LDN Blue

Said he expected to. Bayern won't let him go on a free though so if they're not confident he'll sign a new contract then I'm sure they'll try to cash in. It's all falling apart from Pep

It's good to see that everyone actually agrees that we should be using our own resources within the club as opposed to buying a new one! Shows how far we've come, we're no longer interested in marquees because everyone wants to see us make our own.. Just nice to read.

how outrageous that fun should change, hey?

Because that's simply, unfortunately, the Chelsea way..

Precisely. We're not a selling club, by that I mean we don't sell players that are key to the team and Mourinho himself. We don't need the money, we don't make those players disillusioned with our ambitions and we pay a hell of a lot more. PSG is simply not a better project. They're stuck in a league where competition is narrowing as every season goes. Their manager is not Mourinho or anyone of that calibre and we can match them penny for penny in wages. The club won't even allow themselves to be entertained by offers let alone negotiating.

If we sell Oscar I worry for what alternative there really is, my next option would've been Ozil to be honest. It's no fluke that Mourinho described him as the best no10 in the world.. Someone of Oscar's caliber deserves another season, it's not fair to dismiss him already & we've got no reasonable alternative either. We shouldn't just cash in because he failed to reach the heights of when he first joined. I trust Mourinho to work hard next season to get Oscar to return to his form. His instincts told him to trust Oscar over Mata, so let's give him time to prove this instinct.

SkySports report £4m. To be honest it's not the worst deal they'll do. He's obviously there for depth, a striker to fill on for when Sturridge is injured. Kind of like when we got Anelka to cover for Drogba.. Lambert's stats are impressive and he's another HG player for them. I'd keep a worrying eye on Liverpool tbh. They're strengthening exactly where they need to already, Moreno will be a huge asset to them as they've been vulnerable on the left for a while.

Did he get that at Boro? I haven't checked his appearances for them

How do you mean?

Nail on the head. It's why we want the youngsters to come through as well, fans always identify with players that rise through the ranks. When you buy the players young too, like Lampard. That's why Shaw would be so important. It's why so many were delighted when Lukaku signed.. Countless numbers of that video were posted of his visit to SB uttering the words "one day I will play here".

I don't agree here, I believe Azpili will be moved back to RB. We're definitely not going to spend £20m on a back up to left-back, that doesn't make sense at all. I'm sure there are much cheaper alternatives to a second choice for that.

But is it 'potential'? Potential is when you should you're talent in a few games here and there, sporadically making appearances here and there. Shaw has been consistent in the Premier League for the last 2 years, he's handled his own against the giants in Man City, United, Liverpool and us.. He's been one of Southampton's most consistent players and if he's keeping Cole out of the England squad then he's clearly doing something well. I don't think they're paying for potential, because Shaw can easily walk into the Chelsea team and be reliable enough to play 38 games in his first season in the league. I disregard his age completely if I'm honest. You look at Varane, he's 19 years old but Carlo/Mourinho didn't care. He played in finals against Barcelona and AtM. Shaw's unlucky because Southampton aren't in Europe so he couldn't showcase his talents there but that doesn't mean he's not capable. If he's capable in the PL there's no reason to doubt him. He's very level headed for an 18-year old, visibly strong and doesn't shy away from the big occasions. Do we really want to look on the sidelines if he makes an instant impact for United? Can we afford to go for short-term alternatives like Luis and have a LB problem in 2-3 years while Shaw goes on to be a world-beater?

Problem is, for all we know he's tried but no-one's willing to take him on. The club will look to try and get as much as they can for him to try and recoup some of that £50million spend on him in the first place. Even a loan isn't ideal because a. We'd end up paying most his wages anyway and b. There's no adequate cover in the Jan market to replace him.. I firmly believe in the August he believed he could help Nando but January was too late to replace him. I mean I don't want to defend him, because he's got a habit of saying the wrong things at the wrong time (i.e. that interview after the CL final) but sometimes I feel he's baited into these comments. For all we know the question put to him was about his last days at Liverpool and can we fault him for saying such sentimental words about that?

