Blue Armour

Sorry, but that's blowing things way out of proportion

Over something Gourlay said? Sure...

Courtois : already signed. its official Romeu : Only final agreement and medical left, and that will only be after u-20 world cup and that goes on till 20'th Aug. So no, its not those two he's talking about

Ron Gourlay: At least 2 New Signings expected in the next 8-10 days source

To tell the truth, even if our pre-season did improve dramatically, I would still be fearful of the Stoke fixture. But yes, 4-0 would be pretty bad

Look... whether the situation improves or not is up to the board, AVB and the players to decide. Worrying about it here doesn't help. It just darkens the mood. Whatever you may think of this pre-season, it is still turning out better than what we had last season. And even that didn't stop us from having a terrific start to last year's campaign. Let's wait till this tour ends (in about a week's time) and let AVB assess the situation and make his move. We can start moaning (if needed) after that.

We also have to remember that unlike Man Utd and Liverpool (who seem to be having successful pre-seasons) , we have a new a manager with a different philosophy for playing the game. One would expect a new manager to add motivation to the squad.This should work for the younger players, but let's not forget that more than half the squad have seen a lot of managers come and go over the past few years, so you can't expect them to get excited just like that. It will be a while before his ideas sink in. Again let's compare our preseason with Man Utd (who recently thrashed the Seattle Sounders 7-0). Man Utd finished last season on a high (ignoring the CL final of course), their managerial philosophy remains the same, and they've only strengthened their team since then. Its only natural that they would play like that. In contrast, our team is like a patient who recently left ER after an organ transplant (its a poor analogy, but I hope I've made my point). So its naturally going to take a while. Also fitness is poor and improving slowly ( because the squad takes longer due to its age), but surely. Team chemistry hasn't improved because the players are only playing 45 mins each and in different combinations. This is because AVB wants to assess fitness levels and individual performances before he decides the right mix for the team. As for the transfers, I don't think anyone can deny that the club has its targets. Its taking a while to get them, but I think we will see some movement as soon as the Asia tour comes to a close.

You can either prove one thing or the other. Don't see why both Drogba and Torres always have to be mentioned in tandem with regards to each other's usefulness. Their form has barely anything to do with each other.

I find it funny when some fans do a promo for either one of Drogba and Torres, that they have to diss the performance of the other striker....I mean how does one striker playing worse than the other make you feel better?

Once again, I'll be optimistic and say that's another win and a clean sheet (without Cech!). I don't think AVB can yet decide on a starting 11 without our influential Brazilians, but I hope he sees the need to add the extra winger and creative mid asap. No-one played particularly bad or consistently for that matter. Also I don't think the deep lying playmaker role suits Josh. He should be pushed further up front

DIDI-YEAHH!!!

Dominating play as usual. First half showed that no-one exactly played terribly bad. Synchronization a bit poor though. Going to be optimistic and say that its because its a new starting 11 every match.

What a ball from Lampard! Wasted by Sala and Nino

Cause at the moment, its either Josh or Mikel and he wants to play 2 halves with different teams...

That's because when Carlo panics, he sees experience as the solution

But we did play two full matches you know.

Anyone else feel there's something wrong with the speed of our build-up play? I feel that its: 1. Too slow in the middle of the pitch 2. And too fast in the final third. Because of 1. the opposition defense always gets into position with enough time to spare, ready to prepare for any of the attacks. Because of 2. we don't spend enough time carving a good opportunity. As we saw in the Portsmouth game, the mindless crosses from Jose and Kalou were easily swatted away by the Pompey defense. This also leads to other problems. Because the players have only recently returned, team chemistry is at an all time low. Which is why after quick exchanges between two players, the third player involved in the play often ends up losing the ball. I feel the team needs to take it slow in the first few games of pre-season and gradually build up speed to improve team chemistry. What d'you guys think?

I think you hit the nail right there. We're already struggling with one such player. Adding another at the same time isn't exactly a good idea.

Agree with this...

Isn't it odd that Alex keeps getting these knee injuries from time to time...I thought that surgery back in December was supposed to get rid of the problem for good..

You can get good info from Goal.com...if you know how to sift through rest of the rubbish

Good. He can see more first-team action...

I'm not worried about that actually., whatever happens I'm pretty sure we will sign a big name...whether that big-name player is a good one, is a different matter however....

Good question... I think Chelsea have already made bids/inquiries for a lot of players, just to let other clubs know we're interested..once AVB "knows exactly what he needs" (to use his words), he'll make a move for a select bunch of those players.. It does end in about a week's time...

There's a good chance that there won't be any transfer until the end of the Asia tour....