CHOULO19

Well that's easy to say from your perspective, but from his perspective what he makes is probably just enough. It's funny thing about us humans that nothing is ever really enough for us. Ever notice how when you get a pay raise in work, your expenses also automatically increase without you planning? That's why you don't see Billionaires throwing millions out of a window even though if they do they'd still have more money than 99% of people on earth. If he can't make the Spanish team here or at Valencia then why would he move if he's earning more money here? You never see people who are set for life with money ever miss a chance to make more money. In fact, in my experience, poor/lower middle class people are much much more likely to put happiness, principals, moral stuff..etc ahead of monetary gain. But that's a debate for another time. I can see Torres taking a pay cut to move to Barcelona for example, but Valencia? I find that incredibly unlikely in the current situation.

The problem is, he doesn't seem to want to go on loan at all. He said that last season and this season he turned the loan to Vitesse which was perfect for him imo, since MVG has just moved here and there is a spot in the starting lineup which he could easily make his own; plus he's Dutch so he could have fitted in easily. Playing in the Eredivisie would be so much better for his development than playing in the U21 league. I think Nathan is one of the, if not the, best prospect we have in our academy, but if he refuses to go out on loan, that will damage his chances of making it here a lot.

He took a pay cut to join Liverpool to prove himself as a player. He knew that that move could make him one of the highest rated strikers in the world and it did. In fact, even though he took a pay cut, he still ended up making more money at Liverpool from ads. Hid move to Liverpool made him one of the most marketable players on the planet. What doe he have to gain by taking a pay cut and moving away from Chelsea? The only thing that is keeping him in the Spain NT is that he plays for a club like Chelsea; and that got him chosen over people like Negredo and Soldado who where performing much better than him but at smaller teams. Moving to a smaller club would practically be admitting that he's no longer good enough to be at a club like Chelsea. He'd basically be pulling the plug on his career at the age of 29. No matter how much he loves football, he's not going to just throw away 10-20m. This is his work and he has a family to support. Would you do it if you were in his shoes?

Jose said that NO ONE will be leaving and that means that no one will be leaving. Who do the media think we are? Arsenal?!

Didn't Jose say he views Iva as a RB?

I do hope this goes through. Would be a brilliant loan if he can get regular minutes. Because he won't get regular playing time in the PL and the Championship does not suit him at all. Spain looks to me like the best solution.

Quietly hoping that he gets called up to join the squad in the US now that Kalas has pulled out. I'd love to see him given the chance that Thomas was given.

Even if he's not, he'd be stupid to take a wage cut. After all this is how he makes a living.

Just wait. It'll get fixed on it's own.

I guess we should bump this so people can nominate who they want since the month is over. This is what I meant when I said that people will likely just forget about the whole thing if you open the thread at the beginning of the month.

This makes a HUGE difference in the speed at which the pages are loading! Thanks Jim.

I google "Chelsea squad for the Guinness International Champions Cup" and Goal was the first that came up. Don't think the official site was among the results.

Match Preview Here

I got the squads from Goal.com: http://www.goal.com/icc/2013/07/25/4143420/squads-announced-for-2013-guinness-international-champions I only removed Kalas who's pulled out of the competition with an injury.

