Superblue

Just how good is Alisson? I haven't watched enough of him. I wouldn't say I was greatly impressed during the World Cup but if anybody knew otherwise De Gea looked like a pub player for Spain. Only one good season at Roma worries me a little bit. The signing of Bakayoko was based on a breakout season and to not see 2 or 3 seasons of consistent performances at a top level has to be a little risky. Separate topic also but I see that Roma brought him from Brazil for 7.5m euros two years ago. It's always been an annoyance to see Chelsea buying a number of South American talents once they've moved to Europe. The likes of Benfica and Porto have made a killing off the back of buying players from Brazil and selling them on, and it seems a few other clubs have taken this approach too. I understand the work permit issues, etc but surely in a time when Chelsea are looking to get better value in their transfer approach they could take a punt at times for much lower fees and loan these out to the likes of Porto and Benfica ourselves, making a much greater saving when they're ready a couple of seasons after.

The only player that would appease me Chelsea replacing Hazard with is Mbappe. I know that they're far from like for like replacements, but in Mbappe I see someone who is destined to become one of the very best in the world and be that talisman that Hazard already is to us. My first choice would be to keep Hazard however.

That statement shows just how broken the relationship was. It seems a struggle just to acknowledge and praise him. I'll stand by my feelings on this all along. His first season I'll always remember with great fondness but he had to go for the good of the club. There was no way things could be repaired.

Pretty sure when Jose came back he made a back handed comment about Benitez not playing him. Lampard did the same with AVB, etc. I'm not condoning anything like this and saying it's right (a bit of dignity and respect is always the best way in my opinion) but its clear that there have been problems at the club last season and I doubt Conte has clean hands over it.

It is class from JT but he's been guilty of similar in the past, pretty sure he slagged off Benitez about not playing him. Whilst I don't agree with childish social media things, etc none of us know what Conte is like behind the scenes. However based on how he was in the media last season we can guess he was miserable and difficult to work with. This second season obviously there has been a number of falling out and JT wouldn't have been there to experience that.

Yes, it's all and well people moaning about "player power" and in an ideal world they wouldn't step out of line with managers but we're not the only club that's players fall out with managers, do stupid things on social media/in interviews, etc. It wasn't just the Brazilian and Spanish players who seemed to not get on with him. Rudiger got dropped for a nothing comment he made, Cahill refused to back him in a couple of interviews late in the season, the Belgium contingent clearly weren't on his side either. If Conte didn't want to be at the club which he gave the impression in the media all season, he would likely have been miserable and difficult to get on with the entirety of last season. In this circumstance I think a bit of caution is needed with moaning at the players because Conte clearly fell out and/or alienated a number of them, some of our best players too. These social media things are a bit childish and a bit more class and dignity is probably needed but a fresh start was what was needed and that is what will happen now. We move on...

From what I've read this sounds like the key cog in Sarri's system so to go and get the real thing is a big positive. You also can't help but feel that Chelsea are buying 'all-in' on Sarri. It's been a while since we competed against one of the big boys for such a big priced transfer target. Also, the amount of time they invested on getting Sarri in when it didn't look like happening and if our transfer targets are rumoured to be correct, then they all seem to be hand picked by Sarri. I am hoping that this would also suggest that Chelsea are prepared to give Sarri some time and patience to get his ideas and philosophy across to the players. The last thing we want is a rocky month or so early on and the knives are sharpening to get rid of him!

Yep, I'll appreciate and always look back with great fondness on our title win 2 years ago because it was so unexpected and a huge deal of credit goes to Conte for the tactics and mentality he instilled in that side. This last season though has been a train wreck and it's clear he doesn't want to be here anymore or work with our board. I thank him for what he's done, but cannot help but feel glad that he's on his way too. The whole club needs a fresh start.

That man we all love Alfredo Pedulla has as good as said Sarri and Jorginho is a done deal. Lots of reports in Italy tonight now that this is happening. It's bloody annoying but can't help and get that excitement about it! Let's hope this gets finalised and more importantly it was all worth the wait and hassle!

We've got Batshuayi too. With a long, painful Europa League campaign on the horizon next season (and with the strength of the top 6 in the league I think it's a competition we should take seriously due to Champions League qualification from it) I feel we definitely need 3 strikers. It seems pointless Giroud will leave when we've just brought him, so it would come down to Bats or Morata. I'm still intrigued in what Batshuayi could become because he seems to be a goalscorer and just gets in the right positions to score goals. You would have to believe a Sarri style would actually suit him being on the end of things. However I do also feel that if Morata's head is right and he's motivated to kick on next season he could still play an important role because he is an intelligent footballer and can link play, etc. He just needs to be ruthless and clinical in front of goal but similar to Bats, a more attacking and creative style of play may suit him. If we need to raise money for buying Higuain then Morata or Bats would be sold. I would however prefer to loan one of them out and bring them back in a year's time to replace Giroud.

To be honest if I was Chelsea and it's legally possible to do so (not sure compared to in Italy), if we have to pay him his last year in full anyway, I would keep hold of Conte as still 'employed'. There is always the chance midway through the season a team wants him and would pay a couple of million to release him from us.

