Heisenberg

There isn't much time now between the start of the new season so that's even better....lets get on it and get them completed please.

My son who is going into reffing this year has just came to me and said "Dad I would of given the Kovacic second yellow the other way" I'm trying to teach my son on the game and he watches that today and it has pulled all the confidence and energy from him wanting to do that as a job, he is fucking 14 for fucks sake.
He said "Dad I will make mistakes but based on that I won't get any help"
I rest my case...he is fucking 14

There we go again the fans turning their head against Conte in an instant.
And then you moan about trust, faith and hope for longterm projects
You realize that if we appointed someone for actualy long time with more transfer control it would probably take a whole bad season or two before it gets good and you cant live with Conte after a bad month.
Irony.
The season wasnt bad as some pointed out till january. Then the players started to miss absolute sitters and defenders ridiculous mistakes in defence. There is little Conte can do when you see Morata miss 10 clear chances and Cahill, Rudiger, Luiz, heck even Azpi leaving acress of space for opponents.
Conte made some terrible terrible decisions yes, but the players are beyond patethic in the most simpliest footballing things like passing. Have you seen how shit our short passing was recent games? Championship players have better organisation and composure. Fucking Jaanmat showed more attacking skill and composure than our whole attacking line.

Our best midfielder, after Kante. There's no rational reason after this game not to play him regularly.

Indeed we are.

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FUCKING ECSTACY YESSSSS
IT DOESNT MATTER WHO IS RIGHT OR WHO IS WRONG
WHAT MATTERS IS WE NO LONGER NEED TO ARGUE. THE COMING SEASON WILL TEACH US WHAT WE DIDN'T KNOW AND JUST SPECULATED ON.
I AM FUCKING HIGH OVER THIS, I CANNOT BELIEVE 

What a performance man. Looks right at home in the PL. Will only get better too. A huge reason why Kante was able to have such a top game. 

I hope, and believe, that isn't true. Ess was not good technically. The ball regularly bounced off his shins. 

Think 35M is a bit excessive, good to get a MF player in but like I said in the Bakayoko thread regarding Matic and Chalobah, don't think Drinkwater is a huge upgrade on Chalobah, who looked more than capable of holding his own last year or even close to Nemanja

That was last season.The squad wont be able to deal with four competitions, and Antonio is smart enough to let go at least two if he starts the season with this squad.
 We were lucky to play three competitions with 13 essential players with barely no injuries, and we were lucky to find a manager who came with some great ideas. Call it luck or good medical departments, some constants from last season may actually change this time, we've seen it all before. Now, we are facing a serious task, continuity, and thats where everyone is pessimistic. We replaced Matic & Costa, added a defender, but we also let a super player in Aké go, so we are still basically replacing one with another. I'm not sure our additions are actually making the team better in terms of quality, they are just making the team a bit less thinner. 
City's season wasnt a disaster, and United's UCL qualification made their season successful, City ended their PL campaign playing really well and with their signings, can actually hope for some continuity because they improved the squad, Mourinho's second seasons are always good. The board is letting our manager down, the best we can hope with this squad is for Morata to flourish and Eden to continue to deliver, and Fabregas to be on top of his game, Bakayoko wont need that much efforts to do more than Matic, the best we can hope is a top four finish.
 

That was last season.The squad wont be able to deal with four competitions, and Antonio is smart enough to let go at least two if he starts the season with this squad.
 We were lucky to play three competitions with 13 essential players with barely no injuries, and we were lucky to find a manager who came with some great ideas. Call it luck or good medical departments, some constants from last season may actually change this time, we've seen it all before. Now, we are facing a serious task, continuity, and thats where everyone is pessimistic. We replaced Matic & Costa, added a defender, but we also let a super player in Aké go, so we are still basically replacing one with another. I'm not sure our additions are actually making the team better in terms of quality, they are just making the team a bit less thinner. 
City's season wasnt a disaster, and United's UCL qualification made their season successful, City ended their PL campaign playing really well and with their signings, can actually hope for some continuity because they improved the squad, Mourinho's second seasons are always good. The board is letting our manager down, the best we can hope with this squad is for Morata to flourish and Eden to continue to deliver, and Fabregas to be on top of his game, Bakayoko wont need that much efforts to do more than Matic, the best we can hope is a top four finish.
 

