SeanWB

An injury to Morata would be a disaster irrespective of Bats state of health. Not securing Llorente is the one missed signing that could come back to bite us.
 
 

Llorente is the one disappointment for me from this window, the rest that we "missed out on" I couldnt give a rats ass about.

Agreed enigma and bjd. People do forget the good work that got us Courtois, Costa, Fabregas, Willian, Kante and others.
We've made some mistakes this summer, most specifically the failure to deals early enough but we can't complain. We may go back a little this season but we're building a great base for the long term. 
One good window and we will be right in the thick of it at the top end of Europe again. 

Just for one second, just try and imagine what it must be like to care this much about football (a sport).

Well said.
We've been very fortunate for the last 15 years or so to have a benefactor who has been very generous. However, it became apparent some years ago now that that generosity could not continue unabated & that the club would have to at some future stage to make the move to become self-sustaining and in that regard we have mostly done very well. The missing piece in that respect as far as revenues are concerned was always match day revenues and of course this is now coming to fruition after years of wrangling and negotiations. So the parameters in respect to spending were set some years ago because of the need to re-develop the existing ground & the huge cost of doing so. And, despite that, we still remain very competitive and have managed to win the title twice and another european trophy since the self-sustaining financial model was adopted.
The simple reality is that at present we will not always be able to match the likes on offer from Utd, City, Real, Barca et al for the very best players and nor should we be paying frankly ridiculous transfer prices for journeymen players. True it is that at present, our 1st team squad may be considered by some to be a bit threadbare and especially should injuries occur to key players but, it seems to me and others no doubt, that those who keep harping on about this have lost sight of the fact that the self-sustaining model must have preeminence. As such, and until the new stadium is finished this is where we are at. Now it seems to me that the club & board's position is very rational.

You are wrong by starting the thread with
"Whether some of you would like to agree or not, that is the fact.
Go ahead and call me and everyone who shares this opinion "spoilt" or whatever word you may feel like using, it won't change the fact."
The thread deserves a read. Your opinion deserves a read.  I disagree entirely with your position, but you're entitled to it, BUT, it's your opinion, not FACT.  FACHT!  I think that was the point.
In what way have "lukaku matic and kdb all 3 have came back to bite us in the arse."  
We've not been torn apart by DeBruyne, Lukaku hasn't notched the perfect hat-trick against us and Matic hasn't demolished our mid-field in a way that caused the world's press to rename the Makele position to the Matic position.  Talk about hysterical over-reacting.

Last time we broke our transfer record for a Spanish striker, I went out and bought the shirt with his name and #9 on it and wore it to the pub for his first game.
To this day I take responsibility for the calamity that followed and I shall not be repeating my mistake.

A Real Madrid fan's opinions on the transfer:
 

Fully agree with all of that, the transfer threads are a clusterf**k if idiocy, petulance and ignorance unfortunately. I used to enjoy the close season, a few rumours here and there, a few good signings. Now it's just Twitter dickheads spouting unsubstantiated bullsh*t and Muppets believing all of it, then kicking off at the club when we don't actually sign some random player for £90m.
 
Also agree on the lukaku thing, morata just has so much more to his game.

I have avoided posting on any rumours thread as it frankly makes very unpleasant reading... I wonder whether the Emanolo, Marina and board critics wil admit (and realize) that they were talking complete nonsense. How can you blame someone without information, I still don't get it.
In any case, really happy with this. So glad we didn't get Lukaku.

I just read the post and it's full of a lot of if's and maybe's. We won't sign that many players. It will probably be 5 at most and one or two of the youth players being promoted to the first team. You are also forgetting one important fact, where would all of those players fit in with the homegrown rule ? We can only have 17 players that aren't homegrown in the 25 man squad.
I don't really like it, but i don't think we are going for big squads anymore.

I am more than happy to admit I got this wrong, he has been superb since returning and has proven to be a leader which is something I never expected. He has still got a mistake in him, and still dive in when he shouldn't at times, but he is much more of a defender than he was previously, while still keeping the ball playing side of his game.

