OneMoSalah

Would only be a good move if he played. All for using that connection but if he won't play every week? Personally I'd hope Ajax would follow up their reported interest but after the signing of Tadic and also talk of Blind, apparently they are going to not be looking at many other players.

I think Sarri will breath a new lease of life into him. There is plenty left that Cesc can offer in a more offensive team. Also with Jorginho coming and Kante, a 3 man MF with Cesc being given a chance to play further up could be an excellent option. Yes it would be lightweight but when we are chasing games or against smaller teams? Absolutely, why not?

In all actual honesty I dont think Sarri is in any way a better coach than Conte. He will bring a different way of playing maybe but the first season under Conte we actually played some class football, for instance the United game and Everton games will always stick in my mind. Also beating City at the Etihad was brilliant. I think its fair to say the last season was shite but if he stayed this season, with guys like Jorginho, Rugani, Higuain etc coming in if the rumours are true he could have had a right good go again but its not to be. The first manager to give guys like Christensen and even Chalobah in the first season, a lot more chances too.. I bet nobody expected that when he came in, although Chalobah leaving and being replaced by Drinkwater really was stupid. Regardless I think with Moses and Alonso as wing backs and David Luiz and Gary Cahill as CBs, he did a good job to get that PL title in the first season considering everyone thought City would walk it. Also you can talk up Hazard, Costa, Kante, Matic etc but lets not forget how bang average and out of shape the team was the previous season, the system was awful, nothing worked, he found quick solutions and they paid off well.

Would be a good choice, plenty to work with, all three are different types of players. Not 100% sold on Higuain but what I've always liked about him is hes guaranteed goals and a hard worker, always was at Real, Napoli and still is at Juventus, despite constantly criticisms regarding his weight, playing style etc. If anybody has to go out of our strikers its got to be Batshuayi, hes not cut out for a top team, even at the world cup it took him about 7 chances to score against Panama... plus I've seen enough of him in a Chelsea shirt, never impressed.

Honestly think as a defender, he has all the tools to make it to the top. Athletic, great in the air, a bit of fine tuning with positioning and he'd be excellent. Technically he isn't amazing but as a defender pound for pound I think he could definitely be brilliant. Honestly don't think Rugani is much better than him or Christensen, although he is a lot better on the ball for instance than Zouma. Just look at Koulibaly before Sarri and after Sarri, no reason why Zouma couldn't improve, in terms of positioning KK learned a lot under Sarri, hes credited him with that in interviews.

Probably not which is a shame because he has all the tools to be a top CB still. Technically he improved at Stoke as well but I suppose they were a train wreck defensively.

Good player and maybe a Sarri choice but again why when we have got Zouma, Christensen, Luiz, Cahill, Rudiger and also Azpi who could comfortably play there? If we play with a back 4, we will need 4 CBs at least I realize but we have 6 now if this guy is here. Cahill is club captain and I doubt Sarri comes in and sells him on straight away. Especially considering he is a better player in a back 4 than a back 3, which makes me think Luiz and Zouma are goners.

Fall from grace, hes lived out his best moments of his career... if this was Oscar or Carrasco maybe fall from grace would be appropriate but its not.

Not getting my hopes up. Really good player. 65-70M is perhaps a bit steep but I'm looking at the fact Kante cost 32m and again its only rumours. Lets see though. Serri is off to Fulham so we need to get somebody.

Fulham bound...

Lets be honest, as idiotic as some of the board are this would never happen. The club is notoriously difficult to negotiate with, 1 year or not left on their deals we'd get a good fee. The club has shown one thing in the past and that is the ability to wrangle money from other clubs. We will never do what Arsenal do. I mean we convinced PSG to sign a squad player for 50m about 4 years ago. Its just the other thing we struggle with, recruiting quality players at premium prices.

Why are we being linked with so many CBs? We have like 10...

I think regardless of whoever is the manager, we must sign somebody like Jorginho. If its Conte, sign him, if its to be Sarri, sign him. Just get it done.

