Duppy Conqueror

indeed. he is yet to have a bad game for us really IMHO Just injuries and lack of oppurtunities that have held him back from being more in the minds of the Chelsea fan base so far i think and with him,i see his most played in position for us in the future as on the left side of either a CM in a diamond or a 3 man midfield,with Van Aanholt as i said earlier our back up Left back and Malouda going back to his more advanced role in our front 3. he`s too good to be behind a player like Ash who would give him very little oppurtunities to play barring injury..that`s what i think really..Lampard,Essien,Ramires,Mikel and Zhirkov with McEachran and the other young midfielders in our academy to be blooded in over time. looks a pretty feckin` awesome group of midfielders to me.. Matic is very much a part of our long term future,i believe but it appears that Carlo feels his time is not just yet. i will be delighted when the transfer window closes to be honest...i just want to see who is in the 25 for this season and get behind them rather than all this who`s coming,who`s going business..

for me, in some ways the Paul Canoville of his time..tho thankfully without the vile rascist taunts from our own fans in his case...such an enigma..such a white knuckle ride when the ball is at his feet,knowing that virtually anything could happen next... i`m very torn on Kalou...i don`t see why he shouldn`t keep his place in our 1st team squad for this season atleast tho....the positives of keeping him outweigh the negatives at present IMHO... although he`s been here 4 years, he is on his 5th different coach at the moment,some of our more senior players have struggled at times with the far too frequent changes...is not gonna be easier for a player who is going through his development years, and until now..apart from Hiddink (who wasn`t here long enough to help him properly) i don`t think he has had the coach with the skills to give him the fine tuning that he needs to become a great, until Carlo came along.. Mourinho is a great tactical coach for developed players who need to just fit into his system...from the outside looking in tho,he doesn`t seem to have been so good at developing good young players into greats, the way Ranieri or Ancelotti have done in the past. if after another year under Carlo, Kalou has still got those flaws to his game that infuriates so many of us,even the ones who like him...then fair enough,give someone else his playing time..is atleast one year too early now tho for me.

the work permit rules surrounding football are just silly and should be abolished..is not like teams would be bringing benefit spongers over here ,but people who will be able to buy their house,car etc anything they need....but to get back on topic..i too am confused about Rajkovic,thought he was a free agent..perhaps with Hutch`s sad departure they decided to give him an extension afterall, behind the scenes. Matic i hope would stay with us or atleast go to another premiership team on-loan..i`m sure he would become a regular starter for teams atleast in the second half of the table if not the likes of Everton,Villa etc...you could argue that oh he`s young and needs exposure..but he has played over 100 games at the pro level and on the few occassions he has played for us in his first year,he did look comfortable in the first team....loan deals should only be for players who have never played first team Pro football before and would benefit from the exposure...not already reasonably established players like Matic,Mancienne,Cork etc.. i would be happier about it i guess if i knew what Carlo`s plans for our midfield entail and what formation we will play...i`ve been thinking for a while that Zhirkov may be destined to play more often for us in midfield in the future than at LB..with the rise of Van Aanholt on the few occassions when Ash needs to be rested, he would be able to fill the hole admirably..so maybe that has something to do with it.

welcome to TalkChelsea, Barcode.. with all due respect to you i think you need to watch Sturridge more closely and understand the difference of quality in the opposition that both him and Luciano play against to have a more accurate reading of how they compare....maybe this player you have brought to our attention could play at a higher level than the Iranian league..but we not talking just one step up in class here to get to the premiership level....not sure if you rate Luciano way too highly or Sturridge way too lowly...maybe both, but i would seriously question the sanity of Carlo if he agreed to replace the 8 years younger,way better (imho) and home grown rule satisfying Sturridge for 8 years older,less proven at top level football and foreign Luciano. if he`s gonna play in the premiership atall..the biggest club he can hope for is the likes of Wigan,Blackpool,Bolton etc..but no chance with anyone who actually can afford or already have top quality proven strikers.

it`s pretty impressive that Chelsea have some scouts watching players in Norway atall,let alone watching second division players....i`ll give them some credit for that..but with all due respect to the lad..unlike the news article,i wouldn`t call a 25 year old keeper playing in the second division in Norway as "promising"...if he was a teenager then fair enough,we wouldn`t need him but atleast he could truthfully be classed as promising...can`t we raid some middle of the league german,french or Italian side`s for their keeper? sure we couldn`t offer them the regular starter job,but atleast we could offer them the carrot of possibly starting in an FA cup final or a Champions league match etc...surely some keeper would bite on that for one year atleast.

