terryble things

Went for Belotti because of his work-rate, but in order for us to improve on Diego we need someone with better link-up play and more of a goal-mouth presence—I think Bats is as good as any of the above in those respects.

Cavani? Can't be fun coming second in Ligue 1 and losing 6-1 to Barça...

Who in the world is higher? Higuain, Benzema, Suarez, Lewandowski, Cavani (?), Aubameyang (?), Mbappe, Aguero How many of them are not already at top clubs / not looking to move? Sure we can aim for them..

Dybala's not even a striker though

With this dragging on, seemingly contingent on Matic's sale, it kinda suggests the club aren't convinced that Bakayoko would start ahead of Matic week-in, week-out. If he's not a clear improvement, why are we bothering? The only time I watched him closely was in Monaco's defeat to Juve in the first leg of the semi, and he was pretty much at fault for both goals, didn't press, didn't get back fast enough... we have Fabregas for that.

Is Rudiger a definite improvement on Cahill? In terms of pure class perhaps, but there's going to be some knock-on psychological effect from not having your captain / experienced champion in the starting 11. My guess is Rudiger pushes Azpi into RWB and Moses onto the bench. In that situation, it would still be unwise to let both Zouma and Christensen go.

Yeah, quite. Just don't feel that back three would be solid mates off the pitch in training etc, there's no spine. I can't imagine the likes of Luiz and Hazard having a serious intervention when a player starts acting up! Lamps as Assistant manager would be ace.

Ha! But seriously, amongst the playing staff, what will the internal dynamics look like in a situation like this? No Terry, Lamps, Cech, Drog to command respect...

Who are the big figures who can sit Costa down and ask him what the f*** he's playing at? Who are Conte's main allies in the dressing room?

Lewandowski -- if we have to pay over 60m for someone, let's try for someone who's worth it. It's unlikely but I like a bid to be made publicly, just to show some willing.

The return of the king!

We did play good football with Hazard, Willian and Pedro up top together.... Fabregas could return to being a deadly False 9. Zouma is basically as good as Ibra in the air, perfect target man there. All those people saying you could win anything with 11 Kantes, will finally get their wish and see him leading the line....

Come on, this would be fun. —————Courtois————— Azpi—Rudiger—Cahill—Sandro ————Kante——Luiz———— Willian——Fabregas——Hazard ————Lewandowski———— Subs: Willy, Christensen, Alonso, Moses, Baker, Pedro, Batshuayi Res: Eduardo, Aina, Tomori + 3 more from youth / loans In: Rudiger (36m), Sandro (51m), Lewandowski (75m) Sell: Matic (36m), Costa (24m), Chalobah (8m), Kenedy (6m), Musonda (7m), Piazon (2m) Loan: RLC, Zouma, Brown Disclaimer, I'd have Chalobah in on the bench ahead of Baker, but it looks like he's trying to go. Although he is lighting up the Euston underpass in a Chelsea shirt right now.

Just thinking what with Bath's comments on CFC website about how they want the youth to get first team experience earlier so that they can try and break through before they're 22 (à la Bertrand / Chalobah).. http://www.chelseafc.com/news/latest-news/2017/07/the-young-generation.html this might explain the ease with which we're letting Traore, Ake and now maybe Chalobah leave. They're thinking nah, they don't look the real deal, they're too old to be getting 10-20 odd appearances/season and hoping to really prove something. Maybe this will mean seeing our homegrown quota being taken up by last year's youth champs... getting the likes of Trev Chalobah, Mount, Hudson-Odoi, Sterling, Da Silva in the squad instead of Chalobah, RLC, Ake, etc. Definitely wishful thinking, but there's some logic there. They're admitting the loan system isn't working for first-team prospects so we need to give them a chance earlier....or loan them out instead of winning youth champs, which seems a more realistic option. Just can't understand loaning out or letting go of most our young homegrown talent in the squad... there must be some promotions on the way?

Saturated market. Thanks to TV money & other such things, so many other clubs can now pay top dollar...so prices are inflated. So I suspect the board is just waiting, they've (probably) seen fairly massive bids turned down for the likes of Sandro and Bonucci and Lukaku and are wondering if they are worth it. Is Lukaku three times the player Batshuayi is? Is Sandro three times the player Alonso is? That explains the delay in terms of acquisitions but if we're letting the likes of Chalobah and Traore go for less than 10m, especially with the lack of home-grown talent, it does look proper weird.

http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2892/transfer-zone/2017/07/03/36815112/huddersfield-target-palmer-signs-new-chelsea-deal?ICID=HP_BN_8 Palmer signed a new deal, never seen much of him —but it's a sign the club rates him. Does this mean impending loan deal? Or will he see some minutes next season (with RLC out on loan maybe?)?

If Bakayoko replaces Matic, then Chalobah will remain the 4th choice central midfielder. With an extra competition and the likelihood that the Gods of football injuries will be less kind to us next season, he will definitely get more game time. Would be silly to push for a move now, he has a deep connection with the club and has already made the biggest first-team breakthrough since Bertrand. (Not saying much I know). This could just be his season. But if Matic stays or we sign another midfielder then no one can blame him.

https://www.chelseafc.com/news/latest-news/2017/07/new-contract-and-loan-for-abraham.html Abraham's gone on loan to Swansea for the season but signed a nice long 5 year deal