Blue Colored Sky

I know ! I only included him in 2015 summer sales, right ? I forgot about strong pound to euro rate. It's stronger than ever in recent times and because transfer fees are recorded in euro it gives the English clubs more financial power. All in all, I wouldn't be worried about the money.

I don't think so. Chelsea have their own money. They commit 60% of their turnover to wages - to entire 260 playing and non-playing stuff. They're still over 120m£ not spend on wages. General "running of the club" cost a bit but they're money from that for other expenses such as transfer "fees" (which includes many costs not associated with number paid to selling club but I leave it now) Plus, the extra money from Yokohama Rubber deal and Champions League money will give additional ~45m£ each year New Premier League money will give around additional ~50m£ each year but that's from 2016. Plus, of course, there are still players to sell : Cech, Mikel, Moses, Cahill, Oscar, Thorgan Hazard, Atsu, Salah, Van Ginkel, Pasalic, Kalas, Omeruo, McEachran, Kakuta, Piazon, Romeu, Marin, Bamford In my opinion all of them will be sold either this year or next year. And they will bring a lot of money. So yes, adding own money plus new Champions League prize awards, Yokohama Rubber sponsorship (and Premier League money in the near future) plus player sales Chelsea can comfortably afford bigger spending than 100m£.

There was an information in November that Chelsea decide to hold up his operation until the end of the season. Why fool yourself even more ? It's clear that he needs a surgery at one point. Maybe he is going to help Chelsea this season yet, however I believe that his long-lasting returns to his best after injury/suspension, which takes 3 very dire games to see him in proper conditions with confidence in his play, are caused by his long-term hamstring problems. He can't "hit the ground" running when he comes back and that's very frustrating for everybody. There were reports that his recovery after an operation will take 6 to 8 weeks so it's not difficult decision to take if that's going to help him. (However, there still may be recurring problems, hamstring is a bitch, once done may be done, Atletico broke his hamstring by rushing him back just like Chelsea did with David Luiz before CL final, just look at David Luiz who after a surgery still has the same problems)

Mourinho plays things as conservative as possible now. He wants to be in his comfort zone. I already posted that in Mourinho thread. In his thinking, Cahill is "safer" option than Zouma, that means Kurt's season is over. (until Chelsea win the title)

It's Fiorentina that came with an idea to take him on loan ? Or we were the ones who offered that ? I personally think that was Viola with such thoughts. And we gave him without hesitation, but they probably have watched him on several occasions and liked what they saw. When Chelsea bought David Luiz they offered Matic in part-exchange without a tear dropped. But Benfica have watched Matic several times and didn't take him without extensive scouting. It's funny when those clubs see better players in them than Chelsea even though they're their own players.

He says that he doesn't want to do something different, in relation to off form midfield trio, and go into unknown in April. He took off second striker as soon as we scored - to play things as safe as possible. He now doesn't want to think of Zouma in defence, instead he opts for a "safe" option. He says that he can't give a minute to RLC, who is build like a tank, "to protect" him. He reacts to Cuadrado miss like if that was crucial miss to define the season and shows way more than his discontent. I just see he has huge monkey on his back right now. A big, big one. Plays according to his "winning formula" recipe. I'm sure more could have been done in relation to the long term project but I see I am harsh on him when I see this man, our boss, being under such pressure ... I don't know. To reiterate this again, due to the past months, I want this title more to build from that than I want the title itself.

Mourinho will get an upgrade over him - it's obvious. He doesn't have to speak about it, actions speak louder than voice. Dropped I don't know how many times in a big game. He seems to appear only when there's no other option to take. Then constantly subbing him off in half-time. But folks here were saying "just look on Oscar" in relation to KdB. "Just look at Oscar" in relation to Mata. He "sold" them but not by extraordinary performances. Good games, working hard on the pitch and achieving manager trust is what it takes to get constant streak of games and left others into abyss. But this league isn't for him, simple. He has to be in absolutely best shape and form to react quickly to avoid tackles and keep the ball since he can't take them on him because he neither possess technique nor muscles. And we know that he from December onwards is far from the best shape.

