BlueLyon

If thats true, we are far from signing him. Generaly, its fair price but I doubt Benfica will accept it. This could last for whole month, i wish if we have any intention on buying new players, we should do it as soon as possible. But obviously, if they accept it, it would be great deal; Matic for 20mio in january, not bad.

Couldnt watch game, but I saw lot of positive talk about Matic, yet here its like he had below average game. Seems that some people dont understand situation. Matic is not world class DM, there is no available world class DM and this guy is the best bet we can get right now. He is miles ahead of Guarin and equaly good to Bender, another player who is rated highly. He will improve our midfield and he ie good enough to play for this team and will be even better once he settles in. I dont know what people expect from Matic, to be worlds best or what? He is hard worker who gives everything to the team and runs like mad. Has good ball control and defends well, half europe is looking for him, those who are lifetime Benfica fans say he is better than Witsel and Garcia together. If Mou decides he is good enough, he will buy him.

But we had Makelele/Essien-Ballack-Lamps partnership once and we were realy good, I might say even more efficient than most other teams. And we had no real playmaker then. Also if Matic comes, we will probably play 4:3:3 with midfield of Ramires-Matic-Oscar, Oscar is good playmaker and will only get better and dont forget we have very creative Hazard and Willian, who are in my opinion few levels higher than Asamoah, Lichtensteiner, DiMaria, Ronaldo,...in terms of playmaking. Hazard and Willian can play as #10, while those players at Juve and Real are typical wingers/wing-backs. Juve has Pirlo and thats it. We have Oscar, Hazard, Willian. There is difference. We might be good with deep playmaker, but I think we need all round CM like Matic more. We need someone who can run whole game and cover whole midfield, protect back 4. And Matic is quite decent in attack to. He made some amazing runs vs us in last year Europa league final.

If he is valued at 40mio, why would they sell him for 20-30? They sold Witsel for 40 and they said that Matic is even better than Witsel. Unless we have some release clause or Benfica is in huge financial trouble, they simply wont sell him for cut price. I hope we buy him though, summer should be priority for striker, Lb and possibly CB, I doubt we will look for CM too, 3 top players are just too much in summer...one problem needs to be solved in january.

I remember FIFA 11 & 12, Lille and Hazard were two things I never had enough playing with. Only after I bought ''future talent'' on Fifa 11, I started watching Hazard IRL and boy, he was amazing already back then. The moment when we signed him was like ''I dont have to buy him for my Chelsea team anymore'' haha. And now he is, one of best players at age 23.

As soon as Courtois will put soo good performances here at Chelsea, I would think we might use him as our #1 GK, but as long he is someone who never played single game for us, I would stick to Cech. Courtois is one for future, but Cech is 31 (and we dont have such great defence as 5 years ago), he is still doing very well and puts his best in biggest games. Courtois is 21 and except for Casillas, there are realy few GKs who kept pressure at highest level at such young age. Best GKs are older ones and its not like Cech was terrible in last couple years. He is good and experienced GK, besides that a legend and I dont see point of just replacing him with Courtois who needs to show it HERE first. Lukaku is amazing at Everton too, but he wasnt here, Danny or Torres were good at Lpool, but not here etc. I dont dislike Courtois, I realy realy like him and would never sell him, because he is most probably best young GK in the world. But Cech is still here and I dont want to replace him just yet. When Cech arrived to us, he already put WORLD CLASS performances on Euro 2004 when they reached semis. He was still brought as back up for Cudicini and proved himself to be better. Same should do Courtois. If he cant handle pressure here, he just isnt mentaly ready and I dont want him as our first choice GK that soon. He should be given a chance and thats it. If he makes it, he is #1, if he fails he goes on another loan. Dont just put him between sticks and get rid of Cech because Thibaut is doing well in Spain. Premier League and Chelsea is another level of pressure, and no GK is good if he cant handle it. If we couldnt do it with Lukaku, who had great season in PL and we had terrible strikers, I dont see why would Jose put Courtois ahead of Cech who is still world class. Put them both in team (if possible) and see who does better (I doubt any will want to stick on bench, but solution could be the one who does better stays, while other can leave either sold or loaned in january). If Courtois is truly loyal to Chelsea, he will accept another PL loan if that is required though. Im sure Jose will know best and do what is right with Cech and Courtois.

