OneMoSalah

Do you think Pjanic will sit on the bench here? Unless Cesc is reinvented in to a number 6 (which I doubt) and plays at the base in a 3 man midfield (which trying to sign Nainggolan hints at either a 3 man MF in a 3-5-2 or 4-3-3) then Pjanic would sit on the bench because Cesc is a better player. Regardless who we sign in midfield we need to play without a number 10 and with 3 in there because we managed to get dominated in that area of the pitch a lot this season.

What's the odds van Ginkel's agent is also this guys agent. Anyway he's a talented player and if we could sign him and loan him back to Ajax for another year or two that would be great.

Seems a bit excessive to try and sign him when we have Cesc to be honest. Not sure if we are actually keen but seen the link on sky ages ago but yeah more pressing needs at the moment, particularly a box to box CM, a CB and a LB

Think he just needs someone to put their arm round him. Yeah maybe his attitude stinks this season but if I remember rightly Conte took a certain someone to Juventus, who's attitude was poor at Man City and made him play perhaps the best football of his career... Different situation perhaps but still you never know, it's not like James is a poor player Regardless it must be difficult to be a creative player at Madrid because every year or two they sign a new wide player or 10, there is a lack of continuity for guys like Isco, James, Vazquez and next year they will have Asensio or whatever his face is back from loan and whoever Zidane/their new manager wants.

I said before he was average and extremely overrated and I've not changed my mind this year. He's shown that he has a whole lot to learn, he's not even at the standard for a top 6 team defensively in my eyes, sure he can play out from the back but for me the key to being a top CB is being able to defend first and foremost, all these ball playing CBs like Pique, Bonucci, Ramos, Laporte, Alderweireld, Vertonghen and whoever else are excellent/very good defenders, having a ball playing center half who struggles positionally is suicide regardless of how much possession your team will have because as you see with teams like Leicester, Atletico Madrid etc it can take one chance to score a goal. It's a vague saying sure because sometimes teams score incredible goals out of nothing but I'd rather have someone defensively sound, can position themselves well ahead of someone who can step into midfield to play. I know the chances of us signing Chris Smalling from Man United is impossible but he is the only English CB we should look to sign right now, we already have the other two English CBs who are at that sort of level in Terry and Cahill. Even then we have an incredibly talented CB learning the ropes in Germany, who is good with the ball and will not cost a huge inflated price and is probably just as good if not better than John Stones.

He is the right mould of player to sign, an upgrade on Rami but similar, aggresive, with a bit of bite and lot of energy. We clearly lack legs in midfield, Fabregas and Matic cover the ground but aren't particularly mobile and get caught out. Nainggolan would give us that aggression, mobility and also another astute technical option in midfield, he's not exactly as good as Cesc is in terms of vision and final ball but he's not as limited as Ramires was so it's a good move. I'd be excited to see us play a 4-3-3 with Matic Cesc and Nainggolan but the only issue for me is Matic playing as the pivot player as his positioning is dodgy at times, although there is talk of Cesc being used as the deepest midfielder like Pirlo was at Juve. Who knows though?

Decent player with a solid all round game but doesn't particularly excel at one thing. Perhaps it's a good trait to have, he's shown he is capable of being able to score goals regularly this year (and his first seasons with Klopp), provide assists, show that he is technically sound (but not outstanding) and also has a decent work ethic while being is in his prime years. Wouldn't be disappointed if we signed him and I'd hope he would compete to play wide as opposed to as a number 10 because firstly, I feel we need to play 4-3-3 next year if we get a good box to box midfielder and secondly, if we play with a 10 I would prefer we looked for someone in the mould of Isco or James, a really consistent creative player (like Mata was in the 10 role for us), who is able to special things which some players can't.

So how does that have anything to do with why we needed to sack Emenalo in favor of a stubborn, self centered manager who lost the dressing room and had tried to blame the players after the Leicester game for 'betraying his instructions' when his relationship with a lot of players had deteriorated? People seem to think Jose is more important than Chelsea FC itself, when in fact its not and you just need to look at how happier everyone is now he isn't in charge.

