Duppy Conqueror

even at 18 i`d say Bruma is better...we don`t need to supply 8 English players for that homegrown rule when we got under 21`s like that. i used to like Steven Taylor when he was a 21 year old as thought he was good for his age but he hasn`t grown into a better player like he should have...plus even tho he`s English..he`s a Geordie,so is not like he can speak English..

Alex is 28..JT is 29...(Branislav is 26 btw) they aren`t gonna be " very old" " "within 3 years"...pace has never been what they rely upon to get the job done,so they will more than likely be the same players they are now in 3 years. if we need an injection of pace at CB we have Bruma is no slug..neither is Branislav...Luiz ain`t coming for the price they are demanding for him,no way!

one other positive not yet mentioned is Ross Barclay did a wreckless "tackle" on Chalobah that could have ended in a serious injury,but the kid sprung straight back up the way Running Back`s in American Football do when they`ve been hit hard,as if to make a point that despite their opponent trying to hurt them,they failed.

puts a lot of pressure on the shoulders of JB with both Hutch and Mancienne not available to us now...JB is not only our 4th option CB but one of only 4 CB`s who has played 1st team football. does seem odd that he would play in the reserves on Tuesday night then be on his way to Wolves now..maybe his not so great game infront of Carlo when Rohan Ince outperformed him was the last straw for them and tho a lot more experienced than Ince..with Carlo having seen quite a bit of him in the last month or so he has jumped ahead of him in the pecking order. i do think that as time has passed by, Mancienne has become less and less promising as a CB...i think he could still become a very good player,but not at CB....he seems to always make atleast one "schoolboy error" per game and in DM or at FB others can bail him out but not at CB! he`s what i would call a "cultured" CB in that he`s usually got good touch on the ball,can pass it about..has good pace etc..but he doesn`t seem to do the bread and butter kind of stuff..if he`s the last man with the ball at his feet,surrounded by 3 players..he would probably try and dribble his way out of trouble rather than putting the ball in Row Z, so that the rest of the defense can regroup.

the stats i`ve found on him state that since moving into European football with Monaco,he has played 67 Games and scored 14 goals. hardly a goal machine but hardly an out and out striker either. Story is from The Sun tho...so may be absolutely no truth in it atall..

*Source: The Independent* Chelsea defender Michael Mancienne has agreed another season-long loan with Wolverhampton Wanderers after the Premier League champions refused to budge on a £5m asking price for the defender. The decision to reject Wolves' final offer of £3m is thought to have gone right to the top to Roman Abramovich himself with Chelsea making it clear to Wolves that it would be £5m or no deal. Mancienne, 22, who has made six appearances for the first team, has already had two temporary loan spells at Wolves over the previous two seasons. Mancienne would have preferred a permanent transfer as he now feels that he has no future at the club to which he has been attached since the age of eight. His £25,000-a-week wages make him the highest earner among the academy generation at Chelsea and have been a discouraging factor to clubs, including Newcastle, who have made enquiries. The indications from Carlo Ancelotti is that in terms of preferment Jeffrey Bruma, 18, who made his senior Netherlands debut this month, is ahead of Mancienne to take Ricardo Carvalho's place in the squad. A regular England under-21 player who was even called up to a senior squad by Fabio Capello in November 2008, Mancienne has found it frustrating trying to make headway with the club. He made his senior debut in the FA Cup in February last year but now finds himself passed over as another generation of academy-produced players try to break into Ancelotti's first team squad. Mancienne is the latest player to leave Chelsea who would have been eligible to qualify as one of the club's home-grown players under the new Premier League squad quotas. Joe Cole has joined Liverpool and Sam Hutchinson has been forced to retire. Mancienne, who has two years remaining on his Chelsea contract, made 33 appearances for Wolves last year. As Chelsea seek to balance their squad in anticipation of the 25-man submission to the Premier League next week, they have also farmed out the Serbians Nemanja Matic, 22, and Slobodan Rajkovic, 21, on loan at Vitesse Arnhem in the Netherlands.

interesting development...maybe in some way him not wanting to be cup tied in the League Cup points to us being his desired destination..due to the fact that barring injuries is only the League Cup and some F.A Cup games (depending on the strength of the opposition) that he would play in.... where as if it was to a team where he would more likely to be a regular starter,missing some LC games would be less of an issue to him. could be that none of that is the actual case tho...just thinking outside of the box really..but should be an interesting few days before the window shuts anyway....i can`t say i`ve seen much of the lad in actual games,but it seems like many people in football rate him highly so there must be something about him.

