Barbara

I'll come up with something to say in a little bit, after I read today's news related to Conte and the team. It's just I can't be culprit of having Mourinho's thread once again as the last active thread from Matthew Harding in the HP. A relevant post will come later, for now I'm just working on making it look right

Clicked on this thread out of curiosity because I couldn't understand why Mourinho's Thread was the one with the latest post in the Matthew Harding Stand section of the forum. I haven't seen this thread for months, so I clicked straight to last post, but then I had to keep clicking on previous to get to the bottom of today's discussion. The discussion is nonsensical, I won't even bother with it, but you know what really really bothered me? That there has been more posts on this thread today (55 in 6 hours) than on Conte's (20 in 20 hours). That's just sad. Conte has been saying and doing so nice things about our club on this day. Mourinho did nothing out of ordinary (sorry, skipping a Chelsea shirt among many Utd fans waiting for his pen is completely irrelevant and let's not pretend the 55 posts were about that only, I guess not even 20% mentioned it, although I didn't even read any post in the last one and a half page). I'm not saying Mourinho shouldn't have 55 posts about him in 6 hours - whatever, I couldn't care less. It's just that Conte deserves better, not only because of his intriguing and why not say exciting start of things with us, but simply because he is our current manager. I mentioned it in another post, Mourinho moved on from Chelsea when he signed for United (he's a professional, it's how life works for them, they move on all the time), but when will Chelsea fans - haters and lovers (going through extremes) will do the same? His fans and people who can't stand him anymore definitely are passionate (their right to be), it's just that it feels unfair to our current manager. Next time I won't let my curiosity win, those were 10 wasted minutes of my time on the forum today. Totally not worth it.

Oh Emenalo... come on, one would think we're talking about a legend to want him since April. I hope Conte isn't interested or that at least Everton deny us. They seem good at that, only this time I won't mind it at all.

fixed Why are we after this guy? Seriously, don't ruin my perfect mood,Chelsea.

I don't want to be overly excited about it... but it's hard not to. I wish I knew the context of those Aina comments. If he singled the guy on his own accord or if he was specifically asked about the kid

which is why I mentioned it. The likeness of it happening is quite small, unfortunately for Chelsea and fortunately for me. I'm almost 40 now, I really really really passed the age of doing silly dances

I thought me moved past this Back on topic though. I'm getting excited about this guy. If he does play for merit, regardless of age, fee, agent or people on the board, we really are in for a landmark. He has all the right ingredients it seems to take us to the kind of football Roman has said he wants us to play (based on what Mourinho and Emenalo said the last few years). The key will be picking (or allowed to pick, I have no idea how TPTB work inside Chelsea) players based on what they show above everything else. For the first time ever, I'm actually looking forward to have some youth players integrated for real. I really hope it happens.

ask @Choulo about it, lmao

where would I find one? lol The bunny dance certainly doesn't include a pom pom tail or bunny ears, just me being silly. I'm not that desperate to get rid of Iva... Oh wait

Would CTV show the post match interview too? I already closed the link...

If I could I would quote myself over the last few preseason matches or this thread around in preseason. Costa is the kind of player that thrives on competitiveness, he never looks sharp, interest or intense in preseason. It's the odd game when he does. So I see nothing unexpected or that detracts from his quality - deficiencies and all. This is just who Costa is, he usually doesn't turn on killer mode even towards the end of preseason, it's been like that since the beginning. Nothing new

if that happens, I swear another bunny dance is coming from me and I always keep my promises

and I miss you, come here, let me give you a hug

cheeky goal

and that just sums up Victor Moses... at least to me

we have so much deadwood that really, keeping Cuadrado as a squad member is the least of my problems and I don't like his football at all. There's a long list of players that should leave Chelsea either because they aren't even squad member material or because being squad members they actually take away opportunity from younger players I'd rather have. Iva, Mikel, Oscar, Pedro, Remy (love the guy, but he has to go). Also Marin (LOL FOREVER) and Salah are on my list ahead of Cuadrado among the players we should get rid of. Why do we keep those guys and loaning them over and over is beyond me. Just sell them already and get done with it. It felt so depressing to see Marin in the first training session with Conte. We really need to move from some players we have on loan.

it makes me curious. I'm dying to know what his new ideas for our football will be Damn being a girl comes with a lot of territory. I get anxious and curious instead of crazy about it, lol I think your comment is the ignorant one, not Styles' and Conte's. I mean, Mourinho is (was, whatever) undoubtedly one of the best managers in the last years and he's never played in high level. Good for him, nothing wrong with that. It doesn't take away that having a manager that has been a high level player is also great. At the end of the day, it's the whole package that matters, not yesterdays' experience whether in the pitch or in the dugout. His comment was from someone who had the same injury and I see why Styles commented on that. It must a great thing for Happy to have someone who's been there around him right now, not only guiding him, but certainly encouraging too. This is great. Of course, if Conte was only about that, it would suck, but this is a nice surplus to his many positives. This last part is not directed on you per say, but why do I feel like management is still a touchy subject in this forum? Is it only me? Not every comment is a dig on Mourinho. He's past, I for one have a huge respect and gratitude for him, he's still the Special One for me because of his history with the club, but he's not here anymore and even more relevant, he's the enemy now. I love the man, but if we have to destroy him playing against United, I'm all for it. In the pitch, respect gives space to competitiveness and Mourinho is now opponent, so in that context, his history here while respectable, isn't the focus anymore. I'll be happy to make him a victim. I look to the past and I respect him - not all his moments, but most of them, I don't hold onto that. Ofc that's a personal matter and everyone is entitled to react how they please, but I feel some veiled Mourinho defensiveness around. It's time to let it go imo. He certainly did. It's about time we exorcise the Mourinho ghost.