England stuck with Glen Johnson at RB for the next 6 years or so now... Come on Billy Clifford, rise to the challenge!!!

i too had a feeling his unexplained absence from the pre-season games was due to injury...still no less gutted than anyone else. such a sad day for Sam,Chelsea and England....a class act like Sam, retires at 21 after battling injury after injury,comeback after comeback...whilst a vile creature like Barton plays on...no fookin` justice in this world! one of the saddest parts of it all is that outside the world of Chelsea..people will look at the news (if they see it atall) and say.."ah well,just another English youngster who would have never made it at Chelsea anyway.."....if only he could have had one full injury free season to show the whole football world what he was all about... good luck in the future Sam....i`ve no doubt you have the will to succeed in anything that you try to do in the future...although your performances were sadly too few..i for one wont forget them..especially the last game against Stoke,when you done brilliantly on the right to whip in a great cross for Lamps to put away..also when you almost scored in the final few minutes. keep your head up kid...as one door closes another one opens.

ah rite,cheers....well not "set in stone" for friday then.. i was thinking it was something like that was the last day of the Brazilian transfer window.

oh and we play at Stamford Bridge not Stanford btw...:eyebrows:

why is it by friday?

good luck Riccy and thanks for the memories.

Happy Birthday ,hope you have a good one.

also said on Chelsea TV that he had wanted the number 15 shirt but it `s obviously already taken.. i didn`t agree with Boulahrouz (sic?) or Sidwell having the number 9 shirt..but that was because of the positions they played..nothing else. have no problem with Benayoun having the number 10 shirt tho..just because he has a traditionally starting number,don`t mean he is gonna start..some of the best players who have played in the premiership since squad numbers were introduced have had numbers outside 1-11.

whilst i don`t think we will sign a RB it`s a valid enough suggestion ... Ivanovic is a CB who did a great job at RB when we needed him there..he still is much better suited to play CB tho...and Carlo said as much on Chelsea Tv when interviewed after the end of the season. Hutchinson,tho originally a CB..i like him more as a RB as it seems Carlo does..but he has on-going health issues that may never totally be fixed and at this point it looks very unlikely that he will ever play a full season without missing many games during it. then theres Bos...hasn`t played a game in nearly 10 months..entering the last year of his contract and maybe the medical people know something that we don`t know yet about how the nasty injury he has had will impact his long term career..i love Bos..but maybe due to health reasons he won`t be offered a new contract. when you consider all that..next year we could be facing a problem at the RB position. or we could not..i`d be suprised if we did sign a RB but not shocked..and if it was by signing someone like Srna..then i wouldn`t presume that he was being signed to play FB..but be a right footed version of Zhirkov. tho by taking what Carlo was quoted on about 3 players that have left will need replacing..i don`t think he meant by carbon copies of those players...i`d rule out Belletti being replaced by a new signing..we have plenty of those kind of players..(somebody who can play FB and DM when really needed..e.g Mancienne,Cork,etc) minus the killer shot. i think what he was supposed to have said is being taken too literally..first by the media outlet who made that report and in some cases some of you guys on here.

does seem to be a certain lack of respect for our once loved players as soon as they have left the team..hell,some don`t get it when they still here or even yet to play a game for us...something that we didn`t use to see so much back in the day..when the fanbase was smaller. guess it was bound to happen tho..when we rolling around in the good shit..flies will appear.

there`s no such team called London Portsmouth...Portsmouth is a city quite a few miles away from London...i`d love you to post that on a Portsmouth fans site tho.. i`ll overlook the Yid love this one time..

