Blue Colored Sky

'The big game' when he's usually completely out of the game is now West Brom away. Wtf.

Nah, I follow this guy for a long time and he's reliable BUT I remember how excited I was he tweeted about Cavani to Chelsea done, I couldn't do anything that day ! Let's see. I'm excited as fuck though, can't contain this.

Sure, there you go http://gianlucadimarzio.com/en/eng/chelsea-makes-attempt-for-pogba-but-receives-firm-no-from-juventus-player/

75m€ is insane. Can we roll time 1,5-2 years back when he was available for 40m€ (Marotta words) ? What he has done since to command such fee ? It's insane, I'm speechless. I don't bother, if club have money to throw away we may as well try with the next bids or something. But I don't want to read in the next week that we didn't try with Koke.

We're definetely after him. We'll continue discussing with Juve. I wonder if club want midfielder or just want Pogba. As was said, offer something as stupid for Koke and see results. I'm sure Atletico will consider knowing that they're still in difficult situation financially. I think everyone is excited. I know that Pogba is overrated as fuck but you simply cannot be unexcited here when club try to make a swoop for biggest transfer property in the market. Either way I just want midfielder. I'd even suggest someone like Toulalan if club can't get such huge deal over the line.

He's great option in my opinion. The problem would be his wages as much as anything. Tbh if we wait next summer for Pogba/Koke I think it's necessary to have another midfielder now as a short-term solution. Don't look forward seeing Ramires/Mikel/Zouma there or be outweight with Fabregas. I think even Jeremy Toulalan would be a good option.

So according to this Dubai guy we are not after Witsel ... But what are other options ? Andre Gomes ? Nainggolan ? That's only two names that I think just, just can be available for the right price.

I hope it's an indication that we're after CM as much as anything. Would rather try Koke with the money that we're offering if I'm completely honest. Imo we would need to include Oscar in this sort of move plus big pile of cash, otherwise Juventus is the loser here.

Thanks ! Wouldn't surprise me if this true. The president of Marseille named Musonda as one of the players they want from this new partnership with Chelsea, but that was good few months ago. I think they were waiting what's going on with manager at Marseille and what players they will offload and try to bring in. I see that Chelsea take great care of their loan moves of two best prospects in Boga and Musonda. Boga doesn't even play in U21 even though he's not injured and it seems they try to be sure they send them in the right place. Wow, just seen that Thauvin was sold - Musonda is nailed on to go to Marseille. Maybe even with Boga ?

Dragging Baba deal for 6 weeks. Signing Pedro in 1 day. Where's logic ?

By the way, I'm laughing out loud because so many people still dismiss that some may have "source" about certain transfers. It's not that when Di Marzio/Sky/BBC don't report it there's nothing happening.

Even Rac1 is confirming it. They're the most reliable Barcelona source.

Would he have a work permit even ? I mean transfer fee is low (7m€), wages are low, he has no international cap, he has not played in continental competition ... Or they're giving away work permitts to everyone ? If he can qualify for WP, which he wouldn't get in previous years by any chance, then these new rules are actually piss take and instead of hardening they're sofening path for foreigners. Haha, good try FA. This "new Essien" thing is typical black, same nationality and same position thing, right ? Because if he really is new Michael Essien we should be all over this deal !

What we may fail to understand is that Mourinho sees all Ivanovic shortcomings, YET plays him even with them. There's silly from our POV to suggest that Jose with 20 years AT THE TOP LEVEL doesn't see it. He sees everything on the pitch. He probably just finished watching Man City game 3rd time on the video. He saw what Branislav did there. But there's question why he plays him even with his sins, is there his heading ability, power and strenght ? My money is on it. Jose sees this as a requirement for this team. Ivanovic is 31 though, 32 next February, converted CB who never was an athlete. While Azpilicueta is a natural athete, who even trained like athlete as an javelin thrower in teen age, Ivanovic is declining now. He really loses all accelaration that he may had. I think he will be dropped eventually. Ivanovic is no Cafu (lol) to play till his late 30s, right ?