If the problem is that he is soo good because Atletico's defence, then buy their defence too , afterall we are in need of LB and CB (eventualy); Filipe Luis, Godin and Miranda are all quite superb defenders.

Im pretty sure Monaco is equaly strong financialy to us (I think they are even crazier nowdays when comes to spend money easily), while Inter; sure they cant compete with neither two, they lack money and reputation atm. I think we are interested in Zouma, but not desperate, he is more an option than a priority. Certainly he is fine player and Mourinho bought Varane when he was in RM which resulted in fantastic buy. Surely Zouma could be our Varane.

Considering Lamps is out for some time, Mikel with Nigeria, Essien could be sold and Ginkel injured, I can see us buying another mid or Luiz will play in midifeld for several games from now on...

Another game, another world class display. With every game, its more evident that Mou is making him the key player and we rely on him far too much. But Eden is doing fantastic so far. His dribbling was always superb, but his finishing is amazing aswell, he only needs to get used to shoot more and he will also become more efficient and deadly.

7 games, 1 conceded goal. That is how Chelsea plays. Well done. Little boring match, second half was better, Hazard was quite amazing again and I prefer Torres who plays average whole game, but scores, rather than one who links great, but has 10 sitters missed. As for Cole goes, he is still reliable in defence, but he lost all his energy/stamina/pace and he is nowhere in attack nowdays. Left flank is terrible and we need to adress this issue in summer. But if you ask me, Cole would still be great choice for back up LB though. His experience is still there and could put a fine performance in big game if needed.

Another short gap CB would be Pepe, who is fantastic this year and certainly isnt "butcher" anymore but has become RM most reliable cb ahead Ramos or Varane. He is proper aged and would be great gap before we establish another young cb liKe Zouma or Schar. However I doubt it would ever happen due to his relatio with Mou, his age, fact that he is best CB at real and Carlo knows it. But would be great, I always wanted to see Pepe in PL, he seems properly agressive, fast and class CB. Would certainly makw our defence realy strong.

I think main problem with Luiz is his partner. That is what makes difference between his performances for Brazil (with Silva) or Chelasea (Terry). Terry is good defender, but he is way past his best and main problem is his mobility. On other hand, Silva is just on peak and a great mobile CB with lot of energy, speed and organization. I believe Terry isnt same leader of defence he once was, and there could be reason why Luiz isnt as effective as he is in brazil. A fine example is Pique. When Puyol was still world class CB (in years after Pique arrival back from ManU), Pique was nearly world class CB, despite he was younger. As soon as Puyol started to decline, Pique become worse aswell. Puyol was giving him leadership, coverd up more space and was more reliable even if Pique would make mistake, Puyol could fix it. But Puyol got old and Pique had no proper CB alongside, thats why he was much worse defender. There are two types of CBs: one are leaders (Terry, Puyol, Silva) and second are those who are world class only if they play next to leaders (Carvalho,Pique, Luiz). I think Luiz will be realy good only if he will play next to someone who is natural leader and in his best years, a reliable and confident CB. Luiz has little self improvement left, but it matters a lot to hin with who he plays. That makes him world class (along Silva) or just average/good (along Terry who is past it).

And that guy Hoiberg (or sth) is pretty good talet too..

Matic aint better player than Yaya, but point is how certain player links with rest of team. Yaya is great individual, but Matic could offer much more to the team eventualy. Like Ozil vs Oscar. Ozil is clearly the better player (with vision and creativity that Oscar might never have), but Oscar is the man who helps his team win. Link up, attack, defend, he has it all. That wins you games, collective game and not individual players (unless you are Messi).

Bayern with Kross, Shaqiri, Thiago, Gotze/Muller...already on bench will still sign Rode. Wtf seriously...

