Superblue

I have a similar feeling. I think if the game is tight, and stays tight I fancy our chances to grind the result out as I think we would grow in confidence whereas they may wane. However I think if they score early and we're having to chase, it could be a bit of a hammering. Similar to yourself, I don't see us scoring more than a goal or two so we need to keep things tight. However we have created chances all season and there should be gaps behind to exploit at times during the game, it just goes back to the story of our season and our lack of a clinical edge to our game. It would be incredibly ironic given our struggles converting chances to goals this season, if it just "clicked" in the game where it matters the most.

I'm not sure what it included but the general theme on social media is the price was inflated in this way compared to people being able to make their own travel and preparations.

So with the greatest respect, what gives you the right to berate and belittle the club's fan base for not attending? Everyone has their reasons, now more than ever in this current environment. I never saw a problem with selling tickets for Moscow and Munich when we weren't still in the middle of a pandemic.

Just to follow this up a little but Chelsea Supporters Trust have come out and said that UEFA controlled the whole ticketing process, not Chelsea and wouldn't allow the charter package tickets to be sold in any other way hence why they had to be returned. As per usual it looks like UEFA are doing their standard disservice to fans, which to me is a far bigger problem than the 'my club's bigger than yours' rubbish that arises from sensationalised stories like this one.

The tickets for what people wanted were sold out though and I would assume that they are directed by the club of what to inform fans. This whole episode in my opinion is on the club, unless they've been directed by UEFA that they can't re-package. They should have managed this better. If those tickets were re-packaged they would have been sold out immediately. I'm pretty certain there will end up being more Chelsea fans travelling over there without tickets than those 800-900 tickets unsold. I assume you've brought a ticket and are going over there, given how angry you are with Chelsea fans for not going?

The people in the ticket office dealing with these queries will not have the power to make those decisions. If the club has allocated a certain number to charter packages then the people at the ticket office won't be in a position of power to resell these as something different unless someone higher up in the club gives the go ahead. I'm not even sure what power Chelsea have over this matter. I'm sure I read somewhere that UEFA originally wanted all the tickets to be as a charter package but City and Chelsea argued to spread the allocations.

Completely depends on Roman. It is obviously a real market opportunity for us at present with most teams struggling financially and less competition for transfer targets. And with FFP relaxed/abolished (whatever situation it is currently in) it allows Roman to go aggressive if he wanted to and try and catch us back up in a much quicker manner than we would have likely been able to do pre Covid.

Not quite sure, a lot of people on social media have been commenting that tickets through the Chelsea website were sold out.

I'm still not completely sold on Lukaku (specifically his touch) and I think his problem coming here will always be comparisons with Drogba which are always going to be unfair on him. However, I think given his goalscoring record throughout his career, and his experience within the Premier League, he's a far less riskier signing than almost all other options which may be available this summer.

Talk about Inter and Lukaku. But if Tuchel wants to carry on playing a back 3, I think we should definitely look at Hakimi for the wing back role, and transition James into the back 3. I actually think James has looked pretty good in that position the last couple of weeks, the bigger problem is Azpi playing wing back as a result.

Fair point. Hopefully it's something not to worry about regardless! I think if he walks out on Inter though, Spurs would enquire about him almost immediately. Then I assume it's up to themselves to sell the club to him.

I actually think it's more to do with him creating issues that aren't necessarily there as an exit strategy so he doesn't stay long term. I don't think his management style can work over the long term, a little like Mourinho. And if he left Inter, the Spurs job might be one of the better jobs available this summer so yes I could see him making that move potentially. Completely different in my opinion. Firstly, I think Mourinho's stock has been falling for some time, and that was proven by what he failed to accomplish at Spurs. Compared to Conte who is still operating currently at a successful level. And secondly, Conte has a track record of walking into a struggling club and galvanising it (Juventus, ourselves, Inter) whereas Mourinho has been used to walking into a club that is already operating at a high level and he's able to then take that up a couple of notches to an even higher level. I would be more concerned with Conte going to Spurs then I was Mourinho going there.

I'd be more concerned with Conte taking the Spurs job if he leaves Inter. Enough evidence now to suggest he's not a long term appointment but he has been successful wherever he's been and he'd probably be one of the better managers Spurs could get to sort out the rabble over there.