Not sure if irony or serious but if you say things dead serious here I disagree. Inter is looking for a wide man while Juventus has long-term interest in Cuadrado. We have opportunities to get rid of him and secure let's say 20m€ (loan with obligation to buy) if we wait till January they probably won't have the need anymore, and then what ? If Cuadrado improves that won't be by much. He is too developed as a player to take huge leap he needs. He won't bulk up nor improve his technique and he relies on confidence as much as on anything. Mourinho won't fill him with confidence as he won't rotate him so when Cuadrado will step on the field he will be useless. He is not a bad player but he doesn't have confidence, just like Salah, and he will frustate himself further when try to prove a point in limited time. There's no future for him here IMO.

Yes, definetely. La Liga is the place to be at the moment. The most thrilling, intense, end to end stuff with highest technical quality is happening over there. Every big match proves why football is the best sport. Sevilla - Barcelona, Barcelona - Valencia, Atletico - Real, Real - Valencia, Real - Sevilla, Atletico - Valencia, Valencia - Sevilla I really don't know if any big match dissapointed last season. Also it's quite good that La Liga plays their biggest matches at the evenings. While in Premier League everything seem slower, less intense and somehow obsolote not to say that quality of the players and teams are generally lower. Of course most lower team matches are better in England than anywhere else but if you want intensity and quality at the highest level La Liga don't dissapoint. Meanwhile Premier League is talking step back. Does any big match last season was memorable ? I think if La Liga clubs, those lower sides, have as much money as their Premier League sisters, the quality of the whole league would be much much better than the Premier League. They develop better, play more attractive with better technical quality, for example Getafe's of their world would be much better than Sunderland but the money gap is hard to fill. I'm hugely dissapointed with the Premier League, I thought that 2013 new Premier League TV deal and extra revenue for each club would elevate whole quality of the clubs but it didn't happen. In theory it could. But it caused that players like Steven Fletcher costs 13m£ and Shane Long 12m£. So now we have another Premier League TV deal which kicks in 2016, and of course it affects cost of players like Fletcher and Long, as much as anything. I want Premier League to be the best but can't say they're the best, certainly not on the highest end. Less intensity, less technical quality than somewhere else.

We have our depth, players like Cahill, Willian, Oscar and Fabregas (partly) should be our depth while we should be looking for starting quality in CB, CM (bigger games) and RW. 3 players away from having very good first XI and squad depth.

I can regurgitate myself and others and say that we have to buy CB, CM and RW but we all know that. Mostly also realized how inevetible that performance was. Similar with WBA last year, even though some will claim it was after winning title and Fabregas red, we were just waiting for our little bit of luck to dry out to be finally punished like that. We could nick a draw here if we would set up diffrent, they would continue to miss, Aguero would waste yet another chance, Ramires or Hazard to score but the hard truth is that we're undertalented comparing to Man City. 3rd time I use this word today. We have to use our tricks and nullify them and try to kill the game but we're no match for them in talent department in my opinion. They can use all their players in attack, two attacking full-backs, striker who is fantastic at dribbling, two creative players behind him, central midfielder who can become number 10 or second striker while everything from us is about one player, firmly believe that he is the best of the both teams but he is just one player. We give them Azpilicueta or Ivanovic as full-backs, last thing our defenders think about is to step out of their positions. Our right winger is Ramires ffs, how is that possible in one of the reachest teams in Europe ? Don't see if there's too much to analyse here when I see we have too much "functional" players who give "balance" while we lack spark and some creativity and decicivness. If we could just add one more elite talent to the guys we have, we can have much better chance in playing functional, compact and strategic football. Meanwhile, in such games, we can hope that our rivals really underperforms and we can score from set-piece. We are no match for them at the moment in normal game.

