Diego Costa

[duo11bluecl 207]

That's why it's important to not be changing managers every season. Each has a different system and a different idea.

I hope Mourinho keeps his word and stays for the long term.

Yeah that but if you are a REALLY QUALITY player then it really doesn't matter that much, Cavani, Ibra, Suarez...etc all moved from managers to managers, system to system yet they keep getting better and better no matter what. Sometime those top bracket players are just that good they would produce in any system. Of course there are the likes of Torres, Drogba...etc who NEED to have a team built around them to flourish, so while they are great they are really not as complete as some other.

Me too, I hope Jose stays but if he goes eventually Pep or Carlo come in wouldn't be too bad. Also remember it isn't fully up to him but also Roman.

[xPetrCechx 13,563]

1 more goal so far...

[The Skipper 20,593]

On 30 goals for the season now in all competitions.

[Joker10 946]

If we get Costa, somehow Torres has to be included.

Hell even if it means paying more Costa.

[LAM09 6,744]

I think the only way we will get Costa, is if involves Courtois some way or another.

[kellzfresh 7,229]

I think the only way we will get Costa, is if involves Courtois some way or another.

Or if we just pay his release clause

[LAM09 6,744]

Or if we just pay his release clause

Which is?

[quickpassnmove 924]

or MU or Man City or Barcelona or Real Madrid or whoever got many top strikers over the years...

The problem with us is that we always spend the money on wrong players at wrong time that doesn't fit our system, Drogba was the only success. For example if we signed Falcao in 2012, Cavani last summer, Suarez in 2011...etc they would all be banging them in for us now.

I am still dumbfounded by January 2011. Was no one at CFC watching Suarez for Ajax and Uruguay? Did they not see that Torres was not moving as well as in the past? then, send Matic to Benfica for nothing while CFC have nothing in center midfield.

As much as Chelsea certainly need a striker (and I'm still not much of a Lukaku fan), I am still equally concerned about center midfield.

[Special Juan 27,424]

Looked dangerous today, really dangerous.

Always plays on the shoulder and took his goal brilliantly.

[kellzfresh 7,229]

Which is?

32mil

[BloodIsBlue 291]

As much as Chelsea certainly need a striker (and I'm still not much of a Lukaku fan), I am still equally concerned about center midfield.

I've been touting Kovacic as a must grab this summer for that (in the likely summer transfers topic), he's going to be a beast. I've also just recently doubted my thinking that it will be impossible to sign him. With no European football Inter are in so much financial trouble they have to accept any money and cheap players clubs send their way. So I'm guessing a cheap Mikel and a lot of money for this little guy and we are in buisness. Every club deals with debt but apparently Inter are have big problem int he money department and Chelsea pockets know how to talk.

So much brawn shown by Costa today.

[LAM09 6,744]

32mil

News to me. We will have to wait and see then.

[quickpassnmove 924]

I've been touting Kovacic as a must grab this summer for that (in the likely summer transfers topic), he's going to be a beast. I've also just recently doubted my thinking that it will be impossible to sign him. With no European football Inter are in so much financial trouble they have to accept any money and cheap players clubs send their way. So I'm guessing a cheap Mikel and a lot of money for this little guy and we are in buisness. Every club deals with debt but apparently Inter are have big problem int he money department and Chelsea pockets know how to talk.

So much brawn shown by Costa today.

I'm glad someone can watch Inter Milan and give us an opinion. Every time I've tried to watch Inter, I've been impressed by one defender and/or let-down by the team's overall performance. change the channel.. I do know that they have good players; problem is, the team has rarely impressed me on the pitch. total snoozers.

At this moment, I do not have recommendations for center midfielders. K.Strootman was one of my top recommendations previously (we know he went to AS Roma). discussed many superstars and squad players on another online forum; after Chelsea have failed to sign strong CMs for years now, I'm just tired of it. Every window for the past 3.5 years went by and no one really good came to Chelsea until Matic returned. Now Matic is the best center midfielder Chelsea have. Want to run him into the ground? Get some depth and quality, please.

My only thought for this summer, for Chelsea is to try for one superstar CM and one strong squad player CM for depth. Right now, we're looking at about 3 players for the CM pair: Matic, Ramires, and vanGinkel. Cannot count Lampard IMO--either leaving or just too slow (never was a strong center midfielder IMO) and Mikel is surely leaving (I can hope). That leaves us with 2 known quality CMs in Ramires and Matic for next season and one unknown quantity in vanGinkel. So, if no one is ready to come up from the reserves and play well enough, Chelsea should probably be buying 3 center midfielders. If one player will come up from reserves: buy two CMs.

[quickpassnmove 924]

If we get Costa, somehow Torres has to be included.

Hell even if it means paying more Costa.

Get Torres to take a pay cut, send him there for free, buy Costa for the asking price, offer Courtois for one or two more seasons. Just about anything is worth having Burger Van Torres off the payroll.

[BloodIsBlue 291]

I'm glad someone can watch Inter Milan and give us an opinion. Every time I've tried to watch Inter, I've been impressed by one defender and/or let-down by the team's overall performance. change the channel.. I do know that they have good players; problem is, the team has rarely impressed me on the pitch. total snoozers.

At this moment, I do not have recommendations for center midfielders. K.Strootman was one of my top recommendations previously (we know he went to AS Roma). discussed many superstars and squad players on another online forum; after Chelsea have failed to sign strong CMs for years now, I'm just tired of it. Every window for the past 3.5 years went by and no one really good came to Chelsea until Matic returned. Now Matic is the best center midfielder Chelsea have. Want to run him into the ground? Get some depth and quality, please.

