Cosmin

Time for the team to be very careful now. Time for us to suffer.

Get in

Almost always. Too bad he didn't receive the support that he deserved.

Yeah and who's to blame for the countless opportunities of crossing from the flanks? When you allow your opponent to put the ball in the box so easily, anything can happen. It is the midfield mostly, but not exclusively.

How many fucking times cand they do the same type of play? I am 100% pro Sarri, but this team's defense used to work at least reasonably. Now it's a mess.

Scoring 2, 3, 4 is nice, but if you conceed the same or more it's not fun anymore. The flanks are dead defensively.

Fixed that for you.

Simeone is laughing with one of his players and there is not one single thing suggesting that they're laughing at Courtois. But we need clicks, so whatever

Fair enough.

I find it very difficult to understand why he has to start somewhere. He started somewhere exactly one year ago and he came back from that injury a few months ago. It's not like he's just returned on Saturday. He had the end of last season and the pre-season to get ready. If this is all he can offer, I'd say we move on. Of course, it would be stupid to draw conclusions after only one game (two, actually), but I think you guys are being a little bit too optimistic. Do you really think we can count on this guy to be a constant scorer for us this season? Looking for the little positives is what we did for four years with Torres and it got us nowhere. A good striker is a good striker and you can just see it, you don't need tens of games for adjustment. Even when Drogba was struggling, his character and attitude were speaking volumes. Morata is just looking constantly anxious, even when he tries to seem tough. I'm not saying he's a bad striker, but I don't think he's a Chelsea-type of striker. We need bullies like Drogba and Costa. I hope that I'm wrong and that he starts scoring, but I just can't see it at this point.

Sounds exactly like what we used to say when we were discussing Torres. We want him to do good, so we tell ourselves about the "positive signals". This kind of improvement is not enough, from my point of view. No goals, no assists and no signs of real confidence in his attitude. Hope we get to see more of Giroud real soon.

Satisfying first game. I really really enjoy seeing Kepa between the posts. He's a very likeable lad, unlike Courtois. I also like his confidence and footwork skills.Also, it feels like Jorginho has been with us for a while, he's the type of player who doesn't seem to need too much time to adapt. And that penalty was gold, it had something Hazardesque in it. What I didn't like was, of course, our striker for whom I cannot see a future here. He looked absent, not connected to the team, losed possession way too often. We really did fuck it up with Costa, didn't we? Willian played like he had something to prove, while Eden was terrific. Everyone was at least decent, except for Morata. All in all, can't wait for the Arsenal game.

Sarri on potential loans to leave: 'Now I think the squad is too large. Some players have to go on loan. I don't know who at the moment. I prefer to have 23, 24 players and three or four very young players. No more.' Not sure if he means 23-24 players and three or four very young players, besides those 23-24 or included. I'd say Zouma, Abraham, Brown, Kalas, Piazon, Omeruo, Bakayoko, Aina and Hector are going to go out on loan. Ampadu, RLC, Hudson-Odoi and Musonda are the three "very young players" that'll stay.

Yessss! Time to shine, man!

Come on, same hairstyle, no facial hair whatsoever, same head shape. He's a few tens of inches away from Courtois when it comes down to the nose's length, though. I think he looks like if Courtois and Oscar had a baby.

Don't you find it a bit weird that he looks a little like Courtois?

Right. But taking into account the statements made by Marina and the player's attitude towards Madrid during this summer, I think it's up to how good this season will be for him. If he does ok, he will stay. If he does either very bad or great, he'll leave.

Just received a notification from the official app that he's a new CFC player. Here we go.

So it seems that RLC is here to stay, since Palace is no longer an option.