Are we linked to any defense player? We need a LB, a CB (or a couple if you must - seeing how we don't know how Happy is going to come back and Terry could be out due to injury too). There are way too many threads, some of players I've never heard (it's been very difficult to find time to watch football for the past year or so in addition to Chelsea) and as last time I asked you guys were pretty accurate, I might as well try that again

wasn't a consensus just a few months ago that we lacked any really good team in the league, reason why English teams have been a non-factor in UCL recently and England was on verge of losing its fourth spot and which allowed some team like Leicester to actually be champions? The new TV deal makes not much difference, top English teams spend a lot either way...

actually they're quite accurate if you consider the first two 'friendlies' were against a non-professional team and a 60-minute match (wtf is that anyway). So I suppose everyone considers the Sporting match as the first friendly. And that's a loss followed by two 1-0 wins that for all we know could have been uninspired against a couple of Mexican teams... And Juve seems to like to play their own youth, lol, that's so funny

question coming from someone completely out of the loop - had been working like crazy and was taking much needed time off with the family. But now I'm back home and still have 20 days until work, so it's time to get updated about my Chels. who exactly are the names we're linked to? I don't mean DM rumours, but names we're strongly linked. Please tell there are any.

Mourinho can sod off I think Conte is exactly the guy that would take the most from Cesc when he's useful and completely let him go when he's useless. Which is a perfect scenario, use him to his potential, and sideline him when he exposes us (talking about kind of opponents)

Good to see him in our gear. He wasn't even my top5 name for the job, but he has my full support and I think it might actually work. We're starting a clean sheet and it should be in more ways than one, I think the future is very unpredictable, but I have a good feeling about this. It's not like it could be any worse than this season has been all around. The table position was just a fair reflection of how bad we've been in many aspects. We need fresh air in many positions (not talking about only the team), I hope he has the endurance to deal with everything will come his way. Despite the adoration Emenalo has on this forum (which I don't get btw), I think we could use someone new in the position as well. We need new ideas, new people, a clean slate. Our problem goes beyond Mourinho and the current set of players. We had a certain profile/model that worked well for 10 years. Last season was just a consequence of such model needing to be replaced. A new philosophy needs to be put in place. Conte wasn't my guy for that, but maybe he can do the job - especially if we change the people that run our football department.

I think Willian is the least of our problems (actually he isn't a problem), but I also think that we should reflect on the fact that he only shone when we had our worst season in over a decade. I'm not saying we should sell him - we shouldn't - but if your best player and he's been by far our best - is Willian, a player that doesn't raise interest from any other big club in the world, you know you need to revitalize your squad asap because you're on verge of becoming Liverpool. Surely Hazard is our biggest star, but he's had a terrible season and we don't know if he'll stay or not, fact remains, Willian is the kind of player that should be a supporting star in a team with the ambitions we have (or used to). The fact he's the lead star shows we have deeper problems. If Eden is willing to stay and actually leave this season behind him and work his ass off next season, only he and Willian are worth keeping. Pedro and Oscar should be kissed goodbye and that's it, that's all we have in terms of attacking midfielders. Some years ago we had those (minus Pedro) AND Kevin, AND Mata, AND Schurrle. We had too many then, now we have too few. Kenedy and others from youth aren't the guys who we need to lead our attack, that's Hazard and someone else. Then Willian and one of the those kids can take supporting roles. We need to have more of them, but while I really changed my mind about Willian, and I really like and appreciate everything he did, if that's our aim for attacking midfielders, we're fated to mediocrity, not because he's mediocre, he isn't, just because he isn't and will never be a leading star in a squad. He's an important player to have, but he isn't the guy to turn a team into a top contender for EPL or UCL.

I remember people blaming this deal as the reason why Arsenal would be champs (some people just never learn), but what's really amusing is all those reports about how he's worthy at least 11 points. One of the big papers, guess The Guardian, even had an article in January breaking down how many points Cech won for Arsenal in reference to those 11 points he was worth to Arsenal final standings. Well, as it stands now, if they win their next two matches they'll get to 73 which is 2 less than last year (but same position nonetheless). I really like Cech, have a great respect for him, but seriously, he isn't one of the best anymore. Already wasn't when he was here and is even worse now. Too bad his career is now with Arsenal, he deserved so much better...