Magic Lamps

Well Ratcliffe is way more wealhy than Roman. But Never trust a ManU Fan.

this has shevchenko written all over it. you might argue Shevchenko was in way better shape and the serie still a better league back then. Will be an absolute catastrophe if we sell 25 y.o. Morata and 24 y.o. Batshuayi and want to build our future on 30 y.o. Higuain and 32 y.o. Giroud. Good luck with that. and don't get to me with Tammy. He will never be even as good as Morata. Higuain is the Fabregas of strikers. Should be at his peak at 30 but already has so much football in his bones due to starting at such an early age that he moves like an old man and his goalside contribution barely papers over the cracks.

But goalie is a completely different question. Courtois is a good one but still he maybe makes like 3,4 saves per season that actually save points and only a class goalie could have made and letting in 1,2 that are really harmful despite his class. I reckon even if some of these goalies are a bit worse the net impact will be minimal. For a winger on the other hand it is probably the most important position in the modern systems. a small difference in class can easily be 15goals+assists from that position.

A midfield of Kante - Seri - Barkley/RLC/Bakayoko. Athletic as fuck and no end produkt..... so business as usual

No way we are payign that much for a goalie when there is no shortage of class gks available. Think Trapp, Ulreich, Leno, Gulasci, Hradecky will all be available for cut price fee and bar the hype I do not see how they are much worse than Allison Becker. Tbf he hit a purple patch recently but he has been pretty much under the radar so far.

I remember it as if it was yesterday. One of the best deals the club ever made. A signing which fans were pushing for for ages and then the board finally gave in. Wish we would see more of our old shrewd transfer dealing today.

Rather keep Conte than sign this clueless guy Blanc. Classic Chelsea to fuck up Sarri tho

I think that is absolute BS. Not even Hazard would have the audacity to outright tell the board which manager to hire. Also even if he did, would he really recommend a manager he has never worked with he barely knows (i guesss) and who is known for playing a system in which Hazard himself is not even played to his strengths i.e. cast on the wing? That must have been some crack chat between Mertens and Hazard. "Yo Dawg, you know whos a good manager?" "Tell me" "Sarri, man" "which position would he play me in?" "left wing or striker like I do" "Perfect. neither is my perfect position but I am totally gonna hit up my employer and tell them to sack Conte and hire that guy. Thanks bro" "Your welcome"

No thanks.I would only take Jorginho and ghoulam from them.

Well with all the dust this has thrown up there is surely no way back now. So we better get it done quickly.

I would be fine with both Seri and Jorginho, but in the former case I am a bit sceptical because he is jsut as short as Kante not that it matters much in most games as neither are the type to get bullied but in games that get dirty with a lot of lose and high balls, the two might face problems getting the 2nd balls. Would be nice in a 3 man midfield with Barkley or RLC. If we could get a more complete player, who is the full package like Milinkovic Saivc it would be better ofc but Seri is definitely a realistic quality option so a yes from me, absolute bargain for 40m

They will be the biggest spenders in summer that's for sure. But as long as they got Mou at the helm I doubt they will surpass City. Mou will never change and everyone knows that. Even if they would sign Neymar, Bale and Mbappe, he would still be pumping crosses to Fellaini in attack when he needs a goal and he would still surrender posession in every game against a side who can play football. Utd have invested hugely for years now and assembled a big big squad with at least 2 very good players for every position all of them in or approaching their best years yet they keep buying and buying instead of letting that squad settle. Mourinho needs this constant influx to keep the players on their toes and so he does not need to build tactics and formation around a team or actually develop some attacking tactics. All his magic is loading his box with players to keep it tight at the back and hope for the individual class of his star players to score a few goals up front. This time around because of his fetish for big strong players he failed to buy genuine class though. The 200m they spunked on Lukaku and Pogba could have been spent on real world class players in their positions. Fred might seem an anomaly here but he is likely not to be a game changer.

That is indeed a shame. The list of average players we bought for enormous amounts just to make up the numbers when we have the best academy in the world is mind boggling Boga however always seemed an average player to me. Never really stood out and definitely not better than Pedro or Willian. He might have had bad luck but if he was that good he would have shone through. He might have scored that wonder goal vs sheffield but other than that the Championship looked pretty much his level. I think of that class of graduates musonda, Rlc, abraham, boga etc none is good enough to be starter at a top5 club in the premier league ever. They are ofc good enough to play a bit part role like Drinkwater and I would love them to do so but I doubt they will be satisfied that so it is better to cash in.

not worried. Fred is a poor man's Kante with a bit more goals to him but thats it.

