Blue Colored Sky

Funny thing is that when Hazard starts scoring again no one want to leave him out. Oh, look Diego Costa scored in his last 2 games, no one calls him shit now. He's not someone to only pick up fights, is more interest in winding up his opponents than playing football and needs upgrade ASAP. How things change ... In football 6 months are eternity. Hazard won't leave this month, 100%. And if he will again be the best player in the league, who wants him out, remind me again ? I sometimes think we don't deserve him. Maybe it's only minority that voices are loudest in the audience, but when I listen and read some opinions I think we deserve Moses and Ramires of this world. Players who are putting shift. That's it. That's all that matters.

Enjoyed this dream while it lasted. Now move to Teixeira thread please.

Will be eternally pitful that we didn't paired Hazard with another WC attacking midfielder. Ifs and buts now but we had great opportunity to do that in 2013 when Isco and James were moving clubs. But instead Chelsea spend 60m€ on Schurrle and Willian. Then we cut any imagination in our players by selling KdB and Mata in the next window. Hazard was supplied by players like Oscar, Willian, Schurrle, Salah, Cuadrado. Can't forgive that. I never got an idea that our squad is ok last season in following scheme : Fabregas to playmake and assist, Hazard to dribble and giving the edge and Diego Costa to score goals. And the rest of squad to give balance. What a sick, short term setting. I said this countless of times that it has short termism written all over it. Meh. So it is missed opportunity to build something great with Hazard. Can imagine him going in the summer now. He is our out of jail card, someone who will hold Chelsea fall for mediocrity. I have security with him that Chelsea won't drown down for more than a season. But I imagine that now when Chelsea will try to replace him by a couple of "good" players. If Hazard leaves that should be mandatory that we receive someone like Reus, Isco, James, Bale in exchange plus some money. Probably only ends with money to buy 3 Schurrles.

Are you for real mate ? You're losing all credibility in my eyes with such posts. He took team that was on downward spiral, why otherwise there would be change of manager in the first place ? Chelsea feared for top4 finish even though the situation at that time was good in the table but it could quickly continue in the same pattern and go horribly wrong. Rafa task was to get to top 4. He's done that while having super-thin squad while playing 69 games in a season (!!!). I don't know which idea that was but we had the worst squad overall with probably zero to non "options" why also having the most games to play. It was ridiculous bad planning. Our squad in 12/13 ; Cech, Turnbull, Hilario David Luiz, Azpilicueta, Cole, JT, Cahill, Ivanovic, Bertrand, Ferreira Mikel, Ramires, Lampard, Romeu, Benayoun (lol) Hazard, Mata, Oscar, Moses, Marin Torres, Ba + Sturridge (who was sold) and with that squad you have to play 69 games in a season, reach top 4 and try to win a cup. WTF was that from Chelsea I will never know. He had to basically play Hazard, Mata, Oscar in every game plus Moses as a sub. There was Marin who was crap and always injured. For midfield it was Ramires, Mikel, Lampard. Romeu was injured. Oh and I forgot Benayoun. Great options don't you think ? The fact is Rafa did a really good job considering amount of matches to play (69 games, again I say this, while having to travel to Japan and Russia in mid weeks) and super thin squad. He even played 17 year old Nathan Ake and moved David Luiz to midfield to have a bit more options there. Just think about it for a second. We dropped far too many points from winning positions, especially at the end of the games. I think we dropped 15 points from winning position at that season and majority of them in the last stage of the game. Reading A and Liverpool A are the first spring to mind. Plus that QPR loss. Yes, that's frustrating and I was very angry at that time but when you think about it players may fail hold on to lead when they are tired. And there was every reason to be tired with such shit overall squad and amount of matches.

More lifes than cats. Wasn't Mikel sold several times to Turkey already and most recently, in July, was in Istanbul even negotiating his contract there ?