I agree with this, 100%. 
What people fail to realize about Costa was that his conversion rate during the first half of the season was hovering around 20-22% IIRC. 
3 reasons why this is huge.
1.) You'll only find World-Class strikers/wingers converting at that rate, and besides Messi/Ronaldo nobody else can maintain that rate for more than a few months, and then drop off.  
2.) It was the second time Costa's high conversion rate has essentially fired Chelsea to a title. 
3.) Costa wasn't converting tap-ins like Aubameyang or being presented with 5 chances a game ala Ronaldo. He was converting goals sometimes only having 2 legitimate shots an entire game. Just think of WBA at home. Or Middlesborough Away. The typical Costa performance. 
Say what you will about Costa and all the antics he caused, but any Striker that wins 2 PL Titles scoring 20 Goals in the league x2 is welcome in my book, technical defecinies and all. 

A pop at youth players, the board, other team in the media? Conte's channeling his inner Mourinho.

Darren Bent, Adebayor & Benteke have all had as prolific seasons as Lukaku in this league, you know. He's only scored 1 goal more than Vardy did the previous season, too.
Elite players have done head & shoulders more than he has. Elite players have everyone in Europe talking about them, especially when they score loads, because they're exciting to see. Nobody outside this league gives a shit about Lukaku, because he offers nothing but stat-bloating.
People tune in to Serie A just to see Dybala. People tune in to La Liga just to see Griezmann. People tune in to the Bundesliga just to see Dembele. People tune in to Ligue 1 just to see Mbappe.
Nobody in their right mind would tune in to the Premier League just to watch Lukaku for 90 minutes. It'd be nauseating. And no top player has ever been anything but beautiful to watch.

Serie A is not weaker than the Premier League, at all. Maybe it was 3 seasons or so ago.
La Liga, Serie A, Premier League, Bundesliga, Ligue 1.
There's no nuance to the game here anymore; if you can score against Italian defences you'll rip English ones to shreds. And this is before the top teams in Italy have their own stadiums. This is before they get the obscene TV money the English teams get. The Premier League's almost dead, and it's being replaced by a lookalike zombie. Shining here means nothing, now. It's no coincidence the likes of Aguero & Suarez dominated over here, yet only ever been the 5th or even 10th best player in Spain.
Add Costa to that too. Went from being something like the 15th best player in La Liga to a top 3 player in the Premier League - and it's not like he's improved as player - he hasn't. Even Bale ripped England up, only to be a slightly above average player over in Spain. Elite forwards look at the lack of actual football over here and lick their lips.
+ Sanchez, too*.
If Jamie Vardy & Mahrez can come out of nowhere & both end a season as top 5 scorers, Belotti can do so, with ease.
*Got another one - Fabregas went from a 'meh' player in Spain, to truly being one of the top 5 players in the Premier League, this following his decline. 

Chelsea v Villa in the FA Cup, that is a sure thing now.

He is not the only one — me too, I have seen the epiphany.
It is like in Dragon Ball Z, where San Goku is so fast and so strong, that when he fights against opponents that are on par with him, all of his friends cannot see what is happening as it is too quick for their eyes. This is the same for Matic. What he does is so quick, so subtle and so refined that nearly nobody can appreciate what he is doing on the pitch, aside of a few connoisseurs.
Actually you should search for that interview of Pep Guardiola, where he talks in depth about his team at Barcelonna. He explains that he was desperate to sign the Serbian genius, but unfortunatly, could not. As a consequence, he was left with no other choices than to allocate Matic's role between his three midfielders (Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets). And while everyone consider this midfield-three to be one of the best midfield in history, Guardiola stresses very intensively, in his interview, that he was still not satisfied as he had to use three players (Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets) to do the job which could have been done by only one (Matic). He even admitted that he and del Bosque had a secret plan to try and fashion Sergio Busquets into the same mold as Matic — needless to say, it did failed.
Ancelotti too, has had a lot of nice words towards our Serbian Marshal. Just the other day, when he was discussing his failure here at Chelsea, he told the reporter that it was undoubtedly due to the critical mistake of having sold Matic to Benfica. To have lost Matic was what made the difference between a winning team scoring 103 goals and a team that painfully finished second ex-æquo.
As for Mourinho, well, after we won the League he made the mistake to give the creative duty to Hazard — and it backfired greatly as we fell one point above the relegation zone. I hope Conte does not make the same mistake and that he is able to see the crucial importance — and no words strong enough do exist to emphasize enough the importance — that Matic represents for the team.

