dee25

I think the people who pointed out that he's far too passive and that he needs to develop some 'hunger,' raise a legitimate argument. This is a concern that people have had with Hazard all along. But these comments about him being overrated is nothing but a knee jerk reaction to his poor showing in the World Cup. When Hazard was banging them in against Newcastle, Sunderland etc how come no one was calling him overrated then? When he was voted as the best young player in the league, why weren't there any comments saying "wait hang on guys, maybe we shouldn't build a team around Hazard"? When Mourinho labelled him as the best young player in the world or something to that extent why weren't there any fucking comments disagreeing with him? There're areas that Hazard needs to improve in, and it's my hope that Mourinho can lit that fire in him. But some people have such short term memories and are so incapable of seeing past current form. It's incredible.

Fernando was brought in because the Fernandinho-Yaya combo wasn't offering enough protection to the back four. Fernando can't replace Yaya. He's purely a holding midfielder who doesn't offer anything in attack. And I'm glad we didn't shell out 30M plus on Fernandinho. He's good defensively and good going forward but not great in either of those aspects. He's very much living off the hype of his performance against us in the champions league, a performance that I haven't seen him replicate in a City shirt. The times Yaya was out injured and Fernandinho had to step up and play that role, City's attack was sterile.

But how is a 22 yr old, who is still very much developing, ever going to improve on his offensive abilities when he's being overloaded with defensive responsibilities (at both club and national level)? If he's going to improve as a player then he needs to be on the ball all the time. He needs to be given freedom to get into dangerous positions and free to play risky passes. Think Oscar is in real danger of stagnating.

It would have been kinda hard for him to score against Barca in the CL quarterfinals, seeing as he didn't play.

He's FAR better defensively than Lampard though. He puts in more tackles and reads the game better. He'll not only be good cover for Matic but will also give us another option besides Ramires in central midfield. Ramires is a useful player to have in the squad, but you don't want to be dependent on him in big games.

Okay nowhere in my comment did I say that a team can't have more than one player that presses well, or scores goals or works hard. Neither did I once say that Vidal and Oscar can't play in the same team. Why wouldn't they be able to play together? They both have two legs, and can kick a football can't they? What I did say is that when your no. 10 already has such a high work rate but isn't particularly a strong creative passer then the skills set of Cesc would be more of an asset than Vidal's. That's my point.

Vidal is simply a rolls royce. He's a fantastic footballer and would definitely compliment Matic well. But the way I see it, if you have a player like Oscar in the No. 10 position who presses excellently, has fantastic movement, work rate, and has goals in his locker then you don't necessarily need a "Vidal type" player alongside Matic. Why spend 40m plus on Vidal when a big part of his game overlaps with Oscar's strengths? What's more needed is a ball playing midfielder - a distributor. An Oscar, Cesc and Matic midfield won't have the same energy and athleticism as it would with Vidal in there but what it does have is a balanced set of skills.

Isn't that what people were saying about Micah Richards when he was 18? It's now been several years since he broke out and despite being a key player for City in their 11/12 season, he really hasn't lived up to the hype. I get what you're saying but I just think to base spending excessive money on a teenager (who has played only two seasons of senior football) because of some unfounded fear of missing out on the latest big English talent is extremely misguided in my opinion. Think back to all the hype that surrounded Micah Richards when he broke out, since then several other English talents have emerged. Yes we need to rebuild an English core, but you're making it out to seem as if landing Luke Shaw is the be all and end all. We would all love to have him in the team but if we miss out on him then there'll be another highly coveted English talent.

Because a fullback isn't going to single handedly win you games. Full backs are not match winners. To drop that kind of money on a defender, you have to have complete faith in his potential. Clearly you do, as you seem to be absolutely sure that he'll live up to the billing, but I think you have to realize that Mourinho and the board might have their reservations on whether he could follow in Ashley Cole's footsteps. Is it a sin to go with a short term signing for 10m less? Well you can only make a conclusion like that in hindsight. Luke Shaw can sign for Utd, and after a season or two begin to fade while Filipe Luis might come here, and form a deadly partnership with Hazard on our left hand side. Would you still be calling it sin?

