Barbara

I love Begovic

Fabregas assist, this is how it's supposed to be

of course he is, that list had X in only 12 players, Courtois being the only bench player... what the fuck was that unnecessary tackle on Willian. Liverpool and Moreno can fuck off. Damned scouses

I know he's injured and this is only pre-season, but what a joy it is to see the lineup with Ivanovic's name nowhere around it

This has been an odd match thread... to say the least. An hour to go. I'm so excited. I hope we get to see a formation closer to what Conte has in mind for the season with the available players.

I agree, but I'm talking strictly about Chelsea here. I don't think Kalidou himself will pick Everton over Chelsea (don't believe they're offering him better wages than we are). Also, who's to say there's a bidding war going on anyway? Sometimes agents spread rumors themselves to make things go their way. If Everton turn this into a bidding war, then good on them, we can move on and find another target. If they decide to pay more than our 38M it means they're willing to pay almost as much for a defender than what they're supposedly getting for Stones. It doesn't look to me they're be willing to do that. They prefer to invest in players they can develop instead of breaking club fee records

There's a thing called honor. Men are supposed to honor their word. If the club said 36.6 at first, then that's the valuation they should follow. Napoli and Laurentis also sign players, so I don't think they want to start going back on their word.If the report was correct and they asked for that much and now we've reached it and they still won't let him go, that's dishonoring their own word, it has nothing to do with de Laurentis being a tough cookie to crack.

If previous reports said Napoli set the price at 36.6£ and we're now offering 38 and the player wants to leave I don't believe Napoli will back out. The Higuain deal has been cooked for as long as this one has, if not longer, so I don't think it should influence the price now Sent from my SM-J700M using Tapatalk

I'm ready!!!! Forgive me but I just got into social media a decade late, so I couldn't resist

I'm sorry about the ignorant on Conte's account I really stretched the ignorant directed to Style's comment to Conte, my bad. But here, at least the post I quoted, I was under the impression you meant it's pretty difficult to be efficient on both attack and defense and as such we should prioritize defending. But I said I understood where you were coming from because indeed it can be difficult to achieve both, I just think we have to at least try. I'm sorry I misinterpreted your posts twice. Can we link pinkies together? I 've missed the forum too and you're definitely one of the posters I've missed the most - if not the very one. I always learn something with your insightful posts about football. Hopefully I'll have the time to be around after vacation is over, with Chelsea playing basically only on weekends I think it'll be also easier to follow everything.

how did I miss this post? You're completely right, if we can't get the defenders we desperately need, we might as well get the attackers.

Actually I meant we need a LB, we have a RB problem because IVa is stealing Azpi's position there. I don't think Baba is reliable at all at this point,maybe some day he will, but not yet imo. So we need a LB because I'm do damn tired of seeing Azpi limiting his crosses and link with attacking players even further because he's playing in the wrong side of the pitch. Damn it, at this point I don't even know if he knows how to properly attack as a LB, we've ruined his development and growth in the attacking aspect of his game by throwing him in the LB. As for Zouma I read him and Conte talking about six weeks more, but then I don't know if that's for him to start training normally or to actually be cleared to play. So maybe you're right about the timeline.

