lionsden

Whichever one is able to have similar path as Courtois and matic. Doing well At championship and even top european leagues isn't enough, you have to be making waves at a champions league team like Atletico and Benfica with plenty of european experience and pedigree to have a chance with Mourinho sadly. So by that criteria, at the moment maybe Pasalic if Monaco make it back to the Champions league next season and he absolutely dominates. the standard set for these youngsters in order to make it here are ridiculous and borderline walking on water status yet the first team players aren't held to a similar standard.

But that's the point. these kids are not given opportunity to prove they have the ability to hack it at the top level. The argument is usually that talent is not enough i.e They have to show consistency/productivity at whatever level they are at be it in the reserves or on loan. the problem with that however is Jose and even some of our fans automatically dismiss youngsters who are performing well as "well they are only doing it at a level below chelsea's and i.e cannot be trusted" well how are they suppose to demonstrate the ability to hack it at the top level then. It's either by actually giving them the opportunity here at chelsea or loaning them to a club on a similar level to us like PSG,Atletico,Juventus,City et al and that's just never going to happen. hence why i said they can't win. As for the second bolded part, It's not efficient or shrewd to find out you sold "the one that got away" like Matic only to end up paying over the odds for the player you once owned or in some instances find it impossible to get them back like Man utd and Pogba. I don't want us to be in a position where we are regretting the direction we went with some of our most promising youngsters in the future. With proper guidance and opportunities players like Musonda,solanke,Boga and Ake can make it here (The latter has already shown enough to justify the confidence)

Lovely finish. It's the exact replica of sand's goal vs Nigeria in france 98 at 2:16

Great point. Personally i will love to know the youth and reserve team record and performance level of young strikers that blossomed when given opportunities in the first team of top/decent european teams. I will be surprised if there are many with better record than solanke who netted 41 goals in 39 apps last season. I can't imagine the Rooneys, Owen,Fowlers of this world having much better record and performance at that level than that. Solanke and Musonda's form last season is as good as it will ever get for any youth player. Even as great as messi was in la masia academy, he wasn't pulling up trees and walking on water. he couldn't have been that much better than a fit jermey Boga at that level. It's a lost cause because no matter how well a youth does at that level at Chelsea, it will always be dismissed as "playing for chelsea is a different kettle of fish". Well throw them in the deep end and let's find out then.

Which contradicts everything Jose has been saying about being here for the long haul. If this is what we have to look forward to in the longterm then I'm certainly not filled with excitement. I can imagine fans using our relatively subpar transfer window to exonerate Mourinho but the truth is, we are not a bum thing we still have a quality side that's capable of far better football than we have been showing. There's no reason why teams like Swansea and leicester with far inferior squad/team are producing better football/performances than us. yes our squad could be better but mourinho is not doing enough to get the best out of the current crop. Like you said, there's no sense of direction, strategy, philosophy with this team. We had been getting away with it that our luck was always bound to run out. We are so bad right now that the team demonstrating the ability to defend and attack as a team will be a great start.

The fact that most people are now only criticising mourinho when in reality the only difference between the second half of last season and now is the result, shows how result oriented some fans really are. My prediction is, once we get a couple of wins under our belt, the teams garbage performances and issue with the team will be overlooked and swept under the carpet as usual. As fans, We have the lowest expectation and standard of the "top teams" on Europe.

Top players cost more than just a "few million" these days and are not as easy to acquire as they use to. There's nothing to suggest a couple of these boys can't turn out to be top players in the future if we actually gave a crap about them.

The same ones already writing him off did the same with Kenedy who they had probably never heard of before he was linked now they have changed their tune once they saw him play. it's just human nature to automatically dismiss an unknown player with little to no hype.

The awkward moment when one realises some midtable clubs have had a much better transfer window than a champions league team like chelsea.

That's not the same though is it. in this context it will be like us getting every major transfers sorted "4 weeks prior" and then waiting until deadline day to announce it officially. But that's not what's happening here, we are desperately chasing a player desperately on deadline day with two bids already rejected and we look likely to lose out as PSG do not need the cash and have ambitions.

Can someone explain to me the point/sense of leaving transfers till the very last minute rush. We saw what happened between Madrid and Utd last night regarding de gea. They like every other club including us had all freaking summer to sort the transfers out why wait till the last minute to make moves. Every sensible club should ideally get their main transfers sorted atleast two weeks before the end of the window. If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail. Look at us last season, we got it done earlier and didn't have to resort to deadline panic buys. same with City this summer.

