Superblue

Blame Conte when even he has confirmed the club decide on transfers over him. With regards to the Juventus comment, he also signed the likes of Bonucci, Pogba, Pirlo and Vidal for peanuts to gain a little perspective. Juventus weren't spending the money that they do now, yet he was still able to turn the club around from mid table the year before he joined to winning the league every season he was there.

Morata's form is the biggest problem at the moment. Surely the club knew he would struggle carrying the goal scoring burden all season in a new league and being 1st choice for first time in his career. We have always done well to share goals throughout the squad to cover when strikers are going through a lean spell but I can't see anybody at the moment providing a genuine and regular goal threat. We either need to replace Batsman and get some proper competition for Morata or pray that his form picks up very very quickly.

If there was ever a game for Willian and Pedro to step up and prove they should be regularly starting it's today. Need something fresh to spark.

I heard somewhere that he was potentially looking at a £30m signing on fee if he moves on a free. I believe these fees are factored in over the length of a players contract and if that is taken into account then something in the region of £400k per week may not be far off what he could command.

His team of the year selection can work one of two ways. 1. It motivates him to kick on now and that may mean he feels he has to move to madrid to do this. 2. It proves to him he can get the respect and appreciation worldwide for his performances playing at Chelsea. I think for Neymar this also proves he needs to get out of PSG. If Madrid can snap him up they won't be interested in Hazard.

If true regarding his release clause, that would be a phenomenal signing for the money and give us two genuinely good strikers to share the burden. If he's available for £25m though I would imagine quite a few teams in for him. But this is part of the reason why I'd rather us not think short term in this window and buy stop gaps. Barkley is a very good piece of business in my opinion and anyone else who could be purchased at knock down fees (Sanchez?) or represent great value despite in January, but beyond this I'd rather us 'make do' and do our main business in the summer.

It would be the sort of signing that Chelsea should be looking at nowadays. If we're not prepared to pay say for a player like Sandro who is amongst the best in his position currently and would rather target a cheaper alternative then we should be looking at the players who have huge upside and potential to reach that level over the next few years. I haven't seen loads of him, but what I have seen I like and his statistics, albeit in the Championship for a 17 year old are phenomenal.

I'm still hoping that they'll go for Kane in the summer. It would hopefully be the big signing that they always crave and carry the double bonus of (1) severely weakening Spurs as I can't see them being able to adequately replace him, and (2) more than likely they wouldn't buy Kane and Hazard increasing our chances of holding on to him.

I would usually agree with the goal scoring for a full/wing back but a lot of those goals have been key goals to us winning points. This season we are struggling a lot more with scoring goals. Willian, Hazard and Pedro are all not contributing as many as they were last season and whilst Morata has done pretty well with regards to the number of goals he's scored, he isn't as potent as Costa in my opinion (or at least yet). Taking someone out who is chipping in with that many goals, and key ones at that, in my opinion is a risk currently until goal scoring spread throughout the squad is better addressed.

The drop off in Alex Sandro this season is pretty worrying. A failed transfer in the summer should be no excuse, he should knuckle down and carry on playing for the team who pays him until a deal is reached in a subsequent transfer window, similar to Coutinho.

The right balance is the most important thing and it's something the club hasn't done well at times but will be forced to do in my opinion. Particularly if they're working to a stricter budget nowadays because otherwise they'll never buy compete at the top end for players. I agree with you and the consensus that solely buying cheaper talent will over time make us weaker. It's far more satisfying getting good value from a signing, but we also still need some of the league's best players amongst our ranks too and unless we do get lucky with players like Courtois and Azpi developing into that bracket, we'll have to go and buy players at this level and be forced at times to pay the market rate for this level. I'm not expecting the club to bring through all their young players and I understand it's hard to get a couple through let alone a conveyor belt (and that's not just Chelsea amongst the top teams). However, there are younger players at the club or who we've had in the past that should be given the opportunity to become proper squad members. When I say proper squad members I don't mean the fifth or sixth choice defender or midfielder but perhaps the fourth choice. It gives them the opportunity to play cup games, against weaker teams when the squad is being rotated and also the possible chance to play in big games when there are suspensions and injuries. This is exactly how Christensen was able to take his chance. If we had brought another defender in the summer, he would never have had those chances this season and probably been on his way out this month. Loftus-Cheek is another example. He's been kept at the club the last two seasons and barely played. He could have gone out on loan for the past two seasons and returned this summer as a midfield option which would have meant we wouldn't have needed to buy one of Drinkwater or Bakayoko. Coming in after a couple of years on loan as a more polished, experienced player is no different to a new signing, freshening the team up and keeping players on their toes. Courtois and Christensen aren't the norm. Courtois is, and Christensen can become world class players. I'm not expecting lots of players like this, but surely given the success of our academies we can find a couple of new squad players from it every couple of seasons, that with time and confidence can perhaps grow into bigger roles (take Lingard currently at United). If we adopted a policy like this then a couple of squad player replacements to freshen up the squad could come from within each summer, allowing us to focus on a couple of starting XI improvements rather than spreading our budget out over 4 - 5 good but not great players. And when good deals come up, such as the one with Barkley because his contract is winding down, we take advantage of these too if they represent good value.

