Pizy

Knew there was no way Eden would play but Costa is a strange omission. Maybe Conte feels like the double sessions plus a game wouldn't be the best idea for an injury prone player.

Apparently Costa isn't even on the bench for this one...

Definitely thought Michy would start this one.

Wow. He's...he's actually serious about playing Ruben as a striker.

Battle of the technical area maniacs. Let's see which formation we put out!

Yep. He's basically saying that he wants to have a brilliant season and then he'll be off to Real Madrid or Barca. If he had left after that shocking season everyone would hate him. If he "goes out on top" after a great season I guess he feels everyone will understand.

Still just have vivid memories of De Bruyne just breezing through our midfield over and over again last season when they smoked us. At least against the very best teams like City he absolutely cannot play in a midfield 2. Really, against any side that plays with more than 2 in the center we should think very carefully about playing Cesc.

It's awesome, isn't it? His English is great! Shows how dedicated he is to making the most of his opportunity at Chelsea.

True, true. But they didn't exactly miss him when he was dropped. They were no worse off.

Imagine if we were to get this beast for about £12m less than what City are about top lash on Stones. Arguably the best CB in Serie A last season for less than one who was benched a bunch for that woeful Everton side. They couldn't defend to save their lives and the £50m man couldn't get in the team at times.

Nah, I think we're all expecting them to reject it. Only way I'd have a meltdown is if a small time club like fucking Everton sign him ahead of us.

Get ready for another De Laurentiis gem later today. "Koulibaly is worth £70m. He won't be sold."

Hopefully that's not our final offer because I have the distinct feeling their owner will refuse it.

Get her done, Chels!

If we're playing with 2 strikers we'd be giving up numbers in midfield against many teams from the get go. When out of possision we'd be at a significant disadvantage defensively with Cesc in the middle of the pitch. Asking Kante to run himself into the ground trying to cover his area plus pick up the slack for Cesc is risky. Such a selection headache! Conte has talked up Matic so much that I kind of feel he's nailed on to start and obviously Kante will. At the same time it also seems clear that we'll play with 2 up top. If that's the case I can't see any place in the starting XI for Cesc.

Bullshit! We already have 2 pure DM's in Matic and Mikel who have limited skill sets. Last thing we need is another one of those. Maybe if we sold Mikel, but God knows that ain't happening. Even then we wouldn't really need him.

Matic & Kante should be our starting midfield pairing for the big games against the top teams. Conte and a couple of our players have confirmed that we'll be playing with 2 in the middle (which I'm not a fan of, personally) and you simply cannot play Cesc in a 2 man midfield anymore. It would be like an anchor around Kante's neck doing the work of 2 players. 4-2-4 with Kante and Matic primarily. Maybe bring Cesc in and sacrifice the second striker against parked buses and against weaker opposition.

Looks like confirmation as well that he wants Oscar to be a midfielder in the center of the pitch rather than in an advanced position. What I've been crying out to see for a couple of years.

Lol! Was it made of solid gold? £90!? Anyways, I think Higuain will be great there initially but they'll regret spending such a ridiculous amount on him in a couple of years.

Wait, you guys have QVC in the UK?!

Ludicrous amount for him. Surely they won't now sell their next most imprortant player to us? Their fans would riot.

Di Marzio reporting that Juventus have deposited the €90m to trigger Higuain's release clause. That can't be good for our pursuit of Koulibaly...

I must have watched a different Koulibaly in the videos I've seen of him. The exact opposite of a "lump who lumps the ball." He's a physical and athletic monster and is extremely comfortable on the ball. Much better than anyone in our squad now. He'd instantly take our defense to the next level. I really, really hope we can negotiate with Napoli this week and get this done. Don't even care what crazy price we pay. He's too important not to get. He's the dominant CB we need so let's hope we don't walk away and settle for a lesser player. He should be priority #1.

Right, he's just big boned. Husky.

Maybe Eden will start the season lean and cut now with that workout! No more chubby Hazard to open the season. He can look like Willian rather than Götze.