Jype

It shouldn't. Hazard has already proven himself at Chelsea and deserves to get a pay rise to whatever amount he is set to receive but Costa and Fabregas are both still new at the club and have similar contracts to what Hazard got two years ago. If anything, it would send them a clear message that if they do well enough for a couple of seasons they'll get massive wages for their new contracts too and that should drive them to play as well as they possibly can.

So, how's everyone doing after four rounds? Personally I'm doing great, another 80 points this weekend and with a total score of 279 points I'm ranked 347th out of over 3,2 million players. Needless to say I'm also firmly holding onto the first place in our TC league. For next week I'm going to have to sacrifice one of my Chelsea players for someone else considering our tough game against Manchester City and based on the form of Costa and Fabregas I think it will have to be Hazard who is going to make way. Di Maria looked like a tempting option even before today and after his performance against QPR I think it's settled.

Remy Schürrle - Oscar - Willian Matic - Ramires Luis - Terry - Cahill - Ivanovic Courtois Schalke are definitely not a bad team and it might bite us in the ass if we rest too many key players but topping the group shouldn't be that hard even if we were to draw here so IMO it's better to keep the most important players in top condition for the game at the Etihad next weekend. And it's not like players such as Remy, Schürrle, Ramires and Luis aren't good enough to beat an average Schalke side ravaged with injuries.

Nah, they dropped Audi as soon as they signed with Chevrolet.

Usually I would agree no doubt, but for tomorrow's poker night I've got some friends coming who I haven't seen in ages so spending the evening with them is a priority. One way or another I should still be able to also keep up with the game though, maybe I'll stream it on my phone or something.

Poker night tomorrow so I'm not quite sure whether I can watch this one or not but I'll try.

Nothing wrong with what he said. Basically he's saying now that Torres is gone he can at least consider making a pass to the striker rather than always trying to have a crack at goal himself. Last season it was useless to pass to the £50m statue but now with Costa up front Eden can be more unpredictable with his decision making, which at the end of the day is what's best for the team but also for Hazard himself because defenders now have more players they need to be worrying about instead of just focusing on stopping Hazard and that will allow him to score more goals as well.

Costa Hazard - Oscar - Schürrle Matic - Fabregas Azpi - Terry - Cahill - Ivanovic Courtois Remy for Costa if the former is not fit enough to start but other than that I don't see a reason to make any drastic changes. Players like Luis, Zouma, Salah etc. will get their chances in the next few weeks either way with the amount of games we've got coming up so no point trying to get them settled in a game as important as this one. Swansea have been brilliant so far and we've got to do really well to beat them.

TX worries way too much about what other people think.

1. Mourinho and Guardiola in the top bracket. 2. Klopp, Simeone and Conte close to that. Haven't yet proven enough to belong in the first category but probably will sometime in the near future. 3. Ancelotti, Wenger, Benitez, Pellegrini, van Gaal etc. some distance behind.

That's awful. Second from the left is the least hideous of them and could perhaps look decent after getting used to it but I don't wan't to get used to something like that.Hope we either renegotiate an improved deal with Samsung or if that's not an option then at least end up with something that looks good and pays well. Audi could be nice.

Why did Del Bosque even play him in a meaningless friendly when it was well known that he was still carrying a hamstring injury? Would have been a good opportunity for him to just stay back in London and get fully fit during the international break but it's too late now. Hope the injury is not serious or we're fucked. There are some very important games coming up over the next few weeks and having Costa fit might just be the difference between a win and a draw and knowing our annual dip in form around November it's vital to win as many games as possible till then. At least we have Remy now...

They're already paying Rooney £300k a week so Falcao getting pretty much the same doesn't sound that unbelievable to me, considering he's already on a crazy money tax-free contract at Monaco.

Got to laugh at Manchester United, insane amounts of money spent on Di Maria and Falcao who are both players they don't even need. Their defense and midfield are laughable but still they ignore their problems and spend crazy money on attacking players as if that's going to help them. Barcelona and Real Madrid level of stupidity. Not complaining though, United won't challenge for the title anytime soon with a team as unbalanced as that.

I've had an awful day today but seeing this thread with the "Ex Blues" tag made it just a little bit better.

What an unbelievable transfer window this has been. Key targets were signed early for good prices and now the final piece of the puzzle has been found with the team finally getting a good second choice striker. Very happy with Remy, already wanted him two years ago when we were reportedly after him but better late than never!

Maybe when Milan announce the signing? If they've got themselves a bargain by getting him on a free with us paying a good part of his wages I'm pretty sure they will let us know and even if it turns out he really did take the pay cut with us not paying him a dime, like the Telegraph are reporting, it will come out eventually because it will instantly make him more popular among the Milan fans if they know he wanted to join them so desperately.

