EskWeston

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......

Ballack has had a decent start to the season so far. But i think the club are doing the right think by taking it a year at a time, especially with someone like Ballack who is on a lot of money and has been known to go up and down with his form. We don't want to get into a situation where we are just keeping all our players as long as possible, Ballack will have his situation evaluated at the end of the season, which i think is the right thing to do.

That is a horrific injury and a horrific tackle also. Look at that tackle you would have to say that he either deliberately went in to catch the player (other than Roy Keane i find it hard to believe any player would go into any tackle to seriously injure another player) or it is a very stupid accident, either way it was bloody dangerous.

Not another!!! Hopefully it isn't too bad and he can be back as soon as poosibel

This is one that is never going to go away. First off, it is going to be very hard indeed for youngsters to break into the Chelsea first team. Secondly and most crucial of all for our current crop, the rotation of managers has made it impossible for any to take the chances on them properly.... On the positive side we have a fantastic crop of youngsters, that is true no matter how anybody wants to look at it, we have 13 players out on various loans, 3 of those in the Premier League. Of those in the Championship they are doing extremely well. And Stoch is impressing everyone in Holland and causing havock on defences. Lets go and touch on the JT point. JT came through at a different time, there was much much much less pressure on the team at the time so it was always easier to give young players a chance. JT only spent a short spell on loan, only a couple of months. Mikel was another exception. Despite what a lot of people think Mikel is an exceptional talent, his abilities are completely natural and if you look at his footballing path it is even more incredible how good he is. A player like Mikel who is that good at that age comes along very varely. Our set up at youth is getting better and better, we have players who can make it and some that will make it. Ancelotti will have more knowledge and faith in these players as times goes on and will be able to give them their chances. It is very obvious that the club is determined to use their youngsters, this comes from the very top. That means that it WILL happen at some point. Mancienne, Cork, Hutchinson, Bertrand, Stoch, Sinclair, Van Aanholt, Di Santo will all get their chance at some point in the future with the first team. Then after that ther are any number of players who can follow in their footsteps.

EskWeston

UEFA are known for not being consistant. Look at when they punished Essien, they have not done something similar since. I think that blatant cheating like this should be punished, it does make it difficult in the future but still the right thing to have done.