Ugh. These rumours are absolute bullshit. It's a rehash from the Inter story, resurfaced by that obsessed Mourinho lover boy Duncan Castles. Why in the world would you believe him? 
I'm pretty sure we have signings lined up and that the main reason they haven't been announced is simply due to the Nike deal. 
They're really trying to force this power hungry Conte narrative which I think is rubbish. Conte knew what sort of club he was signing for, he knows he can't be making Sir Alex Ferguson style demands just yet, he's only been here for a season. No doubt people will try to ignorantly blame either party (Conte or the board) to suit their agendas. 

I do not think it is the case. Actually, the problem would not be that we have a "mandat" which would prevent us to exceed a certain amount of money — but would be in reality a problem of strategy/tactic, both in how we are conducting negotiotions and the players we aim.
Evidences lead me to believe that this state of affair is due to a series of reasons such as :
Trying to be smart arse — which leads the negotiations to be dragged on forever. We start with very low bids and only increase it by a few pounds each time. At the end, when we finally make a sensible bid, it is simply too late because : (i) the mercato has ended ; (ii) it is too late in the window for the "selling" club to find any replacement ; (iii) or because they have already sold too many "key" players ; (iv) the "selling" club, and more importantly, the aimed player, are getting bored and frustrated (when you do not know whether the club that wants to buy you will one day make a suitable bid for you, it is hard as a player to put pressure on your board to be sold). We have examples such as Modric and Coulibaly. Had we bid, in 2011 (?), £40m at the start of the window, Tottenham would have had time to find a good replacement for him and maybe Modric, seeing our heavy interest, would have been more vocal about his desire to leave (and thus "forcing" the hand of Levy). Instead, we waited the last days to make this offer while it was very clear it was not happening.... The same goes for Coulibaly. Had we bid £50m at the start of the transfert window and before they sold Higuain to the Juventus, we would have likely had more chance to sign him. Another consequence of this is that we can absolutely not participate to a bidding war... which make us unable to sign a great number of players. Aiming at the wrong player at the wrong time — for instance, Pogba. We made an offer to the Juve quite similar to the one made by United the following year, yet it did not work, simply because they would not sell him as they had already lost too many key players. Quite generally, we seem obstinate to aim at players who are not available, yet when they are, we are no longer interested. We have spent summer(s) — and more — to pursue players such as Modric, Coulibaly, Pogba, Aguero etc... when it was pretty clear they were unavailable — and when they were, we were nowhere to be seen. So yeah, I do not think the problem is the amount of money we can spend but how we inted to spend it. At the end of the day, we have to revisit radically our transfer policies. They have never been good, but back in the days, 25 million pounds could buy you great players — not today. We need coherence and continuity (i.e. not courting Aguero for five years only to buy Torres when he was finally available) ; and most importantly. we need to understand that buying three average players for £30m does not equal to buying a great player for £90m...

Remember the "grandpa" your talking about is Samuel Eto'o. One of the most legendary strikers ever to play the game. Eto'o did really well for us, and it was evident he was going to play.