Football is about bussiness and shit, but its also about passion, loyalty and respect. Im not saying we should either sell or keep Cech (its up to Mourinho and not us), but there are some things bigger than money. Its hard to speak of that nowdays, when its all about money, but clubs who are run by money have little soul and respect. Chelsea is already hated club and called names like anti football, fake club etc. As a fan of Chelsea, I would like that we change some things, and that people will talk about us as a good club. Afterall, football was always people's entertainment and we seriously have no respect among non Cfc fans, a value that should be taken seriously. Its not just about Cech situation, but about how clubs should be run nowdays. Cech is a legend, and legends should be given proper treatment. Sure the better player will play, but to say just sell Cech after all he has done, its just a statement of terrible fan. Call me sensitive, but reason why I like to watch football is because of passion, not because of winning trophies every year. If we win them, that just comes as extra gift for me.

I think we will regret this sale eventualy, but right now, its better for him to leave and play football.

I agree Yaya is one of best midfielders, but he is terrible in defending, same as was Song at Arsenal...

Whole last season I wished we had someone like him in the squad. He was awesome in Bremen and Belgium, he offers something no other midfielder we have can, could potentialy play in Gerrard's position, yet we are about to sell him, he didnt even got a real chance... I dont know what went soo wrong with this guy and Mourinho for not playing him. Sure, there are other players ahead of Kdb, but he should at least get a chance in Lamps position next to Mikel/Essien in carling or fa cup, but... Too bad for this, just another proof we cant deal with young players properly, seems like another Sturridge/Matic who will explode in his next club. Dont even consider selling this guy for less than 20m and without buyout clause...

Im not sure but isnt that when player has just half year on contract and over 23 years old? And he can negotiate with new club without permission of the current club. Same as Lewa and Bayern. He signed contract half year before his current one expires. Still, I think he wont move before summer. If he will move anyway...would be awesome to see announcement on cfc page on 1st february that we signed him though Rooney, Matic, Zouma, good LB and Lukaku back for next season and we are ready for quite some time.

He likes Chelsea, no doubt. He is same player he always was, but lacks play time and rhytm. But he has hell of a bad luck, he will I think never be a starter again here, unless he somehow evolves into what Mou wants from him. Maybe he needs more time to adopt, but I doubt it. He is what he is, and he doesnt fit Mou's system. Its love story with bad ending, Im afraid...

If there wasnt such love from Mou to Rooney (and possibly vice-versa), I wouldnt believe any rumour, but in this case, something might actualy happen. I would love him now, but there is little chance he would come in summer, not to say in January. He is best ManU player atm and they probably wouldnt sell him even for 50m, cuz if they do, they are soo fucked and wont see europe next season for sure. I cant count how many players rejected move publicly in last two seasons, its laughable (Cesc, Modric, Koke, De Rossi, Herrera, Reus,...)

Another superb option for bench (in case we sell Mata, Kdb, Moses,...) would be Antonio Candreva. This guy is soo fucking underrated its ridiculous...he makes amazing crosses and works hard wherever he plays. Very versatile and definately Lazio's best player of past two seasons. He is the type of player who isnt realy world class (and doesnt have that hype), but when he plays, he delivers what its expected from such player. I think he suits our play realy good and Im sure Mou would like a player like him. Tactical very sound and works hard. I doubt he would be starter here (but Im sure Mou would like him a lot), he would be incredible bench player who is actualy good enough to be starter. Main problem is if he would want to be squad player while he is main star in Lazio and italians in general dont like to move from Italy, but we realy lack team player; someone who's main work is to deliver crosses to striker on regular basis. Anyway I doubt this will ever happen, but Candreva would be perfect squad player you can imagine. Prority is CM/DM, striker and LB/CB, but if Mata indeed leaves, we will need a new attacking midfielder to replace Mata and Candreva is everything Mou could want from midfielder. He could start games, he could come of the bench, link up with players, defend, cross,...most importantly, he is tacticaly sound and would work great on counter attacks or when we park the bus if thats required.

Even if we are still interested and offer 30m, he wont go in january...