And they were all true, mate. Have they or have they not ended in their beloved 4th position? Without us to steal it from them and Spurs doing what they do best, they even went further than usual last season. But they're right on track. They're consistent, they always bring what they need to reach their goals. You can argue many things about Arsenal, but their ability to reach their goals season after season ain't one of them. They're perfect on this. Look their record at that 4th place. They just keep bringing the key pieces to finish their puzzle season after season. I really don't like this kind of assessment Blue_Fox and I totally agree with Styles, although I respect it because I know about the difficulty to achieve it, but I think that we can and should aim for much more than we produced offensively. Conceding a couple more goals in the odd match is completely acceptable (key word is odd, not the routine we became), but a team that doesn't know how to attack in an expertly way can't get too far. Not anymore. We were in a complete and desperate drought of attacking effectiveness. We all know Mourinho left the attacking players do whatever they wanted. Hazard using his talent, Costa his strength and heart, Willian his pace and work rate and using Cesc as a creative outlet. We relied upon their natural abilities and efforts to create anything. That's just too little, too shy and even unacceptable. The way Mourinho overlooked the need of drilling, organizing and training our offensive phase properly, leaving it to players' individuality was terrible and Guus couldn't make any magic arriving at the middle of such a terrible season (don't think he was the guy to have changed that intrinsic mentality around either). Now we have a manager that is clearly bothered about how we 'attack' and approach games. We need solidness in the back, so we can play and dare in the attack. That's why I'm saying we need strong names to build our defense, but that definitely isn't because I'd rather score one-two goals and concede none, absolutely not. Because we need this solidness so the guys up there can do their thing and execute Conte's attacking ideas. When was the last time we looked to Chelsea and could see the manager's attacking ideas exposed there in a tactical way? I honestly can't remember. FSW had some ideas, and I don't like them much better than I liked Mourinho relying on players' individual talent either as I think the Mata-centered team exposed us too much and unnecessarily, but we could see patterns of movements then, players knowing exactly where and what they were supposed to be and do. That's four seasons ago and even then, a poor choice that still was better than we had in recent years simply because there was a plan, not matter how badly thought the plan was. So, I've been very disappointed on our attacking approaches and tactics for the last few years (the only time it wasn't bad was the first few months when we won the league, when Mourinho actually had a good plan, that was mainly helped by having all stars aligned in the universe and our players shining in ways they haven't before, but the first sign of defense fragility, he preferred to give up on his attacking plans and go back to his comfort zone of drilling exhaustively the defensive aspect. He - and we - never looked back after that) . The only reason why I'm not overly concerned about this now is 1 - Conte has a completely different view of football and you can say it's giving him the creeps to see how our players mechanically behave in a defensive way - although they defend pretty badly, 2 - I see our attacking players flourishing under a manager with a different view 3 - I really have faith in Conte, Eden, Willian, Cesc, Diego, Barb'shuayi, Traoré, RLC to have a great season., but we need to fix our attack even more desperately than we need to fix our defensive problems, the difference is that I believe we have the minimum human material to fix the attack, while we are very needing of defensive players to fix our defensive moves.

CB=LB>CB2>ST>MD(AM/DM). That's the short answer. But I can't stop here, objectiveness is boring. we need someone to replace Ivanovic more than we need air. While I think Conte will keep Aina training with the main team, I don't think he'll throw him there now. Then we desperately need CBs. We are a Terry injury away of being left with a partnership between Cahill and Iva himself (at this point Iva just ruins everything). Zouma will take around six more weeks to recover, we don't have a clue of how he'll come back and it's very, very, very usual for players that have his injury to be way too cautious when they come back and while sometimes it lasts a little while, I've seen players that were never the same simply because they don't seem to trust their knees anymore and feel scared of another ligament injury. Being as big as he is, I think Happy will take a little while to feel comfortable on his knees again. So we might have a way-too-cautious Zouma, a slow Terry and two awful backups. It could jeopardize all our plans in all honesty. If we're playing with two strikers, we definitely need one more. Costa and Barb'shuayi are nailed starters imo and Remy while a very good striker, had way too many injury problems with us, started an affair (or is it a marriage) with the offside line and as much as I love Traoré and I want him to stay, Costa is also prone to injury, so we could be left with Barb'shuayi and Traoré at any point, which isn't bad per say, but Barb's is going to be new at the league and having more strikers is never a bad idea. I don't know why these guys seem to get more injured than the other position. After we address all that, I think we could reinforce our attacking midfield. Hazard is probably going to be on his best. Mourinho's passive-aggressiveness, hot-cold treatment of him and completely lack of training, drilling and guiding leaving the kid to do his thing hit Hazard badly. Of course, Eden is to blame too, but I expect him to have a good season. I'm positive Willian will pick up from where he left off last season, and with this we have both wings covered with backups that aren't my favorite, but Kenedy (if he stays), Pedro and RCL can do some work there. Pedro improved towards the end of the season, so maybe he's better adapted. And there's Cesc. I don't know where Conte is going to use him, but he's our most creative player (I know you don't like him, but he can be useful at certain kinds of games). One between Moses and Cuadrado - for my complete despair - is probably staying too. Finally, I expect Matic and Kanté to have great seasons. Matic is probably fresh and Oscar and RLC could be replacements, and even Mikel (unbelievable) as I don't think he's going anywhere. If we were willing to spend, spend, spend I think we could get Kalidou, and then one between Manolas/Lindelof, some striker (I don't like any of the names we're linked to), than Mahrez, Witsel, Naingolan (although that ship sailed) and why not Griezmann lol lol lol. Kidding on the last part. It's not that I think we should settle for our attacking from last season, it's just I truly believe the lads will be on their best version again under Conte and maybe even improve further more. Hazard and Willian at their bests and Cesc being used as a creative man in some sort of matches, serves us well imo.

