Leif

OH MY GOD TORRES YOU ARE SO BAD, JUST STOP IT, PLEASE.

Oscar AKA God.

I feel Ake doesn't have the best agility or urgency, but everything else has been great so far. Yay. :blue scalf:

I wish Mata would drop deep like Oscar does. It benefits our play so much. This is why Oscar is a playmaker while Mata is only an attacking midfielder (but a bloody great one) in my eyes.

I run faster than Torres and I'm 20lbs overweight...

Terry is out of position so much these days. I don't like it.

Ramires - Ake... what a partnership so far. So much energy.

A Torres shot... out for a throw-in... again.

MOSES IS GREAT

AKE IS SO COMPOSED AND GOOD WHAT IS THIS

Benayoun, again, is very underrated by people on here. Loads probably don't realise it but he's probably the main reason for us pressing so high at the moment. He's an attacking player who often wins back possession which I just love.

Oh dat header from Ake mmm

Apparently Ake is actually good in midfield and I need to brush up on our youth

...Ake in midfield? Why? Because he looks like Gullit + Luiz? He's not a midfielder at all. Strange, but excited to see him play - very excited.

Ashley Cole made his Arsenal debut when he was 18 in the League Cup. Luke Shaw is 17 and has been amongst the best and most consistent full-backs in the Premier League this season. Just, yeah.

It's rare these days for top footballers to actually support Chelsea in this country. It always seems to be Arsenal or Livershite, with a few of them liking Man Utd. There'd be more heart in a player who actually supports the club and is a great player than playing some Dutch guy who's suspect at defending yet good at going forward (PvA) and likely supports Ajax or something. There is room for sentiment in football, and when a great player comes along, people shouldn't be so quick to dismiss him. I can still absolutely not believe he is 17. I haven't seen an English 17 year old be this good since, what, Rooney? Maybe Wilshere? In an ideal world I'd buy Shaw, bleed him into the team as Cole's deputy and sell Bertrand in part-exchange to Southampton so he can finally be a starting Premier League full-back, maybe with PvA being a back-up option here once Cole leaves and Shaw is #1. I just don't feel either Bertrand nor PvA are good enough for us as starters.

They're paying too much, but they back up what they spend. We've spent £50m on Torres, half that on Luiz, £35m on Hazard, around £27m on Mata, £20m on Oscar etc. We've actually spent around the same as them if we date back to the Torres purchase - and since then, of course we have a CL title, but their current team in the CL - we are not. And they're on course to win their league - we are not. They also have a board and backroom staff who are built for football; many of which are ex-AC Milan. They've got one of the best managers in the world and market themselves really well while also communicating with the fans.

Surely a similar group to the one that owns PSG could come along and buy us from The Russian (in theory)? PSG seem to be doing things the right way. A very good board, smart transfers, bringing in a player like Beckham to increase the brand etc. (I really doubt Becks was brought in as actual cover for midfield.)

In the 1998 season, almost half a decade before Roman had even sniffed out this club as a potential suitor for his cash, we lost out on winning the Premier League by 5 points (4 points would have tied us at the top with us losing on GD). Say what you want about our debts, that the opposition 'wasn't as good' back then (Manchester United were far better back then IMO) and talk about variables and guessing such as 'who else would buy us and invest so much in us?', but the fact is, we don't need Roman. We can still exist without Roman. You don't need his type of investment to compete for the title. He is not essential to this club. (Also in the same season we reached the QF of the F.A. Cup & League Cup while winning the UEFA Super Cup.) Our starting XI cost around £24m. Obviously there's now inflation to take into consideration, but back then compared to the other top teams in the world that was still really not that much for a full XI, especially one just 5 points off winning the Premier League.

I have nothing to say regarding a transfer, but I do have to say, yes, he's one of the very best. He's just overlooked because of the league he's in.

Being?

The last paragraph was me actually stating what I've both heard and seen. Where did you get that from? I'm sure he loves our money, yeah.

Liverpool have fallen. Arsenal have fallen. AC Milan have fallen. Juventus had fallen. Tottenham have risen. Manchester City have risen. PSG have risen. Valencia have fallen. Lyon keep yo-yo-ing. Inter Milan have fallen. Borussia Dortmund have again risen. Yet people think we're some exclusive magic club that'll never fall and just somehow sit at the top of the football world without merit? No. We can and will fall unless things change soon.

Not anymore really. Love the past though. Lampard & Terry will be gone soon, leaving just Cech from the legends era. Sure, I love Mata and..oh and Cole, but the other aspects of the club would have me considering myself a lunatic to say I liked. Chelsea is like a wife you've been with for years. You're now used to it and love it, but that doesn't mean you like it's traits still. I'm not going to just divorce old Chelsea and marry on-the-rise Tottenham or prettier Arsenal, am i?