Joker10

I agree completely, but no doubt you will be scrutinized for your comment. Ramires is a good player but severely overrated by our supporters. Its kinda funny how drastic the opinion of Ramires is between Chelsea and Brazil supporters. I have a lot of Brazilians mates and been to a few Brazil football forum and their opinion of Ramires is similar to how we view Kalou. They don't like him at all, they see don't see what he is good for. They don't feel he is good enough to be a DM, obviously because of his poor passing, touch, and sometime reckless tackling. You wouldn't feel safe if he was your only DM on the pitch, which is why Lucas(Pool player) was on the pitch during most of Copa America. They looked at his offensive capacity that he doesn't add much creativity or goal threat opportunity. The concusses of Brazil supporters is that Hernanes should've been part of Copa America instead of Ramires. I don't agree with their views tbh, but i also don't rate him as highly as most of you do.

I really don't think that is the case. especially since how well Meireles has played for us. And nothing will change from Spuds perspective.

No thanks, he is not needed even if Alex leaves. He is going to cost over 20m and that is way too much for a 4th choice CB. Bring back Bruma for that spot.

I don't fancy him as a Trequartista in Europe, as i said way too slow for that role. He would also struggle because he would have less time on the ball. And i agree his work rate and defending has to improve to play as a CM, but he is young so it is possible.

awesome player, while watching Santos play last season i was far more impressed with him then Neymar. I think he kinda slow to be aTrequartista(CAM/ #10) in Europe but he would be amazing as a CM, when he has a role like Lampard and Iniesta.

Would rather have no signing then Pereira be our only signing.

that is true but tbf we made a bid for Modric weeks before AVB was appointed. No Modric? no problem we have Josh.

They waren't good enough card is being over used. The difference between our youngsters and ManU's and Arsenals is that they make them feel like they belong at that level. While we tell our youngsters that they belong at Hamburg, Vitesse or Championship sides.

your right not everyone will cut it, sad but that is the truth. But no one at Chelsea makes it. I wonder why we even have academy, waste of money imo. although i love watching the reserves more then the senior squad.

This is probably the most i have been against a transfer in awile.

Last season they won 3 major trophies in fact it was only the third time a portuguese club has done that in 65 years. Very impressive year they had. Trust me all of their players are overvalued right now, they will come down to earth next year.

I remember abola and other portuguese media sources reporting Falcao was hours away from joining Chelsea, turned out it was a fabricated lie.

I love the confidence ManU youngsters play with, it is easy to know why because SAF has complete faith in them. Not only he gives them playing time but he makes them feel like they are equally important part of the team. I don't perticularly rate some of their youngsters like Evans or Walback, but they play with supreme confidence and they step up. When you see Barca youngsters you also see the glowing confidence they play with. When you look at our youngsters and ManU youngsters they are equal as talents go, but the difference is confidence. We have shown lack of faith and trust in our youngsters. We are not building their confidence.(ex from last season) The message is clear to Bruma when you play a 30 something RB out of position when the team is depleted at CB, to Sturridge when the only opportunity he gets is in the last ten minutes and irrelevents moments of the game, the shining star of the U19 world cup barely see the pitch. Quite clear why our youngsters lack confidence because the message is being sent that we dont trust them and have little faith in them. Saw the u20 world cup and felt like i was watching a completely different Kakuta. I didn't see the same super confident player i saw all that time watching the reaserves or the one that was the best player at his age group. the lack of confidence definitly showed in his performance. I hope he bounces back and we get the same player that was poised for greatness. Well that was the past but we have a different manager. We are reportedly bidding over 60m for Modric and Perreira. While we have our 3 most talented and ready youngsters playing those positions. Quite clearly our message is the same to our youngsters, we don't believe in you. bidding for Modric makes sense somewhat, but Perreira not one bit. Modric and Perreira are not here yet, but i expect typical Chelsea at it again. On topic: i look at Porto players alot like stocks. Right now they are being extremely overvalued, mainly due to the season they just had. I strongly anticipate Porto to drop off in the upcoming season, which would bring down the value of their players. So if i am intrested in any of their players i would wait untill next season. btw they already brought a really good Brazilian LB in Alex Sandro, so they already found a replacement.