Spending big can help compete but has no guarantees. 2 summers ago we brought Kante for around £30m when United were buying Pogba for £90m. Don't get me wrong Pogba is an excellent player, but we have got far more value out of our purchase of Kante. Our starting defence for most of this season has been Courtois (£7m), Azpi (£7m), Christensen (Free) and Cahill (£7m). I would rather this than the millions United and City have spent on their defences which are no better than ours. We have to compete when necessary I agree, but in a time of absolute ridiculous transfer fees I'm happy that the club are trying to find better value in their signings then they perhaps have not done in previous years gone by.

Yes you can see the obvious differences between him and Drinkwater currently. Drinkwater is solid and dependable and that is why he has fit in pretty well. Whilst we paid a lot of money for him under the circumstances, I think we all felt we knew what we were getting with him and our expectations weren't too high. But Drinkwater is also safe and unspectacular and whilst you need players like that in any team to rely upon at times, I don't think he'll ever be a key player for the club. I think there was a much greater expectation on Bakayoko and he was also brought in to be an 'upgrade' on Matic which was always going to make his situation much harder. At the moment he needs to focus on the basics that someone like Drinkwater does - recycle possession, tactically disciplined and working hard in the middle closing down and tackling. From that the confidence will come and we will hopefully see a better player. What I think a lot of us were expecting was a tall, strong, physically imposing midfielder that can get up and down the pitch making tackles at one end and carrying the ball forward at the other, something relatively unique that a player like Drinkwater couldn't provide. We're not seeing it at the moment, but I'm not prepared to write him off yet.

Essien was very ordinary in his first season at Chelsea too I felt and in his second season became an absolute beast in the middle. Even people like Lampard, who was 'premier league proven' took a long time (I'd say the best part of 18 months) to kick on. Lots more players take time to adjust than those that hit the ground running, and even players that do hit the ground running will generally then go through a tough spell in this league (Costa, Morata, etc). He needs time before he can be truly judged in my opinion, but for now needs a rest.

I mean that he has the physique to impose himself and seeing him at Monaco last season, he obviously has the stamina to get up and down the pitch. But at the moment, technically he's way off.

Really not good at the moment, but I don't think he should be given up on. He has the physical attributes to dominate games, he just needs to become far more polished. For me he needs taking out of the firing line at the moment because he is clearly short of confidence and struggling, and fans are losing patience. If Barkley is fit, we now have five senior options for those midfield berths so hopefully we can get him out for a bit.

Would Everton still have been entitled to some compensation for him if he left at the end of his contract to another English team. If so, £15m may not have been far off what they could have argued at a tribunal given we're trying to get around half that for Solanke.

When I've watched him at Everton he is inconsistent, not just game to game but throughout a game itself but when i watch him i can't help but feel he's trying way to hard. Whether that is something to do with playing for his boyhood club I'm not sure but everton fans seem to get on his back far quicker than other players. There are definite risks with the deal but i do feel for the price it's worth a punt to see if a new environment and new coaching methods, out of his comfort zone, etc kicks him on. Plenty of examples of players failing and succeeding to step up to that top level and you simply don't know until they are given the opportunity.

I agree. If we had brought him for around £20m it would have been good business. This just highlights though that a player the level and calibre of Drinkwater is going for £30-35m nowadays, and therefore if we can get Barkley for around £15m it would be very astute.

If he wasn't such an injury liability, I think he'd be at a bigger club than West Ham to be honest. I'm not sure he would suit us, but I definitely hate us facing him as in the right environment he can be unplayable.

In the current climate of transfer fees, if we get Barkley here for £15m it will be very clever business. He reminds me of Joe Cole, hugely talented but currently lacking direction. For me he can offer an option in the three of a 3-4-3 but he will be well suited to a 3-5-2 as an alternative to Fabregas. At the moment in this formation Kante and Fabregas must start, with Drinkwater and Bakayoko rotating depending on the circumstances. I do think that Drinkwater is underrated on the ball but he's nowhere near on Fabregas' level, which is where Barkley can come in. He doesn't currently have the class that Fabregas has, but he is a creative option that is far more dynamic than Fabregas. Developing over time in a more orthodox midfield role will also potentially help to mould him eventually into a 2 man midfield option too. And with regards to RLC, he still needs time to develop. You only have to look at the success of Courtois and Christensen who were given time to develop on loan at one club for more than a season. The trick is to find a club (if it's not Palace) where RLC can play regularly for a couple of seasons, get vital experience and grow as a player before returning.

At least it silences the nonsense from some thinking he isn't good enough for a few days.

I thought he looked good today and had Spurs defenders worried every time the ball was pumped up to him. I actually would argue his characteristics suit us more already than that of Batshuyai. However a season of Prem experience will be invaluable and I'd like to see him come back next year and challenge.

Some rumours doing the rounds that he's close to agreeing a new contract.

For a striker moving at his fee it's much more important that he's scoring goals early on and helping us win matches then just playing well and contributing generally. He's clearly got an abundance of talent which will sync with our other players in time. The biggest question mark was always how consistent can he score goals and he's proving that at the moment emphatically.