Pizy

And more exciting for you personally than all those signings would be your mate Willian going to the bench.

Replace Oscar with Cesc (can't believe I'm saying that) and that's one hell of a team.

Nope. Nope. Nope. Noooooo. No. NO! Not getting my hopes up!

No problem! Just read that this morning when he posted it. Echoes my sentiments exactly.

You at least gonna give the author credit after copy/pasting his article, mate?

We've been adamant that Costa isn't for sale. But I bet you if Atleti or some other club came in with a super high fee we'd sell him. Same goes for our CB search. If we throw a truck load of cash at Napoli for Koulibaly (who by all accounts wants to leave) they'll sell.

They weren't available. Pogba, Mkhitaryan, and Sterling's clubs all wanted to keep their players. You think Juventus or Dortmund wanted to sell their best players? Hell no! They just received offers that were impossible to turn down. Every single one of those CB's I named could be had with the possible exception of Bonucci. And every single one of them is miles better than Terry and Cahill.

Bonucci, Mustafi, Koulibaly, Manolas, Stones, Marquinos...any of these CB's would be an instant upgrade. Are all of them "available?" Maybe not, but we need to at least throw huge offers at their clubs and make them say no. Pogba wasn't available. Mkhitaryan wasn't available. Sterling wasn't available. No top players are unless you make their clubs an offer they can't refuse. Why have we not done that to bring in a CB which is the most important area that needed reinforcement? Being patient and "waiting for the right players" is what we were told last summer and look what happened.

Biggest change I've noticed in the couple of preseason matches? He no long looks to pass first. He hasn't be slowing down to walking pace like he did al season last year. He gets the ball and immedietly looks to attack the opposition and use his unstoppable dribbling. Hopefully that's Conte encouraging him to do so. He need some to be a bit more like Neymar or Robben. More selfish and aggressive rather than always trying to look for teammates. He can't be stopped when he's running at people.

Anyone know what their current best XI is? Have they made any significant signings this summer? I haven't payed attention to anything Wet Spam have done.

Damn, I wanna ban a few people really badly right now... Anyways, I really hope José tries to shoehorn Rooney into his starting XI which would push Pogba further back where he was terrible and anonymous for France. That's the only way I can see him struggling. Outside of us getting top 4, my biggest wish this season is for United to finish outside of it. Don't think I'd ever see something as hilarious if José gets his dream job, signs all these ridiculous players, and then fails to reach the CL places. Unfortunately, with the standard of defending in the PL I think old man Zlatan will bang in 25 or so goals and they'll easily finish in the top 2.

I remember a couple of weeks ago after we had just signed Kante several reputable journalists who are clearly pretty clued in on Chelsea matters said that Conte wanted 4-5 more incomings. What the hell happened to that? I know there are still 3 weeks left of the transfer window, but damn. Getting close to panic buy time.

He looks like exactly what he is: an old man in football terms. Like Lampard at the end, like Gerrard at the end, like Rio Ferdinand at the end. JT was already pretty slow at his best but now looks completely shot. He can't turn and recover which leads to what we saw against Bremen yesterday. He gets exposed. Against the other top managers like Pep & Mou who are masters at exploiting specific weaknesses in opponents I'd be terrified if JT, Cahill, and Ivanovic start. They'd both target the center of our defense and with players like Zlatan, Agüero, Mkhitaryan, De Bruyne, etc, they'll embarrass us. Remember those humiliating thumpings we got last season by City? It would be a repeat of those. He should be a squad player who plays early end FA Cup games, League Cup games, and a PL match here and there.

And at least Hazard and Costa appear to be "back." Their quality should really see us to straight forward wins in these first few matches. Hope the club have things sorted by the deadline.

I'd say 3 matches is hugely important for a club that finished 10th, absolutely must secure top 4 no matter what, who is competing against clubs that can buy multiple £50m players or spend £100m on a single player, and are in a league where even small clubs like fucking West Ham will be thinking they're top 4 challengers. Each and every game is extremely important. Getting off to a good start is imperative. We have what is (on paper) a pretty comfortable first 5 fixtures. If we had brought in defensive reinforcements early and got them settled during preseason I'd back us to rip it up to start the season like we did a couple of years ago. Instead, we may be lining up with the same shit back 4 that looks likely to concede with every opposition attack. Lets say we have a shocker of a start and the likes of City, United, Arse, Spuds etc are already a mile ahead of us. Maybe you can see why I'm a bit panicky?

Take some time? Don't happen overnight? The season kick off in a week! We've had an entire summer to negotiate and chase targets! Our scouts and higher-ups should've identified CB and other defensive targets ages ago during the last season when JT, Ivanovic, and Cahill were shit. Nah, not buying this "they're working hard and there's still time" narrative. A smart club would've reinforced our biggest weakness as soon as they were able. To allow it to go this long is borderline incompetence. The later they let it go the harder it is for clubs to find replacements for their important players. Same goes for this silly chase for Lukaku. Do we really think Everton will allow their best player and leading goal scorer go days before the season starts? These sort of deals are ones you push to complete early in the transfer window.

This is true. Even the likes of the newly promoted sides will fancy their chances against our defense. Incisive ball thought the middle against us you'll get joy against us, simple ball over the top you'll find joy against us, run at pace and our CB's will back off into their own box and invite shots. When a player gets the ball on the die of our area they'll just stand their like statues staring at the ball instead of reacting.

Don't know how I feel right now with the preseason over and the PL looming. On one hand, several of our most important players look great. Hazard, Costa, and Kante looked awesome. Even Oscar has looked much improved as the summer went on. The players look like they're buying into Conte's methods. We actually press teams now. The attack looks like it has some patterns and neat interplay. But then I think of all the issues we still have and it makes me very worried about us. Every defender we have bar Azpi is shit. In every single match we played in preseason (even those against terrible or average opposition) we gift teams with ridiculous chances and look like a pub team trying to defend. Matic and Cesc are so extremely slow and unathletic which means we don't have a true, top class partner for Kante. All that talk and hype about Conte playing with two strikers and we didn't once see Costa and Batshuayi paired together. Bats didn't even start one game. Honestly, if we start the season with this exact team and don't make significant additions I think our ceiling will be around 5th-6th. And that's only if Hazard and Costa are at their best all season. The club have to wake up and fix this God awful defense or Conte doesn't stand a chance.

No post match comments from Conte? Maybe he can give us a fucking clue as to when we're signing some defenders. If we even will at all...

People criticizing Kante, really? He was excellent in the first half. Won the ball many times. When the sluggish Cesc came on and the already sluggish defenders started getting tired he wasn't as effective.

JT is done as a starter, imo. He can't keep up. Sad to see and sad to say. We cannot compete at the top level with both he and Cahill.

That was seriously about the 4th or 5th time I've seen JT dive in and completely scuff the tackle around our penalty area. Defense embarrased again.

We look unbelievable going forward but shambolic defensively. Hazard and Costa have been unstoppable. If we just make 2 more quality signings (CB & RB) we'll have a fantastic side. Title challengers.

This defense! My god!!!

CB's nowhere to be seen forcing Matic to make that tackle...