Thanks ! Didn't Mourinho phone to Khedira and told him to stay one more year with Madrid to come to Chelsea ? That story was in Spanish papers for sure. Khedira at least can press, when he is in his physical conditions he can press very effectively therefore he's much much better back up to Matic or even his partner than Mikel.

He has to be in his absolutely best shape to avoid pressing and therefore not losing the ball . He hasn't got resist-pressing technique nor is strong on his feet. I can't recall the big game when he just was there and was able to cope with pressing from the back. Usually it looks very bad but most of the times he doesn't even play in those games. He can't keep that ball and in our style of play we leave our players isolated often in hope of them to cope with the situation on their own. Oscar can't do this, unfortunately. His way of dealing with the heavy press is to avoid contact on every occasion, he can do that effectively but as I said, he has to be in the best shape physically to do this. And he is burned out in around half of the season = looses the ball in pressing situation in abundance. Still think that Premier League doesn't suit him. He is very good player but one thing you can't disagree about the Premier League is that teams chasing you aggressively, take physical battle with you and put heavy pressing on you. And he can't cope with this when he is fatigued, doesn't have the muscles (and it looks like he won't have them in the future) nor technique to get through this. But I see him thrive in the Serie A or La Liga.

On the plus side would be :earn some money, build a stronger brand and having an opportunity to watch our youths since I'm sure Jose would give them a chance. So every opportunity in a match for RLC, Boga, Solanke between first teamers is good. On the other side, this side lacks freshness already. Some of them played the most in the Premier League from all players and you only want to burn them more by this idea especially by all those travelling. I'm sorry but I fear a burnout in a 3rd season of Mourinho team which can hit us very hard ... So every chance to prevent that should be taken.

If someone has a plan to send him to Championship, I don't think that he wishes him well.

Ideally it would like this : Varane for Cahill RLC for Mikel Koke/Pogba for Oscar Sterling in Icardi in Then you have Filipe, JT, Varane, Zouma, Ivanovic, Azpilicueta, Matic, RLC, Fabregas, Ramires, Koke, Sterling, Cuadrado, Willian, Hazard, Diego, Remy, Icardi 18 outfield players for 10 positions - that's still not ideal but I'd say the minimum number you go for a season. BTW Interesting comments by Jose about Sterling situation. He wants to further distract the situation. I personally think that Jose would love Sterling to have him. Ideal counter-attacking player with quality as well as English. Didn't Jose speak at length previously how he wants to help England national team and how he loves to have English players ??

If I had to choose the one, I'd go for central midfielder of course.However I fully believe that's not exclusively. We will sign another attacking midfielder, I'd put 90% probability. We already wanted to recall Moses (which in my opinion is obvious that he was going to be an addition alongside Cuadrado not instead) and we keep informed about Douglas Costa's fitness. I don't get when people say "let's wait for Cuadrado and what he has in store". It doesn't matter. Chelsea have 8 players for 5 midfield position, that's low number. Even when Cuadrado turns to beast, you imagine going with 8 players for 5 position next season ? 9 would be minimum, 10 would be optimal. At the start of the season we were already short in central midfield numbers and only thanks to good fortune with injuries we haven't been hit badly. We only had one player unavailable at the same time but look at the situation now, we can't rotate off form Fabregas or Matic because we lacks numbers. Mourinho already uses those players too much. We don't rotate and it's evident that we lack freshness in our players. But real concern can come with next season, when Mourinho teams can usual endure burn out in 3rd season after exhaustive 2nd. It's not difficult to imagine that Man City game situation would happen more often if we were slightly more misfortune with injuries. Then you have only kids to make the bench. We need numbers !! We will sign another attacking midfielder. I'd love if that was Sterling not Douglas Costa. Another question is money. Chelsea have enough money not to choose if they're going to sign central midfielder or attacking midfielder. People don't realise that Chelsea is one of richest clubs in the world without owner's money ?! This club have enough resources to spend their own money. Now there's additional money from Yokohama as well as similar rise with UEFA prize awards. We have enough of our own money to sign two players of highest quality. Then we can sell others to make 3rd and 4th signing. We are fine in financial department. We can spend very big with right sells and fill the gaps we may have.