I don't get the idea that Chelsea are in such deep hole that it takes years to recover. I wouldn't be at all surprised if this time next year we're second in the Premier League and lamenting why we're not first. I didn't say that we are on top of the world last season when we were toying with the league, playing good football and making profit neither things gone completely south and we're at the bottom now. We were making plus 150m€ offers for Stones, Griezmann and Pogba and we were actually the only club close to prize Pogba away from Juventus this past summer and the last one on that battlefield. If that's not sign of ambition I don't know what is. It's really only the case if club should go for 'cheaper alternatives' or stick to their clear targets. We will recover and recover soon, really. Roman just ended Drogba's playing career by one phone call because he still undoubtedly cares.

How was Cudicini's kicking ? As I think we tend to have players with absolutely shit distribution - Cech, Hilario, Turnbull, Begovic and Courtois are all worth each other.

Isco is the kind of player to save our ass. He's an outcast and maybe a bit lost in Madrid but he would come here and together with Hazard would create some great pairing. I believe he's our out-of-jail-card. He's an amazing talent, someone who plays for top sides. I believe we have too many players that, as I call it, CAN play for Spurs and you think they are at home. Isco is the man that belongs to the top sides. More talents like him, more chance that we quickly bounce back.

He's much better than Cahill for the time being. FFS, Cahill is 30 year old man and he has to be guided in every step as he can't take initiative. Kurt is trying that, goes for the ball, first then second, play high line, go with the striker even to halfway line, make challenges. Maybe if we had better setup when everything clicks then Cahill is not that bad, but when we have a bunch of players happened to be playing together then I want someone who can deal with situation on his own and Kurt is that man.

I should put it differently. My question should sound like that : Would Dele Alli improve Chelsea now ? I think so. Does anybody think he could improve Chelsea 4 months ago ? Definetely, defintely no. In that sense I want to say that the player moved a lot in the right direction and developed to be good enough for Chelsea now. But maybe he was not there at the start of the season ? I think that Ramires is maybe better than RLC now but what about 6 months from now ? Why we choose short term serviceability over long-term brilliance ? I say this again, there's a path to integrate 1 young player every season but when I see that we need like 5-6 new players for the first XI I don't bother now about youth integration. RLC should go on loan, definitely. He'll be 20 next month.

The fact is Ruben was pulled out of the hat. There was no mention of him for 1,5 years in Jose second string, he didn't even travel in European Tour when 16 year old Jay Dasilva was present. Nor in the previous summer when someone like Wallace was there. He wasn't even mentioned as the one who could be part of Jose's failure if he wouldn't make it. Then Academy Day happened. We were strolling in the league and Jose thought it's good time to give a shout for youth integration. RLC was picked as he is the bigger player with most physically developed body while being quite good in youths. Then everybody thought he is the most talented, most impressive one in the youth setup as he was handpicked and put in the lamelight by Jose. But the fact is he is the most ready from physical point of view and that's the whole story. That's why he is here and not on loan. Anyway, I think he's quite amazing talent as you can see in his moves he has something extraordinary about him. Definetely material to be some player. However a lot of work ahead of him and there's no excuse why he is ahead of at least a couple of other young players.

And owning Yaya in post season US Tour doesn't count now ? Would Dele Alli improve Chelsea now ? I think so. Did anybody think he could improve Chelsea 4 months ago ? Definetely, defintely no.

So far I'm dissapointed but nothing to loose sleep over. Let's see come the end of January.

Defines nothingness.

At least Hazard proves that he's head and shoulders above the rest. No, he's not great atm but he's the only one who can do something with the ball, has ball retention and some imaginative ideas to play forward. Don't you fucking dare put him in the same muppet bracket of nobodies like Pedro, Willian and Oscar.

