MGuerreiro

On 12 June 2014, English Premier League team Chelsea signed Fàbregas on a five-year contract for a fee of around £30 million. Fàbregas said that Arsenal were given the first option to buy him back, but they turned him down. He also said that he had "unfinished business" in the Premier League. The former Arsenal captain joined their London rivals despite claiming in 2011 that he would never sign for another English club.
Fàbregas made his competitive debut for Chelsea on 18 August as the team began their league season away to Burnley; he played the full 90 minutes of a 3–1 victory, providing two assists. He was a nominee for the Premier League Player of the Month in August 2014, with the accolade going instead to another new Chelsea signing, Diego Costa. On 13 September 2014, after providing two assists in Chelsea's 4–2 victory over Swansea City, Fàbregas became the first player ever in Premier League history to record at least one assist in six successive games; four under Chelsea and two under Arsenal during the 2010–11 season. Four days later he scored his first goal for the club, opening a 1–1 draw at home against Schalke 04 in Chelsea's first match of the Champions League group stage.
His first league goal for Chelsea gave them a 2–1 win at Crystal Palace on 18 October, capping off a 19-pass move. Fàbregas also completed 123 passes, the most by any player on either side.[84] On 10 December, with Chelsea already through to the knockout stage as group winners, Fàbregas scored an eighth-minute penalty to open a 3–1 Champions League victory over Sporting Lisbon. Twelve days later he scored a second league goal, set up by Eden Hazard and concluding a 2–0 win away to Stoke.
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By a "replacement for luis" do you mean
A. Centre Back
B. Midfielder
C. A bench warmer
if you picked A.We have a few,
if you picked B. We have a few
and if you picked C. We have plenty.
If we needed Luiz, there is no way we would have sold him. If we do end up getting 50 million for him, it will go down as the best 50 million we've ever made.

67 days until the season starts and we still haven't wrapped this up. Awful business yet again Chelsea......................

Deluded

Penis hardening...

I don't understand why anyone needs the opinion of a Barcelona fan to validate or challenge their own opinion on Fabregas, he's played in the PL for 7/8 years so we witnessed first hand what sort of player he is.
Barcelona fans will tell you that players like Ibrahimovic, Eto'o in his prime, and even current players like Sanchez or Neymar even aren't good enough for them or their system and I'd welcome almost every single one of them here.
This guy is coming off an average season but still managed to grab 13 goals and 17 assists for them. Spoilt bunch.
Fabregas has never fitted the Barcelona system anyway, he's way too direct for their setup.

SkySports report £4m. To be honest it's not the worst deal they'll do. He's obviously there for depth, a striker to fill on for when Sturridge is injured. Kind of like when we got Anelka to cover for Drogba.. Lambert's stats are impressive and he's another HG player for them.
I'd keep a worrying eye on Liverpool tbh. They're strengthening exactly where they need to already, Moreno will be a huge asset to them as they've been vulnerable on the left for a while.

Great character, always smiling and happy, played with his soul and heart for this football club. As a supporter I will always love and respect that. Thanks for everything David !

He did what every player should do in that situation...

So disappointing that he didn't play this epic match. He needed it.
Of course I'm saddened about his absence in the next few matches, but this match and how it played out was much more important than whether we win, draw or lose against Swansea and Sunderland. It's the kind of match that marks your career and makes you take several steps in the development curve (mentally wise).
Also we've proved twice in a row that we can play without him (the Stoke match was one of the best we played this year - 2014 - and he wasn't missed in the pitch tonight either) which is great for us and for him. It means we aren't an one-man-team and that there isn't way too much pressure on the kid's shoulders. That said, it's much easier when he's around and he will become our match-winner sooner or later. It's not a dig on him.
I'm very sad he's missed it, but I'm sure they'll be new opportunities, maybe the next one is even in two weeks and three weeks from now - if he's healthy. Hopefully he'll be there and will written some history by himself too.

plucked stuffed and ready for roasting

He was protecting Ramires the best he could as he took as much attention away from the tackle as he could at that time (though he does not deserve any protecting to be honest). Pundits weren't just talking about the tackle but about José as well, so it worked. Anytime Mourinho is asked about the tackle he just talks about Agbonlahor - it's textbook Mourinho. The press love creating a villain, but they love any Mourinho story even more. If he really did lose it, he would've got himself banned but he kept quiet after the game. He did just enough - he doesn't want a touchline ban on top of things at such an important time.
I don't get why people can't understand by now that there's usually a reason behind the majority of Mourinho's actions and it's mainly to deflect attention from his players. Seriously, come on, you must know how he works by now surely?
P.S. However, I am excluding genuinely insane things like poking someone in the eye!

Every player, in at least the spanish BBVA league (don't know how it is with the lower leagues), has to have a release clause in their contract. Usually on these "star players" the release clause is ridiculously high (like 300mp or so), so a better question would be..
Why would Real Madrid have such a low release clause with a player of Varane's calibre?
Personally I doubt it's that low. But on the other hand, without any more research than a google search, it looks like his contract was signed 2011, which is way before he was worth his current value, so it might just be.

Every player, in at least the spanish BBVA league (don't know how it is with the lower leagues), has to have a release clause in their contract. Usually on these "star players" the release clause is ridiculously high (like 300mp or so), so a better question would be..
Why would Real Madrid have such a low release clause with a player of Varane's calibre?
Personally I doubt it's that low. But on the other hand, without any more research than a google search, it looks like his contract was signed 2011, which is way before he was worth his current value, so it might just be.