BTW last year, the best defender in Serie A was valued around 60m€ by Sabattini (Roma's director). Barca, and Man Utd et al were ready to offer something but such figure put them off. Barca eventually landed Mathieu and Vermalean while United went for Rojo. Nobody was ready to negotiate that price with Roma and after 2 months Benatia went to Bayern for something like 26m€ + 4 add ons. Far than from that 60m€ figure. Now Palermo president can't shut the f**k up, instead he talks literally every week about Dybala and how he's going to sell him big time. Doubt that there will be someone stupid to throw 40m€ for him, but hey, you never know. Maybe Pastore all over again. That valuation by Italian presidents and directors are very odd and often laughable but you can't blame them. They're in crisis and want to milk somebody if that's possible. But Chelsea won't swallow that bait I'm sure.

It was probably down to the fact that he had to stay one more year to become homegrown here. He is here already 3 years (2012-2015) and now he is considered a homegrown player. So now he can go somewhere abroad on loan. I know but he seems to still grow and therefore you can't expect for him to go to gym and bulk up too much. But once he stops growing then he really needs to grow muscles and become broader, because even at U21 level he's shoved off the ball too much. Let's see. Youth development is about developing technically and physically. His technique is outstanding, right up there with Eden Hazard, just phenomenal ball control, very much two-footed as well. However he still lags behind physically, but at this age is not a problem. Mourinho already ordered Christiansen to bulk up big time if he wants to play as a CB.

That 100m figure was thrown out by his agent btw, so I wouldn't be attached to that tbf. He and Marotta (Juventus director) want to command the biggest fee and thus they are talking about such figures. By their assessments in due time, 2 years ago Pogba was worth 40m€, something like year ago Pogba was "only" worth 60m€. Now 100m€. For fuck sake, they only want to keep talking and want to get to people head, when they see another Pogba's stunner, to think "yeah, maybe they're right, 40 - 60 - and now 100 is a fair price for him". Through this talk they want to make him very marketable playere and nsure that they're going to rip someone's off very badly . They speak about Pogba every 2-3 weeks, don't want to shut up for a period, instead keep the product as hot as possible. Back to Earth though, I think his price at the end will be reasonable. I don't see anything over 60m€ unless someone will be desperate.

Fantasitc info, thanks ! So in theory we have as big chance as Real. I like him very much, I think he's very good player (VERY, VERY GOOD) for his age and would take him in every moment, however he's 170 cm tall. For a full back under Mourinho ? It seems too short ://

Just spend 27 minutes watching his interview. Now I know what the fuss is about. Would love to have him here. Quality, English and tracks back ? BTW he's really native English ? Because he speaks English just like Messi speaks Spanish like if he has some problems with that.

For the summer ? How much he's going to cost ? Chelsea have lots of money to spend, however they won't go over the top for a player that has 12 months to finish his contract. 40m£ I see as our proposal. I think Roman would welcome him and would approve this transfer to go through. He's freak to have an attacking identity in his Chelsea side. EDIT Meh, he's got 2 year left. What's the fuss ? I think we should wait and see if LFC is going to play in the Champions League next season.

Jose is omitted again for Manager of the Month award. This is getting silly. He hasn't won once since he came back even though his team sits atop of the League since August. Also had time in last season being 1st for quite a bit. Overall I am sure that Chelsea has been first for majority of his 2 years spell. Meanwhile Mr Pellegrini already has 3 recognitions ! 3 to 0 ! You would think that Jose at least is going to win Yearly award, however they say that either Koeman or, if he's going to survive, Dyche are safer bets.

He's a good player. Don't look on Roma players now because you would have to say that everyone of them is shit - Pjanic for example. He has his qualities and would be a very, very good squad player for many teams and that includes Chelsea. He's physicall midfielder and that's what we lacks, besides has impressive engine, doesn't take prisoners in tackles, can pass, can shoot . He'd be an upgrade over Ramires in my opinion. Jack of all trades. However we're looking for a starter quality; Pogbas and Kokes of this world and he is not the one. I also read that he has complex ownership issues and knowing from the past I don't think that Chelsea would be bored too much to deal with that kind of problems.

