Duppy Conqueror

hope the move will develop him further. to me he`s like an unopened fire damaged tin ..things don`t look that good now but we won`t know for sure till he`s opened up and we get to see what`s inside. Steve Clarke is the tin opener.

Good move for the big man. hope he comes back a better player and helps Chelsea out by scoring a few winners against our rivals. he`s got a good football coach in Steve Clarke for a season.

so Betrand is now in the England squad. welcome to having a target on your back now Ryan. hope you enjoyed your private and personal life whilst you had it. oh and btw you will become a scapegoat for every England defeat you play in. regardless of how well you play.

i can`t speak italian. but from the tuttonapoli link when i translated it on google translate it said someone off Radio Goal had said on his facebook that the fifa agent had text him to say the rumours are not true. so basically, someone off the radio had put on his facebook that he had a text on his phone off a fifa agent saying the rumours are untrue but didn`t say what rumours were untrue. it may be that he wasn`t hired to make the deal happen. he might just not be involved in it. not that Cavani to chelsea isn`t gonna happen. it`s a long and windy road with more twists than a road in the spanish mountains, but that`s where i got to. i think i`ll wait till something more concrete comes out.

i think it depends on who we are playing. if we are playing a negative team who want to park the bus on us.Ramires as much as i love him, there`s just no place in the starting team for him. he can go past 2 or 3 players but he needs to do that from deep where he can do his running off the ball. he may be able to go wide and can come back and cover attacking LB/Wingbacks but he offers very lil playing RW going forward from that position. Moses i would play ahead of him in a 4-2-3-1 when teams park the bus on us. i do personally think we will play more games with a 4-3-3 formation then both Moses and Ramires can play in the same team. Moses will be in the 25 man squad so his signing is not wasted as you earlier had suggested. when teams park the bus on us the defensive duties of a RW will be very small. he will be needed more to add some creativity and that`s why Oscar and Moses should play ahead of Rambo. Oscar will not be someone who just stays forward wherever he is played ,he will drift back and although he won`t dive in and make highlight reel tackles he can clog passing lanes and intercept passes. his best position eventually i think with be back in CM but he can do a good shift at RW/RM for the time being. much better at crossing,passing and going past players that press him than Ramires is. so is Moses. with us being European Champions and having made quite a splash on getting attack minded players it`s fair to say that most teams will try and park the bus on us this season.

@Alex good points made. although 4-2-3-1 may be the formation RDM likes most. just like Carlo did i think he will change it during the season and we will go back to playing more 4-3-3. maybe in the future after another summer window he will be ale to get more players in to implement the 4-2-3-1 better, but as things stand 4-3-3 remains the best formation to get the best out of the current squad with the skill sets they have.

@Carefreeluke Ramires not in a 4 2-3-1..he`s better played on the right edge of midfield in a 4-3-3 he`s fast but his pace is better used counter attacking. he doesn`t have the guile to get past defenders upfield where they will be pressing him and he doesn`t have the passing/crossing ability to pass around them. he can fill in when we don`t have better options like we did during the pre-season friendlies but that is all. Hazard and Mata will interchange between LW/LM and CAM. Marin will be back up at LW/LM he could fill in at RW but more effective on the left. as could Hazard but that would take away him from the LW/CAM position. Oscar will probably start out at RW/RM. but we need somebody else. Moses can play RW/LW/CF all pretty well and satisfies the homegrown quota. getting him in and in the 25 man first team squad would mean we could get rid of Turnbull as surely only needing him for the 8 homegrowns rule has kept him in the 25.

i forgot about the African Cup of Nations. ACON puts me off wanting to sign any African players in the future. so we`ll lose Moses aswell. although if we lose both Essien and Mikel we stuck with only Oriol as our DM anyway if Raul stays or not. I see him as someone who can fill in for Lampard rather than someone who can fill in for Mikel..Oriol i`d say is better at the DM role than Raul regardless of experience.

if he leaves part exchange for Cavani then i`m fine with him going to Napoli to sweeten the deal. e.g £18m+ Meireles for Cavani. i wouldn`t want him to leave for £8m straight cash tho.

feel better now? we need someone to fill in at RW . we don`t have Carlo any longer. he doesn`t need to be 24plus before he`s given a chance..

