EskWeston

Gael has a problem because he has a 4 month ban!!! He is recovering from injury and still not up to speed! He is going to have to work exceptionally hard to keep in tip top condition for when his ban ends. Although his ban will probably be put on hold while the appeal process is carried out... Kakuta could turn out to be World Class, in a similar bracket to Messi, Ronaldo and Kaka..... even if the bans are upheld, he is worth it.

Firstly can UEFA prove that we "induced" Kakuta, and more importantly induced him "knowing" that he had a contract.. The contract though is the most important thing because what sort of contract is it if he is not allowed to sign a pro contract at that point?

Excellent news to hear that Miroslav has recovered from his injury. It comes as no suprise that he is impressing at Twente and with the national team, the lad is pure class and i have no doubt that he can be a part of the Chelsea future, watching the Stoke replay last night on CTV his impact in that game was great and what i have come to expect from him.... A very bright "Chelsea" future for Miroslav i am absolutely sure.

What team has a 33+ man squad!? It will cost us because if we lose big key players to injury then yes we will have to lean on youngsters, but it will cost us titles without a shadow of a doubt. It is of vital importance now that we take no risks when it comes to player injury.... No-one is more for developing young talent than i am, but this could end up costing us big time.

It's not tapping up that is the issue, it is breach of contract. Firstly i would like to know what sort of contract Kakuta could possibly have had at 15 years old...... there is no way he could have signed a pro contract. So how can FIFA dish out the same punishment as to what they gave out for a breach of a pro contract. And what "proof" is there that we intentionally coherced Kakuta to break whatever contract it was he had? Also what happens when come next summer we want to register our next batch of youngsters and give them pro contracts? We won't be able to do it.... it could mean we end up losing a host of talented youngsters to other clubs next summer....

What happens if we get a spate of long term injuries. It most certainly can happen. We can't even bring anyone in on loan!!!! Lets say for arguments sake that in December Drogba and Anelka both break their legs. This WILL have a massive effect on us and will cause us problems.

So can we expect Man U to get the same punishment anytime soon?: http://www.clubcall.com/manchester-united/le-havre-slam-uniteds-transfer-policy-927034.html We will see what the eventual outcome of this is but it stinks and it is very bad news indeed.

This has to be a joke surely..... I didn't think players were allowed to sign contracts until they were 17, so what contract has Kakuta breached? Once again FIFA/UEFA setting precidents with us because they don't like us. Well f**K them. If this is upheld it is a massive problem that we have not signed anyone this summer. Anyone think that the club ensuring players are tied into new contracts this summer has anything to do with Chelsea expecting this outcome??

Alex won't be back by the 12th....... Ferreira and Joe are at Cobham training with the youth and reserves, and hopefully they will be in with a shout for the 12th.

Yes, but they wouldn't be additional players, they would be replacing players in the current lists.

Well the fact he has been in full training for a week and has gone to Russia with the national team and not stayed back like Cole and Ferreira (who have also gone back to full training) says to me that he is probably fit. Also Chelsea confirmed that he will be ready to play after the international break. These definately look like old quotes to me.... bottom line is, if he was injured and unable to play for his national team he would be at Cobham.

Something worth pointing out is that Manchester United have named a 35 man squad for their CL Campaign, this includes filling all their 25 allocation completely and having 10 players in the "B" list which includes Anderson. Incidently last season we was able to include Mikel on our B list which helped us out immensely.

I am sure that these are old quotes. He has been back in training and is on international duty, i think he is pretty much fully recovered. He will possibly play a small part in the international games and then come back ready to make his first appearance for us.

Rhys is only there as an emergency, he won't get on in the Carling Cup as we will have to give Hilario and Turnbull games over him.....

Ferreira and Matic miss out...... no big suprise there So, 2 squad members short this season. And that is only because we have included Sam Hutchinson in list A, that it great news for him, Hutchinson seems to have seriously impressed Ancelotti. Taylor, Bruma and Kakuta on list B, suprised we didn't add at least Borini as well considering you can have as many players on list B as you want.... Still pretty much as we expected, hopefully we will be able in a year or 2 (hopefully next year) be able to have a full 25 man squad if we can include Mancienne plus one more.

Yes, i don't think you will get much argument there. His goalscoring has been nothing short of sensational since the start of last season. He is such a hard worker too and i am sure he would do well in our first team, i think it is quite important that he get the chances so we have some additional cover when Kalou and Drogba dissapear....

That look excellant. I don't think we have much chance though of developing on the current site. Which is a real shame, but it just doesn't look like it is going to happen.

Hooray!!! New deals all round.... To be fair though Ash does deserve it, he has been in supberb form for a long while now and is by a long way the best left back in the World

Definately, but if we can get ourselves a nice lead using first team players and then bring on some youngsters for 30 mins or so then that is progress still. I hope they do it because some of these lads are worth a shot in the CC against lower league opposition.

Yes, and possibly only 1 in the starting 11 and that would be Hutchinson providing he is fit. As i said in the reserve game thread i can only see Hutchinson, Bruma, Kakuta and Borini possibly getting a chance. I would give Borini a go because we may need the extra cover come the ACN. It is very good news though that we are willing to give these lads a go in the Carling Cup, but i wouldn't expact anything radical.

Lol, perfect providing you don't suffer from vertigo. And we won't need stewards anymore, we would need mountain guides and safety lines to get to those top seats..... Still a larger stadium will be needed at some point in the future...

Then we play with Sturridge and Kalou. That is what our squad is for, there are a lot "what if's" but if we worked on that basis then we would have about 10 strikers "just in case"... With the DM, what happens before and after the ACN? Mikel and Essien will always be 1st and 2nd choice, plus they are both young. You would effectively be bringing someone in to play for 1 month. We have to be realistic. In an ideal world i would have liked to have brought a creative spark in to play at the top of the diamond. But we have Deco and Joe Cole and Lamps to play there so we are not desperate.

We have known for days/weeks that there was going to be no more activity. Despite what we feel we may need, Ancelotti and the board obviously feel we have enough for this season. Another striker? Possibly yes, mainly because of the ACN. But we have 4 top top strikers Drogba, Anelka, Kalou, Sturridge. And we have Di Santo to come back, plus a decent option or 2 in the reserves. How many other clubs have more than 4 strikers in their squad? Winger? We are wingless at the moment, so a winger would be pointless.... Defensive Mid? It would be somewhat silly to sign a player purely for a few weeks of ACN cover. We will be able to cope with what we have, Ballack, Belletti probably Matic will all be able to cover for that period. Yes i would have liked to see us improve our squad a little more, but it was obvious for a while it wasn't going to happen and we are looking so good with some top players still to be involved (Alex, J.Cole, Zhirkov).

The club have done whats right for them. We spent out a lot of money to sign him and he screwed us over, he destroyed himself and the money we paid for him. We had every right to get that money back from him, it is not for us to feel sympathy for him because he can't afford to pay for it.

It is fantastic news that JT has signed a new long term deal, JT is the heart of this club and we want him to stay for as long as possible. I can't help though but think the release of this was timed very delicately. It is obvious that the negotiations a while back involving Man City DID include contract discussions. And they have waited until now to soften the blow...... Make no mistake though, this is excellant news for us......