bababoom

What was the score?

I disagree with that, now you can say it was reasonable but at that time i'm pretty sure we were all saying he was too expensive especially since we also paid his agent five million (if i remember correctly). Tbh we were all excited about getting Hazard so we didn't make a big deal about it, but the general consensus was that we were overspending.. The Media and opposing fans definitely banged on about the price tag, even Ferguson came out and said it was too much.

Do you lot remember when we thought £32 million for Hazard was expensive before only the best would go for ridiculous prices, now any young talent can go for crazy amounts, look at Neymar and James... looking back it was a fucking bargain for Hazard, never thought i'd ever say that.

Hopefully 21 goals in the league, 27 in all comps.

I'm pretty sure they're just reporting the Eurosport article.

Madrid finally manage to build a world class, balanced side. They win the Cl and then they fuck it up by signing the flavour of month. They will now sell their best player last season in Di Maria, the player who offered them legs and pace in midfield... Modric - Kroos Bale James Ronaldo Benzema I see this line up doing the rounds on twitter, seriously... against any decent, well drilled, counter attacking side that team will be exploited. Where's the defensive player in midfield? Where's the legs in midfield? Carlo's going to have a hard time building a balanced side with all those players.

I love how you just took a snippet of that quote to suit your anti Mourinho agenda...The full quote, "Chelsea is not made to play football. We are good in playing on the counter attack, a bit like Real against Bayern.", he never said a bad word about Chelsea. The french translation is bad but what he basically means is that Chelsea don't try and dominate possession, instead we counter like Real. He's definitely not having a dig at Jose or Chelsea. Mourinho was right, in this day and age your wingers have to keep track of the opposing fullback, no excuses.

If you had actually watched Madrid at that time you would know Modric wasn't playing well, It was his first season and he had a hard time adjusting. He was actually voted the worst signing in La Liga that year, it was a bit harsh but it tells you he wasn't at his best. Regarding Ozil, Mourinho rates him highly and he did start many the big games but nine times out of ten he would go missing, is that Jose's fault? there's a reason why he's known as the big game bottler.... talk to any Madrid fan and they will tell you that. The fact is Robben was constantly injured at Chelsea and with two years remaining on his contract he wasn't going to renew. It has nothing to do with Jose wanting him gone... in fact Mourinho actually said he wanted to him to stay, so again you're talking nonsense. Mourinho has managed the likes of Deco, Sneijder, Ozil and now it'll be Cesc. At Inter Sneijder was his main creative player, attacking-wise everything went through him and it was under Jose where he played his best football. You can continue to spout shit by saying 'he judges players like a rugby coach' but it just exposes how little you know about Jose, the teams he has managed and football in general.

No, but Real always buy the biggest and newest names in football, even if it's detrimental to their current squad. Jose wants to build a balanced side whereas Madrid care more about prestige and marketing.

We don't really need him, do we?

All the Chelsea fans on twitter complaining about Cesc's hair He just has a receding hairline, he'll be fine.

ESPN are very hit and miss, i don't think they're reliable at all, same with Eurosport for that matter.

No way, The likes of Aston Villa, Burnley, Crystal Palce, Hull, Leicester, Newcastle, QPR, Southampton, Stoke, Sunderland, Swansea, West Brom and West Ham are way too strong mate. Seriously, Suarez scored 30 goals while missing eight matches through suspension, Messi and Ronaldo would easily score 40/50 goals.

ESPN and Eurosport, two unreliable sources. He's staying.

Will we get interviews from them today?

Mata was never really good at dribbling though, that wasn't his game. Someone like Silva has it all, Vision, Close control, Dribbling etc he's a wonderful footballer. The thing with Cesc is that he's more of a pass and move type player, especially when he's playing further up the pitch. Also the thing that sets him apart from both Juan and Silva IMO is that his long passing is just as good as his short. Juan and Silva both have excellent short passing i.e little through balls, but you hardly ever see them do a Pirlo-esque long rang pass from deep, where as Cesc does it all the time.

Mata was never really good at dribbling though, that wasn't his game. Someone like Silva has it all, Vision, Close control, Dribbling etc he's a wonderful footballer. The thing with Cesc is that he's more of a pass and move type player, especially when he's playing further up the pitch. Also the thing that sets him apart from both Juan and Silva IMO is that his long passing is just as good as his short. Juan and Silva both have excellent short passing i.e little through balls, but you hardly ever see them do a Pirlo-esque long rang pass from deep, where as Cesc does it all the time. Edit - Sorry wrong thread, this should be posted in the Cesc thread, don't mind me.

He's obviously hardly going to play, he'll be more of a coach than anything. Jose said he wants Lampard to be a coach as well but I guess he wants one last payday in America and who can blame him. Look at what United are doing with their class of 92, I think its important to keep Legends at the club, in some capacity. In a few years time who wouldn't want Drogba, Terry, Lampard and Cech involved at the club.

yeah I was talking about that Sergi guy, I always see him getting retweeted on my timeline, I take it he thinks he's some 'ITK'?

Who is this guy?

I agree, i personally think Jose just used the 3-5-2 formation so he could throw on as many attacking players as he could to try to win the game. I was saying that if Jose wanted to use the 3-5-2 i'd expect it to be more balanced and the players to be drilled. I personally think the Costa - Schurrle partnership would be beastly, imagine Costa holding up the ball, creating space while Schurrle makes his incredible off the ball runs... it could work.

Bear in mind our midfield was rather weak, didn't we have Ramires/Mikel and Lamaprd in the middle? also we had Schurrle/Willian playing as a wing back, it was ultra attacking because we had to win, normally you wouldn't see Torres/Eto, Ba, Hazard, Oscar, Willian and Schurrle all in the same line up. Ivan - Terry - Cahill (Apzi) Willian Luis Matic (Romeu) (Ramires) Oscar Fabregas (MVG) (Lukaku) Costa Hazard (Schurrle) Maybe something like this? Holland had Kuyt working as a RWB and i honestly think Willian could play that role just as well. I also put Hazard/Schurrle up top to emulate the Robben and RVP partnership. I say this is more balanced as opposed to bringing on every attacking player you have on the bench to try and win the game, like we did against Norwich for Example.

The 4-4-2 has come back as well in the last couple of years.