Tomo

Genius move from the board. Valencia are one of the top clubs in Spain who will be playing European football next season, if Romeu has a great season there he can come back effectively like a new signing.

Because he has the highest ceiling out of the 6, Jose will see just how good Eden can be and when he is fit he will play, i feel. I could be wrong.

fair point, shame Subotic signed a new contract with Dortmund.

I have a feeling he has convinced Jose that he can (for this season atleast) still play a key part as all this talk about us getting a new centre back has dried up.

If it was between him and Higuain, ill take him every time.

David is 27 next season, if he was still 21 or under we could maybe look at it, but it's too late now and i really do not see the issue of him at CB just because he is good at football, if anything that makes us more unpredictable. The in general "luiz in midfield" thing with all the British pundits shows why England are so far behind the other top footballing nation's. They don't take to defenders unless their a put your body on your line and lump it forward kind off defender, proper old school.

Their is a lot of obsession with balance these days, i know it's important but some take it a step too far, i was earwigging in my course 2 other Chelsea fans debating who should play the number 10 role next season and were discussing who was better defensively out of the Mazacar throughout

I think Hazard might become the one untouchable for the attacking midfield places under Jose while the Portuguese will rotate the other 5 depending on who we are playing.

Nobody seems to divide opinion from Chelsea fans like Emenalo does (not even Mikel) some don't think he has done a good job, some do but won't admit it because they still have the hump he replaced Wilkins as assistant manager and some think he has done a great job. I am in the latter of those people. When he got the job in the first place understandably their was some skepticism, after all he didn't have much experience and didn't really pull up any tree's as the assistant manager, but for me he has done a sterling job in the last two years and im surprised their are still many doubters. When he took over the role in 2011, we just came out of an absolutely horrific season, since 2008 their has been warning sign's that our team are getting on and we need to slowly replace these players sooner rather than later, we didn't and it all came to a horrifying head in the 2010-2011 season. The team completely stagnated, no creativity, lethargic, none of the power and will we became accustomed to seeing from these bunch of players. Apart from the first game of the season against West Brom and an FA Cup 3rd round tie against a woeful Ipswich, i can't think of a single convincing performance we had all season, at times we were borderline comatose. In the 2 years he has been DOF, his work has played a big part of changing us to the most ageing stagnant teams in the country to a side bursting with young talent and a very bright future at the top of English football. Courtois, De Bruyne, Lukaku, Hazard, Oscar, Van Ginkel have all been signed since he took the role and (with the exception of McEachran to Swansea) the loans we are sending our young players on have been very successful. For me is doing a great job and played a big part in overhauling the average age of our squad so successfully and quickly, given the state our squad looked in 2011 seeing it now is the stuff of dreams in comparison.

If Moyes doesn't atleast have them challenging striaght away, the fans will be on his back, a fair chunk of them were calling for Fergie to in their words "do the right thing and retire" during their run in 01-06 when they got one title pretty much by default (due to Arsenal's biggest bottle job in PL history). Not sure about the board but if Moyes struggles the fans will call for his head, no doubt about it. Which will be quite funny after the preaching they have done to us down the years.

just as you mention that, so do i Big Sam's different tho, he will win the double every season at Chelsea or United, he said so

I know it's early, but im starting to see comparison's to Roy at Liverpool. Naive comment's and seems like he is struggling to adapt to the step up in terms of exposure, expectation and so on. It will be interesting how he adapt, i remember Roy still had the Fulham mentality at Liverpool, calling a win at Bolton a "famous victory" and saying "we deserved our point" after a 2-2 draw to Sunderland at home. I wonder is Moyes will struggle to the change of mentality aswell, we will soon find out.

If he does, sign him up i say

Regarding the formation talk for this season i am thinking Jose won't be using 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3. He always like's to be one step ahead off the opposition, which is why he introduced 4-3-3 the last time while every one else was still stuck in their 4-4-2 ways. Mourinho will try something to get a step ahead of the opposition again, the question is, what?

A thread titled "Mourinho will ruin Chelsea" by a user who named himself "out with Abramovich" got 6 pages off response while this (one of the best threads on TC for me) get's ignored for hours Fantastic article mate, our long term plan is ridiciolously good.

He struggled to settle in his first season so was loaned, he came back in 05/06 however and was probably the only player in Drogba's 8 years that competed well with him for #1 role.

Crespo a flop? you can't be serious?

This is encouraging, atleast this shows Mourinho is not happy with the forwards we have if he is prepared to go to these lengths.

Maybe they should have gone to Man.Utd, instead of the 17 appearances Josh got under Ancelotti he could have gone to Man.Utd and got 3 like Pogba

It will be the most excited fans got about a transfer since we signed him.

Looking back at some comments on this thread last summer about how people were convinced Torres will shine when he is made #1 and not have the Drogba shadow, is even funnier/cringeworthy to read in hindsight than it was at the time.

Would that be a bad thing? we might have a proper WLD at last.

Where were you when Rafa was appointed?

The tour of Asia will be amazing, finally be able to watch a Chelsea game without Torres in sight.

We aren't Roma's rivals in any way shape or form, if Lazio wanted him i bet Roma will have to be offered a huge, huge amount to even consider it.