LDN Blue

You know what, we'll actually have to wait till our first pre-season game and play "spot Eddie on the bench"

I forgot where I read but apparently Di Matteo's keen to keep him on. I assume he'd get his own coaching staff? Urgh, typical Chelsea of not sharing such news

Goal says he doesn't have them yet. And Superblue_1986, that I can agree to. However even Di Matteo has earned his stripes with coaching badges. Just because Desailly was a fantastic defender and leader, doesn't mean he'd be the same as a coach, it's a complete different environment. I trust Robbie's judgement though. Any word on Newton's job?

Congrats Shon. Your work on the TC YouTube show is a credit to your work on this place.

Na mate, just saying we don't need to name and shame. Everyone here knows what spamming and trolling is, so let's all avoid it

There's no need for "naming and shaming.", just stop spamming

Bit of a 'meh' one for me. I think he still needs to stay at Wigan for his own personal development. As strange as some of Whelan's comments are, he's right about trying to keep the lad for him to progress. Whelan is a football man, he said Martinez can coach a big club if they came calling and he's saying Moses should move eventually, but he's still 21 and breaking into this squad with Hazard, Marin, Mata & co will not be an easy feat. I'm a fan of the suggestion of signing now and loaning back.

A bit weird about getting Desailly as a coach without him having obtained coaching badges.

SO glad he's moved to China. Would be unbearable to see him competing in Europe and potentially against us after such legendary service to the club. Thank you Drogba!

Submitted an application

About time I got a chance to make a few brief points on this; The two-year deal is a lot more reassuring than the rumored one-year rolling contract. This keeps Di Matteo's mind at rest also the players who will start to be a bit wary come January-March where the media will begin the excruciating rumor mill of will he sign, won't he sign? Will Chelsea offer a deal, or won't they? For the sake of harmony it's also a good choice. Hazard, De Bruyne, Lukaku etc had all gone to the press about wanting RdM to stay in the hotseat, for the club to go against this opinion would've risked some backlash, albeit minor ones because the players know that's how this club operates. The momentum of the end of the last season will play in Robbie's favour a lot and it's a truly testing time for how he starts the season. Good job about the 2-year deal is there won't be that big of a compensation pay-out when it comes to it (should he be fired). Common rumours suggest we're only waiting for Guardiola to return, and even if that's true I don't really care. Di Matteo has the chance to continue his good work at the end of the season and if he does, we won't even need Pep. Good luck to him, hope he doesn't get sacked if it all goes pear-shaped.

Would be an interesting back-up option. But after fine form for Schalke that would be a tragic mistake for him. Felt sorry for him at Milan, glad he's found his touch in Germany, he shouldn't move imo.. Would be a very good back-up mind you.

LOL that seems like such horseshit. Even if it's true the Spurs players are stupid for taking word-for-mouth before even giving him a chance. I don't care anyway, let them implode

LMAO it's so bad it makes me laugh!! Everyone always said BR was full of shit. This just emphasises it like I've never seen it, wow

The problem lay when we first signed him to a professional contract, I read somewhere we started him on like £50k/week (no source here). From there it was always going to be a slippery road because that's an absurd contract for a teenager. Can't blame him for holding us to ransom tbh.

The problem is, as pointed out by Strike, when you start with players like Drogba you have to ask "what about..". Arsenal have had Henry and co because no-one's really come close to their stature (mind the pun) recently. But we have so many legends to be thankful too that a limit has to be set. Osgood, Harris & Bonetti for now though, that would be a good start (with the latter two).

Yea but even some German fans have suggested Marin is another who likes to play centrally. Though I do accept the point about United. Nani, Valencia and Young seem happier on the wings. There's a sharp decline of natural wingers. As BBC said on the Russian-Pole half-time analysis, "more wingers are not reverting to inside wingers while full backs are a lot more attack minded"

But who is a "natural winger" now? Every winger now dreams of being an "inside forward" or even being an out and out central player. Even Hazard.

Lot of clubs will chase him now. Another one we "should've" nabbed before these games.

Indeed. I'm not his biggest fan at all at the moment, but blimey what a shift he put in for Spain. Looks like he's finally actually delivering on his "enjoying football" claim. Of course the likes of Xavi and Fiberglass help, but end of the day he's still putting in the miles.

Leonardo said PSG will be allowed to talk to Silva. So they must've made a massive offer to AC Milan to even get that. I personally hope he doesn't move, I think he fits in well at Milan (don't hate me Steve ) That being said Leonardo & Carlo have a fantastic relationship with the Milan players so it's no wonder Silva might be ready to listen.

I love how everyone was writing him off before the game and during (albeit, poor first half). Go get 'em Sheva!

Work & studies means I have barely any free time for the next 2 weeks unfortunately .. Managed to nab some time now for a little bit!

I miss you guys

Oh come on guys, the staff here are not like CFC Net or RAWK. For as long as I've been here, they've been great banter, conversational, friendly and more importantly they don't walk on a 'mighter than thou' path just because they are admins or mods.They've rarely ever had to impose sanctions on members, only in a handful of incidents. Okay, so we don't agree with them all the time, but we're not supposed to! So say we're going to turn out like RAWK is just stupid and sort of disrespectful for the staff's intentions of trying to make this place better. And anyway we're only having these little arguments because it's post-season. As soon as the Euro's start, we'll see more activity that's based on football and other things that aren't forum politics. So chill out people, this happens on the end of every season