He still pisses me off with his layoffs to the right. When he hesitate over the ball you hope that he finally do something different, dribble to the left and try shoot, but he always chooses layoff to the right as long as someone is overlapping. Guy has extraordinary ball control and acceleration but he always chooses the easiest, unimaginative option. And that assist is something much more extraordinary than we think from Willian as a) it's great assist b ) it was finally some invention from him

1. Yes, the Europe League prize money is nothing comparing with CL but it is still some money in budget plus there could be some obligations with sponsorhip contracts to get bonus money when playing in Europe. I remember there was big case that when Chelsea won't qualify for 2012/13 Champions League season they not only lose prize money but some sponsorship too. 2. Less matchdays at Stamford Bridge. Realistically at least 5 less games, that's a lot of money. 3. I don't necessary agree that there is correlation between playing in Europe League and league form. If you're good you're good. Borussia Dortmund is prime example of this season. Besides since there will be Premier League matches next season on Friday, there's even more chance that you're playing games every 3 days regardless if it is Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday in Europe. Last time we played in EL there wasn't much of a problem in reaching league objective and we had piss poor squad then with limited options. 4. Coefficent. We will drop to the second pot/third pot without any European competition next season as 2016/17 season will replace our winning 2011/12 season. 5. Prestige. Chelsea outside of Europe. Really ?

Wish there was still Intertoto Cup, haha !

It's hard to demand from a guy who was on vacation to watch Chelsea games and analyse them. He could have watched a couple but there was that thing that everybody had a clean slate under him. He probably got as much information as he could from staff that is here. And if everybody started with zero there's more chance that someone like Ivanovic is going to play than Baba or Fabregas than RLC or Diego Costa than Remy. Guus had only 3 days with training sessions with this group of players so he had to rely on information he has. Which is training. And Jose said that players are very good in training. So yeah, it maybe takes time for him to draw his own conclusions.

You'd ask Oscar what player he is and what role suits him most and he'd tell you that he's a number 10 and likes to play a lot with the ball, quick passes, flicks etc. He said that in his interviews. His body language and posture also suggests that. First time in Brazil he straightaway took no.10 shirt and he's Brazilian ffs, they like to play football there IIRC. He simply HAS TO play like he did against Sunderland. We don't have many world-class players to give up creativity from any of our attacking player. I said this, when he plays like against Sunderland, he's the player who is one of the prettiest to watch in my eyes but performance like yesterday are the ones that get me mad. I don't remember being that enraged over one particular player for a long time. There's no two ways about, no role thing, no nothing, he played very poorly on Saturday.

We're going to sign Alex Teixeira and that's it IMO. What's funny, he would come here straight from vacations after month or so of holidays. If he's going to help us this season ? Outside chance of new striker ... Batshuayi maybe ? But only if Falcao/Remy leaves. Can't see which midfielder we can realistically sign. Biglia and Moutinho are great but will be deemed too old. Can you fill me in what are you talking about ?

He's been awful but come on. He's not that bad. He's in very deep shit form for a year or so but he was bossing things at Benfica and at the first calendar year here. He was Portuguese Player of the Year, remember ? In the same time when James was playing there ! So tell me which players we're supposed to sign and which are good enough if not the best player of one of the best leagues in Europe ?

Couldn't like him more after his first presser. Back in 2009 I didn't watch such things like press conference. I didn't know how's Guus Hiddink like. So for me it is first impression and very, very good one. Always thought that Guus is the only one that can match my warm feelings towards Chelsea manager that I used to have with Jose. So I'm extremely delighted that we have him at the helm for the whole 6 months ! How good is that ?! I'm very positive. Want to run, jump again with joy. I start to feel passion again. I'm looking forward to the next game and the next game. I missed it so much.

Wow, there are leaks from Chilean federation, not less than earnings of their coaches and Jorge Sampaoli, someone who is highly regarded by many, is earning mere 59,000 $ a month, which is less than 0,5m£ a year. That basically mean if Chelsea want him they will get him. Can easily offer him 10 times than he is earning now or even more. Buying out his contract wouldn't be a problem either.

Haha, I promise if we're unsuccessful in the next 2-3 seasons I'm going to pray for Jose to come back. Last time it worked as I was literally praying for him to come back. The doors are certainly open.