Mourinho still had to say yes to the players though. Emenalo can pick out players, have them scouted and the suggest to buy them but if Mourinho says yes then he has the final say. If Mourinho didn't want Hector, Papy or Pedro he just had to say no, the manager has final say.. they work with the technical director. Emenalo is the same guy who was influential in the scouting and recruitment of Courtois, Lukaku, Mata, Hazard, Willian, Fabregas, Costa and who ever else but he wasn't the guy saying yes at the final process, the managers were. Not every signing succeeds but if a manager doesn't truly want a player they shouldn't say yes when the technical director suggests them. The club has been well run in terms of finances the last 3 or 4 years to stick in with FFP too, so not everything is as bad as you make out. The summer window was poor yes but still Jose got Falcao (who was apparently the player he wanted the most all summer), Pedro, Begovic, Kenedy, Baba Rahmann (recommended to him and the club by Avram Grant) and whoever else. And you can stop spinning the shit about if your sacked you can go into other companies and clubs, if he loves Chelsea he wouldn't go to manage United or City or whoever regardless. Jose said that the love affair with the club for Lampard ended as soon as he signed for City on loan or whatever and so by his standards it would be exactly the same for Jose. Ashley Cole played at Arsenal then moved here and said he'd never play for another English club out of respect to Chelsea, Gerrard the same for Liverpool and Terry will be the same when he goes in the summer. Jose cannot use such an excuse, Cech can't and Lampard couldn't either. Also how can you question Roman's feelings for the club? People were skeptical in case he got up and left after 2005-06 season taking money out of the club but he didn't and he has been here now for over 10 years. He has never took vast sums of money out of the club either but has heavily invested. Modern day Chelsea would never be what it is now if he hadn't came by. All your great modern day managers and players, your Mourinho's, Ancelotti's, Drogba's, Ballack's, Ashley Cole's etc would never have ended up coming here and the club wouldn't have grown to what it has done in terms of being recognized as a brand globally.

Lukaku is better than Remy, I think its fair to say that, do you not agree? Also Lukaku's all round game is better than his.

Ighalo? Really? Suppose we might as well buy Vardy and Troy Deeney too then. Ighalo is decent but hes not good enough to lead the line for Chelsea. At least those 3 could rival Torres and Ba for worse strike force of the last 10 years.

Well it will cost somebody at least 40M for him considering they paid 28 or more. He would of got plenty of game time here but he didn't want to earn his place in the team but rather have it given to him it seems.

There is still a reason he went to Everton and not another team I feel. He will never get to the CL with Everton so it really was a stupid move in the long term but probably the easiest team for him to break in to and make a name for himself at out of the other teams he was linked to like Atletico and Wolfsburg.

To be perfectly honest, you can't sack a technical director when its the manager who lost/upset the majority of the dressing room (which seems to be a recurring thing with him hence why hes never lasted more than 3 years at any club and likely won't). Also how can anybody question Roman's feeling for the club either? People seem to forget we hadn't won a league title since 1955 before 2005. Sure we'd won European trophies and won FA cups, Charity Shields etc but the club is in the place it is right now as a global brand solely because of one mans ambition and that man is Roman Abramovich. Since he took over we have been the most successful English team in terms of winning trophies despite all the sackings and bumps along the way. Sure things have gone tits up to for people to question a man who's commitment has been shown in an investment of £1 billion or more is ridiculous. Just wait and see as well if Mourinho becomes Manchester United manager, it will show how much he "loves" Chelsea wont it?

Pity it took Mourinho about 3 years to notice.

I agree. Think he is the sort of guy who needs to consistently play to get into a rhythm, injuries have only disrupted his role in the team and its clear to see. Hopefully he can get back to how he was playing a few weeks ago.

I really hope he doesn't want to leave. He has only been here for 2 seasons but hes already idolized by the fans and it would be a huge miss because when hes on his game there aren't many better strikes in England let alone Europe bar the obvious ones. Like people have mentioned in previous comments he is one of our most important players and personally I feel he offers things that Remy, Pato, Falcao and Traore don't. If he goes who do we honestly replace him with? Higuain? Cavani? There aren't that many top strikers these days unfortunately so if he goes it could take us back to the days of seeing guys like Torres and Demba Ba starting...

