Chelsea Legend 11

That is without a doubt the minimum... Stoke get up for big teams but we can't be drawing there and calling ourselves champions elect.

Ivanovic is a nailed on starter, this is a physical team we will need his aerial ability for set pieces as well.

SIGN DI BLOODCLAAT TING NUH??? Anyways I really think he will go on to be a club legend. We will have him for his prime years which is just fantastic news!!! I don't doubt that in two years time we will be talking about another extension... We need to win to keep him happy, Jose is a serial winner so I'm content. Now Eden needs to put the contract nonsense behind him and start putting in consistent world beater performances.

Well said once again, there is a footnote to it... We have invested a lot of money and resources to the development of players like Schurrle and Salah, we need to show a return on that as well which is why pecking order is a valid reason as to why they are getting chances over our academy products. In time players like Boga and Baker will get a chance to play regular but I don't foresee that happening any time soon, it takes time and careful integration. Jose gave Solanke a 17yr old striker a debut... You may call it a cameo but where else in the history of this club (post Roman) has that ever happened? It should be viewed as a tremendous indication for the academy that they are producing players who will one day play for a top 4/5 club in the world. I know I tagged Barbara in this but I am directing this mainly at Skipper, Lionsden, Killer218211 and Strike, since Jose has been back at the club we've seen Baker, Ake, Solanke, Van Ginkel, Zouma, Loftus-Cheek, Christensen, Kalas(not exactly young but you get my point), all get opportunities to play, many of them got debuts with him. Its not going to happen overnight but the integration will take place in the near future! The priority now is to build a foundation of winning for the youth players to aspire to and set a standard of excellence for them to emulate! Integrating youth into a team that haven't won anything is not the way to carry on a winning tradition, you win first THEN you allow the youth to follow that example. I have no doubt that we will integrate academy players mainly because we have to! we don't have a lot of homegrown players in our first team and the ones we do have aren't exactly young. In time we will be forced to have them in the squad and as a result they will play, after that its up to them how many opportunities they get. So when Jose says he will have failed if youth players don't get into the squad its bang on! He will have failed because firstly, if we have to go into the market to buy homegrown talent in order to fill a quota we will be paying a king's ransom to get them! Also it would mean that we haven't really set up a decent bridging program for our youth to be integrated correctly into the first team. So yes Jose will have failed miserably if none of our academy products get into the team. Many would argue that getting into the squad isn't enough, that is true but at this club our aim is still to be the best in the world so we will also have to continue to buy talent abroad. What that means is youth players will find it difficult to find regular playing time if they aren't of the ilk of the players we have purchased, that is up to them, not Jose... If they aren't good enough to play at that level then we have to look elsewhere... why is that so hard to grasp? I for one believe in time Boga, Christensen, Ake and Cheek will be good enough to play for us perhaps even Baker, but it will be up to them to take their chances.

I don't think this is the season to risk things, we have a solid squad and in time(after we win a few trophies that reflect the investment made) we can start looking to bringing in academy kids. Its a slow process for a team looking to win major honours.

There is a risk involved and this isn't the season for it. You were suggesting we could still do just as well with young, inexperienced players so long as they are insulated with a strong team, well with our strongest XI we are exactly smashing these lesser teams so to suggest that the addition of inexperienced youth wouldn't be a risk is a bit of an oversight on your part.

are we smashing teams with our 1st team? stop living in a dream world brother, we aren't winning comfortably enough to suggest playing our youth over our squad players. If that were the case we would be playing the youth side more.

For the record it doesn't matter when in someone's career they sustain multiple long term injuries, if they happen one after there is definitely substantial evidence to call said player injury prone. Reus has had two very serious injuries same with Van Ginkel, to turn a blind eye to this now would be foolish. When Michael Essien was at the height of his powers no one ever dared use the term injury prone to describe him as a player, after that first ACON injury was followed by another the story flipped... I wish Van Ginkel well but two serious injuries so early in his career will definitely stunt his growth and calling him injury prone isn't exactly way off base either.

Well said Barbara, its like people think we're smashing teams 6-0 on the regular, we are winning games that are relatively close. Cup ties are like champions league finals against lesser sides, I would rather we win them then experiment with youth players. The first objective for this particular squad is to win things, we have a fantastic chance to do that in the COC Jose isn't going to jeopardize that by underestimating the opponent and playing kids over squad players... Its just naive and doesn't fit the investment the club have made to get us to this point.

Cup games are squad games for teams trying to win everything. As much as I'd like to see more youth get into the team I'm not adverse to the notion that it needs to be earned not handed to them.

But you're putting the youth players ahead of the squad players who need games as well. There is a pecking order that you seem to be ignoring... Boga, RLC and Ake are behind Ramires, Salah, Mikel, Schurrle.

Disagree. If Oscar is os important, Jose would find a way to play him even if it means playing him on the right flank.

Lets me real here for a second. firstly I love Ruben, I think he has a bright future ahead of him. He looks like he has the tools to be a real pro for years to come. However, lets not get carried away with the comparisons, Ruben will have to take a meteoric rise to be considered the talent that Pogba is. Pogba hasn't just been good enough to play for Juventus, he's become one of their most influential players at the age of 21, not to mention the fact he is also one of the most influential players on the French national team. Ruben will not be in a position to play meaningful games for Chelsea anytime soon, not because of Pogba but because we already have influential players way ahead of him in the pecking order(Matic, Fab, Ramires, Mikel and possibly Van Ginkel) if we were to buy Pogba the challenge for Loftus-Cheek is the same one Joe Cole faced when Jose came. He'd have to force his way into the team by proving he is at or near the standard of the players ahead of him. This is much harder now because the bar has been raised, we are talking about trying to crack a squad that is top 5 in the world and in it to win everything. Pogba at the age of 21 is proving he is of that quality.

Poor? LOL... 21 yr old who averages 2 tackles a game with the best team in Serie A while not playing a defensive position is exceptional. There are those who revere Oscar who plays a similar role for us, he gets about 2.5 a game. Pogba is far from poor positionally he is adventurous but that comes with the role of being box to box.

hardly a liability... I think that is a bit of an exaggeration. He can hold when called upon its just not what he does best.

I don't have to, I watch plenty of Pogba I know what he is capable of. He is a footballer first but he can definitely defend when called upon. You put him in a midfield 3 with Cesc and Matic and that is EASILY the best midfield in the world.

40m minus the money they owe us for Mutu!

You are right he is more box to box but Pogba can definitely sit if asked to.

Think you're right we've already seen it in the league anyway. Mikel will likely pair with Matic to everyone's dismay but me of course. Ramires might get in there too...

Not sure he did actually. not a big deal but I didn't see a red there.

Nah he wouldn't have gotten onto that.

Wasn't exactly a clear cut chance, goalie did well to come out and challenge

soft red

You're a fucking moron.

What's that? I'm sorry I don't speak Corky.