Madmax

Ah, MIND GAMES

Shit goals? You need a lie-down, bud.

Drogba was always spoken of as being the best in the world on his day, and not just by Chelsea fans. Ferdinand and Evra are to this day described as some sort of defensive lynchpins when in reality their performances have nosedived since a couple of years ago. Aguero IS the best striker in the league along with Suarez. Silva IS the best playmaker in the league. The Gerrard love-in is down to the number of scouse media pundits and their ability to consequently affect public opinion. If there's one thing the PL is good at, it is self praise. There's no racist undertone there.

I've said this before. You should stick to making videos.

Hey! Teacher! Leave them kids alone!

Nope, only those that aren't at Chelsea.

I'm looking forward to phrases like 'parting shot', 'blasted' and 'fired a salvo'.

Torres isn't a part of the promotions ... dare I hope?

Marc Albrighton released from Villa and available on a free. Call me crazy but if we wanted a HG winger as a squad option I'd take him over Moses every day of the week and twice on the Sunday.

Yeah it was hypocritical of him. He mentioned more than once at the season's start that he sees Luiz as a CB and isn't one to be so defensive that he would use a CB in midfield like previous managers did (obviously referring to Benitez). Chelsea fans should be the last ones to be surprised though, we should know more than anyone that he's a pragmatist and will do anything he considers necessary to win.

I don't profess to having watched him play for Vitesse or Holland u21 so I'm not going to comment about your evaluation of his playing abilities. I don't care how he performed for them and neither does Mourinho, going by the very fact that we bought him, a decision that had Mourinho's blessing. That tells you all you need to know about whether he sees something in him or not. You say Mourinho didn't play him when he was fit - how long was that period? Not more than a couple of months from the season's start, considering the cup game that ended his season is held around Sept-Oct. A big reason Lampard and Luis started the number of games they did is down to his injury. Seeing as how there are absolutely zero rumours of us signing a CM (apart from that Song swap) and with Luiz and Mikel likely gone I'd put my money on our 3 most used midfielders being Matic, Ramires and MVG.

We're not in and are never going to be in any FFP trouble. There's still some hope, rumours flying around that LVG wants Evra for another season.

Err he played 2 league games all season, both as a sub. 2 fucking games. Of course he 'showed nothing to be a starter'.

Also, people forget that professional athletes have a very short career compared to other professions, and even that is if they're lucky enough to avoid injuries. It is easy to moan about the wages of some of the players (and to be sure 220k or whatever is obscene) but that's not the average. It is on the extreme end of the scale in the most popular league in the world.

... Or maybe he's just in a better position to take a call seeing as he works with them 6 days a week?

You and me both. I remember those days. Good times, bro.

I sure as fuck hope Chelsea make him feel special on his birthday.

This is the one image that'll define his Chelsea career for me : Go well, Ash.

There's a reason Sanogo looks like he hasn't taken a shit in weeks.

IMO, what's needed more than a 'core' of English/HG players is to have a quality HG option for each position. It lends a better balance to the team and the squad while obviously not compromising on the overall quality. For example, we spent this season with Hilario as our 3rd choice goalie. He contributed nothing to the campaign (not his fault he wasn't called upon, mind), all the while eating up a precious foreign slot. Would giving that exposure to Blackman not have made more sense? I look around our squad and its fringes and most of our HG contingent is around central defence. We have no locally developed players in attacking midfield or up front. If Lukaku (less likely) and Moses (quite likely) are sold, that situation would become worse still. Whereas if we have a scattering of reliable local players all over the pitch, not only does it do wonders for the confidence of our academy and other younger players, it is also cost effective. With that in mind, for next season I'd like us to have Blackman for GK, Kalas for CB, PvA for LB, Chalobah for CM, Lukaku for ST with JT, Cahill and Lampard rounding off our quota of 8.

Correct, even Ramires would get this right.We're now at that point where Cech's experience and familiarity no longer offset Courtois' raw promise. The Belgian is no longer a greenhorn honing his trade, we're talking about someone who at 22 years old is one game away from having won every trophy he's ever competed for in club colours. Which then makes the decision boil down to pure footballing ability. In that department, even if Cech performs at 100% for 2 more years, would you take that over Courtois (for argument's sake) performing at, say 85% over that period, knowing he could then go on and give you a dozen more years as possibly the best in his position in the world?

I didn't check. Posted the link because chelseayouth is a good account and thechels.org are a great CFC resource in my experience.