The Board

[didierforever 7,349]

Xavi gone, Iniesta slowly being phased out. Their best XI has very few Barca products in it.

7 of their 11 starters were bought, many for enormous sums.

Xavi gone, Iniesta slowly being phased out. Their best XI has very few Barca products in it.

7 of their 11 starters were bought, many for enormous sums.

"The very best sides like Real Madrid, Bayern, and Barca barely have any academy players in their teams. They go out and splash millions and millions on players EVEN AFTER WINNING TITLES."

even 4 players out of 11 IS not a small deed. pique, busquet, iniesta, messi. 4 starters. NOT AT ALL A SMALL DEED. infact its a massively thing.

and lets talk about their squad. currently they have the above 4 plus pedro, rafinha, bartra, haddidi, sandro, roberto. infact most of their bench is their own youth products. these are not their just to make up the numbers of the HG spot, these players get fair enough game time. pedro, haddidi and sandro will be their backups for MSN. roberto, rafinha are their only options for midfield in case biscuits, iniesta or rakitic get injured.

also, at one point of time valdes, pique, puyol,biscuits, iniesta, xavi, messi, pedro.. were all from their youth system. barca products. so the "very best of sides" like barca and bayern did have plenty of academy products. infact they were at their peak with their academy products.

also, if you consider the amounts spent on making the barca squad and the chelsea squad, i think we will be way way higher.

[Pizy 18,944]

"The very best sides like Real Madrid, Bayern, and Barca barely have any academy players in their teams. They go out and splash millions and millions on players EVEN AFTER WINNING TITLES."

even 4 players out of 11 IS not a small deed. pique, busquet, iniesta, messi. 4 starters. NOT AT ALL A SMALL DEED. infact its a massively thing.

and lets talk about their squad. currently they have the above 4 plus pedro, rafinha, bartra, haddidi, sandro, roberto. infact most of their bench is their own youth products. these are not their just to make up the numbers of the HG spot, these players get fair enough game time. pedro, haddidi and sandro will be their backups for MSN. roberto, rafinha are their only options for midfield in case biscuits, iniesta or rakitic get injured.

also, at one point of time valdes, pique, puyol,biscuits, iniesta, xavi, messi, pedro.. were all from their youth system. barca products. so the "very best of sides" like barca and bayern did have plenty of academy products. infact they were at their peak with their academy products.

also, if you consider the amounts spent on making the barca squad and the chelsea squad, i think we will be way way higher.

Fair enough.

All I'm trying to say is that this huge fervor about it being necessary to integrate youth at any cost is annoying. When we don't go after players who can improve us immediately because there are a couple of promising teenagers that may or may not be good enough, that's where my problem is.

[LAM09 7,062]

I really hope some more signings are made soon, and a few offloaded. Last night showed how much dead weight we currently have and what we're missing.

[didierforever 7,349]

I really hope some more signings are made soon, and a few offloaded. Last night showed how much dead weight we currently have and what we're missing.

i would really want to know which all "dead weights" are you tlaking about?

[LAM09 7,062]

i would really want to know which all "dead weights" are you tlaking about?

Mikel, Ramy, Moses (to an extent) and possibly Oscar.

Playing Iva and Dave as RB & LB is going to wear thin as well. They are very limited going forward.

They are a few more players who we won't see in action till the season starts that might come under that bracket also.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Jesus - how is it that all of a sudden:

Net Transfer Spend = Success

It absolutely fucking DOES NOT

City and PSG have spent sooo much in the past 5 years - probably £200million a season just on transfers - are they any nearer winning the CL? No! They're still shocking - same with PSG.

Stop believing the bollox that Transfer Spend = Success

Transfer Spend buys you players and there's a 50/50 chance they will perform for you - it's an awful gamble.

Having a settled, well drilled team and improving the squad season on season is a much more sensible way of doing things - tears how UTD built an Era.

Having a larger stadium also helps financially and allows the exponential growth of the club.

Prime example is this year's CL finalists, Juve. Buffon apart, I think their entire 10 outfield players combined cost less than 25-30m.

[didierforever 7,349]

Mikel, Ramy, Moses (to an extent) and possibly Oscar.

Playing Iva and Dave as RB & LB is going to wear thin as well. They are very limited going forward.

