Barbara

register my bet too, pls, 21 all competitions. I don't think he speaks English, so it'll be funny. Also, the guy from Chelsea TV is all over our new signings just like we are, it's almost fangirl levels. Good, good times!

you made me laugh because this is what my girlfriends and I say all the time, lol you're the best, cutie

how can he own a part of his economical rights if he's a free agent now? That's confusing. Also I'm very worried about we reaching the homegrown quota. In our first team only JT, Cahill and Cesc count, right? So it means we need to get another five HG in the other 22 positions we have available... I don't see us adding foreign players anymore. To pick five of our u-21 (and unless Cech leaves, we can't even have Jamal in the count) and the likes of Moses and Bertrand leaves us with little room for getting more foreigners as we basically are left with no first team HG players.

First dinner but you don't have to sing... yet @cescf4bregas #Diego Costa y @filipeluis @chelseafc I'd love to hear what they'll sing. Especially Cesc edit: also Azpili, that's not Cesc's account edit2: Chelsea official account RT'd it, fixing Cesc's account, lol

Costa even looks around only 30 in that pic! Great times are coming to the Blues!

you made me laugh hard at the "little tuft of hair" I'm still laughing out loud as I answer this. LOL

I suppose is because of the hairline that keeps going up, poor thing. Look at this pic... he's balding hard.

AP site, search word 'chelsea' is there a problem posting them?

that's how beautiful our summer window has been it's perfect

I disagree. I remember us struggling with Mata in many occasions against teams that were too physical and parked the bus hard. But I completely agree about the set-piece part. It's been missed. Well, I'm just so frigging happy Peace is posting again that I don't even care the subject - as it doesn't matter what he says he always makes a lot of sense. Be it Mata, Cesc or fashion - although Peace would never talk about fashion. At least now we're comparing Mata do Cesc and not Oscar bad looking training kit or not, I'll flood my twitter TL with those pics to make my Arsenal friends mad more after the cut

I don't like anything adidas did for us this season. I don't like the kits - home and away - I really dislike the training gear, it seems like my last season three kits are what I'll wear this season too, unless the third kit saves face. And I know that an unpopular opinion as people love the yellow kit. I liked it in pictures (not much though), but in action I thought it was just no. I'm soooooooo happy to see him here, but did he need to have such a horrible haircut? It seems he's protesting and heading to execution (I'm kidding ofc)

there's a reason I nominated you for newcomer of the year in the forum My signature - which is a quote by Term-X or Liquidator is mainly because of the chances created stats. There isn't a bigger misleading thing in football and unlike @Dion suggested in his answer to you, many times it has nothing to do with doing the right thing in the final third and I'm not even talking exclusively or mainly about Eden. By definition chance created is the pass that precedes a shot on goal. It doesn't matter how many dribbles, take-ons, distance the shooter took before finishing, whoever provided that pass will have a chance created to his name. So if someone decides to take a nonsense long shot that made no sense but his lack of brains, whoever passed the ball to him will have a chance created... I can't take this kind of stat seriously because while they represent some of the truth I think they mislead a lot. It's no rocket science that if Hazard was that far superior creating chances he would have had more assists to his name if they were clear cut chances - or even many of them. Yes, our strikers sucked, but who said they were the only ones shooting? Oscar, Willian, Lamps, Ramires, Schurrle, Salah also received passes from Hazard before finishing. Of course in many times they could have done better, but I can't blame only our bad strikers and unlucky shots on goals for the discrepancy between his CC and assists. But that's not even the area I think he should improve. I think he's doing just fine there - despite the exaggeration brought by the CC stats. I think he should just shoot more often and have a better decision making when it comes to dribbling, shooting, passing. At some point last season he dribbled when he should pass and passed when he should dribble. That was a picture of his start of the season, then he improved his decision making a lot and had his best months for us. Then he was making bad decisions again and spent the last three months of the season without scoring from open play for us. That's what I want him to improve: consistency on decision making and more shots on goal. The chances he creates - clear cut or not - are just fine on my account.