Technically he isn't that poor. Everyone has moments when they lose the ball, look at Pedro who gave it away about 3000 times but he played in arguably the most technical side there has ever been in Barcelona and also Spain. I think his dribbling is quite loose at times but there was a moment yesterday where he picked it up around the center circle and kept it very well under pressure from Gareth Barry and also had a few moments where he shapes to shoot, just drops his shoulder and shifts it, also like his goal v PSG, I don't think his decisions are always good but his technique is certainly at an adequate standard which is clear to see. I honestly think our system has never been more reliant on a striker since Rafa basically built the team around Torres. I think this is why Remy and Falcao haven't played regularly when fit mainly because they are more one dimensional than Costa is. Remy is good at running in behind defenses in to space but is particularly poor at dropping off the front and holding it up where as Falcao is particularly poor at playing off the front and linking with others. Costa can mix it up and can do a bit of it all. Hes certainly not perfect but you see a huge improvement when Costa plays upfront than say Traore, Remy or Falcao.

Courtois is one of the top keepers in the world at 23 years old (I think?), stop with this hes regressed talk, its such bullshit. He cannot save everything every game every week and the whole squad this year has been incredibly poor for half of the season. He probably is. He is probably just as good as Neuer actually, I think Neuer's slightly over glorified because hes somehow been reinvented into some sort of sweeper keeper/footballing god looking at what people say about him. The same with De Gea, he has one really outstanding season for United and hes automatically the best keeper in the world? Bullshit. Courtois had 3 outstanding years at Atletico which was made even more impressive considering he had just come straight out the Belgian league with Genk where he was also very key to their title win at 18 years old. Also last year for us he was important, a lot of people were slightly concerned because of Cech being on the bench but Courtois was rightfully in the team and didn't disappoint with his performances (especially for dealing with crosses which I feel he is better at dealing at than Cech). Every team in Europe would take Courtois in a heart beat but yet here we are saying hes regressed and should play Begovic more etc and not as good as everyone once said... crazy times. I bet if we went to sell him a Real Madrid or Barcelona would be the first clubs to be interested.

Think that's unfair. Given he has out performed Matic for much of the season what do you want Guus to do? Play an under performing CDM/CM or Mikel who's playing better? Hes been a big part of how we've turned it around because he gives Cesc a bit more freedom to play at times and that is very underrated by many on here. ....waiitng for someone to say play RLC instead of a DM next to Fabregas..

I don't see how people are questioning/judging the performances of Courtois, Azpi, Ivanovic, Cesc, Pedro and Willian ? I thought the first half we played very well but we tired as a collective due to our pressing and were undone by two defensive mistakes in wide areas. I'd rather we go out like this than the absolute bloodbath it would of been under Mourinho playing so negatively at home like the year before.

Was actually impressed with him at LB tonight but for the first goal he gets sucked in to the middle of the pitch far too much which makes it virtually impossible for him to get back out to try and block Ibrahimovic's cross, these sort of things are what I'm worried about seeing him at LB, just takes one mistake to give away a chance to someone to create a big chance. Azpi does the same for the second goal, a bit too central and is caught ball watching, cannot do that against teams with players like Ibrahimovic and Di Maria.

Its not because of that Chelsea game as well, even in smaller games in the French league he has missed some really really easy chances. He is still a good player but I'm questioning his mentality at times because he seems to have a tendency to miss easy chances in bigger games.

Does he have the bottle for big games? He seems to fluff his lines in certain big games a lot.

End of the day if he came back here he would be second choice. Sure he has improved his link and aerial play as well as having a decent goal record for a 22 year old but he sure wasn't happy as a number two option for Chelsea 2 years ago so why would he be now? Even now Bertrand Traore is breaking through and he has looked extremely promising in limited appearances. 56M pounds on Lukaku or a player we already have who has impressive technical attributes and has made an impact in limited appearances who can play two or three positions? These were similar questions when we went to sign Costa regarding the whole Traore bit up there but selling Lukaku for 28M and signing Costa for 4M more has been completely justified.