Closed Chelsea v Cardiff

[didierforever 7,349]

I wish we got negredo. For 25 million, his movement reminds me of aguero and negredo is very good in the air.

negredo has been a real suprise. i mean specially with jovetic just bought, aguero and dzeko already in the team, i thought he would be a 25mil bench warmer mostly. but so far, amongst all the 6 "big" clubs (us, manchesters, spuds, arse and pool), he has got to be the best buy so far (ozil included).

[meetdoscar 335]

Here's where I stopped reading. We have a saying in this country, 'if you're good enough you're old enough'. Now you might mean he's not experienced enough, and you might have a point (although 150 first-team appearances and 20-odd international caps is not to be sniffed at) but age is just a number.

There are players five years older who aren't mature enough for this club to rely on, but I see no issue with his maturity. He seems an articulate, well-mannered young man who is dedicated to football. Again there are footballers who are maybe a decade older who don't exhibit the same level of dedication to their JOB that he does.

So this 'too young' thing is a load of bollocks in my opinion.

Age is just a number? Certainly not in football I laughed and stopped reading your post right there but in order to educate a little from facts i surrender to your post. Experienced coaches like mourinho, sir alex to name a few always make emphasis on the importance of age which brings about more confidence, knowledge, experience and maturity some like mourinho even believe a peak age is about 25 to 29 and i don't think you are a better coach than them. I even fail to see how any player can get more experienced without the natural sequence of age. Some players like messi/etoo/rooney/owen/torres where already incredible when they where young but became even better footballers with age except those that had serious injury problems like owen (may be) which results in a natural retardation in a players development. Lukaku isn't an exception and he will definitely get better with age - experience wise also as we are talking about football which is what the loan will provide him in a better and more competitive club than his last loan spell.

[meetdoscar 335]

It'll make a difference in the big games. Ofcourse, chance-creation is important but with Oscar as our main goal outlet, we won't win much. Against tough opposition, the team creates very few chances to begin with and our strikers pass them up. Maybe a world class forward was not needed but atleast someone like Mandzukic, Negredo, who can be a handful and take chances up front was enough.

Why do you think oscar is all of a sudden our main goal outlet. I disagree because we have new midfielders/wingers and a new striker who together with our previously existing team are being gradually embedded into a new system of playing and the system is beginning to reap benefits as seen in the last games. So NO, oscar isn't our main/only goal outlet we always play with two wide attackers and a striker and soon enough our attackers will explode with brilliance under the guidance of mourinho.

[Wimbledonblue 94]

Am I right in thinking this is the first 3pm K.O we've had this season?

[kellzfresh 7,226]

negredo has been a real suprise. i mean specially with jovetic just bought, aguero and dzeko already in the team, i thought he would be a 25mil bench warmer mostly. but so far, amongst all the 6 "big" clubs (us, manchesters, spuds, arse and pool), he has got to be the best buy so far (ozil included).

I can't say yet if he's the best, but he's definately top 4 buys of the season.

The fact that he was that good on the ball and not one of our scouts picked that up is sad.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Am I right in thinking this is the first 3pm K.O we've had this season?

Yeah, it is.

[Jase 43,479]

Slightly off topic but Carlooo!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsMjRj9hnOI

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Slightly off topic but Carlooo!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsMjRj9hnOI

I love how the vast majority of our managers, even though they all inevitably get sacked in the end, still genuinely like and support the club. Just today I was reading in the mail 'Arry complaining how Ruud Guillet went all crazy when we won the CL. Hearing Carlo saying: "I'm still a Chelsea fan" is so great. Even Butch still supports the club and has a season ticket at the Bridge.

Says quite a lot about our board and the whole Chelsea staff as whole. Maybe even a little about the fans

[Wimbledonblue 94]

Yeah, it is.

Thought so, ridiculous really as we're halfway through October.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Thought so, ridiculous really as we're halfway through October.

PL schedule has been particularly messed up this season, and not just for us. TV channels trying to fit every single match to be shown live. We've had every single one of our PL matches live so far this season which would explain why our games have either been early or late kick offs when there is no other live game happening.

[Magic Lamps 11,473]

I love how the vast majority of our managers, even though they all inevitably get sacked in the end, still genuinely like and support the club. Just today I was reading in the mail 'Arry complaining how Ruud Guillet went all crazy when we won the CL. Hearing Carlo saying: "I'm still a Chelsea fan" is so great. Even Butch still supports the club and has a season ticket at the Bridge.

Says quite a lot about our board and the whole Chelsea staff as whole. Maybe even a little about the fans

Probably because "being fired" as a manager is always hyped by the media. It is not too bad for s.o. to get a multi-million paycheck. It is all professional and does usually not get personal. It is not like your life is hit by being fired like normal people's would.

[Special Juan 27,111]

To be honest I would love my previous jobs had I been given millions to be fired.