how come it was a mistake to replace Mata for him if we had really good chances of winning the league, something we haven't been remotely close to do while Mata was here? We had problems creating chances - something we wouldn't have with Mata here, but if we had a half decent striker, we could have won some of the matches we drew or lost against smaller sides. If we had last year the Drogba Mata had in 2011/12, we could have also won the whole thing. Also we struggled, lost and drew against teams parking buses and being extra physical on us - a scenario that Mata never excelled or saved us imo. The ideal would be a hybrid between both. I'm not sure that player exists, but as I just said in Cesc's thread, I'll pick our team of last season over the team in the two previous seasons any day of the week. Mata or no Mata, Oscar or no Oscar, fact is we had more stability, we were more competitive and we won all the big games - except a couple of draws against Spurs and United. Oscar is far from being the player I'd like him to be offensively, but I'll have the stability he offers over the liabilities Mata offers any time. When I want to see really beautiful football, I'll watch 82 Brazil NT. I want us to be able to play the big teams equally, standing our ground, being competitive. With a proper striker this season - hopefully - and potential #10s in Oscar, Cesc, Willian, Hazard I think our chances are much better than they've been in the last few years. Sorry if I don't miss Mata. I miss his assists, the chances he created, but as there's no way to keep the good parts of him and get rid of the bad, I'm happy we got rid of him altogether. If Oscar doesn't play well in the #10, there's Willian, Hazard and Cesc all there to step up. I'm sure among those four we'll find someone capable of offering decent attack without exposing us like Mata did. And again, I'm not saying Mata is bad, I'm saying physically he was too weak for the league. Also too slow and couldn't cope properly with the physicality, unless when given a free role, but with his free role came a whole midfield exposed behind him.

But that's the thing with Mata. People so often only look what he offers and completely overlook what he costs, in that case it's very easy to say he was amazing. He was amazing creating. And amazing exposing a whole team behind and around him when he was out-muscled, dispossessed or shoved aside by the big/strong guys that play everywhere in this league. The ideal player doesn't need to excel as much as he did creating if they don't offer the midfield to the opposition in a physical league such as English. When I say he'd do much better in La Liga I don't mean creatively - it doesn't matter much for him in that sense - but I mean the liabilities and weaknesses of his game wouldn't be as much exposed because football in Spain still embraces the kind of player he is. But even football there is becoming more physical and more demanding. He's an endangered kind of player imo, at least in the short term I see players like him having less and less space despite his incredible ability and vision to create chances. Nobody answered my question, so until someone does, that's my opinion. I'm willing to change it if I can be convinced otherwise. We had this conversation a thousand times in the forum since last year and I'm yet to find someone to explain how Mata didn't compromise us in the EPL with his free role if we were 6th and 14-point behind 3rd while he was here running the show. We were Mata-centered and we were a big flop, although a big flop with a maestro that created a lot. I'm sorry, I'd rather us to have a less beautiful football if we're more competitive than have a maestro and be a big flop in what I consider the most important trophy we play for: Barclays Premier League. Of course, the perfect scenario would be a combination of both things, but if that's not possible, I'll pick 2013/14 Chelsea over the two previous seasons 15 times out of 10 and the biggest change was Mata (although one could also argue having a in-form JT also helped a lot).

in that case, my body thanks it

Congrats to everyone and I'm quite surprised by my own record on it. I thought me and my endless, bible-size rants that made the scroll bar disappear in some pages would drive people more crazy than pleased for the contribution. It means a lot, in all honesty. Thanks for liking this babbler

it doesn't mean it won't be a mistake like he did with Essien last season... Bring him to be a coach, I'm all in. Bring him as the solution we clearly need as back up in our striker position, let the nightmares begin. Didn't people watch the Galatasaray matches last year? Yeah, we'd probably provide better service for him, but and when the problem is the service, as it has been the whole season for us? And when we need a striker to do just make things happen all on their own? He's 36, he can't do that anymore. Also if he's coming is Lukaku staying? Are we going to enter the season with 4 strikers then as our shirt model blondie won't leave anyway?

