TorontoChelsea

There is some moronic stuff on this thread (mostly the same laughable internet propaganda and selective quoting), but this takes the cake and is really indicative of how nonsense can spread through the internet.. First off, most Israelis are not from Eastern Europe. Over 50% are from North Africa and the Middle East. Second of all, it doesn't matter. Where are most Canadians from? Most Australians? Most Americans? Most Argentinians? Australians? The answer is the same. Europe. Being an immigrant country is not unique in the world, it is standard. Third of all, home? You know why Jews left right? They were massacred and brutalized in Europe and the Middle East for centuries. There are 7 million people for whom Israel is the only home they have. Fourth of all, Israel acts like a bully but since when does acting like a bully or killing people mean a country has to be dismantled? Nothing creates this. Does Turkey need to be dismantled? They have done far worse things than Israel. (Actual genocide for one) How about Sri Lanka? Their assault on rebels killed more civilians in a few months than Israel has killed in its entire existence. Time to get rid of it? How about Syria? Should Syria not exist? Hell, The UK and USA have done far worse things than Israel. Why should it exist? If you want to go through the worst human rights abusers, Israel is not near the top. And a satellite US State? The Economy of Israel is $287B a year. The US gives them $3B a year, 74% of which must be spent on American products. That's about 1% of Israel's economy and with massive restrictions. The Israeli economy is far stronger than any of its neighbours not because of American aid, but because of strong industries and a relatively Western approach to things. Only the US and China have more companies listed in the NASDAQ. This bullshit is like music to the ears of the Israeli far right because they say that there is no point negotiating to try to make some sort of peace because why make peace with people who just want to destroy you?

Besides being insanely expensive, CB is simply not a need right now. Last year, our 4th choice CB was Ivanovic. How many games did he play in that position all year? I can't remember exactly, but it wasn't many. Can Zouma handle those few games? Certainly. Yes, if Terry and Cahill both get hurt we're screwed, but every team is screwed if they lose multiple players at the same position. (and most are if they lose one player) We will need to replace Terry but in Mourinho's system, that won't be this year. If we got a player who was a great deal, I'd be for it, but spending massively on a hot defender we can do a year or two from now. There will always be players like this available. Spending big on someone like Verane I could understand as you would likely never be able to get him again.

I don't waste a lot of time hating other clubs. The team I dislike the most is Liverpool but that's because their supporters have an unbearable sense of entitlement based on the past. I actually really enjoyed watching them last year though as they played the most entertaining football in the Premier League. I also really dislike teams like PSG, City, Real Madrid, Monaco, etc...who have ruined football with their money. I know Chelsea falls into this group and if I weren't a Chelsea supporter, I'd probably hate us too but I am a Chelsea supporter so I love us

30M would be a ludicrous price as it would make Benatia the 6th or 7th most expensive defender in history for a 27 YO with almost no experience at the top stage ( Italy used to be a fantastic league but is now a massive step down from the Premier League and has Benatia ever played in the CL?) People look at the insane signings of the top spending teams like PSG and Real Madrid and if you look at it that way, everything is reasonable, Sure, if Luiz is 50M pounds, then Benatia at 30M is fine, Those are outlying transfers and you can't judge how reasonable a price based on those few ludicrous moves.. Benatia was 11M pounds last season. He had, by all accounts an excellent season, but that doesn't triple his price.

And look at Liverpool last year. No way they finish near the top if they had to play a bunch of CL games. I don't care about other clubs losing, I care about us winning and it's better for Chelsea if other Premier League sides don't get knocked out early.

Doubt it. He's 26 and has never been a scorer. That's just not his thing. 21 Goals in 151 games in the Ukranian and Russian leagues. He's not suddenly going to turn into a goal-scoring machine. He is what he is.

Cech is definitely having some issues with crosses but, and this is a big but, dealing with crosses in the Premier League is much much harder than in Spain. The Premier League is much more physical and has much stronger and taller players. I could go either way on this. I think whoever plays better should end up starting and I don't mind if takes a little while to figure that out.

I would say he has a couple more things going for him which are important. Like Ramires, Willian is an effective player off the ball. He doesn't take a lot of shots and creates room for other players. There are only so many shots to go around and it is important that you can have players who don't need to take them. If we are playing, say Oscar, Hazard, and Schurrle with Costa, that is a lot of guys who want to shoot and they, to some extent, cannibalize each other's shots. He also, while not being all that aware offensively, doesn't try to force that many passes which is why he keeps the highest passing rate of any of our attacking players. Certainly not close to a 32M pound player but he's useful especially given the style Chelsea play.

Best place for any defender. Barcelona is a team where every defender looks amazing because you don't really have to defend. 15M for a decent defender seems bit expensive but in the right range. Wonder if Arsenal will buy a replacement or go with what they have.