I wouldn't mind him here, it just doesn't look like the board wants to splash money like it used to, so if Conte really gets the numbers (4-5), I don't think he'll get all the names and in such scenario I don't see us breaking the bank for a position that while needed isn't one of our biggest issues. Which just tells a bit about how much rebuilding this team needs. It's not that don't need am efficient attacking mid, it's just we need other positions mroe.

Happy for you man, losing the phone is a headache. Cheers

And I didn't say I don't care and I didn't take anything personally I just don't understand what you doing because you just post some things that are very weird. and I'm not questioning your loyalty to the club I just don't understand why you say some of the things you do here like hoping Mourinho's United beat us, but to each their own, this is just a weird thing to post on a Chelsea forum Sent from my SM-J700M using Tapatalk

I just received a full and detailed report. If it was productive I would screencap the whole thing, but it's Portuguese. So this guy is a kid I started working with very recently (recording a Chelsea podcast), and when we were recording it I really enjoyed his views on the sport, we basically agreed on every assessment we did about the points raised by the anchor, so despite knowing the kid for a very short time, he seems like a reasonable person and seems to understand a lot about football. So let's test my summarizing abilities (lol, as if I have any). The Gabi kid is vain - in a Ronaldo way - he cares a lot about his physical image, but he isn't arrogant as the others pointed out, he wants to look pretty and love himself. I don't know among you lads, but among us - girls - those are very standard things He didn't leave Santos yet because he didn't want, he wants to develop further, but also wants a bigger price tag as he owns 20% of himself (LOL, that's so funny). So 20% of the bid goes to himself, 40% to his agent and 40% to Santos. Don't ask me how players buy themselves, but they do somehow. That's some weird Brazilian culture. So he's enjoying his time at Santos,trying to learn as much as he can, but also trying to get as much money from the transfer as possible. Playing he's much better than Walcott according my trusted new source and is comparable to Solanke (<3) being only one year older. Leftie, who shoots pretty well with both feet, he's adaptable, having played as a #9 for most of his career, but recently switched to second striker and AM positions and flared very well on both. He's also very versatile, being capable of playing in all attacking positions and tactical roles with a certain easiness (doesn't mean he aces them all). He's very talented, his dribbles are the same sort of Neymar's (that's a loose comparison related only to style, not quality). His preferred and best side to play (as AM, 2nd striker) is the right - which would be very welcomed at Chelsea after years of having players who do better in the left, but play in the right for us detracting some of their best potential). Despite being small, he's strong for his size and age and has been working on his work rate - which is still precarious as he still very bad in the defensive/marking/closing defensive gaps aspect of the game,but he's very willing to go back and help his team mates (I believe at age 19 that's already good enough). Deficiencies: heading, small height, temper. He's known for getting angry easily when things get hot, showing that he still has a way to go mentally. The temper/mental aspect I think could be worked on, after all the kid is still 19. As usual in life, you don't need to know everything, you just need to know the right people So I cosign with everything my mate reported me, even if I don't know him for long and you can quote me in those things when the guy comes to Europe. Worth mentioning, there's another Gabriel who's also very, very very good. Gabriel Jesus.