No one would blame him if that was the case. He has a significantly lower chance of fulfilling his potential if he stayed here long term.

SMH Why even include an option to buy at all in the first place. He's one of the best prospect not only in our academy but in Europe, why risk the chance of losing him permanently. it's stupid.

Roman is deluded. He wants to see youth flourish and given opportunities in the first team with the ultimate goal of producing a couple of first teamers out of the crop in a few years then hires a manager with a reputation such as Jose. It's a'kin to hiring brendan rogers and then expect your team to be defensively solid.

What the fuck I'm i hearing about this "with an option to buy". We better not sell this kid. I will be absolutely gutted if we didn't make an effort to develop and integrate him into the first team in the future.

It shouldn't have to take 4 terrible performances in a row. even if he finally summons the courage to bench him, Jose shouldn't be commended for the indecisiveness on his part AFAIC. he should have acted a lot faster

At the time the comment was made yes, those two were. I even used the qualifier "so far". if you must gloat atleast have a legitimate reason.

Like I said before, this is Modric and rooney saga all over again. The club keeps making the same idiotic mistake of putting all their eggs in one transfer basket. After the third rejection and apparently everton were firm from the start in their position to not sell him, we should have moved on to other targets which you would hope we had identified because that's how organized and efficient clubs operate. i,e have plan A, B, C and even Z.

Precisely this. His squad management is extremely poor. He is the extreme opposite of the tinker man. He uses his starters/untouchables to the point of absolute exhaustion while almost completely neglecting the squad players. some of the players we lost due to frustrations over lack of game time could have easily been avoided but he loves his untouchables too much that he finds intelligent rotation and squad management a taboo. No one is asking him to become the tinkerman 2.0 but a bit of balance does have its adavantages.

And still no mention of the biggest culprit of all Ivanovic? smh

For those getting their hopes up ( and i'm one of them, I never learn I know) I wouldn't be surprised if it's just a front and he's loaned out in january or next summer. How many times have we seen it when a youngster is given a chance to shine, takes their chances quite well and despite impressing we ship them out on loan at the nearest possible opportunity anyway. Haven't players like Kalas,Ake,Moses (pre season atleast) thought us any lesson. I hope I'm wrong but don't be surprised if come January or next summer there are quotes like "but he was impressive in pre season and against palace but was never played again and now shipped out on loan, what happened"

This sounds radical but i would be absolutely delighted if they put a restriction on loans. Something like 6 loan deals maximum per club and 3 maximum for a player while on the books of any one club at a time. it will be perfect. We would employ abundant laundry assistants and tea ladies to loan out if it was possible at this club. It's almost an obsession a this point.

Another rather worrying issue that hasn't been brought up in the wake of this mess is just how comfortable all of our opponents have looked against us. In the final few minutes of the last game, Palace were so comfortable that they even had time and confidence to cause our defence more problems and create chances. can you imagine something like that hapenning to other big teams? The fear factor alone wouldn't even let them dominate like that against City or arsenal for example. This is just not good enough. it's one thing to lose to matches or drop points but for a "big team" to lose or drop points in the fashion we have been is unacceptable imo. When I watch other top teams, normally when they drop points especially to the smaller teams, it's because the opposition have been quite lucky with their goal keeper and even sometimes the woodwork coming to their rescue multiple times and literally holding on for dare lives. When chelsea are chasing the game on the otherhand, we rarely genuinely trouble our opponents defence and cause them problems. when was the last time we applied relentless pressure on our opponents when chasing the game (by relentless pressure, I mean creating chances after chances?) Another point of discussion that hasn't been given attention to is the lack of foundation being laid down by Mourinho. This is his third season at the club and we are yet to develop an identity and a template/formula that not only works but can be passed on to future managers to follow. What is mourinho actually doing to improve the team and the club both in the long and short term?

Quite alot it will seem giving how inept and unprepared we look in other areas. I don't even think we practice organized attacking moves, pressing as a unit and movements on and off the ball in training because if we do then, either our players are incapable of learning and putting what they learn into practice or what we are doing in training isn't working. either way we cannot continue playing like a pub team.

Oscar and the word creativity used in the same sentence is an oxymoron, surely?