Blue Armour

Yep. Really pathetic if true.

Looks smart as far as training kits go.

Our dealings with Inter have been...weird to say the least. Never gave a serious look-in for Skriniar last season, and not really linked with Barella. The one thing I hope Boehly & co. improve upon is lining up a plan B or plan C option in case plan A doesn't work. They tried to act quickly with Ugarte, but have taken their foot off the pedal since. Maybe the reason for the slowdown is primarily to do with FFP, and they will up the ante with Caicedo next month, but if that also falls through, I hope they act quickly with other options like Barella.

Rudiger sealed his departure after Roman's days were numbered and the club was sanctioned. Same with Christenesen. It was Marinas fault for letting it drag out, but the turmoil around the club nailed it.

Depends on what's happening behind the scenes. Under Abramovich we've had a couple of really bad seasons But star players never left in droves like this. Fans are laughing now because it's Kai & Mount, and not Drogba or Hazard. But the fact that the likes of Drogba and Hazard stuck with us through tough times, and players are jumping ship here at first sight, speaks a lot about the club and its current state of affairs.

Hazard was the most sensible person to lead that lot, followed by DeBruyne. Made sense, since he had the personality to get along with all of them., even though the rest disliked each other. Shame his form died., and with that, his claims to captaincy.

Correct. Mourinho., Ferguson and Wenger were all scouting Drogba at the time he came on to the scene in French football. Only we took the chance back then, because he was a bit pricy for a relatively unproven player. Same with Hazard. Everyone was looking at him. Only we took the chance. (Plus we had some inside assistance from Joe Cole and Drogba)

That's what I'm afraid of too, and you can only look at Arsenal during Wenger's last few seasons to see why that's not a good idea. You can't just indefinitely keep building for the future., without having some sort of competitiveness and success. You'll just likely risk losing the good players you developed, to bigger, winning clubs when they get fed up with the lack of trophies. I just hope there are a couple of natural leaders there among our new signings.

I think they take AFCON seriously enough...and a few teams often make it to knockout stages of WC competitions. But even if you disregard that...so what? Haalands team is virtually useless, and Ibrahimovic's team has hardly set the world on fire. I just don't see their situation as being more disadvantageous than the rest. I think Asian players have it way worse.

But should our league position really matter? Chelsea is already an established brand (besides being a club) at this point, and has a huge global following. One poor season shouldn't make the club go backwards in this regard. I'm not convinced that it's a league position issue. Yes, being out of Europe may reduce the number of TV viewers on account of less fixtures, but the PL is such a big draw in itself. If Chelsea had gone down to the championship, then I'd understand.

Ffs are they going to do this to evey player who doesn't sign their cracked 8 year deal?

Exactly. It's strange that all of a sudden everyone trusts Boehly & co. to completely replenish the starting 11 after last year's disaster

Why is that troll still allowed to post here. Obvious troll is obvious. All his posts are meant to rile up real fans here.

Omg, it's more hilarious than I thought it was 😂

Would you rather be stuck with Lukaku and create another toxic dressing room? I have no doubt he had a hand in screwing up Tuchels second season at the club. We were on top of the league around the time Lukaku lost his starting 11 position. He will cost us more money in the long run by hanging around.

IMO, we should take whatever money we get for Lukaku and run. Havertz is the one we need to be careful about. We shouldn't let him go for cheap. And IMO, we should hold on to Havertz for at least one more season.

How so, though? I don't think he was caught out by the Man City press. Plus there was very little for him to aim at with the likes of Martinez up front. Not sure what he could have done better.

I miss Werner. Not his lack of finishing in front of goal. But his attitude and work rate on the pitch., especially off the ball with how he stretched opposition back lines, giving the likes of Mount and Havertz more room to operate. Under the right manager, I'm sure he could have done a better job than a lot of our attackers have this season. Bad decision to let him go and sacrifice his playing time for the likes of Lukaku.

The one positive from the CL final, was that Onana looked solid. And also looked like one of the few Inter players who looked to push the team forward, and from the GK position no less. Even got into a tussle with Haaland which is saying something. Wouldn't be a bad signing if we went in for him, IMO. At least based on that showing.

He was just so....lazy after coming on as a sub His first ever CL final (I think?)...and he didn't even bother to press. And then he goes and blocks a certain goal.

Bit worried that Inter won't come in for him after this disaster of a final. Who else will take him? The only hope is that he doesn't want to stick at Chelsea either.

Another shoddy season for us like this one, you can bet they will come in for James.

I just hope the law of averages catches up with them eventually., and they come off their peak. But with factory of readymade replacements for outgoing or ageing star players means their squad is always replenished. Yeah, I think as long as Pep is there, they will create havoc for everyone else in the league. Unless he loses interest and fucks off, or City get charged (unlikely), it's going to be a long, agonizing wait.

Well and truly hope someone knocks them off their perch next season., even if it's a club from the red brigade. It will be an absolute sham if they win either another PL or CL trophy next year. Right now they could easily do both.

City winning a garbage final because the opposition was just so poor. I'm just glad Chelsea at least has one more CL trophy.