There has been a lot of time for him and the players to reflect on whats gone wrong. I doubt he'd say he was committed last season at the end if he wasn't, he had to be convinced not to walk away last summer due to huge disagreements regarding funding and transfers apparently so the fact hes not decided to walk this summer says something, either he knows hes not first choice and is entitled to a large pay off or he wants to sort out the mess from last season, which I would think would be more likely as its not only affected the club and players reputation but also his own. If he does stay, I have no doubt that he will have to change how he approaches things, last season was a nightmare in the summer regarding recruitment then through in the the whole Costa situation, Matic and Terrys departures and constant speculation regarding Conte and the board falling out repeatedly. If he stays, which is looking more and more likely each week, the club 100% have to back him and go for better and more developed players and certain players have to raise their levels from last season again, especially the guys who played halfheartedly after January because there is no guarantee that Sarri coming in actually changes anything regarding some of last seasons inconsistencies from the players. The commitment hasn't just got to be to the coach but to the club and the likes of Hazard and Courtois need to show good intentions and resign or to be blunt, fuck off somewhere else. Even Courtois said himself speculation regarding his future possibly affected his performances. Well eliminate that speculation by signing or leaving...

Dont say that....

Really? Dont be stupid. Unless Alonso or Emerson leave we will not sign a LB. Would be pointless to sign a third LB in the space of 2 years. Considering if we change manager as well you think hes going to prioritise a LB when we already have 2 he hasn't actually seen in the flesh yet to spend 60m on Alex Sandro? A summer after the club refused to go over that? You must be dreaming. Hazard being able to link up with a LB for the first time in his career bla bla bla not this shite again. Alonso and Moses playing as wing backs free'd the likes of Hazard and Willian/Pedro up so often in the last 2 years, purely by staying so far wide and occupying those wider spaces. Why do you think the year we won the title Hazard played unbelievably? He was so much more freer than he had ever been under any Chelsea manager in the past. He had next to no defensive responsibilities. Played as a wide 10 in half spaces. Where as in stark contrast, he played as a second striker a lot last season and was so much more isolated and at times, after a promising start, struggled because he didn't have as much space as he did in the front 3 more or less as an attacking midfielder. The wing backs still created width but it was only Hazard and Morata/Giroud. When Willian/Pedro played with him and Morata/Giroud you seen we looked much better because there was more offensive players for the opposite defences to be worried about. The 343 system firstly sorted our defence out when it was first introduced and free'd up our attacking players, while being able to retain some width. I still think Hazard is better coming from the left, the centre of the pitch is always so congested and I reckon if Sarri does come he will get that width from the full back regardless of if it is Alonso/Emerson to create those little pockets for Hazard/Willian etc.

Must admit, really liked the look of him. Great set piece deliveries as well. Room for improvement still but he looks pretty damn talented.

If he plays like he did last night I'd rather keep him and give him a big pay rise than spend 70m on Alisson. Never ever looked convincing for Brazil at the tournament. Hes a good keeper but 70m? Fuck off not a chance. Think last night was just a little reminder for everybody how good Courtois can be in big games when he needs to be. Sure people will bring up the Barcelona game etc but hes a world class keeper without a shadow of a doubt and if it were up to me I'd be pushing the boat out to convince him to stay rather than pursue Alisson or Butland or whatever average player we will be linked with next. There are not many upgrades on Courtois out there. People talk about distribution, I'm more convinced of a goalkeeper by their actual ability to save shots first and foremost and Courtois is excellent at that, as well as collecting crosses and commanding his box. Hes also a proven winner, having 9 trophies at 26 years old. Sure hes a massive pain in the arse cause he speaks a lot but so does Hazard and so do many other players, not just here but all over Europe. People keep bringing up Cech and how we let him go but we can't let sentiment cloud what turned out to be an excellent move, Cech was declining and still is. Courtois was arguably one of the best keepers in the world while at Atletico and still is now. Sure Cech was a leader too and a huge cog in the recent history of Chelsea but so was Lampard, Terry, Drogba, Cole, Essien, Makalele etc and they all had to go at some point too. If it were up to me I'd be focusing on trying to get him to renew along with Hazard when they come back from the world cup, rather than looking for lesser replacements at huge costs. Quality not quantity is going to improve our squad and keeping arguably one of the best GKs in the world should be high up the list.

