Barbara

my point was which league is outstanding? None. The fact that we talk - even if badly - about 5 teams in England is more than we can do about any other country. Unless you count the 'surprising' third place in Spain and whoever chases Bayern with less than 15 points behind. I wonder how much better would Valencia, Sevilla, Leverkusen, Wolfsburg do in our league over more than one season... Even Atletico is fading already.

but with this team's behavior and attitude I don't know what's less ideal - playing under pressure or sit comfortably over an advantage - because that's what they do something, they sit. We see what happens when we take 1-0 leads. I hope Mourinho really works with those players' psychological aspect, they seem too comfortable in certain situations and they feel like they can win matches when they please (couldn't be farthest from the truth given our defense record in general and our chances conversion)... this worries me a bit, but I'm positive we'll be champions because if there's team that crumbles under pressure for sure, that's City. I can't bring myself to worry about Arsenal although it seems clear to me they'll end up grabbing that second place from City - which tells more about City than Arsenal themselves.

the league is quality, the thing is the big teams are going through a few peculiar things that should be taken into account. City has the funds, but no stability and they just don't seem capable of signing defenders and managers as good as the strikers they sign. United was overachieving with Fergie - and that's all Fergie's credit. Now they're competing with RM to see who spends more money and make more stars signings. It took a while for RM to actually make a team. Those galacticos buys are more for marketing purposes and Perez' vanity than anything else. They don't sign who they should. United seem to be following the same route. At some point it will work, but it's going to be very miss and hit for a while, if I can risk a prediction. Arsenal is the team with the most potential, but their manager really holds them back. Liverpool is a joke sorry. And then we have ourselves. We were a mess ever since Carlo left. No manager stability, crazy and pointless signings, key players leaving or entering the descending years of their careers. The team José built was fading away. Then José came back and started building a new team. Those things take time even for giants such as Bayern, Barcelona, RM, United... This transition between a winning generation and the next can go smooth and happen in a couple of years (rare cases) or it can take 3-4 years to happen completely. Chelsea were very lucky and competent when they transitioned from a medium force in the league into a top contender under Roman in a couple of years. That's not the norm. City struggled, PSG even in their mickey mouse league didn't have a cakewalk, Monaco didn't make it at all, nor did Anzhi. It's a 'bad' moment for English football because the main forces in Europe lately (Chelsea and United) are going through a transition (Chelsea started a bit earlier and is far more advanced on it, but we can all agree we still need a few pieces in our chess board and we're still a young team in age and time playing together). Arsenal and City can't be taken seriously with their defenses and managers (City also have the stability issue). Liverpool is a non-factor. The fact we're talking about 4-5 teams is more than we can do about any other league in the world. La Liga is proving to become again 2-horses. Atletico had an exceptional run in recent years, but they seem to be going down from their high. Spanish teams aren't used to play physical football and it wouldn't take too long for them to figure out how to play against the odd team that chose it. Only RM will continue to be victim to Atletico's style - everyone else is adapting or already know how to play them and leveled things up again - which means there's RM and Barça and then a few miles behind the rest. Germany has Bayern and that's about it. We don't know what will happen to Dortmund. Wolfsburg is this season's 'one-season wonder' like Leverkusen, Werder Bremen, Schalke, and others were before. Dortmund was the one team that was able to last longer than a season, so I need this Wolfsburg team - who had always had Volkswagen money (a company that hasn't really had money troubles recently), so why aren't them the second strength in Germany for years now? This is how German football has always been ever since I follow it from distance (don't watch Bundesliga, but I keep track of what happens there). Bayern dominates a couple of years, then has a shocker season, then dominates again a couple years, than a shocker season with the odd one-season wonders team grabbing titles whenever Bayern fail. It tells more about how Bayern used to fall apart every few years when they really shouldn't seeing how much money (through more than questionable ways) they have running their machine. Then they came to Barcelona, and watched and learned how they planned their football, academy, how they were faithful to a style and made everything in the club work around that style. That's why I believe they're now going to dominate longer as they should have always had. So people talk about how English football and the league isn't that great when there are three big teams in the world and coincidently two happen to be in the same league. Chelsea and United were fighting for the 4th spot for a few years, but then went through transitions themselves. Barcelona had been in a transition for a couple of years now. The fact they continue to win things in Spain just show how easy it is to win there... That (ridiculous) thread opened a couple of weeks ago about the EPL champion being the best among a bunch of averages teams could be opened about other countries too, the difference is that Bayern, RM and Barça are well established forces of recent football, but that doesn't happen overnight. United took years to become the force they were in England and more often than not a serious contender in Europe. UCL titles are overrated to no end imo. In a league where the best teams from all countries - and more and more leagues have money injected on them - is a tough tournament to win, but it's also a KO system championship with means anything can happen. No country have been having teams in the SF for years and years. It changes every few years, so I don't get why people are using this as a criteria to decide if a national league is good or not. Whoever draws Shakhtars, Galatasarays, Monacos (LOL Arsenal), Italian sides, German sides aside from Bayern have more chances to advancing. If those sides draw themselves, even more likely. It says nothing about the leagues they represent. European football has three forces currently (Atletico was never one, but just like Dortmund had a good run, one they may repeat or not) - they should draw no conclusion about how strong or not their leagues or other leagues are. We can laugh at City as much as we want, but getting two of the three giants in the continent every round of 16 is a tough task.