Why? Remy would come in as a striker to replace Torres and only play on the wing if necessary, which would be pretty much never with Hazard, Schürrle, Willian and Salah as our main wingers.

Wonder if the same applies to Lukaku. Would have gotten a big role now but he just had to be selfish and think only about himself...

It doesn’t really make a difference whether it’s a loan till his contract expires or if he’s off for good because the transfer fee on a permanent transfer would have been a very small one either way. If it’s true he agreed not to have a severance package like it was rumored earlier today, it’s a really good deal for the club. By going out on loan his wages will be off the books completely but the fee amortization of £9.1m a year will continue till 2016. I think it’s better that way than it would’ve been if he’d gone for £10m and gotten a £6m severance like was reported in the last couple of days, that way the club would’ve made a £17m loss on him this year and then gotten him off the books completely but now it will be a smoother landing with the loss shared between the 14/15 and 15/16 seasons. Anyway at the moment I don't care about the details of the transfer as long as it means he's gone and is never coming back, the nightmare is finally over. Time to go out and celebrate, next time I'm planning on being sober will be on Monday when my university studies continue. :blue scalf: :woo:

What if it's all a ploy to get Milan to hurry the fuck up in sealing Torres' signature and them caving in to our demands? Clutching at straws here...

Exactly. Last season we played 12 games in the Champions League and the weekend before these important CL games our record in the league was 5 wins, 1 draw and 6 losses. Points lost to Everton and Spurs could have happened any time and the timing for some of the other losses might have been just a coincidence too but if 6 out of our 7 losses in the league came before European games the easiest explanation would be that some of the lads already had their mind set on the CL and the team's preparation to face teams like Stoke or Crystal Palace might not have been as good as it should have been. If we get an easy group and confirm first place after just four games we can just play the youngsters in the remaining fixtures and focus on the league. Also the difference between first and second place is huge, just look at Arsenal who finished second behind Dortmund in their group last year and were immediately drawn against Bayern München whereas for the group winners there were teams like Olympiacos, Milan etc. available. No matter what there will be plenty of important games against big teams from February onwards so it's definitely best to just get out of the group stage unscathed and try to win as many league games as possible.

Ridiculous. Marco van Ginkel could still have a future at this club and looks like he's willing to work hard for it. Going to Milan on loan might not have been the end of his career at Chelsea because there was no indication whatsoever that the loan would have been one with a view to make the deal permanent next year so clearly the club just wants him to develop as much as possible and thought it would be good for him to spend a year away but he had other ideas and I'm pretty sure Mourinho will love the kind of attitude he's showing.With MvG being a relatively cheap player by Chelsea standards, the club has absolutely no risk here but the player himself is risking one season during the most crucial years of his development to stay here and show he's got what it takes. He will have no guarantees that he will play but he's willing to stick around in hopes of getting a chance and making the most of it. Don't know about you but for me that's an exceptionally good attitude he's showing there. Torres on the other hand has been at the club for thee and a half years and is clearly not up to the challenge of being a player of Chelsea FC. At the moment he's just leeching precious resources of the club without offering anything in return so if he were to decline Milan's offer it would be purely from a financial perspective and it's more than understandable for fans, who are paying his wages (regular match going fans of course more than others), to be displeased with the kind of attitude he would then be showing. Fans don't want him and neither does Mourinho so if he decides to stay past his welcome just because he can't get that kind of money elsewhere he deserves all the abuse he would get.

You're forgetting that Torres has been here for two months of the season, with July 1st being the turning point. In that time he has already been paid around £1.6m in wages so it will have to be considered there. Now, if he does go the rest of his transfer fee's £18.2m amortisation will become due and considering the £1.6m wages already paid to him the total figure left should be somewhere around the £19.8 million mark. If Milan are paying £10m with the club only ever seeing £4m of that money and the rest going straight to Torres' bank account, he would then have approximately £15.8m left on the books and therefore around £2.7m saved when compared to the £18.5m he would cost if he stayed. There may also be some payments to Torres' agent or something so the guys analyzing these figures will always use a low estimate to be on the safe side, therefore to say £1-2m saved could be pretty accurate. Not much would change this year but next season's £18.5m saving would be HUGE.

Just one source reporting it so far. Rob Beasley is close to Jose, that much is true, but then again I wouldn't really be surprised if this was just another one of Mourinho's mind games ahead of a big match where we'll be facing two of our former strikers. If he really is injured, I seriously hope it's not a bad one. A couple of weeks wouldn't really hurt us that much because we only have one game and after that it will be time for an international break but anything more than that and we're fucked.