Pizy

Pace of play was MUCH improved from the first match. Conte has clearly been drilling them well and instructing them not to hold on to the ball for as long. Lots of quick play and interchanging.

Or he's still living off his past reputation and Conte will be fooled into thinking he can "resurrect" him. Nah, he can't be that dumb. I hope.

Bullshit, we've offered that. Even more bullshit that they'd reject that amount for one of their squad players. Think they'd bite our hand off for that offer and throw it at Pogba.

Seriously, how can a man as intelligent as Conte play Ivanovic as a RB? At best he should be a backup CB. He's finished at this level! Will Conte be the 3rd manager in a row to not notice what even the supporters can see?

Starting to seem like a real possibility. Ivanovic as well. Fucking hell.

Not here. Another YouTube stream again for me.

Is this supposed to be in addition to a top CB signing or instead of one? If it's the latter I'd be extremely disappointed. We need essentially a "can't miss" signing at CB not a project or someone that may or may not be ready for the top level like this guy. We need someone who is a clear upgrade on what we have.

I dread hearing more "I'm happy with the squad I have" shit like Mourinho kept spouting. That'll mean we're stuck with Ivanovic and Cahill playing significant minutes for us again. Until I see a new CB holding up a Chelsea shirt I'll be worried about that.

True. I'm just saying that if I were there I'd ask him straight up "are you looking to bring in a couple of defenders?" and just see what he said. Without naming specific players he could just say "yes, that's definitely an area we need to reinforce." I know deals are being worked on, of course. I'm just impatient!

You would think that if he's as good as many are saying and is "the next Neymar" he would've been snapped up by now by one of the Spanish giants or Atleti, or some Portuguese side. Especially if the fee is almost dirt cheap. Why is he supposedly only £15m if he's so super talented?

I mean, it would be nice to hear directly from the manager that he's just as eager to improve the defense as we are. We've heard nothing but weak media links. Doesn't really seem like we're close to signing any thus far.

So I see he spoke with the media again this morning. No one asked about more incomings? Really? Obviously he's not going to mention specific names, but not one journalist could ask if we're at least looking at bringing in players in certain positions?

Yep, all the English journo's I've seen report on it say it's completely false. Seems the Soanish press are desperate for it to happen and are sort of pressuring Diego to agitate for the move.

Better hope the club aren't stupid enough to sell Diego back to Atelti without first having Morata. Real Madrid could royally fuck us otherwise. We'd be taking a player from them and strengthening their direct rival by giving them Costa. They could verbally agree to sell us Morata, we sell Diego, then they change their minds.

Anything under £50m for him in this market and we're idiots. Not that I believe we'd sell him.

Shite. He stays if we want him to stay. Roman doesn't have to "request" anything.

Just like reports that Kante was on his way to Chelsea were "nonsense" 2 days before he signed? Same paper.

Spanish press are more desperate to get him back there than he is himself!

I can sort of understand the club giving them an extended holiday because they went pretty far in the tournament and suffered a pretty devastating loss. But why the fuck are the Spanish players still not with the team? They bombed out ages ago!

Watch Kante's highlights on YouTube. There was a great 17 minute video of him uploaded yesterday that I watched. He was brilliant at transitioning between defense and attack. Lost count of the number of times he won tackles and instantly sprung Leicester's counter attacks. He isn't just a pure DM. He's got very respectable technique and skill on the ball.

Looks made up to me. Don't see anything on The Guardian website or Twitter.

If we're looking at German defenders we should be after Jonas Hector as well. He'd certainly suit what Conte likes in a fullback.

Either way it's an insane team. Too good to be true, probably.

That's sad but true. He'll probably be starting there a significant amount of games.