manpe

"If I was wearing a Chelsea jersey, you have permission to kill me." Is this quote true?

Does anybody else here want us to reinstate the good ol' classic 4-3-3 if we sign Fabregas? Him and Oscar as the more advanced mids, Matic guarding their rear. They could go forward and wreak havoc interchangeably like Lamps and Ballack used to. At times this new and popular 4-2-3-1 does my head in, even though it's not much different, but one of the CM's seems to be much more restricted in attack and the lone advanced mid is in turn too isolated.

Grew up idolizing him. Now he's gone. I don't really know Chelsea without him, it's something new for me.

Every single goal of his is in my top 3.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

He's a dirty gooner and I don't really prefer him here. It would be really difficult to associate him with Chelsea and not with Arsenal and Barca - two clubs that aren't exactly in my good book. But if there really aren't any alternatives available for a reasonable price, then I guess I can turn a blind eye.

Well it seems Spain's playing style aka system doesn't suit him.

Did you just call luiz young?

Schwarzer and Hilario have been released so I'm not sure why they're in the list, so out of the given options I chose Courtois, Cech and Blackman. Given Cech's injury record and the fact that he's going through a lengthy one now, it could very well be the repeat of 2004 when Cech de-throned Cudicini, now him being the one making way for an up and coming kid. In an ideal world we'd keep both and let them battle it out, but what's most likely going to happen is that Cech stays as our undisputed no.1 and Courtois extends/goes on another loan and we sign a cheap second goalkeeper to fill the ranks.

What else is there on the front? Adidas? I don't get that quote. Did Luiz say that?

Have I missed something? I found out about Luiz just now on this forum, but I don't see anything about Costa.

I liked Luiz, he was different and I remember when we were playing very lacklustre and unimaginative football, Luiz was one of the very few who seemed to want to do something every game. People weren't putting it past him to become a future captain. For all his faults, I liked him. But it was clear he didn't fit anywhere in Mourinho's team - not a reliable defender, not exactly the kind of midfielder we want either. He surely will fit in another team with a different setup, it's just not us. If the reported fee is correct, then it's a win win situation for the club and for him. He gets to play more, we just raised the funds to sign player(s) we can actually improve our team with. All in all, this transfer gets a thumbs up of approval from me.

Mourinho explained it once years ago. To answer it shortly, he believes an extra man in midfield makes a decisive difference.

I don't think so. Mourinho basically pioneered the original 4-3-3 with one striker in england and I think he's played like that in every club he's managed. The chance of us playing with two central strikers is very slim, I can't see Mourinho deviating from that. Though I would love to see us try it, preferably against smaller teams, it feels wasteful playing two deep midfielders against roll-overs.

There was a period when they had no English players in their regular starting line-up, I did say "used to".

Serious question: What happens when Cole, Lamps and JT leave? How do we meet our HG quota? We can't assemble the whole squad from foreign league players alone. And perhaps even a more burning question - where will the English blood come from? I don't like those teams that have no national identity in them, I used to make fun of Arsenal 'cause of that, but soon we might be in the same situation. Mourinho said he liked English players, but who can we realistically replace them with? I hear only foreign names being thrown around, except for Shaw of course. Basically what I'm afraid of is that we'll lose a huge chunk of identity when those guys leave. Sure we might become a kickass team with all foreign players bought from around the world, but it just wouldn't feel right. When you lose national players from your team's core, something goes missing, especially in derby games. Anyway, this is why I feel we absolutely cannot let all three of them leave at once, it would be too big of a blow to our identity. Maybe release them one by one every upcoming season, but still the questions/worries I posed above remain.

I remember people strongly suggesting he had the "match highest earner" clause, so he earned (or earns?) the same as Torres. Frankly I've no idea if it's true or what he earns or what he will be earning, I'm just glad we retained him.

Have I missed something?

Have you considered that maybe it's not in Jose's hands? Ever since his signing it's been pretty obvious that he's been protected by higher powers. If Jose says he doesn't know whether he'll stay or not, shows that he has no real say in it. What's more telling is that he didn't say he'll definitely stay in a situation where his contract isn't expiring, so there's probably at least some consideration of axing him.

-delete-

Oh yeah? That's one question less to ask on the hot-seat.

Wow, we look completely impotent going forward.

He can always come back as a staff member as far as I'm concerned.

You love those players when they are playing for you. Their cockiness and aggressiveness destabilizes defenders. He will give little kicks, nudges and tugs and say words that will frustrate and anger opponents, and this kind of change in mood can be the difference between a defender making a mistake or not. I bet there is a difference between Torres coming to your face and saying "puta madre" and Costa doing the same thing. It's not only about being able to kick the ball around as good as you can, it's also a psychological battle from before the whistle to after the whistle. Having a cunt cheater for your side is an important psychological weapon, in addition to being good at kicking the ball around. I suspect this is why Mourinho loves having players like that, he understands and actively abuses the mental side of the game. Some of our biggest legends like Drogba and JT are no angels themselves, they are the same and they can annoy the crap out of anyone, everybody else hates them, we love them. If Costa is truly an asshole, we are going to love him.

Spike's idea is good indeed, but like everywhere else where everybody can do anything they want, it should have some kind of quality filter... otherwise we'd get some wannabe comedians asking stupid questions like "how big is your dick" or smth like that, we don't need that. Maybe every post in that thread should be approved by a staff member before making it public, perhaps? Otherwise if it becomes a gif fest or worse, people will lose interest very quickly to participate.