The Mak

It's about time we got a bit of dutch magic! From what I hear, he's mainly a CM who likes to go forward? I could be wrong, but it may point to us alternating between 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3 for certain games as a lot of our AMs are also comfortable on the wing. I'm all for the signing, but it's still not addressing our main concerns. These: The pivot in particular is in dire need of a world class talent or some experience. It's where we fell down a lot last season. If it came to it, I think we could go another season with the defence and strikers we have at the moment, but only if the pivot gets a top, top signing. Maybe if even two, especially if the links of Mikel to Turkey are in anyway true. We can't get distracted by buying more flashy attacking youth when we also need players who can get the dirty work done as well. However, I think this may be a leftover Emenalo signing that Jose simply gave the green light to. I don't think Emenalo is too adept at picking defensive players, so I turst Mourinho to get it right. I think the next signings will be influenced more by José... P.S. I think MVG should probably go out on loan. He'd add great depth, but the likes of Werder Bremen would take him in a second and he'd start nearly all their games.

PSG have to do that because their league is so shit. And where does Cavani's preference fit into all of this? ADL can hardly say "ok, these people paid the release clause, off you pop son!". No, Cavani has to agree to go there and if he does, he's an hypocritical idiot in my eyes. He's always said "leave for a bigger club". PSG are hardly bigger than Napoli, maybe in bank balance but that's it. In fact, Cavani probably has a better chance of winning the CL with Napoli. If he goes to us or Real, yeah sure. But PSG are simply the overcompensating new boys on the block; they have next to no European credentials whatsoever. I know I'd rather go to the team that won two European trophies in two years than a mega-rich team who had to scrap to win one of the shittiest leagues in Europe....

I'd drive him to Turkey for that amount.

Great shout! I also nominate Alex for his epic banhammer wielding skillz! To be fair, you did get rid of a few tarts this month!

stingray/ulsterchelsea, I can't decide!

Sorry, but fuck United and fuck Rooney. We have Lukaku. The beast that came off the bench to score a hattrick against them last season. I'd rather have 15yrs of the man mountain who already loves Chelsea, instead of 2-3 good years (if even) of a waning Rooney - the moaning money grabber.

We should just get Jose to buy all of Porto's scouts. Saves all these over inflated fees! I mean, surely they're cheaper than any player Porto have sold us and attempted to sell us? And some prices they put on their player's head is just ridiculous. I'd be glad to see them without their main source of income: ripping everyone else off!

Thank fuck for that.

For the amount of coverage this topic gets from everyone, I haven't seen one solid source that explicitly links De Rossi with us...

I'd say it'd be pretty balanced weight for midfielders, but can it be if it's attacking midfielders vs. defensive? It's all so complicated, but deliciously interesting and nerdy!

There seems to be a weird obsession with fans and 'home-grown' players. Honestly, why the hell do we really care? The club will always ensure we have enough, one way or another. I personally have never seen it as a big deal. I certainly don't see it as much of a valid point when spending a couple of million that could be invested elsewhere. As Alex said, we may as well have kept Turnbull in that case. Worst case scenario, we promote Blackman as 3rd choice and get a different back up (which is what I thought we were doing in the first place). I don't see a point in signing the likes of Ruddy either. He might be back-up now, but any keeper that comes here knows that they might even be 3rd choice in a couple of years if Cech stays while Courtois is no. 1.

Love all this stuff. @TorontoChelsea, where did you get the figures exactly? I do Statistics for Psychology and I'd love to mess with some fun figures for a change! (sad I know!) I was thinking about this, but I'm unsure how you would combine each stat into an overall stat exactly. Still, it'd be interesting to see stats like: passes complete in opposition half vs. possession given away in own half!

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11668/8796332/ Bundesliga: Schalke president Clemens Tonnies says Julian Draxler could move on A German left-sided, right-footed attacking midfielder...wait, don't tell me, I've heard this one before...twice...

We won't get him. Seems more like a cheeky bid than anything else. We'd be mad to increase it and Ruddy would be mad to come here.

26 guests watching this thread and one member (me)...wtf

Carlo was a good coach...that is, until he was found out. We became so predictable, every team knew how to play against us in the second season and Carlo had no answer for months. It was so mind-numbing to watch. His transfers also have to go down as the worst of all time. I love the man, but not so much the coach.

How long do seriously expect Carlo to last before he's ousted by the big names? You'll probably start off pretty well with Carlo, but you'll soon find out the man has no plan B; then, more unrest and the Madrid merry-go-round continues... P.S. For the love of God, don't let him make transfer decisions.

City haven't really strengthened yet as far as I can see. Isco would've definitely been their biggest signing and improvement so far and they missed out on him! Brilliant! Now all we need is for them to miss out on Cavani, or better still, we beat them to him and we're very much in the hunt for the title next season! P.S. The fate of Torres is also a big factor.

City haven't really strengthened yet as far as I can see. Isco would've definitely been their biggest signing and improvement so far and they missed out on him! Brilliant! Now all we need is for them to miss out on Cavani, or better still, we beat them to him and we're very much in the hunt for the title next season! P.S. The fate of Torres is also a big factor.

Less than 3 weeks away lads! Can't wait!

I think it's the whole Brazilian mentality he seems to have. I mean 'Brazilian' in an attacking/flair sense. It's like he feels like he has to defend with flair or some crap; he tries too hard and forgets the simple things. He does it every season with us: plays well in the second half of the season, picks up form and then goes off on his holiday to Brazil and comes back with more samba crap at the start of next season. Hopefully José can smack some sense into him because he has all the tools to become truly world class.

So many people watching this thread every day ​ ...all waiting for more twitter bullshit no doubt...

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11668/8793084/Fernando-Torres-feels-people-should-stop-judging-him-on-past-showings Fernando Torres feels people should stop judging him on past showings Sorry Torres, but fuck off. There's a reason why you don't want people to talk about your past at Chelsea, it's fucking beyond terrible. He's going into his 3rd year here and he's done pretty much nothing to note (Oh, but he did win a corner!). Every year he promises the sun, moon and stars for the next season...we're not stupid though. Does he think we can't see him when he's been sulking around the pitch for the majority of mid-season? 5 months to score a PL goal Nando? How do you explain that one? He's some piece of work. Every interview he does annoys me further and makes me believe that every player who plays at Liverpool becomes as delusional as the club thereafter...

It'll be 16 or 15. My first thought was 16 though.

A lot of people getting completely carried away with no real evidence whatsoever...