Chelsea vs Inter - Match Preview Venue: Chelsea face Inter Milan in our first match of the Guinness International Champions Cup in Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis on Thursday, August 1st at 8:00 pm local time (1:00 am on August 2nd UK time). About The Match: This match will be the first of four games to be played in the USA as the second part of preseason, three of which are in the International Champions Cup, or ICC which has, this year, replaced the "World Football Challenge" which Chelsea participated in and won back in 2009. The competition consists of 8 clubs and features top European teams like Real Madrid, Juventus, AC Milan..etc If Chelsea manage to win this match, we will move into the semifinal to face AC Milan who have already beat Valencia 2-1 on the 27th of July. Lose and we will face Valencia instead, in a match to determine who will play for fifth place and who will play for 7th. About The Opposition: Jose Mourinho will be playing for the first time against Inter since leaving the club back in 2010 to join Real Madrid. The Special helped the club that he described as one of his two "passions in football", the other being Chelsea, to the Serie A in 2008-09 as well as the 2009-10 Treble. So it will definitely be an emotional encounter for our Portuguese manager. But since Jose's departure, Inter have been steadily going downhill. Not only have they failed to win any major trophies since 2010, but they've also failed to qualify to any European competition last season after finishing in a shocking 9th position. They've also lost some major players that were key to they success under the special one like Julio Cesar, Etoo, Maicon..etc Inter are also rumored to be leading the chase to sing Chelsea's young Brizlian Right Back, Wallace, on loan for next season. Latest Meetings: Chelsea and Inter have only met twice previously in official competitions, both in the 2009-10 last 16 round. Inter won both matches 2-1 and 0-1 a the Giuseppe Meazza and Stamford Bridge respectively. Etoo scored the only goal at the bridge and Milito and Cambiaso both scored in Milano while Kalou scored the blues' only goal in the tie. Friendlies-wise, Chelsea last met Inter in 20009 in this same competition (was still, called World Football Challenge back then) and won 2-0 with goals from Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard (pen). Team News: Here are the official squads of each team for the competition: Chelsea: Goalkeepers: Petr Cech, Mark Schwarzer, Jamal Blackman (EDIT: It seems Hilario has also traveled with the team according to the official site). Defenders: Branislav Ivanovic, Ashley Cole, David Luiz, Gary Cahill, John Terry, Cesar Azpilicueta, Ryan Bertrand Midfielders: Michael Essien, Ramires, Frank Lampard, Juan Mata, Oscar, John Obi Mikel, Kevin De Bruyne, Mako van Ginkel, Eden Hazard Forwards: Fernando Torres, Victor Moses, Andre Schurrle, Romelu Lukaku, Demba Ba Manager: Jose Mourinho Luiz, Azpilicueta, Mata, Oscar, Mikel and Torres have all returned from their extended vacation after the Confederation Cup and have replaced the youngsters that were with the first team in Asia. Chelsea's only missing player is Thomas Kalas, who picked up an injury and is expected to be out for about a month (no news yet if someone else is going to be called to replace him). Frank Lampard, Andre Schurrle and Kevin De Bruyne have all recovered from their respective injuries and will be available for this match. Inter: Goalkeepers: Samir Handanovic, Juan Pablo Carrizo, Luca Castellazzi Defenders: Hugo Campagnaro, Marco Andreolli, Walter Samuel, Andrea Ranocchia, Christian Chivu, Juan Midfielders: Ibrahima, Mbaye, Jonathan, Yuto Nagatomo, Alvaro Pereira, Esteban Cambiasso, Fredy Guarin, Ricardo Alvarez, Zdravko Kuzmanovic, Patrick Olsen, Gabi Mudingayi, Diego Laxalt, Joel Obi Forwards: Alessandro Capello, Ishak Belfodil, Rodrigo Palacio, Mauro Icardi Manager: Walter Mazzarri Inter have a few players who still haven't recovered from sustained last season; most notably their captain Javier Zanetti, Argentinian striker Diego Milito and perhaps most importantly Mateo Kovacic, Inter's 20 year old creative midfielder. Expected lineups: Both managers have been experimenting with squad during preseason, so there is no way to expect what lineup will be used for this match. Instead, here are the last lineups used by each manager: Chelsea started their last game in Asia against BNI Indonesia All-Stars with a 4-3-3 formation for the first time to great effect as the team cruised to an 8-1 victory. The starting lineup was: BlackmanWallace, Cahill, Terry ©, BertrandRamires, Chalobah, Van GinkelMoses, Ba, Hazard Inter, on the other hand, played their usual 3-5-2 in a 1-1 draw with Hmaburg: 1 Handanovic14 Campagnaro, 23 Ranocchia, 5 Juan Jesus;55 Nagatomo, 13 Guarin, 19 Cambiasso, 11 Alvarez, 31 Pereira;8 Palacio, 9 Icardi It is expected that Inter put out a very similar lineup to the one above while Chelsea's lineup is expected to be drastically changed from the one played in Indonesia. Opposition Analysis: Inter play a free-flowing style of football unlike most Italian teams and liked to press higher up the pitch, under Strama, than you'd usually see in the Serie A. They have goals in them all across the pitch, but struggle for 'inspiration' in some matches. Their notorious frailties at the back have haunted them for more than two seasons now. The biggest threats to look out for are Rodrigo Palacio who at times carried Inter by himself last season and managed to score 12 goals in all competitions. Inter's new signing, Mauro Icardi, is another dangerous man in the attack. The 20 year old Argentinian made his debut in the Serie A last season with Sampdoria and managed to score 11 goals. He's already off the mark for Inter as he scored their only goal in the 1-1 draw with Hamburg. Stats & Facts: - Chelsea won the first International Champions Cup back in 2009 when it was still called World Football Challenge.- Chelsea and Inter have met once before in this competition where the Blues came out on top as goals from Drogba and Lampard secured a 2-0 win.- Chelsea have lost both of their previous meetings with Inter in official competitions.- No team in Europe's top 5 leagues played more games last season than Chelsea (69).- Inter finished last season in 9th place. Their worst finish since 1994.- Inter, last season, conceded the joint second most goals in the Serie A with 57 goals in their net.- In contrast, Chelsea conceded the third least, and scored the second most amount of goals in the PL last season. Odds: Chelsea are firm favorites to come out on top as is reflected by the odds: Odds: Chelsea -125, Inter Milan +300, Draw +220Source: LVH SuperBook (Las Vegas, Nevada, USA) 3-Way Odds: Chelsea -136, Inter Milan +300, Draw +225Total: Over 2½ -125, Under 2½ -109Decimal Odds: Chelsea 1.73, Inter Milan 4.00, Draw 3.25Decimal Total: Over 2½ 1.80, Under 2½ 1.91Fractional Odds: Chelsea 93/100, Inter Milan 3/1, Draw 9/2Fractional Total: Over 2½ 4/5, Under 2½ 91/100Source: sportsbook.com (Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles)TV Coverage: The game will be live on Chelsea TV. It will also be available on Fox Sport and ESPN Deportes in the US as well as Al Jazeera +2 in the middle east. For anyone without any access to those channels, there should be a lot of streams available for the match. And for those who have have work, there will be a match feed provided by TalkChelsea's official twitter account. KTBFFH Click Here To View Article