Best we could hope for if it's true. A PL team who plays against the best teams giving Chalobah much-needed experience against top opposition yet a poor enough team where he should carve out a regular place.

It's a modern football problem with some teams having too much money and talent. We just buy up any player that interests us. Maybe Moses could develop into a great player. Unlikely, but he could become a very good player and he's talented enough to play regularly on a mid-table side instead of rotting on our bench.

Chelsea, City, and maybe Arsenal for the league with Liverpool and United for 4th spot and Everton and Spurs below that.

Preseason never matters but every year people get insanely worked up over it. Tune back in August 18th when things start to mean something.

Jesus Christ, stop it with this melodramatic horseshit already. Ashley Cole left his team in the middle of his career, forced his way away from the team he came up with to go to a city rival simply because we offered him more money. WE decided to not sign Lampard when he was 36. What Cole did is much worse but since he came to Chelsea, you don't care. Loyalty is not only to Chelsea. This is football. Jimmy Greaves played with fucking Spurs after Chelsea. Dennis Wise went to Millwall as did Kerry Dixon (and Millwall and Chelsea have real history) Peter Osgood went to Southampton, Pat Nevin went to Everton, Bobby Tambling went to Palace, These are professional athletes who want to play at the top level, they are not your sentimental playthings.. The attitude you and too many people have about this is like a high school kid who breaks up with his GF. He doesn't want to be with her anymore, he just doesn't want her to ever sleep with anyone else. Sorry buddy, you can't have it both ways. We let Lampard go, he can now go wherever he damn well pleases.

It's not like Steve Jobs going to Microsoft. He was a founder of the company and the CEO. Lampard was an employee. Yes, he is the best player we've ever had, but WE, not him, decided to let him go. You don't have the right either legally or morally to expect loyalty when you don't give that same loyalty. Lampard was given the chance to play for the Premier League champions. What should he do? Say "no" because some Chelsea fans don't want him to go there?

So why do we have the right not to re-sign him but he doesn't have the right to go where he wants? It's like saying to a worker "you were a model employee for 20 years but we are firing you but you can't go to any rival companies".

Ashley Cole left Arsenal, the team he came up with, in the middle of his career because he wanted more money. There's nothing wrong with that at all, but you can't say he's a super loyal player or any other nonsense just because he didn't play in the EPL after leaving Chelsea. It's incredible to me how blind supporters are. It doesn't go one way. You can't demand loyalty of players and then get rid of them when you want. Lampard has a chance to play for the Premier League champions who are you to say "no, you can't because you used to play for Chelsea." We let him go. We didn't want him anymore. He can play wherever he damn well pleases. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

It's because GKs are much more replaceable and as such, much less important.. Cech has been fantastic for Chelsea but had he gone somewhere else, we would have recovered very quickly and easily. Losing Lampard or Terry would have been impossible or extremely expensive to replace. (It's why keepers are by far the least expensive transfers. That's not to take anything away from Cech, he did the best he could do and is still fantastic, just that the respective positional value is very different.

It's funny to me because so many supporters are so eager to push out any player they think is a second past their prime and replace them with someone else, but if a player were dare to go somewhere else? Traitor!!! Loyalty to us must be absolute but we can dump you any time we feel like.

Liverpool aren't contenders. You can't replace someone like Suarez (2 good players don't equal a great one), other contenders improved, they had the benefit of not playing in any other tournaments for any length of time, and they got lucky last year, Still a good team who I think will battle United for 4th but I could also see a disaster season if things go a little wrong which is quite possible and something around a 7th place finish. .

Being a Ryan Bertrand fan would be really expensive.

You do realize that your profile picture is of Drogba, right? Robben does go down easily but the same can be said of about 90% of players.

As an attacker, I'd take Salah over Willian too but Willian is a better fit for the way Chelsea play and is a more complete player. Besides, Mourinho clearly loves him. Bottom line is that if Salah plays well, there are lots of opportunities for him to get playing time but I still have a hard time seeing him as anything more than the 5th or 6th choice at attacking midfield.

Robben is one of the better players in the world over the last decade. He is a dynamic player who creates havoc for the opposition. He, like all players, has his flaws, but he is not nearly as selfish as people pretend he is. Last year, he took 2.7 shot a game. Oscar took 2.2. Ronaldo on the other hand, took an insane 7.2 shots every game.

Possible but teams like ours need players that are fine with not being starters. Chelsea have Hazard, Willian, Oscar, Schurrle, Fabergas and Ramires who will play at attacking midfield during the season. You want a little more depth and flexibility but that player won't play much so there's no point spending 40M pounds on your 6th attacking midfielder. There's no value there at all. You need someone like Salah (or Moses) to be able to play sporadically and still have enough quality to help the team. Don't expect him to be a superstar, but he can still be very useful for us.