Right, stats don't matter much. Just because Vardy scored loads doesn't mean he should lead our line. Just because Sturridge consistently scores loads doesn't mean he should be leading our line. Just because Mario Gomez is still a consistently high scoring poacher, doesn't mean he should be leading our line. 
Because context. 
Clearly goals aren't that big a factor when looking at a striker. Heaps of other things are considered. 
So, erasing goals from the conversation for this moment - what does Lukaku offer Chelsea? Other than supposedly liking the club? (So does Peter Crouch...and he offers more, including being HG, including being consistent, including being willing to sit on the bench for Costa, including ripping apart minnows in cups and starter phases of the CL. Why can't we be fucking frugal with great effect.)

First of all, we dont know the story, we know a little portion from the victim, yes, victim, i'll come to that later on, so the way is of course as you said, a bitchy move, but maybe they spoke already about it since January, therefore, sending a text message confirming something they already spoke about face to face, isnt that bitchy, plus, Conte doesn't appear like someone who doesn't say important shit on your face, ask Terry when he knew he'll mainly watch from the stands this season, and also watch the captain's behavior. For me, this is just a way of making Costa appear as the victim.
Victim, why ? simple, I'd feel extremely un-happy, to say the least, if a player who I made a champion, speaks in front of the media, the way Costa spoke, its inappropriate, uneducated, classless move, you can leave a club in some better conditions, keeping a certain level of dignity intact, here, he sounds bitter, but why ? I felt this season, everyone - including a very abused Fabregas who had to painfully watch Matic doing a proper shitty job from the bench - spoke highly of Conte's man management, and if not, at least spoke of the passion and work which worked great this season by the boss. For me, Costa is a kid, with no class, and no balls, speaking in such a manner is a disgrace, especially because I remember Conte said that Costa was keeping goals for the last part of the season, when he was asked about the awful record he had in the second part of the season.Contrast.

First of all, we dont know the story, we know a little portion from the victim, yes, victim, i'll come to that later on, so the way is of course as you said, a bitchy move, but maybe they spoke already about it since January, therefore, sending a text message confirming something they already spoke about face to face, isnt that bitchy, plus, Conte doesn't appear like someone who doesn't say important shit on your face, ask Terry when he knew he'll mainly watch from the stands this season, and also watch the captain's behavior. For me, this is just a way of making Costa appear as the victim.
Victim, why ? simple, I'd feel extremely un-happy, to say the least, if a player who I made a champion, speaks in front of the media, the way Costa spoke, its inappropriate, uneducated, classless move, you can leave a club in some better conditions, keeping a certain level of dignity intact, here, he sounds bitter, but why ? I felt this season, everyone - including a very abused Fabregas who had to painfully watch Matic doing a proper shitty job from the bench - spoke highly of Conte's man management, and if not, at least spoke of the passion and work which worked great this season by the boss. For me, Costa is a kid, with no class, and no balls, speaking in such a manner is a disgrace, especially because I remember Conte said that Costa was keeping goals for the last part of the season, when he was asked about the awful record he had in the second part of the season.Contrast.

First of all, we dont know the story, we know a little portion from the victim, yes, victim, i'll come to that later on, so the way is of course as you said, a bitchy move, but maybe they spoke already about it since January, therefore, sending a text message confirming something they already spoke about face to face, isnt that bitchy, plus, Conte doesn't appear like someone who doesn't say important shit on your face, ask Terry when he knew he'll mainly watch from the stands this season, and also watch the captain's behavior. For me, this is just a way of making Costa appear as the victim.
Victim, why ? simple, I'd feel extremely un-happy, to say the least, if a player who I made a champion, speaks in front of the media, the way Costa spoke, its inappropriate, uneducated, classless move, you can leave a club in some better conditions, keeping a certain level of dignity intact, here, he sounds bitter, but why ? I felt this season, everyone - including a very abused Fabregas who had to painfully watch Matic doing a proper shitty job from the bench - spoke highly of Conte's man management, and if not, at least spoke of the passion and work which worked great this season by the boss. For me, Costa is a kid, with no class, and no balls, speaking in such a manner is a disgrace, especially because I remember Conte said that Costa was keeping goals for the last part of the season, when he was asked about the awful record he had in the second part of the season.Contrast.