Lets be honest, Antonio Conte or not, 9 million pounds is a lot of money to receive and lets not kid ourselves football is a business and as a manager if you can get 9 million pounds to not do your job for a year because you weren't wanted? Its hardly pathetic. If he doesn't want to leave then the club have to pay him that. That is a given and that is why contracts are contracts, he resigned the same contract last year for more money, it was a clever move, the club wanted to give him more money and he probably understood that with the history of the club in terms of managers he had to protect himself as much as anything else. Really its on the club more than anything for deciding to give him a pay rise. How often do you see a coach actually leave at their own accord? And the whole pay off thing coaches do it the whole time. Every time we've sacked a coach over the last god knows how long how many have gone straight into work? Not many because they sit for a period of time, do fuck all and take wages. Its hardly anything new. Its just the club haven't had the balls to sack him, which is the most pathetic thing about this whole situation. I don't see how anybody can question Conte regarding this because he said he was dedicated to the club at the end of last season, last season was poor and its not only hurt the clubs reputation but also his, so why would he just quit? Regardless if he stays or goes, he wins because he either stays and has a top job (in terms of the clubs stature) still, with similar conditions to his first season (lower expectations, no CL, more time to train the players, more rest time etc) or he leaves and gets his pay for nothing and probably takes the full year to do whatever he wants to do. Another thing is how disorganised pre-season will be, if the club really do want Sarri (everyone keeps saying oh it will be announced on Monday, then the next and the next and the next etc), then they have to move fast because it starts on Monday and for him to come after its started and change things (no way him and Conte's methods are going to be identical, everyone has their own ways of doing things)? Its going to put a lot of pressure on him and the players to hit the ground running too with having not had a full pre-season, the same with recruitment, a full pre-season helps players integrate better.

This is becoming infuriating. If the club want Sarri, Jorginho, whoever else. Fucking pay the money to sack Conte and get him in. Sign the players. This is embarrassing. Absolutely terrible. A ball hasn't been kicked and we are already potentially a laughing stock purely on a managerial pursuit that may not even happen yet and will end up with a coach who either is not wanted here or doesn't want to be here 100%. If that was Liverpool or United or City, we'd find it hilarious. If Conte stayed and he was as motivated as the first year I'd be happy enough, but if he stays and doesn't or the players he has annoyed don't respond again, we are fucked.

Don't think we should go for Serri at all, don't think hes anything special, average at best. Kovacic on the other hand? Get him in. Its such a shame hes used so sparingly at Madrid because he could be an excellent player with the continuity of playing every week, fair enough he could still improve but he'd be an excellent signing.

To be honest who cares what he said about Jordan Pickford. Shouldn't have any bearing regarding him and leaving or staying at the club because he made a criticism of a keeper who yeah should probably have done better for that goal...

Think hes a better keeper than Pickford and should be Englands no 1 in all fairness but again 30m... Berdnt Leno went to Arsenal for like 20M and hes better than both.. Stoke got relegated too so they dont really have any bargaining power in all fairness to demand an excessive fee if he gets another chance of going to the PL.

Yeah definitely agree regarding RLC. Dont think Hazard will ever play as a 10 here under Sarri or any other manager. He played as a second striker which is similar last season and in after a few good games really didn't look like that positional chance gave him more freedom or more influence on the game. Even for Belgium at the world cup hes looked a bit indifferent at times. Think hes better coming from wider and expect him to be returned to LW under Sarri if he comes.

Honestly for me he was worse than bang average for Palace. He had maybe 4 decent games over the course of the season. Fuck knows how he made the England world cup squad. 2 goals 3 assists as a wide player/attacking midfielder.....