wonder who we will be drawn against..i`m hoping Ajax,Rangers & anywhere i havent been to yet..which would have to be somewhere pretty obscure..like a Latvian team or something.. tho realise that there would probably have to be an higher seeded team with us than those.

back to the merchandise selling tours it is then...

hey man..i lived in the Netherlands for 6 years..(1992-1998)..i too am an Andrew..thought i was the only one in the whole country as tho i moved around, i never stumbled into another..i guess not tho..you were hiding in Arnhem..haha welcome to TC anyway. Rajkovic tho being contracted to us for about 4 years now..is yet to play for us due to work permit issues..(hence why you`ve got him) so can`t really give much info on him... Matic has played a little for us and you should be pleased with him..a CM who can make all the passes..his better foot is his left..not a box to box kind of midfielder as hasn`t shown the speed to get up and down the field (unless you play a slower build up attacking game..)..but someone who can set up attacks for others to push forward whilst sitting from the middle 30 of the field and break up counter attacks when they happen..tho not really a DM he could possibly play that role if needed...CM is definately his best position tho. very tall by british standards..but knowing how tall a lot of you guys are over there,probably average height at 6ft 4. you may already know all that but thought i`d type it just incase you didn`t.

this thread has made me laugh so much that if i was a girl, i think i would have passed more than just a lil pee-pee by now..

i`m not sure mate, but since we finally got Alex,and at the same time loaned Rajkovic to them..after Rajkovic`s season loan with them that seems like the last time we done business with them...if memory serves me correctly, PSV wanted to loan him out for another season but due to him not having many 1st team opportunities CFC declined that...maybe there was a falling out over that situation..

although they don`t have to name under 21`s...if they haven`t got 17 over 21 non-homegrown players then i`m guessing they can name under 21`s in the 25...or atleast just name as many as they have got that are non under 21`s and non-homegrown players. looking at that list..does make it look like one of the reasons i thought they may be looking to loan out Matic,isn`t true...as they do have room to carry him in the squad as a non-homegrown player. even if there is a move for a non-homegrown in the pipeline.

i would have personally kept him around but if he`s not currently in Carlo`s plans for the 25 or more precisely one of the 17 non-homegrown players he has gotta name by the 1st September,then i understand why they looking to send him out on loan...i`d consider keeping him and then giving him a year in the reserves so that he can get more playing time with the kind of players he could be playing with in the 1st team in the near future,but that doesn`t seem to be what they want to do. ideally he would go to another premiership side but they got their 17 non-homegrown players limit too so that is undoubtedly gonna make the chances of that happening slimmer..maybe teams like Vitesse are well below the limit at present..

looking forward to seeing Ramires in that blue number 7 shirt for the first time.... Stoke should be more of a test,atleast physically..and unlike West Brom & Wigan have the tools that if we aren`t on our game can punish at...as it is at home tho..don`t see them having a serious chance of actually beating us...i`ll go for 4-1 with 2 late goals from us after a decent battle for 60-70 minutes.

ah, is more than just who plays for them...sure there`s been many players they`ve had over the years who i`ve disliked but it`s always been more about their fans for me than any players.

bunch of inbred neaderthal cunts in my eyes,exactly where they deserve to be....but each to their own i guess...

he`s a good player...but i don`t rate him as being a top player at either the RB or CB position...would be a useful squad player,but one i`d only pay upto £16m for..i know Real would not accept that amount for him but for £40m you gotta get somebody who when fit to play would always start..i`d only see Ramos starting through injuries to others. like said in previous posts tho..it`s just rumours that are not true.

well the French have done it for years..infact i don`t think they`ve ever won anything with an entirely french squad...players from Senegal,Algeria,Morrocco,Tunisia etc... and of course the German and Dutch have also played many with questionable nationalities..and both had players like that in this summers WC. the Rep of Ireland...tho being a country where many of the natives hate the English..well in the Jack Charlton era they had more English than Irish...tho to be fair to them,they don`t have their own major league to pick players from. all that being said tho...no thanks...i`d rather England lose with English players than win with non-English. would not be the first time a Non-English player has played for England tho..John Barnes,our very own Tony Dorigo...Gary Bailey was South African wasn`t he?