I really like the kid. First I love smart people, so he scores thousand points with me on that alone. Then he has a killer instinct, very good technique, knows the shortcuts to the back of the net, is a good header, is football smart (general brains and football brains are two worlds apart and he has both), is English, will help our homegrown quota and can only improve. I mean, what is there not to like? I think people can see based on my posts about our youth players that I'm very calm, patient and careful with how we handle them. A handful minutes given every 30 matches isn't developing youth or giving them chances, this is to make fans and players' families happy in my book. I think we should identify which kids really have a future here, give them the best conditions to play football - here or on loan - and when they're used to play and prove they can do something on a regular basis they should be incorporated in the first team with actual playing time. We have a great generation coming from the ranks. I see posts like Choulo's a few pages ago saying Patrick had always had near to zero chances to make it here.... I don't get it. How can one decide something like that when the player is only 21? I think that's too early. We have an old guard of players that will retire/leave soon and based on how we handled our business lately I don't see us splashing money right and left like we did when Roman first bought the club. The academy is to fund new players as much as it is to form new Chelsea players. The best of them will stay - the ones that prove in the pitch (no matter whose pitch) they're Chelsea material will stay. If Ryan Bertrand had chances in post-Roman Chelsea, than any kid with decent talent and effort should as well. People talk shit about how we wasted too many talents from our academy and didn't give them the proper chances... so let me ask them one thing: enlist me five players we let go or who never got themselves out of the loan soap opera that went somewhere else and became great players. Someone like Courtois for example, that we loaned to Atletico and in a couple of years became one of the top 5 GK in the world. Where are all the mistakes done by Chelsea? One could argue that the lack of chances and stability detract a players' career and I agree to that to a certain extent. There are many examples of players that overcame many changes early in their careers (Costa being one of them), bench, few opportunities, but still proved their value. Youth players are like religious prophecies to me, they're the real deal when the promise becomes fact. Until then it's nothing more than what could have been and a good idea. So if they don't turn anything good anywhere, they wouldn't cut it to be a Chelsea player anyway. The player will always be the main responsible for his own success. If he has discipline and puts an effort to back up his talent and it works out, it doesn't matter the system, it just does. Didn't Kane himself have many loans before having his breakout season (that he has yet to follow up with another one, btw, but fact remains it's been a great season for him). Didn't Diego do the same? Didn't Courtois make the best out of a long loan? Aren't Bamford and Traoré proving their worth in their loans? The only cases I have problems with is when we keep the kids here like Aké (sorry if I don't think it's the same situation with Ruben yet) and detract his development by giving him nearly no minutes. Youth players shouldn't be here simply to complete our homegrown quota. Either they're ready to figure in the eventual match or they should be shipped to loan contracts. Aké should have been used more (the only case in our current squad imo). If Patrick stays with us next season, he should receive the same amount of chances Remy did this season... For strikers is easier to get minutes than midfielders, not only there are less strikers in every squad (three, at most four) and the bench guys are one injury away from getting chances. Midfielders compete with way more people, with the tactical approach and other things. I think we should give Bamfordinho a chance here next season because if he gets Remy minutes - playing most domestic cups, grabbing a few minutes (or many depending on injury) at the end of league matches, he'll continue his development just fine. But I wouldn't oppose at all to an PL loan. It's the Aké situation that can't happen again - with no one, but even less with Aké himself.