But how do you know that though? I mean, the club could very well sign Luis for £20m and in another three years land a young left back for £6m. The total fee would still be cheaper than the fee paid for Shaw. I'm not sure where I stand on the luis signing, I was initially against it but it just seems to me that basing the decision to spend £30m on an 18 yr old fullback, in the hopes that he could follow Ashley Cole's trajectory and become the best left back in the country isn't exactly the sound business judgement that you're making it out to be. I agree that we need to target signings that will bring us longevity, but we also need to be strategic. Looking at the wages and fees being reported for Luke Shaw - seems to me that we would be putting all our eggs in one basket.

There's just something about him that fills me with confidence about his chances of making it here, mind you I've only watched him a handful of times at Vitesse and also in the U-21 Championship but I think he could be a starter for us. If only Ramires could pass a ball, then we could put off buying a CM and just gamble on Van Ginkel.

We'd have to amend the club name. Chelsea de Madrid.

I vaguely remember someone saying something to that extent in an interview, but I think it was John Terry. Or it could have been Lamps talking about the impact players like Dennis Wise had on the younger guys. Pretty much agree with everything you said though. With Luiz, and Cole now gone and possibly Cech on his way, I think it's even more vital we hold on to Frank for at least one more season. People really underestimate how important these players are in the dressing room.

16 million (pounds) isn't a bad fee for him, but he's been pretty underwhelming this season. I don't know how much he's making at Atleti, but if we're set to double that amount then we probably won't pay him anything less than 60-80k per week. If you add his wages on top of his transfer fee (along with the bonuses) that's a big financial hit to take on 29 year old especially since in another three years, we'll be needing to sign someone else for that position. Strikes me as the type of signing we used to make before we turned.....well prudent.

I don't think that's entirely true. But for the sake of argument let's assume he's not under 'massive pressure' from the Chelsea hierarchy. Where infact I think the pressure will most likely come from is Mourinho himself. I can't imagine for one second that he would go a third season without being desperate for some silverware. I actually seriously fear what another trophy-less season would do to him because despite what he says about building a team for the future, everything we've heard about Mourinho from those who've worked with him indicate that this is a man that lives to win. RLC and Baker are all a few years away from being ready. But Chalobah is a harder case, loaning him to another Championship club would stagnate his development in my opinion. There's nothing more a loan at that level can do for him. He needs to be challenged at a higher level for him to keep progressing, but at the same time it's a big risk for Mourinho to promote him to the first team next season, and I can see him deciding to take a punt with Van Ginkel rather than Chalobah. Really the time to have promoted Nat was last season, when we had weaker options and when there were less expectations on Mourinho.

I'd be disappointed if it doesn't happen. I think Costa for 32million is a better signing than Cavani for 50 plus million, and I say this as a very, very big Cavani fan. But if these rumors are true and Costa doesn't want to come here or Atleti are refusing to sell or whatever, then so be it. My only hope is that 1. We don't pursue Mandzukic as an alternative. That would be majorly underwhelming, and 2.) We bring back Courtois. I don't care how big of love affair he's developed for Atleti. It's now at a point where this arrangement is no longer beneficial to us. When they decided to sell Falcao and we were in desperate need of a top striker, it's not like they even gave us a first refusal option. They also didn't honor the loan agreement for the payment fee, and Courtois played against us at no cost to them. Now they're trying to prey on Courtois' attachment to Atletico as a way to push our hand into loaning them an elite keeper for a fourth year. What the hell are we getting out of this partnership? A measly 1 million loan fee? They're trying to milk us. They can't keep expecting us to hand them the services of a top keeper while they only have to pay peanuts.

