Tomo

Has any one ever lived off a run of form for so long like Silva has?

Like someone said on the previous page, swap Turnbull, Marin and Benayoun for Lopez, Schurrle and De Bruyne, our depth all off a sudden looks 4 times as strong.

Mata and Hazard. I even think Luiz, if his performances next to Silva is anything to go by, him nexxt to Kompany would be almost unbeatable. Azpi maybe in a year, although right now i would say Zabaleta is (just) better. But even so, Jose came to us last time with a squad that wasn't the best on paper, in the summer of 2004, who of our squad would have got into Arsenal's unbeaten team (on paper)? Probably only Makelele, Cech and possibly Carvalho. Whatever advantage City may have on us on paper, im confident Jose will make it up on the pitch, just like he did with the Gooner team back then.

City are over rated. Don't let the fact they seem to have our number right now get in the way off the fact they can be got at. The fact all through last season people were still calling them the best team in the league despite United running away with it says it all. Ofcourse they will challenge next term, but there not this superteam they seem to be made out to be, which stemmed from the start they made in 11/12.

Its a bit early to say, we will be able to make a better assessment at the start of August. This season i said from the start that the best we could have hoped for was 3rd with the players we signed and let go and i was right, this summer if Jose comes in and get's the balance right, improves depth i think we can win in. If Fergie stayed i would have said that we would have probably needed another season but now he has gone i think we get United. With us looking like were getting Jose (a serial winner) while the Manc clubs look set to start the season with two managers who don't have many medals between them, it's not stressed enough just what an edge that will give us, before a ball is even kicked. With the rest of the league i think Stoke are fucked unless the new manager makes some clever signing's. As Watford won't be able to do the millions of loans they have been doing in the Championship, they will get mullered unless they buy those players and more.

Bigger flop than Torres, despite the small fee.

PVA is the leftback version of Bosingwa. Because he is semi decent in attack makes him a very deceptive player, like most fullbacks who are shite defending (including Bosingwa before his overall flaws became too obvious).

We know from Jose's previous, that players that have everything in their locker but need a bit of rough edges removed is the perfect player for Jose. If DL4 isn't that player right now, i don't know who is. The Enlglish media were always going to make a Mourinho-Luiz story given their vendetta against him, im surprised it took them this long.

^ Norwich did well to beat us in the final, they had a game plan and executed it to perfection, but is that the right thing to do at youth level in terms of players development? I think the opposite.It was like watching a re run of our first team play Barca. I think Boga has as good a chance as any at making it into the first team, he is a class above Kiwomya who has his moments but is a headless chicken if ever i see one.

But, but, but, Mourinho doesn't do young players

What has just got me thinking about Carlo, is if we kept him to this day, would he have left us for Madrid too?

I thought there would be a media frenzy the day Beckham retired no matter what country he was playing in, but no one has really noticed.

Im torn with what to do with this lad next season. Do i think he is ready to play for Chelsea? yes 100% he is but he will probably be rotating with a new forward (i would love to get Benteke, not going to lie, those two would sort our forward line out long term). Now he is fully established as West Brom's best forward he will probably be starting week in, week out next season and with it, he could get even better before coming back to us following the world cup (where he could announce himself to the world). One thing is for sure, he is going to be a top, top player for us for many years.

Those celebration's were embarrassing but that is the reality, the top four is a "trophy" until something gets sorted out, giving the FA Cup winners the 4th CL spot might do the trick and the Europa League winners should get a place too, that would shake things right up and Wenger would not know where to turn. In that way the only teams in England, Germany and Spain that would be guarentee'd CL football no matter what would be the top 2, then in Italy just the Champions.

The thing with Torres is he took a pay cut to move to Liverpool and i think someone on here said he turned down becoming the highest paid player in Enlgland from City. There is many things Torres is, but a mercanary isn't one of them, if we threaten him with the Malouda treatment, then he is more likely to go than Malouda or Bogarde was, for example.

We never learn? a semi decent month after months of shiteness and were debating whether to keep him He has helped win the EL and scored the goal that clinched 3rd, that is as good as it will get for him at Chelsea so it makes sense to leave on a high and his value is probably the highest right now than it will ever be again. We must take advantage of that. He is not back, he will never be back to his old self i can't even believe this up for debate, near enough every Chelsea fan accepts that Essien is finished but there is still some that harbour this false hope for Torres. If Mourinho even attempts to bring back the Torres of old it could bite him in the arse.

If were going to play that game the form of Hasselbaink, Gudjohnsen and Cudicini was what saved us from a mid table finish in Ranieri's first season (and the Italian an almost certain sack. 3 guesses how many of those 3 he signed?

A bit late in response but Vertonghen in hugely over rated, his goal scoring covers up some glaring defensive frailties. Dembele tho i do agree with.

@TorontoChelsea, Doing exactly as expected would be a close title win, those two title win's were not close, we blown away the competition. No one expected us to be winning those title's with us ease, especially not with that Arsenal team around. I think the main point off the whole thing, is would Hughes, Dalglish, Sven or any half decent manager had similar success to Mourinho despite the money? and that is a resounding no. Which showes while money helps, you still need a manager who knows what he is doing.

Decision, decisions. Courtois should have that season on loan again at Madrid to play in the CL, he has earned that and needs to play in the World Cup, but after that is when the big decision has to be made once and for all. Now their is the argument on Cech has still years left but the key thing is has he? Courtois said himself in 2011 Cech might have to retire early due to his injury problems and yes i know he should have kept his mouth shut about club affairs but that isn't the point, there must be some truth to it otherwise signing the Belgium (no matter how good he is) would have been absolutely pointless (unless were planning a massive profit making exercise not even Levy would attempt). Cech looks fine now, but if the injury thing is true, that won't happen for ever, imagine just imagine if we sell Courtois and Cech then starts slowing down? A tough decision, that thankfully i don't have to make.

I agree with @Shogun, this has 0-0 written all over it and it's this type of season for us Arsenal will win 2-1.

Yes he may have inherited some good players and added to them also but every manager benefit's from players they inherit, Ranieri was saved from the sack in his first full season by the form of three players he inherited of Vialli. At Chelsea he may have had lots of money to spend and ofcourse that helped him win the trophies he did with us, but if it was just so easy to spend and win Dalglish and Hughes would still be in jobs. 07/08 started badly, but Jose left with us level with United, who started just as badly. Who was to say things would not have improved? Spending doesn't automatically mean success, a harsh lesson QPR have been taught. Jose came in 04/05. Manpe actually explained why Jose actually overachieved in his first two season's at Chelsea despite the money spent. This is his quote below. I accept he is not perfect but the pro's overwiegh the con's big time.

I don't think we were even that convincing in that little mini run we had at the end. We got 2nd because the three teams below us all bottled it at the same time. To think United nearly made it 4 and gifted us the league, imagine if that happened? they say you can't win a title by default, but we would have if that happened. What was scary is between the City and Wolves game i think our GD was negative, those title rebound games at the start upto and including the Blackpool match made our stats for that season very deceiving. We ended that season on 71 points, Tottenham could get 72 this season and miss out on 4th.

I mentioned above that the rumours that Cech may have to retire early cause of injury problem's aren't as far fetched as we think, otherwise their would have been no point signing the Belgium.