Jype

I lol'd at "Humble guy".

Is that instagram stuff actually even true? I checked and he doesn't have any Chelsea related pictures there but there aren't too many others either so maybe he's deleted pretty much everything. On Twitter he still has a profile picture of him with the Champions League trophy from 2012 and plenty of other CFC pictures as well.

Maybe he's going to Liverpool and it's just their PR department working their usual magic. Next thing we know Bertrand is holding a Liverpool shirt and praising their history while calling us a plastic club. Or maybe not. Either way I'm having a hard time figuring out why he's so bitter all of a sudden.

Read my post above yours. He was good at Lille and there was a time when I even considered him a good option for us but he's been quite bad for a couple of years now and at 29 he still cost Arsenal £12m, at least twice as much than where he was valued a few years ago when he was still younger and in much better form. Maybe his bad form is because of the teams he's played for: Lille without Cabaye, Hazard etc. and especially without manager Rudi Garcia was not a good squad anymore and we all know the state Newcastle have been in for the last couple of years but what if there's more to the story than that? No way to know for sure and that's why I find it funny that people are thinking Arsenal somehow got a bargain for £12m whereas we overspent by getting Luis for £16m.

Costa doesn't look a day older than Thomas Müller, 24.

The bromance is over. I agree. The £4,7m will still cover his remaining £4m FFP book value and to get him off the wage bill is good. Last season he cost the club around £6m with the fee amortisation and wages but now there's around £5m 'profit' for the 14/15 fiscal year. Still good business IMO.

http://www.kap.gov.tr/bildirim-sorgulari/bildirim-detayi.aspx?id=371845 Confirmed, €6m in five installments. Was expecting it to be more tbh.

One of these depending on the opposition. The one on the right is something I predict Mourinho to use against the top teams, especially away from home. These lineups are giving me a boner.

I wasn't saying Debuchy is not a good signing, in fact I think he'll do well for them and was a much better signing than that Serge Aurier kid would have been. Anyone would find it hard to impress in the shambles of a team that is Newcastle United and before going there Debuchy while at Lille was actually along with Azpilicueta my preferred choice for our RB two years ago so I know he's a good player. I just find it funny that pretty much no one is questioning the amount Arsenal paid for him despite the fact he's also 29 before the season starts and has not been in good form for ages now but then a lot of opposition fans are saying our capture of Luis, who was consistently one of Atletico's best players in the last two seasons when they won a bunch of trophies, will be a flop due to his age and the price we paid for him which was actually not that much more than what Arsenal paid for Debuchy. I know we should never be surprised at fickle football fans having double standards but this one's really something.

Arsenal: replaced Sagna, who refused to sign an extension, with a 29-year-old Debuchy who based on the last couple of seasons is certainly is not better than Sagna. Transfer fee £12m Chelsea: replaced Cole, who the club didn't consider good enough for an extension, with a 29-year-old Luis who has been one of the best left-backs in the in the last couple of seasons. Transfer fee £16m, if reports are to be believed. Not bad Chelsea, not bad at all.

Liverpool transfer hit-list now includes Arturo Vidal, Paul Pogba and Marco Reus Most hilarious rumour I've read in the transfer window so far.

I think it's the nicest away kit we've had in years.

"Many inferring that Varane is unhappy with his current deal - and wants a significant boost in his £25,000 a week wages." Varane gets only £25k a week at Real Madrid? That's pretty fucked up when we think about how much all the other first teamers are earning. Anyway, think he'll get a new contract soon enough and our name is just being used as a leverage to get as much money as possible. Would love to be proven wrong though.

Rio at QPR

I agree, at the moment there's really no way to know for sure how Jose is going to set up the team. However, a fair assumption can be made that if Mourinho has identified the left-back position to be a problem enough for him to spend a massive amount of money on a player who was arguably the best in the world at his position last season, he would then at least be played in a role best suited to him and that is definitely a more attacking role than we saw Azpilicueta play last season. Azpilicueta, being a right footed player playing on the left, was forced to play a more restricted role while Ivanovic who is most certainly not known for his attacking contributions other than set-pieces was always allowed to bomb forward. I would hazard a guess that now with Luis who's much better offensively than Ivanovic the roles would be reversed.

Just because he's not a headless chicken like Marcelo who can only attack while neglecting his duties in defense doesn't mean Luis is not good going forward. We all saw at the World Cup how good Brazil's full-backs actually were... Luis IMO is a complete player, great balance between attack / defense and I consider him to be perfect for Hazard. If we only had a full-back who's a complete liability at the back we could see Hazard's role being even more restricted as last season because he'd have to cover for the LB a lot.

Good news IMO, as a Mikel replacement for the backup DM role we could do a lot worse. Romeu's wages are not that high so keeping him around won't cost the club a lot of money but in case he really manages to put the injuries behind him and starts fulfilling his huge potential he could end up being a very valuable player for us for little money, compared to what keeping Mikel let alone signing a player like Khedira would cost us. And if over the course of the season he proves not to be up for it, then there's still Tiago whose arrival looks imminent. Had Romeu been sold now with less than a year left on his contract and big question marks looming over his development as a player he would not have gone for much.

2014/15 game launched earlier today, time to start a new thread and re-create the TC leagues?

And still no Thibaut Courtois, whoever's running the website is clueless.

Bamford most likely, unless Jose plans to try Piazon up front to see if he's got what it takes to play as a lone striker. Bamford was scoring lots of goals in League One and Championship last season.

I'm not buying that. Mikel is on around £80k a week and these days paying that for a player in his prime with almost a decade of experience in top level football for a club of Chelsea's stature is not at all unreasonable. He's a player whose game is not based on his physical attributes, at least not pace, so he should still have at least another five or six years left before he starts to decline so I'm having a really hard time figuring out why no one is interested. Hell, only less than six months ago Milan were happy to take Essien off our hands and he was way past it and still on high wages. Italian football would fit Mikel like a glove IMO. I know that despite things starting to look better in recent times some of the clubs over there are still not doing too well financially and paying Mikel's wages would be a big investment for them but if the transfer fee itself is more than reasonable, at least compared to some of the other fees they are paying over there (i.e. Iturbe to Roma for €30m), it could end up being some really good business to someone. And if none of the Italians want him, there's still Turkey who have a bunch of rich clubs and are no strangers to paying good wages to some big name players.

Don't even need to go that far back to see some massive changes. Cech, Bosingwa, Luiz, Cahill, Cole, Mikel, Lampard, Kalou, Mata, Bertrand, Drogba Subs: Turnbull, Ferreira, Essien, Romeu, Malouda, Sturridge, Torres The team that won us the Champions League. Seven of the starting lineup already gone with both Bertrand and Mikel also on their way out and Cech about to be replaced as the number one keeper. From the bench we only have Romeu and Torres left but they'll both be gone once we find someone willing to take them off our hands so of the whole 18 man squad only Cahill remains firmly in our plans going forward. Of course Terry, Ivanovic and Ramires were suspended but still, some huge changes in just two years time.

What's that, some kind of a hybrid of Big Phil Scolari and David Luiz?

Look there posts above.

He later stated he's not so sure if Pasalic is eligible. He said Delac is not available because of the work permit and someone pointed out that Pasalic, like Delac, is also from Croatia so he might not have one either. Or maybe Pasalic has a work permit but we just don't know about it? He did make the preliminary WC squad after all so might have got one on the exceptional talent rule? Another thing worth noting from that list is that players like Bertrand, McEachran, Marin and Kakuta are not there despite being available. Pretty much confirms none of them has a future at the club. And before anyone says Terry is not there either, @chelseayouth did correct that later.