Blue Colored Sky

Mourinho was a "manager" yet you feels he hadn't got much control over tranfers. Pochettino is a "head coach" yet you feel the squad is shaped under his direction. Board tries to sign the players from managers order but they have to be financially viable, something that Mourinho mentioned. They work in a group, he is the football man, then there's a team responsible for negotiations and the team responsible for financial impact. Not longer than 2 years ago Mourinho praised fantastic work done by the small teams in the club responsible for their duties and said that the transfer window could be closed on 19th of July. Then there was last summer window when Chelsea failed with matching enourmous demands from the clubs for their players, more than anything. There was a dilemma between going for big but unprobable or settling for lesser targets. All in all, both Mourinho and Pochettino work in similar conditions. So head coach Antonio Conte has to deal with other teams withing the club responsible e.g. financial aspect of the transfers. But no doubt club will try to go for his targets and the players we're linked with at the moment are great, you can't do bad if you pull something off this.

No, I'm not !

I'm so happy. Welcome ! Board did amazing job on this one. I like the quote from Marina "We are very pleased to have recruited one of the most highly regarded managers in world football and we are equally pleased to do so before the end of the current season. This aids our future planning." I'm somehow confident now we get this right in the summer. The players we're linked with are some great players, I'm just optimistic it will be done correctly and fast. Great day overall.

There is no more glaring comparision than that with Marcelo. What Marcelo did against Barca on Saturday is exactly what I think Kenedy is able to do (showed that in a flash against Palace at the Bridge). And Marcelo used to be awful defender. Only after Jose worked on him he became much more bearable there. It's similar story with so many full-backs. Ashley Cole, do you remember him as a winger ? Then Jordi Alba, another winger or David Alaba, a central midfielder, Luke Shaw a winger etc. But there already is another problem. What with Baba ? Ideally we would be left there with one of them and some expierienced left-back.

Chelsea in most likely scenario will be signing a centre-forward anyway (Remy, Falcao and Pato will leave) so you think that the Blues are going to sign 2 class strikers in one window ?

Disappointed that Di Marzio didn't provide any photos. Come on, you're better than that Gianluca ! Still laughing out loud when I think of Matic transfer when he had his spies everywhere, first at Lisbon airport, then Zurich then London airport then London hotel only saving us from seeing how Matic looks in his hotel toilet room.

Heh, Oscar managed to look worse than Pato who played first game after 4 months. Something. I even confused them and was quite shocked when I saw Oscar doing something useful then it turned out it was Pato on the close up.

Oh and everybody, look for Gueye please. The guy has similar numbers to N'Golo Kante in tackles and interceptions.

BTW I hope that Remy is playing ahead of Traore because the latter didn't come back from Africa until yesterday, otherwise what the hell Guus is doing ?!

Wow, our squad is such a poverty, hardly to believe we have 7th biggest revenue in the world !

Sorry but that's ridicoulus, by your statement you're narrowing the pool of players to just a few. It's incredible lazy to call that all Leicester players have a fluke season. Everytime when the team has such great season there are couple of players that are the real deal. Every season creates a new stars. Dybala last season had a breakthrough and nobody even heard about him before and now he is one of the best players in Europe, no kidding. But yeah, Juventus should have waited until he will have another one or two such seasons. Yes, Kante is the real deal. Not his fault that clubs decided that he was too short. Usual story. Marseille and Lyon were interested in him but didn't push with his transfer and got him for cheap 2 years ago for the same reason. Their loss.

*Miroslav Klose, that's the guy you're talking about. And there's Gonzalo Castro mentioned above, who left Champions League Leverkusen for Dormund. Luis Suarez signed for Liverpool when they weren't in the Champions League. Juventus signed Vidal and beat Bayern to that in 2011 when they finished 7th in the league. Andrea Pirlo joined them in that year even though he just won a Scudetto with Milan. If Chelsea and Leicester can agree on price, this transfer will be done. BTW. Kante didn't have objectives when he signed a contract just a year ago for 14th team of the Premier League, why he should have now ?

Easy to assume that there is such player, who has the required abilities and will acclimatize seemingly ? Chelsea tried that and were berated for lack of ambition. Anyway, Kante hasn't got fluke season, it's actually his second great season when he has the highest amount of tackles in Europe. I wouldn't worry about him, the players like Drinkwater, Huth, Morgan and Vardy are the players that are having the season of their lives, I'd think that Kante and Mahrez are here to stay. The other player who has similar stats to Kante both last season in France and this season in the Premier League is Idrissa Gueye from Aston Villa. Maybe he is that unknown quantity and not so hard to buy. But Kante looks like safer bet.

Why should Bayern want to sell him ? Because he wants to go ! That's the first, most important, driver. Other variables, like his attitude and professionalism, are something that Chelsea manager decides, if he can deal with it and somehow manage it. The opinion is that he hasn't settled that well, because Bayern plays very specific system at the moment. Which is another variable Chelsea manager makes decision upon. And the last one could be that he is over the hill and already past his peak and they simply want to get rid of him. And yet another thing that manager decides and his team if that's correct. All in all, if I'm honest, the decision lies in the empowered hand of the manager over this particular player. Antonio Conte knows him and he has to decide if a) Vidal is not past his peak and he surely knows how peak Vidal looks like b ) if he can manage his off the pitch behaviour c) has a set-up that suits Vidal and d) can convince him to join Chelsea . The fact that we even discuss buying a player from such club like Bayern to mid-table Premier League team is solely a serious thing because Antonio Conte and his relationship with Vidal. So over to him in everything but transfer fee and wages.

