All Barco no bite

I can't really speak for anyone else but i would happily take a season without any silverware and just a top 4 finish next year if it meant 1 or 2 of our academy players (not Kenedy or players we've signed young, but local lads who've been at the club since they were 8) breaking into the actual starting 11 and showing what they can do.

Jake Cohen managed to shed some light on this situation. He's a sports lawyer who covers a lot of legal, financial and economic issues arising in football. Oh yeah, he's also a Chelsea fan. "Christian Purslow has ended several existing commercial deals early in favour of his own from the moment he joined Chelsea. Turkish Airlines were lined up at £25m p.a before Purslow came on board. Once he joined, he went out and convinced Yokohama to pay £40m. Purslow also landed Chelsea their first ever training kit deal with Carabao worth £10m p.a. I say this all the time, but a top commercial director is literally worth his or her weight in gold. Speaking of commercial directors, Vitesse Arnhem's last CD left to take a new job in 2014. That job? Head of global football at Under Armour.." "If Chelsea sold 3 million shirts this season at £50.00 each, that's £23m for Chelsea and £127m for Adidas. Easy to see why Chelsea have opted out. This is how kit deals work. 10-15% goes to the club, the rest to Nike, Adidas etc. But surely Chelsea is worth more than £27m p.a. with our following."

Not sure if it has already been mentioned in this thread but Jake Cohen managed to shed some light on this situation. He's a sports lawyer who covers a lot of legal, financial and economic issues arising in football. Oh yeah, he's also a Chelsea fan. "Christian Purslow has ended several existing commercial deals early in favour of his own from the moment he joined Chelsea. Turkish Airlines were lined up at £25m p.a before Purslow came on board. Once he joined, he went out and convinced Yokohama to pay £40m. Purslow also landed Chelsea their first ever training kit deal with Carabao worth £10m p.a. I say this all the time, but a top commercial director is literally worth his or her weight in gold. Speaking of commercial directors, Vitesse Arnhem's last CD left to take a new job in 2014. That job? Head of global football at Under Armour.." "If Chelsea sold 3 million shirts this season at £50.00 each, that's £23m for Chelsea and £127m for Adidas. Easy to see why Chelsea have opted out. This is how kit deals work. 10-15% goes to the club, the rest to Nike, Adidas etc. But surely Chelsea is worth more than £27m p.a. with our following."

The whole team has disappeared this year, not just Hazard. I think you seem to forget that. Hazard gets mentioned more than the rest because we rely on him more than anyone else in the squad. Terry was pretty dog sh*t at the start of the season but i've not seen a single person moan about him. If this is the kind of season we had without Hazard playing at top form imagine what we'd be like if he was sold. Willian and Pedro running aimlessly up the wings and Oscar doing very little in the middle? No thank you.

Hiddink did the same with Baba against Southampton. Ridiculous man management of a youth player. How are they ever going to gain confidence if they are publicly shamed by the manager like that.

Oscar was playing ahead of him.. The same Oscar that does nothing of note after the first two months of a season. He would also offer the same as Willian, which is an engine up and down the wing and not much more.

Harry Kane was 'mince' on most of his loans, got a run in the team and now the most prolific striker in the league. As someone mentioned before as was Bellerin. Confidence helps a footballer so much, without it a player is nothing.

He played 312 minutes for us in the league. 2/3 of the games were coming off the bench. Yes he was underwhelming but Mourinho chucked him into a team, that were playing poorly after Christmas anyway just grinding out results, for a few minutes here and there and expected him to make an impact.

Second highest scorer for Vitesse in a team that the entire team has struggled to create and score. Issues within the club haven't but he definitely hasn't been one of VItesse's worst players.

Mikel should be captain, our longest serving player and always has a great gam... Oh who am i kidding. Just give it to Fabregas, Cahill or Ivanovic already.

The may have been a hint of sarcasm in my comment. Just saying.

Yeah we chose short term success instead of planning for the future once again. Classic Mourinho and Chelsea.

Lack of playing time for these two that resulted in them leaving was Mourinho deciding to play an ageing CB at RB and a RB at LB.

A lot of people seem to be saying Dave at RB but every time he's played there he's been a fraction of the player he is at LB.

MVG wasn't rubbish in the prem, Hughes even said he wanted to keep him. They only cancelled his loan because they signed Imbula and couldn't guarantee him first team football. Ok then

Willian was truly awful this game. God knows how he stayed on for so long.

Also the same league that Suarez, Daley Blind, Wijnaldum, Eriksen and Vertonghen have come from in recent years and shone in the prem. Also, it wouldn't be hard for a player to shine at Vitesse as they're sh*te tbh. But for MVG to be one of the best players at the biggest club in the league says a lot.

I take it you haven't seen MVG at PSV in the second half of the season? Head and shoulders above everyone else. 8 goals in 12 games. One of the few midfielders we have on our books that might be able to replicate the goals Lampard scored from the middle of the park. Something we have been massively missing.

If that's true i seriously worry about our recruitment for this summer.

Wait.. So is Loftus-Cheek sold or kept? Or will it be one of those Matic deals where we sell him for £1m in summer then sign him back in January for £25m?

I think winning the league was more to do the £200m+ investment into the squad over the previous two years.

Ivanovic (CB) or Cahill for me. Let them have it for a couple of years and then when they move on Zouma will be older enough to inherit it. I also wouldn't be against Cesc having it, has shown passion for the club this year in interviews and on the pitch.

He's hit 15 and he only really started scoring in January. Says a lot about what he can do.

Yeah sell Costa, i hate having a striker that can easily hit 20 goals a season

To be honest this post wasn't intended to insinuate we should have a summer clearout. I just wanted to see which players people thought wouldn't be missed if sold on. I agree with you that 3 in 3 out seems about right.