Superblue

Just for now assuming that Sarri remains and we'll be sticking with playing 4-3-3, I would expect Barkley to be the one to take RLC's position and he's the most suited for that as he at least has an attacking instinct and the odd goal in him. To be honest I thought Barkley started the season well and has also looked good for England this season. He's very capable of producing in that position but he's very inconsistent and I just feel at times he's playing within himself so as not to make mistakes. He needs to see what progression RLC has made in the last couple of months and strive for the same. I would then expect Mason Mount to come back and be the other attacking midfield option. Zola spoke about them nearly keeping him last summer, so I would expect they'll be looking at him as a suitable option even more so now this coming summer. If RLC can recover say by Xmas, Mount could always be loaned out to a Prem team in the second half of next season for more game time. Or you never know he may have usurped Barkley and become first choice at Chelsea in that period?! RLC is a massive miss based on the last couple of months, but I'm not overly worried about Barkley and Mount. I'm more worried at the lack of depth in the other two midfield positions. Unless players like Bakayoko and Pasalic are going to come back, we will be so heavily and painfully reliant on Kante and Jorginho playing nigh on every game next season. Another potential option may be Van Ginkel but I've no idea where he is on his timescale and recovery, and whether he'll ever recover sufficiently given the number of surgeries he's had. It's probably not the most popular opinion but assuming the ban remains, I would seriously look into keeping hold of Kovacic. Maybe not to buy, I think he still needs to show more for us to commit to that, but surely we could extend his loan (if that is allowed) as a sweetener in the Hazard deal for another season. He can play either of Kante's and Jorginho's roles, just not the attacking midfielder like Sarri kept doing before RLC broke through. I can't see Sarri doing it but a change to 4-2-3-1 wouldn't be a bad idea otherwise. I've seen enough recently of Jorginho to suggest he's improving and adapting more to the league and could play that position alongside Kante who's best too in that position. Kovacic, if he stayed, is also more suited to playing in a deeper midfield two. And who else would that possibly bring back in but none other than Danny Drinkwater! Sarri himself said he's only suited to a midfield 2. I think if we could sell him we should do, but given how much we paid for him and his wages, I think we may struggle to shift him out so we might as well get some form of use from him. He's a fairly limited player but he's also a decent, reliable and experienced Premier League midfielder who should be capable of coming in and doing a job against some of the lesser teams or coming off the bench to help see a game out.

The ironic thing in all of this is instead of the game being talked about promoting anti-semitism, the biggest talking point coming out of the game is RLC's injury, so as a result the anti-semitism message from the game has gone largely ignored.

I think we've always done well with minor and niggling injuries, we seem to get few of those. Or maybe we've just had the right characters over the years that would play through them without complaint. But I think we've had our fair share of major injuries over the years just like everybody else - Cech, Robben, Ballack, etc. Not to mention Essien and Joe Cole pretty much lost their careers with the injuries they suffered with us. Even pre Roman, Di Matteo and Casiraghi were both forced to retire under our watch. In fact the injury to Casiraghi and a major injury to Poyet during the 1998/99 season I think was the difference between us winning the title and ending up third. We only lost 3 games in the league that season and finished only 4 points behind United - that United side that won the treble no less. So much for a team that didn't exist until 2004?!

I think this would depend on who the manager is. They've both proven themselves to Sarri now and I think he would be waiting for them with open arms next season. If it was Lampard or an English based manager, again I don't see an issue as both have enough hype around them on these shores and are both England internationals. If we brought somebody from abroad in though with limited knowledge of them both, there's every opportunity they start back at square one.

At least he's finally found a way to beat the first man...

I cannot see a situation where Morata comes back. He doesn't want to be in England and has completely failed to adapt. Mentally and emotionally he just cannot cope with playing here and if we tried getting him back, I'd be amazed if we could get 20% potential out of him, it's pointless. Ironically with Griezmann leaving, now is the perfect time to sell him permanently to Atletico as I would expect they'll be looking to buy him now. Hopefully recoup most of our original outlay on him and be rid.

