oldportblue

Stats aren't useless, especially for a striker, they show fairly accurately and objectively the contribution of the player. In any case, I also said most pundits/fans would have him top 5. Can you name 5 players better than Costa this season in the prem?

except that he is, both statistically and in the minds of most fans/pundits.... Sanchez has 14g7a and is asking for a reported 275-300k salary, Costa has 14g5a and is asking for something similar. In my mind, that sounds about right although having said that, I'd try to bargain him down to 250k

I would bump up Costa to 250-275K (most top, top players fall into this category) and would tell hazard that if he continues the way he's been playing this season and we win the title, he would also get a nice bump to around 250K... I think the others in the locker room are smart enough to understand that costa and hazard are our top 2 players and don't think it would mess up the chemistry. This is the going rate for top, top tier players and we will need to pay up to keep them. There is more money than ever in the prem and China is offering crazy money left and right so its normal for salaries to grow as a result... The alternative would be to hold firm and see our top player leave, that would be arsenalesque and wouldn't be a good signal to send imo...

it's not a matter of "necessary", that is very subjective and can mean anything... This is a case of Costa earning around 4-5Mpounds net, after tax and a Chinese club offering him 30M pounds net, after tax... That is a HUGE pay increase and any and every human on this planet who would get offered such a deal would at least pause and take the time to consider it. He can play 4 seasons there and get more than 100,000,000 pounds, that is an amount that is very hard to turn down for anyone...

I'm not sure about what the top wage earners get in the Premier League, but IIRC Rooney earns 300k/week... With this in mind, I would give him 250-275k rather than 200k for his new contract. He truly is a top 5 player in the league in my opinion and replacing him would be close to impossible (getting the same strike rate Costa offers in the prem from another striker) so I say just give him the money he wants and keep him until 2022. We can't do an arsenal and start being stingy with our best talents, it's not in anyone's interest

I like him! and he's English too

I would also agree. Don't see our club being moronic enough to start signing players for a manager who has his team playing amazing and winning 11 on the bounce, without his consent or approval..

you're most probably right but I still think the slim possibility is there... I'm fairly certain that if Arsenal continue to play spinelessly as they always tend to do and sanchez has to do everything by himself, as is currently the case, he will want to leave... And if they're faced with a situation where he would run down his contract, the greedy arse board might want to cash in this summer instead of losing him for nothing... A long shot but in football, you never know

you never know, we got ashley cole off them, they got PC off us... stranger things have happened in football. If he wants to leave arsenal and Chelsea come knocking with a big bid, anything is possible.

Also, don't think the criticism of Emanalo has anything to do with his skin color but more to do with his lack of credentials before coming to Chelsea (was head coach of a U14 girls football team in the US IIRC). Having said that, I've never had anything against the guy, he bought us some top, top talent (especially the belgians) and I am only thankful to him for that.. His inexperience in the beginning was a valid concern but he's been with us almost 10 years (I think) and has proved he is very good at his job (you can tell by the players we have now). I honestly don't think any criticism of him has to do with race at all, at least not from anything I've seen on twitter and on here

I'd prefer we signed Sanchez out of the two but if it's james or nothing, I'd take it...

let's go for donnaruma and sell this douche, he isn't motivated, is playing like shit and is mouthing off to the media, disrespecting us as well.... wouldn't be surprised if the club is already thinking and working on our next #1 GK

what an annoying douche, just keep your mouth shut FFS, especially when you've been playing like utter shite for a while...

I think we will be in the mix with MU and city come April/May... whether we can actually win it is anyone's guess but with hazard and costa on point right now, there's no reason we can't

double post

you're so concerned by what idiot fans from rival teams think? you keep mentioning it in this thread over and over... my advice would be to man up and adopt the chelsea philosophy of "fuck 'em all"

amazing pic bro, stealing it!

who? arsenal fans who haven't won shit in ages? who cares about opposition fans... bet they weren't saying that when luiz was slotting home his pen in Munich to help us win the CL... as the great chelsea song goes "fuck 'em all!"

some of the people on here who call luiz a disgrace are themselves a disgrace, this is the man who played injured to win us our first and only champions league, he has always been a big game player for us and has always loved the club... if you can't even refrain from calling players who gave so much to the club "a disgrace", you are laughable and should fuck off to support someone else

well the rumors are claiming that they want marquinios to start anyways so they're not losing a starter... but I just checked their squad and they indeed would be left short on CBs if he were to leave... not too sure what to think but there seems to be too much smoke for there not to be some sort of fire Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Don't know if they're reliable though (probably not)

hahahahah what does his team's league position have to with this discussion? I think it's better to end the discussion because you can't seem to make any relevant arguments anyways Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

a defensive liability who helped us win the CL with injured hamstrings and slotted in a crucial pen in the shootout to keep us in it... and yeah he celebrated his goal, football is a passionate game and he's a passionate guy, the stakes were very high in that CL game and he couldn't resist... not the end of the world. i didn't like it either but to act like its a deal breaker is childish and btw, mata was back to back chelsea player of the year, lukaku has been tearing up the league with goals since he left us, de bruyne is now a bonafide world class player... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

jose sold him.... he also sold mata, lukaku and de bruyne, not exactly a perfect track record of not selling quality players too soon...

jose sold him.... he also sold mata, lukaku and de bruyne, not exactly a perfect track record of not selling quality players too soon...