LDN Blue

Last season Maicon, this season Cole. Roma sure do like their experienced full-backs Best of luck to him! Roma will be challenging Juventus again (hopefully) and will be in the CL so Cole's experience will be certainly called upon.

A loan at Sunderland? Oh boy. So we loan out Kalas and Zouma which means we're not trying to integrate a Terry replacement this season. Slightly baffled by this, we know JT is a consistent performer but his decline will be noticeable. Back up we have Ivanovic but surely we should have either Kalas or Zouma as a back up too, particularly in less significant games.. Unless that's Aké, I'm slightly confused by this.

You're right, if they don't perform at the level that's expected next season we will lose the title of course. However this kind of thread is premature in that aspect, suggesting the signing of Vidal/Pogba has the same risks you said about Costa.. Having not played in the PL before properly (in case of Pogba). I think we have the right personnel in the AM roles it's just a case of Mourinho finding his best XI, there was a lot of rotation/figuring out the right system for Mou but that's excusable in his first season. With the strikers situation, Mourinho does love having an experienced striker with him so yeah I think we may see another one come in if Ba and Torres go. That being said, I wouldn't be surprised if we kept hold of Ba because an older striker is rare to come by this transfer window. You said 'few years' for our potentially world class players to prove their worth but I think Hazard and Willian aren't that far off from showing their best for us, certainly I don't think Hazard is. Matic still has everything to prove I think, he had a brilliant half-season for us but remember he was well rested with not having CL football.

Omg, let's actually do "Next to be banned" for light humour ...on second thoughts, that light humour might escalate into something else

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11669/9373989/transfer-news-liverpool-closing-on-benficas-lazar-markovic-according-to-reports

Crisis is an overreaction. Most of it will be intensified by Oscar & Hazard not lighting up the World Cup like they were expected to do, so a bit of pessimism is sort of justified. That being said, we've made some shrewd acquisitions already in Fabregas and, soon to be, Costa. Don't think our summer spending is over, but Mourinho is moulding this team to his specifications to compliment the players we have. We can't keep buying attacking midfield players like Di Maria, Isco and Reus thinking they'll make a positive impact for us. Mourinho sees Oscar, Hazard and Matic being the guys that will lead this Chelsea team into a next era. So crisis is an overreaction, particularly when you have someone like Mourinho overseeing this rejuvenation.

Jackie Chan Frank Ribery Billie Holiday Franco Di Santo!

Why, do you know any?

That was my point, everyone was in rage that they'd gone to prove themselves and moved for astronomical prices.. "We should've got him before then". Well, we've done that with Costa.

this thread was a fun read from Belgium being knocked out to know. it's funny because everyone actually agreed about his WC performance initially until people started getting self righteous. This is definitely true. no one will deny here Hazard is a very good player, nor can anyone say he isn't making strides to fulfil his potential. But people are definitely afraid to call him out on things and make excuses. Just because he is criticised doesn't mean he still doesn't have that world class potential. You're right Steve. But it's still important to look at the bigger picture, the characteristics he's being called out on in the aftermath of his WC have similarities in his flaws generally, for club and country. It will be forgotten if he has a superb season because it shows he would've learnt from this. Here's my issue with this. I find the fatigue excuse overused. We made it a lot for Mata, it was justified of course, but you can only use it to an extent before you realise he's a professional athlete. He's not the only one who has such a busy domestic schedule, a lot of players do who DID perform for club and country. It's still a valid excuse, of course. it's his first proper international tournament and so maybe he was naive in preparing but we can't use the fatigue card again because it shows lack of maturity.

but I don't understand why you doubt this so prematurely. when falcao and cavani had consistent numbers all I remember seeing was 'why didn't we get him sooner' etc. This time we've got a striker who we got early before we had to pay those Cavani/Falcao numbers.. can't have it both ways.

disagree entirely. where exactly is he going straight to? Hazard will continue to make that leftwing, Willian is showing everytime that he can command the right wing and Sanchez hardly seems like the number 10 we're apparently craving for. Willian didn't get a chance to light up the World Cup because Scolari kept persisting with Hulk, but we already know his quality.

I'd say that's overstating. he was important, sure, but he didn't carry them. I'm not using the cliché about lesser teams' interest degrading his value.That being said, I still believe this is a case of flavour of the month. he won't be as pinnacle to these teams as everyone thinks.

bit of 'flavour of the month' with Sanchez at the moment. I'm glad we're not making a move for him, let fourth place rivals Arsenal and Liverpool fight it out for him.. I see him as a big fish in a small pond with Chile. He wasn't that effective at Barca his entire tenure and I see him as a short term panic deal tbh

well apparently out youth academy fails because the kids don't have the right attitudes, so that I guess it makes sense

And this is what it's led to.. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/magaluf-video-shows-british-girl-3802568 This is a new low.

I'm confused as to why we've not announced it, if it has happened.. He's a free agent now?

I'll take 20.. 20 goals from a single striker would've won us the league last season lol!

the problem here is he's simply too expensive for the club to do that to. if he's here, he'll also be used because we're not stacked in talent in the striker department. it's not his fault the club gave him a 5 year contract after all.

No, no. I'm saying that because we upgraded our facilities it's embarassing that we still can't produce any talent whatsoever. About the right attitude etc. You can't tell me that for the last 10 years we haven't been able to produce an academy player because none of them have the right attitude?! Attitudes can be changed with the right coaching, we can't continue blaming the kids when they come to us barely an adult.

Lmao it looks awful how they've done it.. Lacks professional quality in that design.

Yeah but on the otherside of the coin, we need that experience of a 25+ yo to mix with our young talent. Especially now that Lampard, Eto'o and Cole have left us.

Why does it matter though? The answer will either oversell Costa or undermine his ability before he's even put a Chels shirt on lmao

Martin O'Neil was asked the other day about "are there any players you didn't know about that have surprised you?" and his answer was simple. In the modern game, with the amount of information available, scouting system etc.. Managers/clubs will more or less know something about every player, especially taking part in the World Cup. So names like Richard Rodriguez haven't come out of the blue for them, they've obviously heard and watched him. We only see half a picture compared to them.

There must be a reason no-one seems to have declared any credible interest in him