Ita almost like thia forum goes thru phases. Add to that the band wagon of opinion and it just gets silly and frustrating.
I remember at the start of the season he was our no.1 striker, who was single handedly supposed to take us to a different footballing level.
When he was loaned, it was supposedly a horrid mistake and the jose out chants were on. When he was banging goals for fun at the start, every member including me and every pundit said that chelsea made a mistake.
Now, injured for 2 weeks and with etoo playing well, suddenly people think that one of the best prosoects in the world to be sold. I mean what the fucking hell!!!

hi my friends how are you??
primary, I would like to bow to you and to josè for the fantastic game of last monday!! you're a very wonderful team and i hope you can win the premier league!!! and maybe also in europe
but... i would like to have a bit of informations about vidic... for next season, mr thohir is going to buy him for my inter milan... what do you think???

Our entire midfield vs City was from Benfica. Thank you!

Pretty much this but if I wanted to be really picky and 'spoiled' then I would say that I'm still concerned about our CM position.. the much talked about 'pivot' - a word I have come to loathe after reading this site for 3 years or so.
I think Matic will be a top player for us in that role, despite some wayward passes in his last couple of games. My concern is with Ramires, who would presumably partner him... He is great for us but IMO is one of the most limited players I have ever watched from a technical point of view. His moment of brilliance at the Camp Nou aside. I just feel that to be a really top team, ie serious CL contenders, we need someone who can dictate the play and control the ball a lot better in the centre of the park. I am in no way advocating the selling of Ramires and he has been fantastic for us in the last few seasons, but certain game situations require a bit more composure on the ball and a little less 'just run your arse off'.
Again, I am probably doing Ramires a disservice here because he has a great 'engine' and does a lot of dirty work for the team, but then so do players like Oscar, WIllian and Hazard.. yet they can keep control of the ball a lot better. It is just something that grates me whilst watching Chelsea matches.
Not sure if Eto'o will stick around either.

Exactly the opposite. Players like Salah and Schurrle are poorly suited for games when teams play super-defensively. When there is no space behind the defenders, people who rely on speed don't have space to use it and so are neutralized.What good is speed when there's nowhere to run? These sorts of players, in fact, almost all of our team, is best suited to playing counter-attack. Players who can get into space with quickness, dribble past a defender, and shoot. Oscar is not ideal for this game but is still better suited because he can create a beautiful goal out of nothing on occasion.

It's true, a game like that would have fitted Mata perfectly. However, as someone ^ posted, Mata wants to play more than just the west hams of this world and he deserves that. Unfortunately you can't play a high pressing game with Mata as a focal point.
As has been said countless times, without Mata we are 3 points off the top compared to struggling for top 4. I'd much rather a strong footballing vision than basing a team around one player with the quality of Mata. He's a great player but as was debated with Rafa at the helm - what top European club would base their team around a player only as good as Mata? Barca? Real Madrid? Their two are out of this world and Bayern, Dortmund and Juve all have philosophies they follow.
I've been reading red cafe recently and sure a front 3 of Mata, Rooney, And RVP is mouthwatering on paper... But whats the philosophy? People are suggesting a 4-3-1-2 with overlapping FB's to provide width. Would need one hell of a central midfield to accomodate for the defensive frailties of that team.
Yes Mata is an amazing player and I'm grateful for his time here but I don't think you can field a player of his quality and have the strongest team in Europe. Individually, he's not on the level of the Messi's and Ronaldo's of this world nor is he physically sound enough to slot into the high pressing styles of the Bayern Munichs or Dortmunds. And that style, I believe, is the most effective way to play football at this current time.

Jesus fucking Christ. Be-au-ti-ful.

Yes he does need to prove to Jose he can do it. Jose wants a certain make up from a player, that being one that works back, works incredibly hard and also operates at both ends of the field in a way he wants. This isn't Juan Mata FC, it's Chelsea FC with one of the greatest managers around in charge and people are questioning Jose and saying things like "He's clueless" etc, please listen to what Jose is saying when he address's questions about Juan Mata, it really isn't difficult.
Oscar right now is nigh on the perfect player, he operates up and down the field, tracking back, going forward, creating chances and scoring goals, that's a perfect player for me and it looks like Jose agrees. In all this I am not saying Mata is shite as most of you will probably jump on the band wagon and say, just look at my profile etc I love the bloke, but let's look at the big picture, firstly what Jose wants and secondly at what Mata is up against in terms of Oscar and what he has to offer.
I've bitten my tongue on this for days after reading this thread and come to one opinion that people do not want to know what Jose wants and also are so blinded by past achievements of Mata that he can do no wrong. Mata was sublime last two seasons, two seasons yes, but now we have a different manager that wants a different system and certain players to change and adapt. Nobody's place is guaranteed right now, possibly only Oscar's, this team is being steered by a new sailor, if the crew on board aren't ready to work the crew will be thrown over board.
Either adapt to what he wants, fight for the place because it wont be handed on a plate to you.

I love KDB, but rate Wilshere higher as a player. Wilshere is also probably England's best player whenever he does play for the NT, so this "KDB is the best player for Belgium therefore he's better than Wilshere" argument doesn't really add up in my opinion. In his breakthrough season at Arsenal he was excellent. Injuries have stopped his progress a bit but he's the only player I'd take from Arsenal.
When people say "what has Wilshere done". What has KDB exactly done as well in that case? That's not the case at all with both players. You just need to watch both players play and make your own opinion up about them, not justify how good they are because of what they have/haven't achieved yet. They're both very young still.
Of course that's just my personal opinion. I'm not saying KDB is bad at all, I really rate him and it's fantastic that we have him, but I rate Wilshere just a bit higher.

Hazard is of course worth more now then when we bought him. At that time Bale was more valuable than him, or at least similar.