To be honest when there was a big flurry of rumours on Monday that it was happening, everyone seemed to suggest Wednesday would be the day it would all happen so we can only wait and see. There were a few rumours doing the rounds that ADL was holding it up to stop Juventus buying Ronaldo as they were relying on funds from us to buy Rugani and possibly Higuain but that won't matter now. I think like all of us, we'd just like to see some clarity now from the club going into the new season.

I'm saying this with the genuine belief that Chelsea is comfortably within the biggest 10 clubs in world football, but Hazard must make the decision of being the biggest fish in the smaller pond, or just another fish in the bigger pond. His mentality of wanting to enjoy his football and keep his private life quiet is much more suited at Chelsea, living in London and being loved by our fans. The pressure cooker and expectation levels at Madrid I personally don't think would suit him and would not be the enjoyable experience that it sounds.

I think madrid would be better served investing heavily into a world class striker. Ronaldo had moved into that position this season and benzema has needed replacing for a couple of years. They already have bale, isco, asensio, vasquez who will offer the creativity and chip in with goals. They also need to consider the need to replace modric eventually too. That's why i still feel hazard would be low priority for them.

I must admit after watching Bakayoko and his horror shows last season, I feel I'm (perhaps unfairly) sceptical of anybody coming directly from France.

I have to begrudgingly agree. The lifespan nowadays of a manager means that a club's strategy has to extend well beyond the current manager and as a result players, and especially the best players at the club play a big part in that.

Agreed, just because Kante isn't in the mould of a playmaker does not make him uncomfortable on the ball. If anything over the last 2 seasons at Chelsea I feel he's continuously improved this aspect of his game and is well above competent. Having players around him even better on the ball to complement his biggest strengths will only improve matters even more.

It's actually the perfect time, annoying as it may seem. They'll know people are checking regularly for information regarding Sarri/Conte so any sort of announcement like this provides maximum exposure.

I wouldn't exactly go with humorous but this whole episode, if Sarri does join, will put so much needless and unnecessary pressure on him because it's now got to the point where he's being built as the messiah. To be honest if he can keep us challenging within the top 4 for the next couple of seasons, win a cup alongside it perhaps, whilst introducing an exciting, attacking brand of football, I would be pleased with this as it would give us a new strong base to work from moving forward based on vibrant, attacking football as opposed to a steely, organised, conservative approach. On the flip side it does bode well that if we do go through all this to finally secure him, it'll show how much the club wanted him and hopefully as a result will give him the time and patience he may need to get his ideas across to the players.

Whilst our transfers were not great last summer, Conte cannot be absolved of the blame when we fall from 1st to 5th and he seems to be expending more energy moaning and bitching in press conferences than on the touchline pushing the team on.

It'll be interesting to see what happens tomorrow now. I guess the club could tell Conte to hold off tomorrow and get some of the club coaches to take training, the first couple of days at least will likely mainly revolve around building fitness up anyway. Also I assume after the club did some social media welcoming the players back on Saturday, they wouldn't necessarily need to release any pictures or clips of training tomorrow if they didn't want to. Ultimately though if anything shows Conte taking training tomorrow I cannot see a way to back out of this. It would be a huge PR blunder to 'lead Conte on' all summer that he would still be here only to sack him a few days into pre-season. It looks silly and disrespectful. Having said that waiting to sack him until the eve of pre-season isn't much better!

There are some reports coming out of Italy today that Napoli want 20m Euros for Sarri. If that was true I couldn't argue that the club don't deserve it. I'm all for being firmer in the market and not being pushed around paying over-inflated prices nowadays but sometimes you still have to be decisive to get things done. United, City and Liverpool have all shown examples of this in recent years. But we seem to dig our heels in on every single deal to try and save small amounts on the grander scale. But in doing so, we seem to piss off other boards and end up paying last minute inflated prices on average players in a panic, like Drinkwater and Zappacosta. This Sarri business could have been done in May, by paying up his release clause. But to try and save a couple of million we've found ourselves now in this position, having to negotiate with a guy who's even more difficult to deal with than our board. Did we not learn when trying to buy Koulibaly from them and ADL kept reportedly shifting the goalpost. It's obvious Sarri's head was turned by our interest and ADL was pissed off so he wasn't just going to let us have him for nothing or on the cheap. Really difficult to understand the club's logic sometimes.

I would like to think not, but Conte seriously gives off the impression (especially after last season) that he would not give a shit about how we do next season and would do as little as possible in protest of being here still. A part of me thinks that is stupid and that he'll be professional and would be motivated to get things right after last season but the petulance and childish attitude he showed last season really worries me.

Jesus Christ it's really starting to look like we'll have Conte next season. This is going to be an absolute shit storm.

Unfortunately it's not as easy as that. We're currently involved in negotiations to extract Sarri from Napoli and also to terminate Conte's contract. These negotiations aren't just black and white, there are so many considerations, legal and financial ramifications that could happen if Chelsea didn't do things properly. If the club was so public with things it could disrupt or affect these negotiations. As a secondary note too, if the club failed sorting these things out and things were public it would look ridiculous. There are plenty of negotiations, deals that don't materialise so why should the club pander to everybody by making people aware of what is going on?