Jase

Chelsea TV currently showing 'The Best of Jose Mourinho' documentary...

All of Lampard's 203 goals. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x100vzf_lampard-203_sport#from=embediframe

Don't quite get the love-in for Martinez by the English media. Plays beautiful football yes but there is a distinct lack of mention that his Wigan always concede goals from all directions, sometimes with their kamikaze style of play as well as defending, and also Wigan has always been in the relegation battle during this time there. There doesn't seem to be any sort of progression there. Heck, even Steve Bruce's Wigan has finished higher in the league! And not to mention, Martinez is like a broken record every time he speaks to the media.

This is just absolutely pathetic. Ba has basically become a target for criticism by Torres's fangirls because of his supposed improvement in form. It is beyond me how on earth can people still defend Torres after 2 years of waiting for the 'real' Torres turn up but didn't! At this point, it appears that people have been influenced by Torres's goals and allowed it to cloud their judgment. As much as Torres scored a few goals in the Europa League on the way to winning the competition, lets not forget who we actually faced in it - Sparta Prague, Steaua Bucharest, Rubin Kazan, Basel and Benfica. Except for the Benfica game, which he did well in it TBF, the rest were against 3rd or even 4th tier oppositions and there wasn't much challenge for him in those games. And yet when Torres did play in the Premier League in some of the last few games, he hardly did anything of note. The game at Anfield and home encounter against Spurs are clear examples of it. Ba has probably got himself into more goalscoring positions in matches than Torres probably has during this time here. Had Ba scored converted more of the chances he missed in those league games, this Torres-Ba issue wouldn't even be a debate right now.

Not too sure if I agree with the 2nd point there but yeah. Rotating keepers is just plain silly. There won't be any consistency in the defence! And I also made this point recently about Courtois in his thread.

Oh joy. Yet more of the same stories. Mourinho wants to keep this fella, sell that player, buy this player bla bla bla. And yet the most important news here is missing...

This is something that bothers me TBH. I know the club is now adopting the policy of buying young and upcoming talents but at times looking through all the transfer stories, it feels as though we are just buying them for the sake it as opposed to have any real actual planning behind buying these players to form a proper squad. At the moment, our team has so many youngsters and we continue buy even more without looking to have a right balance of youth and experience in them. Been saying this numerous times, we need to get the more senior (and quality) players, like 25 to 30 y/o, who can come in and straight away do the job for us especially in key areas of the team that needs to be fixed but isn't exactly been done right now. Also through this way, it will lead to us a smooth path that by the time those players reach their 30s or around that, the young players we have now can come in and take their place for the team. Continuing to buy tons of youngsters will lead us to nowhere next time. Most of them probably won't be happy being rotated with others, especially when they need to play week in week out to develop, and would want to leave.

WHY DID YOU WARN HIM ABOUT IT?!!

Aah I see. It looks cute.

@Hutcho, silly question perhaps () but which dog breed is that?

Lets just say I don't trust your source...

So that means we'll be playing Inter, Valencia and AC Milan then? Seriously, what's with us playing the Milan teams almost every year in pre-season?!

Well, I do not want to go completely jump the gun. Wait for the official announcement.

Holloway, di Canio and possible Mourinho all in the Premier League next season. Oh my.

Kinda disagree on a few things in the article. As much as Turnbull is nowhere near a top class keeper and is a bit dodgy sometimes, to just rate him 2/10 seems nonsensical. Unless my memory have gone completely wrecked, he hasn't really committed any apparent mistakes in the games he played in, which you mentioned barring probably the Brentford away FA Cup game. And think people have also forgotten that he replaced Cech at HT against Everton at Goodison Park last December and coped well with the shots/pressure he faced. That 2/10 rating to me feels more of a case of judging him based on his reputation as opposed to his actual performances. On the subject of judging a player based on his reputation, same case goes with Ferreira. I'm not denying the fact that he has done alright whenever been called upon but to even rate him at all when he has made just 7 appearances all season with only 2 of them as starts make very little sense. Think there should be a minimum requirement perhaps in terms number of starts etc if a player is to be judged. That way, we can probably gauge the rating of the performances better. And also, I think you're being too generous with your ratings on Luiz, Cole, Ivanovic and Cahill. Each of them did have their own great moment(s) over the course of the season but ultimately, the trio of Cole, Ivanovic and Cahill had an average season and proved to be disappointing after the high standards and quality performances that they have set themselves to be at and we, as fans, come to expect but didn't get it. Azpilicueta was arguably our best defender all season - defended better than all of our other defenders and was consistent from start to finish, especially when you consider it's his debut season in England, and to be rated at 8/10, only 0.5 more than Cole and Ivanovic doesn't do him any justice in terms of his actual performances. If you are to give Cahill 7, Cole and Ivanovic 7.5, then Azpilicueta should probably be getting like 8.5, 9 or 9.5. Even Cech can probably be compared here, despite the different position, when his performances have been consistent from the very first game till the last and he saved loads of times in games as well. To give him an 8 only, again, doesn't do him justice whatsoever.

Think the most important game or result that set us on the way to getting Champions League football was the 1-0 win against United at Old Trafford. It was an extremely crucial win that gave us more momentum and confidence heading into the final few games. That game came after we played Basel away in the Europa League IIRC and after the number of games we have played this season, the players were probably already running on an empty tank. But getting the late goal and winning such a huge game especially after both Arsenal and Spurs won the previous day, gave the players a lift, renewed energy and momentum heading into the last few games. And not to mention, it put us 3 points ahead of Spurs then going into that head-to-head clash and giving us that small cushion or insurance policy in case things go wrong then but of course didn't. Had we not beaten United then, who knows what could have happened. As we have sometimes seen in the past, nerves could really kick in and we might well have messed up the last few games (thankfully we didn't) and not finish in the Top 4. At that point of the season, any wins like that and continuing the winning run(as we were then) can help the players forget about tiredness and push them over the finishing line and achieve our targets.

Thread merged.

Not another Star Wars-Chelsea related meme!

It originated from Bild, which is believed to be rubbish. Think it was already made clear that no decision will be made on KDB till we get our next manager in.

Rui Faria is there...

Speaking of Juventus, here's an article about Conte potentially changing his formation (again)... http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/juventus/id/814?cc=4716

This! At least that was what CHOULO told me yesterday...

Speaking about Mourinho and Ibrahimovic, it's worth remembering that Jose traded the latter for Eto'o in his second season at Inter and he apparently even said the Eto'o is better than Ibrahimovic. So, that might be some sort of indication of their relationship already.