The only place to be

He's not even the best left-back in Germany.

Shame he couldn't leave on a proper high note but he's had an astounding time in Madrid and hopefully he'll come back and challenge for the shirt. We can win the league with Cech as our goalkeeper but it would be nice to have our best players in the squad next season.

It's laughable that people are overblowing a grade 1 hamstring strain. Let the medical staff at Chelsea assess him and trust their judgment because it's infinitely more informed than your's.

They have got another youngster called Matt Targett coming through as left-back. Some fans down there rate him as being another Chambers so whether they'd want a Bertrand is debatable.

I'm not sure of there's a thread elsewhere or maybe a couple of disparate ones about certain members of the board/club hierarchy but I thought now would be a good time to post a thread giving them some credit.....because they got plenty of stick a while back, perhaps rightly so. But it's just been quite astounding to see how they've turned us from the club getting mugged off on transfers to a club who buy great players for value (Matic being the prime example) whilst selling fringe players not just for profit, but for fees bordering on extortionate (Mata, Luiz). Not only that but players like Courtois and Lukaku have doubled or perhaps even tripled in value whilst our commercial revenues continue to increase and we comply with FFP. So I thought it would be interesting to see what other people think, in light of the performance of people like Woodward at United and the criticism Gourlay, Buck, Emenalo et al received in the past.

Not really. Last season saw the groundwork being laid, a foundation for next season and the establishing of a new core of players. I think a transition season is essentially one where you not only change systems, but establish a core group of 7-8 players who probably start every match. We quite conceivably have that now (Cech, Ivanovic, Azpi, Terry, Cahill, Matic, Hazard, Oscar.....maybe Costa even) and these players know exactly what is required of them. We won't be making radical changes but simply looking to improve in certain areas. If you look off the pitch we've also gone from being a 'sugar-daddy' club to a club who are becoming quite self-sufficient. So if that's your definition of a transition season then next season definitely isn't one.

Would be a great end to an amazing week. Wouldn't surprise me either because the one thing we can say about our club is that they don't fuck around.

He's the prototypical modern midfielder. Physically strong, technically sound, solid defensively and explosive going forward. He's also 21 and similar in style to Chalobah and Loftus-Cheek. Obviously he's further along in his development being older but also being exposed to a higher level of football at an earlier age. But he's excelled when given those chances which there's no guarantee our youngsters will. The thing is whilst it would be great to get him it's also worthwhile looking at what happened to him at United. They neglected to give their young star a chance (he was no more highly regarded than Chalobah and probably less hyped than Loftus-Cheek) and lost someone who has the potential to be one of the best midfielders in the world. He's an exciting prospect and a cautionary tale.

I was listening to Pihl Vickery talk about Johnny Wilkinson. He was obsessed with being the best player he could, working tirelessly on the training pitches to arguably become the best rugby player of his generation. He also made mistakes. Every sportsman does. But Vickery said that when he did, you didn't blame him or fault him because you knew how hard he worked and how much he would beat himself up for that error and learn from it. JT is the same. I would never put Luiz in that category.

I've never been his biggest fan but he deserves many thanks for his time here. I think he got the most out of the chance to be a footballer at this club and there was some genuine affection between him and the fans. He'll go down in history as being part of some wonderful moments. As a squad though, we're neither stronger nor weaker than we were a couple of days ago. We've sold a player who wasn't a key member of the first-team for a stupendous amount of money and the club deserves a huge amount of credit for not only getting the absolute maximum amount of money for a squad player, but for also putting him in the French league where he can become vastly overrated on the flattest of flat-tracks. I don't think he improved as a defender between the time we bought him and the time we sold him and if we can invest that money wisely then he won't be missed. This is just another great day for us as supporters as it's another endorsement of the faith the club has in Jose Mourinho to build a new team, whilst also being another reminder that we have one of the best boards in the business when it comes to negotiating deals.

Because we sold Mata and spent it all on Salah?

It's not about Excel sheets though. When Arsenal were selling players it was to pay off a stadium. We're selling players who aren't needed to buy players who really are. It's actually remarkable that we're selling players that the manager doesn't really want for a profit, and using that money to build a team that he does want. For the first time in years it feels like everyone at the club is pulling in the same direction.

Arsenal had to sell first-team players like Fabregas, Van Persie, Clichy, Adebayor etc. We're selling out fourth-choice CB for an astronomical figure. Hardly comparable.

In the latest instalment of Fuck The FA Chelsea coach Rui Faria has had his appeal against a six-match stadium ban and £30,000 fine in relation to the Sunderland game on 19 April 2014 partly upheld by an Appeals Board. Mr Faria was handed the punishment after he admitted using abusive and/or insulting words towards the Fourth Official and that his behaviour following the Match Referee's request that he leave the technical area amounted to improper conduct. The Appeal Board ordered that the final two matches of the six-match stadium ban be suspended for 12 months and so they will only be invoked upon a proven breach of FA Rule E3 during that period. The £30,000 fine he was given at the original Independent Regulatory Commission hearing remains unchanged. Read more at http://www.thefa.com/news/governance/2014/may/rui-faria-appeal-partially-upheld#fbQxxUyqDp3P1J0d.99 Meh, not too bad.