oh I see, the kid some blokes were trying to convince us has nothing on Kane in terms of technical ability scores those two goals... and scores very often. Yeah, seems another Torres in the coming yeah, reading the last couple of pages, I don't get where people got the idea he would be sold to Boro? There were no links, just assumptions. Either way I hope this clears everything up. It came straight from him.

This. I still believe unless we made him the new Mata, he wouldn't have even half of those numbers here because that's how he operates. Either he's the main man and the game goes around him or he doesn't play like this (it seems more a motivation/vanity thing rather than a technical limitation). So had he stayed - he'd be sulking (that's a guarantee) unless he took Hazard's place in the team and would have the odd start. He's technically better than all our AM's except Hazard, but I've always felt he doesn't handle a few things. Look the WC, for example... look the situation here where he had to fight for his spot like any other player, look at some of the things he's said ever since he left. If he comes back, I'm not sure he'll be the player he's for Wolfsburg and if he goes to Manchester United he'll destroy his career the same way Mata did. In a team where there are many stars, many talented players, it seems like the 'competition' overshadows his production and end product. In a lot of ways he seems a lot like Lukaku - except he's smarter, talks ways less and imo he has the technical tools to back up what he thinks of himself, but I have little doubts he doesn't think of himself as some world class star. Which right now he is at Wolfsburg - where he should stay. I think the highest he should aim now is Dortmund. If he goes to a team packed with stars, I think he won't produce to his full potential. I'm happy for him because I really like the kid, I feel that it didn't work here, but I still believe it wouldn't... Of course, this is a supposition, just like everyone else's that it would. Fact is when he had 6 months to prove something here, he did very little with the admittedly few chances, pissed off the manager with bad training and attitude, and then asked to leave. I'm all for Chelsea swallowing their pride and re-signing a player they let go for much more money than they got. I supported Matic re-sign even before the first rumor. I'm not convinced re-signing Kevin is good for Chelsea and I'm even more inclined to believe that coming back to Chelsea (or going to United) isn't good for Kevin at all. Either way, I wish him the best. I'd be a shame to watch happen to him the same that happened to Mata. But I must add, the same way I think Kevin is much better than Lukaku could ever dream, I also believe Kevin is (or at least has the potential to be) a much better player than Mata because he has a few tools in his box that Mata doesn't - some of which doesn't even depend on them, they're natural attributes). And yeah, I'm quite aware this isn't a popular opinion at all, but that's my opinion about Kevin as a player, his past and future with us and how he'd do in a big team with a lot of big names.