I only disagree slightly Mata isn't a great passer. He has a privileged and blessed vision and he's very intelligent. But yeah, he can't produce some of the passes Fàbregas does as if they were nothing. And people refuting Peace's post - especially about the physicality - could please elaborate a convincing, factual, reasonable reason that will justify our more than poor results in the EPL while he was here (6th and 3rd - and the third must be taken into context for being 14 points behind the champion) if he was so amazing creating (if we had someone creating as much for us this season, I'm absolutely sure we'd be champions, why we weren't while he was then)? we've had this conversation so many times, but he was a big liability and he will continue to be to whatever English team he plays. He can only excel if he has a free role, and with his freedom comes a huge liability. I'm not taking away from him as a player. He's a great player, not suitable for English football at all. He's weak, slow, easily out-muscled and mostly everything else Peace pointed out. I agree with you guys he dribbles somewhat better than described by Peace, but how many times was he dispossessed while doing it? And leading to counters and even goals? How many times he was dispossessed, period, regardless of what he was attempting? The longest he kept the ball on his feet, the biggest the chance for him to be dispossessed. He worked better for us when he gave a quick pass, a dynamic 2-1 exchange with someone and a lot of his assists came from set-pieces. If he goes back to Spain - nearly the opposite of EPL in terms of style - I'm sure he'll flourish and his weaknesses will be easily overlooked because they won't detract his team much.

but then you should address those other leagues don't attract top players. Real Madrid does, Barcelona does and to a lesser extend Bayern does. The league that attract more top players continue to be the English. Outside of those three teams I mentioned, which top player goes to other teams in those leagues? Name me one, you don't even need more than that. Then there's PSG, Monaco, Anzhi, the rich flavor of the year, that will break the bank, but that's because they covered everyone else's bid. It's also a very simple thing. If I give your club more money for your player, you'll sell him to me, not to the next guy. As I told in the previous post and you seemed to have completely disregarded, entertainment is subjective. That was the first point. The third line of your response has been refuted though. Unless of course, you prove me that those leagues have top players going to other teams... Or instead of that the players that aren't going to those three teams aren't coming to different teams in England? Because that's how it is. They're either leaving to England or to those three teams...

At the end of the day, it's a subjective matter. I don't think any league comes nearly close to EPL in quality and entertainment. Bundesliga doesn't attract me at all, I can't watch that, so when someone tells me that that league is fun, I'm dumbfounded - because that's my personal perception. Italian used to be my fave, but that was literally decades ago. Spain has a good league, but the disparity between the big and the rest is so large, that is boring. Not that there isn't disparity in England, there is of course, even with the money better distributed, but there's so much history in some match-ups, and there's something in the atmosphere that there isn't elsewhere. The way the English support, the way they approach football, it's unique. Also because of the physicality of the game and the way it's played, how the game is approached, it gives a better chance for surprises. And the European argument is null and void. The strongest the league, the less likely of teams from that league doing well in the European. Isn't that obvious such as 1+1=2? When Bayern can completely disregard their Bundesliga match ahead and after and important and difficult round in UCL, we have to face Liverpool, current top of the league - for example. Isn't it obvious that when you can't rest players because all matches are very tough and you have at least 4 title contenders in addition to 1 or 2 underdogs, you have to play your best team week in and out, many times twice a week? So for me the testament that EPL is the strongest league in the world is how their teams have to take turns in UCL - that when they go far either way. There's too much competitiveness domestically for them to dedicated themselves as much as others do from other countries because there's only so many times Real Madrid plays Barça and vice versa, so many times Bayern plays Dortmund. This is almost mathematical. If you have more competition at home, it means you can't rest and spare players domestically as teams from other leagues do ahead of their important UCL matches. It makes a whole difference, especially towards the end of the season when everyone is already tired.

I think you don't know how to make counts anymore, Jay, lol He's going to play his first season with 29, his second with 30 and his third with 31. How come he'll be here when he's 32?