Well, according to my sources (:P they're still better than the DM, Sun and Mirror) the kid is talented, technical, killer instinct ,but already has an arrogant attitude about himself (not as bad as Lukaku though) thinking he's something very special. He's small, but fast, and in a sense could be compared to Walcott. He could develop into a very good player, but he isn't on the level to move to big team yet. Discussing with my boys, we came to the conclusion it'd be good for his career to go to one of the three Portuguese teams, a medium team in Spain or maybe even a big in Italy and see how he develops after it. I don't know anything myself, as I stated before, but I've never rated Theo, so I don't think I'd rate Gabriel either. Also his picture when you google him is ridiculous, omg, he has terrible styling(footballers normally do these days). Between the three guys I asked, only one thought maybe he could come to Chelsea, the other two don't think it'd be good for Chelsea (or the kid). Unfortunately I start working in a week from now, and God knows how my life will be after vacation is over. I hope to make some time to be around more often. Dude, I really don't have a problem with you, I swear, I even got along with you while I used to post, but seriously, what are you still doing here? I don't mean as a Chelsea fan, but in the forum. You seem delighted with the possibility of Conte having trouble with the board or vice-versa, you want Mourinho's team to beat Chelsea to punish players that Mourinho himself brought here and who Mourinho himself burned bridges with when he started behaving in an improper way, you're more active in Mourinho's thread than you seem to be in the rest of the forum. So I ask again, what are you still doing here - picking silly discussions and collecting people to dislike you? Of course, I'm not kicking you out (don't have the power or even the will to do that), I'm just questioning what's the point of come here to post about this kind of stuff. You're making no friends with such statements and it's very clear to everyone how you feel about Mourinho, what Chelsea and Mourinho did to each other last year and the current team and manager. Maybe you could take a break from the forum. And talking about naive, let me tell you something, managers - let alone head coaches - don't have such things on their contracts about transfers. They could have a line or two mentioning they must have a saying in new contracts, but in a club with loan culture such as Chelsea, it's really irrelevant. Less and less managers have this power in football nowadays, as their tenure are shorter and shorter . Clubs keep making investments in the kind of people they hire to make part of their boards, and there's a reason for that. Suggesting that Conte or anyone else should have such a clause in their contract is beyond naive... which is ironic. It's not only his propaganda of what he did to those players, but how some of them were picked by him and he had the ability to develop them into those talents they became. He has an eye for players with potential and a good hand to work with them. Not only this could be good propaganda to attract players that want similar development in their careers, but also tells a lot about Conte himself. We should definitely trust the unproven players he brings because if he has his eye on them is because he sees a potential he could help develop, which is great because it makes for good bargain tag prices and have players develop to meet our needs, not the other way around. It's always better to develop the player rather than get the final product because there's no guarantee a big name in one league will be as successful in another, except the very, very very top players that could play anywhere. Also, developing a player means that he already knows and has been adapted not only to the league, but to the club style and philosophy (two things Chelsea desperate need to establish and start working on).

Good luck to my boy in the only team in Germany I can stand watching

I have a big girly crush on him... his smirk, the way he talks, how cute he looks at all times. Oh, and he plays good football too, so that's nice and all. Kidding. I do have a big crush on him (what can I say, kid is my number even though I'm almost old enough to be his mom), but I really enjoy his football above anything else. I was delighted when we announced him even though during the Euros I kept saying his name wrong. Oops

sorry love, but I don't watch Brazilian football anymore. Is that Gabigol (nickname)? I could ask around guys I trust their assessment if you really wanna know

Are we really comparing Costa to Lukaku? They're worlds apart, but then again Diego is far from being technical and still far superior to Lukaku in that department. That tells everything you need to know about Lukaku. I must admit his big mouth made me have a huge dislike for him, but if I got over my personal problems with Cesc I can with anyone. Being completely unbiased by my personal dislike for Lukaku, he's the farthest kind of striker we should be aiming for. He has strength on his side and the odd day when he actually does something worth mentioning. Other than this sloppy passing, limited reading of the game, idiotic positioning at many times, easily marked out of matches, terrible first touch, he comes with an ego bigger than the whole UK, self-entitlement and complete lack of knowledge of what earning recognition is, instead of simply bagging a bunch of tap-ins against second rated sides in the league to inflate his stats numbers. If we paid half of what we sold him for, it would be stupidity, let alone double that. Emenalo needs to get over stupid obsessions if the report of this being his dream target for months is true. Actually if that's true it just reinforces my idea that we need to get rid of him asap.

Actually I feel like Eden needs the extra push to reach new heights in his career, I just think it has to be a gentle push, not Mourinho's rough ones he got from time to time. Eden doesn't look like the guy who responds well to 'tough love', but I do believe he needs to be pushed

