EskWeston

Absolutely, Scolari has still given us no hint of what sort of formation he is going to use with us next season. He has said that he will hope to use a variety of formations, but there will be one that gets used for the majority of the time. I think we will have to wait for the first pre season game before we get any sort of hint.

Ballacks contract isn't as much of an issue as Lampards, because there is an option for an extra year on his current deal which i am certain will be taken up. Because of the way Frank has been with us for so long and has been a fantastic player, i think most people will not be angry with him like they would be with other players. If he wants to go which is what it looks like then lets take the £10m to £15m off Inter and move on now.

So Inter are today claiming that Frank WANTS to join Inter very much. Now whilst it is very hard to believe what you read in the papers, and also it is even harder to believe what comes out of these Italian clubs, i don't think it would suprise many if it was the case that Lamps wants to join Inter! If this is the case how would people feel about Frank for next season? Would you let him go now, take a transfer fee for him and get a replacement in, or keep him for another season get another year out of him and let him go for free at the end? I think IF Frank really wants to join Inter then we should just take their money and let him go. We have some World Class midfielders still who would be able to cope without Frank.

Well Scolari is willing to give him and others the chance. It is all down to him now. He needs to take this chance and show that he can do a good job for the first team. He is the type of player Scolari may like the look of, but Scott needs to show more consistancy.

Yes i am sure he will be playing, and i am sure either Scolari will be there or he will have one of his guys there. It is good for them to see these players in a match situation.

At this stage in his development that is all that matters, the harder it is for him the better it can make him. We have a very good record with Centre Backs and we have some outstanding ones. It will be hard for him to force his way into our squad.

I agree, that is a very exciting point to come out of all this. Already we have Mancienne, Di Santo and Sinclair involved in first team training. All of them are seemingly set to have some involvement this season - obviously providing they impress Scolari enough. With just over a week till the team set off for the Pre Season tour we can expect wuite a bit of activity in those comming days. Scolari will want as close to his final team as possible there with him.

We all know Joes ability. Maybe Scolari will get the best out of him. Who knows, i hope he just start to produce some of the best football he has played.

Depends what Scoalri thinks he will need to bring the type of football he wants to play. I would think he will want to bring in 2 wingers probably. Add to that either Belletti or Ferreira, we won't keep both of them bearing in mind that we want to bring our squad size down.

Well it would be no suprise to see this one tied up quickly like we did with Sidwell, with our squad needing trimming right down we need to get rid of the obvious deadwood fast so we can get as close to our final squad as possible working together.

The roumers surrounding Ben Haim have kicked off today with Man City, Portsmouth and Spurs all aparently interested. Man City seem to be the favorites at the moment to land him for £5m. It would come as no suprise to anybody to see Ben Haim leave this summer.

Yup, i think i would be fine with us paying £30m for him. He can change games in a heartbeat and will be an outstanding winger for us and just the sort of player we need at the moment to spark our attacking play.

Well the papers are claiming that Madrid want £30m for him which on the face of it is a lot of money. But the player is pure class and at his age could be well worth the money. I really want this transfer to go ahead, would be such and incredible signing for us.

Well it is only his agent who has said anything about it, so who knows if it is true or not? But if he is due compensation then it will most certainly be a clause in his contract.

Hard to know at the moment, Di Santo was also training daily with the first team last season too. Scolari wants to use the youth players that much we know - with the seven subs rule i think that Di Santo might well make quite a few appearances this season for the first team. But he will still play in the majority if not all of the reserve team games too.

Hopefully he can go there and impress, he needs to be playing every game at the moment. He seems a very very good talent and we need to bring him through in the right way so that when the time comes he is ready to make the step up to the CFC first team. Being at PSV last season was maybe too much too fast for him...

If we want squad players in the future we are better to go for talented youngsters who are more willing to not play so much but have the ability when they come on. Signing players like Sidwell, Pizarro and Ben Haim done us no favours at all, they looked out of their depths every time.

I am convinced that Lampard had decided a while ago now that he wanted to move to Inter with Jose. There is no way that a 30 year old players who really wants to stay at their club would turn down the sort of contract we are offering - he knows that there is no way we will offer 5 years to him now - and lets be real not many clubs would either.. It is a real shame it has come down like this but i am glad the club have put their stance down in black and white - there is a contract if you want it Frank! You get the sense that maybe Frank wants to leave without making himself look bad. His mate at the Sun McGarry hasn't helped things with some of the stories he has written..... It would be good to hear what Frank has to say now!

I think it is pretty obvious why we signed Deco. Because he is exactly the type of player we have been craving for a long long while now - no matter who we have in our team. Chelsea and Kenyon have said that Frank will be 100% here this season - he can sign an extention - it is there for him, but he will not be sold this summer. It is too late now i believe for him to buy out the remainder of his contract...

As i have said in the other thread, it seems clear that Frank will run his contract down. Jose's comments about Frank definately joining him next season seem to indicate that Frank may have decided this some while ago... I am not sure that anything other than a stupidly big contract offer will make him change his mind.

This story has come back again. The Spanish paper Marca are claiming that more talks have taken place between Chelsea and his agent: http://uk.babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_ur...mp;fr=yfp-t-501 Hope this one does happen, would be a sensational signing.

Hmmm, Jose's comments a while ago seem to all make sense now. Something along the lines of "Frank will not come this season because Chelsea will not sell, but Frank will 100% be at Inter next season" I wonder how long this may have been planned for?

Well Kenyon has made everything perfectly clear today. There is an offer on the table for Frank to sign (we don't know the details of that though), if Frank doesn't want to sign it for whatever reason he will see out the remainder of his contract while we hope he will sign that contract...

He also picked up an injury! By the time he was fit it was never the right time for him to get involved with first team playing action. Lets see what he can do in pre season.

Confirmed by CFC too now. Well thats the first one out of the door of an expected 6 or so. No big suprise really and it is good for all concerned, and also we will make a nice little profit on him too which is always a bonus.