I agree, I'm not sure how realistic it is, particularly with Ronaldo's ties to United. I think given his age, he wouldn't be against being managed rather than flogged. I'll go back to it though, if we're having to take the risk on an expensive but unproven player to fill the gaps, then I'd rather we looked at Ronaldo or Hazard on a short term deal, and if things didn't work out we're not hamstrung in a season or two when hopefully there is someone a little more proven available on the market.

It wouldn't be the most ideal of signings. Ideally we bring in someone that fits into what Tuchel is building, for the long term and can hit the ground running. It would depend on how desperate Juventus are to get him off their books, but I'm thinking if there isn't much available in the market, could we possibly broker a deal just to loan him or take over that last year of his contract. It's a lot of money but it's one year, so the long term risk isn't there. He clearly can still score goals if the chances behind him are being created and I just wonder whether a presence like that in quite a young dressing room would actually be a positive to rub off on some of the players? I quite like Calvert Lewin as an option but let's be realistic, Everton don't need the money and he's their talisman so we'd be lucky to be getting him for anything lower than £60-70m and they'd probably look to want even more. Add his wages on top. It's a long term signing but he's still very much unproven at the top level and if we were to get it wrong with him we've got potentially another player to add to the list of huge signings that fail to cut it and we're paying the price for his signing for the next 3 - 4 years. Beyond Kane and Haaland, you then have Lukaku probably on his own level below, and then beyond that it's a huge drop off in my opinion and you'd be pinning your hopes on a much riskier signing.

I suppose that if the big strikers like Haaland and Kane are unattainable and short term options are under consideration to plug a gap for a season or two, then should Ronaldo be under consideration? I'm not sure if he'd join us with his United past, but it seems to me that his career at Juventus is coming to an end and they may be willing to simply get him off the wage bill. One of the things that I think someone like Ronaldo would bring is a sheer winning mentality, which would hopefully rub off on others and I still think it would carry the sort of statement signing that would make people sit up and take notice, and potentially breed a lot of excitement and confidence within the squad seeing someone like that join, even in the latter stages of their career.

He'll have an input but he'll be no different to previous managers, and higher up's will have the final say.

On the flip side though there are a number of examples of players who's careers are over by this point too. A perfect example would be Ronaldinho who played with the same carefree nature as Hazard has and was never the most driven of characters. Hazard got by purely on natural fitness which will start to decline with age. He never had the desire to push that further or be strict with his diet etc and that would worry me over whether he is capable of playing at a high standard still well into his 30's as he's not made the best efforts to look after himself throughout his career.

That's a big call. With the increased squad size, I think managers can afford to take a risk with one or two players. I think for Spain, Ramos falls under that category.

It's a good reference point, and with arguably one of the best transfer windows during Roman's tenure we then went and romped the league the following season. The problem is this time, I'm not sure world class players like Fabregas and Costa were, are ready and available currently.

Does Ramos no longer play for Spain?

I'd be surprised if any of the other teams around us have a similar record where they've picked up more points against top half sides than bottom half sides, like Tuchel has done. Personally I'd rather be in our position of having to fix a record against the teams lower down the table, than a record against the bigger teams. In theory it should be a problem easier to address.

Fingers crossed for Mendy. I don't think Tuchel would do it, but I'd prefer to see Christensen slot back into the defence and play James at wing back with Azpi dropping out. In attack I think we should look at playing Havertz and Werner high with Mount in behind them.

It's a strange one because I do think Chilwell has the aggressiveness and determination to get into the final third on a regular basis and I do think if there is space available he attacks it. When the space isn't there, I'd agree there's question marks of whether he can do more but then is the problem more related to the personnel on the pitch? If we have a front three for example of Mount, Pulisic and Werner then Chilwell is just going to get ridiculed for trying to regularly cross the ball. The wing backs role under Tuchel may be to do what Chilwell is doing, i.e. provide the width to try and pull defenders out and then recycle the ball to hopefully exploit spaces. I agree though at times he needs to move the ball quicker, especially against a deep defence but like others have said he isn't the only one guilty of this. I've been fairly pleased with his contributions this season. He went through a mid season slump but he's definitely come out of it better and more battle hardened. There are certainly far more pressing areas of the squad we need to worry about than his position. I still think he's better suited as a left back than a wing back though, but I also think the same of James.

I understand. We definitely need a player with a different skillset in midfield. A more defensive minded, physical presence. If Jorginho was to leave, is he good enough to replace him?