We have too many squad players playing as our core first XI. Gary Cahill, another player who has to be predominately squad player, is our go to guy in every game at every level. As 3rd or 4th option, I take him in a hearbeat, but as undoubted first XI, no. His shortcomings are exposes in every bad manner when he faces enough talent (which doesn't mean Aguero type talent by any stretch). Too erratic and you can't count on him reading ball well enough to step out of his shell and intercept the ball. Every centre half who is recognized as the best is doing that.

He was really bad yesterday. Mangala owns him the second time he faced him and somehow looks like that 30m guy Man City was paying for. It's not even that Diego was off form as was suggested, last year similar story while Diego stroke 7 goals in 4 games as I remember and he was owned in the same manner as yesterday. But we know that DC isn't best at football, right ? But our team is set up for him to play too much football and don't utilize his best attributes which is movement. Ok, Diego is partly to blame here, but more responsibility bear players behind him. Fabregas is put out of the game way too easily while Willian is the last man you can count on in looking for through ball. Or maybe the second last, because there's also Ramires. Who has to feed Diego then ? There's just Hazard, yes, that's it. And our striker starts to overcomplicate everything and gets into too much dribbling and try to be player he is certainly not. It's very difficult to find a striker these days, we tried Icardi and Dybala but we failed. No doubt we will come back for Icardi next summer but strikers are premium position while midfielders are retail products, there's plenty of them. We want to utilize Diego Costa while he is constantly owned by Kompany, Mangala, Thiago Silva or everyone that can match his physicality. We have to utilize his best traits and that are movement and instinct but we don't have players to do that. Either we find world striker with elite back to goal play aka Lewandowski or midfielder who can put a mark on these bigger games, who is able to keep the ball under pressure and has some creativity in him. Or we will continue to struggle with Diego Costa when he tries to be diffrent player than he is.

He is very good squad player. He's definition of a Twelve Man. Reliable in possession, good circulation of the ball, can keep it, put an effort, pressing. But is simply undertalented in creative department. He's not the player that warrants starting spot in such team as Chelsea. Madrid, Munich and Barcelona press would be all over him if he'd start week in week out in their team while givining output of 4 goals, 4 assists each season. He is functional player but is unrealiable as anyone when you look for quality pass or dribbling or movement or attacking space. He can't be our go to guy. A toothless technican, a very good, 6 or 7 out of 10 guy, a functional player. But we should put all the money in one basket and try to add decisive player.

Why we started the pre-season so late ? Mourinho never starts pre-season so late. I mean that was like 3 weeks before the season ? He wants to protect players from burning too soon but if they're rotated they don't burn so quickly, in January or so. If we had rotation options that have trust from Jose we would hit the ground running now. We don't have them and that means Jose is preparing his team for playing the same XI every week and wants them to last a longer period now ? That's good explanation I think why we started pre-season so late ... We simply don't have enough quality in the squad. The next 2 weeks are very important. Add one world talent in offensive/midfield department and it gives a little breath to anyone.

According to Gazetta, he's available for 40-50m€. The same amount of money Chelsea are offering for Stones. While this amount will be higher he MAY be available. I dream about adding another world talent. We should be putting all our money in that basket and try to add such player to the fold. Isco keeps the ball under pressure with ease through his sheer impeccable technique, he can stand harrasing from Yaya, Fernandinho and Kompany in Hazard style while he also creates, pressess, tracks back. Losing the ball too cheaply and inability of protecting the ball is one of our main sins, we're well undertalented in that department. We should be all over such players in the next 2 weeks and focus on them. Isco or such join and we're adding first XI quality while Willians become very good squad depth.

Jose did suggest that Baba will rival Azpilicueta for a left spot while Azpilicueta will rival Ivanovic for a right spot. Which is encouraging as he probably said that because he was pissed off by Ivanovic liability and Jose finally alludes that Ivanovic isn't untouchable. We lack overlapping badly and Jose also suggested that they're looking for offensive offensive full-back. Baba can perfectly play as a right-back as well, he is very two-footed player from what I've seen.

They're probably sorting his work permit. Won't take long though with such massive transfer fee and wages.