"Overrated" has just become a 'trendy' football term that keeps getting over-used and thrown into almost every football discussion about players. So much so that, for me, it has lost all of its original meaning and has become an adjective that people just throw into the discussion and that adds absolutely nothing to the argument like "beast" or "world-class". Now, I'm not aiming this at you, @olivertwist but rather a general rant; I actually see where you're coming from in some points like the lack of quality number 10s in Brazil atm as opposed to in the past, but I just can't understand how anyone can say Oscar is overrated. I didn't know he was even rated by people outside of Chelsea and Brazil! In fact, a shocking ammount of people actually think that that pace whore Coutinho is better than Oscar! Rant over.

I think he got Player's Player Of The Year We better watch out boys, Inter have been training with the best playmaker in history ahead of this game!

Any news if someone else is replacing him in the squad for the US? Would love to see Omeruo given a chance.

How did you arrive at 25m? His wages alone is 10m/year and assuming he'd want them to match his wages for at least the length of his current contract which is 3 years, that makes 30m in wages in alone for the next 3 years. Yeah, he's not going anywhere.

You wouldn't trust to start a couple of games for us?! Then you're largely underrating the boy. Hilario did have some excellent games with us in the CL but he also had some absolute shockers in the league (and one in the FA cup when he dot sent off) on many occasions. Blackman is currently not that far off Hilario who obviously has experience over him. In fact, I was hoping to have Jamal not only because he fits in the U21 category but also because I wanted him to be given a chance in a couple of league cup games. On any account, the scenarios you're talking about are incredibly unlikely and you can't make the decision to just throw away a foreign spot on the team based on them.

Of course you lost, mods can't ban, only admins! Dude, at least have the decency to troll a forum that speaks your first language. I can't even understand what you're trolling about! Poor, poor display..

That really made me smile. Thank you for that, I really needed it! Alright now, goodbye

I said they can't be your sole argument but instead they're something you use to back a point that you've made from observations and that is exactly what that article by SeB does. Stats can be manipulated to support almost any opinion, but they can also be very insightful. Depends on how you use them.

Certainly deserved after his performances in the NextGen last season. Would be interesting now to see if the club will send Lewis out on loan this season or keep him with the U21s.

If Luiz played for another club, we'd have a 300 page thread about him in the Transfer Talk section with the half the posts begging Roman to pay his 40m release clause or something. The problem with selling Luiz, is that, already, he's our only CB who's good enough to be a starter for a team with Chelsea's aspirations. Now, we can do with Iva and Terry when fit partnering Luiz for this season, but we definitely need a to buy a top CB in the future. Selling Luiz would first be suicidal for our title hopes this season as there are no available replacements atm in the market, and it would also mean that we'd have to buy two top CBs within the next year.