CHOULO19

Have you seen Oscar play? And I don't mean youtube compilations, I mean actually watch him play full 90 mins?

Quick question: Why is everyone putting Oscar in the starting XI? I swear the thing we Chelsea fans do best is hype players. He is a 20 year old with POTENTIAL who is not, yet at least, good enough to start over the likes of Lampard and Meireles in the double pivot and certainly not better than Mata, Hazard and Rambo in the three behind the striker. If we are to buy him, which I am totally against consider his price, he will most likely spend most of his first couple of seasons here on the bench.

Wow, the club is doing an excellent job preparing for the FFP rules.

Meireles seems to have the power and technique but I have never seen him take a pen.

Only Hazard and Mata? What about De Bruyne? Kakuta? Yossi if he stays? Even Marin played behind the striker for all of last season with Bremen. Even in the pivot role we have all of Lamps, Mikel, Essien if he stays, Romeu, Raul, Josh and Rambo for only two places in the starting XI. What I'm saying is that we are paying 25m for a luxury signing when we have more pressing needs at RB and the wings.

Who said we have too much creativity?! If you are refering to what I posted, I said we have too many central attacking midfielders, we can't play them all, so why pay their fees and wages?

Who made the Torres joke?

It gets on my nerves how a player is judged to be creative just because some one said so. Tell me please, where does "creativity" play on the field? Central Midfield? Attacking Midfield? Wings? I think the main component for a team to have creativity is not the passers, we have a midfield of world class players who all can (bar Ramires maybe) pick a pass. The main factor for "creativity" is the forwards making smart runs; that is what we were lacking last year if you ask me. But that is not the debate here. The point is we already have several players who play in the same position that Oscar does, and because we were so poor last season we need to invest in the areas where we are lacking quality, namely RB and the wings; we can't afford luxury buys such as Oscar. Moreover, we have lost so much experience in the form of Drogba, Kalou, Malouda and Bosingwa, and have only bought young players with potential. I'd prefer we buy a player with experience to compensate for that instead of a 20 year old.

25m for another youngster is not exactly what I was hoping for especially that he plays in a position we are overstacked with. I feel the club is taking too much expensive risks in the market.

This is all his touches from his last game. I think that gives a better idea than the compilations who make Downing look like messi.

Looks like a done deal if SSN are reporting it. I'm not too sure about how and where he will fit in but I wish him the best of luck.

http://sulia.com/channel/chelsea-fc/f/52d9e844-3cfb-4c2a-8745-f3af7c3dec1f/?source=twitter Brilliant by Dan Levene.

And who in the world is Leslie Davies?

Torres? Who makes this list? It seems it is based on reputation more than actual performance this season.

There you go: http://www.aljazeerasport.net/news/football/2012/07/2012715175014993836.html Good luck with the Arabic

It's pre-season, I'd like to see more experimentation such as Bamford given a chance, Debruyne at CM...etc

Didn't Hutch used to play at LB for the reserves? I guess he'll play there.

The one at the euros was nothing like the one in the CL. It was obvious he was tired and a bit lazy. Neuer guessed the right, even the height, in the CL and even made a better Jump than Buffon but he still couldn't save it.

Might I suggest Cole for the penalties. His pen in the CL final was one of the best I've seen in terms of technique.

Excellent stuff. Brilliant idea Greg

Fabio Borini Exposes Flaws Within Chelsea Academy; http://www.chelseatrueblue.com/2012/07/fabio-borini-exposes-flaws-within-chelsea-academy.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+chelseatrueblue+%28Chelsea+FC+True+blue%29

Not always true, he did play in the attacking role for us at times. Remember the back end of the 07-08 season when he literally single-handedly got us level with united from a seven point deficit in a single month? A truly remarkable player.

Oops, my bad. Serves me right for judging an article by it's tittle Sorry.

His weakness seems to be his stamina and pace. Although he can do little about the latter, I have noticed that Mata was much better under AVB who used to always sub him in the last 20 mins or so of the game (to a lot of stick I might add). That might be the key to keeping Juan in form. Unfortunately I don't see him starting the season as he did last year because with the Euros and Olympics he literally has not had a break. On another point, Mata is one of the best players in the league, but let's not let his awesome skills stop us from seeing his weaknesses.

Actually latest "reports" are claiming that Inter are hijacking the deal.