What a player, what a guy!! I only have respect for him. Great person and a bit of a charachter. I love the fact he takes his profession seriously but he is not serious.

People laughed at us, people mocked us for bring David Luiz back, people clearly didn't watch him in his first seasons here either cause they act like he made mistakes every week. f**king loving that he's had the last laugh on those twats who said we were buying back a joke.

Applauding Boro fans after shaking all the opposition hands. 
Just a class act of a man.
Thankful to have him 

It was actually a total compliment. I don't know why anyone would be upset about their team being credited with defending with 11 men. That means we are giving it our all every second of every game. It's what every manager should expect of their teams.

It was actually a total compliment. I don't know why anyone would be upset about their team being credited with defending with 11 men. That means we are giving it our all every second of every game. It's what every manager should expect of their teams.

That quote has really been taken out of context, it is a compliment - it's what José has asked from every team he has ever managed. It's what the best sides do, and it certainly doesn't inherently mean a team plays a defensive style. Barca in their pomp under Pep certainly defended with 11 men.
Here's another quote from the same interview:

I believe the vast majority of Chelsea fans respect or at least mutual towards Jose, only the minority chanted f* Jose or Judas. Having said that, Jose has been playing Heel all season towards Chelsea, and getting the attentions he's after. Every second interview he had, Chelsea being defensive is one of the must have item. It's not mind game, you play mind game with your next opponent or the team going after the same prize. We are chasing the title and United is after the 4th spot, whether we fall apart has no impact on them, and vice versa. There's also the small matter of setting his team out to hurt our best player, his own best player only 18 months ago.
For me, he's just being his usual grumpy self, grab the headline and distract the media from the real problems he had.

If he can give it to us we can give it to him, simple as that.

Well how many of you see him as your favorite player then? Haha
Every time I see your team on the box he's always MOTM! I would have loved him to be with us this season to guarantee us the CL but happy he's doing so well for you!
Seems my money on Chelsea was well invested at 9/2! I stand to win either 50 or 60 thousand depends on who out of Barca or Real win La Liga! All other selections seem well clear so it's all looking good! The main reason I chose Chelsea was this man! As I said in my above post this is how much I believe in him as a player! 

Best player in the league for me, I'll get out in front of those that would typically say no because he doesn't pass as well or dribble as well as xyz answer to that is xyz dont protect a back line like kante, don't tackle or intercept the ball as well as Kante and I can't think of anyone doing there job to a higher stammered and more consistently then this man on the league right now 

ugh.
he hasn't set out to sit back in any match we've played this season.
"sitting back" is a consequence of not being able to break through the press and get the wing backs high up the pitch. away to city, who have the best forward players in the league, we were able to meet them high up the pitch because they didn't press as well as spurs and liverpool do.
conte approaches football the way guardiola does- the distance between the deepest outfield player and the most advanced one has to stay the same at all points- so the team can only get forward by passing the ball in a specific way and the whole team moves up and down as one. so if you cant get the ball up the pitch with good possession then the wingbacks will always be too deep to offer out balls. a manager like jose or ferguson would be happy to stretch the pitch and leave open spaces where the game can become end to end (if they calculate it is a risk worth taking), but conte won't do that (I don't think).
with that in mind, they way to deal with a spurs or liverpool type press is by using long balls or by playing through the press. going long like that isn't something conte will do (and if you want to criticise him it is here), he wants this team to be able to pass through a press (which it struggles with at the moment).
that is conte the other day. this is how he conceptualises football. he sees his job as to establish a way of playing and then make that way as effective as possible. if we play a game deep in our half then that tells you something about how far along the team is in its development (room to improve, but 9 points clear in feb) and how good the opposition is (against the top sides liverpool are probably the best in the country).
every time I read you post I think "this is a guy who is watching golf or bowling or something". you certainly don't seem to appreciate that football isn't a solo sport where we are trying to create personal bests.

bet his goals per minute ratio since we changed formation has gone right up too. interesting for people who obsess about those sort of stats. 

The internet is the biggest public toilet ever created.