i have some concerns about him liking Spain too much and trying to force a move there in the future but it`s more to do with if Barcelona or Real become strongly interested in him. the only concern i have over him wanting to stay and force a move to Athletico is if in the next year they get serious financial investment,to the extent where they could seriously challenge Barcelona and Real for the title and become contenders in the CL. he had a successful first year with them but i don`t see it getting any better for them without that serious injection of cash to improve the overall talent level of their squad. at some point he will realize this and want to challenge for the big trophies like we do every year. i hope this season is his last in Spain just incase any of those worse case scenarios come true...i don`t think it matters half as much as it does with outfield players what level of competition a keeper plays at when on loan. he has already played in infront of big crowds and shown he can handle it.

i have the same problem sometimes. minus the italics bit. if you refresh the page after the edited post has come up the rest of your post should re-appear then.

who are the "some" ?

there`s no quotes to suggest Chelsea are still interested in him from that article on SSN. just that the player is due to have "an important meeting" could be any club or could have nothing to do with a transfer atall. poor journalism just won`t die.

no expectations from me. optimistic we can win 3 or 4 trophies. but anything is possible. people have said we can`t come from 6th to Champions again in one year. we were under par by our standard by a long way last year.we spent large parts of the season not playing our best team,we have brought in players to improve the talent level in the team since then, with more seeming to come before the window is closed. we got as good a chance as anyone of winning the title in my opinion. we`ll just have to see how it pans out. i don`t see why anyone would think we don`t have a chance.

*double post* erm...wonder if he`s related to Danny,Rod and Ray..

i`ve got all the David Simon stuff from his books to his tv series, The Wire,The Corner,Homicide,Generation X... all great gritty stuff. as for Wallace i`ve not seen him play. he`s been described as someone whose good bombing forward but needs some work on the defensive side of his game. but that could be the template description used for just about any Brazilian fullback.for the youngsters like him to the veterans and retired former fullbacks. i could say that myself without having seen him play and have a good chance of being correct. he`s 18 tho so plenty of time to improve if that is the case with him. probably a Piazon type signing..a young brazilian brought in to develop in the youth and reserve ranks. i think we`ll still get Azpi or another 1st team squad ready fullback.

i wouldn`t mind if 26 is retired. but no numbers from 1-11 ever should. i`m glad Oscar has got the number 11 shirt.

Homegrown`s alright with me,homegrown is the way it should be,homegrown is a good thing,light that bell and let it ring... *with apologies to Neil Young* we got one in for the Homegrown rule,but is good enough for the squad anyway...unlike Turnbull..

shouldn`t compare what they have done to your own life mate.there`s 7 billion people in the world and only a select few ,a couple of thousand out of that many people have been good enough for the Olympics. it`s normal to go through phases where you don`t like the direction your life seems to be heading but there`s lots of crossroads along the way where the direction can change. in the last 10 years alot of things have happened in my life some good,some so bad i don`t know how i survived them. to be a champion in life is to find a place where you are at peace with yourself. it`s far more important than what rewards you can get off others,including Olympic medals.

he`s done a TV advert in French and when Hazard was asked on CTV if Lukaku was helping him learn English,Hazard said that it wouldn`t work as we would only communicate in French. although that`s not to give any substance to the idea we are only signing him because he speaks french. all foreign players who can`t speak English will be taught it. it`s been club policy for some time that everyone brought in has to learn English.

that`s what the guardian thinks. my post was what i think. my opinions don`t come with selling papers and making money in mind.

if we loan out Lukaku i still think we`ll sign a striker. i don`t think we`ll sign Hulk now tho so i hope folks give Moses a chance and don`t end up comparing everything he does to what Hulk might have done. we went for the younger, far cheaper option possibly with us getting another player in mind..e.g Moses + striker instead of just throwing all in to get Hulk.

if it `s 80,000 a week i bet that price is what it would be in euros. fookin media always trying to maintain that we still over spend when we have actually become one of the shrewdest clubs in Europe in recent years.

it`s a valid question to bring up. i believe his movement off the ball always making himself available for the pass is one of if not the greatest part of Oscars game.so we shouldn`t worry about him atleast. the thing with this pre-season is that we`ve had a mixed bunch of players who haven`t played in a few months,players returning from the Euro`s and players who have never played for Chelsea before and aren`t in sync yet with their team mates.add into that players who aren`t ready yet for the first team and are loan out candidates.and players like mata,oscar,sturridge,oriol and bertrand who haven`t played yet. with the Euro`s and olympics,whilst i understand overseas tours are good for the club i think having one this year was not good for the team. we should have stayed at home and tried out new stuff on lower level teams,perhaps even behind closed doors. it will come in time i`m sure .