LDN Blue

Gah Oscar... A bittersweet performance. Sweet, because of his 2 goals, both taken quite well. Bitter because his overall contribution over 90 minutes is still an issue, his passing was bad - & that's an understatement. He is improving though, but you can see why Mourinho doesn't often use him in the 'big' games.

He currently plays for the u8's team. He pretends to "coach". A very "hands on" approach

@xPetrCechx I wouldn't get too excited. Let's see if he actually comes through on this..

Probably another black mark on Ron Gourlay too. I do think you're right though, they'll have to have recognised now that for Chelsea to keep growing it requires larger streams of revenue.

The problem is.. Chelsea Pitch Owners, right?

Incredible. £70,000/week! Who needs MLS, hey?

LMAO.

You missed the key word in my post.. 'was'. He was rubbish at everything else when he arrived, he's improved considerably since.

Yep, a great character too. It was a really bright spell in our history, before Roman Abramovich.. His career didn't go too badly either, Barcelona gave him some trophies to keep as well. The fact he's still playing & scoring now is brilliant in itself.

Absolutely. I still remember that season where and JFH were in their stride.. Was it 56 goals between them?

Wish they asked him more about Chelsea, particularly his partnership with JFH. But I guess he does hold Bolton higher than Chelsea considering the years he spent here.

As I mentioned before, it's not that simple. United have one of the largest stadiums in England, their global brand is probably the biggest in English football and so they're a sponsor's ideal club. Their following is massive where ever you go and their shirt sales probably outdo most clubs in Europe (bar the obvious giants). We're in a very limited position. Our commercial revenue only increases due to TV deals and our stadium revenue barely go up by 0.5% a year due to the limited capacity of our stadium. While our global reach continues to grow in Asia and Africa, we're still behind most giant clubs. In that sense, we need sponsorship more than they need us. That's why for now we have to accept such low offers behind the likes of United & City.. We're doing better than Liverpool which does actually speak volumes considering their global brand.

Correct. Mignolet started his Liverpool career making those hollywood saves, but was soon exposed in all other areas of his goalkeeping. Much like De Gea, great reactions but was rubbish with everything else..

Here, here :tophat: I was always against locking threads straight away when players 'finalised' their moves. There's often basis for conversation anyway.

they both can't do anything with Ravel Morrison though!

Worst thing is, when I saw him play at Blackburn he was actually using his physical presence well. People were comparing Terry for his approach to being defensive by using your strength to win headers and challenges.. That's why at the time I thought he'd be a good fit here to learn from JT but meh. Seems he's been taking lessons from Ashley Young

What could've been for Phil Jones if he was simply allowed to grow as a central defender. An example of when Ferguson gets it really wrong. I've said before, he's got time to reinvent himself.. But he should go somewhere where he doesn't have such pressure.

True, but I'm glad there's certain rules on who can be a sponsor. Like tobacco companies are banned, I'm a strong believer in banning loan shark companies like Wonga etc.. But that's down to personal preferences and like you said - It's just business.

I said the same about Kroos tbf

They probably think they have the bargaining power as well. Chelsea's lack of revenue from limited seating at SB places us in a position where negotiations with sponsors is difficult. We can't exactly say 'well we can do better without your contributions'. It's hard to start a bidding war with sponsors when you don't make much anyway. Samsung probably took it for granted and pissed Chelsea off lmao.

It's January though. For all this talk about Reus, I'm sure he/we won't be making any sort of moves for him in January.. We don't need to strengthen this month imo. Unless something drastically happens, I do believe our spending will happen in summer. Well that's what everyone said about Liverpool last season and well... That speaks for itself.

That's not need to respond to what City are doing. Their problems aren't even in goalscoring so they haven't even strengthened where they need to.

Lol why do we need to respond? They're buying for squad depth, nothing else. We may have a small side, but they're also efficient in the set up Mourinho requires. Buying for the sake of buying is nonsense, in the age of FFP anyway.

Yeah I guess, but City generally are injury prone. I'm sure their medical team need evaluating, much like Arsenal's, because they seem to be consistent in the areas.. Usually hamstrings. It's odd in what they're paying for cover essentially.

For all the benefits he'll bring to City, I'm just so confused as to how with Aguero, Dzeko & Jovetic this is where they needed to strengthen. @Blue-in-me-Veins is right though, I guess it's about the different approaches the two clubs take going forward. We know that City will continue to be vulnerable at the back, they show they consistently every season so they shouldn't be feared when it comes to facing teams with an organised attack. Their firepower would make smaller teams shit brix however lmao. Dzeko & Jovetic are still top players and one of them will probably be looking at their futures now with some degree of worry. I see many clubs surrounding Dzeko in summer and that could City being strategic.