why his career reached such a low point. Think about Falcao career. He was great for Porto, then moved to Atlético where he was also great, then Monaco. Porto and Atlético are great teams, but even Atlético back then could only dream about being good enough to win La Liga or even play a UCL Final. United was a new experience for Falcao. Okay, United was not even a UCL side when he joined, but definitely a club with greater status than his previous clubs. Falcao had 2 problems in his United career: 1- he was a player on loan, and he was an expensive player, so in order to stay as United player he needed to leave an awesome impression. Being decent was't enough. 2- United was a bad team that had huge problems in creating chances. I think their top scored that season was Rooney with 12 goals, followed by 10 goal Van Persie. Then he joined Chelsea, another opportunity he had to prove himself in the highest level, but think about his situation. Falcao has 9 PL games, but 8 of those games were cameos during Mourinho's chaotic start of the season, when he was basically introduced when the team was suppa shit and the match was already lost. Costa was basically starting game after game, but I think he had no more than 3 league goals. So, that was definitely the worst situation for Falcao, then he wasn't part of the start of new Hiddink's tenure due to a injury, and again, Falcao is not a Chelsea player, he is a player from Monaco. So, the club just will never be as patient as they were with Torres, since in one situation the club paid 50m and in other case you can just send him back to the club who actually owns his services. Its really embarrassing when people Falcao is the worst Chelsea signing ever, specially when you think about Torres.

lol I hope he is better than Kalou.

Perhaps he is our new Kalou. Limited, but still can score at least 10 goals per season.

I'm the only one who believe we might actually win the UCL this season?

Troll face was needless, because that comment actually was.

Hilarious some people believe in piece of story that don't even indicates a single source. Pato wasn't injured, and played the entire Campeoanto Brasileiro last season, he missed pre season (even thought was involved in pshysical training in early january) so there is a reason why he needs a training programme to regain his form. There is no reason to believe he needs 6 more weeks of training to be fit to even play some games. But, hey, this article was written by the same guy who, one day before Mourinho was sacked, was writing the same thing over and over "a Chelsea insider said Mourinho's positions is unchanged".

You both have good points. Sometimes I ask myself If Premier League is stronger than years ago, or its just the case that we don't have dominant sides as we used to have in the past. The UCL record in recent years leave few doubt: strongest teams in England are not as good as before. United was eliminated by Wolfsburg, a team that at this moment is 8th in Bundesliga, and about the "lesser sides", are Everton better than Málaga or Real Sociedade, are West Ham, Southampton or Stoke really better than Bilbao and Sevilla?

Indeed, yesterday he looked pretty anxious, and his injury wasn't exactly and accident.

The problem with Allegri and Conte rumors is, in general the press just say something like "Allegri believed to be in Chelsea list", or something that sound pretty fake, like "Allegri signed a 4 years deal to be Chelsea manager from 2016 to 2020". We never saw something like is happening between Mourinho and United at the moment or between Guardiola or City before, when every single journal around were saying Guardiola was very likely to be City's manager next season.

Really embarrassing to compare people talking bad words about Pedro, with people who talked about Costa. Costa did great in Lá Liga with a side that is not as flamboyant as Barcelona, and he was eaily their main man for 13/14 Atlético's epic season. Costa was great for the 1st half of 14/15 season, and yes, he started this season pretty bad, but his problem was more related with being more concerned about starting fights, and lacking desire on the pitch (people thought about Fabregas and Hazard Having problems with Mourinho, but I'm sure Costa had big problems with José, his body language and effort really changes after Mourinho was sacked). To other what you can say about Pedro? Did you really watched Barcelona games or just the most hyped ones, like El Clássico and Chapions League Finals? Do you remember a great game that Pedro played for Spain NT? If you watched Barcelona's games, it was clear Pedro wasn't in the same level as the likes of Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, Henry, Ronaldinho, Eoo, Giouly or Deco, the attacking players I can remember of the Barcelona great sides of recent years. He was that decent player, that could converte some chances of his amazing side, but never a "key" player. Playing for Chelsea he looks embarrasing, and I think its really strange that some people believe that there is a "tik taka player". He is not tik taka player, he is just a limited guy with Barcelona's brand on his CV,