leboeuf

ANNOUNCE DECLAN RICE

https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news

I'm starting to see this as an excellent opportunity for our under 10s to participate in the pre-season.

I will like this window if RLC is given a proper shot at the CM job. Pedro looks a quality buy and Kennedy is an intruiging prospect. As Chelsea fans we have seen far worse

We were robbed. They knew how desperate we were and trebled the price. It happens.

If we bring Koke to Chelsea, think Mutu will try to angle for a move back?

No he will not. Terrible at dealing with crosses in his own box, but have a decent reflexes. Liverpool it is!

Gallas was quicker then zouma is now.. Gallas never needed to make a recovery tackle
Gallas at his best was the best center back in Europe.
Gallas was not a leader, that was his biggest weakness

Frank and marcel my lord

All the talk about Wilian and opinions on him so far can only really be significant if you know what the instructions are in the managers game plan.
 
Players at other clubs that play right wing better or more direct than Willian really don't (imo) have his workload, he isn't really a wide player, he could likely do the job of hugging the line and sprinting down the wing but that would make it difficult to get back and cover the space that a marauding Ivan has left, he drifts around mopping up and pressing all over the place and I don't think that's his natural game, I think it's the role the manager has asked him to play.
 
It's the same as Ivan doesn't take it in his head to do what he does, it's again Joses instructions and I'm not sure the "better" wingers Willian gets compared to could do the job as well as he does when Ivan does what he does.
 
Obviously we expect the new man to be more direct, get in more crosses and generally take some of the weight off of Hazard but Ithink that was the plan with Shurrle, Willian for the games Jose wants more pressing and tenacity and one other that has turned out not to be Salah or Shurrle for games where he feels a more creative threat on the right is the key.
 
Willian will likely play many more games where he has been playing but hopefully when a change is made it will involve enough of a threat going forward to negate the need for the harrying that Willian does so well, so far replacing him with a player offering little threat has left us a bit open.
 
I like Willian and he will be an option in Oscars place if Jose wants to rest him so there will be a few options if Cuadrado fits in as well as we all hope.
 
I'm fairly happy with Willian to date and think he, like Oscar is an important part of the team, I'd certainly have kept him ahead of Salah or Shurrle on what I've seen.

No one is saying he is not an absolutely top keeper, its probably a toss of a coin between him and chec, and about half on here feel chec is the slightly better keeper. I still have a slight preference for chec. I think chec makes more saves then he has no right to, thus  beleive he may have saved some of the goals we conceded against spuds. It's a subjective opinion. It's based on watching him. It's no more legit then saying he wouldn't have made those saves. And like wise their are probably instances where chec has failed and TBO wouldn't have. again all subjective.
 
This is really like picking between Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis... you win either way but there is the opportunity cost

Would never want to wish injury on a decent human being.
So Rio is fair game

Could have Gordon Ramsay feeding him and he would still starve to death...

Haha someone on Twitter just said:
 
"I feel like Lassie has just been shot."

Probably his teeth aren't sharp enough? To pass the pool's medical.

I think Fabregas's main role this season is  to provide competition for Lewis Baker.

First name on the team sheet for the two Le Arse games.

No,no,no. It's took me long enough to learn to spell Azpilicueta.

The Premier League (and Championship and League One for that matter) are also full of shiny new stadiums that are half empty every week. City are the champions and there were empty seats at their games last season. West Ham will soon have a bigger capacity than us, yet do you see West Ham attracting 54,000 every week? Do you see them attracting 54,000 ever? Ironically it will end up like Italy, where clubs have huge stadiums they can't fill.
 
The point about Juve still stands. They manage to be a rich and successful club without having an enormous stadium. In fact they gave up their enormous stadium to move to this one. Bayern have a much larger stadium than we do, yet get lower gate receipts than us because of their lower ticket prices. They both cope.
 
Like I said above 42,000 at the Bridge isn't ideal, yet as it stands only four clubs in Europe get higher gate receipts than us. A huge stadium isn't the be all and end all that we just have to accept. Especially if it means accepting Old Oak Common or Ladbroke Grove.

And the prize for the gayest ever football chant goes to

From Mr Fabregas on his twitter page
Cesc Fàbregas Soler @cesc4official · 16h
Winner of the table tennis tournament against @CesarAzpi !
Ganador del torneo de ping pong contra Azpilicueta!

Agent Cesar getting it done, letting Fab beat him to make him feel good. Its nice to see that he is socialising with his new team mate.

We cant buy him though, Spurs havent bought his flight over....

I heard that because he's deemed as Catalan and not Spanish there is a delay in processing his paperwork, apparently a few of the words need to be translated to his native tongue.

People are just spinning fresh crap every day, no one has a clue.

I think this is a non issue, Barcelona play a very high push system where all the players are required to help win the ball back quickly after losing it, they just dont lose it very often. This is exactly what we are trying to do, the only difference is we are not after stale possesion like Barce, we are trying to be more dynamic and direct with the ball, something Fabregas has struggled containing at Barcelona, and is part of the reason he is being moved on, hes too direct for them.
 
We are a pack hunting team, everyone from the striker to the CBs are expected to help win the ball back, we dont need a pure DM in the team (although mourinho will mix it up) when you have Oscar, Willian, Shurrle, Costa and Matic surrounding you, you dont HAVE to be a dynamite one man army destroyer, It is a team effort, Fabregas will obviously be very involved with this, as he was at the Gooners and at Barce, but the thing he will bring to the team is the metronomic ball retention Barcelona style. Something we have been sorely lacking and I for one cant wait.