First, Shakez, it's so nice to see you posting. I've been away for a long time (no time to even breathe let alone read, post or even watch Chelsea). Not that I don't welcome new members - if they are nice I surely do, but still seeing some guys from the days I posted more often brings a smile to my face, and you my dear, are certainly one of them Now about the double training sessions - I'm sure it's only until the team reaches their best physical condition and an attempt to start the season as strong physically as we could. Last year we as a club - whether it was a Mourinho's option, a club option or both - made a test by giving players longer vacation time and starting very light on training during preseason. Mourinho addressed it a few times at the beginning of the season and back then I thought it was a valid attempt, but one I would assess when the results of such decision appeared. I did assess it and before the whole Mourinho implosion got out of control, I was starting to second guess the decision of letting the players rest more and start preseason with light sessions. I pointed that out as one of the reasons why things weren't working out in the first two months. We were a couple of step behind the other teams in terms of competitiveness and physicality. Fact is a lot of things - most directly linked to Mourinho's presence - brought us the the deep hole we dug, but I think we were physically subpar. It was a mistake to give players more time to rest. Unfortunately this is not affordable in modern football, not only because of the bloated calendar, but because the intensity of the game increased a lot. The most physical players from 20 years ago wouldn't last much in nowadays football before running out of steam. So I fully support the decision of taking heavier, more intense sessions, even if twice a day (I'm going to assume one of those two sessions might be a bit lighter than the other). I'd say when the team is running on full throttle physically we can go back to one session a day - or keep it on alternate days, as we'll rarely have midweek football this season. Players needs to get ready physically, but also mentally for real competition and the aspect of a demanding manager, that is breathing on their neck, pushing them the farthest they can go prepare players not only physically to endure the challenges of an unbelievable busy calendar, but also have them mentally ready earlier as well. I hope we never ago take the longer vacation time,lighter preseason route again. I don't exactly know what is the floor you're giving me, but I hope is from a stage because I'm on vacation and I won't sweep anything (bad joke I know, but I'm the queen of bad jokes) I think it's going to be paramount for our success this season - and consequently Conte's too - the fact that we won't have any European football to play at all. I mean, of course I would have preferred if we were playing Europe, even Europa League, but as we are not, let's make the most of it and I think that gives Conte the best scenario to work. After the season we had, there's obviously less pressure than usual. We were 10th, so it's not like people are going to demand us to win the title. Most fans would be happy with being Arsenal for a season and just aiming the 4th place and assuring UCL next season. So when bad results come - and they certainly will - media and fans won't be on Conte like they would if we had a standard Chelsea season last year. Unfortunately the stakes aren't as high as they normally are, but that's working to Conte's advantage if you ask me. Not playing during the week not only helps the players being fresher, but also allows Conte to make more tests with formations, tactical approaches, etc. When you have two or three days before your next match, you can't work on those things as much as you want because you need to get ready for the next game. With the next game being 6, 7 or even 8, 9 days later, Conte has time not only to train drills, but also to make tests. Even though the lack of European football sucks, I think it's going to be the one fact that will help Conte the most. And let's not joke ourselves, even during my most avid Mourinho defending days, I complained about how he seemed to have dropped some of the drilling aspect of training. It seemed like he became sloppy in training certain kind of moves with players, how to position on free kicks - both defending and attacking. How many times have we read or heard him saying that he told Hazard he could go there and do his thing and it feels like except demanding a whole much of work rate from all players, Mourinho seemed to have settled for letting them to their thing most time and having only a few organized, trained (or as we say in Portuguese, rehearsed) plays, moves, composition, etc. We relied a lot on Fabregas killer eye for an assist, Willian's energy and pace, Hazard's talent and Costa giving-it-all attitude. A team as big as us certainly needs its manager to go beyond that. The manager we need can't let players do their thing and only demand work rate from them. They need to be trained in the most strict meaning of the word, drilled, pushed, guided and if that's the case, even taken by the hand. I want to see Conte stopping the training motion simply to correct our defense and midfield positioning. I want him to be livid on players when they aren't paying enough attention or keeping to the plan as they're supposed to, I want him to push, push, push as much as he works, works, works. Those players aren't as bad as they looked last season, the thing is they weren't pushed enough and most of them became the worst version of themselves because let's not fool ourselves, the intensity and demands of modern football I mentioned above are insane and if there isn't someone breathing on their necks to give more and go further - they, like any other human being on their place - will just fall into their comfort zone. Most of them probably do it without noticing and without being able to leave that place by themselves. Modern sports - not only football actually - keep demanding more, and it's a while since the demands went above the 'natural' disposition. Yes, they're paid much more than they should just to play in this level, but money doesn't reset how your brain works and the exception is the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo - players that are constantly pushing their limits by themselves, but that's a very particular and personal trait, we can't expect - let alone demand - every player, no matter how much money the club gives them to have their brain reset to just make their body go beyond its natural limits. And now I said too much, but that's entirely Chelsea Buzz fault. He gave me a whole floor, what was I supposed to do with it as I refuse to do any more sweeping on my vacay time? Complaints direct to him please Kidding of course, I may not be the queen of the longest posts anymore, but I just had a lot to say... as usual for women and even more so for me. Good thing most of you can cope with me already The ones who can't yet for they're new here, chop chop and learn (bad joke again)