Madmax

1. We can afford an extra couple millions. 2. Who gives a shit about the keyboard warriors on TC?

If this were a Facebook post, Wayne Rooney would like it.

What leverage do we have? When you're saddled with a pony like him we have no bargaining power whatsoever.

Your grandma is a 20 something baldie from Venezuela?

Expecting this thread to be pretty quiet today.

He should be doing on the ball what McManaman was doing to us.

Mourinho - "I have to say sorry to so many people for the win because they will be very disappointed"

He's shit but let's face it, Mourinho deserves far more criticism as the guy who actually picks him over proven performers.

Quality on the ball and very aware of his defensive duties, pressing energetically. But "not a player to take us to the next level" apparently.

Stones pls.

ZOUMA!!

I'd be shocked if Ramires is offered, he seems like a favourite of Mourinho's.

Clinical. We should have been like this a looong time back (yes, not every season can be like the last, before Tomo quotes me to say this ) but even so, this was nice. Now a CM and Stones and we can start feeling much, much more positive about things.

Bruma is at PSV, Kakuta at Sevilla, Pva at Sunderland, Bertrand at Southampton ... 2 years is a reasonably long time in Chelsea terms, lol. Long enough to not make it sound like giving a 20 year old 10 games a season is the hardest, most unprecedented, most risk-ridden thing in the world. Precisely, these Bakers and Bogas do need to cost 'good money' and not merely developmental compensation for them to get a chance, it seems. Or ... or maybe the man who said he was ''ready'' 2 seasons ago messed up by subjecting him to the vagaries of the loan system one too many times? Ideally loan deals would be used as a finishing school, to add some game time under the belt before assimilating them on a successful spell. Instead we just keep sending them out to this, that and the other, expecting them to set the world alight at every stage. You're willing to explain away those poor first team players as 'some make it, some don't' but paint everyone we failed to integrate as 'just not good enough'? Okay. Honestly, we're at an impasse and there's no point repeating these things. The same arguments from both sides in my five years on this forum.

We wouldn't have been down to 5 defenders if better rotation (read dropping and resting players when out of form) had not alienated so many of squad players, making them want to leave. Luis would have still been around if Mourinho had handled him better. Please, if preseason games actually mattered in Mourinho's decision making, we wouldn't have been able to find an XI to take the field against Swansea, given how ours went. So yes, believe it or not but form and performances from last season actually impact selection for the first few weeks of the next - and lest we forget Remy ended 14/15 with 2 goals ... Falcao? Being horrendous for Colombia. It's not me who's calling it meaningless - Mr Mourinho himself threw his runners up medal in the crowd. Perhaps selecting the full strength team had to do with our short pre season?

I love how 45 mins against Arsenal in a meaningless game is enough to make Remy third choice while a similar runout for Falcao, in addition to two cameos that had nothing to speak of apparently should land him a starting spot.

... That's hideous.

Falcao's competing with Remy though. For the moment I'd start Costa but he needs to get his act together sharp.

Courtois, Begovic, Ivanovic, Azpi, Matic, Cesc, Hazard ... plenty of decent English speakers.

^ And yet Falcao and Ivanovic have apparently 'earned' it.

If Witsel is just 'normal', what is Ramires? Paranormal?

... Because he is the current manager? Why would he not be criticised? The problem with the 'stability and pressure' argument cop-out is that the goal posts keep getting shifted. 'AVB and Robbie didn't have enough time'. Others like Mourinho 'were under pressure'. There will always be excuses and at the end of the day everything but the lack of the managers' willingness will be blamed. It really isn't that hard to give someone say 700 minutes of football over 10 months. After all we've been happy enough to waste time with dross like Marin, Cuadrado, Benayoun, Torres, etc. Perhaps people like Boga, Musonda and Baker needed to cost 10 million pounds each to be afforded the same opportunities. Wikipedia won't tell me what I already know - who actually was given serious game time except McEachran and Bertrand? Please don't count multi million pound signings like Zouma, Romeu, Lukaku and Sturridge because we're speaking of academy graduates. Certainly nobody by Mourinho himself, not even RLC after all that media hype. But of course, he was under pressure. I'll say this - say what you want about Carlo but mitigating circumstances or not, he did give chances to a few players - and not meaningless appearances like 2 minutes a season. Again, coaches are stupid enough to persist with (take your pick here) so ... maybe it's a question of faith and not ability? No, no, no. This is Mourinho speaking in July 2013 about Chalobah : I don't even know which club Nat is at right now. There were also words about how he'd blame himself if Brown, Baker and Solanke were not England players in 'a few years.' (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2709249/Jose-Mourinho-says-Chelsea-kids-Lewis-Baker-Izzy-Brown-Dominic-Solanke-dont-play-England-blame-ME.html) More loan spells at Vitesse followed. Nowhere does he put riders like 'if they can cut it' - that's just Chelsea fans desperate to defend him no matter what. You're misdirecting the 'bad results' thing ... regular members here know I've defended Mourinho more than most, so for me the criticism in regards to lack of youth integration is solely that, not linked to anything else.

Every manager has got flak for it, the tendency at this club doesn't change irrespective of who's in the dugout. The longer Mourinho stays and the more he merely pays lip service through grand promises, the more scrutiny he heaps on himself.

That can easily be countered with the argument that even with all that much touted experience in the ranks Chelsea have only managed one league in the past five seasons.

Why would you pick Begovic? Thibaut's suspension is over.