I'd love if that average Brazilian to play LB would be Alex Sandro from Porto. I rate him higher than Danilo, for me he's underrated. I disagree calling Carvalaj average player. He's technical, fast full-back with great tenacity about him. Also he's getting there defensively, he improves himself and is on the right path to be very good on both sides. I don't know exactly why they signed Danilo having their Academy product, Champions League winner player on steady uphill progress, apart from that they bereaved Barca from one player to choose from. However, now they have two great attacking full-backs - just wait when we meet them and our only idea of the game will be neutralizing their wingers. I believe that Real will try to recoup that money - let's get Varane and try some Isco bid.

Right. I was slightly estatic but now I checked a root for this rumours and couldn't find anything. Just scrolled through Gazzetta Dello Sport twitter feed from the last 2 days and there's nothing. It's not the first time that something was suppousedly on GDS and I couldn't find a grain of this on their site. Back to normal I guess, however I'd love if Jose would swallow a humble pie and hire some attacking coach.

Yeah, last weak the first proposals were showed to public. However, they are at the very early stage. Currently, they only clutch in the straw with this. Many clubs currently wouldn't have enough players to meet the new rules criteria and they would have exclude them from squad list for the Premier League. And that alone raises problem. To go through, 14 of 20 clubs from the Premier League have to approve and that's not going to happen in current form at all. They started discussion so far and they probably want to meet half-way there with the clubs. One thing I am sure will not go through is counting homegrown player only to the one who was in England 3 years before turning 18 (instead of 21 like it is now). That would prevent English clubs to sign the best 16 years old to make them homegrown and that's not going to happen. They want to lower number of non-HG players from 17 to 13. I think they can lower that to 15 but not more. The discussion has just started. FA boss just threw an idea into vacuum to start debate. But they have to be careful to not deliberately lower standard of the game.

Thanks Few points : a) Indeed, the money UEFA will receive from BT is paid by customers in England. And it's not coming back entirely to English clubs but rather is redistributed across all participants. So you there are going to pay for extra prize money for clubs from Romania, Slovenia etc. That's why UEFA has increased prize money significantly in % ... Sorry bro However I believe that market pool for English clubs is going to grow significantly nonetheless but not as much as one would expect. In that 2013/14 season, from that market pool, PSG & Juve have netted much more money than Chelsea despite going out earlier in the competition. I think it's going to change, I don't believe that English clubs would allow to let this money slip from their hands, the money that all in all should fall to them because THEIR contract has grown that significant (and will be paid by English customers) b ) Personally don't think that will be easier in the group stage. The first pot will contain 8 champions from 8 countries of highest coefficent ranking in UEFA. And while you will have there Barcelona, Bayern, Juventus, Chelsea, PSG you also will have Benfica, Zenit and Dynamo. 3 clubs that you can't draw. But apart from pot 1 further forward you will have clubs seeded according to their coefficent so pot 2 will contain clubs like Real Madrid, Atletico, Porto, Arsenal, Man City etc. Fortunately, there are clubs that are not regarded as very strong and have high coefficent, thanks to their well-doing in Europa League. But in theory if every big club had high coefficent, then pot 2 would be stronger than pot 1 because you wouldn't have clubs like champions of Portugal, Ukraine and Russia. All in all I don't think that it will change that much. If you're champion or not, you have a chance to draw a very strong opponent or some minnows. But it should ensure that variety will be reasonably bigger and that's main reason for a change of people who are sick of Arsenal, Bayern; Psg, Barcelona in the same group every year. However to really change this seeding and have way bigger variety, get things really interesting in the group stage, then they should do something more like changing coefficent calculator to have more emphasis on recent years. It's weird that last year is as important as that 5 years ago. Would like if group stage progress would be more difficult for big clubs when they currently face usually only 1 significant competitor for a place. c) No, award for a draw remains the same. Only here they haven't increased money. d) Thanks. I know what form is correct but I forgot, don't know why exactly. Sometimes I don't have that sense for the language and write with mistakes.