Superblue

Hopefully he will chip in with a few assists a season, certainly as the team progresses and develops. I do think though such stats will never be a measuring stick for his Chelsea career. He'll more than likely be the player more often to play the pass before the assist...just as important a job and one of a number of reasons why he's been brought here.

What Dortmund did to Bayern is the same? Dortmund for a couple of years got the better of you (not just a one off) and in response to this you took their best centre back, their playmaker on a release clause that at the time seemed fairly modest and their striker, the best in the league on a free. The players that Dortmund have had from yourselves are fringe players no longer wanted by Bayern. It's nothing like the same thing. Bayern always look to buy first from Germany. It's a sound strategy don't get me wrong because it not only strengthens you but weakens anybody that dare challenges in Germany. You can call it anything you want, but for me Bayern have always strong armed any rivals, are well above everything else consistently in the Bundesliga and it's a big reason why the league is so boring compared to England because its predictable at large.

Whilst they are an extremely well run club and I have a huge amount of respect for them, there is no doubt that Bayern are helped by the gulf in size and power between them and any other club in Germany. I know there is a lot of hatred for Bayern over in Germany as my granddad has lived over there for many years, yet teams seemingly bend over for them and let them cherry pick at will. Teams like Dortmund will always come at them now and again but it's hard to see another club ever sustaining a long term challenge on their stranglehold when they just hoover up the best players throughout Germany whilst also having the power to go for bigger players outside of the country too. I know the money in the English league plays a part, but even in years previous a premium has always needed to be paid to buy within our own league and the so called smaller clubs won't just get bullied by the bigger clubs (case in point we paid £17m for Duff and £21m for SWP, but only £12m for Robben). Always been a big gripe for me with the Bundesliga.

Higuain wouldn't be my first choice and he obviously isn't a long term option. However he has a far more reliable goalscoring record than Morata and Giroud combined and I want to be able to see how much better our team looks with a striker with predatory instincts - getting in behind the last man, anticipation, movement in the box, finishing, etc. We still create chances even when we have been struggling to score, and we also find a real lack of movement at the top end of the field when we get the ball into those positions. Higuain isn't the long term answer but he might be the short term solution in a January market that is always a nightmare to try and shop in.

If the referee's using VAR technology away from the ground don't have the high level of technology somebody like Sky does then what is the point? We watch Sky Sports week in, week out and they seem to be able to show within 10 seconds if somebody was offside, ball over the line, etc. Otherwise you are still basing the decision on the interpretation of a referee as opposed to a clear cut 'yes' or 'no'. How they aren't using a central camera in line with play is farcical. It's not rocket science for them to realise that although Kane's foot may be onside, his body is leaning forward so another body part may be offside. And even then in this situation if two camera angles suggest two different interpretations it's not clear cut so surely then they must revert back to their original decision which is trusting the linesman that it was offside as he flagged.

Agree 100% there is just as much questions to be asked of our board and their management between short and long term as their is Sarri. And for the record, how can anyone honestly argue that much against the board's decision making for the large part when you look at what we've won. We've always set up for win now not build to win later, and the results speak for themselves over the last 15 years. You're right with Rashford and I believe TAA may have had the same situation at Liverpool when Clyne got injured. It has as much to do with luck sometimes getting the opportunity and then it is up to the player to take said chances. Ironically CHO would likely have had this a couple of weeks ago when we were stretched in the attacking roles but he too was injured. Foden has barely had a look in at City and that is despite KDB being out most of the season and David Silva not playing every game. We're not the only team in this sort of position but our manager probably has the worst job security.

I don't think it's as clear cut on Sarri. He came in when we had already started pre season, so there was no early planning time, etc. On top of that a large contingent of our players have arrived late which includes Willian, Hazard and Giroud. So basically Sarri hasn't even worked with half of our first team squad until about a week before the season starts. He has to be given time in this situation. His first option is always going to be the senior players. When there are so many changes and an adjustment period for the manager he is going to lean on experience so it's no surprise that he's preferred Pedro and Willian. Neither have got going this season there's no question about that, but we are talking about a player that spent many years starting for one of the greatest teams ever playing a brand of football moulded similar to Sarri's ideals and one of Brazil's starting attackers. Moses had a couple of games early on, most likely for Sarri to be able to judge him and he's already been discarded. There wasn't much murmurs of discontent in the first 2-3 months of the season when we were playing some encouragingly positive football, scoring a healthy amount of goals despite striker problems already then and winning a lot of games. Has this CHO situation with Bayern forced Sarri's hand a little? Almost for sure. But I also believe CHO would have had a pretty decent amount of game time over Xmas but he was injured himself.