They are a few more players who we won't see in action till the season starts that might come under that bracket also.

remy, mikel and moses (especially moses) had very good games. we should have been leading 3-0 at HT and if remy comes in your definition of "dead weight", then i have nothing to say to you.

iva was the best RB in the PL while azpi is the best defensive LB in the world probably.

[LAM09 7,062]

remy, mikel and moses (especially moses) had very good games. we should have been leading 3-0 at HT and if remy comes in your definition of "dead weight", then i have nothing to say to you.

iva was the best RB in the PL while azpi is the best defensive LB in the world probably.

Ramy = Ramires

Remy is far from dead weight.

As I said above, they are limited going forward. IMO, we only have one blessed wide man.

[didierforever 7,349]

Ramy = Ramires

Remy is far from dead weight.

rambo was not poor alone. there were 10 other players who were poor. as for the other "dead weights", they were quite good. so i am just surprised how this match showed anything about them when it was actually our first team (costa, hazard, oscar, matic, rambo, jt, zouma, azpi) that conceded 4 and in general were poor.

[LAM09 7,062]

rambo was not poor alone. there were 10 other players who were poor. as for the other "dead weights", they were quite good. so i am just surprised how this match showed anything about them when it was actually our first team (costa, hazard, oscar, matic, rambo, jt, zouma, azpi) that conceded 4 and in general were poor.

I'm talking about what he offers and not specifically about last night. We have depth in numbers, but not in quality.

[didierforever 7,349]

I'm talking about what he offers and not specifically about last night. We have depth in numbers, but not in quality.

"Last night showed how much dead weight we currently have and what we're missing."

am i misreading this post of yours? cos it specifies last night.

as for our depth, i think it is quite good in the AM department.

[LAM09 7,062]

"Last night showed how much dead weight we currently have and what we're missing."

am i misreading this post of yours? cos it specifies last night.

as for our depth, i think it is quite good in the AM department.

Last night backed up my original feelings. That's what that sentence meant. I have to thoroughly disagree with the last bit.

[didierforever 7,349]

Last night backed up my original feelings. That's what that sentence meant. I have to thoroughly disagree with the last bit.

each to his own. was and still am a little surprised by "last night" being used as negative for the likes of mikel and moses.

as for our AM department

hazard - the best player of PL

willian - one of our best players from jan-may.

oscar - one of our best players from august to dec.

cuad - jury is still out there. 343 minutes of football spread over 14 games is hardly a yard stick to measure anyone.

moses - a very good back up. hard working, physical, and a very good dribbler. a handful to any full back.

traore - one of our best academy products.

these 6 wont be the best 6 options out there but they are good.

[bethos1 802]

each to his own. was and still am a little surprised by "last night" being used as negative for the likes of mikel and moses.

as for our AM department

hazard - the best player of PL

willian - one of our best players from jan-may.

oscar - one of our best players from august to dec.

cuad - jury is still out there. 343 minutes of football spread over 14 games is hardly a yard stick to measure anyone.

moses - a very good back up. hard working, physical, and a very good dribbler. a handful to any full back.

traore - one of our best academy products.

these 6 wont be the best 6 options out there but they are good.

This, I'm actually fine with our depth in AM. Obviously we don't have a world class RW but the ones we have are good enough.

[LAM09 7,062]

each to his own. was and still am a little surprised by "last night" being used as negative for the likes of mikel and moses.

as for our AM department

hazard - the best player of PL

willian - one of our best players from jan-may.

oscar - one of our best players from august to dec.

cuad - jury is still out there. 343 minutes of football spread over 14 games is hardly a yard stick to measure anyone.

moses - a very good back up. hard working, physical, and a very good dribbler. a handful to any full back.

traore - one of our best academy products.

these 6 wont be the best 6 options out there but they are good.

I said Moses to an extent, as he was shocking one of the bright spots last night, but he's limited IMO.

In regards to rest, we need them to be consistent for the majority of the season. We don't need passengers for different chunks. If they deliver from the get go; they'll suffice.

[Barbara 15,149]

Fair enough.

All I'm trying to say is that this huge fervor about it being necessary to integrate youth at any cost is annoying. When we don't go after players who can improve us immediately because there are a couple of promising teenagers that may or may not be good enough, that's where my problem is.

