LDN Blue

Don't think I'll bother tuning in for this one. Hiddink said no academy players will start, meaning Mike-Matic to rage us to death coupled with finals this week.. I have better things to do with 90 minutes. Hope club does something more special than a guard of honour for Ranieri.

Fair enough but we go on so much about 'big clubs' and what the benchmark ought to be, some fans do take interest in that. And yes the football side is clearly the most important thing, but there's more to a football club than that now. Associating with just giants in their own respective industries only does well to represent the Chelsea brand globally. The bigger we want to become, and thus keep achieving better by enticing world-class players, the more we want our reputation to enhance. And again, not saying just because we sign with Nike we'll sign Messi tomorrow (there's always one..) but its something to think about. You shake hands with the right people and they shake hands with better people..

Wow, author did a great job of getting a lot more details of this than we know, fair play to him. Couple of eye jumping extracts:

No but they certainly help sell the Chelsea brand. That's why sponsorship works both ways, we show off their brand while they incorporate ours into theirs. You can't ignore that Nike's catalogue of teams and player clearly shows there's a reason they're in the elite with Adidas. Both brands bring up the value of the other. We sign with any other smaller competitor we're essentially trying to carry their weight of branding. Nike's advertising and marketing side alone is enormous. Just step outside and have a look, you can't get away from it. It's beneficial for both parties.

Absolute joke. This groundshare thing better be a sick joke, I'd hate sharing Wembley with Tottenham but at least Wembley is neutral. Olympic Stadium will be West Ham's HOME ground.

Lmao go on the kits page and see how people think Manchester United aren't a bigger global brand..

This fraud is so lucky that Sky Sports don't care he's full of shit. The man know absolutely fuck all most the time but gets away with it because he gets an interview now and then /rant

You'll have to explain this one to me.. As far as I remember Mourinho sacrificed Mata for this lad and backed him as 'my number 10'.

You guys can deny it, but Term's right lol. Brand value means a lot more than sometimes who pays the most. It's not like they're giving us peanuts.. I really hope we've got a deal with Nike already and they're just formalising everything.

My condolences to you and your family, hope you're better pal.

In the hour and a half I was revising for my finals, Bayern announce 2 major signings . Fair play Bayern, identifying exactly who they want and getting them without relative hassel. Dortmund continue to be royally fucked by them, but let's hope the men in yellow can overcome this next season!

Yeah to an extent, of course. Yeah fourth is the minimum you'd expect from a club with such a massive reputation and through our own internal combustion we've royally screwed that up. But that still doesn't excuse the expectations Wenger has continued to underperform with. Take this season alone; in a season where two of the heaviest spenders in the last 10 years have done awfully it was his to lose. Lack of investment on the first team, other than to goalkeeping department cos him titles and trophies. Honestly, I don't mind us being out of Europe for a season (EL included). Gives us a clean slate to focus solely on domestic success, which in turn will secure champions league football for the following year. And if we do that, if we win 2-3 trophies next year while finishing top 4, that will put us above Arsenal in whichever way they can spin it.

Lol mate, I strongly have to disagree. Wenger could only dream to have such a remarkable 12 years where he's only once finished outside the top 4. In that time his success alone in EVERY country he's been too, both domestically and in Europe speaks for itself. There will be a season where Wenger will bottle top 4, if he doesn't retire/leave by then. Will you then change your mind regarding that?

Embarrassing, yes. A disaster? Not really. This has been the most unpredictable season we've had in a long time. Were it not for Leicester the top 4 would be much more favourable for City, United and Arsenal. This year we've had Tottenham and Leicester more or less replace Chelsea and City. But with two giants out of the CL, it makes the domestic run in a bit more exciting. I don't think it's even a deal breaker for Pep, he'll have that first season to build himself a solid foundation and enter the 2017-18 competition in a better prepared way? Who knows tbh.

You say that but Costa celebrated his avidly and Hazard was delighted with his work too. Matic's must be more down to continued speculation about his departure as well as his treatment this term under both Mourinho & Hiddink. I don't blame him, but wow lol.

Didn't look too bothered about scoring did he?

He's meant to have bags and bags of potential, but it's yet to come through. In his defence, he's got an incompetent Ivanovic occupying the role for the man ahead of himself! It's nonsense if you think about it. With Aké coming back, having shone at Watford, you wonder what's the deal here. We've been blessed with some of the finest left-backs; Wise, Cole, Bertrand, Luis, Le Saux and so on. Some we've utilised, others we haven't, some we're yet to. If Baba does run out of patience then Ake's ready to step up, if not we look to Aina or Dasilva one day. The latter having been talked so prominently by Ian Wright.

List of those set to miss Euros continues to grow.. Laporte, Zouma, Veratti, Kompany, Gundogan, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Darmian perhaps.

Is there a 'quick reply' method? Using tab button in threads with polls will move the cursor to vote instead of 'submit reply'. Perhaps a ctrl+ent feature could be added?

We used to have a hall of fame on here, that should be right in there

So Willian will play Copa and Olympics? We've seen the cost of poor pre-season already. Wonder how Conte will work Willian's schedule in now, could see the Brazilian's playing time limited if someone takes his spot for their own.

Yeah I don't get it either lol. These Ronaldo comparison will never come to fruition if the guy doesn't try and back his performances in goals. He's absolutely brilliant at everything else. Dribbling, vision, skill, first touch, getting into the box. But then you have games like Tottenham where he could've had 2-3 goals. Was it not for a lack of pass by Costa, Hazard would've scored much earlier in that game and he could've bagged himself a brace and a win for us. This is amazing lol. Stats tell an accurate picture in this one instance on shooting. 1.1 shot a game Strangely, this is very Willian reminiscent. Prior to this season he had all the correct attributes, not quite on the high scale as Hazard but we're being relative. Willian could run at the defence, with penetrating runs into the box or out wide. But his decision making was atrocious. Passing when he should shoot or shooting when he should pass.

Am I right in assuming, should Liverpool win their next league match, it would be mathematically impossible to qualify for Europa League? Only 8th place can get the last spot?

I feel like we go over this process time and time again There's no doubt the youth transfer market is a market of its own. Behaving in an entirely different way to the 'professional' transfer market. You're not just buying potential for yourself you're buying on their value and such. Personally, I don't know how I feel about it. Our academy is a treasure chest right now, the replication of the Busy Babe's record in FAYC is a feat that should be shown off. Their time is quickly upon us and I'd dread to think the repercussions of screwing these guys up. I don't want to bring up the generation we've let go again, but we're gonna have to do a lot better than one Courtois every 3 years..

By proxy of my best mate (Newcastle fan), hope we smash them to pieces.