Played well. Far from the finished product which is why people shouldn't start losing their shit each game he doesn't start but the last couple of games he has played with a far greater maturity than previously. I'm just as happy to see a willingness for him to track back and press properly, and mix his game up between taking a player on and playing the safe ball back. Sarri is correct, his tactical understanding has improved a lot recently and he gives us an extra attacking option which currently can only be a positive. From what Sarri said after the game, I think it bodes well for him that he should get a good amount of game time between now and the end of the season and Sarri trusts to play him. Hopefully he decides to stay. I'll reiterate my stance this whole time, if I was the club I'd tell him to stay the rest of this season and take stock of the situation at the end of the season. If he even managed 10-12 games until the end of the season in all competitions (I believe there are more opportunities available than that) then he'll have played about 20 games this season which isn't bad for an 18 year old and it might help prove to him that the pathway is there for him to break into this side regularly.

If I was CHO I'd give it the rest of this season. I don't think he's properly in Bayern's plans until next season anyway whilst they still have Ribery and Robben. If things haven't changed Bayern and other clubs will come back in the summer. He'll have loads of top options.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. He probably looks at us and may spot an opportunity to break in next season given our current crop of strikers. But his best chance to do that is be guaranteed to play the rest of this season and hopefully keep up his scoring exploits.

Yes I've read a couple of reports that suggest Pulisic was their first choice for a new winger.

If we did decide to get both, I think one will be for the summer and will mean we wouldn't buy Kovacic permanently. At the moment though we have no one definitely incoming with Fabregas leaving and RLC crocked, so we are stretched and need somebody in there.

Fabregas and Morata need replacing properly, but not sure about the rest. 2017's terrible summer transfer window has left the squad bloated with some players that don't even really need replacing. Drinkwater hasn't played yet so wouldn't be missed. Moses has now been overtaken by CHO so wouldn't need replacing. Sarri has also said that Cahill doesn't need replacing as we have Christensen and Ampadu. Zappacosta probably should be replaced but to be honest I'd love Reece James to come back next season and play games as understudy to Azpi. He definitely has the potential to become first choice one day and 10-15 games next season as backup would be the next stage in his development. If the club did this though they'd either need to hang on to Zappa until the summer or make do. I guess if needed Rudiger or Ampadu could play at right back. Azpi is nailed on first choice and will be club captain when Cahill leaves so as long as he doesn't get injured he'll start most if not all games for the rest of this season.

Based on the profile of players we've brought in the summer and those we've brought/targeting this month, I would be amazed if the club made a 'quick-fix' purchase of a striker. The penny may have dropped and the club are looking to rebuild fresh with a young core.

Double Post.

We paid what was needed to get Pulisic, so I don't see there being issues with paying for Barella if we see him as a potential midfielder in our side for the next decade. The biggest issue I think will be if the lad wants to move abroad. Not many Italians play abroad, similar to the English and at his age he may feel that the next step is moving to play for one of the big Italian teams.

A lot of this seems to be coming out from Germany and their media, much in the same way as the Spanish media push the agenda all the time for Barca and Real Madrid, and the English as ever jump on the bandwagon. If he is adamant on leaving, then the club has to screw everything possible out of them. But the way CHO comes across, I think his preference would be to stay here so long as the opportunities in the first team are present. I still believe he can be convinced to stay but it may be us proving to him first before maybe a new contract is signed in the summer.