Apparently Mark Ogden (the journalist who broke the Moyes sacking and Fergie's retirement) has said that Shaw's transfer to Utd is basically imminent. Wouldn't be the first time.....

Marina Granovskaia after brokering this deal.....

God this post is just so spot on. COMPLETELY nailed it, and the bolded part in particular is an excellent point. When we talk about the development of young talents, people just assume that giving them as much playing time as possible is the only thing that matters, but that isn't true at all. Nurturing their motivation is just as important if not *more* vital to their development. The danger in these multiple loan spells is that they can diminish any hope a player might have of breaking into the first team, and if you ask me, that's actually what stagnates a young player's development - the loss of hope and the loss of motivation. Not 1 or 2 seasons of not playing regularly. You look at Kalas - even though he made only two starts, but at the same time he's had certain learning opportunities available to him here..... he's had the chance to train all season with players like J.T, Lamps, Cole, Cech; he's had the chance to travel with the team to Champions League games at stadiums like the Turk Telekom, Vincente Caleron Stadium; he's been coached by Mourinho all season and has had opportunities to sit-in at his tactical meetings. People might not think those things are a big deal, but they go a long way in mentally preparing a young player like Kalas, in ways that a loan spell at some random Bundesliga club couldn't. Keeping him here and giving him 15 or so matches next season (which isn't unrealistic at all) will increase his chances of making it here than farming him out at [insert name of random mid/bottom-table Bundesliga club]. At the end of the day, bringing through young players is more about commitment on the part of the club than anything. There's no short cut. A club either decides to commit to giving that player enough opportunities to break into the first team or they don't. These constant loans actually becomes more like a trap than a means for progression.

In this particular set-up, I can see Schurrle really flourishing. Or play Costa slightly more withdrawn with Lukaku up front

Don't think I would mind Torres staying on if only his attitude was better. It's one thing being a shit striker on high wages, but a shit striker on high wages AND one who also acts like he doesn't give a damn about the club? Who applauded the Atleti fans and ignored the home fans? Nah, fuck that. This guy needs to leave, even if I have to fly to London myself, chloroform the man and transport him to Inter in suitcase.... Don't make me do it Roman!

Think people should cut Salah some slack. He's missed chances, yes....but really he's the least of our problems right now.

I don't think Oscar is the type of player to hold himself back for the world cup. One thing that's very apparent to me about him, is that he has an incredibly strong work ethic, and players like that tend to approach every match with the same dedication. So I really can't see him being the type to spare himself only to be fresh for the world cup. But really, who knows. I think people underestimate how difficult it is for young players to perform consistently at a big club, where there's a lot of pressure to challenge for trophies. This is even more so in Oscar's case as he's transitioning from an entirely different football culture. Someone on here said this before, but just look around at the top clubs in Europe - there aren't many young players around Oscar's age who haven't had a drastic dip in performances. Pogba for example looks a shadow of the player he was in the beginning of the season. What some on here need to realize is that unlike other top clubs, two of our best offensive players are very young. We're more reliant on Hazard and Oscar than Bayern is with Gotze or Real Madrid with Isco. Even Juve has Marchisio to rotate with Pogba. So Hazard and Oscar have even more pressure and responsibility compared to other young players; it can't be easy to cope with and it's not as if our style of football is one that's conducive for attacking players to perform to their best. I didn't mind the Mata sale at the time (he wasn't being used anyway) but I'm beginning to think it was a mistake simply because he would have taken some of the pressure & responsibility off of Oscar's shoulders. But on the plus side, maybe this experience will be good for Oscar's development and I'm sure he'll improve next season.

Amen. Paulinho for £20 million vs Rakitic for £24 million...........I know which one would be the more astute signing, and it ain't Paulinho. Because he sprays play around and stuff.

Whoa whoa whoa. Hang on..... Are you telling me that there're other affordable central midfielders besides Paulinho?! Damn. Who knew! But can this Rakitic fellow spray play around? Because Paulinho can spray play around....