he wouldn`t be the first spanish player in our team list...tho he would definately be the first on our treatment table every week.

deco needed to stay fit for longer than two weeks in every 3 months and maybe he would have got to play in the first team more often...

would be a great signing in my eyes and obviously Carlo`s, the man who picks our team and knows what the team needs more than anyone else,so that`s all that matters to me. i`ve supported the club too long to have man-crushes on individual players and get upset if they don`t get to play every week.....Carlo was a great midfielder who played with some of the greatest players of all time..and coached many great, world class players..i think he`s more than qualified to have better judgement of players than any of us.

scrolling down to read the comments from the Forest fans..they expecting Matic to go there on loan aswell...i don`t see Matic going out on loan personally, but can see why Bertrand would..he should have gone to a premiership team though,perhaps none have come in for him but i personally think he`s good enough to start for several premiership sides. is good to have so much talent at LB the way we have,but is a shame a quality player like Bertrand can`t find a place in our first team squad...with us having the best LB in the world tho he either needs to accept that he won`t get a sniff at being first choice for atleast 3 or 4 years (and even then will be battling against Van Aanholt) or leave the club permanently sometime soon.

big clubs like Chelsea did and do know players before they appear on the largest stages..that`s why they tried to get him before the WC ,why they paid 5 million for Kalas when almost everyone on here had never heard of him..the list of names that could be used for examples of why football scouts are employed to find emerging stars rather than average fans who spend most of their time focusing on the end product, is endless really.. outside of scouts though, i`m sure plenty of football fans (including myself) around the world had heard of Ramires prior to the WC. .Brazil don`t select players from total obscurity for their WC squads..he had just won the Portuguese title with Benfica last season,breaking Porto`s stranglehold on the title..and starred in the Confedirates Cup in 2009. only concerns i have with Ramires is that we need to sign him directly from Benfica,so they need to buy out the other current part-owners of him before we can do so... and the fact he`s played pretty constantly for 2 years now and something like 100 games without a proper rest..he is knicknamed the Blue Kenyan due to his stamina..but even so..that is a slight concern for the short term future..he can be eased into our team tho..we don`t have to rush him in due to the relative weakness of our opponents in the first month of the PL season.

that`s all i`m asking..i explained why he didn`t play so much last year and why those reasons don`t apply so much this year..(barring the injuries part,which no one can foresee at this point). he will in all probability play more this year..but according to the post i replied to earlier it doesn`t appear that you have the faith in Carlo to select him this upcoming season,that i have..due to him not playing so much last year.

Let`s rate Carlo on what Carlo has done rather than previous managers..Carlo has won the double in his first season whilst giving several younsters their 1st team chances...sure Arsenal & Milan would have given him more games and they`ve won the title when? not since they`ve given so many youngsters large portions of games. at Barca they have plenty of good young players who they bleed in gradually..perhaps the likes of Bojan played more than our youngsters..but the spanish league overall isn`t as good as the english..Barca have about 6 games a season where they have to put out their best team..Chelsea have about 20-25 in their league season. Kakuta will play more games than he did last year of that i`ve no doubt,unless injuries take that option out of Carlo`s hands..like at times it did last year. Carlo needed to win the title in his first two years..now he has already reached that target..he will have more room for error this year and therefore more oppurtunities for the youngsters,which has been indicated by the fact that several experienced players have been let go,with more likely to follow,without bringing in experienced players to replace them.

so you don`t want a right footed midfielder to be bought because you think he would be in direct competition with a left footed Midfielder in Matic ,who you state has great potential..of which i agree he has.. but on the other hand you want a "playmaker/midfield maestro" when we have two with great potential in Kakuta & McEachran.. Ramires would give us great flexibility and something we are short on..right footed midfielders to either play on the right side of a 3 man midfield or RM in a diamond..all of which he could play at and do well aswell as DM if he`s really needed there in the future, if injuries re-occur to Mikel and Essien.

we have one ...Walker wasn`t named on the bench.