The other flip side of looking at it would be do you want another season of Sarri? I know that you are one of those on the forum most vociferous in their criticism of him so would you rather take a chance on a largely unknown quantity but one that would be immensely popular and have the best interests of the club in their heart or another season to see what Sarri can do albeit without our best player? I'd agree usually about Lampard getting more experience and another year of Sarri wouldn't be an issue for me if everything around the club at present wasn't so toxic. The fans have largely made their decision on him and I just see it being a thankless task he'll have getting people back on board. As I mentioned on a previous post, the slightest slip up or bad result will just put it all back to square one. That sort of atmosphere at the club will also be hugely unhelpful for any younger players we're hoping to make an impact next season. So if Sarri were to go, then the question becomes who next? We're now being linked with the Watford manager. With all due respect, what has he done to suggest he's a Chelsea manager? He's been very much a journeyman his entire playing and managerial career to date. Nuno similarly may be doing well with Wolves but had really poor spells with Valencia and Porto where there was much more expectation on him. Eddie Howe flopped away from Bournemouth. Some managers there is just a 'fit' at certain clubs and they seemingly catch lightning in a bottle. We've been burnt a few times bringing managers in on a similar basis (AVB, potentially Sarri). Maybe Lampard would prove to be the same and Derby is the right fit of club for him but I just think if we were going to punt on a riskier choice, I'd far rather the one that already has a connection and understanding of the club. He'll understand the size and scale of the job here because he's already spent 13 years of his footballing career at the club.

With the exception of the Kepa deal this is a club which over the last couple of seasons at least has struggled getting deals sorted out quickly. The Kepa deal would have been far easier too as it was simply a case of paying his release clause or not having him. If we deferred the ban this summer to have it next summer, we do not want to be panic buying over a 2-3 week window for the next 2 years.

Not for certain, but I think his recovery is likely around August which means he'll likely miss pre season and be a good month away from full speed when he's back.

I've already stated on here a number of times that if the club decide to sack Sarri, then Lampard for me should be the replacement. In the current market, there are no stand out managers like in previous years. The Ajax manager was a virtual unknown before three months ago, and the likes of Allegri could have the same problems as Sarri adapting to the Premier League. Somebody like Simeone would worry me massively when his biggest asset is his motivating but he can't speak a word of English. What Lampard may lack in high level management, he has an abundance of experience at playing in the highest level of the Premier League and Champions League, in high pressure situations. I would have no doubts that he would add a winning mentality back to that dressing room. I think the fans and board would give him time and patience which hasn't been afforded to Sarri. I don't think Sarri's grasp of the language and overall demeanour in interviews helps him endear himself in all honesty, and my biggest worry with Sarri is we'll always be one bad result from the crowd turning on him all the time. But the key element for me is if we are going to push the youth through in this period of transition (and a transfer ban), I don't see anyone better equipped than Lampard to do this. A club legend that most of these players would have grown up through the academy watching play and train. And to top it off, if Jody Morris came back with him he'd have a right hand man who is the most experienced man around dealing with these very players, already knowing their strengths and weaknesses and how to utilise them, motivate them, etc. What Lampard showed last night tactically and getting a young bunch of lads (some of them not even owned by the club) to run themselves into the ground for him and Derby only re-affirmed my thoughts on the matter. Now whether Sarri should be given the boot is an entirely different question and one I must admit at present I'm very torn over.

Fingers crossed it's not true until there's official confirmation but lots of suggestions this in a ruptured achilles just like CHO. Assuming this is correct, as of currently we'll have no transfer window, lose our talisman and 3 of our best and most important players to start rebuilding this team around (rudiger, CHO, RLC) all have long term injuries and are unlikely to be fit for the start of the season. You couldn't make it up if you tried...

If we're not going to find out until the middle of the transfer window we might as well just swallow the ban and try to get by next season. Players are not going to wait for us with all the uncertainty and too many big teams will be active in the market this summer. Even if we got a couple of weeks at the end of the window, we're likely to then have to pay premium prices and some of our main targets may already be gone.

I'm all for charitable causes and the club should be generally applauded for such as opposed to constant money spinning ideas. But there's a time and place for everything and I just don't understand why this couldn't have been incorporated into pre season. I think the usual warm weather training, team bonding on tour experience can be good in pre season and everybody is fresh for the travelling. At the end of a long, hard slog of a season to travel to the other side of the world and play on second rate pitches when everyone will be physically and mentally tired and have one eye on the final, something like this was always bound to happen. Unfortunately for us in recent games, RLC has probably been our most important player and I would have backed him capable of dominating and overwhelming Arsenal in the middle. Now we're sweating on the fitness of our 2 best midfielders.

It's not the most ideal of situations, but a couple of things to be considered if we sold Hazard and the ban remained would be: (1) It gives a season in particular for CHO and Pulisic to play more regularly outside the shadow and reliance of Hazard to see if they are both capable of taking the club on in those positions. A season scoping what we already have may help us to avoid going and getting a panic buy in (for example something like Bale). If they both show promising signs of developing and growing then the decision may be made to go forward with these two as our first choice wingers and that money can be spent next summer on other areas of the squad that need it. (2) Whilst we would all like to think that Hazard has a good and loyal character about him, if we keep him seemingly against his will and he runs his contract down he could end up going anywhere. Who's to say that Real Madrid will want him in another year's time if they've gone and brought other players instead. Next summer we don't have a choice about his destination, heaven forbid he moved to another Premier League club. At least this summer we still have some negotiating power and control over where he would move.

