LDN Blue

We own the contract. You're telling me there's a clause that says we can't recall our own player? What if we had a CB emergency (which we do tbh lol). I don't think we're going to be doing that.

Well done kid, keep doing that and you'll be in contention to start in no time. Costa's bans will help you anyway

These refs have shown consistency with this sort of thing so yeah being him he's more prone to it. Retrospective and actual bans are going to be another headache.. Lucky Michy is scoring lol

It's a loan contract, it can be cancelled lol. You just pay his club the compensation or whatever - That's what he meant ^

It's in the tweet as £35,0000 commas in the wrong place Just re-wrote what you said. That's what I mean because Napoli aren't (nor would we pay more) than £350k LOL

Would not mind this one bit.

That comma threw me off, thought "£35k? That's ridiculously cheap!"

Do feel in this set up, Azpilicueta would become the weak link and would need replacing rather promptly. But let's see, should it ever happen..

Lack of a specialist DM is the problem though. Under Conte everyone's a CM now lol. That's a tongue in cheek jibe about what we really mean when we use CM, DM, B2B etc. End of the day our midfield of Oscar - Matic and Kante seems to be in an interchanging midfield trio. Sure Kante does seem the furthest behind with the defence but they both in particular juggle who stays and who goes forward whatnot. Oscar will forever chase shadows, but that's the work Conte wants from him so meh. What I like about Kante is his distribution on the ball, something we lack in not having a suitable replacement for Cesc that fits Conte's profile. That's why I really think Cesc needs to come back into the team if we are to score goals such as today. But it's difficult to see where he features in the starting XI. You won't get the defensive work of Oscar coming from Cesc and it's arguable that leaves us static in midfield. If Matic and Kante remind deep leaving Fabregas advanced then inevitably the game will pass him by with little to no contribution.

That, but also he's one of our highest earners I suppose..

Yeah I get you, but in this context I meant time to get into the game and space to play the ball into. Rather than he get closed down and bullied in midfield as usual, he was allowed to actually scope what was ahead of him before he'd even made the interception. It was a simple look to see the space he could play the ball into and open up their defence. Fair enough Watford's defending wasn't good for that goal, but Cesc grabbed the opportunity to play it in.

I'm with you here. Not that I'm not happy Lukaku isn't coming here, he would've been a waste of time and money to be honest. Especially when he realised he's not going to usurp Costa anytime soon lmao. However it is a bit alarming that he's joining a list of players we've been unable to successfully get. Be it through negotiations with the parent club or the player himself. The fact we haven't been able to even convince Koulibaly to submit a transfer bid when John Stones had no problem doing so last summer is cause to be somewhat alarmed. We're not financial powerhouse we once quite were - In the sense that clubs/players have an easier time saying 'no' to us than we've been used to since 2003/04. It was bad enough in 2011 when Steven Pienaar decided Tottenham were a better choice, imagine this becomes a more common thing! That being said, this is all to a tiny extent. With the increasing amount of money clubs are reciving now, not just limited to the Premier League, it is in fact easier for them to say no and to hold on to a key player for a year longer than they would've expected. To this day it will baffle me why we didn't go for John Stones again, at the price we were asking he went up by £10m. If you're offering £40-45m anyway, what really is it to a multi-million £ club? We'd won the battle in sense of Stones wanting to sign for us, but somehow walked away all-together with our tails between our legs. If this continues happening, Chelsea are going to be in trouble. We must attain to be number one club in London! Arsenal, under Wenger, are finding out exactly what it's like when players don't find a club an attractive move anymore. Over my dead body does Tottenham become the primary destination choice in London for prospective footballers.

Well the way I saw it, I'd place more blame at Cahill. But the point you make stands, because between the two of them I worry when we face United with Martial and Zlatan having a field day against those two. I'm sure Nolito and Aguero are also keeping a wide eye on the fact we're still yet to address our major areas of weakness lol. Thank christ we're not in the Champions League. Imagine we somehow scrap through a group stage only to face MSN/BBC with this shocking backline

