EskWeston

I think Matic is more a holding midfielder than an attacking midfielder. Not knowing much about him i can't comment too much but i would think it would be very dissapointing to see Matic come in and ruin any chance of Jack Cork comming through. Mellis could be a long term replacement for Lampard definately. Taiwo won't make it at CFC....

Here Ya Go: Still only JT for the "club trained" section so we will be short again. I would imagine players like Bruma and Kakuta will be on list B this season.

It is an important sign that Mancienne has signed a new contract. Firstly it shows that Chelsea believe he has a future with our first team, and secondly it shows that so does Mancienne.

To sell the premierships top scorer would be madness. Even if it was to bring in a top young striker. The question here is will he still be good enough for the whole length of his new contract or will we end up having another 30+ we can't get rid of because he won't take the wage drop?

Good point, one of lifes great mysteries, like the bermuda triangle.....

Natural progression, he has succeeded in the Championship and now he is going to have a full season in the Premier League. This will give him excellant grounding to come back next summer and earn himself a place. He needs to work very hard though, it isn't easy as a centre back playing in a team fighting relegation.

Then how do you explain Sheva???

Sky Sports confirming deal done. Nothing from either club yet though...... Chelsea defender Michael Mancienne has joined Wolves on a season-long loan deal. The England U21 international was at Molineux on Thursday to thrash out personal terms and an agreement has now been reached. The 21-year-old centre-half will be taking in a second spell in the West Midlands, having spent just over two months on loan at Wolves last season. He becomes Mick McCarthy's seventh signing of a busy summer as he gears up for life back in the Premier League. Wolves may not be done yet, though, as chief executive Jez Moxey has confirmed that the club continue to track potential targets. "It's been a long, hard summer in terms of preparing for the Premier League and bringing in new players, and we're still looking for more even now," he said in the Express and Star Source: Sky Sports

Well of course, we want to be paying them for as long as possible Seriously though, the club would have to be very convinced of them being able to continue of playing at this level for that length of time. Otherwise we end up with players we can shift because the won't take a wage drop to move, similar to what is happening with Sheva now. With 2 years left i would hope it is no more than another year, and even that is a little suprising at this stage...

Are we planning on giving the whole team new contracts?

Mancienne isn't going to get hardly any games for us this season, especially now that Carvalho is staying another year. If he goes to Wolves he gets a full season playing Premier League football, which is a big deal and would make it easier for Carlo to trust him playing for us. In an ideal world we would be able to play him in our first team, but a loan to Wolves at this stage in his career can only be good for him and will certainly not set him back. The club are making it very clear they see him as part of our future as they are getting him to sign a new deal before he goes off on loan.

Why? How is he going to get regular games at West Ham, Pompey or Everton when they have international players in his position already! Wolves is perfect for him, he WILL get the regular games and will get all the experience he needs.

Certainly seems almost done, would expect it to be all tied up by the weekend. I wonder what role he will have to play? Comes across as the sort of deep lying playmaker that Ancelotti likes. But being a younger player would surely find it hard to break into the team. Also if that is the case seems a little harsh on Jack Cork who is our own homegrown defensive midfielder who has been impressive on all his loan spells.

Nope, this is the UEFA "Homegrown" rule, which was put in place because the 6+5 was never going to be allowed to be passed. A similar rule to the UEFA one has been taken up by the football league and will be implimented in the Premier League in the near future. If you search this forum for the UEFA Homegrown rule there are a couple of threads where i have explained how it works in detail....

Hmmm, lets be honest here. Sheva knows full well that he is not going to get regular starts and would likely be behind Drogba, Anelka, Kalou and Sturridge in the pecking order. To turn down the chance to play regular first team football elsewhere makes me think he wants to stay for another year here to continue to earn the high wages that he wouldn't earn anywhere near if he moved on....

Ah, the good old complicated Champions League lists! Even if we don't have enough English grown players it doesn't matter, it just means we field a smaller squad for the Champions League. A few youngsters will be added to list B just to be on the safe side. But it looks like Mancienne will go out on loan, and i am sure they would like to find Hutchinson a loan for this season also.

The win at Highbury in the CL was truly a fantastic result for us. But for the Barca 4 - 2 had everything, the different emotions that i went through during that game were something else. Our performance was just sensational and to come away with the win and knock Barca out was just special.

Looks like Mancinne may be on the verge of joining Wolves on a season long loan. Given that Carvalho is staying and we have Alex and Ivanovic also behind JT then i think a loan for the season in the premiership will do him the world of good. http://www.expressandstar.com/2009/08/11/wolves-close-in-on-mancienne/ As i have said in the discussions on Di Santo and Sinclair loans, a season in the premiership is a massive move for these lads and a big step in them getting chances in our first team. I would have liked to have seen Mancienne get his chance with our first team this season, but if those chances are not going to come then a loan in the premiership is a very good move.