I don't even think it has anything to with arm size or length.. Rory delap was pretty average in terms of size and arm length. It is obviously more about technique. But that also means you can learn it...when you think about it is staggering how not more teams try to make more of throw-in situations. When we have a throw-in on the left, hazard needs to come 3m to the sideline for alosno to reach him with is throw with 3 opposition players around them. as soon as hazard gives it back to alonso the ball is lost. But when a player can throw the ball as precisely and far as Delap it is an absolute weapon esp because it is more precise and as hard as a regular cross but much more dangerous because whilst a cross is curved and drops it needs to be at the perfect height for a player to reach it whilst a long throw in is almost flat and always in a reachable height. I always found that prescribed technique werid too, never could really execute it correctly...i guess the reasoning behind is it to not make throw ins too overpowered. With a regular one-arm handball catapult technique everyone can throw a football 40m and with plenty of power and accuracy

I would rather keep Morata than sign an over the hill higuain

Never really enjoyed him that much as a payer here but always admired him as character. Also I love how despite having played only 4 years for us he still displays the greatest attachement to Chelsea rather than Leverkusen or Bayern. Did nt know whether he is a good director of football but surely there can be worse

they did it with Mikhi so I think they are gonna do it again with Martial. Esp with a moron like Mou at the helm.

IMO Lewandowski does rely on agility and speed a lot. you might not see it but he needs it to get away from his marker. HIs pace deteriorated visibly this season to great effect. Furthermore Lewandowski is a consistent underperformer in big games. Drogba IMO had his best year as he was 29 and then a close on at 31 but he is a completely different player. Drogba indeed never relied on his straight line speed and physically only delclined a few years later. And Lewa is not the type of character I'd want at the club. He would command outrageous wages, which he might be worth but might also disrupt the wage structure. He is a huge sulker. He disrespected Heynckes, one of the greatest coaches of all times and an absolute gent multiple times really badly in public. Always put up with the Bayern hierachy abou this dream move to Real Madrid. The latter is also the reason we will never get him. If he moves then only to real.

they are both completely different types of players tho aren't they? Milinkovc Savic is more like the Lampard type a playmaker who scores lots of goals and always aims for the killer pass or alternatively the player Pogba wants to be^^ whilst Jorginho is more like the passmaster from deep who circulates play and makes the transition from defense to attack like Iniesta.

I heard he suffered from home-sickness which was the reason he failed so badly at Dortmund. I'd say stay clear. Big fish in a very small pond type of player.

If Conte really stays, I hope the board is 100% sensible about this and discretely checks if all key players are on board with this. I don't mind losing willian or even Courtois but we have to make sure Hazard, Kante, Azpi, Rüdiger stay no matter what. I have no problems with a bit of continuity at the bridge but I have a few concerns about Conte staying 1) Even though the board really did not cover itself in glory with the summer signings (esp Drinkwater for 35m wtf) but Conte was extremely childish when not getting his wish. It is not that his rumoured suggestions have always been that great (remember Pelle, Giaccherini, candreva, Morata(!)). We made some fairly decent signings in Emerson and Barkley and have a few absolutely top class youth players coming through the ranks yet he insisted on playing the same out of form players over and over again, then rotated for no reason and completely fucked up the rhythm just to make a point to the board. This should be straightened out at the very first meeting. The board botched the transfer window, fair enough, but the manager still should work with what he got without moaning. You are a professional, behave yourself like one! 2) At some point Conte really looked out of his depth and was unable to provide any new incentives tactically and also motivationally. That really is a worry, because such managers usually turn out to be short-term maanagers like Mourinho, Ancelotti (bar Milan), van Gaal, etc. This 3 at the back must die, at least in matches where we need goals. You can't do shit with 2,3 offensive players with none of them being a true goalscorer and Moses/Zappacosta, Alonso being the one to provide depth, stretch the play, Either upgrade those wingback positions or switch to a system with genuine wingers. 3) Losing the players. We looked so disjointed and made horrendous errors on both ends, that the problem has to be a mental one throughout the squad and it is the managers job to catch that before we are shit for months. I hope he has learned from the experience.

What would be tragically funny is if Salah, mane and Can fuck up their CL final because of this ramadan fasting stuff. I remember how torrid Salah was in pre-season for us when he was fasting, a complete zombie on the pitch when he really needed to impres, maybe he would be still here if he had looked more like giving a shit about playing at Chelsea back then. Not to eat for the majority of the day is no problem, once conditioned, I did intermittent fasting myself for years. But the no drinking bullshit is absolutely horrendous for you body no matter how well you are conditioned. Clubs should genuinely check the scheduling of Ramadan in advance before deciding to sign a practicing Muslim key player.

Credit where its due... great performance

Roll out the youth against them we are shit at CS