On the paper, yes. But in reality, it will take a lot of time to build some chemistry. I think we'll stick with the old guard for the start of the season and then gradually integrate the newcomers, after a few practice sessions and games. The Premier League is going to be a very very tough competition this season. Some teams improved their squad by signing new players (Liverpool, Everton - I think Richarlison is a great signing for them, City), while others improved by keeping their best ones (Spurs, Liverpool again, United, Arsenal). Just think about it. No big name, except for maybe Courtois, has left the Premier League during this window and the only way someone does is if Barca works some wonders and signs Pogba. Which won't happen, by any means. Also, the teams that got promoted are looking quite sharp, specially Fulham and Wolves. Newcastle kept their manager, so did Burnley and Huddersfield. I'm very interested in seeing how West Ham and Everton do as well, specially because of their new managers. I really think it's going to be very very tough and we cannot afford missing the start like we did last season. Even then it was extremely difficult to catch up. This time it will be impossible. Kovacic has the potential of becoming an essential player for Chelsea, but if we take a risk with him, he might unfairly turn into a dissapointment real quick. I hope Sarri is a patient man.

I think we are being a little too harsh. Courtois was not born and raised in London, he's not a Chelsea lad. He was signed by the club, loaned to Atletico, felt good there but got called back. I am sure he didn't even want to return, but it was the best thing for his career. Now the best thing for his life and career is to go back to Madrid. He has his family there, he loves the city and, let's be fair, he's going to a bigger and more exciting club.Ask any player, who's not a Barcelona or Atleti fanatic, and he'll tell you that he wishes to play / have played for Real. It's a huge opportunity for Thibaut and we should try to understand that. Of course he said and did a lot of childish stuff, but some people do that. I wish him best of luck and thank him for his efforts. Not everyone is made to be a legend or a hero of the fans.

What if we are willing to pay so much cash because Hazard is leaving for Madrid, along with Courtois? What if we are cashing in on both of them and lining up Kepa and Fekir as replacements? I mean, are we really willing to spend 71m on a goalkeeper without any side effect?

The lack of an option to buy wouldn't be an issue, from my point of view. If Kovacic enjoys life here and he doesn't want to come back to Real, there will be a way to keep him. Regarding the overcrowded midfield, I think Bakayoko will be loaned out to Sevilla and Drinkwater will end up on the London Stadium.

El acuerdo entre el Real Madrid y el Chelsea se anunciará en las próximas horas y Kovacic pondrá rumbo a Londres para embarcarse en su nueva aventura, de ida y vuelta. "El acuerdo se anunciará en las próximas horas" - > That's Spanish for "this will drag up until the last minute of the deadline day".

It seems that some fans and even the club are slightly disconnected from the reality of today's market. No one will come in cheap at Chelsea. Or maybe it will, if by cheap you mean anything between 30m and 50m. This league is getting huge revenues, specially the first 6-7 clubs and everyone knows it. Now with the window closing earlier the pressure is even bigger for Chelsea, City, United, Liverpool, Spurs or Arsenal.They need players, they are rich and everyone else knows they're rich. So basically everyone will try sqeezing fees as big as possible when dealing with these clubs. No one will sell you cheap players. If we are not willing to adapt to that, we will stop being successful. Simple as. From where I'm standing, I say sell Courtois and buy a good goalkeeper. Not a decent one, but a good one. Very few Chelsea supporters can say that they loved Courtois. He's not really a likeable dude, he didn't kiss the badge, he didn't pledge eternal faith to the blue colour, but he was a good goalkeeper for us. He's not been great, but he's been good. And if we think that it will be easy finding a replacement, I think we're wrong. Finding a good goalkeeper nowadays is difficult, just look at how much City struggled before Ederson. And by the way, I think we should be looking for someone like Ederson. Why does it always feel like this club's transfer policy is dictated by Twitter? We always go for the obvious options, exactly those options that the Twitter experts learn about while playing FIFA. I really wish we would go for the less obvious choices for once. Why can't we find an Ederson of our own? I keep asking myself that. There are so many good teams in Europe, others than those in Serie A (a league which we seem to have an obsession with lately) that could offer decent options. Belgium, Portugal, Croatia, France, even Russia are all great markets but it seems that we are only sending scouters in Italy. This club's making life very difficult for itself, in my opinion. Health, sustainable, long term success will only be a dream if we keep going like this. But I'm no expert neither in money or football management. There might be plenty of things that I'm or we're not aware of, but this is how it feels. The transfer policy has been a mess for the last few seasons.