Pizy

Would anyone be shocked if we play a full strength XI today? I wouldn't. Please don't, José.

You'd think so, but this whiny cunt Martinez may have taken a stand and demanded he not be sold.

José admitting he's concerned about Costa. I'm very worried myself. It's going to be like the second half of last season where everyone holds their breath each time he plays because we'll be worried about him pulling up with another hamstring injury. I doubt we'll see him any time soon. If he comes back too soon he'll just re-injure himself within a game or two and be out longer.

I bet you Everton reject 30m. It'll cost 35m I think.If we bid 3 times, though, and he still doesn't ask to leave or put in a transfer request then wtf...

Just get it fucking done and let's get excited for the new season.

Yeah, he's told them which players he wants and the board and negotiators haven't been getting it done. That, or he's been told he can't spend much. That's what I think.

He seems like the exact sort of player that would infuriate José. The opposite type of fullback he prefers.

He's okay going forward but atrocious defensively.

My lasting memory of Danny Rose from last season was Hazard embarrassing him a couple of times in one on one's. Put him on his ass once too.

I'd end myself if we signed Danny Rose. Danny fucking Rose... HAHAHAHAHAHA

This is what makes me the most mad. We're acting like a small club with this sell in order to buy policy.It's well and good to have a small squad but only if the backup players are adequate replacements for the starters. We have a small squad and the quality between the starters and backups is a chasm in some areas. It would be disastrous if Matic or Cesc went down injured for a long spell. This has been known for ages and yet we're content with Ramires and Mikel who are light years from Matic and Cesc in terms of quality. We still have only a couple of reliable sources for goals. And one of them is now injured for who knows how long. I think the team as currently constituted can easily hold its own in the PL. Think we'd get destroyed by the best 3-4 sides in Europe though.

Remember how excited we all were here when it was estimated that we could easily spend £130m or something a few months back? And that was apparently a conservative estimate.All that money from winning the league, all that new Yokohama & Adidas money, and the incomprehensible new TV money about to kick in and we NOW choose to be frugal with our money. I think internally José is fuming with the lack of business and that if it were all up to him we'd have a handful of new players.

Think I recall 3 times yesterday when Courtois had to run out and make a brilliant 1v1 save. Can't remember if Cahill was at fault for any of them. Wouldn't say our CB's "owned" them but they didn't play poorly at all.

This is all true, but José doesn't seem to agree. I think he'd upgrade the AM position if he could move Cuadrado but he seems totally satisfied with Mikel and Ramires. Mind boggling in truth.A midfield two with Matic and Cesc will be good enough to destroy most teams in the PL as we saw last season, but when we play top teams like City, Arsenal, United or any good team in the CL it isn't good enough. We then toss Ramires in there and stifle ourselves because Cesc then has to move up the pitch and Ramires is a poor footballer. How we can all see this but the club can't is puzzling. Buying Stones isn't a priority now, true, but we should do everything we can to secure him now before he's either priced out or one of rivals chase him.

Agree with Gilvorak. Either he hands in a transfer request or I doubt we'll be able to get him. He seems a more respectful and low key guy than Sterling for example. I'm not sure he's the type that'll kick up a huge fuss and make his situation untenable.

Because we've had a pretty shit transfer window by our high standards. It's also pretty disheartening that our manager continuously says that we don't need players in positions that even us plebs on the Internet can see need upgrading. I want to see Chelsea take that next step up and join the truly elite sides. It's seems that we've instead gone the conservative "we're good enough already" route. We've seen this approach fail just within the past few years.

Martinez now saying again that they won't sell him. Feel like it's not happening.

You may as well give up any hope you have of us signing any attacking players. Not happening.LB, maybe a CB, done.

Except for Oscar and Willian. They need the minutes after joining up with the squad later.The margins will be so thin this coming season that every point will be important. With City away as our second match of the season we can't afford to give our rivals a small gap. Lose to Swansea and already it gets annoying with City there.

Wish we weren't even playing this to be honest. Just another injury risk to an already thin squad. I hope Matić, Cesc, Hazard, and Terry are all benched and saved for the weekend at their absolute freshest.

Spot on. Trouble is, we don't have a consistently top quality player to use in a 3 man midfield seeing as José doesn't use Oscar from the start against good opposition.

Yeah, I'm not basing that opinion on just this match. I really like Remy and think he'll have a great season with us but he's not that upper echelon striker that will score 20+ for us or anything.I'll put it this way, Diego has to play AT LEAST as many PL matches as he did last season for us to retain the title in my opinion. If Remy and Falcao have to play a huge number of minutes I'm not sure they're enough.

José will rage if we don't sign Stones I think.

This isn't a moan, but just imagine how we'd look with a player like Vidal in there instead of Ramires or Oscar. A beast of a box to box midfielder that would allow Cesc to always stay deeper. Good in both defense and attack and is a tenacious competitor. The one thing we're badly missing.

If he doesn't get FULLY fit soon and stay that way for the majority of the season then I don't think we can win the league. We can challenge for it of course but not win it. Remy and Falcao are good enough as fill-ins here and there and as backups but I don't think they're title winning quality as players who have to lead the line every week.