I don't remember anyone commentating on that, although I'm positive everyone noticed, his contract is only a 3-year deal. We seem really decided about not giving much to players over their 30's. He'll be only 31 when he finishes his contract, but for all the people that were commentating here that we were going to have an old player in a few years, and that's why paying so much for him didn't make sense when we could have paid some more for someone like Shaw who has a future ahead of himself, the board just shut all of you up yet again. First he went for 15.4m pounds - reported by BBC, so I buy this as the amount - which is about half the price United paid for an unproved and mystery Shaw (he could be the best LB in the world in a few years, or a flop, or anything between, we don't know that yet). 15M for a player at his best, offering only three years, capitalizing on his best years without risking to have him as deadwood in high wages (for deadwood) just shows that our board is as sharp and good as they get. This was brilliantly done and the lad handled it perfectly, showing he's willing to show the club he could stay for more, but humble enough to accept it. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant business. I can't get tired of praising our board. They're the ones that make more sense in this crazy transfer market.

I think it's premature to make any assessments - good or bad - about those players. The motivation of those kids that played for our U-21 is much bigger than our first team players. They know they have to impress to have a chance and while I think at some level they are aware that Mourinho will understand that the second match after two weeks of training isn't what he's going to take into account when making decisions about promotion, they will also want to impress as @CHOULO19 said above. So while I think some of them impressed last match and in this one (and not exactly the same players looked good in both), it's still a long way to go. Players such as Marco and Zoumaare looking forward to staying with the first team instead of being loaned. The situation is different for the U-21's. A loan for them could be better than being in the first team as they wouldn't have many matches and it'd disrupt their development, but still they could also feature in both (youth and senior) - just like Marco himself did at the end of last season. So their situation is more comfortable. José could pick them - 3 or 4 as he said - have them in the main squad to fill our homegrown quota, but allow them to play mostly to the U-21. I don't see it much in England, but in Brazil it used to be common for youngsters to play with the youth teams and then when the main team needed them, they were called upon and went to matches - even if it to stay in the bench. With Kalas going on loan, and Ivanovic possibly as the primary FB/CB backup, we'll need another CB - that's Zouma best shot. I don't see any of our FB from youth staying, especially if we don't get rid of Bertrand. I do think we sould get rid of him and try to work with any of the kids. With Matic, Ramires, Fabregas and Mikel - in case he stays - we also need another two MD. Last year we had Marco, Essien and Lamps starting the season, so I think Marco and another one, maybe two, could stay. I think Ake might actually stay (he can play FB too) and probably Romeu? We're well stocked with AMs and I don't think any of the kids will have a chance to stay. If Lukaku doesn't stay, I hope we sign another striker, a different kind of backup and I also don't see any of our boys being ready for that. I'd love for Bamford to get a year of regular football and stay with us next season.

now people's knickers won't be in knots anymore How is that different from any of the matches they play in the U-21? Actually they face better opposition there. They know Mourinho isn't demanding their second game in the pre-season to be where they'll ace. Everybody is still with their bodies far from being ready... they aren't anywhere near sharp. I think he might be facing two things: getting confidence after such a long recovery from a serious injury. He said he did some speacil thing in his right leg during the summer break to help his knee, so he may still be recovering some. Also he doesn't want to leave on loan, so he may be overplaying or playing nervously trying to impress the boss. He's young, he's in a tough position, especially for someone his age. He doesn't have experience to back him up in the injury aspect and recovery and in the confidence and emotions management. He's learning everything... I'd say we wait a bit more before judging him at all - for bad or for worse.

Still you don't think keeping a player of Khedira's caliber in the bench isn't sort of having two world class players for each position. Khedira who when isn't recovering from injury is Germany's and RM's first choice... you want that guy to come here to warm our bench until Matic or another of our midfielders can't play. That isn't realistic imo. Not for a club and not for a player like Sami. He wouldn't come here to play that role. I learn from the wise (which means you and @Mohammed Seif) (also someone had to stop the nonsense I'll try to wait for you in the morning next time)