But you could argue that because of such deals we have the necessary financial strength to make such marquee signings. If for ever Shaw deal we end up buying players of the caliber of Azpi, Courtois & Cahill then we're doing very well.. We're flexing our financial muscles when absolutely necessary without making it a precedent for other such deals. Thing with Shaw is just we're unlucky that a. he's got this new contract where £30m is the buy-out and b. we didn't scout him before his rise up the Southampton ranks. Courtois has the potential to be the most expensive GK in the world right now if we sold him but because he was scouted early on, before the world saw his class, we got a cut-price deal for him. Azpilicueta was 3rd choice RB at Marseilles when he grabbed him and now we could get around £20m. So if we end up paying £30m for Shaw because we didn't get him earlier on it doesn't really matter because he becomes an anomaly around our cheaper acquisitions. We don't want to end up like Arsenal where we'll only break the bank once every 10 years because we're too stubborn to strengthen when it's not too late.

Well you're right, the left-back pool is certainly getting shorter too.. Liverpool are in for Moreno http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11669/9330407/transfer-news-liverpool-linked-with-sevilla-left-back-alberto-moreno

What's a concern to me is that I've not seen any solid articles linking us to Shaw, SkySports have only reported Manchester United being really interested in him. We've only been fully linked with Luis.

It's Scott Parker all over again when we signed him 2 weeks after he scored v Us

Sounds like he had a good game then, captain too? That's a great comeback in its own right, let's hope Mourinho acknowledges.

Oops.. Heh..

He was 6 then.... Imagine :|

Yep, Van Ginkel should have a future with us. Sure they're not proven world beaters, but Tiago isn't exactly one either.. He's in good form and he's out of contract, yeah it's not a massive hit on finances but it's an unnecessary signing too.

Call me naive, but I really don't think Mourinho is under massive pressure to deliver. Chelsea have now won everything there is to win (well, with the exception of the Club World Cup) under Roman Abramovich so I actually think Mourinho has the leeway that you believe he'd be granted if we won something. Sure, he hasn't won the European ones with us but he also really doesn't have anything to prove. I'm sure his objectives were that, and they always will be, but the hierarchy won't be entirely upset with this season.. We got to the semi-finals of the CL, we were in the title race till week 37 (which was a feat within itself with our squad). I'm not entirely dismissive of the fact we have to continue to mount a good title challenge and be in there again till week 38 and European aspirations will always be the objective.. But Mourinho would not have come back if he hadn't made a series of reality checks to the board. If it's true they want expansive football then he would've told them that you can't just do that overnight (as our managerial history has shown). And the board aren't naive. You look at the way Mou talks about Oscar, Matic, Hazard and Salah "the future of Chelsea", so he/they do want the young players in. They probably do want to therefore use the academy players. No-one is saying use Feruz/Bamford to lead the line, nor are they saying use Kalas-Zouma as our #1 CB partnership. But does it really do damage to have Chalobah alongside Matic? Nat's proved he can do it at Championship level and obviously it would be a learning curve, but he's protected by having Matic next to him and JT/Cahill behind him.. In the grand context of the squad it's not a dangerous place to play someone.

Only makes sense if we're losing Mikel AND Ramires to be honest because he just seems like he's coming for depth. If that's the case then I definitely cosign the calls for Chalobah to come do that same role. This doesn't make sense unless it's a rolling contract..

Yeah course, each to their own! Haha I have a long standing theory his translator is the real brains behind pochettino's success

Yeah but I don't even see him in Turkey or anywhere like that. I could only see him working under a manager he already knows, which only really leaves Carlo.. But I think the Real ship sailed a while back. LA Galaxy have always had an interest in him so I'm sure he wouldn't mind working with Robbie Keane.