My only thought for this summer, for Chelsea is to try for one superstar CM and one strong squad player CM for depth. Right now, we're looking at about 3 players for the CM pair: Matic, Ramires, and vanGinkel. Cannot count Lampard IMO--either leaving or just too slow (never was a strong center midfielder IMO) and Mikel is surely leaving (I can hope). That leaves us with 2 known quality CMs in Ramires and Matic for next season and one unknown quantity in vanGinkel. So, if no one is ready to come up from the reserves and play well enough, Chelsea should probably be buying 3 center midfielders. If one player will come up from reserves: buy two CMs.

Inter aren't so bad to watch, they relax too much and have to scramble in last minutes usually but they lose because they drop the ball as opposed to being overwhelmed. A LOT of misses of clear cut chances has hurt them bad and they were serious about qualifying for CL or at least Europa at the start of the season, they had goals to tweaking this team into a CL team for next season.

That's a lot of CM's to acquire and we don't have room for 3 but I see your point and maybe 2 would be good. I think there is only space for 1 more CM with Ginkel as we will have 4 players trying for essentially 2 spots and the odd game where we employ a trivote and 3 are needed. Only under circumstances will we need a 5th or even 6th and I don't think that should be enough to lure us into spending. The thing is if we buy a young 4th CM those 'circumstances' that would require us to call up a 5th place CM might actually happen, young players seem to come with unexpected injuries and such We have some CM's in the academy that aren't really wonderkids like Kovacic but they could work to give us a CM in cases of emergency and even provide and English player. We want a youthful team that could stick together for a while and for us to win now doing that we have to snatch up the best possible young players. It the current market you have to buy young players with potential quickly because their price becomes absurd once they begin to show real promise like Pogba. Which ever CM we buy I think it would be a waste to accompany them with 2 other players looking for more or less the same openings in playing spots, 1 academy player should be enough. HOWEVER, as we have seen recently Luiz can play well with Matic and if the club and David agree that he should not be sold than we don't need a 5th signing for CM as David Luiz has the qualities Mourinho likes to play in the pivot.

[quickpassnmove 924]

Inter aren't so bad to watch, they relax too much and have to scramble in last minutes usually but they lose because they drop the ball as opposed to being overwhelmed. A LOT of misses of clear cut chances has hurt them bad and they were serious about qualifying for CL or at least Europa at the start of the season, they had goals to tweaking this team into a CL team for next season.

That's a lot of CM's to acquire and we don't have room for 3 but I see your point and maybe 2 would be good. I think there is only space for 1 more CM with Ginkel as we will have 4 players trying for essentially 2 spots and the odd game where we employ a trivote and 3 are needed. Only under circumstances will we need a 5th or even 6th and I don't think that should be enough to lure us into spending. The thing is if we buy a young 4th CM those 'circumstances' that would require us to call up a 5th place CM might actually happen, young players seem to come with unexpected injuries and such We have some CM's in the academy that aren't really wonderkids like Kovacic but they could work to give us a CM in cases of emergency and even provide and English player. We want a youthful team that could stick together for a while and for us to win now doing that we have to snatch up the best possible young players. It the current market you have to buy young players with potential quickly because their price becomes absurd once they begin to show real promise like Pogba. Which ever CM we buy I think it would be a waste to accompany them with 2 other players looking for more or less the same openings in playing spots, 1 academy player should be enough. HOWEVER, as we have seen recently Luiz can play well with Matic and if the club and David agree that he should not be sold than we don't need a 5th signing for CM as David Luiz has the qualities Mourinho likes to play in the pivot.

I don't know if David Luiz will be staying, but my thoughts on center midfield A. do not involve David Luiz, B. consider a 4-3-3 formation being used regularly in the future and C. account for failure of one or two younger players in center midfield. How it should look, IMO: 5 players, including Matic, vGinkel, Ramires, player X, player Y, Oscar as a sixth backup option -OR- a player from the reserves who is capable as a sixth option. So, yes, Chelsea could avoid buying a 3rd CM if Oscar were used or a reserves player were good enough.

I don't know what is going on with David Luiz and Barca, but I know he was thinking about the move last summer during the pre-season tour (from someone who talked with him face-to-face).

On the other hand, my opinion of a player is not static. Even though I am ambivalent on David Luiz and don't like his play much, it may be possible to mold him into a good center midfielder. Who in the Chelsea coaching staff is capable of doing this though?

[BloodIsBlue 291]

consider a 4-3-3 formation being used regularly in the future

Contrary to what the pundits say our must win game formation is not 433. I've followed Mourinho for a long time and watched him at Inter closely and even at Real Madrid. Real Madrid however would not let him play his 4321 (sometimes a 4312 depending on the subs) because it went against their attacking style. They did however give Mourinho the green light to play that formation against Barcelona only. The 3 mids can be all defensive midfielders if they have to be in Mourinho's trivote, 2 players usually do all the work out wide and 1 striker keeps the space for the moving players. It's not a 4-3-3 and its so much more rigid than other formations but the Trivote usually means your backline are always prepared before they get hit, its like playing a mini back line before your back line. Normally our 4231 is better and so much more versatile in play and after substitutions but against teams with enough firepower to worry us Mourinho employed 4321 on many occasions and it has won him the Champion's league and many of Jose's toughest matches ever. For this formation David Luiz is a dream midfield, and Mourinho knows that. When we play 4231 however, there is no reason to play him apart from injuries and suspension. That might not be enough to warrant keeping him, if we can't use him as a CB and he only gets the occasional outing as a mid that is very unfair to Luiz. I don't like to have expensive players that could grab us maybe over 20m on the transfer market just sitting on the bench or in tiny roles. Lesser players should fill those small occasional roles and the way we are using Luiz right now is a bit of waste because he is a high caliber player.

[duo11bluecl 207]

Club have met with his agent now apparently, we are trying to sign him before the WC. But rumors of £40m fee though, I thought he got £32m release clause