Premier League is my #1 priority every single season. That's where you play derbies, where you have history with rivals, where you poke fun of your friends because they support different teams in the same league. Of course the continental championship is huge, but nothing gives me more pleasure than watch my team 38 matches a season, playing basically week in week out, not to say the format. I'm not a big fan of knock-outs. I think it's such an outdated system that while thrilling many times crown the lucky team, the worse team or can be decided by one single referee mistake. In a sport where there's little technology, the less KO competitions the better for me. We just can't trust those guys in black... So I'm a league kind of person, the feelings I get from it - even all way down from Brazil - are much deeper and fulfilling than being Europe Champions. Of course winning the Champions League gives me great pleasure, but nothing like the league system, facing your rivals twice a year (and there are a few them), having the derbies and all the history between two teams. Priceless. So I'll be the happiest if we win the league and that has nothing to do with us getting KO'ed in CL, is just my preference.

I don't think an opinion should be turned into a fact anywhere, not even a forum, because those are very two different things. Why not handle opinions like opinions? I don't think anyone even made a fact out of an opinion regarding Oscar... There's a common understanding among most members of this forum, and that's fine, but I don't see anyone claiming it's a fact. Opinions turned to facts are more Fabregas' situation... it is a fact he's a big game chocker and second half of season flop for many people here. It's not even their opinion, they simply inherited it from Barça fans. That's when I think people turn opinions into facts and that's problematic to me no matter the context, the place and the general understanding. As for Oscar, is just an overwhelming agreement about his status and position at Chelsea.

you made me laugh so hard with that priceless. cheers, mate

I think it wasn't exactly his departure - although as someone said Willian didn't actually add anything and couldn't keep up the pressing Oscar had going. I think the thing was that with Willian in the RW Ramires became our CAM. What the bollocks is that? Why not move Cesc there? My Brazilian commentator was just as puzzled as I was. And then add to the fact Ramires was really bad in the second, and there goes our midfield. So it was a bunch of factors, losing the pressing with Oscar, Ramires moving to a position he should never get near to - and then having a shocker. At the end of the day I think lack of heart, of wanting to win at all costs made us lose and having too much of it made PSG win. Fair game to them, that fought hard til the last second. Shame on us, that showed no fighting spirit, passion and desire to win. It's funny Cesc said just yesterday all this team missed was a killer instinct and that wasn't anywhere close in the pitch today - in addition to lack of effort. They were blood walking in the park out there!

That's quite the pathetic approach... he was poor, not denying. Did we lose because he was poor or because this team shows no heart? The team including him should have fought harder. I'm not going to be an ungrateful bitch that ignores all he did so far and talks this BS when we still have a collective attitude issue. I don't judge a player for a bad match especially he contributed so much for us going this far. He isn't on the same level as before, as if keeping it is the norm... you guys are too spoiled, suck at being supporters and are amazing bandwagoners. Finally got it out of my chest letter by letter after beating around the bush do many times. If the player that already gave so much is struggling , you support, you recognize what he's done so far, keep positive and hope/cheer he recovers. Still all I read here is what Barça fans said and how Cesc is bad. Should we sell him them? Cules have an excuse of not being able to use properly an amazing midfielder and are just bitter. What's your excuse?

can't believe it

COURTOIS!!!!! MIRACLE SAVE

that's not even the point... the point is giving them the advantage of 30 minutes to score an away goal and it count in the untie. Away goals should only count in 90 minutes.

fuck yeah HAZARD!!!!!!!!!

come on, man - really?

it had to be the piece of shit

someone called a Cahill goal you guys, I want to be rich, give me Brazilian lottery numbers

look is a Verratti booking color me shocked

I laughed loud for that Luiz yellow lol

I feel like Ramires and not Oscar should have been subbed off... Not only he's been horrific, the likely of him being sent off is still higher than Oscar's

what else have changed?

how many kicks, shoves, stomps and whats not can Verratti get away without being booked?

I think he used some theatrics but that must have hurt. Ibra went straight to his leg... he looked like crying even after Ibra was sent off and Eva started working on him...

I hope Costa gives a big laughter at Luiz's face at the end of the match - as I expect us to quality dirty piece of shit. Ever since the world cup I took a 180 turn about Luiz as a person. Piece of shit serves him just right