Jype

Saw that too and to be fair there was quite a lot of them who rated Hazard in their top 10. Even so, most of them still agreed that Hazard is and all of the other hyped young stars are better. Also, the vast majority of them seemed to have Thiago in the top3 prospects when he still looked to be on his way to United. Interesting to see whether or not they'll turn on him as well now that he snubbed them for Bayern. A fickle bunch that lot.

Using the Golden Boy award in Isco's favour is kind of harsh, considering there's no way Oscar could have won it as he did not yet play in Europe at the time and the award is given to the best U21 player in the European leagues. Isco was class for Malaga in the two seasons he was there but he's got no international experience and there's no way to know for sure if he's got what it takes to succeed at the very highest level at Real Madrid. Oscar on the other hand has been a regular starter for Brazil for over a year now and he did great in his first season at a European club, not to mention the great season he had at Internacional before moving. At the moment we just have to agree on the fact they're both great players with bright futures but there really is no way to tell who's better right now and at the end of the day it's up to each of us to judge them. If someone rates Isco higher than Oscar or the other way around, it's their opinion and they're entitled to it. But yeah, that's enough of this in the Eden Hazard thread. Sorry Alex, don't swing the mighty hammer on us.

What was the final score? At 70 minutes Arsenal were like six goals up or something, did they get any more? If I'm not mistaken, Chelsea are playing against that same Indonesia side on July 25th. Could be fun.

Don't think I've ever been so excited about a pre-season friendly. So many interesting new players, loan returnees and youngsters like Schürrle, Van Ginkel, Lukaku, De Bruyne, Kalas, Chalobah, Feruz and Traore. And of course Mourinho.

They have Cavani coming in and they don't need both. Cavani is clearly the future for them and it's not like Zlatan is so loyal he's willing to stay and not be the main man. Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet were reporting today that Zlatan has decided to leave PSG and they're well informed when it comes to Swedish players so I think it's only a matter of where he goes rather than if he goes. Real Madrid and Manchester City will probably be in for him but I think we should be too. City wouldn't have anything over us but his latest manager Ancelotti could persuade him into joining Real Madrid, the club he wanted to join three years ago when he left Barca. Then again we have Mourinho who coached him at Inter. Would be an amazing short-term signing for us, could easily get at least three good years out of him because his game isn't based on pace as much as it is on his technical abilities and footballing brain. In his previous clubs he has shown he adapts very quickly and at 31 he's defo one of the best forwards in the world and despite high wages he could be available for a cut-price as far as the transfer fee is concerned. By the time he would be finished we would have a 23-year-old Lukaku ready to take over as the definite number one. Rather him than Rooney if it came to that.

By the time we paid £24m for Essien he was way more proven than Illaramendi is now. He had won back-to-back league titles as well as one cup title with Lyon and he was definitely one of their key players during those campaigns. In his last season at Lyon he was Player of the Year in Ligue 1. To me that's a player who's already among the best in the world. Maybe the price was a bit steep but there was more competition for his signature than there was for Illaramendi's. Real Madrid could have just played it cool and waited to see if Real Sociedad were serious about demanding the whole release clause because it's not like there was a chance someone could have beaten them to the player's signature. Or they could have just got Geoffrey Kondogbia for a third of the price who in my opinion is almost as good as Illarramendi is despite being three years younger. Real Madrid wanted the Spanish player and ended up paying the premium price, a situation similar to English clubs overpaying for British players when they could get a foreign player who's just as good for a fraction of the price.

Who pays €39m for a player who only has a season and a half of top flight football under his belt at the age of 23? And a defensive midfielder none the less. Sure, he was good last season and played a big part in Real Sociedad making it to the Champions League places but that price is still way too high. For almost 40m I'd expect to get the absolute best defensive midfielder in the world and not just someone who could potentially become one of the best if he succeeds.

This is starting to get ugly. If he really is available for free, it would be one of the best pieces of business so far this window for any club. Those who know him better than I do, what would you say his best position is? If he's a right winger, I think we could use him as early as next season if he's signed because I still believe Moses will be gone. Mourinho sure loves to have his fair share of Portuguese players at his teams so maybe Bruma could be his man this time around. @Slam Dunk, didn't someone at Chelsea supposedly 'kidnap' Mikel when he was about to join Manchester United?

Delighted with this transfer. Schwarzer is definitely an improvement on Turnbull and Hilario and very cheap backup too. Hopefully this will now put to bed those ridiculous rumours of us buying John Ruddy.

Probably not. Now there's that other picture too where he clearly wears the same clothes as he does in the first picture and surely no one would go through so much trouble just to post some bullshit? Some media outlets starting to pick this up too. The pictures seem to be real and basically they confirm that Schwarzer was at Cobham but at the moment it's unclear whether he signed or not.

Just posted this in the General transfer talk but I guess it deserves it's own thread. The picture looks real but these days one can never be sure. Brilliant signing if true, I've been calling for this ever since Fulham released him after signing Stekelenburg.

