Chelsea Legend 11

Wow... Loan him to Scunthorpe.

The pieces were there but didn't have any glue. NOW we have a squad capable of winning everything! And guess what Real Madrid? We haven't spent near a half billion in the last couple years to do it!

So direct and accurate too. I can't remember the last time we had a distributor who could pick passes from range first time. The fact that I was in awe of Luiz when he hit a few speaks volumes. Proper footballer and Jose has obviously drilled him to get it forward quickly.

More like it. -Cesc is fucking class! No nonsense, direct football. Love the early ball over the top and the understanding that Costa already has with him. This is going to be a fun year... -Costa is a beast! We have a footballer who can use the ball and an assassin in front of goal again. Love that he gets on the half turn and looks to get in behind the defenders. -Zouma had an incredible game. Looked a lot more confident and composed... Still needs to work on his positioning but on another day could've had a hat trick. -Chalobah showed some nice quality on the ball and also broke things up a bit. Be interesting to see what we do with him this year. -Ake probably played his best game as left back both defending and going forward. If he can build on that performance he could be a decent option as a squad guy because he can already play a few positions. -Salah had a couple plays but aside from a couple moves he was poor. Really need to see more from him, he's played an awful lot and hasn't really impressed. When the big boys come back he's gonna get buried. -Torres didn't look too bad playing up top with Costa, he started well and linked up nicely a couple times. If he doesn't score next game he's in trouble... That was an awful miss, you'd have to really try hard for that not to go in... Having seen the presence and impact Cesc and Costa have on the XI I'm so looking forward to the start of the season! And Didier's back too!

Kurt Zouma having a fantastic game this time out.

Yes Lukaku scores goals but he's not proper Chels, he's a little cry baby.

My point is he scores goals.

He scores goals.

This is gonna be a fantastic year.

I never understood why people think the shape needs to be ridged. "oh looks like 3-5-2 now Azpi and Luis look to be getting forward at times." LOL people move around the pitch its part of the game!

Of course but our set formation is still 4-2-3-1. Everyone expected that to change and for Oscar to play next to Matic even though all last year when we played 4-3-3 Oscar never played

Big news today is Fab playing in the pivot. I'm not surprised but I know many were saying we'd be switching back to 4-3-3.... Not so much. As I said before too much investment has been made for us to switch back to 4-3-3.

Fernando Torres has 683 pages I guarantee no one would care if he left either.

Who cares... So long as its for a decent fee he won't be missed. We'll just buy someone else.

GIve me Benteke over Lukaku...

Hilarious. For those of you who keep making the ridiculous comment that if we lose Costa for a stretch of time we're screwed, how does having Lukaku make that less of an issue? He's not exactly the type of guy that can win games for us on his own. If we lose our no.1 striker we don't have anyone in the ranks who can power us to the title whether its Lukaku, Torres or Drogba.

I think a few of you forget how poor he was when given the chance! Did next to nothing against seriously weak opposition. Swindon???

Oh ya, Mata and match fitness.... LOL. After signing with Chelsea how long did it take for Willian to make his debut? De Bruyne was given loads of chances and didn't take any of them... He started against a shit team like Swindon and was invisible, played again against Arsenal and was even more disappointing. I don't know what you guys want do you want to win or play give guys million chances to play just so you can say you were right about them when the ball deflects off their chin into an empty net in a 3-0 game? You need to take the opportunities that are presented to you, this isn't a midtable club who don't have 100's of options waiting for a chance to prove themselves.

And I'm not convinced Lukaku is Chelsea quality anyway. The way we want to play doesn't play to his strengths

You think its Jose I think its Lukaku... Stalemate reached. Nothing in life should be guaranteed you need to fight for your position, if Lukaku is unwilling to fight with a terrible Torres and a 36yr old Drogba for second fiddle then I don't want him at the club anyway. Need to have more self belief than that.

He will score a bagful of goals for a second rate team. Also, we'll only be crying over Lukaku if Costa fails and whoever we buy to replace Lukaku ends up being not as good. I only want players who WANT to be here and fight for the badge, if Lukaku would rather ply his trade elsewhere, so be it... We will find a suitable replacement and still win the league. The success or lack thereof of this club is not tied to Lukaku, we have the ability to attract the best players in the world so if he goes out another will come in at some point. If he doesn't sign an extension there is no proof he is willing to stay here and fight for a place.

Ya he's a 93.

We sold Sturridge because he wanted to leave and didn't want to sign an extension, he was in the final year of a contract and we were fortunate to get as much as we did for him. I didn't want to see him go thought he had bags of potential the season he was given his chance he got injured and couldn't feature... We went into that season with only he and Torres so surely chances were going to come. He opted to leave on account of what happened the season before where AVB took a hard stance and told him he was going to play the wing for him.

I'm sure we'll find a crack to creep through. He just turned 21 in March isn't u-21 applicable to anyone under the age of 21 before the turn of the calendar? Not sure. Anyway something tho think about! ;-)

I'm not worried, the success of this season isn't tied to Romelu Lukaku. We just bought the most clinical striker in europe and the 4th highest goal scorer overall. We came off a season where a couple of HIGHLY questionable decisions didn't go our way and in the end we lost out on the title by 4pts(first season back under the boss, players getting used to his philosophy) not to mention we went to the semis of the champions league one home win away from the finals with a plethora of important injuries to compensate for. Lukaku wants to be the main man and in the squad we've assembled its clear he's not close to that level. If he would rather go play for a second rate team and not push himself against the best, (and by not signing an extension that is an indication that this is likely the scenario) then he's already proven to me long before he's stepped onto the pitch that he's not proper Chels. The board have done a fantastic job turning wantaways(Mata, DeBruyne) into gold and I trust they have targets in mind should Romelu go. The key here for me is he has two yrs left on his deal so its imperative we lock him down this summer or risk not getting true value on the dollar. Haven't heard a whisper about an extension and all the talk from Lukaku is he wants to go elsewhere... Whether he stays and learns from one of the best or he goes is not my concern because the success of this club doesn't hinge on him being in the squad. We were missing goals last year and addressed that in a major way with Costa. Drogba coming back gives us an added dimension we also didn't have even if only 20mins left in the game. We also strengthened in other areas and will have Matic from the start of the season along side Fab... Honestly guys if Lukaku doesn't see himself fighting for his place and the badge don't let the door hit you on the way out. My concern is we get a decent price for him and reinvest it into the development of our squad.