In the early `70`s,early 80`s and just before Roman stepped in ,Chelsea Football club were in serious financial danger,even to the point of possibly becoming extinct...under Roman that is no longer a concern..now it has moved to the new financial regulations,which the people in charge at CFC had the foresight to see coming so acted accordingly or didn`t see it coming and just realised that pouring so much money into big named players was not good business sense when you have already poured a lot of money into the academy. i don`t mind the club i have supported for 30 years becoming a globally supported team,i realise to be a top club you need as many fans as you can get ,but understand that the financial sustainability of the football club you have chosen to support is more important than any player or trophy,including the CL. without it we will be fucked in a couple of years...and if you think buying big now wont come back to bite us when the new financial regulations come in i don`t think i`ve got the energy to waste, trying to make you grasp the reasons why. being realistic is not being negative...being blind to the pitfalls is what will end in a negative outcome. of course we will need to spend money on players in the near future and we have needed to this summer..i understand that,that`s why i was one of the most vocal in support of the Ramires signing before it was completed..but that was because he is a great player at a reasonable price,the transfer fee was about par,but his weekly wages of around 60k a week was a bargain compared to the weekly wages that are commonly forked out for players of lesser quality than him. Aguero may have said he would love to play for Chelsea or words to that effect...try offering him £60k a week tho and we`ll see how much he loves the club..about as little as some of our most recent fans would love us should we get booted out of the Champions Leage by Platini in the future and end up being a Yo-Yo club again.

Exactly..has been said several times before and will probably have to be said many times more before it sinks in for some. with financial regulations coming into play soon..we are unable to justify spending such a large chunk of our restricted budget on one player that may never make it in England...Roman can afford to pay those wages but Chelsea cannot with Platini on their case.. say for example we managed to sign Aguero for £40 Mill..his wage demands would be about £7 Mill a year over a 5 year contract..IF he performs well for us..a new contract will be needed to be signed before that contract expires..so say after 3-4 years we have to offer him a new contract...does anyone actually believe Aguero would accept less than that £7 Mill a year when hes 26? so say the new contract is a 5 year £8 million a year deal. for Aguero to not only become a Chelsea player but play the best years of his career with us..it would cost around £100 Mill... folks talk about shirt sales that Aguero would bring in..but Chelsea fans buy shirts now if they are the ones inclined to buy shirts..i don`t see any big increase in sales in shirts overall..just instead of a Lampard,Essien,Drogba etc...some would spend it on Kun Aguero instead..so what do they make..an extra couple of pound per shirt due to a couple more letters being in his name..(if he chose to use Kun Aguero on his shirt..) more football fans in Argentina would become Chelsea fans? not likely the way most Argentinians hate anything British...and for the few who don`t feel that way...how much can a fan on the other side of the world in a relatively poor country contribute financially to CFC other than buying a shirt once a year. the sums just don`t add up for it to be feasible to spend so much on him...especially with the new financial regulations,we would probably have to sell two established players who have helped us win many trophies to get a player who looks good for a upper-middle of the road team in Spain that has helped his club win what..the Europa Cup? just to balance the books..no thanks,aint happening..until Atletico & Aguero and other clubs and players like them get real..those kind of players will not be coming.

ah i see, footballers making careers in other fields of work,never seem to end up turning into something good do they..haha. yeah Boniek was a class player..one of my favorite non-Chelsea players of the `80`s...oddly enough Platini was one of the others that i loved as a player but i hate with a passion now.

ah, we had our own goalie who went psycho in England called David Ike..if you don`t know about him already,it`s a long story but basically,he retired quite young and became a sports presenter on Sportsnight (a wednesday night Match of the Day type program, covering the mid week games that was broadcast during the `80`s ) then suddenly one day he just lost the plot and started spouting some crazy shit that humans evolved from Lizards and all sorts of crazy ass shit..started a cult kind of thing,wrote loads of books about his wacky views about all sorts of different things..20 years on,he still haven`t come down to planet earth yet.. so what has Jan the Man done lately to warrant the Psycho title?

if we gotta go Polish keeper..it`s gotta be Jan Tomaszewski for me.

if Drogba scores another hatrick tomorrow he will be the first player to score 3 consecutive hatricks in the top flight of English football since Liverpool`s Jack Balmer in 1946. we could blow them away and Didier get to that landmark..but i would not be surpised either if we only won by one or two to be honest..i do expect the win..but think Wigan will put up more of a fight than in their previous two premiership games... i don`t buy into the theory that because Blackpool beat them 4-0 and we being a lot better than Blackpool means we should beat them by more goals than Blackpool...football don`t work out like that. all these big high scoring wins are great fun but i personally get more satisfaction from seeing a team throw everything they got at us and us rising to the challenge and beating them that way that really does it for me..the famous battle of ewood park in the 2004/2005 for example.