The thing is there's no set pattern to developing youngsters. Each one is different, but luck/fate/whatever plays a large part in it. Kalas was unlucky with his injury at the start of the season, but then got a bit back when other players were unavailable for Liverpool. Windows for players to get a chance can be small and there's no guarantee they'll come back round again. Romeu is a perfect example of this. He had a perfect chance to stake a claim for a first-team spot but suffered a knee injury. He almost certainly won't get a chance at this club again. Sturridge was a victim of the constant merry-go-round of managers who each had different ideas for him and the team. Zouma seems to have actually been chosen by Jose which is why he might have a better chance of stepping up (plus his physicality suits our team and the league quite well). I also don't have a problem with us 'stockpiling' talent. I think in a post-FFP world it makes sense to try and acquire as much young talent as possible either to use in the first-team or sell. Courtois could net us a £15 million profit. Lukaku could get us a £10 million profit. De Bruyne got us about £8 million. Kakuta could keep the vending machines stocked at Cobham for 3-4 months.

Da fuck??? Hutchinson, Schwarzer and Hilario too apparently? Shit way for this news to come out if it's true but apparently it's just routine when contracts are being negotiated.

A £40 million bid is on it's way. BTW, have you heard of a player called John Obi Mikel because we could do you a lovely deal on him.

If Brazil wins the World Cup and he becomes one of the faces of it then you've got a great marketing asset. You're still paying a ridiculous amount but maybe PSG sees him as being a face of the club. He's certainly got 'personality', although I mean that in the most Disney/Nickelodeon sense. Do you have Instagram? Do you like pictures of grown men with crazy hair sticking their tongues out? Then you are in luck He's also a good defender on his day and he'll tear up the French league.

Strange distinction to make between a player we signed at 17 for £5 million and a player we signed at 19 for £12 million. Talking to a few coaches who are involved with top young players on a daily basis and what they talk about is momentum. Players at this age (18-21) need to feel like their progressing and being constantly tested. A lot can fall into the trap of feeling like they've 'arrived' at the party after what can be a very competitive experience in the Academy, whereas the very best youngsters are the ones who are continually pushed and pushing themselves to be better. Kalas has a nice progression from being in the youth ranks, going on loan to Vitesse and then coming back here. He was unfortunate in that he got injured towards the start of the season and then found himself unable to get into the first-team simply because Cahill and Terry became too important to rest. Despite that he got to learn what it was to be a pro at this club, he got to work with Jose and he got to prove who he was to him. The fact that he then got a couple of starts late on in the season meant he picked up a bit more momentum going into next season, but for that to continue I don't know if it's worth him staying here. Will Terry and Cahill get dropped? No. Is Ivanovic ahead of him in the pecking order? Yes, especially if we get a left-back (like Filipe Luis) so we can switch Azpi to the right either through choice or necessity. So you're talking about a player being here as fourth-choice CB when we also have Omeruo and (in particular) Zouma who could both do with a season at the club. I know this post isn't going to get many likes, partly because it isn't bashing the club and partly because being realistic about what it takes to make it at a top club isn't that fun but Kalas deserves a crack at having a career as the best player he can be. He's fulfilled a lot of those early steps, he's had a tough first season at a big club but he's ending it moving forward with some decent momentum. Now he needs to do it consistently and that requires either 25 or so starts here (which is unlikely) or a move to a decent club who will give him those starts. But it's all about momentum.

OK, that was evil.

2 are already out injured, 1 of them being a midfielder. Fingers crossed.

We could conceivably sell Lukaku and Courtois for at least double what we paid for them too. Astoundingly good business compared to what we were doing a few years ago. Still scared to believe these rumours though. Too good to be true. Next we'll be linked with selling Mikel....oh wait http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/inter-milan-hint-at-move-for-chelsea-midfielder-mikel-052214

Fourth CB behind Ivanovic if we get full-back cover. I'd love to see Kalas develop here but he needs games and if he can get them in the Bundesliga then it's probably better than the odd game here. We also have Omeruo and Zouma who may well be in contention for a spot next season so it's not like loaning Kalas is us giving up on youth. Jose has had a whole season to appraise Kalas, so maybe he wants to do the same with Omeruo and Zouma. At the end of the day he's only 21. He's got some nice momentum from his matches at the end of the season so he needs to build on that. He isn't going to displace Terry or Cahill.

The Telegraph is reserved as newspapers go. They don't tend to go crazy with the rumours although they will sometimes report rumours from other sources. Of course it varies from reporter to reporter - Ogden is good on United rumours for instance (broke the Moyes leaving story). The final is tomorrow so you'd expect any deal to move forward at the start of next week.