CHOULO19

I'm sure he'll be thrilled when he finds out

Didn't Frank say that the club is waiting for him to retire entirely from football to hold a testimonial?

Why in the world would Salah not be in Jose's plans? That's like saying if Costa doesn't score in the remaining preseason matches he will be loaned out! Salah is definitely in Jose's plans this season, he said so in many occasions last season. That's why I said preseason is important for players like Romeu, MVG and Zouma who are trying to convince Jose they should be with the first team.

I think it's important for the likes of Zouma, MVG, Romue, even possibly Ake and to a lesser extent to Baker, Boga, Brown...etc. But for the likes of Matic, JT, Iva and Salah, it's just for getting match fitness. Jose won't be judging them based on those games, he'll be seeing them everyday in training for the season.

JT and possibly Iva and Petr aside, none of the players that played yesterday will be starting at Burnley, most won't even be on the bench. What on earth can you learn from this preseason game that is important for that match?

Not really my point, but it's kind of a cheap shot trying to take away from Petr's achievements. Anyway, my point was experience (that's why I bolded it) at the top the level and experience for playing at Chelsea and experience of playing in the PL. Petr is one of the best best of his generation and one of the legends of the game, no matter how talented a youngster is, and even when Thibaut becomes clearly better than him, he can always learn from his experience.

Sign of PR training. Absolutely nothing wrong with that for me. I prefer a player a player who talks and says nothing than to one who says too much.

If Courtois goes through a rough patch of course we bench him. The results are above everything else for us. Regardless of who is currently better (for me it's still Petr), of course Thibaut can learn A LOT from Petr. We're talking about the man who has the most clean sheets in the history of our club! His experience is invaluable. Again, if Thibaut is performing consistently better than Petr, then he has nothing to worry about. Let's just wait to see how Jose plans on handling the situation.

Forgetting the last couple of pages happened, since when are preseason matches a way to judge players? Preseason is about match fitness and match fitness ONLY. NO. No one make a religion thread! Discussing religions will only lead to people getting offended, plus it's against forum rules.

I feel more secure because if Thibaut has a rough first season here and is taking time to adjust, Petr will be ready to save the day because if we're going to challenge for titles, we can't afford slip ups. We'll have someone who has won it all and who is still a top keeper when experience is needed. And if Thibaut adjusts quickly to the league and is performing better than Petr, then great, he can keep the spot and Petr can afford to have a season on the bench. Plus, it wouldn't hurt for Thibaut to learn a few things from Petr in training. You can't win with the media, if we sell Petr, then the camera will cut to Jose after every half mistake by Thibaut and the commentator will talk about how it was a mistake to rid of Petr. You mentioned the bad track record of having two keepers, but there is even a worse track record of top clubs transitioning from a keeper to a new one. I'm glad we're going through this transition slowly to minimize any possible damage.

Crazy.

Well, Jose seems to think otherwise. I personally feel more secure having Petr around in Thibaut's first season with us.

Anyone got a download link for the second half?

Jose has always implied so from the start. It was only a few people on here who were trying to convince us that we would anger the football gods if we had two good keepers and all hell would break loose.

No,I don't mind player chants in the stadium like Willian's song. But this is cringeworthy:

I know, I just thought it gives some idea on where each has the edge on the other.

Missed the second half, how did we do?

I don't think Costa or Cesc will get more than 20 mins.

Don't usually care much about kits designs, but I really hope we don't play many games in that third kit. Not at all easy on the eye.

I remember a lot of people saying it was expensive. In fact, did red nose take a jibe at us after we signed him for paying too much? The transfer window has really gone crazy in the past year or so. I remember I was one of the people arguing last summer that 19m for Schurrle was too much!

All the Belgians joining on the 30th. EDIT: As always, beaten to it...

They've really gone down hill, especially this summer. I used to consider them reliable, but social media is killing all the 'reliable' media.

LMAO at the bug!

A friend told me and I had assumed there was an article about it, but now that I look it up, I'm disappointed that it's just mentioned in an article about Atletico But anyway... "Monaco are also looking at Torres and would be able to match his £175,000-a-week Chelsea wages" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/arsenal/10984250/Atletico-Madrid-add-Arsenal-pair-Nacho-Monreal-and-Santi-Cazorla-to-summer-shopping-list.html

Telegraph saying that Monaco are in for him. That is the most reliable source to have every report the possibility of him leaving since we signed him! Monaco can certainly afford his wages and maybe he can get them a few more fans to add to their average attendance of 3000 fans! I might be going crazy here, but I think we might actually be seeing Torres leave.