[The only place to be 11,313]

Age is just a number? Certainly not in football I laughed and stopped reading your post right there but in order to educate a little from facts i surrender to your post. Experienced coaches like mourinho, sir alex to name a few always make emphasis on the importance of age which brings about more confidence, knowledge, experience and maturity some like mourinho even believe a peak age is about 25 to 29 and i don't think you are a better coach than them. I even fail to see how any player can get more experienced without the natural sequence of age. Some players like messi/etoo/rooney/owen/torres where already incredible when they where young but became even better footballers with age except those that had serious injury problems like owen (may be) which results in a natural retardation in a players development. Lukaku isn't an exception and he will definitely get better with age - experience wise also as we are talking about football which is what the loan will provide him in a better and more competitive club than his last loan spell.

What I'm saying is that you seem to be conflating age, experience and maturity and reducing it down to just a number. You're ignoring things like character and mentality because it's easy and looking just at a birth certificate.

But we'll just agree to disagree.

[bushman 2,043]

Age in any sport has a lot to do with it. The older you get, the slower you react. See Federer, for example, lately.

Cech is getting there. Therefore, his reactions will be seen a bit slower. Courtois all the way for me here.

As for Cardiff. Nothing, but one sided affair, for me. Hopefully, BA or Eto´o are finally scoring in this game.

[kellzfresh 7,226]

Cardiff are the new EPL set piece specialists

[Rmpr 8,977]

In fact, the opposite is the case. In England, France, Spain, Germany, Italy and most european countries, we got infrastructure already. There is no event that completely levers out the economy. It is all highly commerzialized of course, but all the people can choose to participate or not. The stadiums are already there, there are no slums that have to be eradicated, no shops are forced to shut down during the game. It is all routine. The boards might be corrupted, but they have less to decide. The infrastructure is there, the competitions are already established, no need to promote them for the cost of human lives. For the WCs in Brazil and Qatar hundreds and thousands of people are made homeless, killed and enslaved. On the other hand decades of Premier League seasons have gone without anyone being harmed.

90% of what you wrote is untrue!

But anyways, this is not the place to have this discussion...

[hjperdeath 2,226]

In fact, the opposite is the case. In England, France, Spain, Germany, Italy and most european countries, we got infrastructure already. There is no event that completely levers out the economy. It is all highly commerzialized of course, but all the people can choose to participate or not. The stadiums are already there, there are no slums that have to be eradicated, no shops are forced to shut down during the game. It is all routine. The boards might be corrupted, but they have less to decide. The infrastructure is there, the competitions are already established, no need to promote them for the cost of human lives. For the WCs in Brazil and Qatar hundreds and thousands of people are made homeless, killed and enslaved. On the other hand decades of Premier League seasons have gone without anyone being harmed.

I'm not sure what the debate is about, but the line involving Qatar, where I live right now, is highly untrue. People aren't homeless, there are labor camps set up. You technically cannot be homeless in Qatar, as you can just walk up to your respective embassy and live there.

Western companies have a lot of blame to shoulder... All the contractors providing services out here are (for the most part) Western. A lot of money is tied up in the projects. If they don't go ahead, many companies could be out of pocket and risk bankruptcy. Pulling out is not an option either because many have committed millions to these projects already (and risk huge penalties for pulling out). These are companies who are putting an awful lot of hope in the Middle East for revenue generally as things have gone tits up in Europe and the States. Incidentally, this could possibly have consequences for people at home.

I think even in Qatar, many doubt that they can pull it off - what needs to be built and the sheer intensity of the work schedule means that bad working conditions are a given (independently of the 50 degree heat situation). Qatar and UAE are not alone in being in the situation - China and Russia are growing too fast too soon.

There are many laws in Qatar and the UAE aimed at "protecting" workers. But as many know, these are not well enforced. Enforcement via penalties for all parties involved from the lowest sub-contractor to the highest contractor/developer. The problem is that given the size of the projects - so many of the separate tasks are sub-contracted that it becomes very difficult to control who is responsible for what.

The real problem however are the labour agencies. These are the guys that the labourers are ultimately indentured to - but these will be Nepalese, Pakistani, Indian, Sri Lankan - these are people effectively taking advantage of their own people to make a lot of cash. What really needs to be regulated or handled appropriately is the use of labour agencies who push people into servitude. There should be obligations on contractors to ensure that they do not use such agencies - but ill educated labourers are lied to and are told to lie when they get the jobs and it will take immense political and commercial will to change this.

Added to this are complex immigration and visa rules that add huge penalties to people working illegally which often trap them in a cycle of poverty from whence they cannot leave without charity (and therefore cannot leave the country). There's an awful lot of people out here who will give a lot of their time and money to help these guys and the great job (including lobbying) that some of them do should be supported.

There is also fundamental disregard for Health and Safety rules (again lack of investment and education given the short time frame etc) which could be improved. But that's not typical to Qatar - people working in building sites often where flip flops in India, Indonesia and other parts for example.

Meanwhile, not everyone with brown skin is treated like a dog in the Gulf and there a serious over-generalisations (including conveniently overlooking the fact that Indian and Pakistanis in the Gulf - there are more of them than locals - in some cases treat their people worse in some instances). I for one am brown and Indian, I was allowed to be the memeber of a staff at a local football club too.

There is a much broader view than just saying a country is killing people to build a bloody stadium. Sorry if it goes off-topic, the mods can shift this, but the matter had to be answered.

[Marco_Marley 0]

Is anyone selling tickets for this game at all?