1. Chelsea 2. Man Utd 3. Liverpool 4. Man City 5. Arsenal

As we kick off this season we have made 1 main signing - Yuri Zhirkov. 1 young prospect - Daniel Sturridge. And a back up keeper - Ross Turnbull. Over the last few seasons we have not been massively active in the transfer market. Looking at our squad we have been playing with the same team pretty much for the last couple of seasons. bearing in mind that in the same period we have been behind United in the pecking order and that Liverpool finished above us, is it a good thing we have not significantly made our team stronger? You could argue that we have a close group of players who know each other perfectly and have been very close to success over the same period. But also should we be looking to bring in new players who can make the team stronger and take us up a level? What is your view, would you like to see us add to the squad and make it stronger for the comming season, or would you rather keep the harmony of the team and let the same players who have come so close take the final step.

I found the section highlighted very interesting. I wouldn't have thought that Van Aanholt would have had the oppertunity to play CC football for us this season, unless the club are being extremely cautious incase both Cole and Zhirkov get injured.

CLINTON MORRISON – never a man to err on the side of understatement – hailed Patrick van Aanholt as “the next Ashley Cole” after Sunday’s thrilling 2-1 victory against Ipswich Town. And the Ricoh regulars who savoured his performance can certainly testify that the Dutch teenager has a lot more in common with the England international than the brace of king-sized diamonds weighing down his earlobes. Whether it was the confidence of youth or that fabled Netherlands nonchalance, he turned in an astonishingly self-assured performance against one of the most physically impressive outfits in the Championship. He looked particularly impressive pushing forward, and although he carried the can for the break-away goal that halved the advantage earned by Morrison’s superb double, his speed, anticipation and composure proved invaluable at the height of the visitors’ second-half assault. Although van Aanholt won’t face Hartlepool tomorrow night because Chelsea don’t want him cup-tied, he is a Coventry asset until December 31 when he will return to Stamford Bridge to stake his claims as Cole’s long-term successor. And he is relishing the opportunity to broaden his football education with Coventry, and delighted to get off to such a pleasing start. “I’m very happy with the debut,” he said. “It was a good win and a great performance. “We did well as a team in the first-half and although we could have played better in the second half, we defended like a team, played like a team and so we won like a team. “For myself I think I did all right. I could have been a little bit better with defending but I was OK attacking – I think I played a good game. “I found the pace was a bit different to what I am used to. In the reserves, we always play from the back but this was about picking up the second ball and playing it from there.” The youngster’s impact should certainly go some way towards appeasing fans frustrated by Danny Fox’s big-money move to Celtic, but the loan deal was a last-minute affair agreed between City boss Chris Coleman and Chelsea’s sporting director Frank Arnesen, “It was a very busy week for me,” explained van Aanholt, who moved into a Leamington flat with his father and younger brother this week. “Coventry called on Monday but I wasn’t sure because I was already talking to QPR. "But they called on Wednesday and they kept changing their mind, so I wanted to come to Coventry. I’m still getting used to the team, but I know all of the players’ names now and I’m sure I will know them better with time. “They didn’t just help me out during the game, when I arrived they helped and they made me feel welcome so I’m happy about that.” Source: Coventry Telegraph

Oh dear god is this roumer still going??? Where on earth would he play in our set up and he is not as good as any of the players who's position he would play in..... Would be an awful signing, the only slightly redeeming feature of signing him is that he would flog a few shirts, but we would actually have to play him for that to work...

According to his clubs website he is comming to have a medical and a fee is almost agreed: http://209.85.229.132/translate_c?hl=en&sl=sk&tl=en&u=http://www.mfkkosice.sk/c/portal_public/layout%3Fp_l_id%3D21.1%26p_p_id%3D15%26p_p_action%3D1%26p_p_state%3Dmaximized%26p_p_mode%3Dview%26_15_struts_action%3D%252Fjournal%252Fview_article%26_15_article_id%3DMATIC_CHELSEA_ODLET%26_15_article_version%3D1.0%26_15_cmd%3DarticleCountUpdate&rurl=translate.google.com&usg=ALkJrhhP17QrzSBL1AiZrn26sqRwmByT3A

This is why players need to think before speaking. He came out with comments about leaving before getting the chance to know what Ancelotti had in mind for him. Clearly Ancelotti, like many see Carvalho as the perfect partner for JT. I find this a little hard on Alex as he proved that him and JT can be a formidable partnership at the back even if they do posses similar qualities.