11 days, 3 hours & 25 minutes until the British transfer window closes. I seriously hope the club has seen how we've, yet again, conceded and our manager is crying for them to sign a centreback. Be it Koulibaly or whoever, they need to get moving on Monday otherwise we're seriously underestimating how hard the forthcoming season is actually going to be. Offensively I don't really have a problem, even if we don't sign James Rodriguez or Lukaku. Between Hazard finding his feet, Costa seeming like he's up for scoring and Willian just being Willian we can score. Not to mention fringe players such as Cesc showing what he can do today, Pedro found himself a goal last week too so we're not completely swimming blind. Our weaknesses are far too obvious for any competent opposing manager though. How we begin another season with Ivanovic, who I'll admit played decent last week, who was shocking today I still can not understand. Both he and Cahill were equally liable today for the goal. I can understand Ivanovic not having the pace anymore, he didn't get any crosses in today and was helpeless to prevent them. However what sets him apart from Terry is how weak he is in a positional format, Terry is second to none in being in the right place at the right time - A trait Cahill and Ivanovic have not learned. Zouma, please return soon!

Brilliant attitude on display from Cesc. Hasn't dropped his head or attitude in spite of being dropped from the starting XI, Conte doesn't seem to have any sort of problem with him either. Fabulous assist to Costa, that Fabregas-Costa combination is one of our most underutilised weapon lately but this shows what Fabregas can do when he's got time on the ball and space. The fundamental problem is that last part, when he's afforded time and space. The reason he's not starting is his inability to stay within the game when the pace is increased and when there's someone marking him on the pitch. However a situation like today, coming off the bench relatively fresh (in comparison to the opposition) and being allowed to play the killer pass we know he's capable of. At the age of 29 I wouldn't say he's an old man who can't learn to adapt, but he's going to have to make many alterations to the way he plays before he's starting under Conte regularly - But at least he's not giving up in his persuit of doing so. Displays like today will only make Conte trust him even more.

Hahaha, well something had to bring you back from the abyss as per

Still scenes when we hijack Arsenal's deal for Mustafi..

What's this war he was with Mazzarri about? From what I've quickly googled it comes down to a feud over the original exponents of 3-5-2?

Iirc this is the official radio broadcaster for Napoli. But I could be mistaken.

Glad Mourinho's at United, reminds me of why I hate them so much lmao. Didn't made them so much post-Ferguson cos they weren't all that impressive, this team makes me have the "anyone but United' mantra again. Media wankathon too. Didn't take long for Sky to mention "it felt like Mourinho wanted to go United before Chelsea anyway" . Bitch please, Ferguson himself said Mourinho was committed to going to Chelsea upon Real Madrid - even the United job didn't tempt him until he settled his score with us. That's why I frankly couldn't care less at what he does for United. Nor will I acknowledge it or compliment it, I'll belittle it any opportunity I get. But United fans know it as well as we do, there's only ONE club in England Mourinho truly has a sentimental record with and that's not changing, no matter what he does at that dump.

It would be exciting if we can pull this off, his talent is undeniable and would be very good for Hazard to play alongside . But from what I hear the sources reporting this rumour are anything but reputable..

Yeah but the fact is, he's one of us. An academy player who's gone out and picked up experience of different coaching and coming back to be implemented into the first team. Nothing would be better for himself, the club and fans. He's not exactly a bad player and was vital for Watford when they were trying to get promoted with Zola, so I'm sure he'd love it too.

That's true, but then you get into the whole what our team should look like had we kept the players Mourinho sold off subsequently. It's this point you've made which is why I'm nervous about this season, we've only got domestic competition to really occupy us so in that sense the potential for things going wrong reduces (i.e. I'd rather lose to bloody West Brom than see us get dumped out the CL for playing this embarrassment). Should make things a bit easier for Hazard too, one would think. But since we're adamant on not providing him any support I wouldn't be surprised if he starts well and gradually burns out.

Yeah, I'm resigned to the fact it's going to Oscar, Matic and Willian as our midfield mainstays because we're not linked to anyone else in that area of the pitch. Cuadrado wants to go back, so I guess Pedro and MOSES is staying.The only way I see us signing someone there is if Fabregas leaves, which I don't think will happen because I'm sure he's earning good wages with us lol. Ivanovic, it seems, we'll continue to be our predominant right-back at the ever increasing age of 32. One sort of thinks Conte will be blooding in Aina, which I guess we can live with because hey the kid could come through and become an actual first team graduate - stranger things have happened. A lot of people expect by January or after, Zouma and Koulibaly (should we sign him) will replace Terry & Cahill in defence. Don't think it's happening to be honest, but I hope to be surprised!

Well Blackman did go on loan to Wycombe and you need 3 goalkeepers so it doesn't necessarily mean Begovic is off.