I don't think we should integrate youth at any cost. We're talking about 2-3 players. We were the champions with quite the distance, both in quality and competitiveness as points. the time to start integrating those kids is now, as we just won a title and have a very good starting eleven that will back those kids up when they do play. There's no pressure... Yes, we want to win UCL, but that wouldn't be easy with a couple of new signings anyway. Us winning it in 2012 and many other times when better teams didn't win just prove that anything can happen there. José is keeping his word, and if we're here to support the team, we'll support something like that. What's one season anyway? We sent 5 without winning the league and we were up there in the UCL a couple of times and won it when we expected the least. Football is unpredictable, and a few gambles, especially with such a solid first team, are normal and expected. I completely disagree with you about Barça and Bayern not having players from their Academy. They have tons of them, and then they add the stars they got somewhere else, but their players are there in the mix. Even RM have many of players from their academy, the thing is they sell them at early age when they don't fit and then buy a few years down the road for much more money. Just like we did with Matic.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

I don't get TalkChelsea, I really don't.

The same people screaming at the top of their lungs we're wasting such an amazing generation of young players (which I don't completely agree with, but it's the absolutely truth for many of you), is moaning now even louder because we don't sign new players although our manager said if some of the English young talent we have now don't make it to England NT in five years it would be on him.

Mourinho couldn't have been more honest and straight with us since he's arrived back. First season he said wasn't for titles, we weren't ready, small horses and all that while also saying the following we'd be ready. He kept the speech throughout the whole of his second season and started talking about developing youth. Do people expect those kids to magically be integrated in 2020?

So you either defend youth development and integration and accept the onus that comes with it: making room for them to play in the first team as subs somewhat often (starting with matches far and apart and progressing from there) or you keep bringing players either on their peak or about to explode, with tons of professional matches on their belts.

We need more depth on the bench, I fully support the idea, but if Mourinho and the board want to use our loaned players and youth to gradually become our bench, it's a gamble most of people here should support as they don't cease to give Mourinho stick for not integrating young players. Also there has been some pressure on us to use our academy players and people are start to raise eyebrows on our loan system, I think we're going to start justify both.

HALLELUJAH, THE VOICE OF REASON!

We can't have both and some people just don't fucking get it. Thanks for this post B.

[Fulham Broadway 17,332]

People really need to get over this romantic emotional attatchment to 'da youf'.

Chelsea FC is a corporate business, and the academy a production line, a factory to make profit.

"Bbbbbutttt the youth, josh...." No its a ruthless business, for profit, and thats it.

[xPetrCechx 13,573]

Don't care about the stadium , would rather play on a cowfield, and continue to buy good players each window.

Aren't Liverpool developing their stadium too?

Their redevelopment will cost less I think.

[MrBlueGuy 1,552]

The thing about youth is unless we happens to have the most talented bunch of young players in history, we will struggle to challenge for top titles every season. Look at Barcelona, while being praised as having the best academy in the world, they still make a few top class signing every summer to improve the team and just did again with Turan and maybe soon Pogba. We are talking about a team that just won the treble with ease.

Look at Bayern, full of homegrown players but they also know you still have to compete for the best players around to CHALLENGE. Once they tried to rely entirely on their youth a few seasons ago they ended up finishing like 3rd in Bundesliga and since then every summer they also make a couple of big additions that improves their 11, this summer it is Vidal.

Do you guys know why Arsene Wenger virtually abandoned playing youth in cup games now and actually looking to sign top class players? Because after a decade he realized that you cannot win anything with kids but the youth cup/league. Same with MU. Football is bigger than ever like @FulhamBroadway said, it isn't just a simple game of kicking the ball and trying to win title every season anymore, the business aspect is just as big as it is a huge global brand worth billions, hence the Sky deal proved.

Everyone who is 'fine' with us trying to intergrate our kids into the team should also not complain when we finishes 3rd in the league and get knocked out in the last 16 again by PSG/Juve/big 3 because in those games we happen to have to start Mikel/Moses(not specific but likely example of what will happen when our 1st team players are injured) and not Witsel/Pedro. If we really want to use youth more often then don't mind a couple of transition seasons also where we win nothing aka 2013-14 again. Me and lot of others on here are not fine with that because we care about competing with the very best year in year out, not with the team sheet making up of 5 kids from the academy when we could sign 5 world class players for those positions.