I disagree, i think all of our midfielders are good enough to make it on any of those teams. Our problem in midfield is the structure, our individual midfielders don't play well off each other. We should've learned our leason last season. When we saw Essien and Lampard performance drop because of the absence of Ballack, if we properly replaced him with a player with similar attributes we wouldn't had this much of a drop off in midfield. Instead what we did is buy Ramires who is identical to Essien, i am not sure if he was to replace Ballack or a cover for an injury prone Essien. Ballack complimented Essien game perfectly, when Essien ventured forth Ballack stayed back. While Lampard is at his best when scoring goals and playing the final passes. We have good midfielders but they don't play well collectively. Believing replacing Modric with Lamps will solve our midfield issue is not a realistic expectation. Making Modric like some kinda of savior and Lampard as an scapegoat for our dysfunctional midfield. We have an issue in structure.

I don't believe replacing Modric with Lamps will solve our midfield problem. The pairing of Mikel and Ramires is our biggest problem.

I agree with this, except the last two lines. I rate Mikel and Ramires Individually but collectively they are awful, good players but suited for different styles of football. Mikel is perfect for possession style of football like Arsenal or Barca famously. Where he can work to his biggest strengths which is his passing and his ability to protect the back four and alow the fullbacks to venture forth. A DM like Mikel is valuable for this style of football because it makes them less vulnerable against counter attacks. Ramires style is more direct and suited for teams who utilitzes in quick passing. He needs to play alongside a deep-lying playmaker like Xabi, Pirlo, schweinsteiger, etc. midfielders that can attack and defend. Ramires without playing alongside a complete MF wont work as DM because we will be vulnerable defensively because he isn't disciplined enough as a DM. If anyone watched Copa America would have noticed this. He was argubaly Brazil worst player on the pitch when he was deployed as holding midfielder his passing is not good enough too many misplaced passes. He played better when he was playing alongside Lucas( Very similar to Mikel style), but Brazil lacked creativity when they were both on the pitch. kinda similar to our problem. So in short drop one of Mikel or Ramires, both are fine players but together create a dysfunctional midfield.

Schweinsteiger?

Robero Carlos is mainly brought in to attract fans, while Kalou would only deter fans from coming to the games.

Unpopular opinion: Our midfield will be much more effective if McEachran was playing instead of Ramires.

the term Premface suits you nicely.

Maybe Chelsea and Benayoun are nogotiating on a contract extension. :eyebrows:

On Benayoun we have to agree to disagree. Johnson is not a natural winger either. Johnson is a inside forward, he plays on the right and cuts on his preferd foot, same thing we will see from Sturridge this upcoming season. Neither Johnson or Sturridge will deliver the type of crosses you would see from a natural winger, watch a city game and you would notice that Johnson barely crosses. Since their style is similar i think it is fair and justified to compare the two. Also the name calling is not necessary, we all have different openions we should respect one another openions regardless of how much they vary, and may i also add that there is nothing honorable about calling someone stupid hiding behind a computer.

Not true, Falcao was sold below his buyout clause. So was Bruno alves last year.

you seriously can't tell the differences between a 31 year old who has been warming the bench for most his career and a player who lost his starting position after an injury? btw i would take Sturridge over Johnson any day of the week.

completely different situations we have here. Sturridge imprssed on every level last season whenever he was given a chance. guys like Cole were reaving about how well he was doing in training. On the other hand you and others are are having a knee jerk reaction over a few preseason games against the shittest teams we could ever play all season. while being completely ovlivious to the fact Yossi is an average player and shown over his career. There is a reason why he was warming the bench at Pool, if he wasn't good enough for Pool, then he is definitely not good enough to be starting for us.