Summer 2017 was horrendous, there's no getting away from that. We tried to fill our squad out and it backfired massively. We also failed to replace Costa and Matic adequately. However the 2016 summer was very good looking back now. Kante was a phenomenal purchase, Luiz proved to be a very good signing and whilst Alonso has his critics he has proven overall to be a pretty decent buy. This summer and signing Pulisic this January looks like we're moving back to identifying 2 or 3 positions and properly buying for them rather than stretching our budget out over 5 or 6 players. Time will tell, but the club moved to do its best to replace Courtois in the summer and Kepa so far has been a very good buy. Until something happens with Hazard its difficult to speculate but I would bet on Chelsea going again as opposed to fading away. You're right some deals end up good and some end in disaster but that's with all clubs, especially big clubs where transfers are under the microscope. Liverpool are on a bit of a roll at present with their signings but they've had times in recent years buying a fair amount of dross too. Tottenham paid big money on Jansen and before that some of their players brought with the Bale money didn't succeed. No one hits a home run every time. You can't really compare Tottenham and Liverpool to us because a number of key parts of their teams were made by selling those players. If Tottenham didn't sell Bale, they probably wouldn't have brought the likes of Lloris and Eriksen. Liverpool may not have got Firmino if they had kept hold of Suarez and probably wouldn't have gone in so high for Van Dijk and Alisson if they hadn't sold Coutinho. Those teams have evolved as a direct result of selling some of those players. I know we try to operate a one in one out policy at the club but I don't think we necessarily need to sell a big player to fund other big signings.

I agree that losing Hazard would be a huge loss, he's the best player and our one attacking player of true world class talent. I think if he left, it would take time, possibly a season or so to recover from losing him. However a couple of things I would point out. The first is I think not just the club places an over-reliance on Hazard at present, but our players do too. Even when he's being marked out of a game or not playing well, he's the first person the rest of our team looks for to give the ball to. It's an easy option, give it to our best player. I do think at times players end up playing within themselves as a result. It's only a very small example considering how many games Hazard has performed for us this season, but in my opinion our best and most complete performance this season was away at Burnley when Hazard was unavailable. We dominated from start to finish, created chances, finished chances and looked fantastic. Most attacking players play better when they are needed and being relied upon and I feel at times the over-reliance on Hazard possibly hinders other players a little. The other point is the club will always move on from every player. How would we replace Drogba up front (especially as we had Torres at the time) - it may have taken some time but we got Costa, and I'm sure we'll replace Costa properly sooner rather than later too. Lampard was always the one for me, we were never going to replace his midfield goals in the same way as we'll probably not replace Hazard with someone as naturally talented. But we replaced Lampard with Fabregas who was a completely different player and kicked on again and have won major trophies since. We probably won't replace Hazard like for like but perhaps we'll find a player in that position that isn't as skillful and creative but is more of a direct, goalscoring threat? Who knows, but if Hazard does leave Chelsea will move on from him.

Yeah agree with you on Cavani over Higuain but everything I've read, we would just be taking over the loan for Higuain as opposed to buying him so the longer term risks of signing an older player for big money wouldn't exist and would give us an 'out' option. I don't think we'll buy anyone like that permanently unless it was some sort of cut price deal.

I would not have expected this at the start of the season, but if there's anyone that has potentially earned lee-way over that policy its Luiz. He has his erratic moments, but he has been overall solid this season and he offers two key things that would be difficult to replace (1) leadership and (2) genuine world class ball playing ability at centre back. At present, I really hope the club can come to a compromise with him. Perhaps a one year deal with a second year depending on games played next year. If he's still as important next season it'll trigger an automatic extra year. But going back to Cavani, if Chelsea are splashing out that sort of money they will be wanting a player at an age where they can realistically offer a 5 year deal.

I just cannot see this happening. It would take such a huge culture shift from the board who have been steadfast and strict in their policy with regards to over 30 year olds. Even the Giroud deal was only 18 months, there is no way we are amortising such a large fee over such a short amount of time.

It's ironic given his ties coming through the ranks at Arsenal and at times carrying a pretty average side towards the end of his time there, to then his hometown club and the dream move of Barcelona, that when he looks back at the end of his career he will probably see the most successful and enjoyable part of his career here at a club that he clearly didn't like when he was at Arsenal and Barcelona, and we in turn didn't like him. If a player gives their all for this club and shows respect, they are always welcomed back here and treated like royalty. The likes of Gullit, Vialli, Desailly, Ballack had far more success away from this club but Chelsea holds a special place in all of their hearts because of the way they were and are treated by us fans. Fabregas is no exception. He deserves every ounce of respect, appreciation and admiration from us all and good luck to him.

And Azpi the last man on the pitch with him saluting the crowd. Says a lot about him too.

I agree. He almost looked in a trance. I could just imagine it being some sort of film where he's been pushed to the brink of a breakdown, subbed off, walks straight down the tunnel to go shoot himself in the head. I seriously think there's some sort of mental health issue with him. He just comes across so mentally brittle and over-sensitive, more so than I've ever seen in a footballer before.