Why are you worried about this ? It could be his excesses off the pitch, he could fail to acclimatize and it's Vidal that wants to follow Conte, that's why we're even talking about it. Admittedly I think Vidal could play pivotal role under Ancelotti, he doesn't suit to Guardiola philosophy. But while he struggles under him wouldn't it be wonderful that he would be moved on now ? If you're talking about him wearing off I'm genuine not concerned by this in the times when you can move Ramires on for 28m€ to China. Is he able to give 2 great seasons under his beloved manager ? I think yes.

Because Courtois good "form" lasted for 5 seasons. Back when he was playing in Genk and won the championship with them in Belgium, then 3 seasons in Atletico and then 1 season in Chelsea. Butland was playing Championship last year and was benched for the whole time at Stoke by Chelsea current bench option. Oh the irony, he conceded near post last game too !

How much he is worth ? Christensen plays in Champions League team, in one of the best leagues, has great season, is one of truly modern centre-backs, plays in the national team at such responsible position at this age and on top of that he is homegrown player. Considering that we bought Baba for 25m€ after one good season in outsider side, I think up to 30m€ could be the right answer. It's mad.

Tbf Courtois daily is one of the funniest things right now. I laugh my ass off checking todays teasing quotes and then checking the reaction from the fans.

Don't know if you remember but when Chelsea played Juventus in 2012-13 season, there was no Conte on the bench. He was in the stands. Jumping and celebrating. And that was because of his ban between August 2012 to December 2012.

Sorry Greavsie but Jose doesn't defend himself here. I read every comment he makes since his Inter days. I made my dissapointment with Chelsea style and approach clear here during last spring. But I was still Jose through and through fan, I still love the man, even today. Tried to change that but I can't. You can't see that but even now I stopped writing this post for a while because it hitted me that Chelsea fired Jose and he is no longer here. I should get over this but it's hard, it still strikes me through the times when I think reasonably and calculate that this was much of a good decision to simply cry inside because for some people you have such affection even though they're wrong. But that is for my personal diggresion. So imagine that why my frustration over Chelsea performance was big enough I tried to grasp any hint that yes, the summer overhaul is needed and it will be done. Yet he didn't speak. Can you imagine ? The only loop he left when he was saying on Chelsea Player of the Season Award ceremony, spoke that now everyone will try to catch them so everyone has to be better including himself. And that's it. Maybe now I'm missing something so I'm open to see links and quotes. He even said that thing, and that was after the season ended that "who can improve Chelsea, who can be better RB than Ivanovic, better CM than Matic etc.", that infamous quote all remember. He also repeated several times in conference that Chelsea have to be better and improve but through work, not NECCESARLY signing new player. What was that all about ? He was really quiet in that matter that Chelsea have to improve and buy BETTER player. If anything, he only assured that everything is all right in that department. Then it was that outburst after the game against Crystal Palace, losing to them, losing at Stamford Bridge. Why only now he let his frustration heard ? The timing of this, straight after the game, he is always frustrated after a lost game and knowing him transfers may well be suitable excuse. ESPECIALLY as he wasn't so open about needing of new players. And what exact players he was expecting ? You know, he signed a contract worth between 8 to 12 m£ for 4 years including his staff, I'm thinking Chelsea commited 40 to even 50m£ for their manager. You think that they wouldn't sign a player for him after commiting to such huge number ? I don't know, he wrote Pogba, Griezmann and Stones in the notes at the end of April and expected to all this go through or bust ? Chelsea tried all 3 of them, failed in all 3 cases. But again, Chelsea were much commited to Jose so if there was a case of signing more realistic targets, let's say Payet, Imbula, they wouldn't do it ? For the manager to whom they agreed to commit 40-50m£ ? It sounds unrealistic to me. Finally, why he signed his new contract when board was playing with him ?

Tbf even Leicester to my surprise is doing continetal tour so everyone have the same chances, no ?

A player on 90k a week to be 4th choice ?

For all the good things that he has done this season, only now I see glimmer of confidence in his ball-playing aspect. Don't want to sound negative, he is very good DEFENDER at this age, however he has the abilities to be way more proactive in possession that he has been this term. Especially after that was one of the most impressive features in his game at youths, I pay great attention to that when I see him playing for Gladbach and he has been undeniably modest with his passing. Almost always tried to play to nearest partner/goalkeeper. Come on, he is way better than this. He has technical abilities to carry the ball from defence and spread the passess across the pitch. His run on Friday was a mirror of one of his runs he did decent amount of times at youth level, I particularly remember game against United when he almost scored after beating everyone from his own backline. For me that was very encouraging piece of play that his confidence is growing and fear for failure flies away. And yes I understand he is a kid and doesn't want to overdo things at the moment, but he has those abilities that others can dream of, he was deployed in midfield for couple of Denemark matches particuarly because of his midfield-like abilities in ball control, calmness, striking of the ball. He has to continue like he did on Friday, more proactive, more dominant in possession. Being undeniable starter like he is at the moment should give him that confidence.

Falcao taking well-earned break.

Lol. Now ? He was available for free in 2014, then he should be signed, not after he was put in a limelight and is already tied to Juventus and soon to Bayern. Please don't suggest players like Kante, Mahrez, Dybala, Imbula because those ships have sailed. They're not cheap players playing under the radar anymore ! Yet people mention them "we should sign this and that" even though they're already off the market and as easily to get as Griezmann and Stones.