Just saw on Twitter that we have supposedly signed Mark Schwarzer. There was even a picture of him in the Chelsea press conference room as evidence and to me it looked legit. Best possible backup keeper signing if true, fingers crossed. edit: Here's the pic.

If there was still any doubt of De Bruyne staying, Dortmund have just now confirmed the signing of attacking midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan from Shakhtar Donetsk for €25m which pretty much means they've given up on De Bruyne. Two birds with one stone, Liverpool won't get their main target of the transfer window and we get to keep De Bruyne.

Barcelona have just sold David Villa to Atletico Madrid for less than five mil. We can only hope they're clearing room for the imminent arrival of the ladyboy.

De Rossi is the highest paid player in the Serie A and we would have to match his current wages in order to get him, maybe even give him a small pay rise to keep his net wage the same if tax percentages are higher in the UK than they are in Italy. Relatively low transfer fee makes up for this and the club would have no problem making this investment in De Rossi because he sure is good enough. If Roma are willing to sell for 10-15m and the player himself is open to a move, I see no problem in making the deal happen. Pre-season is starting tomorrow so if all parties want the transfer to go through we could be seeing more news sooner rather than later.

Lewandowski on a free transfer next year has got to be one of the best transfers ever, especially when acquired from a direct title rival which at the same time improves their own team and weakens the other. Amazing business from Bayern's point of view but a shame for the whole Bundesliga when one team is already so superior to the others and then they go on to buy two of the biggest stars from their number one rival. How about getting Marco Reus top while they're at it just to complete the hat-trick? Lewandowski acting a proper cunt here. He had his pick of all the top teams in Europe but he declines them all in favour of joining Bayern Munchen and is so desperate to join them he's willing to wait a year to get his preferred move. A low blow to everyone at Dortmund and especially to Jürgen Klopp who made him the player he is now. It's sad there's no loyalty in world football these days.

A new wireless headset, got tired of the cord on my old Audio Technica headphones.

The Skipper

Fuck that, PSG can have the overpriced Cavani for all I care but I would be absolutely gutted if De Rossi went there too. This is a deal the Chelsea board simply cannot afford to lose out on. If De Rossi is available for peanuts at a time when our team desperately needs a player like him, he simply has to be bought.

€70m Being reported by the reliable Gianluca DiMarzio so there's a good chance it might be true. Guess at Napoli fan was right after all.

One of the worst bullshit rumours of the window so far but having read the reactions to this on Twitter and in here, I started thinking if getting him would really be that bad? He's definitely a world class player and in the end of the day that's all that matters. Sure, he's a cunt of the highest order and sometimes unprofessional but so is Rooney and most of us would welcome him to the club. Let's face it, he hasn't really played under a proper world class manager yet and the likes of Brendan Rodgers don't dare criticize him if he does something stupid because he's by far their best player but under Mourinho's guidance this guy could mature into one of the very best if he managed to leave out all the nasty shit he has a habit for. Definitely not on top of my wishlist for the CF position, probably not even in the top5 picks, but I wouldn't complain if we got him.

Great signing. Personally I expect him to have a significant role, I don't think he would have joined otherwise. I like this new Chelsea. Only two years ago our squad had probably the highest average age among Europe's top clubs but now we've got a brilliant young squad. Feruz (16), Kalas (17), Piazon (17), Wallace (18), Lukaku (18), T. Hazard (19), Omeruo (19), Courtois (19), Romeu (19), De Bruyne (20), Oscar (20), Van Ginkel (20), E. Hazard (21), Moses (21), Azpilicueta (22), Schürrle (22), Mata (23), Luiz (23), Marin (23) All our young signing since 2011, inside the brackets their age at the time of the signing. Only Torres, Meireles and Demba Ba have been players older than 23 when they were signed. On top of that all that the homegrown talent (Chalobah, Ake etc.) and the future is looking very bright for the club, even if we stopped making any more big signing in the next couple of years, be it because of FFP or a new club policy or something else entirely.

Ignoring the price tag, I'd take Cavani over Rooney every day of the week. He's a bit younger and in my opinion he has been the better player these last few years. Oh, and he's not a massive cunt who'd come with extra baggage like Rooney would. However, when considering the fact Cavani would cost twice as much I'd say getting Rooney makes more sense if he really is available for just £20-25m. Sure, he had a relatively bad season by his standards but he wasn't by any means shit and if there's anyone who can set the guy straight it's Mourinho and I believe he could easily get back to his very best if played primarily as a striker instead of an attacking midfielder or a winger like he has played at Manchester United under Ferguson. Both wonderful players and I really wouldn't mind getting either of them.

Thanks for this. I just started playing the series yesterday and I was about to order Uncharted 3 but after reading your post I figured it's better to get the 3 month subscription to PS+ for the same price and get lots of other content too! Don't ask me why I haven't played these games already, I honestly don't know.

@Andre_Schuerrle: I love this stadium:)) #london #cfc The guy doesn't hide his excitement in joining the club and it really is a dream come true for him. He's wanted this transfer over any other club for a couple of years now and we can expect him to be very motiated to play for the shirt now that he's finally here. Don't know about you guys but I'm starting to like this lad more and more every day!