Superblue

As long as he signs a new contract I would like to keep him. However I don't want to lose him for nothing if he runs his contract down. As second fiddle central striker next season he will get at least 20 starts and if he takes his chances he has the opportunity to force himself into our first choice striker.

If he is to go on loan Wigan would be a good loan move for him. They are threadbare and need a striker - perhaps sweeten a deal for Moses?

Blackmans level in this years youth cup was at a higher level than walkers 3 years ago IMO. I know he had a solid spell on loan last season but i don't see him at the level of courtois or blackmans potential - and considering cech is only 30 i don 't see the chances here for him.

I think Silva's general build up play etc was stronger certainly in the first half of last season. However Mata perforned really well in a struggling side - i dread to think how worse off we would have been without him. Also his first season wss much stronger than silva's first season in the prem. For me, as the play improves and the calibre of player around him gets better he will only go from strength to strength in his Chelsea career.

Ba has played wide left since cisse joined hence why he's been shit.

He's nowhere near the level of courtois and will probably never make it at Chelsea.

Pretty sure it was in the summer 2010 after a successful world cup. We were linked with him when there were reports he was struggling to agree a new contract with Bayern. It's no secret he is a favourite of Roman's. Now I wonder what happens when Roman has favourites that he'd like to be playing at Chelsea...

This would be the best signing of the summer if we got him - he is one of the best all round midfielders in world football and plays the pivot role for Bayern with a defensive midfielder (ie Mikel) and for germany with a box to box midfielder (ie ramires). It will take some mind to get him from bayern!

I can't see this affecting him. He seems such a positive person and is very religious. I would expect such a disappointment to act as motivation. This is massive however as it allows Robbie to keep the Cahill-Luiz partnership developing in pre season as we have to plan for a possible long suspension of Terry due to the racism row.

Just seen an interview with him on Chelsea TV and the boy speaks fluent English which will surely help him settle. Him and De Bruyne also started their pre season training last week at Cobham, so both seem like they have good attitudes with a desire to be a success. Di Matteo will definately pick up on such levels of determination and motivation.

Can this mean then number 11 for Hulk?! :blue scalf:

Andre Villas-Boas is sacrificing an amazing £11 MILLION to take charge of Tottenham. The Sun says Villas-Boas, 34, did not receive a lump sum pay-off when he was fired by Chelsea last March just eight months into a three-year contract. Instead, the Blues agreed to keep paying his £100,000-a-week salary until he got another job. He has so far received three months of payments up to the start of July. But if he takes the White Hart Lane post, Chelsea supremo Roman Abramovich will turn off the cash tap and AVB will miss out on another 25 months — worth £10.8m.

I keep noticing small things which make the bigger picture that much more sweeter. Torres & Drogba went 13 hours on the pitch together at Chelsea without either scoring. Within 5 minutes of the Champions League final they had put that to bed in the most important match of all!

I actually meant there are reportedly a number of highly rated young Belgians coming under Hazard's age group still in their teens. The current stars you mentioned in the national team will be important over the next few years as they will provide real experience within this squad which they perhaps didn't have enough of in 2010. They seem to be going through a spell of producing good players, whether that materialises or not who knows? On the subject of Witsel, I don't know much about him. I know he was highly rated at Standard and saw him a couple of times against Liverpool I think and he impressed, I have watched him a couple of times for Benfica and Belgium since and he seems to have developed but I haven't watched enough of him to be able to give a constructive opinion of him I feel.

Spain didn't play much of the Euros without a striker but were still top goalscorers as they have a number of attacking players with a good end product in the final third of the pitch. At the moment the only player of real quality in that area for Belgium is Hazard and he is only 21 himself. The glut of their talent at the moment is in defence (Vermaelen, Vertonghen, Kompany) and in deeper midfield positions (Fellaini, Witsel, Dembele) which also explains the problems they are currently experiencing. If Lukaku can become a pretty decent striker over the next couple of seasons with still the potential to progress it will make a lot of difference IMO. The other thing is that a lot of the players in the squad now still have years left in them, and there is a big pool of talent emerging so I think it is too early to judge Belgium at the moment. They are on the verge of becoming a very good team, and the acid test for them will be to qualify for the 2014 World Cup which will give this crop of players a big experience of tournament football at international level. I believe Euro 2016 will be when their true potential is realised.

I understand the concerns but a couple of things to consider - Firstly the Euro 12 qualifying started in 2010. A lot of the Belgian players gaining big reputations are very young and would have had even less experience 2 years ago. Even the more experienced 'go to' players in the squad like kompany, vermaelen and fellaini have improved drastically in that time. The other problem for Belgium is they don't have a top class striker. Anyone could see against England they are a talented bunch but they lack a goalscorer. It's why hopes are pinned so high on Lukaku. One of spain's big positives IMO is that a core group play in the same club side (barcelona) and ironically Chelsea could potentially have that effect in the future on the Belgium team.

^^ This. The phrase 'Another overrated English player' springs to mind. It smacks of a Liverpool signing to me.

I assume this will be re-run in full tonight on chelsea tv? Looking forward to it, he always comes across excellently and you can always feel his passion for the club! I'm really looking forward to next season.

So he's an Essien/Mikel type player? His size and presence looks very similar to Fellaini.

The structure at our football club is very similar to that of the majority of football clubs on the continent. Because the setup is largely alien to english football it's ridiculed, but the trophies justifies the means. I believe robbie will have input and involvement in transfers, just not total control.

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/330483/Chelsea-and-Man-United-to-compete-for-Axel-Witsel- From what I've heard the lad has massive potential. I haven't seen much of him however. Would he suit here? What type of midfielder is he (which midfielder in our squad does he most closely resemble)?

Hutch can't be relied upon. He suffers from a similar degenerative knee problem that Ledley King has. With Ivanovic providing cover at centre back, a second right back is likely to play 30+ games in a season, á la Bosingwa. Hutch cannot cope with that workload.

Tomorrow is likely to be just for Robbie and rightfully so - he deserves his own day in the spotlight. Last season they dripfed new signings to the media a few days after they started training. So I expect Chelsea to hold individual press conferences for each over the next couple of weeks. They may well be presented whilst on our US tour.

And regarding Maicon's high wages, we have already released Bosingwa and are likely to let Ferreira leave. That will save around £100k pw which is likely to more than cover Maicon's wages. Maicon or Bosingwa/Ferreira - I know which I would rather have!

The whole point is that for every Deco there is a Makelele. For every Shevchenko there is a Zola. Age should not be the one deciding factor on buying a player and Maicon is still one of the best right backs around, particularly offensively. The transfer fee being bandied around on the internet seems very reasonable too.