If we were going to spend the Hazard money on one player to 'replace' him, I'd far rather it be on Griezmann than Coutinho. However, I'd still rather the club bat more intelligently and use funds and resources wisely to build a better team, not have one standout player to hang our hat on all the time.

Purely just a gut feeling at the moment, but I think he'll become a very good player and big asset for us on the pitch but I think it will take some time, and he'll possibly need next season to bed in and acclimatise. His pace is a big plus for us in my opinion as we sorely lack a willing runner with raw pace higher up the pitch at present.

No wins away to a top 10 team is very poor. Our record against the bottom half of the table is almost perfect though, which always seemed to be our achilles heel in previous years

I agree about the crossbar stat being meaningless but I think the argument is everyone's complaining is all 'what ifs' and you can spin 'what ifs' anyway to suit - What if United had won more games? What if Spurs had lost less games? What if Arsenal had beaten Brighton? None of them happened and that's why they all finished below us. Our football hasn't been great this season and a lot of improvement is necessary. But for how bad we have been, we've still been better than all but two of the teams. The league table doesn't lie over a 38 game period. Every team has good performances, bad performances, good luck, bad luck, injuries, etc throughout the season and manage through that. We're third on merit. If Spurs, Arsenal and United have been poor this season that's quite frankly nothing to do with Chelsea, and if anything says a lot about them and their own shortcomings when we all think we've been overall pretty poor this season and finished above them all.

I don't have a problem with Hazard leaving. As others have said, he's given some of his best years to the club and this isn't just something new that has cropped up, the shadow of Real Madrid has always loomed over him somewhat. What I do have a problem with is this idea of just let him leave respectfully and cave in to Real Madrid and their demands. He's still our player, he's still under contract and we can't replace him so Real Madrid will have to come to the table with something we're willing to accept not the other way round. If that drags the deal on, so be it. I don't care what service Hazard has given us, we can't be seen to roll over and get our belly ticked by Madrid. Did Madrid do the same thing when Robinho asked to leave and join Chelsea? No they didn't, they held firm and got a deal they wanted in the end for him so screw 'em. If anything we should be adding an extra £10-15m on the price as compensation for them selling us Morata!

Lineup says a lot about what Sarri thinks of Cahill and Drinkwater. I don't mind the lineup given the length of time before the Europa final but Luiz and RLC are the two that concern me. These two I would have rested with Hazard and wrapped them up in cotton wool.

I don't think he'll go with a complete alien team but definitely would be worth making some changes. The problem is the gap between today and the Europa final is pretty significant, so a bit of a balancing act is needed as you also don't want players to lose their match fitness and sharpness. Is Ampadu fit? With our thin options at centre back currently, I'd hope to see him and Cahill play in there today. Zappacosta on the right and Alonso on the left should both be relatively fresh. RLC should definitely be wrapped in cotton wool, and Jorginho should be rested too (although I've a feeling he won't be). Drinkwater and Barkley could play alongside another. I have a feeling that Hazard will play. I wouldn't risk him personally, or I certainly would limit his involvement significantly.

I would far rather that Hazard money be spent either on a world class striker or on improving the defence (left back and centre back). I really like Coutinho but I don't think he's worth 'that' amount of money and as some have mentioned there are cheaper options to replace Hazard. Someone told me the other day that Ziyech has a £25m release clause in his contract. Chelsea should be all over that if its true, I've been impressed every time I've seen him for Ajax in the Champions League this season. In the current market that is an absolute bargain and he would offer a much bigger goal threat than all of our current wide and creative players, Hazard not included.

Exactly. At present, Luiz is still along with Rudiger one of our best two central defenders. During pre-season or sometime next season Sarri may look at someone else within our squad and decide otherwise or a player hits their stride to become first choice in a similar way to RLC and CHO this season. But there is no guarantee of this, and whilst he is still first choice and trusted by the manager, it seems foolish to not retain his services.

I have to agree with this, I'm not sure if the pressures and demands at Real will suit him and gradually it'll wear him down over time. He won't experience the love and adulation in Madrid that he experiences here in my opinion. His laid back attitude and demeanour, and simple, quiet private life will also be put to the test over there. The grass isn't always greener, especially in football but that's his choice to make and if his heart is set on moving to Madrid then so be it.

Well deserved clean sweep of awards, he's been phenomenal and unplayable at times this season. I actually feel his goal against West Ham a few weeks back was better (more technically pleasing) than the Liverpool one however.